I watched as the horde of goblins sprinted toward my village, bellowing as they brandished clubs, short swords and other crude weapons. Embedded among their ranks were larger, lumbering hobgoblins, and they were all commanded at the front by a single goblin champion.
Closing my eyes, I remembered what Master had taught me. The armored, silver-ranked adventurer had trained me in the ways of exterminating goblins throughout the last two years and I took the lessons to heart. I had learned much more valuable lessons under him than I would ever have in a magic academy.
"Time to slay goblins," I said, and then opened my eyes.
Raising a hand, I cast a spell. Icicles appeared in the air before raining down upon the approaching horde of goblins, mowing them down. They stumbled and toppled over, their corpses ripped apart by the frozen projectiles and their blood spraying across the grass.
The larger hobgoblins were more durable, however, and they resiliently endured the icicles. They resembled pincushions, with all the frozen icicles sticking out of their massive bodies, blood trailing off and dripping onto the ground. With a roar, they smashed the icicles to fragments and continued lumbering forward.
I was going to need a bigger spell for them. Fortunately, I already had one prepared. Taking a deep breath, I finished my casting.
A small cluster of icebergs crashed down from the skies, crushing the hobgoblins under their sheer bulk and weight. A few of the smaller goblins tried to dodge, but they were also caught by the titanic icebergs and reduced to bloody splatters of crushed bones and flattened meat.
While I was drawing the attention of the main goblin force toward me, Master made his move. I could see a flash of dull metallic gray, his filthy armor barely visible among the trees while he engaged the goblin champion. Armed with a sword, a shield and his wits, he backstabbed the goblin champion while it was barking orders, heavily wounding it. Snarling, it whirled around to confront him, but Master was already gone, using the dense cluster of trees for cover.
I dragged my eyes back to the approaching goblins. Even though I had taken out over half of their forces, there was still a sizable amount of survivors. And I couldn't allow them to turn back to assist their commander. Master had given me one job and I was determined to complete it.
Muttering another incantation, I delivered another hail of icicles to raze the panicked and fleeing goblins before they could reach their champion. I then proceeded to pursue them, but cautiously. I still remembered Master's words.
"Don't be careless," he had warned me during one of our practical training sessions. "Goblins might be cowardly, but they are cunning. They know how to ambush and trick unprepared adventurers. They are capable of feints. Even when they are fleeing, there will definitely be a few of them who remain behind to spring a trap on you. More than one experienced adventurers have fallen prey to their underhanded tactics."
Swallowing, I kept my eyes peeled for any goblins who might be playing dead. Readings ran across my enchanted glasses, the lenses displaying life-signs of the goblins or visually flushing them out of hiding. If I could see where they concealed themselves, I could preemptively eliminate them before they spring their ambush.
The goblins didn't know what hit them. Icicles drilled into them from behind, and when a couple of them lunged at me from an undergrowth, they found their bodies frozen solid. I smashed them aside and continued to chase the rest.
A hobgoblin howled as it charged at me – one of the few survivors from my iceberg attack earlier. Recalling a technique from Master, I dropped to the ground and slid under its legs just as it swung its massive club. Placing a hand on the ground, I cast a spell and entombed the humongous hobgoblin in ice. With a snap of my fingers, I shattered his frozen figure.
"Master!" I shouted.
"Don't call me that." the silver-ranked adventurer was limping, having taken damage from his fight with the goblin champion. I saw that he had slain the creature and was holding its head in his gauntleted hands. His shield was broken and his sword was gone. He didn't even look at the carnage I had wrought and instead issued an instruction. "Continue pursuing them, but carefully. Don't let any of them escape. Otherwise they will learn, adapt and return more cunning than ever."
"Yes, Master!"
I complied without any hesitation. He emotionlessly continued to fight, counting under his breath as he picked up weapons from the fallen goblins, improvised with them and slew them in an almost mechanical manner.
