"Help me!" someone screamed as the goblins... He knelt on the ground and began to beg for his life, but the goblins ignored his pleas, surrounded him, and beat him until he died on the spot.
"Stay back!" shouted a young man, brandishing a cracked shield and a chipped short sword, towards a woman.
He swung his sword, cutting off a goblin's head. But barely had one died, three more appeared. One of the goblins threw a large stone, which he blocked with his shield, but in doing so, it blocked his vision, and the goblins closed in; before he realized it, he was surrounded by them, and the woman he was protecting was nowhere to be seen.
In the distance, a woman could be seen being dragged by her arms into the thicket, her screams muffled by the undergrowth.
The young man clenched his teeth and continued fighting for his life as he moved towards the forest, knowing staying was foolish.
Elsewhere, two men were fighting their way through. The number of goblins that had fallen to them was immense, and finally, they managed to break free from the encirclement and flee into the dense forest.
Meanwhile, I was stunned, looking around.
I didn't know what to do or where to go. I didn't know whether to grab a weapon and fight or run and try to escape.
The flood of thoughts was so overwhelming and the tension so high that immediately, I felt light-headed. Instantly, I doubled over and the contents of my stomach released onto the ground; I was vomiting from the mental strain.
As if that had relieved me, I was able to regain some reason. I got up and looked around.
Luckily, no goblin had approached me yet. Since I was closer to the center, the goblins were simply hunting those they considered more troublesome prey so they could finish off the others more easily.
I checked the pile of weapons, thinking about taking one, but that idea was immediately discarded. A large group of goblins was surrounding the area as people grabbed weapons and fought those nearby.
Innumerable corpses of both goblins and humans were strewn across the ground of that area, so the idea of going in there was dismissed almost immediately.
Still, the view wasn't better elsewhere. Everywhere I looked, I could only see bodies of goblins mixed with humans, both alive and dead.
Although if one looked more deeply, they could notice that there were more goblin corpses on the ground than humans. It wasn't a heartening result, considering the immense number that still surrounded them.
"Ggyaaa." Before I noticed,
a goblin approached me, looking around with no intention of hiding.
"G-get back!" I said immediately as I stepped back. Since I had no weapons or anything but my bare fists, I tried to look as terrifying as possible, though if I could see myself, I'd notice it was anything but terrifying.
The goblin stopped for a moment before continuing, approaching with a grotesque smile, brandishing a club.
"I warned you," I shouted while throwing a simple punch at the goblin, who recoiled slightly. "S-see, now get lost or—" I said, but immediately felt a dull, penetrating pain in my back.
I looked to the side and saw another goblin that, without me noticing, had deeply driven a dagger into my side.
I looked to the side, not understanding what was happening, before the pain began to intensify as if I were waking up to reality. "Ah, AAAAAAH!" A gut-wrenching scream escaped my lungs.
The goblin pulled out the knife and tried to stab me again, but out of fear or survival instinct, I grabbed the goblin's arm.
It immediately tried to hit my hand with its other arm, but I grabbed its neck and lifted it slightly. It weighed about as much as a child, so it was easy.
The goblin's face contorted as if it couldn't breathe, then it dropped the dagger on the ground. I released the goblin's hand and, carefully, picked up the dagger from the ground without letting go of its neck.
The goblin began tearing at my shirt with its hands as if trying to get me to release it, but instead, using the dagger I had grabbed, I drove it deep into its skull. Red blood spurted out instantly as its body lost all strength.
I released my grip on its neck and looked to the side.
The goblin with the club was staring at us dumbfounded, as if it hadn't expected that.
But, as if regaining its senses, it quickly approached.
But immediately, I turned and blocked its blow with my free forearm. The dull blow seemed to have caused significant damage to my arm, but as if not registering the damage, I moved lightly, used my other hand to grab its neck and lifted it like I did with the previous goblin, but this time I didn't mess around and squeezed its neck with all my might until a dry crack resounded, breaking its neck.
I dropped the corpse and let it fall to the ground.
Another Goblin appeared immediately, brandishing a blood-stained, rusty sword. But as if the sword were heavier than its body could handle, the swing was so slow that I could easily dodge it, and with a kick, sent it tumbling to the ground.
I snatched the sword it dropped when it fell and, with it, pierced its face.
I picked up the club left on the ground.
Now with sword and club, I advanced. I slowly made my way; once I had gotten used to fighting, the weak goblins, who weren't strong individually, were easily dispatched.
For some reason, they stopped trying to fight in groups, as if the previous display of power had faded the moment I had taken the initiative.
At some point, whether out of fear or something else, they stopped approaching, seeing me no longer as prey, but as a threat too dangerous to be worth trying to hunt.
I didn't care; I could barely think in the first place.
With my body moving almost on inertia, I managed to escape the clearing and get away from it all.
Before I knew it, I was in the middle of the forest, completely alone.
My body was at the limit of exhaustion, and I could barely keep moving due to blood loss. Also, now that the adrenaline was fading, the pain throughout my body was arriving, but at the same time, I could barely feel anything.
It was as if the pain had been blocked at some point.
Finally, my strength left me and I fell to the ground, overcome by fatigue and pain.
My eyelids closed heavily. But then, in the darkness that enveloped me, a cold, clear voice resonated in my consciousness:
[Mission Completed – The First Battle: You have taken the lives of your enemies, you have survived amidst the chaos, and you will live to see another day.]