Bell looked at the direction from which the war axe had flown, murder written all over his face.
But the moment he looked at who threw it, the anger on his face was wiped out, replaced by something grave.
He saw a goblin standing in a throwing position, but this goblin was different from the others he had come across, this one stood at an imposing height of 1.8 meters, muscles corded and built like a body builder.
Just looking at it made a chill run down Bell's back, starting from the top of his spine all the way to his tailbone.
And if that was not grave enough as it is, he looked at the surroundings of the gathering area, where groups of goblins slowly walked out from the surrounding vegetation of the forest nearby to surround the area.
Bell grabbed Goddess Astraea's hand and pulled her behind him, to keep her safe.
All the while keeping his gaze on that behemoth of a goblin, If what he thought was true about that goblin's identity, then it was about to be a literal massacre, and not of goblins.
That was a hobgoblin, a Level 3 monster from the dungeon, It was generally found on the 24th floor of the dungeon according to *Danmachi*.
But that was where the descriptions and logic veered way off course, hobgoblins were supposed to be over 2 meters tall and beyond, while this one was merely 1.8 meters tall.
Logic spoke that a monster as strong as Level 3 appearing on the surface was almost impossible, since it was common sense that monsters on the surface were way weaker than those in the dungeon.
So the conclusion he reached at was that this goblin was an irregular monster, it's irregularity bringing it close to it's stronger form, hobgoblin.
Bell's estimate was that this hobgoblin was already at the ceiling of Level 1 and had probably touched the surface of Level 2.
All these things went on in Bell's mind as only a moment passed by in reality.
The hobgoblin pulled himself back from the throwing posture after throwing his war axe, while looking at the humans he now had surrounded like the most delightful buffet just for him.
Miss Popy, the peak Level 1 adventurer hired to protect the contingent, walked out of the now panicking crowd, while speaking to everyone in a clear voice.
"Anyone who can fight, kill as many goblins as you can, I can at most hold the hobgoblin back."
Miss Popy was a fit women in her 30s with a slender and supple back, but for the surrounding people, her back felt more reassuring than a concrete wall.
She unsheathed her sword from the scabbard with casual grace while walking towards the hobgoblin.
Midway through her walk, she vanished from the vision of all the people who had their eyes on her, including Bell.
*Clag*
A deep *Clang* was heard as people focused their bewildered gazes on the hobgoblin, who had his own sword interlocked with another sword.
Miss Popy had already reached that hobgoblin in the moment it took Bell and all other people to blink.
*Clang**Clank**Clang*
They exchanged a dozen of sword strikes in a moment, moving with such speed that their strikes were *wooshes* of air for those watching their exchange.
As if their exchange was a signal for the other goblins surrounding the gathering area, they pounced and started running towards the defenseless people of the contingent.
Bell looked in Goddess Astraea's worried eyes behind him, then looked at the panicking people close to them, and then looked even further into the crowd, looking at Koenji pulling a new dagger from his waist with gritted teeth.
This time he did not need any help or direction from that mysterious voice, his feet moved on their own towards the goblins running towards them.
These goblins were not weaklings like the ones he'd fought before, these had a battle hardened aura and wore metal chest plates and light armour.
His first step towards them miraculously synchronized with his own heartbeat.
*Thump* *Step*
His second step seemed to pump adrenaline in his veins, his blood flow accelerating like a engine coming to life.
*Thump* *Step*
On his third step, his mind entered a deep calm, like a silent lake, like the silence before a storm, or the calm before a tsunami.
*Thump* *Step*
On his fourth step, a Eight Handled Wheel's tattoo materialised in the space between his brows, releasing a gentle yet scorching golden light.
*Thump* *Step*
By his fifth step, he was already between four goblins wearing light armour, his unsheathed sword flashing like a whirlwind.
One goblin was caught off guard and directly beheaded, without even knowing what hit him.
Bell's sword let of a sharp cry while not even stopping after beheading a goblin, swinging towards another unsuspecting one.
Yet, these goblins were battle hardened veterans, their only job was to hunt and loot caravans, so they had extensive experience battling human opponents.
That goblin pulled himself out of the path of Bell's sword with pure instinct, rolling backward at the last moment.
The other two goblins were nothing too scoff at either, one swung his sword towards Bell's calves, while the other swung his sword at Bell's stomach.
Bell had to pull back from where he stood to dodge their strikes and create some distance between them.
His brows were illuminated by the wheel tattoo, It's handles vibrating, like they were about to turn for the very first time.
The goblin who had dodged Bell's sword by rolling had also gotten back up and joined those two other goblins.
Bell and the three goblins looked at each other with caution, none daring to move first.
Then suddenly, one of the goblins slipped by putting his foot on a rock.
Bell knew his chance had come and dashed towards that goblin to finish him off, his sword flashing fast to behead him the moment he closed the distance.
But Bell's eyes shrank when he saw the expression on the face of the goblin he was about to behead, It was not fear or despair of death, but the glee of a successfully executed plan.
