The sky rumbled and the earth shook as the ultimate magic emerged in front of the goblins.The gigantic explosion left a huge crater that hindered the goblins.
The goblins lay there unmoving, speechless at the sight they just witness as clouds of smoke rose and obscured their vision.
Kieeeeeek-! Kieeek!
The stiff silence was by the loud screeching of the crimson hobgoblin, who screeched in anger as his brethrens were killed in front of his eyes.
Deep inside the crimson hobgoblin also felt relief. If he charged the assault earlier then he would be turned to ashes instead. Fortunately, his pride let him fall behind as he left the menial work towards his underlings, little did he knew that his pride just save his life.
No one moved despite their commander's anger filled screeching. They were afraid and trembled in fear as they felt the terrifying magic that instantly vaporized a third of their force and left another third injured by the debris of rocks and shockwaves.
The remainder of them sighed internally as they looked at the huge crater that blocked their charge.
"Kieeek! kieeeek! Kieeek!"(What are you doing?! The humans just used a powerful magic! It will take them time to recover!)
The crimson hobgoblin spoke as he stared at his remaining underlings while making a stare that implied "I'll kill you if you run."
Bracing themselves the goblins let out a stifled war cry and went around the crater formed by the explosion as they continued their assault.
Earlier after Shin finished his magic and when the figure was slowly fading out, Akashi could feel the interested gaze that bore into him rather than Shin.
He didn't know why but he could feel his entire being stripped naked in front of the inspecting eyes of the manifested figure.
Akashi continued to will the remaining mana in his mana core to rejuvenate the internal wounds that Shin suffered as he fainted.
"Ryunosuke! Take Shin and let's run downhill! It'll be hard to fight in a sloped terrain!" Daichi shouted towards Ryunosuke.
Ryunosuke nodded and took Shin from Akashi and carried Shin in his back as they ran downhill.
After a few moments, they reached the towering cliff that extended from afar in width and faced it with their backs as they glared at the hill where the goblins will come out.
"Kageyama-kun! Protect Shin from there and provide support! Don't shy away from using those strengthening skill at us!" Daichi ordered as he gave Akashi a side long glance.
"Ryunosuke and I will protect the two of you! I'll be the front while Ryunosuke provide cover fire from behind."
"What about me Dai-chan?!" Tsukasa raised a question as he pointed his finger towards him.
Daichi turned around and faced him, with a smirk plastered in his eyes, he pointed his finger towards Tsukasa and spoke simply.
"Smash."
"I'm not a hulking green giant you know..." Tsukasa grumbled as he unsheathed the daggers in his waist. He wiped away his grumbling face as he faced the incoming goblins.
"You're just equally as scary."
Daichi replied as brandished his sword and raised his shield in front of him with a determined look.
"If he's the hulking green giant, then I'll be the badass archer."
Ryunosuke chuckled and loaded an arrow to his bow while it was aimed to the ground. He took a stance that readily took advantage of firing a bow in continuous shots.
Akashi thought in his mind as he stared at the back of his comrades that faced life and death together with him.
'If only a certain theme song played, it will be perfect.'
"O great Goddess of mine, heed my call, by the power of thy light," Akashi chanted three different spells aimed at Tsukasa, Daichi and Ryunosuke respectively.
"Grace my ally with armor, Protection!"
"Grace my ally with speed, Haste!"
"Grace my ally with power, Bless!"
Tsukasa felt his muscles harden and an unknown aura enveloped him as he felt more sturdy.
While Daichi felt his big body grow faster and nimbler as an unknown aura made his body lighter. Ryunosuke felt the muscles in his body got stronger and an unknown aura made his strength soar up.
"No! Why give me a defense buff! I'm not a tanker! Ahhh! Akashi is trolling! He's trolling hard!" Tsukasa screamed as he glared at Akashi at the back and let out a confused face.
Akashi didn't reply to him and ignored his confused gaze.
"Don't worry Tsukasa, that's much better than you think later." Ryunosuke replied as he twisted his body to get a new feel to his body buffed by Akashi's spell.
