All goblins who still had working brains fled the vicinity.
If the sight of a 3-meter-tall creature leaving a hole in their leader's head with 2 fingers wasn't enough, then the screams of terror from other goblins did the job.
No thoughts of fighting back lingered in their minds.
Despite their number still being over a few dozen, they realize that number superiority wasn't worth shit.
Unfortunately for them, though, Ash didn't come alone.
Waiting on the other side of the village were the doppelganger brothers.
The vines on their bodies untangled.
A web of green, red, and brown vines braided into a web that caught most of the fleeing goblin.
The green vines tripped their feet, yanked their hips.
The red vines pierced through their skin, spreading necrotic venoms into their nerves.
While the brown vines stood in their way, not budging despite the goblins' desperate attempt to break through.
Caws of a raven resounded in the sky. Telling Ash of the direction of where most of the goblins had fled to.
In the end of it all, less than half of the goblins made it out of the place alive, or at least, with enough strength or intact limbs to continue running.
As for the rest?
They all turned to nutrition for Mother Earth.
And also for a certain raven who had been told to eat as much as he could to grow bigger.
Caw.
"Will I really grow bigger if I ate this tasteless, tough, unsavory meat…?"
Ash threw more goblin thighs in Keen's direction.
"If you exercise enough and eat enough meat, then your body will grow bigger. Trust me, or rather, trust the Verdant Seed for telling me this."
Throwing Earth's will credibility to the birb, Ash managed to convince Keen to bulk.
'I need to find a way to make his body big real soon before he finds out that eating goblin meat wouldn't make his wingspan 7 meters wide…'
Ash promised himself as he watched the little guy force the goblin meat down his throat.
More goblins were fleeing the area, but Ash didn't want to waste his time searching for each and every one of them.
They were practically Earth's pests.
They were all over the world, it would be impossible to go on a vendetta against their species and do a genocide if he wanted to.
Well, at least for now.
After getting too full for flying on his own, Keen decided to perch back on Ash's shoulder, requesting him to make a makeshift bed using vines for Keen to sleep.
And when he woke up once more, Keen found Ash to stop in his tracks and the three doppelganger brothers were gone.
Caw.
"Are we there yet?" Keen opened up his wings, dusting off the stiffness after staying still for so long.
Ash retracted the vines Keen leaned on and nodded his head.
"Yes, there it is. Our first destination." Ash pointed forward, showing an unfamiliar sight to Keen.
There were no branches for Keen to perch on. No green other than the grasses on the ground filled his eyes.
Anything else above the ground was either greyish white or glowing lights.
But there were a lot of people, though.
People forming a line in front of an opening on the tall, greyish wall.
People inside strange things that can move on their own despite not having any legs or wings. So many of them
It was a curious, new sight for Keen.
His eyes kept darting left and right, up and down to learn about all these new things he had never seen around the forest.
As for Ash, it was a nostalgic one.
He didn't know how long he had been gone. He didn't care enough to keep track of the day ever since arriving in the Verdant Necropolis.
But he felt that it had been quite a while.
He used to live inside those walls. This was only his second time ever seeing the wall from the outside.
The first time being when he was transported to the Verdant Necropolis for the first time for the government-issued "recon" mission.
But now, Ash was back.
And he brought his new mission with him.
"How should we start doing this? Should I just transform and charge from the front and start throwing poisons and venoms everywhere?"
No matter how tempting the thought was, Ash decided to observe first.
He didn't really need to hide behind the dilapidated buildings or greenery outside the wall, there were hundreds of people constantly going in and out of the city.
He just stood a distance away, far enough not to be suspicious.
And the moment he waited for came about an hour later.
A small group of goblins, about a dozen of them, was spotted in the vicinity.
They were still far enough from the city, but their shrieks could be heard from hundreds of meters away.
A single truck drove from the entrance of the city, heading straight to where the goblins were.
Ash got closer to them, but he didn't plan to get involved.
He just observed the truck get close, stop, and 6 people came out of the military truck.
4 of them brought guns, while the other two brought a staff.
No, it wasn't a staff to hit the goblins with. It was a magical staff that enhanced their spellcasting.
The 4 people stood in front while the two stood back and raised their staff.
As the sounds of their chants filled the area, their bodies and the staff glowed.
One of them glowed red while the other glowed green.
When the chants stopped, so did the glow.
It manifested into a spell instead as a fireball and a wind blade flew towards the group of goblins.
The two spells hit the center of the group, exploding at the same time as their effects combined.
The wind blade exploded and blew wind in a circle around the impact area, carrying the flames that were supposed to scatter uncontrollably.
As a result, not only did a lot of goblins die from the initial impact, but even more of them were burned from the wind and flame combo.
From that single attack, only 3 goblins remained.
And the guns that released magical bullets finished the three remaining ones with ease.
From the start of the fight to finish, only a quarter of a minute had passed.
And the group of goblins had been dealt with.
Ash saw the people get in the truck and returned to the entrance of the city.
After seeing their performance, it only took Ash 5 minutes to decide on his next step.
He saw the tall wall that protected the city from any attacks.
He recalled the spells of the soldiers, and the face of the governor, the strongest awakened human in the city.
A person who was said to be one of the strongest in the whole country.
With these considerations, Ash nodded his head, sighed, and buried the masculine urge to be a rampant, unstoppable monster.
"Let's go, Keen, we can't start from here."
Caw?
"What do you mean? Are we going to move to another city?"
Ash began circling around the wall of the city, moving away from the direction of the city that faced the Verdant Necropolis directly.
"Not really, but we need to be more subtle. We can't just barge from their front door."
Caw. Caw?
"I see. Those glowing balls of fire did scare me quite a little. But how are we going inside without going through their door?"
Ash recalled a memory from his time back in the city.
There was a certain place. It was connected to the city, yet it wasn't really inside the city, or rather, the walls.
Ash couldn't get inside the walls without proper identification. Something that he didn't have anymore.
Even if he still had his ID card, the government would definitely find it suspicious if someone suddenly returned to the city after being missing.
He might be closely monitored or even sent out on another 'recon' mission.
Ash needed a new identity.
He also needed a place in society if he didn't want to go into an all-out war against a whole city on his own.
His goal was to spread his gift after all, not eradicate all humans.
And he might know where he could get all of that.