Malphegor
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MoP: Ch. 80
🕑 Added 2025-03-17 19:56:17 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
The moment Garble left, the two immediately gave up blocking the passage.
The narrow corridor was like a monster-spawning cage, forcing the goblins to come through one by one.
A goblin would come out, and they would kill it.
If two goblins tried to squeeze out at the same time, each of them would slash one!
Squelch!
The blade pierced flesh, and crimson liquid sprayed out.
Lux unhesitatingly pulled the blade from the enemy's body, then swung it hard against the stone wall, leaving a vivid streak of blood.
Panting, she scanned her surroundings and muttered to herself, Hu... Ha... This should be the last one, right?
In movies, the protagonist always fought hordes of enemies effortlessly. But in reality, just dealing with the 13 stragglers left behind by Garble had nearly killed them.
Even though the goblins' movement range was limited, her inexperience had cost her—several chunks of flesh had been torn from her body.
She exhaled deeply. "Finally, we can rest for a bit..."
Before making the decision, she had known tonight could be the end for her. But she hadn't anticipated how bloody and brutal the process would be, testing not her escape skills but her combat abilities.
At least she was grateful the weapon was reliable—good for cutting trees, and slicing through goblins like tofu.
CowardlySurvivor shook his wrist, sore from the prolonged fight, and chuckled. "Don't celebrate too early. With all the noise we made, goblin reinforcements will be here any second!"
"Then they'd better hurry up. The sooner we die, the sooner we're freed," Lux replied.
The sentiment rang true for both of them.
Her heart could hardly bear the thought of continuing to fight for hours, arm exposed down to the bone.
As the white glow in her hand vanished, the bleeding from their wounds stopped instantly.
Lux's face was bloodless as she said decisively, "This is the last time I can use a skill today. From here on, we need to be careful!"
"We're about to die anyway; healing doesn't matter! Might as well use up the mana while it counts!" CowardlySurvivor retorted.
"What if we really need it later?" It seemed Lux's words carried a jinx, because shortly after, the goblin reinforcements arrived.
CowardlySurvivor and Lux stepped out of the small room and looked toward the massive pit ahead. Goblins were running toward them, swarming the area.
Although they were short, they moved quickly. The sound of footsteps and roars from above added to the tension.
CowardlySurvivor ground his teeth in frustration. "Damn it, having numbers really does make a difference! We're already losing in terms of morale!"
The two stood side by side against the wall.
The first goblin to rush out from the corner stunned them both.
It was taller than they expected, with bulging muscles and bloodthirsty eyes—a green-skinned creature nearly their height.
Both of them froze and exchanged a glance.
This was the elite goblin Viktor had warned them about—one rank higher than the regular great goblins.
Starting with a mini-boss?
CowardlySurvivor immediately got into position, his eyes burning with battle intent. "I've been learning grappling techniques from TV for over ten years—why would I be scared of you?"
"Forget grappling! We're in a group fight; they won't let you solo them." Lux quietly placed her right hand behind her back.
Her face grew even paler, almost translucent.
She reminded him, "Are you sure you can handle it? We need to last at least thirty seconds."
"Even if I can't, I have to. At the very least, we need everyone to gather so we can blow them all up!"
CowardlySurvivor wiped the blood off his face and pulled a wide machete from his backpack. "Viktor doesn't believe our bombs can take out high-level goblins. We have to prove him wrong!"
For example, this one in front of them.
The elite goblin stared at them with blood-red eyes, clearly annoyed by their whispered conversation.
It roared a strange syllable, kicked off hard with its back legs, and lunged at them!
"Move left!" Lux shouted.
Both of them rolled to the left simultaneously.
She raised her hand, releasing a white orb of light that landed precisely where the elite goblin was about to land.
The moment it made contact, smoke sizzled, and the goblin let out a piercing shriek.
"Holy crap!" CowardlySurvivor knelt on one knee, looking up in disbelief. "Holy Light actually works in combat?"
The elite goblin whipped its head around, its expression angrier than ever, and charged at them again.
As he dodged the berserk goblin, CowardlySurvivor shouted, "Didn't you say you were out of skills?"