I couldn't help but admire him. Unlike me, Master had no magic. He relied entirely on his skills and intelligence to exterminate entire nests of goblins like this horde. He was a total badass. He might only focus solely on slaying goblins, but man was he amazing at this single job. I was proud to be his apprentice.
Before evening, we had completely wiped out the goblin horde, and proceeded to burn the bodies. Master was insistent on that. It wouldn't do for other goblins to locate their kind outside my village as it would make it a target for future goblin attacks.
"Thank you." My parents were bowing toward my master, who merely nodded. "You really helped us!"
"You did a good job too," Mom told me. "We're proud of you."
"You have taught our son well," Dad said to my master. "We're grateful to you for that."
"I see."
Master was not much of a conversationalist, and so he left shortly after that, to report to the adventurer's guild. I followed him because we had to split the reward between us.
"Thank you for saving my village," I told him, struggling to keep up with his long strides.
"You don't have to thank me," my master replied flatly. "Slaying goblins is my job."
"Even so…if it wasn't for you, my family would have been in trouble."
"…I see."
Like I said, he wasn't much of a conversationalist…
*
The next day, I woke up when my dad called out to me. My parents had let me sleep in that morning because I had spent the previous day fighting a horde of goblins with my master and was thus exhausted from the ordeal. Unfortunately, certain visitors put paid to that.
"Klein! Get down here!" Dad knocked on my door. "There's someone who wants to see you!"
"Ugh…"
I reluctantly opened my eyes and got dressed. After cleaning myself up, I then descended the stairs.
"Who the hell are you guys?" I asked when I saw the three people gathered at the table in our living room.
"Klein, don't be rude." Dad frowned at me in disapproval. The only guy among the trio chuckled good-naturedly.
"Don't worry about it, Mr. Pearson. At least he's straightforward."
"Are you sure you don't remember me?!" One of the girls – dressed in a mage's cloak and having long, black hair – demanded. I squinted at her through my glasses for a few seconds before it finally hit me.
"Uh, Miranda Miller?" It had been two years since I had last saw her. I wasn't the type to hold grudges, so I quickly forgot the people I didn't like.
"I'm Herman." The only guy smiled and stood up to offer me his hand. Being a polite person, I shook his hand. Then he nodded at the tanned, red-haired girl who made up the last member of the group. "This is Yvonne."
The huntress stared at me with a frown. I avoided her gaze, unable to keep my eyes on her for long because of how scantily clad she was. What the fuck was that attire? Bikini armor made from leather? How the hell was that even practical? And she was exposing way too much skin.
"Okay…"
"Are you sure about this, Miranda?" Yvonne growled. "He doesn't look like much."
"We all saw his skills yesterday, didn't we?" Herman pointed out. "He'll definitely be of great help."
"I hate to say this, but his magic is more powerful than mine." Miranda sounded bitter. However, she quickly defended herself. "But that's because I have half a dozen different elements to learn! So my progress will be slower!"
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" I asked impatiently. "What are you guys here for?"
"We're here to recruit you to our party," Herman explained. He then looked sheepish. "Ah, I should introduce myself in more detail. I'm the Hero, Herman, and I've just been recently chosen by the gods to wield the holy sword. As you know, the demonic legions from the Demonic Empire up north have been growing stronger and the Demonic Emperor who commands them is launching an invasion of our Havan Kingdom. In order to combat the demons, we Heroes need to recruit a strong and reliable party."
"There are seven Heroes," Miranda added. "Herman is among the youngest, so…it's a bit unfortunate, but most of the people we want to recruit prefer to join the more experienced Heroes."
"Miranda said that she remembered meeting a promising mage in this village when we passed by this area," Herman explained. "She thought it might be worth our time to try and recruit you."
"We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel," Yvonne muttered under her breath. "And didn't Miranda say that his talent is average at best?"
"An average mage is still better than nothing," Miranda retorted. "Or do you have a better idea? Perhaps a connection with some powerful warrior that you haven't told us about?"
That shut the huntress up.