Daichi glared at the approaching Goblins charged downhill from the hill they climbed earlier. He suddenly had a strange thought and shouted with voice laced with overflowing charisma.
"Aveng-"
"Daichi that's blatant copyright." Ryunosuke reprimanded Daichi and he merely received a stifled chuckle.
"Well let's just get going and kick some ass."
And his words marked their first struggle since coming into this world.
Seeing that the Goblins were only a fair bit away from them, Tsukasa dashed out and went ahead to clash onto the goblins.
He raised his daggers and met the incoming goblin with a side step and a slash to the throat.
Tsukasa ducked and kicked the corpse of the goblin towards another goblin. Slowly but slowly he faced himself surrounded by the onslaught of the goblins as he tried to get their attention to focus on him.
Swoosh~ swoosh ~ swooosh~
Three arrows flew out and hit the vitals of the goblins attempting to strike behind Tsukasa.
Seeing the arrows that hit their allies, some goblins ignored the surrounded Tsukasa and went out to charge at Ryunosuke and Daichi.
Daichi held out his shield and faced the incoming club that dared to strike at him. As a dull sound rang out, the whistle of arrows flew past and accurately hit the neck and chest of the goblin.
Without wasting a second, Ryunosuke reloaded his bow and aimed at the goblins. He raised his concentration and fired at another charging goblin. A number of arrows also whistled as it flew towards them.
Daichi raised his shield and caught the two arrows that shot towards him with his shield and bashed it towards a goblin, and knocked away a goblin with a club behind it.
Ryunosuke jumped using Daichi's back as a foot hold and shot two arrows towards the knocked down goblins.
He stepped back and loaded an arrow and shot towards the goblin archers from the distance.
Daichi stepped up in the same time and blocked an incoming sword and stabbed the stomach of the goblin.
Goblins continue to pour out to them endlessly as the green blood and flesh decorated their battlefield.
A hobgoblin towering two meters charged at Ryunosuke but he ignored it and continued to fire at the distant goblin archers.
Daichi suddenly confronted the incoming hobgoblin and raised his shield to meet the incoming scimitar.
Kieeeek!
Daichi grunted as bits of his wooden shield was chipped off. He gritted his teeth and raised his body as he took a step forward and kneeled. The scimitar slowly crept downwards as Daichi struggled to withstand the enormous strength of the hobgoblin.
Daichi held the shield above him and smirked, "Close your eyes."
Ryunosuke jumped, using the shield as a foothold and rose up from the air. He kicked the forehead of the hobgoblin and it groaned as he flipped backward and reloaded his bow.
While his body fell backward, He shot an arrow at pinpoint accuracy at the Hobgoblin's eyes.
"We said close your eyes bastard."
Kieeeek!
The hobgoblin shrieked in pain and crazily bashed his surroundings as the pain of his eyes pierced by the arrow made him lost his reason.
A man who wished to forsake the responsibilities forced into him, jumped with all his strength.
Daichi raised his sword up high as he seem to flew into the air.
"[Heavy Blow]!"
All his strength were focused into his arm that held his sword and his muscles bulged as mana began to circulate and an explosive strength was transferred into his sword.
Daichi slashed his sword that left a deep gash from the Hobgoblin's shoulder all the way to his waist.
Kieeeeek!
The hobgoblin closed his pierced eye and raised his scimitar as he withheld the pain from the deep gash inflicted by the human.
The scimitar was just about to fall down and Daichi prepared for the full brunt of the attack as he left a wide opening in his defenses after his burst of strength, when a calm and composed voice rang out behind them.
"O great Goddess of mine, heed thy call, by the power of light..."
A man who held no responsibilities or so whatever chanted a series of words as he gazed at the goblin that charged towards him.
Ryunosuke had the gut feeling that if he the goblin were to reach Akashi, he will regret what will happen next for the rest of his life.
A man who wished to take up responsibilities in order to atone from his sins. He aimed the bow in his hand towards the goblin and an arrow flew and accurately pierced the back of its neck, and it's nerves were damaged beyond control and it lost its life.
