Chapter 142

142 Don’t waste beast materials, please! part Ryu stood in front of the megalania without something even resembling a plan. All he had at his disposal was his cursed blade and the broken pointy sticks the goblins used as weapons lying around.

As soon as the bothersome goblins stopped their attacks on the lizard it turned its attention towards Ryu. A loud hissing sound resounded like a roar, the air that came out of its mouth carried a foul stench that made Ryu cover his mouth, but he didn’t flinch.

The megalania, angry at the man’s defiance, charged towards him. It was big, it was strong, but it wasn’t as fast as Ryu who simply let it pass nearby as he swung his blade causing a small wound on it’s belly.

The beast stomped its feet as it turned back, this time wary of the little creature that hurt it.

The megalania charged again and Ryu did the same, only this time the megalania received the slash on its head causing it no damage whatsoever.

Ryu was standing there like a bullfighter, and the megalania did its part scratching the ground with it’s front paw before charging again.

Ryu landed multiple hits, but the beast shrugged them off and countered with its tail.

Ryu was sent tumbling down, dragging his bare back against the ground for several meters. The small amount of damage received shocked Ryu, if he had his shirt on he was sure it would have been shredded to pieces, but his skin was barely grazed.

It could be said both opponents had received the exact same amount of damage, but the difference in their maximum health points was too much for Ryu to keep up with this.

.....

He couldn’t be sure about the amount of healthpoints the megalania had since the system only showed the exact healthpoints of creatures with small amounts of it, but he was sure the lizard had at least ten times as much health as him.

Ryu gripped his sword and plunged forward in an attempt to slash at the beast’s paws, but the beast tail was way longer than he expected and got whipped in the chest. The beast quickly followed with a stomp that would have ended the fight right then and there, but Ryu somehow managed to roll on the ground and dodge it by the skin of his teeth.

For a brief second he considered retreating, but he couldn’t afford to back down now. Not after seeing the only goblin he knew dying in front of him. What would happen to Mia if the goblins became hostile towards them?

He didn’t even want to think about it.

Defeating the megalania would prove he’s friendly towards the goblins, and in case that doesn’t work, at least it will prove he’s stronger than the creature they couldn’t kill by themselves.

What Ryu didn’t know was Bardun wasn’t dead yet and he was watching in complete awe the fight developing in front of him. For the first time in his life he felt the selfish desire to survive, not for the greater good, but for his own.

If both of them were equal in strength at some point in time it must mean he would be able to become as strong as Ryu is now. There must be a secret to that human’s power and he was set to discover it. But he was bleeding out and all of his bones were shattered to pieces, even his skull which completely deformed his head. He was barely able to remain counscious thanks to his healthpoints still being high enough, but every drop of blood he lost was drawing him closer and closer towards his demise.

“Fight!”

Was all Bardun managed to shout with what little strength he had left before passing out. The sight of Bardun was miserable, he was hurt beyond recognition, but it helped Ryu gather his thoughts.

He was still on time to save the goblin leader and if he did, he would earn their gratitude. It may not seem like a big deal, but that may give him the chance bargain for Athela’s freedom and maybe, just maybe, her rude maid’s freedom too.

But how could he defeat such a terrible opponent? he had faced many enemies, but the strongest so far have been humans. He didn’t even know the ranks of the enemies he defeated, how could he compare the weak thugs he faced with a seemingly unbeatable lizard?

He didn’t have enough energy to use the cursed sword to its full potential. Last time he did, he noticed it wasn’t the sword’s energy but his own, and he simply used the sword to channel it. But it was way too inefficient, he would run out of energy before killing the lizard.

Although Ryu didn’t notice, all his thoughts took nothing but an instant. The more he focused, the slower time passed, and right now he was on a state that could almost be considered meditation.

Lots of ideas ran across his mind as he kept dodging the megalania’s attacks.

Stab, slash, poke, hit, nothing he thought could work. He tried to think of any passive skill that could make a difference, but there was nothing as convenient as that. Then an Idea came to mind, Ryu tended to overthink things and more often than not it costed him many loses. That’s why he decided to go through the basics and an image appeared on his mind.

He had seen Luke use single strike before, it was a skill that focused energy onto the blade and caused a lot more damage than a normal hit. Not only that, it also seemed to find openings by itself. Luke described it as an ‘auto-attack’ and fortunately he acquired that skill recently.

“Single strike!”

He yelled, but nothing happened. The time he spent shouting was nothing but a waste as the megalania drew closer and being observed by so many goblins as he shouted the name of a skill without it triggering made him understand a bit more how Bob felt whenever he shouted his fake spells.

Bob really had a thick skin to be able to keep doing it despite the embarrassing situations it caused.

The megalania learned from its previous failures and instead of using his slow paws to attack Ryu, lashed out at him with it’s tail. The fast moving tail was so huge it produced waves in the air and Ryu had trouble dodging.

If shouting the name of the skill didn’t activate it, perhaps he needed to tap his soulbound card to do so. He really wished that wasn’t the case because he couldn’t see himself poking at the metallic looking card in the middle of a fight.

Ryu was rapidly losing ground but just when he was about to be cornered against a tree he resolved himself to stop dodgning the attacks.

He planted his feet on the ground, held the sword tightly and braced for the incoming attack in what could be seen as a textbook defensive stance. Then he let his energy flow outside, just like he did when Mia was kissing him. A soft blue light emerged from him, because of how little food he had consumed lately he didn’t have much energy inside his body, but he couldn’t afford to be cheap about it now that his life depended on it.

He was about to put all he had into a single attack.

“Single strike!”

He yelled through his teeth as he was tightly clenching his jaw.

His blade shone across the megalania’s tail and cut it like butter.

Not wasting a single second he pounced at the beast’s neck. Somehow knowing he couldn’t repeat the same skill despite having enough energy left, instead he channeled whatever energy he had left on his blade.

>Skill aqcuired: Energy manipulation

A message from the system confirmed he defeated his opponent, but every muscle on his body was cramped and he fell on the ground as if he had been electrocuted.

The last thing Ryu noticed before passing out was the feeling of being lifted by several small hands.

“Master! master are you awake?”

“Please... Please tell me I didn’t sleep for two whole days again”

Ryu’s face looked as if he had just sucked on a lemon.

“No, they just brought you back to the village”

Mia giggled as she knelt down next to Ryu, he felt relieved after noticing she was wearing a white-ish cloth tied up with a rope as a dress this time.

“What happened to the megalania?”

“Oh, you mean that thing?”

She said as she moved to the side, allowing him a clear view on the headless corpse behind her. It was so immense he couldn’t figure out how such feeblish creatures managed to bring it back.

“Help me stand up please”

Fatigued as he was, he found the strength to stand up with her help only because of his hunger.

He took his obsidian knife and stood in front of the carcass, not knowing where to start cutting. He couldn’t even focus on the task at hand because of the chaotic ambience surrounding him. Hundreds, if not thousands, of goblins gathered around him and tried to touch him in hopes of becoming stronger.

If Bardun was considered the village’s hero, Ryu was now considered their god.

Ryu understood their feeling, he could relate to weak beings that faced hardships to survive. In fact, probably no one in the world understood goblins as he did. Nevertheless he was starting to lose his temper, if they didn’t make way soon he might as well eat one of them.