Just as the fury in Orum's heart reached its boiling point, a cold hand pressed down on his shoulder.
"Orum, calm down," Felix's voice was steady, his gaze fixed ahead, radiating a lethal chill. "We prepare first, then we strike."
"Remember, we're an adventuring party. Reckless action gets you killed."
Following Felix's line of sight, Orum looked ahead.
His vision moved past the twenty green-skinned goblins and locked onto the depths of the village beyond.
There, three figures several times larger than ordinary goblins sat in a circle, gorging themselves.
Their skin was a yellow-green color, their bodies massive. They were clearly the elite species among goblins: bugbears.
Beside these three bugbears, several blood-stained iron spears were stuck haphazardly in the ground.
These weapons, originally equipped for Locke Village's militia, had now become instruments of slaughter in the hands of these monsters.
Each of those spears, when thrown, could pierce clean through a ribcage. Several corpses within Locke Village bore silent testament to this fact.
Among the three bugbears, one stood out as particularly unusual. Its frame was more hunched than the others, and it wore a crude wooden mask carved with a grotesque face.
In its hand, it gripped a thick wooden staff adorned with various feathers and teeth. Orum recognized it immediately: a shaman's staff.
"That's a bugbear shaman, a spellcaster," Felix warned in a low voice.
"Low-tier monsters are far less intelligent than humans, but their magic is just as lethal."
"Ronald and I will hold these three bugbears. I'll make sure they can't throw their spears or cast their spells properly."
"Orum, you charge with Raygore and wipe out the goblin horde in front. If you get hurt, don't panic. Ronald's healing word will restore you immediately."
In Felix's emerald eyes, a cold light flashed like the edge of a blade.
He suddenly drew the ceremonial longsword at his waist, its tip pointing straight toward the blood-soaked village ahead as he barked out:
"Ice Hawk Company, full armor!"
...
Just three minutes later, Orum hastily finished strapping on his half-plate mail, leg guards, helmet, and neck guard.
Goblins were extremely cunning, skilled at using short daggers to stab through gaps in armor.
Therefore, a helmet that completely covered the face was critical.
Orum's face was now fully concealed, leaving only a narrow barred viewing slit in front.
They also possessed astonishing jumping ability, agile as monkeys, often ambushing from behind to leap onto an adventurer's back and frantically stab at the neck with daggers. That's why neck protection was equally indispensable.
In stark contrast to Orum's hurried movements, Raygore's armor donning was as smooth as flowing water.
Step by step, he fitted the heavy armor pieces onto his body, hinges and buckles clicking together under thick fingers, the entire sequence performed in one fluid motion.
It was clear he'd done this countless times.
What surprised Orum most was that unlike his image of a frail priest, Ronald was also clad in heavy armor.
Fully armed, Ronald looked no less imposing than many warriors in the Adventurer's Hall, and even carried an additional air of sacred authority.
As for Felix, a dragonblood descendant, his bones and skin were naturally tougher than ordinary humans.
At the same time, because his strength was relatively weaker, he wasn't wearing iron armor at all, only a set of light, hardened leather armor to facilitate his agile movements.
"I'll be the vanguard for our leader. You just charge and kill, no need to worry about what's behind you!" Ronald's voice came from beneath his iron helm. He raised his warhammer high, glaring murderously toward the front, looking more like a barbarian than an actual barbarian.
"Take these." Felix handed Orum two black spherical objects, instructing in a low voice: "You'll need them when you clear out the goblins."
"Preparation complete. Begin the assault!"
...
Orum and Raygore quietly left the wagon, concealing themselves in the grass beside the road, slowly creeping toward the goblins.
At this moment, the goblin pack was still crouched over the villagers' corpses, feasting away, completely unaware that death itself was silently descending upon them.
As the distance continued to shrink, the characteristic rancid stench of monsters grew ever stronger, hitting them like fermented pig manure.
The two hearts in Orum's chest began to beat violently, his pulse skyrocketing.