Akashi's word continued as the scimitar of the hobgoblin was about to hit the body of Daichi.
"Protect my ally with your light, Holy Shield."
A shield of light appeared between Daichi and the falling scimitar, that blocked it's descent.
Upon hitting the Holy Shield, the shield of light broke but due to the excessive force, the scimitar bounce back and the hobgoblin seem to lose his grip from his weapon.
Three Goblins flew past and charged towards Daichi but he blocked it with his body as he raised his shield to meet their weapons again for who knew how many times.
Ryunosuke took three arrows from his quiver. He bit the shaft of two of his arrows as he ran towards the goblin blocked by Daichi while nocking an arrow in his bow.
Ryunosuke shot an arrow that spun and went towards the goblins. He took the two arrows in his mouth in lightning speed and shot the two arrows with minute difference.
The arrows pierced each of the goblins forehead as he continue to ran past Daichi.
While Ryunosuke ran past him, Daichi saw a grin plastered at his friends face.
Ryunosuke charged towards the hobgoblin and nocked an arrow with a smile in his face.
He wanted to be forgiven.
He lived his life being a villain in the past and he was sick of it.
He sinned because of his weak heart that has no resolve, no conviction in his life.
Ryunosuke entered a tranced state as all noise was blocked off by his brain and all his attention was focused at the deep cut of flesh at the chest of the Hobgoblin that continued to sprout blood.
However the sins he did, would take time to be forgiven and he knew of it.
It was a punishment for all the things he gave up in the past.
Right now, he wanted to be hero.
He changed because he wanted to atone for his sins that ruined his life.
He's just a cursed bastard who wanted to excuse himself with the reason of the virtues that he will do in the future.
He hated himself.
However he need to live. To survive and atone for all the sins that he committed. His only resolution is to not run away.
Cause if he did then he would cross the point of no return.
Ryunosuke held the bow in his hand as he dashed towards the hobgoblin that stared at him with his other eye.
Arrows shot towards him as he ducked left, turned right and flipped up. He continued to charge towards the hobgoblin that bled a river of blood.
He need to make this shot. He was confident that he will not miss even if he were to shoot from a distance but he deemed that with his strength, he couldn't pierce the defenses of the hobgoblin.
He wanted to live to atone to his sins and mend his broken heart. He will do all the virtue that he needs to forgive himself. He was sick of being a villain and wanted to be a hero instead.
So he ran swept past the arrows that attempt to take his life and dodged the weapons that wished to hinder his path.
"I wished for this day to come at last..."
He stared hobgoblin in front of him and it sreeched in an unpleasant manner as it swung it's scimitar wildly.
Kieeeeek!!!
Ryunosuke took a step forward, flinched and bent his body backwards as he slide on the rockhard ground with his knees. The pain burned as he continue to slide towards his target. He avoided the life-threatening attack in a hairs breath but Ryunosuke didn't breath a sigh of relief.
He raised his loaded bow as he stretched the string with all the strength in his body and aimed it towards the deep gash in it's chest.
Ryunosuke purposely wanted to shoot from a lower angle in order to a void the sternum of the hobgoblin that blocked it's heart.
Knowing that things have gone in according to his plan, he wanted to achieve a miracle.
He smiled bitterly but it was replaced of radiance soon after.
A hero must always smile in front of an adversary.
He always wanted to do this.
"...To finally be a hero I wished for. [Power Shot]!"
It all only happened in an instant but it felt like an eternity to him.
The arrow burst with explosive strength as it pierced the heart of the hobgoblin, slaying it as the towering body feel limp to the ground.
He let out another smile as he gazed at a shield of light that protected him from dozens of arrow that was shot by a number of goblins that aimed at him, behind the hobgoblin.
Although he was not the only person who did the miracle, he was satisfied. He glanced at the the person behind them that gazed calmly at the battlefield.
He could see that Akashi was a person who could be a great hero if treated right.
But could also be a terrifying villain if abused too much.
He stood up and ran back towards Daichi and the rest as he let out a satisfied smile for who knew how many times already.
The Smile of a Hero.