Several students began coughing up blood. It leaked from their eyes, mouths and for some, even their skin.
Those affected fell to the ground, shaking and foaming at the mouth.
"What is it this time?" Han whispered, glancing at the commotion for only an instant.
However, that was all it took.
The warrior goblin disappeared from view....
Nari scoffed at the students panicking around her, her eyes scanning the battlefield with a wild expression. "Where is it?" she spat. It seemed she was more angry than scared. "Stop wasting time on the dead," she shouted. "Keep attacking, or we all die."
Han wasn't certain what exactly had ticked her off, but it seemed like she'd gone mad... things were beginning to fall apart.
Meanwhile, the goblin horde moved forward in perfect formation. Their front line soaked up damage from the student's spells, and once they fell, the second line took over instantly.
For a bunch of wild beasts, they were acting more orderly than the students.
All the while, their general was still nowhere to be found.
'If I let things continue this way, we'll be squashed in like ants...' Han realised.
'But how do we end this?'
The most obvious solution was to kill their strategist, the warrior goblin. However, that was easier said than done. Nevermind the fact that it had disappeared, they still didn't have an answer to its speed and healing ability.
Still, Han searched for it, turning his focus to the shadows cast at the edges of this metallic room. However, every second he spent searching for the warrior, another student fell, blood pooling under their bodies.
'No. We can't keep going on like this,' He realised. 'I have to figure out why we keep dying like flies.' For now, he would have to trust Nari to watch the battleground, even if she did seem to be out of it.
"Do you think it's poison?" Chul whispered beside him, his voice quivering slightly in fear.
Han shook his head. "If it were poison, then we'd be dying too," he replied, walking over to one of the students who had fallen.
'I don't see any grievous injuries. Sure, she's cut up pretty bad, but there's no way these shallow wounds would cause all this.'
Just then, he remembered.
The system had mentioned a death penalty. If health dropped to 0, it didn't matter how severe the injury was.
'But still, there's no way their health would drop this fast from just a few cuts.'
He quickly opened his system screen.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━┓
─System Overview─
〖Trait: Beekeeper〗
〖Grade: U〗
〖*Rank: Newborn〗
─Player Details─
〖Level 2: (1/5)〗
〖Health: 22/100〗
┗━━━━━━━━━━━┛
'My health dropped? I wasn't even hit.'
He thought over it for a moment...
And only one thing made sense here.
How the students had lost all their health despite only having minor injuries.
'The abilities cost health to cast.'
Whoever their captors were, they were clearly sadists.
A scream broke Han's train of thought.
He looked up, and right in the centre of the crowd of students, stood the goblin warrior. Slashing away at dozens of students at a time, like a reaper during harvest. It had been hiding in the shadows cast by the ceiling. The conniving thing.
Every kill caused it to grow even larger, and move even faster. Every drop of blood it absorbed reducing their chances of survival.
'We're out of time.'
Nari kept shouting orders, trying to keep the students organised; however, they could only reply in screams before fleeing in every which direction. Those that weren't paying attention died at the hands of the advancing goblin horde, and even those that did paid attention could do nothing but await promised death.
'This was over from the beginning. We can't win this. What the hell were we even thinking?'
Han looked at the oncoming horde, trying and failing to calculate a way out of this. From the drain on health, he probably only had a single use of Queen's gaze before he'd fall like the other students. And even then, there were merely too many for him to kill alone.
As he studied the horde, looking for holes in their defence, a flash of light blinded him.
'The exit.'
'Of course.'
All along, they had focused on trying to complete the dumb quest. But in reality, they just needed to escape this hellhole.
No one ever said they had to defeat the goblin warrior... or even the goblin horde. The orb had never mentioned a death penalty for not completing a quest.
'That's right. I just need to get out of here.'
And what better time?
With the goblin warrior distracted by Nari and all those around her, it was his chance to escape.
He could buy himself freedom...
At the cost of his classmates' lives.
Han pondered over it for a moment. He had shared good memories with some people here. They were his... friends. Could he really throw them all away... for what? To make it out? Like some sort of coward.
Han began laughing.
'Of course, I will,' he thought. Already making a beeline for the goblin horde.
'These guys weren't really my friends to begin with. I came to this school for connnections. All of them were a means to an end,' he thought, right as he was about to clash with the horde.
'None of them would've been my friends if they knew my background. But now? Now the hierachy of power has been changed. I don't know why we've been brought to this strange place. But it's clear I have a shot at being at the top.'
'Will I sacrifice my "friends" for that? Yes. Yes I will.'
"Queen's Gaze!"
Time slowed.
His eyes shifted between all the goblins in front of him, noting even the slightest twitch of their muscles. He had to position his body in a way that he could escape with the least damage possible.
Seven goblins had their eyes locked on him.
The three in front of him, were all moving to squash him with their clubs.
He processed their trajectories, and he found a small gap where their swings would not meet.
But did he have the athleticism to squeeze himself through?
'No. I'm not thinking far enough. What about the goblins behind them.'
Four goblins in the second line had their eyes on him. And behind them, 2 more.
He had to try and predict all their movements at once.
His head began aching... he could taste blood in his throat.
His time was running up.
'There has to be a path somewhere.' He strained to think.
He calculated a way past the first line...past the second... and soon the third.
But that was it. He would get past them... and likely fall the fourth.
He pushed his mind... his body to its limits, fighting for even just a second more to figure something out.
However, this was his limit.
Queen's gaze was forced to an end.
'Fuck.'
Han got into action, lunging for the gap in the first line. Ducking under a swing from a goblin in the second line, before pushing into the third line.
His knees buckled, his legs felt weak. He'd overestimated his physical prowess. 'No. No.'
A goblin let out a satisfied laugh as it watched him falter.
Just as it was about to bash his head in...