Bell's eyes fell on the rock from which the goblin had slipped and comprehended with dawning understanding that the goblin had never actually slipped, It was acting to bait him to make a move.
He saw that as his sword headed for the goblin's neck, It's own sword was heading straight for his guts.
The other two goblins were not sitting still as well, one had already swung it's sword towards his neck from the right.
While the other had swung it's sword straight for his lungs from the left.
Bell could not dodge since his body was locked in a swinging posture, while three swords were swinging towards his vitals, neck, guts and lungs.
He would die if even one sword connected with him.
Time seemed to slow down for him in this life and death moment.
The whole world bled away in a monochrome colour.
His thoughts flew so fast that time seemed to slow down in his perception.
The swords heading for him from the front, left and right all seemed to loose their speed, like reaching towards him through a quagmire.
Bell ignored them and looked at a frozen goblin, eagerly running towards Goddess Astraea from the corner of his eye.
Then looked further away, towards a place where people seemed to be frozen yet had panic written all over their faces, among them, he saw Koenji bravely going against two goblins alone, bleeding cuts all over his hands and thighs.
Looking at the goblins eagerly killing the people of the contingent, injuring Koenji, and even one eagerly running towards Goddess Astraea.
Something deep inside Bell broke.
'Since these monsters are so eager for blood and death, I will show them what it really means.'
'Since they are so eager for a massacre, I will show them what a true massacre means.'
'Since they wanted to take away my home, I will take everything away from them.'
'Just like a...'
'Shura'
*Click*
With that conclusion came the sound of a turning wheel.
The Eight Handled Wheel tattoo between his brow, whose handles were shaking from earlier, finally turned for this first time in the world of Danmachi.
Time resumed it's flow after that sound.
Bell looked at the swords aiming for his vitals, yet his face no longer carried any traces of fear.
In a calm, almost indifferent voice, he muttered.
"IttouShura." His indifferent voice resounded all across the gathering area.
By the time people looked towards where his voice drifted over from, he was no longer there.
Those three sword aiming for his vitals hit nothing but air and collided against each other.
The three goblins looked around in pure bewilderment, searching for where Bell had vanished to.
*Grrrrr*
The sound of a heel dragging across the ground resounded near those goblins.
When they snapped their eyes towards it, their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
The goblin which was eagerly running towards Goddess Astraea had a sword piercing straight through it's heart, the sword being further buried into the ground.
While the sword and the goblin pierced through it were dragged across the ground with the leftover momentum, stopping just before the legs of Goddess Astraea.
From another angle, It even seemed that the pierced goblin was kneeling to the Goddess Of Justice in repentance.
And the hand holding that sword in a reverse grip was Bell's, with his back towards Goddess Astraea.
As the goblin wheezed it's last breaths at Goddess Astraea's feet, Bell bought his face close to the dying goblin and spoke with chilling indifference.
"You sure have guts, daring to touch my Goddess.....When I'm not yet dead." Bell finished his words by pulling the sword out of the goblins chest with indifference.
He took another step and was besides the goblin's cornering Koenji in blinding pure speed, and swung his sword, one goblin was torn apart in two from his head to the bottom, another swing and the other goblin was beheaded like a fish on a chopping board.
Bell was gone by the time Koenji even composed himself to thank him.
He flashed in front of a goblin about to swing it's sword at a little girl, chopped off it's legs and finished it off, then flashed to another person about to be beheaded and split the goblin in two like a KitKat.
For the next 20 seconds, Bell became a hurricane, wherever he went, goblins were slaughtered like vegetables, and at last, only the three goblins from the beginning were left, their legs shaking like leaves.
Bell looked towards them but understood that he had to wrap this up fast, since even that hobgoblin was left to take care of after these three— he could not maintain his current state for long.
What the adaptation from the Wheel had granted him was the signature technique of the protagonist Ikki Kurogane from the anime *Chivalry Of A Failed Knight*.
Ikki was a person who was born with a weak physique compared to other Blazers in his world, along with F-Ranked mana, which was considered so weak that having and not having it, made literally no difference.
Hence, Ikki developed a technique for himself, called [Ittou Shura] by which he was able to amass all his bodies vigor and stamina while ignoring the survival instincts that prevent humans from using their full strength, then multiplied this by several dozen times, granting him tremendous power, which could be maintained for just one minute and as such, it was referred to as his strongest minute.
Bell knew he was nowhere near Ikki in terms of mastery of [Ittou Shura] since he had just acquired it from the adaptation of the wheel.
In fact, right now he could barely use [Ittou Shura] for 30 seconds, 40 seconds if push came to shove.
But the problem was that he really had almost no experience with it, In his current state, he was at least wasting 80% of his vitality and barely using 20% to boost his physique.
The other 80% was being wasted in the conversion process of burning his lifeforce to have a temporary increase in his stats.
Now then, where were we?
Ah, yes those three goblins who almost took his life.
They were about to experience what it meant to bear the wrath of a Shura.