"We were actually in the area yesterday," Herman continued, pointedly ignoring the two girls. "We saw your battle against the goblins, and we were impressed. Even though Miranda and Yvonne are saying nonsense right now, truth be told, they were amazed by your magic."
"If you saw the battle yesterday, then you should know that my master will be a better prospect. You should recruit him instead."
"Ah, the silver-ranked adventurer who was with you yesterday?" Herman looked slightly sheepish. "We already tried to recruit him. But he refused our invitation."
"He said he will only slay goblins!" Yvonne barked out in harsh laughter. "What an obsessive weirdo!"
"My master is not an obsessive weirdo," I said with a warning tone.
"Now, now." Herman held up his hands in a placating manner. "I apologize for my companions' rudeness. But it is true that your, uh, master refused our invitation because he wants to focus on exterminating goblins. That's why we turned to you. I hope you can join us. We'll need your help in the dark days to come."
"At the very least you can serve as a shield!" Miranda said. When I stared at her, she cleared her throat and looked away. "I mean, you're an ice mage, so you can conjure ice shields to protect us, right? As much as I hate to admit it, your spells are more advanced than mine right now. But!" She jabbed a finger at me. "I'll definitely catch up and overtake you!"
"Good luck with that," Yvonne sniggered, earning a glare from the multi-mage.
"We could really use your help," Herman repeated, plainly ignoring the two girls. "Don't mind them, they are just as eager as I am to have you onboard."
Yvonne grimaced. "That is true. At this rate, we'll never be able to catch up with the other Hero parties."
"I heard they are already going north and fighting the demons." Miranda looked envious. "If we want to forge our name in legend and make history, we need whatever assistance we can get right now."
I studied them suspiciously. For some reason, even though this was clearly the first time I had met Herman, I couldn't help but feel a deep loathing for him. I was taken aback by the dark hatred coiling in my chest. This was one of the seven Holy Heroes who was supposed to save humanity from demons. So why did I harbor such negative emotions toward him?
Oh. Maybe I knew why.
"You guys said you were in the area yesterday, and you saw my master and my battle against the goblins." I narrowed my eyes. "Why didn't you offer any help?"
"Huh? Why should we?" Yvonne blurted out. "We're not obligated to save your village."
…this was the attitude of someone in the Hero party? A member of a group whose duty was to save humanity from demons? Was she serious?
"…uh, it wasn't that we didn't want to help," Miranda quickly cut in. She glared at Yvonne. "It's that we couldn't. We were too far away, and my…magic isn't fully developed yet."
"We also thought you and your, uh, master had the matter well in hand." Herman also looked embarrassed. "We concluded that we would only get in the way if we tried to help. Even though we are technically a Hero party, none of us have any real practical combat experience. Honestly, you will be a veteran among us."
"I see."
That sounded plausible, but for some reason I doubted the veracity of their words. I had a feeling that they were lying. No, they were telling the partial truth – it was true that none of them had any real combat experience prior to this, but they weren't too far away, nor did it occur to them that they would get in the way if they tried to help. Yvonne was a huntress with impeccable aim, so she could easily shoot the goblins from afar with her arrows, but she chose not to.
However, Miranda was telling the truth regarding her lack of developed magic spells, and Herman was correct that they had never been in an actual battle before. The greatest and most convincing lies were those with a kernel of truth in them, which was why Dad was nodding in understanding behind me.
"You should take this opportunity," he urged me. "Go out and see the world. Also, if you defeat the demons, you'll be keeping all of us safe. That's why you learned magic, right?"
"Uh, well…"
Honestly, I didn't want to join this Hero party. There was something wrong with them, something that screamed at me about their unreliability and dishonesty. Unfortunately, somewhere and sometime – in a reality very far away – I had already made my decision and this had locked me into an unavoidable destiny.
Powerless to change this course of destiny – which, for some reason, I felt as if had already happened in the past – I nodded and accepted their invitation into their party.