Skullius could only growl in rage as he witnessed his own Apostle leave him in the dust.
Furthermore...
[Skill 'Dash in Dust' has levelled up!]
"I get it!" Skullius yelled as he dismissed the notification that appeared before him. He turned to see his pursuers rapidly closing in on his location, and could only hope that his selectively atrocious luck would have a few ounces of mercy and somehow deliver him from this situation.
'There's no way I'm fighting those socketholes and winning!' Skullius thought.
One of the perks of being able to sense the mana from over a hundred-meter radius was that you could also sense the strength of the cores of creatures in said radius.
The power within the Tier 2 monsters that he had seen was incredible. They had white cores that released a literal burning sensation that did more than tickle his senses through [Basic Mana Manipulation].
This gave Skullius a bigger dose of unease as he recalled the issue of different coloured cores once again. So far, he hadn't managed to see another coloured core other than the standard white that every creature he'd come across had.
The only exception was possibly Azila, but Skullius didn't have the luxury of inspecting him then. He doubted that that big ape was in the same class as the goblins.
A certain skill of his teased the eventuality of him being able to get a blue core, but the disparity and meaning between every core colour was still only an object for speculation.
~~~
[Depths of the Core | Lv. 1]
To attain great strength, one must understand their own source of power. The core. The more one understands the more they can evolve their strength from the standard to the elite boundary where very few reside. When this skill is used, the user can alter their core in the direction they want.
Mana Requirements: 500 Mana Points
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 100 days
~~~
Skullius couldn't wait to use this skill when he had sufficient mana, but that depended entirely on one thing.
If he could escape this current predicament.
He raced forward with even more fervour, passing dozens of trees as he almost lost sight of Red Rage who suddenly made a turn and ran into the parts of the forest with thicker trees.
Skullius followed.
Running in a straight line would be a literal one-way ticket to hell anyway. He doubted that the goblins could see his figure clearly from their distance and better yet, they couldn't sense him which spelled a possibility for him to somehow lose them in the distance.
After covering a bit more of a distance, Skullius saw lights ahead. They were quite a few of them, all moving rapidly towards him.
'What is it now?!' Skullius questioned the full capacity of his rotten luck.
Was it another enemy that was coming from the front?
Did they know about and were specifically coming for him?!
Red Rage decelerated. He had run out of mana sometime ago, but was already ahead so the gap between him and his master barely shrunk.
The lights got closer and Skillius got increasingly anxious.
'This is some fleshed up stuff! What do I do?!'
The lights in the distance turned into torches in Skullius' vision as they drew nearer.
The light illuminated the figures of large creatures that Skullius knew quite well.
"Gah, it's them! Red bro, we have to hide!"
Red Rage nodded and rushed up to a tree.
He grabbed the tree trunk and started climbing.
Skullius was dumbfounded!
"Bro, since when did you—"
[Apostle 'Red Rage' has learned the skill 'Climb']
"Nevermind. I'm a sockethole for asking."
The short boar scaled the tree like a pro while leaving his master again.
Skullius wondered just how much favourability he would need to get for this guy to stop ditching him like a used tissue.
Wait, what?!
As the figures of the creatures coming from his front approached, the many goblins behind him also approaching, Skullius clacked his teeth as he sought for a plan.
Rummaging through all his available options gave Skullius a few bad ideas that had basically no guarantee.
He looked at his robes, then at the tree at his side.
'Maybe...'
***
A large creature sat upon by a burly orc rushed forward with a visible air of pride.
It had brownish-red fur and tusks protruding from its mouth. It boasted a height of almost two and a half meters, its girth being even more impressive.
An untameable rage could be seen within its eyes as it snorted.
Gu'Smashka rode this beast, a few of the strongest warriors from his clan following behind him with brisk paces.
"You better be right about this. If we find ourselves getting attacked by both goblin clans, the blood of our race is on your hands," Gu'Smashka said to the orc that ran along at the side with a threatening tone.
The orc trembled and hurriedly reassured Gu'Smashka.
"Uh...n-no worries, Gu'Smashka. I'm certain. It was a fierce battle. I'm sure that even the invading goblins have sustained some casualties. We can win, especially with this," the orc said as it eyed the beast that Gu'Smashka was riding.
A Dead End Apocalypse Boar!
It was a larger one that was close to evolving into the second Tier. Its power was frightening, clearly evidenced by the air around it.
This was the only one that this clan of orcs had. Gu'Smashka may have wanted peace to avoid casualties on his side, but he wasn't stupid.
He had groomed this Boar by himself and kept it hidden from the goblins. He planned to use it in special cases, the more relevant sort of circumstances being when the goblins suddenly attacked them.
A good leader always had a plan for unforeseen events.
Gu'Smashka sincerely hoped that this move of theirs was a wise one. He chose to put his trust in this scout whom he had sent to check the situation with the goblins.
After he had heard that there was a battle among goblins with the ones he knew being on the losing side, he decided to act quickly.
He had sent for help from the other orc clans, but that wouldn't come in one night and attacking himself was his best shot, especially with all the urging by his fellow orcs to make a move on the goblins.
"Don't let your guard down. We still need to be careful," Gu'Smashka said with a stern gaze planted on the orc scout.
Suddenly, one of the orcs saw something that made him vigilant for a second before he relaxed.
"Did a human wander around here recently?" the orc asked in passing.
Other orcs, including Gu'Smashka, turned to him with inquisitive gazes and he simply pointed at a tree where something could be seen leaning against it.
It was a skeleton with a funny colour. Its lower torso was missing, its skull hanging low while its jaw was nowhere to be seen.
In its sockets was nothing but hollow darkness, on its body a very crude leather armour that was conveniently ripped on the shoulder to show the burnt portion of its ribs and missing arm.
"Poor bastard. Must have died a cruel death. That's what they get for trespassing in our forest," one of the orcs said.