At the entrance of the residential building, Gu Ran stood behind the tightly closed door, his gaze sweeping incessantly through the crack, observing the outside world.
He had been standing there for nearly ten minutes, yet he hadn't mustered the courage to step through the doorway.
There was no helping it. Although he had two complete Miracle Cards, the thought of the Dark Skeletons outside, each with at least level 2 strength, made the panic at the bottom of his heart difficult to suppress.
"Huff!"
He took a deep breath and repeated "Greenery Woods" to himself, reminding himself that there might very well be another complete Miracle Card waiting for him outside.
And oddly enough, this method was quite effective. As his gaze became gradually firmer, his mind moved.
The active ability "Chieftain's Command" of the "Chieftain's Whistle" card was immediately activated, and with a reduction of 2 card points, a fissure abruptly opened beside him. Then, a Goblin holding a standard Wolf Fang Club stepped out from it.
"@#*[/*? (Long live the great Goblin!)"
As soon as it was summoned, the Goblin Warrior couldn't wait to shout out what sounded like some mystical incantation.
Gu Ran chose to ignore this. Although he could understand the other's words directly due to the passive ability of the Chieftain's Whistle card, it still felt particularly strange to hear them at first.
His gaze lingered on the Goblin in front of him for a second, and soon its attributes appeared.
[Name: Goblin (Common)]
[Race: Goblin tribe]
[Level: 0]
[Weapon: Standard Goblin Wolf Fang Club]
[Skill: Skull Crush Strike]
[Traits: Social, omnivorous, the other race's flat-headed brother.]
Seeing that its attributes were no different from those of the Goblins he had killed before, Gu Ran slightly furrowed his brows.
"Level 0? Shouldn't it be the same level as the summoner!"
After pondering for a moment, Gu Ran roughly understood that the summoned creature's level was likely not connected to the summoner's at all, but rather corresponded to the level of the creature before it died, which had dropped the card (or card fragment).
As for how the level of a summoned creature would turn out when the three card fragments came from the same species of creature but at different levels, he could not be certain due to the lack of examples.
Having understood these points, Gu Ran didn't ponder any longer, as the Goblin Warrior only had ten minutes to exist.
He issued a simple command to the Goblin Warrior through his will. Upon receiving the order, the Goblin quickly gripped the Wolf Fang Club and headed outside.
Following behind the Goblin, Gu Ran also stepped out of the residential building's entrance.
He briskly moved towards a white sedan not far ahead, a position he had calculated earlier, which would serve as perfect cover. With the sedan as a shield and the Goblin Warrior in front to attract aggression, this would be an ideal spot for offense.
Under his command, the Goblin Warrior charged toward a Dark Skeleton ten meters away, swinging the Wolf Fang Club.
At the same time, Gu Ran swiftly drew his Mechanical Bow, aiming at the skull of the Dark Skeleton, and fired an arrow.
Crack!
The sound of the arrow striking bone rang out as the Dark Skeleton's skull was jolted backward by the force of the impact, and at the same time, the Wolf Fang Club in the hands of the Goblin Warrior followed suit.
It struck directly onto the side of the Dark Skeleton's waist, and a faint snapping sound could be heard.
However, what seemed like a decent strike didn't cause too much damage, mainly because the Goblin Warrior used a Common strike instead of the Skull Crush Strike skill at this golden opportunity.
Behind the car's body, Gu Ran felt somewhat helpless; this was a common problem with all summoned creatures, and there was nothing he could do about it.
As much as he had absolute command over the Goblin Warrior, how could he truly direct it like his own limb in the constantly changing dynamics of the battlefield?
After all, he didn't share the legendary telepathic abilities with the Goblin Warrior.
Suppressing the emotions rising in his heart, Gu Ran quickly regrouped; at least with the Goblin Warrior taking the front, he didn't need to worry about the Dark Skeleton posing a threat to him.
Just for that alone, the consumption of two card points was already worth it.
His attacks continued swiftly, launching four or five arrows within a mere few seconds.
But the Goblin Warrior bearing the brunt against the Dark Skeleton fared quite poorly; in less than ten seconds of frontal confrontation, it had already sustained several wounds, with the one on its chest being particularly deep, nearly piercing right through its body as green blood flowed all over.
Gu Ran had anticipated this; after all, the Goblin Warrior was only level 0, two levels below the Dark Skeleton. He wouldn't have been too surprised if a bit of bad luck led to the Goblin Warrior being instantly killed by the Dark Skeleton's spear.
Secretly cheering on the Goblin twice in his heart, he didn't stop shooting his bow.
A few seconds later, when the arrows in his hand were finally all spent, that's when Gu Ran finally made a new move.
He quietly circled to the other side of the car, and began to slowly approach the battlefield from the side.
The Mechanical Bow was left under the vehicle, and in his hand now was that short-handled machete.
As the Dark Skeleton thrust its bone spear once more, Gu Ran, having closed in to just a few meters at its side and back, seized the opportunity and burst forward, charging toward it with the short-handled machete aimed at the skeleton's barely intact neck, chopping down with full force.
Clang!
Accompanied by a strong recoil, Gu Ran felt his entire right arm go numb, the muscles faintly trembling.
Upon inspecting the Dark Skeleton, aside from a few subtle cracks that appeared on its neck's bone structure, there were no other significant injuries.
This outcome made Gu Ran's eyes darken.
It was a full-force strike, and thinking back to the Goblin whose head had separated from its body in one blow, the disparity was quite substantial.
But soon it seemed he thought of something, a gleam flashed in his eyes once again, and taking advantage of the Goblin Warrior still firmly drawing the aggro, he raised his right arm once more, and the short-handled machete came down again with all his might, aiming once more for the neck bones of the Dark Skeleton.
Gu Ran's idea was simple: if his all-out strike could cause slight cracks in the skeleton's bone structure, that indicated that the hardness of the Dark Skeleton's bones wasn't as terrifying as it seemed.
After the second chop, the cracks in the bone structure were significantly deeper. Gu Ran felt that with one more strike, he should be able to completely kill the Dark Skeleton.
However, the bad news was that the Goblin Warrior couldn't hold on any longer; its left leg was completely severed in the Dark Skeleton's Battle Sweep and its body lay helplessly on the ground. The Dark Skeleton only needed to add one more casual spear thrust to finish it off.
Seeing this, Gu Ran, unwilling to waste a resurrection opportunity just like that, had to intervene. The Miracle Card he had obtained with much difficulty came with only three resurrection chances; unless it was absolutely necessary, he did not want to let it go to waste.