Goblin Rush

Alex swings the dagger, trying to get the feel of it. He imagines himself as a ninja, slashing at multiple enemies from all directions.

He practices simple moves, straight jabs, hook slashes, and reverse stabs. For the next two hours, he continues the repetitive motions, growing more familiar with the weapon. Eventually, boredom starts to set in.

Alex looks at the baby Panda, its head lowered in sadness. He sits next to it and points up at the stars. "Your mother is still with you, watching over you from up there." The Panda lifts its head slightly, feeling a little comforted.

Alex lies down and closes his eyes, feeling at ease. The father Panda rests beside the mother, while the other two take turns guarding the area. He feels reassured, knowing they are keeping watch.

Few hours later -

The father panda was quietly getting ready to move out. Alex slightly opens his left eye peeping on their sudden movement.

The moment the father panda and the other two quietly leaves the place, Alex also vanishes in thin air.

"Arrrnnn Baaagggrrr Kkaarrn" Chattering among themselves.

Alex was following them just 50 meters behind, hiding from one tree to another. 'I'm an expert at camouflage, all these days of hiding from ferocious monsters has definitely helped in achieving it.'

'I wonder where they are going to so secretively.'

After a long 50 minutes walk, a hole appears and the pandas jumps inside. 'Is this a hunting place like an underground animal den or something?'

Just as he thought, it was a running stream of water underground, four meters deep, as they went deeper, they saw long nosed fish, wierd shape fish that looked like cat fish and eels.

When the Pandas caught the fish, Alex shouts "That is dangerous"

It most definitely was a cat fish, but what's worse was it could have been even much more deadly in this magical world.

The Panda drops the fish in shock. They now were staring at themselves like 'He saw our hideout, should we kill him?'

Alex sighes, "I don't care about this place, I was just curious about where you guys were quietly heading"

The father Panda hits the other two in their face, as if not knowing when to show respect to their saviour.

The pandas didn't seemed to care despite Alex's warning and catches all the fishes they could get.

When they arrived back, they gave some fish to the dead bears too. Maybe this was their way of paying tribute to the dead?

It was time for lunch, all of them gathered and starts eating it. The moment Alex takes a bite he knew it most definitely was poison. Seeing how they eat without any issues, he was sure that they were immune of poison.

Alex wanted to take things slow, he finally met some companions after all those days of hardship. So he decides to stay for a little long before he heads out to the pond.

Over the next 3 days :

Alex plays along with the baby Panda, goes on hunting in different holes. Each had different fishes, even the baby tags along. Although he was almost eaten why a huge eel, the baby kept crying for hours cause of it.

Alex dig a hole to burry the dead pandas with his dagger. They all prayed together.

During his stay, Alex's poison resistance level gradually increased.

[Posion Resistance: Level 2]

It was a fun 3 day, until Alex decides to leave.

********

All of the Pandas were sleeping, Alex was now staring at the pond making sure to not get lost. The place was roughly 9 kilometers far, so this might have been their last farewell with each other since Alex didn't had a destination to stop to.

As he was about to get out, few meters away he saw a group of goblins heading this way along with the goblin who ran away earlier. Alex knew what they came here for....

It's to get their revenge.

"Perfect timing"

Alex smiles hysterically. "Time to put these daggers into test."

In less than 10 seconds, Alex closed the distance between him and the goblins. They had no time to react as he swiftly cut them down, one by one. The speed and force of his strikes were so quick and powerful, each swing landing deep into their body.

Scared, the previously escaped goblin sits on the ground, but it was too late. He loses his right hand before he could even react.

"You should have just run when you had the chance." 8 other goblins standing behind all charged at Alex, but Alex was way too fast and his body was incredibly flexible. Bending over an impossible postion and kicking them in an instant was not something a human could do.

Alex throws the dagger at the goblin reaching for its bow, landing a perfect headshot.

In mere 1 minute all of them were neutralized.

Alex puts a dagger in the throat of one of the survivors "Tell me why did you guys came back?" The goblin spits at Alex.

"I guess they really hate other living beings, I'll have to take them out from the roots or else they would keep coming back." Alex tries to see any footprints remaining of the goblins and walks straight, that was when the father panda interrupts. "Arrr arr rrrggg"

"You want to tag along?" Alex points at himself cluelessly.

