Ragnar's heart continued to thump in bloodlust as he killed the goblin nobles thrown in the battle square by Aslaug Lodbrok. He had started to enjoy the feeling of battle and blood. He wanted to fight more and more.
He wanted to explore the limits to which he could fight with his HobGoblin body.
Just then, he looked at the last remaining goblin noble kneeling down in front of him in the battle square, Daniel Hayden.
'He has no pride at all. This guy. Shameful. At least the others tried to fight for their lives!' Ragnar thought as he saw Daniel Hayden stoop this low just to survive. He hated such kinds of gutless goblins.
"This is your last chance for a fair fight. Come at me with all ya got." He said, starting to get pissed off by this cowardly goblin noble.
"No. Please. Just let me go. I will atone for my sins for all my remaining life, Ragnar. Just let me go, this once." Daniel pleaded.
Of course, it was a lie spoken just to survive. However, even after knowing that all along, Ragnar could not bring himself to kill a defenseless goblin. As a Huyen langlon Grandmaster, his soul enjoyed fighting and killing the most. But, his conscience would not allow him to kill someone begging him for his life. After all, even though these goblin nobles were evil, their actions did not deserve death.
'I wanted to kill only the evil goblins to improve my strength and keep my conscience clear.' Ragnar sighed as he thought while justifying his actions to himself.
But just as Ragnar was stumped and was pondering whether to spare Daniel's life and advance to the next scene or not, Daniel took out a gun he had hidden behind his sock and tried to shoot at Ragnar's head.
'I knew these commoner f*ckers would not let me go.' Daniel thought. He had given up on his pride, kneeled down and begged all for this moment of negligence. He never expected the cold and ruthless Ragnar Kalwar to spare his life from the beginning. The rules of the game had not banned the use of guns or other high tech weapons. So why would he risk his life to fight with cold weapons?
'One shot. One kill. Die, f*cker.' Daniel shot at Ragnar. However, after Ragnar's body was upgraded with Ether, he was practically a superhuman and the bullet continued to miss until Daniel emptied the whole magazine of bullets.
~ Strangle.
Ragnar grabbed Daniel's neck as he lifted him up in the air. It was a bizarre scene to all the spectators. The smaller 177cm HobGoblin lifting the taller and bigger 184cm Goblin Noble into the air, strangling him.
But, as Ragnar strangled the subdued Daniel Hayden to death in the air, it spoiled his mood. He wanted to fight to his heart's content with strong opponents so that he could compare his techniques with them. But, here he was being forced to kill weak goblins.
'Which assh*le made this stupid survival game? There is no sense of challenge or fairness at all.' He thought.
Finally, Daniel Hayden's corpse turned into red light and was absorbed by Ragnar through his mouth.
[You have killed a Goblin Noble. You have absorbed all your opponent's life ether. All stats +1]
[Strong will live whereas weak will die, Congratulations! Race Evolution: Goblin Noble.]
Ragnar's evolution started. His muscles started distorting with Ether as it further merged with his bones and they started to slam and clash against each other. He started growing bigger, taller and bulkier with no signs of stopping until he reached 195cm.
He was now a giant muscular Goblin Noble with refined muscles exploding with strength.
But, the windows did not stop emerging in front of his eyes.
[Attention: You have caught the eye of a higher being; Flame Immortal. He wishes to sponsor your growth!]
[Gifted Skill Received: Blazing Eyes]
'Higher being? Wait a second, there were a group of GMs behind this game? Looks like this is gonna be one hell of a game.'
After looking at the new prompts, Ragnar realized the possibility of them not being the only ones playing this game.
'What if the whole plane has been involved in a giant survival game? What is happening with the goblin race?'
Ragnar felt uncomfortable thinking about the death of innocent goblins because of this survival game. He felt even more uncomfortable when he realized that he had been dancing in the palms of some higher being's hand, all this while.
He got goosebumps and the hair on his body stood up as he walked into the portal which appeared in front of him to advance to the next scene to meet up with Rollo and Nandini.
***
Time was ticking.
After Ragnar advanced to the next scene, there were only 20 minutes left until the end of the Scene #1 with penalty of death. The battle square quickly became a scene of desperate struggle to survive.
Blood was flowing all around, with no regards for innocent goblin children, women or men.
With deadly fights already breaking out between Goblin Nobles, Dukes and Lords, the bloody battle upon the magical square continued with goblins wielding guns and electrical batons, stabbing each other with kitchen knives.
In the end, only a couple minutes were left, there were only three goblins remaining inside the metro: soldier Mikazuki August, student Aslaug Lodbrok and white collar software developer Stevie Jibs.
"Since you are a goblin man, let us fight it out fair and square." Goblin Lord Mikazuki said as he threw Stevie inside the battle square and jumped up on it as well.
"Gi-gi! I have no choice, do I?" Stevie shook his head in resignation as he replied.
The battle ended easily with Mikazuki August's victory. Both of them fought like proud goblins in a slugfest. Stevie was smashed to a pulp as he turned into red light and was absorbed through Mikazuki's mouth.
Aslaug Lodbrok gave a long sigh filled with self hate as she looked at soldier Mikazuki walking into the portal.
'In the end, I couldn't bring myself to kill an innocent just to survive. That is just screwed up!'
She jumped up on the battle square and stood there all alone in the middle of the dark metro, setting up a lonely silhouette.
Just then, a small screen emerged in front of her eyes.
[Attention: You have caught the eye of a higher being; Broodmother. She wishes to sponsor your survival!]
[Congratulations ~ Special scenario unlocked.]