Arthur spun on it his heel and held his spear at ready, tip pointing forward as he scanned the surrounding woods in a defensive stance.
While his ears had picked up on a hostile growl, his nose hadn't picked up on anything yet. Even after the enemy revealed themselves, Arthur's sense of smell failed to pick up on anything.
From three sides, creatures emerged from the shadows to meet him.
His adversaries had glossy lime-green skins and stood a head shorter than Arthur. That didn't mean they were weak though. Underneath their tattered dirty clothing, muscles rippled as they gripped large clubs in their hands and bared their misshapen fangs at him.
Arthur came to recognise them as goblins. Each of them held a club in their hands, making gurgling sounds that the prince couldn't interpret and swinging their crude weapons around as they exchanged gazes with each other before settling on him.
Arthur crouched low in a stance that came naturally to him when he was against many enemies. In this case, it brought him to their height and allowed him better assess the situation.
"You don't suppose we could talk this through, do you?"
The largest of them let out an even louder growl, buckling its knees before it lunged forward in a devastatingly fast-forward dash.
Arthur's lance flashed through the air and parried the club, redirecting the hit to the ground before he leapt back from his enemy.
"I'll take that as a 'no.'"
The other two goblins quickly moved as well, launching a synchronised attack, each of them coming straight for him from three directions.
'A little sluggish…'
Arthur's thought was stopped halfway as the largest of the goblins suddenly vanished from sight, appearing right above the prince with its hand outstretched.
Arthur leapt out of his position, narrowly avoiding the club aimed at his head. Just as he'd dashed to the side, another one blurred from his sight, this time appearing behind him.
Sound was the only thing that betrayed the creature.
Arthur spun with his lance burning a fierce red and let out a stream of immolating flames. The flames doused the goblin with enough force to push it back a few metres.
Arthur's senses suddenly went on high alert. He wasn't out of the woods yet. The third goblin was still on the offensive as well. Through the corner of his eye, Arthur spotted a single wooden club approaching him at full speed aimed at his back.
'Damn it, right behind me,' he cursed.
Time seemed to flow even slower when he knew his back was in danger of being hit. How painful was it going to be? Did he have time to block it?
Moving his hands became hard. The lance felt heavier the longer he fought with it. Nevertheless, Arthur commanded his weapon with frightening accuracy and flexibility.
He didn't need to turn to protect himself. His weapon just had to be a better extension of himself.
At the last possible moment, there was a loud clink of metal as the club met with the shaft of his spear.
Arthur hadn't bothered to turn.
Instead, he swung the spear in his hand and brought it in the path of the goblin's club. As soon as the club was blocked, he changed how he held his weapon and spun on his heel, putting all his momentum into a lateral slash that sliced the stunned goblin in half.
The prince watched the goblin explode in a spark of ash and amber runes.
'Magic…? They are made from magic… Could that be why they don't have a scent?' he thought to himself.
A loud growl brought his mind back to reality and he turned to face the leader of the goblins. Now he stood alone with another club in his left hand. To his left, a mound of ash signified the demise of his other comrade from the shower of flames.
Arthur grimaced, wondering just how vulnerable the creatures were to flames.
'I guess I'm not done until you're dead, am I? This time, I won't underestimate you,' Arthur brandished the spear and faced his foe with renewed determination.
The largest of the goblins Arthur had assumed was their leader gurgled at the sight of his opponent getting more serious and began his own stomping dash towards the prince.
This battle took less than a few seconds. Without the element of surprise, the goblins' sudden bursts of speed did not surprise Arthur one bit.
He dodged the heavy club effortlessly and dominated his battle against the goblin leader, delivering a merciless slash across its neck once he found an opening.
The goblin leader exploded in a rain of orange runes and ash, staining the ground of the small clearing. Arthur stayed still for a few more moments, hoping to hear the sound of another creature approaching him but there was nothing.
Arthur gathered the information he had on hand. He'd seen Sullivan and his pals just a few moments ago which meant there was a possibility of finding other First Years in these woods.
He didn't really know where to go or what he was supposed to be doing.
Arthur also knew there were no creatures out there that exploded into runes and ash once they were defeated… which probably meant they weren't real.
What else wasn't real about their environment? Perhaps everything. The prince contemplated slashing a tree but discarded the thought just because of what it sounded like…
White-haired boy attacks a tree to find out whether it's real.
'What are we supposed to do here? What is this place? A simulation or a spell of some kind that combines our minds into one place and tests us? I wonder what limits the Warlocks have to what they do," the prince sighed before starting his walk into the woods.
Standing around certainly wasn't going to get him anywhere. The prince walked through the forest with his guard up. On his way through the forest, he was approached by a total of seven goblins which he disposed of in similar ways to how he'd done with the Goblin leader.
The creatures seemed to be popping out of nowhere and attacking in different ways each time. Sometimes, they sneaked up on him from trees, other times, he found them lurking just behind trees, ready to strike.
Each time, he disposed of the goblins with no trouble. 'Goblins aren't supposed to be this strong… but I guess they aren't real either.'
The prince figured they were being used for testing purposes. That's why he wasn't surprised when he came across slightly more powerful goblins.
With more time, his confidence in the magical creatures improved. The feeling of danger still remained every time he heard a growl or crunch of leaves.
The terrain didn't change by much after walking for a while and the prince was about to take a rest when he heard a scream coming from a distance.
Switching from a walk to a full-on dash, Arthur darted through the woods in the direction he'd heard the sound coming from. The rows of trees blurred past him as he made his way to the source of the scream.
At some point, he thought of unleashing his flame core to give him a boost but the images of his angered father and brother snuffed that half-baked suicidal idea out of his mind.
Before long, he broke out from the shadow of the forest and came upon the edge of a cliff. The scream came from somewhere below it. Arthur cautiously moved up to the cliff and looked down.
Not far below, on the ground so barren a pick axe would break at contact, was a pair of First Years. One of them was a girl with flowing brown hair, leaning against the cliff wall with a grimace on her face.
Slung over her back was a quiver that was almost filled with arrows. And on the ground next to her was a bow. However, her attention was more on her leg.
The other was a boy with short messy dark hair. His hand gripped a two-handed sword. He stood in front of the girl, holding onto the sword like his life depended on it.
"We'll get through this, Momo. Don't put pressure on that foot," the boy yelled through gritted teeth.
Arthur smiled, 'I like his spirit.'
Their situation, however, was grim.
Surrounding them were three large bears… If a bear is at all what the prince could call them.
These abominations had a crazed look in their red bloodshot eyes, canines that grew out of their upper jaws like sharp tusks and a pair of horns that grew at the top of their bone-white heads that screamed.
'Made of Stone.'
When one of the bears moved in, the boy's sword flashed at the creature, nicking its paw before he quickly returned to his position in front of the girl, striking with his sword at any of the others that attempted to use the opening to attack the wounded girl.
His technique was elegant and flexible it gave Arthur the image of a dome made of steel strikes protecting the girl. The sight gave him goosebumps. The prince couldn't explain the sense of excitement that flooded him at the sight of this boy's swordsmanship.
'Now, letting him be defeated would just be a waste of talent! The girl looks to be an archer.'
Paying more attention to the demon bears, Arthur could notice the few arrows she'd fired sticking out of their hides.
'What an interesting pair!'