Chapter 131

Chapter 131: Leave no witness, I beg you! part

It’s funny, It really is. I thought I’d be scared if I ever had to fight other people but it turns out it’s just the same as fighting against beasts.

Jackals, wolves, bears, rats, it’s all the same. It’s kill or be killed.

I drop my backpack on the ground and jump as high as I can towards Ryota who was standing right in front of his son. Animals always take care of their cubs and when they’re protecting them is when they’re more dangerous. Even a cornered beast won’t fight as hard as a mother bear protecting their cubs.

A throwing knife whistles on its way towards Kinta and Ryota deflects it with his sword, but it was never my intention to kill his son, not in such a quick fashion at least. All I needed was for Ryota to be distracted for just one second. I kick him in the face expecting to send him flying, but he blocked it with his hand in the last second and didn’t budge an inch, I use the recoil to twist on the air and kick him on the back of his head forcing him to kowtow in an awkward position.

“Don’t think apologizing will save your life”

I say in a mocking tone, but he seemed to be too pained to be angry.

This is Anne’s fighting style, she always mixed kicks and punches along with weapon strikes making it very diffcult to parry without getting hit. Thanks to that I threw him out of balance and I manage to slash Ryota in the shoulder with my last spare knife. Just a bit to the left and It would have been a deadly hit on the back of his neck.

.....

“You’re not half bad kid, but you’re ten years too young to face me”

He said even before composing himself.

“Bash!”

Ryota yelled as he took flight from the ground and ran towards me. It happened so fast, it was like being hit by a charging bear and I couldn’t avoid being sent to fly in the air and landing on my back just besides Sera.

The amarok and Mochi both came running towards us and Sera helped me stand. At first I thought it was because they wanted to help, but they seemed to be scared. Only then do I realize we’ve been completely surrounded. I didn’t even need sense presence. Hundreds of goblins stepped outside the forest sealing all the possible exits from the clearing.

“Mister Ryu! they’re everywhere!”

Some were climbing on the trees, others hid in the bushes and others simply stepped into the clearing at a safe distance from us.

Little by little our space was reduced until one of them shrieked and they stopped. Since they were smaller than humans we were able to see them making way for one of them.

It was just a bit taller than the rest of them, his green skin was also a darker shade and he had a better quality gear, particularly a shortsword that looked like a proper wide sword in his hands and a metal shoulderpad he was using as a chest plate piece. Goblins had a malicious wrinkly face which amounted to their pointy fangs made them unsightly, but this one had a distinctive feature... He had a long scar that crossed from the top of his forehead, across his eye, down to its cheek.

“It’s you!”

I gasp in surprise. Not even the calm mind skill was enough to keep my mind focused. I could hear myself thinking, but it was as if my own thoughts weren’t really mine.

“Kyakyayakyaaa!”

The goblin emitted something that sounded like a mocking laughter and the circle around us became even smaller.

“What’s going on dad!?”

“It’s common for adventurers to wait until goblins kill beasts and then they walk in to kill them and get the spoils without risking their life...”

“I know that already, just tell me!”

“It seems they’re doing the same to us”

“Kyakyakyaaa”

The goblin laughed in reply.

“No way! these things are stupid! it’s impossible!”

Kinta shouted, then the goblin with a scar on his face nodded at the one closest to him. The smaller one shot an arrow that landed straight in Kinta’s forehead.

“Are you ok son!?”

“Yeah, it bounced right off, it didn’t even draw blood”

Kinta said after running his hand across his forehead where only a small red dot could be seen.

“So they’re really that weak, perhaps we could try to run away”

“Don’t get confident son, they rely on numbers and we’re completely surrounded, besides, there’s something strange... That arrow was too fast for me to deflect it, if it had an iron tip instead of wood you’d be a corpse now. If we don’t play our cards right... this could be our grave”

“Mas-master Ryu!!! bwaaah”

Mia couldn’t stop crying, I looked at Sera but she seemed to be unfazed.

“Sera, are you not scared?”

“I am, but I have calm mind too. There’s no point in crying right now”

So that’s how she managed to remain composed all this time. I’ve always known she has aptitude for magic, this confirms it, calm mind is a mage class skill. I didn’t want to think about it but it seems I have skills from different classes, or could it be there’s a basic skill set that everyone can acquire?

“Hey kid! What do you say we make a truce and fight the green ones?”

Ryota says out loud in an amicable tone of voice without even looking at me.

“So you stab me the minute I turn my back on you? no thanks”

“Tsk! don’t be stupid, there’s no choice!”

As if following our conversation, the slightly bigger goblin with a scar on his face seemed to finally recognize me and made a grin.

He lifted his arm and the rest of the goblins started hitting their spears on the ground as they stomped their feet. Being the size of children, it may not seem so scary, but their huge numbers made up for their size and the ground was trembling under our feet.

When the goblin leader put his arm down everything fell silent again. Then, just as quickly as they came to the clearing they disappeared into the forest and, because I had sense presence active I could tell they really did retreat.

“We’re saved!”

Kinta shouted in relief.

“It’s not too late, we can still team up and get out of here alive”

“Dad! why are you still asking him!? he’s just a weakling with a strong weapon, we can kill him and take it for ourselves. If the baron asks what happened to him we can simply claim he was killed by goblins”

“Don’t be stupid! I told you before, they’ll simply wait until either side wins and then they’ll kill the rest”

Ryota quickly reprimanded his son.

Noticing how distracted they were I run full speed at Ryota looking for an opening, but he wasn’t distracted at all. As soon as I got close he threw a bottle right in front of me. The glass shattered and a foul stench kept me from taking another step.

>Skill aqcuired: Resistance to paralysis.

I may have acquired a new skill but my limbs feel numb.

I can only hope that my antidote potion works, fortunately I have a few copper vials on me.

Every passing second the numbness spread further inside my body and my movements became like those of a marionette. Unbuttoning my leather pocket was a difficult task, that’s what I get for being so paranoid to think people might steal them from me.

Now Ryota runs towards me. One second he was in front of me bare handed and the next one he was behind me with his sword unsheathed.

A spurt of blood came out of my chest as I fell to the ground.

This reminds me of the time miss Risa threw me to the ground and I remained still to buy time and find a solution. Only this time I took the chance to drink the medicine without being noticed.

The slash didn’t hurt me nearly as much as I thought it would, so I just drank an antidote saving my last health potions for later.

“Mister Ryu!”

Sera yells, she always shouts like that when she worries about me but this time it’s something entirely different.

Ryota didn’t stop after running past me, instead he ran over to Mia and stabbed her in the chest piercing through her heart.