I know I can be scattered, and not pay attention to certain things(*cough*, the G.o.d in my backyard, *cough*), but I like to think I wouldn't just run into danger to "save a pretty girl" or whatever.

I saved Luna because she was a Neko, I was curious, and I knew it wouldn't cost me a lot. And thanks to that, I learned a lot. So ultimately, I view saving her not as being a hero or white knight, but rather a basic human reaction to help myself.

n.o.body likes being alone after all.

I say all this to make it clear that me going at it Mano-Mano with the Hobgoblin was NOT me being a macho-confident hothead.

Yes, I felt the desire for battle. I'm a guy, and the idea of an epic battle in a fantasy world, using magic to defeat monsters, did get my blood pumping.

But the main reason I did something as dumb as letting a ma.s.sive muscled-behemoth have a fair fight with me is because... I didn't have a choice okay!

Isen said that as the Dungeons greatest warrior, I bear the responsibility, or in his words, 'honor' to slay the greatest foe.

I nearly cried when my backup kindly informed me that they would take care of the scrubs, but I had to deal with the tank on my own.

"Aren't I the least qualified in close combat right now??? What the heck! Don't throw your boss under the bus!"

The Hobgoblin charged up the slope at me, the yellow green aura over its body now tinted blood red like its skin, as it moved faster than ANYTHING that speed had any right to move. I watched it lift that ma.s.sive slab of iron overhead with both arms, ready to essentially drop it on my head.

Everything felt like it was happening so fast, as all the actions and emotions of the Tengu blended together, and I heard Luna sending some WindBlades at the goblins, mixed in with these small chunks of ice.

I focused on the foe before me, shutting everything else out as my own mana began to move through my body, blending with it. My own Blood Aura began to form, colors of red and gold blending together to a golden-orange shade with hints of red still there.

As the Hobgoblin reached me, I pushed off with my feet to the left, rolling with the landing to get out of range, as the Hobgoblin turned with me.

He may have turned with me, but because I rolled away after jumping, I got far enough to stagger backwards out of the swords reach, leaving him to slam that ma.s.sive hunk of iron into the ground, throwing up an explosion of dirt and gra.s.s.

I could see the muscles flex and his Blood Aura brighten around his arms as he pulled the blade out of the small crater he had made. I gripped my knife tightly, remembering my hit-and-run tactic with the goblins before.

'It's unlikely I could just kill this guy immediately, but this isn't a video game, so hitting certain spots can still disable or kill him very quickly. The issue is his aura s.h.i.+elding him... if I can cut through it and slice the inside of a joint, like behind the knees or under an armpit, I can get a tendon and disable a limb.'

'So I need to evade his weapon, but if I get out of his range, I have no time to get back in for an attack. I could use spells to buy time, but I'm not sure my mana would last this whole fight... I don't know how much he's got in his tank, so a battle where I pit my stats against his would be foolish.'

Thoughts ran through my head as I tried to strategize. He charged again, and this time he set his blade against his shoulder, swinging diagonally from his right shoulder to his left hip once he was a big closer.

This time, his aura moved to envelope his blade as well, and I had a feeling that getting out of range wouldn't stop me from getting hurt here, so I decided to 'Dodge Roll' under his blade to go past his right side, under his outreaching arm.

Now in a video game, rolling past enemies is great. In real life, they kinda kick you. So I ended up taking his foot to my gut, and got sent flying.

Right as I slammed into an apple tree, my aura move to my back to absorb the hit, my mana dropping by 4 in an instant, and the tree practically shattering under me. I came back up as he continued his charge to me, not letting up a bit, this time with a fully horizontal slash.

I'll admit, my next act was kinda just instinctual. I tried to roll past him, on his left since that's where the swing came from this time, and his leg once again swung at me.

This time however, I brought up my arms as he kicked, and braced them against his leg, pus.h.i.+ng off of it as it pushed me.i was sideways, midroll, and stretched myself out as his leg pushed me up and away, my arms pushed off his leg, and I spun around in the air sideways, twisting my torso to land on both feet.

'Wow, I got athletic.'

Finis.h.i.+ng the motion, my arms swung to distribute the inertia of spinning, my right arm swinging up across my chest to bring the knife back into a guarding position, my left leg sliding back to mirror my left arm swinging back as my right leg bent.

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The movement ended as my weight s.h.i.+fted to the back leg, and seamlessly transitioned to a pounce as my weight slid back, and then as if attached to a rubber band suddenly snapped back forward, my left leg pus.h.i.+ng off and my right leg following to jump at the Hobgoblin.

However since it all happened in an instant, it's let was still raised in the air and coming back down to the ground as I jumped, while it's sword was swung clear away from me. With only one foot on the ground, it couldn't get its sword to swing back.

My knife flipped from a reverse grip to a more standard one, as I stabbed towards its neck.

What I wasn't expecting was for the Hobgoblin to panic, pulling away from the knife even with no balance, it's leg going back up as it's weight pulled it back, falling over as it's sword flailed upwards and missed me by a wide margin.

But I'd used to much force as I jumped, so I sailed over the rolling Hobgoblin and landed a few meters away, quickly turning around to face it as it rolled its ma.s.sive body back onto its feet.

I didn't have much in terms of thinking about the situation going on as I was mostly just going by instinct, but my feelings towards this Hobgoblin had changed a bit...

To feel that anything within the Dungeon was an intruder is a feeling I'm familiar with, but this time I had brought them here. I'd called them target practice... but my instincts, the hunger in my blood was saying the word that would really come to mind.

'You're strong. But in the end...'

I cast FoxFire, throwing all 4 of them into the same spot on his sword in rapid succession, blowing the aura away just a bit, leaving some blackened marks on the iron.

'...you're just my prey.'