Taking stairs from the eighth floor is annoying, that’s a fact. I feel like I just wasted a few precious minutes of my life. Though, my non-broken legs think otherwise.

  I try to sneak through the streets while getting closer to the mall a bit, but after a while, I give up. It’s pointless, no one’s here. All the goblins went to welcome their new prisoners…

  “Whatever; it plays into my cards.”

  I’m slipping through the streets one by one, signs of habitation all around me. It’s like a slum there. Open fires with sleeping rags and animal hides all around. Remains of uneaten animals together with cleanly gnawed bones. And it stinks there of piss and feces. They’re like dossers.

  Soon, I reach a bridge, but the moment I step onto it, I’m forced to jump over the side for cover - forgotten goblins stagger out of a nearby building. I wait a few moments to make sure there’s not a hobgoblin with them before I attack.

  I thought for a moment about letting them join the crowd, but realized afterwards it would be pointless - why should I let them go?

  It’s a quick job, not even capable of warming me up, let alone to make me sweat. They go down way too easily, half of them not even noticing before the other half is already taken down. Like pigs on the slaughter.

  After this bridge, I only have to bypass a few streets before coming to an open space right in front of the shopping mall.

  If I was reincarnated somewhere near and saw this, I’d thought there is a bloody fucking festival going on… with green shitstains instead of normal people. Because that clear space there in front of the shopping centre is completely packed, head on head.

  There’s nothing to wait for, nothing to gain from waiting.

  So I go on.

  Straight into the back lines of the crowd I aim my sword, cutting heads off as I run between them, yet unnoticed. It’s like a symphony; symphony for my guts.

  I’m spotted a long time after my rampage started, lines of scumbags already beheaded behind me, when the green mass finally turns towards me.

  “Man, I almost thought they’re deaf.”

  Now the real fun begins.

  The masses are running at me like crazy, uncovered, unbothered about their own lives, like they couldn’t lose… at least for the first few times until they realize who they are facing and their chances of winning against me being below zero.

  Becomes quite annoying when they start keeping their distance and I have to start chasing them, but at least I can take multiple bodies in one swing, so it kinda compensates.

  I identify a few of them and find out why it is so disappointingly simple, yet still fun.

  Goblin - lvl 8

  Goblin - lvl 14

  Goblin - lvl 11

  This is a crowd of low levels, with just an occasional higher leveled individual.

  Those guys are probably the ones who are patrolling outside of this place and fighting with the harpies time by time, while the rest of them are warming their asses in the homeless-like camps. Cowards.

  The massacre continues for a while, I’m running wild among them, feeling like lawnmower cutting tall grass - heads of the goblins. But an even better comparison would be to compare them to bugs, because I crush them under my feets like ones.

  Yeah, but that’s about when the cheap fun stops as I spot the first hobgoblin pushing through the crowd towards me.

  Although… The Lunatic’s exaltation is already starting to kick in. It should be easier than the last time then.

  As he gets closer and I can see his weapons, I know who I am facing. He wields one dagger, with a blade as long as the one the Pale Reaver has. It’s the similar one to my first hobgoblin encounter - an assassin, or rogue type.

  He dashes through the few last lines of goblins without taking slightest care about them - his eyes locked onto me.

  “Let’s make a quick process with you!”

  Surely I didn’t think I’m gonna get him on the first swing… Surely.

  Because he dodged.

  “Damn, you're one quick piece of green shit.”

  Even I can not match his speed yet. He’s dodging my blows with such an ease and acrobacy and to my surprise manages to nearly land a hit, it’s unbelievable. Yeah I partially dodged it and my coat didn’t let it through, but still…

  Unfortunately for him, I don’t care about his speed.

  I catch him mid air, just when he’s jumping over my swing, which I stop half on its way. He didn’t expect that; who would - you need some impressive strength to do that. At least if the sword is heavy for you, which for me quite isn’t anymore, not after getting so many levels.

  That’s his end - sliced in halves.

  I’ll need a better sword soon, this one might not cut it anymore against stronger enemies. Level seventy plus and it’s done I would say, even the Reapshade left some deep cuts in it.

  But it can still bash through the soft goblin bodies with ease; all I need right now.

  ***

  That first hobgoblin started it. Now, after a few more minutes of slaying the never ending stream of low leveled scum…

  There’s a hobgoblin with a bow, pretty annoying dude, his arrows time by time penetrating my coat if they hit with the right angle, otherwise they slip. But still, there’s some strength behind them, so I’ll have a lot of bruises. Again.

