Whispers of war

As the spell the goblin chanted was about to end, new plumes of smoke rose in the sky, confusing the lizards.

Scared, the goblin decided to go back and see who the possible enemies were, giving the order to retreat.

Little by little the explorers arrived where Aisha was hiding, feeling that there was no longer any danger she left the ground with the other explorer.

— New orders, reach the rescue groups and deliver these scrolls to them—

The more experienced explorers knew what those scrolls represented, without wasting a second they said goodbye to their captain and lost themselves among the trees.

Crow felt complicated being the last one left with Aisha, before saying something the young woman in front of him asked him to keep quiet while she handed him an orange ficorita gem.

—Listen well, if for some reason the situation gets out of control and the group is exposed to be destroyed, you must go to town and give Eleine that gem, she will know what to do—

Confused by the strange behavior of Aisha, the young man kept the gem in her clothes and after saying goodbye he continued the search for team two.

In the distance, the horned lizards lost confidence as hundreds of soldiers arrived at their position.

— He he he he ... It seems that there must be a large town nearby if they have so many soldiers, it is better that we return and notify our lord—

With a disfigured laugh, the goblin decided to flee, ordering all the lizards to follow him.

After half an hour, the rescue groups managed to find the cave where team two was taking refuge and one of them was commissioned to escort them to the village, while the other two groups continued to follow Aisha.

Although no one knew why from time to time their captain ordered them to increase their speed of advance, at no time did they think of contradicting his orders.

— Hopefully we still have time—

Without letting her mind wander, Aisha focused her energy in the palm of her hand and chanted a detection spell.

— Not!!!—

Enraged, the goblin saw an intangible rope cling to his clothes and the image of violet eyes appeared in front of him.

— I found you!—

Determined, the captain held out a golden scroll as she ordered the other leaders to do the same.

Without hesitation, when the last of the leaders extended their scroll, a magic net appeared on the ground surrounding all the soldiers.

Being the first time that Crow witnessed a magic spell of such magnitude, he was shocked when the speed of the group increased by more than three times.

— Don't get distracted and just follow in my footsteps—

Determinedly, Aisha guided the soldiers through the forest while she took care not to lose sight of the goblin.

— Ungrateful food! You are so desperate to be eaten by us—

The goblin, feeling that there was no way to escape without revealing the location of his base, decided to fight his pursuers.

— If you want to catch us, you must pay a price—

When the spell of the scrolls ended, Aisha saw a cloud of lightning surround the goblin's withered body as her body increased in size with each passing second.

— Don't let them finish evolving, keep it at any cost—

Raising her sword, Aisha lunged at the goblin as she chanted a fiery spell on his weapon.

— With that thing you won't be able to stop us—

Although Aisha's strength was above average, when the burning edge was about to touch the goblin, one of the lizards lunged at the young woman being thrown a few meters behind.

As a trigger, a group of soldiers advanced and began to attack the lizard that little by little began to lose its meat on its bones.

— Don't waste your time with the lizards, we must stop the evolution of that goblin—

With a battle cry, the soldiers split into small groups and kept the lizards busy while the scouts were in charge of attacking the goblin.

Although with each passing second the goblin looked more miserable from the injuries it received, its size kept increasing, spouting six muscular arms from its back.

Seeing the colossal size of the goblin, Crow did not believe that this creature is equal to the goblins in the fantasy books he read in his youth.

— We are ready, now his blood belongs to us—

At one point, the cloud of lightning stopped protecting the goblin's body, which was already eight meters tall, allowing the soldiers to do more damage to it.

But the creature scoffed at the futile efforts of the soldiers and extended its arms attacking the nearest soldiers.

Each blow from the creature was capable of throwing the soldiers into the trees, causing them to vomit a mouthful of blood before rising again to fight.

— Get away from him, just use ranged attacks and don't let him escape our encirclement—

The captain was aware of the ability that the goblin used, this was a forced evolution that was activated through the user's life force at the cost of being physically useless.

— So you know us, but how many of your soldiers do you think will live after half an hour?—

While the attacks continued against the goblin, Crow climbed against the top of a tree looking for the opportunity to land a fatal blow.

Like Crow, other agile scouts climbed into the trees and attacked from above.

Even with all the care, two soldiers were crushed to death in the goblin's arms and a scout was eaten alive by the horned lizards.

Seeing that the goblin had captured a new soldier in his arms, Crow soaked two smoke bombs in the sap of a tree and threw them at the goblin's face.

With two explosions, the creature's face was covered in a large dark stain as smoke rose above it.

— Trash, dare to attack us head-on—

As the goblin tried to remove the remnants of the bombs from his face, all the scouts lunged, attacking his neck and eyes with their swords.

When one of the scouts managed to bury his sword in the goblin's eye, a piercing scream came from the creature that only threw blows around it looking for its attacker.

— You have forced us to use it, thank you, we are alone, if not, another would be the result—

Everyone could notice the changes in the goblin's body and instinctively felt the need to get away from him.

— Whatever you do, we'll take you with us—

Inside the goblin, all the magic particles began to reject his body, beginning to resonate with each other as they merged into a sphere of energy.

Laughing that all the soldiers who attacked him were starting to escape, the goblin regretted not being able to see when their bodies were destroyed thanks to him.

Without noticing it, on his back a young man looked confused at the place where all the magical particles of the goblin accumulated.

—What is this?—

Trying to touch the sphere of magic that formed in front of the goblin, Crow was stopped by one of the creature's arms that looked curiously at the young man.

— Are you not afraid of us?—

Crow did not answer his question, and taking advantage of the fact that the goblin still had poor eyesight, he dodged the goblin's attacks and launched himself against the energy sphere.

— You can't do anything to us—

Feeling terror, the goblin watched as the young man in front of him spread his arms over the sphere, absorbing the energy it gathered.

— What are you, how are you able to drain all our strength?—

Without noticing that the young man's eyes were different from normal, the goblin caught Crow's body in his arms, but when he tried to tear it apart he felt that his arms did not respond.

Not hearing the explosion, Aisha turned to see that where the goblin was there was no longer that colossal body and there was only a withered dwarf next to a bewildered Crow who was looking at his hands.

— Careful!—

Without realizing it, a lizard opened its jaws trying to devour the young man. Faced with that distance, the creature did not think it would fail and only thought of fleeing with the goblin.

When the young man was about to be eaten, a magical barrier appeared around him along with the image of the clothesline that blocked the attack.

Feeling he had to escape, the lizard took the body of the goblin between its jaws and escaped between the trees.

— Curse! we must inform our lord about that strange creature—

The goblin could only move his lips for a moment before losing consciousness.

When Aisha got to Crow's side, she could see the shadow that protected the young man, but since he was so blurred she couldn't recognize who he was.

— Take good care of him, I've absorbed too much magic and his body is still assimilating it—

Without giving him time to respond, the shadow spread into the air, leaving an unconscious Crow on the ground.

— What secrets do you hide in your body Crow?—

Leaving those thoughts behind, Aisha ordered a group to carry Crow as they returned to the village.

— Hopefully we are still on time—

The young woman only looked for a moment at the place where the goblin had disappeared and then turned and joined the group of soldiers.