Alex lay there on the ground. Mud covered his body, and it was in places mud wasn't supposed to be. It stank too. The muck had a pungent odor and was rife with goblin fluids, he imagined. All kinds.

  Ugh.. this shit stinks, but I’m not sure if I can get up yet. It is comfy though… might lie here for a bit. He thought, as his eyes grew heavy and sleep threatened to take him.

  Before Alex dozed off, he heard his name being screamed, and seconds later, he heard something moving toward him. Footsteps ran through the mud, sinking deep, heavy, but they were moving quickly.

  Please don’t be a goblin. I’m spent!

  He rolled onto his stomach, his body making squelching noises in the mud; it tried to suck him down and keep him in place. Fighting the muck, he raised his head and looked toward the pattering steps moving toward him.

  Oh, thank god. It’s Rykos carrying… Sarah? That’s pretty funny to see. Alex chuckled and lay back down.

  It only took a few more seconds for them to arrive.

  “Alex! Are you okay?!” Sarah asked with concern, worry clear on her face, as she leaned down and began to heal him.

  “Mostly. I don’t think I was hurt too badly from the fall, but I’m definitely out of mana. And my side feels like it's on fire.”

  “Good. We were worried when we saw you fall from the sky! What were you thinking?!” she yelled, punching him on the chest.

  “Ouch! I’m an injured and dying man; don’t be so mean. Aren’t you supposed to be a healer?”

  “You shut it. You're not dying… I think. You aren’t too badly wounded, but there's something else. Something that is fighting against my healing. Show me your side!”

  Alex chuckled. Well, that's unlike her. She is usually so timid.

  “Yes, ma’am!” he said with a salute as he slowly rolled to let her see his side where it burned.

  “Alex! What is this?!”

  “Huh? Oh, that. I forgot about that. That general hit me with its black mana ball while I was up in the air.”

  “Your flesh is both decaying and burning at the same time. I don’t know how this is possible. How are you lying there like it's nothing?!”

  “I mean it hurts… but doesn’t feel any worse than getting stabbed by swords, knives, bull horns, or whatever else I’ve been through the past week.” Alex smiled at her.

  She sighed and shook her head as she poured mana into his wounded side. “This world makes no sense now…” she mumbled.

  It took a few minutes for Sarah to stabilize Alex.

  “That’s all I can do for now. I can’t fully heal it now, but it's stable and won’t get any worse. Your natural regeneration should keep it as it is, until I can heal it more later when I’ve recovered mana.”

  “That’ll work fine, I can deal with it. Thank you, Sarah.” He turned to the beastkin, who was still standing nearby. “Rykos, you can rejoin the fight. But do you mind taking Sarah back to the cages first? I’ll make a few stone platforms, so it's easier for you to get over there.”

  “Yes. Quick. I want to kill more," Rykos said, clipped and straight to the point as usual.

  Standing back on his feet, he twinged in pain from his side wound. Alex then wiped the mud from his face while he searched for his sword. When he had slammed into the ground, the sword had flown out of his hands, and it took a moment now to find it in all the mud. Luckily, he always had a feeling of the weapons' general direction.

  Is that because it’s soul-bound? Being connected to it lets me feel it, I guess. That would make sense.

  Sword recovered, he used his barely regenerated mana to make some stepping stones for Rykos. Platforms created, he wasted no time grabbing Sarah, who yelped, and then he took off.

  As Alex stood there, knee-deep in the filth, he tried to grasp the state of the conflict. He wanted to know what was happening, who was winning, and, most of all, who needed his help the most.

  Some of the goblins were running away. They had seen Alex kill the last remaining general and didn’t look keen to hang around. The rest either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care. They were in a frenzy, attacking anyone near the cages.

  The number of goblins has drastically dwindled, at least. It looks pretty easy for us to clean up the rest.

  Before he could do anything else, an announcement appeared.

  Event Update:

  The fifth General has fallen.

  The Shaman General was slain by Alex Everett in single combat.

  No Generals remain.

  All goblins enter a frenzied state for the next ten minutes, and those not under the command of a general will become more aggressive permanently.

  All goblins have 50% increased experience gain.

  All remaining goblins in the tutorial will become berserkers—no thoughts outside of the next kill. They feel no pain. No fear.

  Generals slain 5/5

  Berserker

  Ranger

  Assassin

  Fortress

  Shaman

  The event will end when 500 of the remaining goblins are killed.

