Chapter 8: Blood Bath
About a week has passed since Beelzebub and Gollum fought. As they stay up in the only mountain of the forest, which is called the Noman Forest. A lot of things have changed.
From the east, a group of beasts that seem to be three times bigger than a human were flying high in the sky. They possessed a long black beak, red feathers, and black talons that seemed to be able to slice through a rock easily. These creatures are known as Blood Cranes, and they have decided to build a nest here, in the Noman Forest.
From the west, about a hundred of small, green humanoid creatures are moving like a parade silently; they don't seem to be that strong, and yet all of their eyes are filled with madness and desire. All of them are goblins, and they have come back to their origin. And the leader who is being carried in a carriage is a shaman-goblin. While holding an amulet with a green glow, it looked toward the distance, licking its lip.
From the south, instead of some monsters, there are bands of humans setting up camps, all holding a saber and a gun in their waist. All of them have the same red skull tattoo on their neck. They are the Crimson Mercenary, and they have come for a group chance of hunting creatures. So far, they have collected quite a few stray monster corpse and was about to do one last expedition
And finally, from the north, far away, a desolate land that seems to have been burned down into ash. From the ashes, a head burst out, taking a look left and right, then into the sky like it was wary of something, but seeing no danger, it fully stepped out of the earth.
From the ashes, a creature with rabbit's hind legs, wearing bronze armor while holding a golden spear that looks like a gift from God, but the aura it gives off is vile and sinister. If not for the long ears popping out of the helmet, people might recognize it's for a knight.
"For the God of Invention"
After saying that, it ran with speed equivalent to a horse, marching toward the Noman forest.
*****
Looking at the West, East, and South at the peak of the mountain, Beelzebub is currently sitting with his leg crossed and his eyes closed while Gollum is on watch nearby.
After a while, Beelzebub slowly opened his eyes and revealed a creepy smile.
He used his soul separation ability as a well to scout these beings. He couldn't use others ability to increase his range of sight so this is the only alternative method he could use for now.
The range of his soul could go around a two-kilometer radius, but his vision when he is in his soul form is the same as when he is in his body so while his soul is up in the sky, he could see things quite far away.
"Crane from the east, goblin from the west, human from the south."
"Human?"
"So? Are you scared?"
"N-NO SIR, um, but there may be a C-rank human there?"
"See rank? Why a demonic creature related to sight?"
"…"
So humans name the rank above Rango is See-rank, huh? I wonder what's with their naming sense.
"They have a red skull tattoo on their neck; do you know anything?
Rango, hearing this, thought a bit for a while before remembering who they are.
"Oh, then there is nothing to be afraid of, but still killing them may bring trouble to us."
"How so?"
Rango was about to answer but was stopped by Beelzebub
"Just explain during the walk; I believed there's something about to happen."
Saying so, I begin to approach Gollum, startling him.
"Y-yes, sir."
"Kneel."
"...yes"
As Gollum is kneeling in front of me, I look at his sight for a moment, then climb on his back.
"!!!!!"
"Now onward, to the west."
*****
In a certain spot of the forest, the goblins are hiding themselves by sneaking below the bush. All of them don't say a single word, and yet all of them act accordingly. Each of them holds a different weapon—a knife, a rock, even the tip of an arrow. The similarity between these weapons is a green smudge on them. They keep sneaking like this until they see their prey. Their leader, the goblin shaman, was standing at the back of the group while using a spell. A spell that was meant to conceal themselves, make them invisible
But unbeknownst to them, we are looking at all of this from the top of a tree.
I don't remember making those goblins; I look at all of this using mana vision. I then turned my head to see these goblins prey. The humans with red skull tattoos
"You said that these guys are the Crimson Mercenaries, right?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you also say that there is one person who has the mana capacity equal to you."
"Yes, sir."
"Well, it seems that they are all going to die from the ambush."
"Excuse me, sir, but I don't think that's the case."
"Oh, what made you say that?" I said with interest.
"It's because the leader is Crimson Wright Kane; yes, he might be a D-rank, but he comes from a noble family known as Kane, a branch family of Chiyun. Not only is he skilled, but he probably has some powerful artifact."
"Interesting"
"….Crimson might have run away from the family but he still is the heir of the Kane family. They might find out what happened and pursue us if we kill him."
