The goblins Fang Zhen had encountered so far were mostly just four feet tall. Even the elites barely stood over four-foot-three and were as scrawny as dogs. But this roaring goblin was a full five feet tall, nearly the size of a human.
And it wasn't wearing linen cloth or leather armor. It was clad in iron!
It wore a suit of mail made of interlocking iron rings. Though it wasn't shiny and even had a bit of rust, it was iron armor nonetheless.
This giant among goblins wielded a Wolf Fang Club covered in hooked spikes. Its eyes were purple, and its face was a mask of pure fury as it let out a deafening roar, its glare so intense it looked as though its eyes would pop from their sockets.
Two other goblins flanked it from behind, but their presence was completely overshadowed by the Iron-Armored Goblin.
Seeing this, Fang Zhen's heart sank.
'There's more?'
'Is this the Goblin Leader? The big boss?'
By now, Fang Zhen's stamina was no longer at its peak.
He had fought two battles by the stream, then returned to raid the goblin camp. That made three fights in total. Even though Fang Zhen's movements had been as smooth and fluid as flowing water, he ultimately had the stamina of an ordinary person. At this point, his strength was already beginning to wane.
The sudden appearance of what looked like a big boss—an Iron Armor Goblin Leader—put immense pressure on Fang Zhen.
'How did this happen? I didn't see it before. Why did it suddenly appear now?'
Fang Zhen's mind raced.
Though his stamina was fading, his mind was not.
His thoughts remained clear, and he quickly pieced together the sequence of events.
'The Iron-Armored Goblin must have been in the camp the whole time. Since it's the leader, it probably stayed inside its tent and never came out, which is why I didn't see it when I was scouting.'
'When I was hunting those two groups of goblins by the stream, the leader must have sensed something was wrong and headed there with two of its minions. Coincidentally, I took a wide detour on my way back, so we missed each other.'
'After I raided the camp, it must have realized something was wrong, returned from the stream, and ran right into me here.'
That was Fang Zhen's guess.
His intuition told him this was the most likely scenario.
In this situation, it was hard to say whether Fang Zhen was lucky or unlucky.
The leader's absence had given Fang Zhen the opportunity to storm the camp; if the monster had been present, it certainly wouldn't have gone so smoothly.
But the Iron-Armored Goblin's timing was too perfect—it had returned just as Fang Zhen finished clearing out the camp.
Fang Zhen might have looked imposing at that moment, but his stamina was dwindling and he was growing weary. The leader monster was clearly powerful, and its appearance now put him in a very awkward position.
The Iron-Armored Goblin didn't give Fang Zhen much time to think. Seeing that its tribe had been all but slaughtered by him, the leader became utterly enraged.
"GRAH! KILL! KILL! KILL!" it bellowed, its eyes shot through with purple veins. Waving its Wolf Fang Club, it charged straight at Fang Zhen.
Fang Zhen immediately rallied his Spirit.
His stamina had declined, but he hadn't lost his ability to fight. He forced himself to focus and met the Iron-Armored Goblin's charge.
"Your whole tribe is nearly dead! What's one more?!" Fang Zhen roared, gripping his long spear and rushing to meet it.
As Fang Zhen and the Iron-Armored Goblin sprinted toward each other, the distance between them quickly shrank to about ten feet.
Fang Zhen thrust his spear.
Fang Zhen had already figured out a trick to using the long spear. As he thrust, he braced the shaft under his armpit, twisting with both hands as he lunged. Holding the spear this way increased stability, while the twist amplified the deadliness of the attack.
The spear shot out like a striking dragon.
Against an ordinary goblin grunt, this explosive thrust would have been more than enough to kill it.
However, the Iron-Armored Goblin violently swung its Wolf Fang Club, smashing it against the tip of Fang Zhen's spear.
Fang Zhen felt the mahogany spear shaft shudder violently in his hands. The high-frequency vibration shot up his arms, making his palms go numb.
The spear shaft felt like a cattle prod, and Fang Zhen nearly lost his grip.
'Damn, that's some serious strength!' Fang Zhen thought in surprise.
Now that he was closer, Fang Zhen could see that beneath the iron-ring mail, the Iron-Armored Goblin was pure muscle.
For some reason he couldn't quite place, Fang Zhen had always thought goblins were somewhat dog-like.
To continue the analogy, an ordinary goblin was like a Pomeranian, an elite goblin was like a Labrador, and this Iron Armor Goblin Leader was like a muscle-bound bulldog.
Not only was it relatively huge, but its muscles were knotted and corded. Its strength was in a completely different league from that of an ordinary goblin.
'This thing has definitely mutated!'
The thought flashed through Fang Zhen's mind.
"GRAAR!"
The battlefield allowed for no lapses in concentration. In that same instant, the goblin minion accompanying the Iron-Armored Goblin suddenly lunged, short sword in hand, stabbing toward Fang Zhen.
'This trick again!'
Fang Zhen wasn't surprised at all. Instead, he reacted with practiced ease, turning his spear to meet the pouncing goblin.
He had seen this move so many times that his response was automatic.
The goblin, in its suicidal lunge, stared wide-eyed in terror at the gleaming spear tip coming to meet it. With no way to stop its momentum, it let out a horrified shriek as its body slammed into the blade.
SQUELCH!
The long spear ran the pouncing goblin clean through.
Fang Zhen wasn't surprised in the least; he was simply becoming more and more practiced at countering this suicidal lunge.
In the next moment, while the goblin's corpse was still impaled on his spear, the Iron-Armored Goblin suddenly swung its Wolf Fang Club, smashing it down on the shaft.
CRACK!
With a sharp snap, the mahogany shaft of his long spear was broken by the Wolf Fang Club. The wood splintered irregularly, tearing apart into jagged points.
'Holy shit, it's that strong?!' Fang Zhen was stunned.
The Iron-Armored Goblin's ferocity was completely unexpected.
Fang Zhen's long spear was broken. The spearhead clattered to the ground, leaving him with only a three-foot-long piece of the mahogany shaft in his hands.
"GRUHH!"
On the other side, the last goblin minion saw that Fang Zhen was now without a proper weapon. It too launched itself into a suicidal lunge, thrusting with a rusty short sword so filthy it would surely cause tetanus if it broke the skin.
Yet in this moment of crisis, his mind became preternaturally calm.
He once again entered that state of single-minded, intense combat focus.
Faced with danger, Fang Zhen felt no fear. He spun the broken mahogany shaft around and viciously thrust the jagged, splintered end toward the face of the goblin trying to land a cheap shot.
SQUELCH! The force behind the thrust was immense. Even without a spearhead, the tip was a mass of sharp splinters.
Fang Zhen had put tremendous force into the blow. The headless mahogany shaft slammed into the goblin minion's face and actually pierced through it.
The goblin minion shrieked in agony and tumbled from the air with the shaft still stuck in its face.
'Who says you can't kill someone with a spear that has no head?'
Fang Zhen felt a surge of Spirit.
But just then, the Iron Armor Goblin Leader roared, bringing its Wolf Fang Club crashing down toward Fang Zhen's head.