  Good luck, gain power, and above all, survive.

  Well… I spoke too soon… Shit.

  Immediately after the announcement, all the goblins screamed in rage and fury, ran toward the nearest non-goblin, and attacked. They didn’t care if they had no weapons or were bleeding out. None of it mattered. They would attack with fist, foot, tooth, and claw, or any weapon they could find.

  His friends and the rescued survivors were quickly overwhelmed by the swarm. The goblins were rampaging like the berserkers they now were. They climbed over each other, corpses, rocks, fallen trees, or structures. Anything between them and their next kill. That was the only thought raging through their minds. Blood.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Alex jumped into action, enhancing himself with wind mana, but not his sword; his mana was still too low. The blade should still cut through the unranked well enough. Weapon in hand, he sprinted the distance between them and began cutting down any goblin he could reach, which was easy because they ran at him without hesitation. He hacked, slashed, cut, stabbed, and maimed any little green bastards he could without slowing down.

  Getting to the cages to help protect everyone was his priority. Dozens died during his short journey to his team's side. The goblins had thrown all tactics out the window and were throwing themselves on his sword.

  A few paces from the cages, while cutting through the horde, Alex received a notification.

  *Evolution Quest - Sword of Alex Everett (Unranked)

  Quest completed. Upgrade available.

  Bronze tier heart required.

  Accept the upgrade now?

  Yes/No

  Alex pulled the heart from his inventory, which he had been saving. Uhhhh… FUCK YES. ACCEPT!

  When Alex finished that thought and accepted the upgrade, the heart turned into pure mana and was absorbed into the sword. The blade then vanished from his hand in a flash of light, his weapon’s sheath following right behind.

  Welp.. I fucked up. I got too excited and didn’t think it through.

  Alex was now weaponless and surrounded by a wave of frenzied goblins. He started punching the goblins near him, kicking the ones he couldn’t reach, or barreling, shoulder-first, through the horde.

  He channeled some of his earth magic to coat his hands and feet in stone, making them more effective weapons. The stone was hardened and compacted to make it thinner and lighter while remaining hard. He even shaped the stone to have a small point on the end, so when he punched, it would stab the goblin.

  The goblins were pressuring the team hard; the sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm them. He did his best to help, but he was working with limited resources at the moment.

  “Sam, got any of your explodey smoke left in the tank? We could use some wide attacks right now.” He called out.

  “Not enough mana for that. We’ve been fighting too long and with too many enemies.” He replied, winded and looking exhausted.

  “How long do you need to regenerate enough mana for it?”

  “A minute or two of rest.”

  “Do it, we’ll hold the line. Make sure all the rescued people are helping if they can. And tell Sarah to get ready with her [Barrier of Protection]; we might need it.”

  “Got it, man.”

  Alex’s mana was still too low; he wouldn’t be able to use wide-area magic to thin them out. So he did his best to make a funnel instead. Earth walls rose in random places around the muck. He did his best to make them taller in areas that would limit the flow of goblins.

  It helped a little to stem the tide; it allowed them to focus on the dense areas rather than in all directions. A few of the rescued earth mages mimicked what Alex did, though they were low-level and couldn’t do much. Even a single wall helped, though.

  Other mages and ranged classes helped to thin the horde, too. Fireballs, wind blades, water balls, mana bolts, arrows, and any skill or weapon assaulted the goblins. He even saw one of the warriors throwing rocks.

  But something changed soon after. Alex felt a pull, a deep draw towards something, as if he were a piece of metal pulled in by a powerful magnet. He could feel and see mana in the air, too; it was churning and twisting as spatial mana flooded the area. He could already feel his regeneration kick into overdrive with the new infusion of it. His body loved it.

  Alex found himself automatically taking a step forward toward the anomaly. It radiated spatial mana, and he yearned for it. He couldn't tear his gaze away from the spot. It was the location where the sword had disappeared from his hand, about ten paces away, and the area was full of goblins.

  The feeling sank deep into his bones, infecting every inch of him. His body craved it, no, it needed it. His mind and mana felt connected to it in ways Alex couldn’t explain. It was as if a part of himself was standing right there in front of him. Like part of him existed elsewhere, and he could still feel it; it yearned to become whole.

  He raised his hand unconsciously toward it. He felt it call to him, and he called to it, and it answered.