  He’s pretty accurate also, his arrows are whining uncomfortably close all the time and he doesn’t care about shooting through other goblins. What a savage guy.

  I wanna take him out, he’s pissing me off.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  To my displeasure, I can’t. Two other guys are standing in front of me and I don’t think they would let me pass even if I ask nicely. So I’ll try to ask with the help of my sword, I think it might help.

  One of them got an axe, while the other one is threatening me with something like a remdih; that guy pisses me off too.

  His weapon is basically just a stick with a chain attached to it and to the end of the chain is attached something heavy and usually also spiky. He does have exactly this. Bit rusty, that’s true, but still madly dangerous especially in experienced hands which the fucker has.

  I should get rid of those hands of his.

  Though it’s not as easy as said. His ugly weapon makes kind of a no-no zone, in which I surely don’t wanna step in and be bashed away.

  Yeah, that spikey ball got some balls.

  He already countered my slash once by attacking the blade and my arm is hurtfully tingling from then. I don’t want to experience being hitten by the ball into my shoulder or wherever else.

  Luckily it’s only a goblin with an additional “hob”.

  I kick his colleague, who tried to get through my defense the whole time, away, into the swarm.

  To my surprise, I genuinely couldn’t get through that guy's defense either. He is surprisingly tough and even managed to withstand blocking my hits.

  But since he’s out of the way for a tiny moment, which is all I need, I dive under the other guy's attack of the ball on the chain and stick and run my sword through his guts.

  And get it stuck there. Such a pity.

  Imagine having a sword stuck in a mere goblin. I am ashamed.

  Nonetheless, I turn around and use the turn to get momentum into my swing. I bash the stuck goblin against the first away-kicked-goblin, who thinks I wouldn’t notice him attacking my back.

  Great idea from me, because it unstuck my sword and split the axe man's head too. Fabulous work.

  But what isn’t fabulous is the fucking archer who is now confiscating arrows from other goblins and also ordering the goblins with ranged weapons to use them.

  Don’t ask me why they didn’t do it by themselves. I have no fucking idea. After all, they are just goblins.

  Though I liked them more when they weren’t throwing fucking rocks at me with their childish improvised slingshots. Bastards. And the bigger and brownier amongst them with a bow is the biggest bastard!

  Fortunately, their aim, in comparison with the brown maggot, is absolutely trash.

  And I start throwing rocks back at them; taking each of them down, one by one, rock by rock.

  And I do it while cutting all the grass around me.

  I may have taken down the small fries but the hobgoblin archer himself doesn’t want to go that easily and is avoiding all my throws with ease. Well, after all, he is a level twenty nine. I’m gonna have to get close and kill him manually.

  That’s when the goblin swarm stops swarming - what a weird act. A lot of them have been lately more hesitant and now they’ve turned around and are running away. Kind of later than I would expect, because those weren’t any warriors, but mere scumbags, maybe sometimes killing someone a few levels down to their own level. But when someone like them is put to fight a stronger enemy, they crumble under fear.

  It leaves the clear space in front of the mall mostly empty. Now I can see that it was a small, I am guessing, private parking lot. Not like the one next to it with multiple floors, now filled with the goblin trash.

  The fled goblins didn’t run completely away, but are waiting all around, just taking enough space between us and a lot of them are watching and creaking from the multi floor parking lot.

  The archer hobgoblin stopped shooting before a while, probably coming to the conclusion that it’s good for nothing to be losing arrows on me when he got my full attention. So he waits… And I wonder for what.

  I don’t have to wait long, respectively, I don’t have to wait at all.

  That multi-storey car park is built right next to the shopping centre and it's collapsed right at that junction. From there a group of hobgoblins with tough looking goblins, if you can even say that about them, are coming out.

  They look like proper warriors, with leather armoured parts and non rusty weapons. Are they like an army of the goblins or…? Whatever.

  I don’t wait for them to get all their troops out of the mall, and attack the first hobgoblin right away.

  It’s some kind of swordsman with two scimitars. I release a classic horizontal attack, which he rolls under. I don’t like that so as he is getting up from the roll, I kick him in the face, bring the sword over my shoulder and kill him.

  In the few seconds I needed to kill the first one, a few others encircled me, thinking it is a good idea - it is not.

  Well… maybe it is.

