The White Haired Demon Slayer (Part-2)

What the fuck?! Killed a few before?!! Who the hell is this guy? Even the weakest of the corrupted monsters are designated at atleast High Platinum rank or Diamond.

I'll have to ask him about it later. But what intrigued me the most right now was a different question.

"Ren, I don't understand one thing. Why are we even looking for corruption on monsters like these. They hardly feel any stronger than the ones we killed before." I asked.

He turned to me with a teasing smile. "I guess even you don't know everything, huh? Well... Let me tell you then. Being in the presence of a corrupted monster will slowly make, even a regular monster stronger. Not only strength, but also the deep hatred for humans will spread like a disease. The intense hatred and loss of monster instincts will slowly seep into other monsters around it. And eventually even the corruption itself. They won't reach full corruption like directly being corrupted by the Darklord or the Demon Generals themselves. But they will reach partial corruption, which is real nasty by itself too."

Ren picked up the body of a goblin he just killed. "They may not be noticeably stronger yet, but if we see a single sign of corruption, we can be sure there is a Full corrupted monster waiting for us."

He then turned to Elaina. "And you, miss archer. You need to be stop being so hard on yourself."

It was then I realised, Elaina had been silent this entire time. She had been bringing up our rear and now that I look at her, she does have a troubled expression on her face, though she was trying her hardest to keep a straight face. Which was making it even more apparent now.

She hesitated to reply. Seeing which Ren sighed and approached her. "It's not your fault."

She looked up at him, with a sad, apologetic look in her eyes. "But I... I'm sorry. I am not able to detect the goblins fast enough. By the time I call out their location, the goblins are already on you guys. I'm so sorry, I'm trying my best. I really am."

Ren smiled kindly and kept a hand on her shoulder. "I know you are. It's alright. It's not your fault. The mana veil here is far denser than it was before. And the forest goblins are being a lot more careful about attacking us."

"REN LOOK OUT!" I shouted.

A ground hobgoblin about the size of an average person but much stronger, burst out of the forest floor below him and grabbed onto Ren's ankle, attempting to pull him down into the ground and kill him. A common tactic used by ground goblins.

But Ren's feet didn't budge even a little. He pushed Elaina back to safety and looked down at the hobgoblin with great anger and disgust.

He lifted his leg, pulling out the shocked hobgoblin halfway and brought his leg down on the goblin's head, squashing it like a fruit under his feet.

"I WAS TALKING."

I ran over to Elaina while Sylvie went over to check on Ren.

"I fell back pretty lightly. I'm fine." Elaina said as she dusted herself off and got up.

Ren over there was all smiling and happily talking with Sylvie. His boot was clean all over again.

We walked over to Ren and Sylvie as well.

"Forest goblins, Ground goblins and regular goblins. Usually at war with each other all the time, but now working together. This ain't right." I said to Ren.

He nodded. "It's as I suspected. All the goblins are under a much superior commanding monster. A goblin lord perhaps. This ain't getting any easier at all."

He then turned and called back Luca. "Luca! Come over here. There's something y'all gotta see."

Ren pulled out the hobgoblin's body and threw it to the side. Just as Luca joined us, Ren kicked it, turning it over on its back.

There it was, a small patch of dark violet-black on the base of its neck, barely the size of a coin, but blood vessels around it had all turned dark black as if the patch of darkness itself was infecting the blood and body with a dark toxin.

All of us just sadly acknowledged the truth in front of us. This was no confidence booster. There indeed is a corrupted monster waiting for us. Probably the goblin lord himself.

This night couldn't get any worse, is what I thought.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Luca sighed and started walking back in the direction he came from when Ren called him. "Come on, I need to show you all something as well."

We followed him into the thick of the forest, and soon into a cave which led us right to a massive wooden door double the height of any human, and three times as wide.

Only it wasn't a door. Luca spotted two crude anti-human wards on both sides of the door frame. Well hidden wards but findable for one who looks for it. Certainly smart tactics, which is more than should be said for monsters. Very concerning.

Luca and Elaina timed their strikes to take off the wards together at once, while the rest of us braced and prepared ourselves for some kind of defensive response. Nothing happened.

The door disappeared leaving a thin shimmering layer of magic in its place. Like the wall of a soap bubble the size of the gigantic door it replaced.

"Entry point. Perhaps one of many." Luca said.

Exit points you mean, I thought. I had a really bad feeling the purpose of this wasn't to enter, but to exit whatever was in there. And something made me feel whatever was in there, was most definitely not good.

So we entered.

To date, I'll look upon this day as one I wish I wouldn't have to experience again.

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...

For a few seconds none of us could speak. It was almost as if our breathing had been choked shut. Our minds couldn't process what the eyes were seeing.

I had felt fear before, but never at this scale. Never like this.

Luca finally broke through the fear induced trance first and grabbed my collar shaking me by it. "Liam... Oye Liam! Please tell me we aren't doing this, that we aren't going in there! Liam!"

I could say nothing. There was no answer I could give that would ever justify something like this. I looked back at the others as Luca shook me. Fear had broken through the usually expressionless face of even Elaina. Sylvie clutched onto Ren's arm, shivering as she dug her face into his arm, refusing to even look at it.

Luca released me and slowly stepped back looking at the ground. He went back to his place without a word.

What have we walked into? How did it all come to this? I couldn't even wonder these questions properly as fear gripped even my heart.

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...

"Damnn! Hasn't this gotten more interesting than I would have expected? A little more and it could almost make even my heart beat like crazy. But hell, this does get me a little excited." Ren pat my back hard, almost making me fall as he walked past me.

"Shine up, team! There is no way we can get through this without atleast having a little bit of fun." Ren laughed as he turned back to us. There was a fire in his eyes, a crazy happy smile on his face. His excitement was showing through all of his body, as he cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms. He could barely hold himself back. He was yearning for battle.

I couldn't believe it. How can he not feel fear? How can he get excited for something so unbelievably dangerous? He can he smile like this in the face of hundreds, maybe even thousands of monsters?

But there is something... something about him that made the cold fear in our hearts melt away. Perhaps he is right. Perhaps fear isn't the right emotion if we have already decided to do this.

Perhaps having a little fun wouldn't be so bad.

Ren looked into my eyes with that fire and that smile on his face. "Let's give them hell."

I let out a deep breath with renewed resolve and confidence. Stepping forward, I drew Lightbreak once again.

Sprawling with enormous monster activity, hundreds or thousands of monsters could be here. We could die. We could suffer. But there was no way in hell we would back down from this now.

Even if what lay in front of us was a monster spawn itself.

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[QUEST RANK: GOLD, MULTI-RAID.]