"Oh, worry for your own skin, huh?"
"N-no boss—"
"KYAHHHH"
Hearing a scream, we both look forward only to see a bloodbath. The goblins jumped out of the bushes and the trees and charged at those mercenaries.
Some were injured and poisoned; some were already dead. But the goblin casualty is much more since a quarter of them have already been killed.
Yet they didn't care a little bit as they kept on killing. They won't even care if they lose an eye or a leg either. Even the corpses weren't spared due to the goblins stepping on, stabbing, and chewing those corpses.
Some others stepped back in fear from their savage behavior.
"Why are they so aggressive?"
"HELP, SAVE ME"
They don't kill the women, but they tie the women up, and 10 goblins, all with lust in their eyes, go to a nearby bush, or at least they try to.
Suddenly a gunshot louder than others was heard, and all 10 goblins have their brains splattered. All of the heads have a bullet wound right at the temple. This sight stopped all of the goblins nearby for a moment before most of them got stabbed, shot, and punched by the mercenaries.
"Keep going; do not falter here."
Standing at the forefront of the mercenary is a red-haired man who seems to be 25 years old, wearing a hunting garment but leaving his chest exposed. On his chest is a big burning red skull tattoo that looks more like a devil than a human.
He looks at the goblins approaching him. Still keeping a straight face, he raised a shotgun with two demon horns popping out of both sides; it also had 10 barrels but no trigger.
Pointing at them, he said calmly.
"Fired"
Ten bullets fired out, automatically aimed at the goblin's temple, killing them, but that isn't enough to stop all of them. More and more of them were approaching him, all with malicious eyes.
Still undisturbed, he grabbed the arm of the nearest goblin that tried to stab him, then swung it at another and another and another, killing about 5 in the process.
He uses the goblin to block an incoming arrow one more time, then throws it aside. He aims again and
"Fire"
Another ten have died; a goblin tried to sneak up on him but was pierced in the head by a spear from another mercenary.
"I got your back, Crimson."
"Thanks."
They are not only skilled and armed with great weapons; they also have an amazing chemistry with each other. But they still lacked experience and they lacked caution against the goblin
From behind the goblin horde, a massive green fireball was hurled right at Crimson's group. Caught by surprise, he was barely able to dodge it, but the person who just helped him wasn't able to.
BOOM
The fireball exploded, leaving a huge burned mark on Crimson's face but that was the least of his worries when he saw the others screaming in agony as the flame consumed them. Seeing his friend melt down to a charred corpse without uttering a single word, he screamed in horror
"DAVEEEEEEEEEE"
Looking in the shaman's direction, instead of fired, he says a different word.
"UNITE"
All 10 barrels merged together into one, he then whispered with a bloodshot eye.
"Fire"
BOOM
A blast of energy came out of the barrel; everyone near Crimson and Crimson himself, got knocked down just from the recoil of the blast. The shaman cast a protective shield in a hurry, but it was pointless.
The bullet broke through the barrier like glass and
BOOM
The shaman's entire body exploded. The amulet that was on the shaman's hands lost its light and fell down.
All the goblins fighting like they were in a frenzy stopped simultaneously; they looked at each other, confused. Only when some of them died did they scream and run away.
"We—we won."
"Yes, we did."
"Honey, wake up.
"NOOOOO"
As cheers resound, so does mourning, as almost half of the mercenary was taken out of the ambush.
"We were supposed to strike it rich, but to think that my men have died due to incompetence!"
Crimson shed tears of sorrow; these people are like family to him and yet they die a worthless death. Now not only a lot of people under him die, but the loot was also destroyed by the goblin
"Don't say it like that, boss."
"Yes, we still gained something after all."
Looking at the pile of flesh that used to be the shaman, a woman came to pick up a strange object.
"See, we still gain something valuable after all."
"Yes, this is something valuable indeed."
"Like he—"
Huh, confused, the woman looked at the blond man holding her hand—yes, her hand.
"KYAH—"
"Shut up."
I use mana claw to cut her head off, throwing the woman's hand away. I look at the strange object amused. However, I don't have time to study it when a sharp murderous intent shot passes me.
I turned around and spotted an angry leader with bloodshot eyes. I smirked
"Want this?"
"Well, too bad; it's mine now, finder keeper."