  I try to attack another swordsman, this time one I kinda sympathise with since he has a big ass sword, just like me, but as I release my swing, a bulky hobgoblin with a shield appears in front of him and my sword bounces off his shield.

  The shield guy doesn’t move by an inch from the impact, while I stumble on my legs which the big-ass-sword-guy takes advantage of and tries to cleave me in half with a downward slash.

  I make a turn on one leg, bringing my sword around. As I’ve turned a bit to the side, the guy misses, slamming his sword into the ground while I split him in the waist with the blow led from the turn around.

  I guess the shield guy doesn’t like it because he slams into me, sending me on the ground, right in front of another creep with an axe.

  The axe is already descending, so I roll away and kick his knee through.

  Thanks to my passive, I didn’t drop the sword which allows me to ruffle his insides gently and leave him there to bleed out, bastard.

  The small goblins try to attack me too, but even if they manage to get close enough before I kill them, they mostly can not pierce my mantle. Also, the arrows stopped flying as I am surrounded, probably not to hurt any of the soldiers, which is very nice from the archer.

  Unfortunately for him, all it took was one jump to open a straight line to his face and even for the price of a stab into my leg, running a rock through his fucking head. He was annoying. It made my day slightly better.

  But it also gives the other brownies around me time to reorient.

  I drop back to the ground, but am thrown away right after as I block a huge hammer. It may prevent my spine from being snapped, but it also made me unable to dodge an incoming trident.

  I'm forced to block again. Our weapons screech as they clash, slamming me onto the asphalt. I tilt my sword, driving his trident into the ground - then make sure to kick him in the face before pushing off.

  My kick won’t kill him, but it gives me time to stand- to get a fucking hole through my stomach.

  One of the dickheads has a crossbow.

  There are only four of them left, but they’ll be tough to defeat. One of them is the trident guy with the shield brute, those two are defending a dickhead with the crossbow and a brownie covered in weird tattoos. I hope he’s not mage.

  That’s also the time when the green scum all around us picks up their courage and begin to get back on the battlefield. They can’t possibly possess a thread to me, but they get tangled underfoot.

  Together with the hobgoblins' formation, it’s very unpleasant.

  The shield-bearer leads their attack with the trident man finding angles from behind his back. They really frustrate me when working together like that.

  Time by time a bolt flies past from behind those two faggots, but since I know about the dickhead, it’s not that hard to dodge them. Although it’s way harder than evading the arrows.

  The tattoo guy does nothing.

  I would love to get past the shield guy, yet he stops all my attempts of it and trident faggot with crooked face does not help me either. I have just had enough.

  Surging behind them, I get to cut through both of them at once as they are gaying together behind that tower shield.

  Only then the tattoo-magoo starts doing something.

  Of course he’s a mage.

  And of course he’s the fire one.

  The first fireball burns my nose - I wasn't ready for it.

  The second one is cutted through as I dash forward, the dickhead forgotten for a moment. A moment that I need to kill this one.

  He evades my overhead slam and fires up his fists. He unleashes a right hook, which I pretty much counter by using the handle of my sword to knock his teeth out followed by undermining his legs.

  Maybe he thinks he’s a smart fella when ejecting himself upwards as he spins, with his hands, but that only makes him an easy target.

  I know it, he knows it and knows that I know it.

  Right as I’m about to jump at him it clicks…

  It’s too late to completely avoid the stream of fire he spits, making a fucking living flame thrower from himself.

  …

  My upper body is a bit fried while I run under him, when it suddenly stops.

  I look up, right in time to see, but mainly feel claws digging into my shoulders. Well, only one because I managed to grab the other one; the harpie then took off.

  I had to drop my sword in exchange for at least one, without pain, functioning shoulder.

  “AAAaaaa!!!”

  Something blows up, the harpie waver in the air - I use the moment to pull myself up to its leg and twist the way that I can kick the harpie in the head. And I break its neck.

  Before I killed her, the harpie already ascended a few tens of meters above the ground - I’ll enjoy those metres in a freefall now.

  It’s weird, but when you’re falling from high place, the time slows down as you fall, seemingly giving you space to enjoy it before you hit the ground. It gives me time to absorb the situation.

  The explosion was the tattooed guy. He blew up himself alive, rather than being torn apart by the harpies. And he took quite a lot of them with himself; I can respect him for that.

  The early evening sky is covered by a cloud of harpies who used the chaos I made to attack the goblin base.

  And I am still falling.