Michael went on the offensive, there were now 6 goblins in total, the strength of whom easily surpassed any level 80 that he knew of, much stronger than the wolves he fought.
Their abilities were balanced between power and strength, making them really formidable, for him to go toe to toe with them was quite the feat, especially since according to the system, his level was still around 44.
But by now he realized that it was extremely inaccurate, even without active skills, his mana control made him fight at the level of those who were at least level 90-100.
Even the stats did not seem to change him that much, at first, the differences were incredibly noticeable, but now, it was not as prominent.
His system/status seemed to be frozen and his stats were outdated, it just did not feel right.
However, he had other problems at hand to deal with currently, as the goblins kept swinging their swords at him and he continued to counterattack, killing at least one per clash.
Even then, the rot had already spread from his calf and fully covered everything up until the knee.
His speed had been decreasing for a while now, every single time he took a step, a sharp pain assaulted him.
There were 13 goblins left by now, the numbers on the human side took a massive nose dive, most of the guards were either sitting limbless or already dead.
The only ones standing were the adventurers and even their numbers had drastically decreased, only a few parties remained.
A goblin had swung his dual swords aiming for Michael’s head, followed by another goblin aiming for his back.
‘Shit’ He was in a precarious situation, he couldn’t dodge one and the other and his only choice was to take the attacks head on, however, he still had something he wanted to try, worst case scenario he just gets stabbed, no pressure.
Michael summoned a colorless shield and jumped backwards, colliding with the swords and using the momentum to launch himself into safety.
It worked and he managed to avoid the attacks, however, the safety he looked for was nowhere near him as he landed right next to 3 goblins who already had their swords in motion, aiming for his vitals.
‘Think.. what can fucking help me’ Michael immediately thought back to his healing, the golden glow it emitted, but he just couldn’t replicate it no matter how hard he tried.
During this battle, he tried many times to imagine the golden light enveloping his mana, though each time he thought he had gotten closer, the mana came out colorless, like always…
As the attacks were about to connect, Michael cast a bunch of miniature Swords of Mana, aiming for a shotgun attack, hoping at the very least, a single sword would connect with their bodies and kill them.
“Fuck off!” He let loose the miniature swords flying in a massive cone right in front of him, colliding with the goblin swords, disrupting their path and making their attacks miss him.
Michael’s attacks were not successful either, the moment he cast that spell, the 3 goblins twisted their bodies in a way that would reduce the chances of him hitting their vitals.
Even if they looked stupid, they had good instincts, he could admit at least that much.
The onslaught of attacks stopped for some reason, Michael noticed they were all looking in one direction, it was where they had come from earlier.
He took this chance to play dirty and cast his Swords of Mana right at the idling goblins, penetrating 3 of their abdomens and effectively killing them.
The other 3 were more alert, so they were able to dodge his attacks.
All of a sudden, an oppressive pressure bore down on all of them, goblins included.
The city’s army stopped fighting as they found it difficult to move and the goblins kneeled on the ground, facing in the direction of the incoming pressure.
Michael also looked on in the direction the goblins were staring in and noticed a goblin that had a full set of armor covering his entire body, not a single gap could be seen.
It was holding a greatsword that was at least twice the size of its body.
‘The leader is finally here eh?’ Michael thought with a serious expression and cast his Mana Spear through the 3 kneeling goblins, they did not even try to dodge it and were impaled.
‘Fucking fanatics’ He noticed his mana was at barely 20% now, it seemed around 2% regenerated each minute, definitely not enough to deal with whatever that thing was.
The adventurers beheaded the remaining goblins as well, if he had to guess, it was just testing the waters with the generals, reducing the numbers so it wouldn’t take so long to kill the rest.
A lazy ruler or a tyrant, not much of a difference between the two, the only thing that mattered was that the goblin leader is strong.
Michael was not going to waste time as he began walking towards it, if he waited any longer his leg would fully become rotted, it is a miracle it was still only at the thigh.
Others who had been slashed, had their bodies rotted within a couple of seconds, they couldn’t even finish screaming before they died.
‘The perks of being a healer I suppose’ Michael thought with doubt, if healer was a placeholder, an affinity, then what was the true nature behind his abnormal abilities?
The system clearly lied about it being responsible for most of Michael’s success, his heals were better than other people’s and his regeneration was abnormal enough to regrow a lost limb.
‘Oh well… I’ll ask Freya’ He thought nonchalantly as he began casting Swords of Mana, preparing to fight the goblin leader who seemed way out of his league, not like he had a choice anyway.
However, as that was happening, the world once again turned gray, time slowed down as his injuries quickly healed.
[First Trial: Trial of War-Phase 3 Initiated]
The red hologram flashed in front of his eyes and quickly disappeared, his vision shifting as he appeared behind the city walls once again, the amount of people around him could be counted on his two hands.
‘We shouldn’t have lost that many..’ Michael thought as he looked around, seeing some familiar faces, most of whom sat in the back lines.
There was a staircase leading up to the top of the wall, it was previously collapsed but now it has once again returned, the hole in it no longer there.
He walked up the stairs and arrived at the very top of the wall, overlooking the previous battlefield.
Michael’s eyes widened ‘Fuck…’
The entire ground was dyed red, bodies scattered all around, a massive scar on the ground in the area where Michael stood just before the world turned gray.
The bodies of the goblins he killed were still there and the bodies of the people he saw die did not disappear either, it’s as if he moved forward in time to after the battle was over.
However, there was still some stuff amiss, such as, where is the goblin leader?
No one in this entire city could kill it even if they all gathered together, his level according to Michael’s estimates was around 160, double that of the goblin generals.
Levels were a great way to estimate strength, well, until he figures something new out anyway.
Phase 3 had begun and he had no clue what it was about, Phase 1 was like an introduction to the city, with a teaser to phase 2.
Phase 2 was some sort of a monster wave that had 5 waves in total, with the boss monster appearing in the very final one.
However, he noticed that something was amiss, in Phase 1 he saw the ground that was charred, however, after Phase 2, that had not yet happened.
‘What kind of bullshit am I going to face now?’
