As Sen read the mission status, he felt like the environment flickered like a television which cannot maintain its signal. Everyone disappeared but the scars of battle in the surroundings that Sen recently participated was still intact. He had no time to be in a daze from the change of scenery as he felt the danger is close and real.
A grid appeared in front of Sen and the system did a radar swipe on the grid. Colours, shapes quickly populated the grid and Sen realised the grid was a bird eye view of the map of the current place he was at. It even demarcated the trees, rocks, slopes and the burning sites of the shell explosions. This was more detailed than any realistic map he ever saw or the holographic map which the army uses.
Four blinking dots appeared on the map, three red and one white. The red dots are moving slowly but surely towards the direction of the white. Sen figured the white was him and the red dots could possibly be the goblin scouting party. The map subsequently minimised itself to the upper right hand corner of his peripheral vision. He stood up and walked towards his previous 'graveyard' and picked up the Zinger rifle.
"Scanning object that user picked. User determined picked object as a weapon of choice. Re-calibrating object to suit the system."
Sen was surprised as the Zinger he picked up, glowed a little. Numbers appeared in his vision and yet again minimised itself to the lower left hand corner of his peripheral vision. They appeared to be the number of bullets that Sen had left in his rifle and the total amount of ammunition he had carried.
"Three bullets in my current stripper clip and two more clips in my belt pocket which meant a total of 15 bullets. Should be enough to fight these...goblins." Sen whispered. He thought he will be scared for the upcoming encounter but at this point he felt calm, collected and even had the urge to fight. "Is this the effect of the Heart of the Mongoose? Wait a minute, System, what happens if I die."
"...Please work hard to be the Saviour of the world." the Lady's voice in the system started to become a little of an annoyance for Sen.
"Guess I better plan my ambush quickly before the goblins come to where I am at." The map enlarged again without Sen saying a single world or thinking any thought. It felt like the system was ingrained with him ever since he was born.
He studied the area in the map carefully and found an elevation which he might take a goblin by surprise and perhaps all of them if he was lucky. He quickly moved towards that area and prepared his ambush.
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The goblins walked into the empty woods. They did not know why a forest that was lush and full of greenery suddenly turned so black and filled with stench of human blood. The goblins could not comprehend the current situation and figured things do not add up.
One of the goblin had a rusted bronze dagger sheathed near his waist decided to speed up and look what is up ahead. The curiosity of blood stench around meant there could be corpses and that equates to loot.
They are the scouting party, treasures meant more power and prestige once they presented it to their goblin leader. These treasures are potentially the way out of doing such lowly job and be a goblin with status.
Sen controlled his breathing while hiding in the thicket. His heart was racing not of fear but of excitement, the thrill of the hunt. Sen does not know how the goblin looked like or how it will react but he wants blood to be spilled.
He noticed in his minimap that the red dot is coming closer towards him. Sen caught sight of that the goblin features which he found to be similar to what he had read and heard in his folklore. The target is coming to the effective range of his Zinger. Sen starts to direct his rifle to the moving goblin and all he need was to wait for the right moment.
The goblin with the dagger sensed something was a little wrong as he unknowingly walked towards the area of ambush created by Sen. It felt like a predator was watching him but he could not sense the direction of the threat due to the burning of forest wood and the strong blood stench. Therefore, it started paced itself a little and unsheathed his rusted dagger while looking for threats.
-BANG-
Sen with all his experience he had accumulated in the last two weeks, systematically released his bolt from the Zinger rifle. The spent bullet flew and he pushed the bolt back into position before pressing the trigger again onto the injured monster that was right beneath him.
The goblin screamed in pain at the medium sized hole in front of his torso. It realised this was no ordinary arrow that shot through its back. The pain was excruciating but it could not see any arrow that pierced him.
With that sharp and short explosive sound followed by the a scream from their comrade, the remaining two goblins readied their weapons and charged towards the front. One was holding a hatchet while the other was carrying a bow and arrow.
It was the goblin archer's first week of scouting and has yet to master the accuracy of the bow and arrow but it decides to pick it. The goblin tribe needed archers and archers were paid with good food. If it can kill a target during this scouting, it might even get to have a chance to play with the tribe's slaves.
-BANG-
Sen did not miss this time. The bullet spiraled through the monster's skull and lodged itself tightly in there. Yellow blood was profusely leaking from it and the goblin dropped to its knees before collapsing.
Sen looked at the minimap again and saw that a red dot disappeared and the other two dots were approaching fast. He really wanted to go outside and confirmed his kill but he knows that is a foolish mistake to do right at this moment. As his tailor parents used said, "Plan your stitch and follow it thoroughly. Stay focus and you will get the job done."
He unloads the last bullet along with his stripper clip and reload a fresh strip of six bullets into his rifle. After which he quickly set his sights onto the incoming goblins.