Fang Zhen used every ounce of his strength to pin down the Iron Armor Goblin Leader with his Anti-Riot Shield, viciously thrusting the scimitar in his hand at the leader's unarmored neck.
The blade sank in. Fang Zhen felt the sensation of tearing through flesh and blood travel up his arm.
His eyes bloodshot with killing intent, Fang Zhen desperately held down the struggling Goblin Leader as it tried to throw him off. With his right hand, he stabbed again and again, frantically ramming the blade into the leader's neck.
Purple blood splattered everywhere, but Fang Zhen paid it no mind. He surrendered to the primal power surging within him, focused on one thing and one thing only: taking the Goblin Leader's life.
One strike after another, one thrust after another. Fang Zhen lost count of how many times he'd stabbed. He only stopped when his hand grew as weak as cotton, so numb he could no longer feel the hilt of the blade.
The Iron Armor Goblin Leader on the ground had struggled violently at first. Its strength was considerable, nearly throwing Fang Zhen off. But now, it was like a dead fish, only giving an occasional twitch. It had already lost consciousness; these were nothing more than the body's natural muscle spasms.
Fang Zhen summoned his last bit of strength to stab the Goblin Leader's neck twice more. He was completely spent. He rolled off the goblin's body and collapsed onto the ground.
Fang Zhen lay spread-eagled on his back, all thoughts of maintaining his image gone. With his arms and legs flung wide, he gasped for air in great, ragged breaths.
After a long moment, Fang Zhen managed a weak, breathless curse: "Fuck!"
He was truly and utterly drained.
The Goblin Leader was unexpectedly tough. Even though it seemed to have used some skill for an initial burst of extraordinary power before weakening, the sense of menace it exuded was still immense.
To Fang Zhen, it felt no different from fighting a human.
Even though his opponent was short, it was strong, fought with desperation, and wielded a deadly weapon. The pressure it put on Fang Zhen was considerable.
'To win under these circumstances... I'm actually pretty damn tough,' Fang Zhen thought.
Fang Zhen took a few more deep breaths, recovering a little of his strength.
He desperately wanted to just lie there for a while, to rest and recover his stamina.
But a sudden thought flashed through his mind. Startled, he shot up from the ground with a jolt.
Fang Zhen abruptly remembered, 'There's still a Goblin Sentry in the woods!'
Normally, Fang Zhen wouldn't spare a thought for a mere goblin grunt. But in his current weakened state, a moment of carelessness could be fatal. To be killed by a simple mob after all he'd been through would be a complete joke.
He had overcome so many challenges; he couldn't fail on the very last step.
Fang Zhen pushed himself up, forcing his exhausted body back on high alert, and began searching the woods for the Goblin Sentry.
Soon, Fang Zhen spotted his target.
Just as humans could be brave or cowardly, so too could goblins be warriors or wimps.
Clearly, the last remaining Goblin Sentry was one of the wimps.
It had been scared stiff by Fang Zhen. While Fang Zhen fought for his life against the Goblin Leader and its two guards, the Goblin Sentry had just stood there watching, too afraid to join the fray.
Now that Fang Zhen had killed the Iron Armor Goblin Leader, the Goblin Sentry was still standing there dumbly, completely frozen.
"There you are!"
Fang Zhen dragged his body upright and charged toward the Goblin Sentry.
Only then did Fang Zhen realize just how much the boss fight had taken out of him. His whole body ached, he had no strength to run, and his legs felt weak.
He pushed on through sheer willpower. 'I have to kill that Goblin Sentry, too. Wipe out every last enemy!'
The Goblin Sentry was still in a daze. It wasn't until Fang Zhen was just over ten meters away that it let out a strange shriek and bolted.
"Pine Nuts! Don't run! Get back here!" Fang Zhen yelled, but he was too weak to even manage a proper roar.
Fang Zhen tried to give chase, but his legs wouldn't cooperate. He couldn't run any faster.
'Damn it, I can't even outrun a goblin now?' A flash of anger went through Fang Zhen.
He was about to pursue it when he suddenly spotted a wooden crossbow on the ground ahead.
He had reached the spot where he'd killed the Crossbow Goblin. A steel ball was still embedded in its head, and its crossbow was loaded and ready, though it never got the chance to fire.
An idea struck him, and he bent down to pick up the wooden crossbow.
He picked up a Crossbow Arrow that had fallen nearby and set it in the crossbow's groove.
Fang Zhen crouched, raised the crossbow, and took aim at the fleeing Goblin Sentry.
The Goblin Sentry weaved through the forest, and trees kept blocking Fang Zhen's line of sight, making it difficult to aim.
Fang Zhen snorted. Instead of trying to track his target, he observed its path. He then aimed at a spot up ahead the fleeing Goblin Sentry was bound to pass through—a small gap in the trees with a clear, unobstructed view.
The Goblin Sentry shrieked as it ran. It clearly had no combat sense; it didn't know to run in a serpentine pattern, nor did it understand how to use cover to block projectiles. It just ran in a straight line.
Fang Zhen waited patiently. After a few seconds of aiming at the goblin's inevitable path, the Goblin Sentry appeared right on cue, still sprinting for its life.
Fang Zhen pulled the crossbow's trigger.
He wasn't even aiming directly at the goblin, but leading it slightly, his sights set on a point just ahead of it at neck height.
THWIP!
The wooden crossbow was of surprisingly high quality. The bolt's velocity was immense; it shot out from the forest at extreme speed, making almost no sound.
The Crossbow Arrow flew in a deeply satisfying arc. The Goblin Sentry had just emerged from behind a large tree when the bolt arrived, its sharp tip piercing the goblin's neck. It passed clean through, the fletching catching on one side.
The fleeing Goblin Sentry stumbled forward two steps from its own momentum, a look of confusion on its face, not knowing where the shot had come from.
The next moment, its legs gave out, and it collapsed to the ground, dead.
Seeing the shot land true, Fang Zhen clenched his left hand into a tight fist.
That last shot was just like a flick shot. He had calculated the bolt's trajectory and power with perfect intuition, and the whole process was so smooth it was deeply satisfying.
It felt just like back in the day when he played Counter-Strike. He remembered a school tournament where he was the last man standing, facing the enemy team's ace in a one-on-one. He'd locked in the win with a flick-shot-turned-no-scope headshot. The exhilaration was exactly the same.
The only difference was, back at that CS match, there had been girls watching. Though he had been ecstatic inside, he'd had to put on a cool, aloof act to maintain his image.
But now, after this successful crossbow flick shot, Fang Zhen didn't bother putting on an act. He freely reveled in the simple, pure joy of the moment.
With the last Goblin Sentry finally dead, Fang Zhen could at last relax. A wave of mental relief washed over him. The release of tension felt as liberating as the moment the college entrance exams were over—it was pure bliss.
'Heh heh. Guess I was more tense than I thought. Hahaha! It's just the Dark Path dungeon, right? I've cleared it, haven't I?'
'This Goblin Camp may be dark and foreboding, but watch me wipe it clean!'
The Goblin Camp was broken. The hard work was over. Now, it was time to collect the rewards.