The smell of fire brought Moros back to his senses. The biggest injury was not on his body, but his pride. By all accounts, he should have lost that fight to the wolf there.
His survival just a matter of dumb luck.
Yet, he could not dwell on this feeling as the flames had spread all over the clearing. Nearby trees and grass burned with high intensity.
Moros spurted forwards to grab his naked navigation system named Mandy and run straight out of the danger. Not before grabbing the spear that was still cackling madly with electricity.
It should be worth quite the sum to the electricians. Picking up the unconscious Mandy, the young man in debt, made a quick way through the sea of fire, holding his breath whenever possible.
The figure of Ada and her rider Gologobo disappeared beneath the fire would soon be nothing more than a pile of dust and ash.
Dodging a falling tree, Moros began to curse.
He had forgotten the reason he even followed the pair. He wanted to sell them to the prison facility boss…why did he have to kill them?
Regret spread over his face, as the realisation began to hurt even more.
So much money had been lost and in the end the only thing he gained was a spear plus a saved peasant.
Some might claim 'you can not put a value on life', which was an obvious lie─ Moros knew the black market prices. A spear that kept on sparkling with electricity and some random peasant were peanuts compared to a talking goblin riding a wolf.
The difference by his estimation was as big as one month of his earnings in the Balla killing industry to his total earnings in 10 years of time. Minus illegal earnings for tax purposes.
It was obvious why such loss stung him so much more than any other injury. The injured pride from winning the fight by sheer luck paled in comparison. Pride could be bought, the dead duo could not be bought anymore. . .
But, Moros realised there was hope: Gologobitch or whatever said that there was a goblin king. To no surprise, this beauty of a specimen should be worth a lotta money.
For now though his main objective lay in surviving the forest fire that the spear had caused.
A task easier said than done, since the Evergreen Forest should be dubbed the Everdry Forest since this place had not seen rain since ages. The flames said thank you as the fires spread faster and faster.
With Mandy still not responsive Moros could only run in directions where the fire had yet to reach, indirectly causing more fire as the spear was still not done throwing its electricity around.
The Everburning Forest was not going to be ever nor green if the fire spread at this tempo.
Moros, the pyromaniac of the hour, hoped that the fires caused more goblins to flee in all sorts of directions, so that more of them would jump into the hole.
He should have caused a forest fire much earlier, that would have saved him the trouble of doing all this work and having to rely on a naked navigation system.
Of course, Moros would never develop a guilty conscience for setting fire to a forest that existed for untold years. There had to be some sort of benefit to this that he just did not know.
Once again, the young descendant of the Terra family survived without a single feeling of guilt, simply because he did not think too deeply on the issue.
Whether he would burn a village of peasants, give the goblin king no place of retreat or would unearth more sinister horrors lurking in the depths of a forest no man had ever stepped foot in─none of it entered his mind.
It was a simple life, but it was a blissful one.
Moros passed yet another tree that spontaneously combusted thanks to the spear that he held in his badly burned hand.
In came a goblin very interested in a certain woman.
The man in debt, with no interest in getting 'fired up' in the most literal sense had no time to waste on the green lord of horny and simply thrust the electric spear forward.
A goblin, or rather what used to look like one, was burned to a crisp upon contact with the weapon. It was as if the spear had waited for this one moment to absolutely incinerate that one goblin into a black mess.
Moros swore he could even hear the spear purr as it casually roasted the goblin in a matter of seconds.
It killed goblins AND purred?
Inside of his mind, Moros added another zero to the price tag of the weapon. A discovery that made him feel happier than he had any right to given the trail of destruction he left behind with this weapon.
The purring of the weapon only seemed to grow stronger and louder as a few more goblins volunteered as a test subject for the greater, monetary cause.
Moros did not know the cause of it making sounds like that and did not care about it either.
The weapon needed to do its job, which it did splendidly. Everything on top of that was just a bonus, a weirdo would pay good money for.
There was a market for everything.
One, two, or three fires that it would spark on this small realm would be conveniently ignored and the weapon put in a basket of water. Problem solved and money earned.
But, the main mission for now remained to get away from the fire as far as possible. Being surrounded by material that was not highly flammable would also be really nice…
Yet, only more green trees greeted Moros as he sprinted past them. The fire slowly caught up to his trail as the teenager in debt had no clue where he was.
With no sense of direction, the fire had spread all over the forest and the affected area grew larger by every step taken by the man, who was too busy running to comprehend that he was only making the situation much worse.
The frequency of goblins desiring the sweet release of death increased as Moros stumbled further into the forest, bringing with him the invention of a forest fire.
After running god knows where, he finally found a thing that he deemed impossible to exist in this cursed world of only trees and leaves, currently painted in a lovely red by the raging flames.
It was a lake, a real lake It had water in it, water!
In his infinite wisdom, Moros jumped into the lake without a second thought. It was also his first-hand experience that electricity and water did not work well together─or rather too well in this scenario.
Moros was in for the shock of a lifetime as the electric current shot through his body and through the lake, creating a fresh supply of yummy fish to feast upon.
As his body danced like a fish on water, he made his way back on the dry land, falling to the floor yet again. The murder of fish and other wildlife became evident by the many dead animals floating on the surface of the water.
This once again would certainly have no impact on the vegetation and the creatures that lived in the Nevergreen Forest. At least, none that Moros could foresee.
Having learned his lesson, Moros put the electric spear on the outside of the lake. That way he would not feel its power directly again.
However, the spear seemed even more happy after murdering countless fish, as it began to purr again and again.
Though Moros began to wonder, would this lake really save him? There did not seem to be enough water given all these flames that raged on in the distance. Was he willing to bet on it?
The thought struck him and made him think for a long while. Was it the correct choice? Was it the way he would survive? Where was Mandy…many such questions troubled his mind.
"WAIT, where is Mandy?" thought the man that had not seen Many ever since he jumped into the lake and got shocked.
Diving in once again he needed to confirm whether or not his navigation system was even breathing or already had become fodder for the few fishes that had survived the electric current.
On the depths of the lake, there was no Mandy. There might have been a Mandy once, but these bones were too fresh to be this version of the navigation system.
Resurfacing to the surface, Moros' gaze travelled over the land and he saw her body lying sprawled in the distance.
Without his naked navigation system, the beautiful mother named Mandy, Moros odds of survival would sink drastically. And dying was too costly in this economy.
So, Moros did the next thing any thoughtful human would do and grabbed one fish that had been killed and grilled by the spear, and had a great meal.
After all, none of what he did would have real consequences, right?
Riggghhhhhhhhht?