"You can always squeeze out a bit more!" Lux replied. "Aren't you hiding an extra blade yourself?"
As time passed, more and more goblins arrived, leaving them no time for idle chatter.
Blood, whose origin was unclear, was splattered all over the ground.
---
Five minutes later, with CowardlySurvivor and Lux serving as distractions, Garble managed to escape the goblin lair successfully.
Suddenly, he stopped and turned around.
Relying on the still-active illusion-breaking potion, he saw red light bursting in the sky, followed by four consecutive explosions.
"Did they succeed?" Garble murmured.
The sound of all four bombs exploding suggested things were going smoothly.
He glanced down at the unconscious girl he was carrying, adjusted the weight of the two people on his back, and quickened his pace.
"I need to hurry too!"
Monsters capable of seeing through illusions would soon hear the commotion and head his way.
The way back was far from safe...
"Argh! Ah! Ah!"
CowardlySurvivor and Lux hadn't bothered keeping their voices down during the fight.
Hearing the noise, goblins from the surrounding areas emerged from their rooms, grabbing weapons and heading toward the disturbance.
---
LootGoblin had finally shaken off the overly "hospitable" patrol goblins and exited a room reeking of bodily fluids, only to find himself in the middle of a full-scale alert.
"Fuck!"
He looked at the goblins chasing after him, then at his destination, which was just within reach. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"What the hell are those guys doing?!"
Causing such a ruckus—were they really here to rescue him?!
To make matters worse, his position was awkward.
He had been deliberately avoiding the patrol goblins and was now on the verge of reaching the destination.
How was he supposed to explain why an idiot like him was at the scene of the incident?
The vocabulary he had learned wasn't enough to handle an interrogation!
Turning back would only lead to trouble, but moving forward posed its own risks...
He gritted his teeth and made a decision, sprinting full speed toward the rendezvous point, leaving the pursuing goblins far behind.
"Screw it! Turning back now would be even worse!"
He silently prayed that the players coming to meet him had escape strategies.
Otherwise, tonight's mission would be nothing more than a death march!
When he reached the destination, LootGoblin finally realized how naive his earlier thoughts had been.
Without a torch to light the way, the bottom of the ruins was dimly illuminated. The air was filled with an overpowering stench of blood.
He felt as though he had stumbled into some kind of mass grave by mistake. He raised his torch, just in time to see two people and a goblin entangled on the ground.
No, wait. Judging by how the two figures were still struggling and tearing at each other, even with their bones exposed...
They were more horrifying than zombies!
Seeing the torchlight and recognizing a familiar face, CowardlySurvivor's eyes immediately lit up.
He shouted urgently, "Quick! Take back the thing in his hand!"
Only then did LootGoblin notice it.
The goblin, unlike any he had seen before, was holding a melon-shaped object emitting white smoke.
His mind exploded with realization. He knew that design all too well. The bomb seal—it was his own design!
He numbly averted his gaze and flipped a middle finger at CowardlySurvivor.
"Damn it!"
---
Boom!
A deafening explosion reverberated, accompanied by scorching heat. Orange-red flames instantly drowned out the goblin's screams.
"Huff, huff, huff—"
A shadow darted through the jungle. Followed by heavy, rumbling footsteps.
Faster, faster!
Garble panted heavily as he maneuvered around the thorny bushes, chanting the words in his heart.
Finally, the surrounding scenery became increasingly familiar.
Thud!
He practically collapsed into the safe zone.
Even in his battered state, he didn't forget the three injured people on him. He braced his knees and legs to create a curve, preventing the impact from affecting the ones on his back and in his arms.
The cost?
His right leg, which had just stopped bleeding before he sprinted for an hour, was now completely useless.
As his vision blurred, he reached out to untie the rope on his body.
But no matter how many times he tried, his hands couldn't find their mark.
In the next moment, his body suddenly became weightless. He felt a hand on his head.
"Rest easy. Leave the rest to me."
He looked at the blurry figures before him and used all his strength to say one final sentence. "Save my... game progress."
As the words fell, he collapsed backward heavily.
---
Garble's head landed right at Alyanne's feet.
