[Evolution Round begins! Any goblin who tries to enter the square to intervene in the sacred duel will perish.]
On the magical square, Ragnar's body was slightly quivering. Ecbert England immediately laughed when he saw Ragnar's state.
"I thought it was quite daring of you to challenge me outright. But, it seems that it was all an act. Mere bravado." He said with a smirk.
"Gi-gahaha. We shall see." Ragnar laughed awkwardly as he still couldn't control his body from quivering in extreme excitement and bloodlust.
'I can finally fight!' He thought. Yes, it was neither terror nor apprehension. It was happiness. He wanted to fight with all his soul.
Finally, his wish was granted.
Ecbert England. Goblin Lord. A high and mighty Grade1 creature. He was the most powerful goblin student in the whole GIT campus. His 202cm tall height made even the 177cm tall, strong and muscular HobGoblin, Ragnar, look puny.
~ Charge.
Ecbert England activated all his biological energy as he charged at Ragnar. His body shot like a bullet at him with all the energy of a real Grade1 creature. All the goblins, except for Mikazuki August, spectating the sacred duel in the metro looked shocked as they couldn't even catch Ecbert's shadow with their eyes.
'This is a charge as fast and as strong as a Mechbot armor tackle.' Mikazuki thought.
As soon as Ecbert's arms grabbed Ragnar's waist and just as he was absolutely assured of killing this puny HobGoblin, a voice sounded out.
~ Splash.
'Waitasec. What the f*ck. What.. What just happened?' Mikazuki strained his eyes as he looked at the battle square along with the rest of the gawking goblin passengers.
'How? How? How? How could this be?'
Not so different from the goblin spectators, even Ecbert England himself, did not understand what went wrong until a disturbing sound came from inside his skull.
'I, A Grade1 Creature equivalent to the Legendary Lord Maugus will die here? To this trash?'
With his head smashed open, Ecbert England, along with that last thought, turned to red light as it circled around Ragnar.
Ragnar was a Huyen langlon Grandmaster. His fighting instincts were something that had been ingrained in his soul itself.
As he jumped on the battle square, he had completely let go of any apprehension he had towards the thought of battle and the moment Ecbert lowered his stance to attempt to grab his waist with a charge, Ragnar firmly planted both his legs on the square's floor to erupt with more power.
Goblins naturally walk heel-to-toe, just like humans. But lots of races on the ancient Goblin Plane—even apex predators, like Dragonborn, Werewolves and Kobolds—don't.
Wondering why? When it comes to brawling, having heels hit the ground gave those primordial creatures a leg up. Of course, this is no surprise to any trained Huyen langlon martial artist. Throwing a punch with your feet planted, helps you punch harder.
Therefore, Ragnar firmly planted both his legs on the ground. Then, as Ecbert came charging at him, both his fists exploded with power the moment they came in contact with Ecbert's head.
~ Crack.
He used the power that erupted from him with both his legs planted on the ground to smash the inside of Ecbert's head to a pulp. Even a Grade1 goblin's charge reinforced with all his biological energy crumbled like a house of cards against this technique.
That is how, a Goblin Lord lost his life on the battle square.
As Ragnar absorbed the red light through his mouth, he let out a long sigh filled with disappointment.
"The most powerful goblin creature amounts only to this much? What a weak race."
The fight ended before he could even start enjoying it. All this accumulated bloodlust had nowhere to vent. He was so astonished by Ecbert's quick death that waves of disappointment swept over him. Just then, a small window emerged in front of his eyes.
[Mission Accomplished! You have succeeded in killing a fellow goblin. As compensation, you get 5 Ether points to distribute.]
[Ether unlocked! You have killed a Goblin Lord. You have absorbed all your opponent's life ether. All stats +2]
[ Recruit: Ragnar Kalwar
Race: Goblin
~ Ether Status ~
Strength: 12(+2)
Agility: 16(+2)
Psyche: 50(+2)
Energy:11(+2)
Ether points: 5
Evolution Score: 0 (Starts at Grade1)
Evolution Stage: HobGoblin ]
As a HobGoblin, he had at least 10 in all stats. However, his Psyche was extremely high. This was probably because of the cliche reason of transmigration and his soul, originally not belonging to the Goblin Plane or something similar of the sort. Ragnar did not care about such trivial problems.
'The Ether points are distributed differently for all goblins depending on their physical and mental characteristics?' He thought.
Just as Ragnar was pondering about the details of this survival game on the battle square, he could feel the red light that had entered his body through his mouth. It started to merge with the blood in his veins. It wasn't a familiar feeling but it wasn't unpleasant either.
Ether merged with his blood as it circulated inside his body and continued to merge further in his bones, muscles and tendons. Thus, allowing him to feel an explosive increase in his strength and speed. He even felt himself getting a little smarter.
His bloodlust grew with his increase in strength. Ragnar wanted to truly test this new powerful HobGoblin body.
'But even though I am ruthless and indifferent, will I be able to kill innocent goblins to increase my strength with a clear conscience?'
The discipline and principles he had followed in his previous life immediately kept his growing bloodlust in control. Even though, Ragnar had killed many martial artists in the battle square in his previous life, all those were death matches between martial artists betting their lives on the skills and techniques they had honed all their lives. It was the highest honor for a martial artist to die fighting in the battle square.
But, Ragnar couldn't bring himself to force innocent goblins to a death match to increase his strength on this magical square. However, just as he made the decision to advance to the next scene, his eyes looked at the remaining nine goblin nobility.
He saw an amazing scene.
All the commoner GIT students, who had been bullied by these goblin nobles, had surrounded and cornered the goblin nobles.
Daniel Hayden. 184cm tall. Goblin Noble. He went down on his knees and pleaded to Aslaug Lodbrok who was leading the commoners.
"Ple-Please! Don't kill me, Aslaug. I never personally bullied you, did I?"
Daniel's pitiful act shattered the courage of all the remaining goblin nobles. One after the other, they started to go down on their knees and begged the commoners to let them go.
"We are really sorry."
"Ye-Yes! Yes! It's all our fault."
"We wanted to save you guys but we weren't powerful enough to go against the whole faction."
"Believe us! It was all peer pressure. If we did not bully you, they would have bullied us."
That's right. Goblin nobles just didn't have the b*lls in critical moments. Even though they wanted to appear more manly and intimidating but that was only their wish. Goblin nobles were the type who, in the face of real danger, would stay back and read the situation.
Their cautious and cunning nature was their downfall. That is why their position in the Union was only symbolic and they did not hold any real power except the power to use rituals to forcefully evolve their talented young ones to Goblin Lords.
Goblin Union was run by the goblins who had the b*lls in critical moments to do whatever was required of them.
A very apt quote came into Ragnar's mind from his previous life as he looked at this situation.
'No Guts. No Glory. No Legend. No Story.'