The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary C325 Starfire

The System made it possible for Jin to join his Goblin Trio's teleportation. Immediately all four came out of the portal, making it look like he was one of the few allowed into the Castle. However, when they arrived, it was not the scene of drunks talking nor merry noises of the underground pub which welcomed them. The ground was filled with bloodied corpses of goblins, and three cloaked figures were fighting against the seemingly last surviving goblin who was barely left standing from the blows. It became clear that the goblin was left alive not out of its own strength but to to be toyed with…

With a glimpse, Slashreaver noticed it was someone familiar to him. He did not hesitate for even a moment and jumped directly into the fray against the three figures shouting:

“Starfire! Perform a Thunder Skip out now!”

Before he got to finish his sentence, Starfire got stabbed in the stomach. She seemed barely conscious, but the familiar voice made her react to the command as she snapped her fingers. Her magical ring contained the stored spell Thunder Skip, a movement skill blasting a thunderclap in front of her opponent while she magically moved backwards. The spell activated and allowed her to gain some distance from her opponents without the need for chanting at all.

Jin caught her just in time. Due to her heavy injuries she was unable to land properly and the stab in the stomach was about to finish her off. He immediately took out a chi potion. Through experience they had found out that those were surprisingly suitable for consumption by the goblins after the System had given them some as an experiment. “Drink this. Trust us. We are here to help.” Jin told her with his half Panda Mask on. (How can you not trust a Panda? 🙂 )

With her life hanging on a thread and the assurance of a familiar voice from seconds ago, Starfire listened and she sipped the bottle of sweet nectar. Slashreaver advanced forward catching the three cloaked figures off guard as he shouted a taunting war cry which he had mimicked from Kong Xian, the Towering Tortoise Cultivator. Slashreaver also hoped that some Castle Guards would enter and intervene with the fight.

The hoods from their cloaks flew off from the impact of the shout and revealed them as Black Orcs. One male who was armoured under the hood and two females with one holding a staff and the other with short sword and a dagger. The Goblin Trio immediately identified them based on the weapons and armour they were equipped with.

The male was most likely some sort of Orc Knight with high defensive capabilities whereas the female orc with the staff had to be a magician of some sort. Most Orcs that were magicians were ones who dealt with black magic, but because she had yet to show any abilities, they could only find out. The remaining one was definitely a thief or an assassin Orc with a slender figure.

“Too bad for you, the entire castle is in a lockdown fighting. Don't think that your loud shouting will attract any aid for you. In fact, it might attract more of my kind against you! Hahahahah!” The male Orc Knight sneered and laughed.

“The Orc Knight is mine.” Slashreaver eyes were burning as he pulled out his cultivation from the depths of his body. Seven goblin-ish silhouettes were shown each mixed with various animals. According to the System, the goblins were one of the most versatile of all monsters Jin had ever captured too, managing to not only learn skills off of the cultivators they were fighting but even going beyond that merging them with their own abilities.

Other monsters were also doing the same such as Ke Mi who learnt how to create more snakes phantoms after the fight with the high school student who used his flute to summon his Weasel. (It's unfortunate he did not appear ever again after his defeat.) The Savants also learnt the most from the cultivators and merged a lot of their skills with the cultivators in order to fight them toe to toe.

However, the System found it very odd that the goblins were able to cultivate similarly to Jin and other cultivators but it was the first time the System saw goblins were able to master various animalistic styles into their cultivation, unlike humans who could only learn one form. Unless cultivators were very talented, humans could at most practice two styles. And even in such rare cases, those usually belonged to the same family of styles.

“Pfft, what are you some Animal Shaman holding a sword?” The Orc Knight swung his sword backwards and attempted to smash Slashreaver with its overwhelming might. Or so he thought. Slashreaver held onto the Orc Knight's two handed sword with his two fingers as if it was just a piece of paper. Even Jin shook his head at the scene, seeing how Slashreaver was filled with anger compared to the other two who were fighting without their cultivation on.

“I guess this female goblin means a lot to Slashreaver.” Jin looked at Starfire to see if the chi potion was making any progress to her wounds.