When they closed to approximately ten meters...
Orum and Raygore simultaneously raised their arms and threw!
Two pitch-black spherical objects traced precise arcs through the air, landing right in the densest cluster of goblins!
"BANG!"
A goblin's head smarted with pain. Irritated, it looked down to see a strange black sphere lying in the mud.
The goblin picked it up curiously and sniffed at it with its ugly long nose, immediately catching the pungent smell of gunpowder.
Goblin: "Gugu gwagwa?" (What the hell is this thing?)
The goblin suddenly heard a hissing sound. Instinctively, it flipped the black sphere over, only to discover a sparking fuse burning at a visible speed, racing toward the core of the sphere!
The next instant...
Two blasts of violent, searing flame exploded within the goblin horde!
Goblins near the epicenter were blown away by the shockwave!
The remaining goblins were immediately drenched head to toe in burning oil!
Under the scorching flames licking hungrily at them, all the goblins let out inhuman, bloodcurdling shrieks!
They rolled and writhed in agony within the fire, producing horrific "zhizhi gaga" sounds, like pigs being gutted alive.
Fire oil bombs!
Priced at only five silver coins each, they were one of the most practical tools for adventurers, devastatingly effective against clustered low-tier monsters!
What Felix had given Orum were two fire oil bombs.
Following Team Leader Felix's command, Orum and Raygore had closed in and launched a surprise attack with fire oil bombs!
At this moment, the entire area where the goblins stood had transformed into a forest of raging flames, the air thick with the nauseating stench of charred flesh.
A towering black shadow, standing eight feet tall, burst from the grass!
Raygore!
His entire body was encased in thick, jet-black plate armor, like a mobile fortress, roaring as he charged forward!
In his hands, he gripped what was unmistakably a crude, broad, and indescribably heavy greatsword!
Rather than calling it a sword, it looked more like a massive, ancient tombstone!
It was hard to imagine that Raygore, wielding such a devastatingly heavy blade, could still launch a charge like a war chariot!
No, that was a battle art!
Battle Art: Charge!
Orum immediately realized this was the battle art that perfectly complemented Raygore's greatsword, unleashing that pure violence in the most direct way possible!
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
With each heavy stomp Raygore made on the ground, the earth actually trembled with earthquake-like rumbling.
His figure cut through the goblin horde like a black blade! Everywhere he passed was a trail of bloody carnage, as if a giant plow had torn through rotten mud!
Goblins swept by the greatsword were instantly bisected at the waist, cut in two.
Goblins blocking his path were directly shattered, their limbs and organs scattered like flowers from heaven.
Goblins trampled underfoot were crushed into meat paste by the thousand-pound force!
Under the enhancement of [Battle Art: Charge], as if defying the laws of physics, Raygore's body became like a massive reef battered by waves.
Goblins fell in droves beneath his sword, yet failed to slow him even a fraction.
Instead, like a boulder rolling downhill, he charged faster and faster!
The goblins who had just extinguished the flames and wanted to counterattack were instantly routed before this devastating charge!
The goblins shrieked and wailed in terror, desperately swinging their weapons in retaliation.
Their rusted blades struck the heavy plate armor but felt like mosquito bites, unable to leave even the most insignificant scratch!
In this moment, all the goblins' attention was drawn to Raygore's beast-like massive frame.
Their terrified gazes were locked dead on his black plate armor, completely failing to notice that following close behind Raygore was another figure radiating deadly killing intent!
One horizontal sweep, with his seven-point strength attribute propelling the blade through the air with a sharp explosive crack.
A goblin's neck was severed clean through, and the blood-soaked edge continued its momentum, shearing off the top half of a second goblin's skull!
[Goblin Kill Count +1]
[Goblin Kill Count +1]
From all directions came the goblins' piercing "gwagwa" shrieks. Before his eyes were nothing but goblins' twisted, grotesque faces covered in pustules, their gaping maws dripping with foul-smelling drool, surrounding Orum completely!
