D-rank Deranged Hobgoblin

"The fuck you looking at," David snarled, his voice trembling with suppressed fear yet laced with a steely resolve. He leveled his spear at the towering Hobgoblin, a testament to his unwavering determination and acceptance of the peril before him.

The Hobgoblin begin its march.

*Thump* 

*Thump* 

*Thump* 

The ground trembles beneath its strides, each step echoing like thunder, the pace increasing with a dreadful inevitability. Its eyes, burning with malice, fixated on David, the Hobgoblin's gaze piercing through him like a predator sizing up its prey. The wind, once gentle, now shrieks in protest, as if recoiling from the creature's malevolent presence, its destructive aura sending shivers down David's spine.

As the Hobgoblin approached David, emanating a bloodthirsty aura. David channels his own energy into the tip of his spear.

"Amplification, x1.5," he whispered, invoking the ability. With just one buff, his mana drained until its last droplet. His face paled, sweat pouring from his pores in exchange for the upgrade in strength.

The Hobgoblin unleashed a deathly punch, its powerful muscles meticulously employed in the strike. David ducked slightly and shifted his head to the left, narrowly evading the blow.

Summoning all his strength, he drives his spear into the Hobgoblin's chest.

A small hole appeared at the epicenter of its massive torso.

"The attack was too shallow. It only left a small dent," David despaired.

With extremely fast retaliation, the Hobgoblin launches a wide kick at David's waist.

David gritted his teeth, bracing himself as he tensed his entire being to absorb the brutal blow.

The force sent his body hurtling several metres through the air, crashing into the nearby trees with a sickening thud, leaving him sprawled amidst the wreckage, his broken body teetering on the brink of oblivion.

"AGH!" He screamed, writhing in pain as agony surges through him.

His vision blurred, wavering at the edges.

Blood gushed from David's mouth, staining his shirt crimson as he struggled to remain conscious. Each breath was a battle against the encroaching darkness that threatened to swallow him whole.

"Heh." He pants heavily in short intervals.

"What do you mean, genius? I couldn't even defend that low kick, now it happened twice," he whispered, his voice strained with pain. His vision blurred, and the environment spun around him as he fought to stay lucid. Slowly, he felt himself losing consciousness, his strength waning with every passing moment due to the relentless loss of blood. From his heart to his finger tips, he started to lose his sense of pain bit by bit.

—-

"Hey! Quickly, get him into the back of the car," a voice shouted, urgency lacing every word.

Sounds of hurried footsteps echoed in the an open vicinity, the chaos of the moment only adding to David's disorientation.

"It's going to be alright," someone reassured him, though their words felt distant, lost in the haze of his fading perception as reality continues jumbling his thoughts.

As consciousness slipped further from his grasp, David's mind swirled with fragments of thoughts and memories, each one fleeting and disjointed.

Multiple puzzle pieces slipped out and isolated. He felt that there was no need to hear anything further.

—-

Days passed in a blur of pain and uncertainty. When David finally awoken, his eyes fluttered open to the sight of the sterile white ceiling looming above him. Weakness permeated his limbs as he struggled to sit up, his body protesting every movement.

The room was quiet with the repeated sounds of soft hum of machinery and the rhythmic beeping of monitors. Alone and bewildered, David scanned his surroundings, searching for answers amidst the spotless white room.

A letter and a basket of fruits caught his attention, sitting atop a nearby table. With trembling hands, he reached for the letter, eager for any semblance of clarity to his situation.

'Hey man, rest up yeah? Don't do anything stupid yeah?' The words greeted him, written in a familiar hand that offered little but meaningful comfort. The irony in these words truly strike him as the perpetrator.

David's brow furrowed as he read on, his heart sinking with each passing word. The severity of his situation became painfully clear as he absorbed the implications of the investigation unfolding outside these walls.

But it was the sudden appearance of the middle-aged man in a black suit that sent a shiver down his spine, his presence casting a shadow over the room.

"Did you know that you had green blood when I first saw your injured body, boy?" The man inquired, his voice as cold and unforgiving as steel.

David's blood ran cold as the man leaned in closer, his words sending a chill down his spine. It was clear as day that this was no ordinary interrogation – there was something far more to it than what meets the eye.

As David struggled to find his voice amidst the chaos of his unstable thoughts, he realised that the interrogation he faced was far greater than he could have ever imagined including his encounter with the Deranged Hobgoblin. And with every passing moment, the eerily quiet self would threaten to consume him whole.

David's voice trembled as he uttered the words, his admission hanging heavy in the air. "I was attacked by a Hobgoblin," he confessed, his gaze fixed on the middle-aged man in the black suit.

For a moment, silence reigned, broken only by the steady rhythm of David's heartbeat echoing in his ears. Then, the man's expression shifted, a mixture of disbelief and curiosity flickering across his facial features.

"Hobgoblin?" he repeated, his tone laced with skepticism. "You expect me to believe that your injuries were inflicted by a non-existent Hobgoblin?"

David nodded, with an angsty look on his face. He proclaims to the man, "you saw the blood right, since you just heard it from the victim yourself, you probably came to this conclusion."

The man regarded him with a steady gaze, his thoughts unreadable. Then, with a slow nod, he rose from his seat, his movements deliberate and measured.

"Very well, young man," he said, his voice tinged with a hint of amusement. "If what you say is true then a Hobgoblin is on the loose as of now."

"So he wasn't unreasonable after all..." He inwardly sighed in relief.

"The Hobgoblin isn't where you think it is." David didn't want to waste this man's time trying to search for the culprit.

Intrigued by what had been said, he grabbed an apple from the fruit basket. sits down and begins to peel an apple with flawless movements.

"Where is it currently?" Once serious, but now the man's demeanour was as calm as the flow of a river.