“What! How can a goblin hold onto my greatsword!” The Orc Knight was visibly fl.u.s.tered as he tried to pull his weapon, but it was to no avail. He quickly abandoned his primary weapon and to draw the short sword from his waist as a counter. Yet, before he could even swing his weapon, his arm was cut off at the blink of an eye. Slashreaver had let go of the greatsword and slashed his lower limbs away, causing the Orc Knight to fall sideways from the low sweep. Seemingly not wishing to dirty his own weapon the goblin picked the greatsword up again as he pierced it through the Orc Knight's thick armour and into his abdomen area. The Orc Knight could not make a single noise as the pain numbed his voice while he bled to death slowly.

Ripcaller, on the other hand, did short work with the female Orc Assassin. The Goblin Assassin wanted to 'play' a little more with his prey, but he decided to save his energy since the Orc Knight said that the castle was overrun by them, the Black Orcs. Shocking enough, Piercestriker decided to immobilise the Orc magician by knocking her out.

“Master, do you mind asking Sir Kraft to do his wonders? It would be best if we gain some more intel from the Orcs. The mages are usually the most respected ones and should have the most information about the whole situation since there aren't many Orc Mages that the Orc Kingdom can afford. We could get the other part of the current situation from Starfire.” Piercestriker suggested and before Jin could have a say, Kraft appeared right almost immediately as he picked up the Black Orc with his hand crushing onto her skull.

“Well I shall skip the fun, since time is of the essence, I suppose. Don't blame me what happens to her afterwards.” Kraft had a serious look as he squeezed his hand even harder so that the head began to deform from his grasp. The Orc Mage suddenly woke up from her unconsciousness state since the pain was getting unbearable and tried to fight back. She ignited her hands with fire, hoping to burn Kraft alive while screaming vilely from the excruciating pain.

“No use, I've been through things far worse than this soft, warm flame you are holding,” Kraft did not even flinch as he pressed on her head yet harder. Blood was oozing out of her nostrils and ears while some sort of black smoke was seen emitting out of the top of her head. Not long after, the Orc did not retaliate and her hands turned lifeless.

“In short, the Orcs had been planning for this massacre and takeover of the upper hierarchy of the Gob Gob Kingdom for years. Not just this kingdom. All the other goblin kingdoms should simultaneously be struck tonight. All the upper hierarchy goblins will be gone come tomorrow. It's a Do or Die kind of act. They wish to destabilise the kingdoms before following it up with an ambush attack against all kingdoms. The Orcs of every colour –I do not know what that really means, but I guess the collective groups of Orcs decided to war against the Goblins.” Kraft let go of the skull and swiped his hands together to remove some leftover dust. (Still, the System did capture the three Orcs too. Though the last one turned 'special'.)

“The takeover of this castle is still in the first few phases according to her most recent memories. She and some other mages have set up a magical barrier some minutes ago. No one will be able to go in nor out. I guess that means the goblins in here should be setting up a final defence line to protect the King of Gob Gob. We might manage to save your King if we hurry.” Kraft added while Slashreaver returned to take care of Starfire.

“How did we manage to get in then if the magic barrier was up?” Jin asked casually as he passed another bottle of chi potion to Slashreaver.

“We used Leyline magic to connect our portals with different pubs. Something different from the usual magic that we are using….Hmm, maybe that is why they decided to slaughter the goblins here so there is truly no escape nor entry. How could they know about the portal system…Shit there must be insiders.” Ripcaller guessed.

“Well, if the mage's memories were true. They must have a lot of insiders.” Piercestriker commented as he looked around the dead goblins.

“Crap, so that means the King might not necessarily be safe even in the final defence line,” Ripcaller said as he checked for any usable items left by the Orc Assassin after she was captured by the System.

“It's true…it's really you!” Starfire immediately hugged Slashreaver when she recognised him. “Where did you go? How do you have such immense power coursing through you?” Starfire had so many questions, but Slashreaver stopped her.

“I will tell you more once we have the time. Right now, we must stop the orcs and traitor goblins from killing your father.” Slashreaver told Starfire.

“Welp…I guess we came in at the most opportune of times. System, you sure you aren't planning all this in advance.” Jin sent a thought to the System.

“Would User believe the System, when being told, that this is just a happy little accident?” The System replied with a question and Jin could only sigh at it. There were more pressing matters to settle than to contemplate the coincidence of fate.

Chapter end