Trapped in heavy encirclement, Orum's heart rate shot up close to two hundred beats per minute.
Everything in his field of vision gradually became tinged with red, transforming into a violent blood color!
His earlier nervousness had long been replaced by explosive rage erupting from the depths of his heart.
At this moment, Orum wanted only to kill! To grind every last one of these offensive green-skins into meat paste!
"Gwa!" Three goblins lunged at Orum simultaneously. Orum thrust his sword through the middle one's skull, pinning its diminutive body to the ground.
The goblins on the left and right latched onto Orum's arms. Their sharp, foul-smelling teeth were blocked by his chainmail, but the bone-deep blunt pain still transmitted clearly through flesh and skin!
This sensation of pain was like a needle, stimulating Orum's brain. Unprecedented fury nearly incinerated his reason completely!
Orum raised his hand and grabbed the goblin on his right, his metal-gauntleted palm seizing its monkey-like head and wrenching its neck backward!
Terrifying arm strength exploded instantly. With a teeth-grinding "crack," accompanied by a shriek of utter terror, the goblin's fragile neck bone snapped under the brutal force!
Orum slammed the corpse with its lolling head into the ground like a broken sack, then stomped down, crushing its skull!
The goblin on the left was still frantically gnawing at Orum's arm while gripping a rust-covered dagger, stabbing wildly at his body, trying to find gaps in the chainmail!
Orum's iron-vice hands suddenly seized its jaw, his left hand yanking up on its upper jaw, his right hand pressing down hard on its lower jaw.
Enormous violence poured forth instantly, and the goblin's yellowed-tooth-filled lower jaw, along with its entire throat cavity, was torn open! Its reeking organs spilled out!
Hot, fetid blood sprayed wildly, landing on Orum's skin and feeling only slightly cool! Because at this moment, the two hearts in Orum's chest were pumping madly, his body burning hot, his blood boiling, as if his entire being were inside a blazing high-temperature furnace!
Behind him, another goblin leaped at him like a demon! Orum drew his snow-pattern longsword and delivered a vicious upward slash in reverse grip!
He cleaved its body diagonally from lower left to upper right, splitting it in two!
Orum immediately spun around and kicked away the goblin clinging to his thigh, desperately biting.
Before it could land, he followed up with a brutal stomp, crushing its chest flat!
Faced with the god-of-death-like ferocious performance of Orum and Raygore, the few surviving goblins looked at their comrades' corpses and were scared out of their wits.
They turned and fled in panic toward Locke Village.
Looking up toward Locke Village, Orum's pupils contracted again. He saw densely packed green-skinned figures pouring out from the village houses!
That number... probably forty or more!
"However many come, I'll kill them all!" The rage in Orum's heart grew even more tumultuous, like a furious sea in a storm.
Because he saw that the swarming goblins were still gnawing on white limb fragments in their mouths!
"Animals!" Behind them, Ronald, who had been guarding Felix's front, saw this scene and his eyes instantly bloodshot!
An entire village had just been slaughtered by goblins!
Ronald roared and swung the heavy warhammer in his hand, smashing the head of a goblin charging toward him!
Before those dozens of goblins could charge close, there were still over ten seconds.
Orum quickly scanned the interface prompt that only he could see. He was about to claim it, but froze.
[You have killed 10 goblins]
[Obtained Goblin Monster Organ Advancement:]
[Cross-Species Compatible Reproductive System!] (/n: :))
[Claim reward?]
"Clai... No! Wait! I absolutely cannot claim this!"
Orum snapped alert instantly, immediately realizing what this "Cross-Species Compatible Reproductive System" was!
Among goblin creatures, there were no female individuals, but at the same time, they had no reproductive barriers with virtually any species!
Whether rabbits, cattle, sheep, humans, elves, beastfolk, or even magical beasts!
In other words, if he claimed this monster organ, Orum would possess the exact same function!