"Cory! on your right," Aura shouted.
I kick the goblin on my left and throw a magic wind blade at the goblin approaching from the right. Then slash the goblin on my left again right at its chest.
"Aura!"
Aura is holding two goblins in front of her. She does not seem aware of the arrow flinging on her right.
"Wind blade!" I cast the wind magic from my palm.
The arrow deflected into the air. Then the two goblins got slashed by Aura after getting distracted by my wind magic.
A total of seven goblins' corpses are lying on the meadow around us. Aura kicked the goblin corpse away from her.
"You are getting proficient in handling the wind magic," Aura looks amazed while looking at the goblin corpse with the wind blade wound.
"Thankfully there is a lot of target practice in the meadow."
"Right," Aura said, her smile fading. "Too much actually."
"Is it not normal?" I cut the goblin's right ear.
I put the ear on a thread. Now we got a total of fifty goblin's ears—the accumulation of our fighting before.
"It is not, while goblins are a common encounter, they are usually spreading out. It's only two days but we already fought 13 groups of Goblin."
"I thought this was normal."
We were riding horses to the capital, from Krim town. It has been two days since our departure. On the first day, we already fought eight groups of goblins. Today we already encountered four groups.
Alexander's party did not come with us. They said they want to take a request in Krim Town first. They said it was for a relaxing small mission.
-- Nia --
I drop my blood into the goblin corpse, right into its ears, the part I cut.
[Analysing]
"This is weird. We should be very careful." Aura warned.
"Alright. I will use my detection magic more frequently." I said to assure her.
***** ***** *****
We walks for another day until we arrived at the Capital Gate. The capital gate is bigger than the gate in Krim Town. It is also quite noticeable from far away.
When we are almost near the gate, we heard a fight break out.
"Phalanx!" A Guardsmen with a different helmet from the rest of the troops commanding.
The other guards who heard that moving in unison created a wall of shields and spears on the shield gap.
A lot of arrows flew to the shield. Clanking while hitting the shield iron frame. Some can penetrate the wood.
"Aargh!" One of the guards falls and the shield formation is broken.
"Wind." A mage behind them cast winds magic and push down the goblin trying to attack.
"Healer! Priest!" The other guard is running toward his fallen comrade.
"Stay in your formation!" The commander shouted.
A priest-robed man is running toward the wounded man but an arrow hit his knee.
"Sh**t," He falls and bites the soil below him.
I looked at Aura and she nods at me. We are running to help them.
While running with our horses, I multi-cast ten blue fireballs mid-air. Aura cast a big fireball on her palm.
[Target locked]
All of the fireballs I cast hit the goblin right on their vital. Aura's fireball bombard the ground and jerked all the goblins around it.
All of the guards looked at us, then took the chance to fight back the goblins and the wolf in the plain.
"Charge!" Command the head guard.
Piercing spears, slashing swords, Flailing axes, magic, and arrows. The condition turned hundred and eighty degrees after we charged in. The morale is turning high, and all of the guards screaming like a beast.
"Do not let a single of them get into the gate."
Five minutes passed and all of the goblins were finally annihilated. All of the fighters were breathing hard, trying to suck a lot of oxygen into the air. Aura and I are helping the wounded soldier. Aura gives the potion while I use Nia to heal the soldier while pretending to give the potion too.
"Thank you for the help, we almost got annihilated by groups of Goblins." The man who gives commands walks towards me after checking his subordinate. "Not a single death, we are truly grateful."
The man gives his handshake to me and Aura while smiling. The spartan face he gives disappeared, and instead a kind-faced man appeared. "My name is Gattor, the head guard of Crom Capital east gate."
I receive his handshake. "Adventurer, Cory, and she is Aura."
"Are you guys platinum ranked? We are having difficulty fighting some groups of goblins."
"No, we are not. But we are trying to take a platinum-ranked test here. The head guild of Krim Town told us to go to the capital." Aura answers him. "Can you tell us where the guild is?"
"I see." Gattor scratches his head, while his face looks in dilemma. "To be honest the situation is not good. The old Parlow might dismiss you guys."
"What happened?" I asked curiously.
"Well..."
***** ***** *****
"Takes all the swords and potions from the basement, and put them on the carriage."
"Careful you dummy!"
"Ask the Royal bakeries to give us more, do they want us to starve!?"
A single old man commanded all of the people below the stairs. His voice can be heard reverberating all over the building.
The adventurer's guild in the Crom Capital is bigger than the one in Krim Town. More packed with adventurers and billboard missions. However, the situation is more hectic than then the one in Krim. It's like chaos.
Many adventurers ran right and left. They bring crates of equipment and potion and medical equipment. The crates move inside the wagon and the wagons are lining outside the adventurers guild's building.
"Er...Guild master Parlow." A female receptionist talks to him, and her body shakes.
"What?!" Parlow asks her with high pitched voice.
Her body shakes more when he heard that. While we stand behind her.
I feel pity for her.
"My name is Cory and she is Aura."
I know that he looks in a hurry so I just give him the letter.
Parlow takes the letter from my hand, flick on it and read it with furrows on his forehead.
"You know the situation outside right, for that brat Gastor also writing for you."
"The capital is in danger because of a stampede from the east," I tell him the summary of all I heard from Gastor.
Parlow takes all the letter, fold them and store it in his chest. He walks behind the railing of the second-floor stairs, looking at the people below him.
"Everyone!"
All of the activities halted. All of the adventurers and the receptionist below stop all their activities. They are looking at him. The atmosphere suddenly becomes silent.
"Everyone prepare to advance! Once it breaches, the Capital is next!" The old man shouted.
All of the adventurers are going outside, putting the last crates into the wagon. Their look ready for war.
"Crom for the Brave!"
"Crom for the Brave!" They are all shouted in unison.
"Now you guys, I don't have time for this sh*t right now. And maybe I will not have time for this in the future either. Let's just test you with this. Kill or be killed!" The old man looking at us.
I look at Aura. As we agreed beforehand, she nodded her head.
"Count us in," I said to him.
+++++ +++++ +++++
(Next Chapter)
"Help! Heelp, please help!" The woman is shouting at the city.
She pushes the man's wound trying to stop his bleeding.
"We are abandoned aren't we?"
The man cough blood, then exhale his last breath.
"We will die! We will all die! It's a good punishment!" the soldier away from her shouted crazily.
"Shut your f*cking mouth." The woman slaps him.
The man instead of fighting, just lays there while looking at the sky. His eyes widen in disbelief.
"My God! What is that?" The man shouted.
The woman turns around to see something in the sky.
"Suriam, Please help us." Desperation can be seen on her face.
+++++ +++++ +++++
----- ----- -----
Name: Cory Grieves
Skill: Whirlwind slash sword, Mana sword
Mana cap: 10X Dark Turquoise
Magic: Fireball, Blue Fireball (Divine Flame), Healing, Air-suspended magic, Multicast, Whirlwind, Tornado, Fire Tornado, Fire Grenade
----- ----- -----
Name: Nia
Skill: Auto body repair, body adaptation, auto mana regulator, extreme body battle mode.
Connection skill: Full Connection
sub-connection skill: Partial connection, non-human connection
Movement: Blood medium, the Water medium