Alyanne instinctively stepped back, uneasy, as she looked up nervously. "Leader, he… this…"
"While he's still breathing, get him to the church. Hurry—he can hold on for no more than ten minutes." Viktor turned to face three blank faces.
"I'll handle things here for now."
It was late at night; all the players had logged off.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to wake Alyanne up at this hour to face such chaos.
"We'll discuss what happened in detail later."
"Understood!"
Alyanne pushed aside her distracting thoughts and carefully picked up the fallen Garble.
Excessive blood loss, fractured legs, visible head trauma, a twisted right arm…
And gruesome external injuries with exposed flesh.
Even though Alyanne had seen her fair share of corpses, she couldn't think of many as severely injured as this.
Her hands tightened instinctively as she murmured softly into the night breeze. "What a lunatic…"
The records all described The Watchers as a dark organization of fallen failures.
Only now did she truly experience their insane darkness. The reputation… was well-deserved.
With injuries like this, he should have died on the way back long ago. Yet he had dragged himself back.
What kind of belief kept him going?
Was it the three captives taken by the goblins?
Alyanne couldn't wrap her head around it. She placed Garble's body onto the platform and closed the wooden board.
Soon, sizzling sounds came from inside.
She stood silently outside, a heavy feeling in her chest.
The person inside was one of the few Watchers she remembered most vividly. Not because he had been around town the longest. But because she could feel that every time he completed a mission, his respect for her was genuine.
And today's reckless actions were equally genuine.
What are The Watchers really trying to achieve? Her mind was filled with countless questions.
Even Viktor himself, a magician of death magic, was not entirely immune to death.
Why had they been so fearful of death not long ago, only to suddenly act with such ferocity?
They couldn't feel pain?
Why did their attitudes toward a divine essence with holy light energy, her ice dragon bloodline, and three seemingly hopeless captives… Remain essentially the same?
Even Viktor's?
---
Viktor killed the last pursuing creature.
Corpses lay scattered across the ground. Stone-tusked boars, vine snakes… all nocturnal creatures. For them to be awakened against their biological clocks and lured here…
It was clear how strong the scent of blood from Garble's body was.
"All done." he sighed softly. "They really know how to make things difficult for me."
Tonight was supposed to be a simple raid, with his equipment provided by a dwarf player.
Instead, the dwarf player and the equipment were missing, replaced with chaos.
If Garble hadn't left the goblin nest and restored the signal, allowing Viktor to immediately notice his situation and call Alyanne… With so many magical creatures and their companions disrupting the formation, Honeyvale Town would have been exposed.
He kicked at the pile of beasts, searching.
"Not a single magical beast. Guess I'll hang them in the shop tomorrow and see if any players want to buy them."
Didn't the players always want to eat stone-bristle boar? Here was one ready-made. Though these creatures, mutated by magical influence, weren't exactly magical beasts, some parts of them were still useful…
Whoosh!
A leaf shot out like lightning, piercing the blade and pinning it firmly to the ground.
The hand holding the hilt instinctively recoiled.
"Welcome to Honeyvale Town, the domain of The Watchers." Viktor stowed his staff, calmly addressing the three human girls Garble had brought back.
"Not sure if you've heard my name. It doesn't matter if you haven't. I can repeat my rules."
"You people, taken from another faction, are considered captives. We generally don't kill captives but will restrict your freedom. So secretly committing suicide is not allowed."
He stepped forward to pick up the blade Garble had dropped, weighing it in his hand.
"Hm?" Viktor's eyes flashed with approval. The players actually did a good job.
The modified blade looked ordinary but was surprisingly heavy. Its balance and sharpness were worlds apart from Thornleaf Blades.
If he left it behind, then he can't complain if I put it in the shop.
Viktor stroked his chin, thinking.
25 magicoins should sell it, right?
After all, this was a custom piece from the Lucky Stars Squad. How could it not be expensive?
Just then, Alyanne returned.
"Everything is settled."
"Perfect timing." Viktor turned with a smile. "Please take these three back. I believe there's a room near the mission point? Let them stay there."
Alyanne froze, hesitating. She remembered that was Edgar's room.
If they were placed near the mission point, the entire front room would be occupied.
Was this really okay?
After a long pause, she didn't ask. She nodded and complied.
"Yes."