The Panda nods aggressively.

Of course why wouldn't he, nobody wants to kill the goblins more than the panda.

"Then what are you waiting for, let's go." Soon the other two quietly follows behind.

"One of you stay..."

"RAARRR! RRAAHH! RAAAHHRR!" The two Pandas growled at Alex, clearly upset, trying to retaliate against his words.

"Whose gonna look after the Baby Panda?" They both went quiet after all that tantrum.

"Don't worry, I will make sure to get revenge for you"

The footprints weren't clear enough to follow, so the Panda used its nose to track the scent instead.

After 40 minutes of tracking there was a small cave entrance, Alex was sure this was the place.

He takes out the dagger and leads the group quietly. Deep underground, the cave inside was quiet large about 4 meters deep.

The goblins were sleeping left and right, some were fighting among themselves others were having a banquet. The place was messy. Leftover foods, fish bones, and sharp stones everywhere.

There were approximately 45 goblins.

"It seems killing them would be easier then I thought."

The biggest issue was the goblin sleeping at the furthest. He was 7 feet tall giant goblin.

Alex swings his dagger and smoothy kills all the goblins coming after him, but he then felt his martial arts were convenient as he don't know much about daggers other than normal attacks.

Like the sound of the wind, Alex was kicking the enemies and hitting them in rapid speed. "Using hands and feet were the right choice."

From one side of the cave to another, Alex was moving like an angry cat kicking everyone straight to their face.

He accidentally hits one of the goblins in his mouth, all the teeth of the goblin breaks in an instant.

The pandas were watching him in both awe and wary. They didn't had to do anything, Alex was plundering them all by himself.

The goblins extinguished the torch, thinking Alex wouldn't be able to see in the dark since he was human. However, Alex grabbed one of the extinguished torches and began using his fire magic. The flame was tiny, barely visible to the naked eye.

The goblins smiles sinisterly thinking they finally got him, and starts to march towards him, only to get beaten up again.

"Who is laughing now?"

Alex accidentally sends one of the goblins flying straight towards the Giant Goblin.

The Giant Goblin wakes up holding a huge stone tied in a large stick. He swings the stick at Alex, Alex dodges it but the attack lands on the wall. The wall was left with a huge hole from the collision.

'Once it hits me, I'm dead' Alex shifts his attention towards the Giant Goblin.

"I leave the rest to you guys" The pandas shouts with pride, finally having a role to play "Arrrnnn"

Alex takes out his dagger. 'My physical strength would hardly hurt this monster.'

Alex dodged every swing with ease. The giant's attacks were powerful, shaking the entire cave with each strike, but they were far too slow for Alex miss. He swiftly cut through the goblin's vital areas, and in an instant, the giant lost its balance. With one decisive move, Alex drove the dagger deep into the giant's neck, delivering a fatal blow.

The cave started shaking, and Alex and the pandas quickly ran to the entrance. Just like that, all the goblins were either crushed by the cave or killed by their hands.

[You have slained a Hobgoblin]

[You have gained 12 exp]

[You have slained a goblin]

[You have slained...]

12 exp for that muscle head?

After the battle, Alex bids farewell with all the Pandas, especially the baby bear. He had no reason to stay here any longer, since the bears issues was solved.

The baby bear looked at Alex with a very sad expression. The poor thing had gone through so many difficult events all at once. The father bear hugged him and raised one of his paws toward Alex in a gesture of thanks, waving at him one last time.

And they went on their seperate ways.

Now that the goblins were all dead, Alex could leave the place with no hesitation.

After walking for the past two hours, Alex was getting close to the pond.

He didn't feel any aura coming from the place but his instincts were telling him to back away.

A massive 40-meter-long snake was hidden just beneath the surface of the water, its eyes locked on Alex, who was curiously gazing at the pond, completely unaware of the creature's presence.

The snake was obviously defensive and was about to attack him, but hust then Alex throws a stone.

The stone hits the snake.

"It isn't that deep?"

Alex looked at the water, still unsure about how deep it was. It was dark and covered with thick grass, the kind that made it hard to see through. The water looked shallow, but the grass made it hard to tell. He had thought it was deep before, but now he wasn't so sure, with his thoughts conflicted.