  A tear in space opened on the spot, one that took his breath away. Inside that tear, he felt it. It reminded him of that location in space his mind went to, the place he talked to Archy. He wanted to close his eyes and just bask in it, enjoying it for as long as he could.

  When the spatial tear opened, a sheathed sword came flying out of it, straight into his outstretched hand, shattered the stone that had been wrapped around it. He grasped the hilt, and a moment of ecstasy and completion echoed throughout his body. This felt right. It was now where it belonged. With him.

  The tear in space had also killed the goblins near it. Some froze, some gasped as the air was ripped from their lungs, and the ones who touched it had their bodies severed.

  Alex stared down at the weapon and was still lost in his thoughts when something smacked him in the back of the head. Turning to look at what it was, he noticed Derek standing there, covered in goblin blood like the rest of them.

  “What was that for?” Alex asked in bewilderment.

  “We yelled your name ten times. You’ve been standing there like an idiot for almost a minute, daydreaming about your fancy sword that came out of a damn hole in the air.”

  “...What? It’s only been like 5 seconds.”

  “No, Alex, it's been almost a minute. I specifically had to fight my way to you just to smack the shit out of you. Get your head in the game and go kill something."

  “Damn, sorry. I don’t know what happened. I’m good now.”

  Derek nodded and went back to fight the encroaching goblins.

  That was weird. I didn’t know so much time had passed; I got lost in the… depth and feeling of it. The connection was so strong and it overwhelmed everything else. I can't risk looking at the sword again or wasting time inspecting it. I need to help them.

  He quickly buckled on the weapon and moved. Alex withdrew the sword from its sheath, grasping it in hand. He attacked the goblins that were almost upon him. The blade cut through goblins with ease, like it were wind mana enhanced. It bit deeply into flesh and armor. When the edge touched something, it separated… much like when he opened spatial rifts.

  Is the edge sharp, or is there space magic at play here? I’m dying to read the sword's info, but I can’t risk getting distracted again.

  Cutting them down so quickly and easily eased the pressure on his allies nearby, allowing them to move and reinforce elsewhere. Alex was almost lost in the monotony of killing the unranked goblins; he didn't feel the strong mana rise near him. It brought him back into focus. He turned his head in that direction, seeing that Sam was ready.

  He watched with his [Eyes of the Cosmos] as Sam channeled his mana into the smoke-like skill. It spread throughout the area, cloaking the muddy camp in a haze, some areas thicker than others. Goblins didn’t react to it as it settled around them, coating their bodies in the inky blackness.

  Seconds after a dark veil cloaked the camp, he heard Sam snap his fingers and activate the skill [Ignite].

  The camp lit up, fire blazing through the horde of goblins, a chain of explosions echoing throughout the forest for all to hear. The surge of mana and fire blinded Alex, both his regular vision and his Eyes ability. The flames seared through the goblins, melting and burning their flesh in an instant.

  But no screams rang out. The goblins hadn’t felt any pain since the announcement; they simply went from attacking to dead. The explosion left behind an eerie silence. Alex heard nothing afterward except the dull tone in his ears and his own heartbeat. Nothing else existed for him. Only silence and the smell of burnt flesh.

  When his senses returned to him, he first noticed there was still some fighting going on. But it seemed so much smaller than before. Scanning the area, he saw that three-quarters of the goblins nearby had died. Sam had killed well over a hundred with that attack.

  Looking over at Sam, he saw he was barely able to stand. He wobbled from side to side, looking more exhausted than before.

  We need to end this. Everyone is running on fumes; even the warriors are slowing.

  Not much mana had recovered, but he used it anyway. He channeled wind mana into his sword... almost losing focus because of how different it was. His weapon eagerly took in the mana, thirsting for it and feeling more responsive than ever before.

  The wind wrapped his sword with ease, coating the blade as if they were always one. When he slashed his sword forward, he did so horizontally, creating a rift that was flat and parallel to the ground.

  The rift was much larger than usual and formed more easily. When he slashed out, he felt the blade separate space, like a sharp knife through paper. Wind mana rushed in, filling it before the rift closed, and it shot forward.

  The wind rift looked like a farmer harvesting wheat with a great scythe. It was devastating. It cut through anything in its path. Goblins, armor, structures, and tree logs. None of it mattered.

  Goblin heads littered the ground, bodies joining them a moment later.

  Followed by an announcement.

  **Event Update**

  Decimated, the armies of the Five Generals only have remnants left. All event-related goblin buffs and bonuses are gone.

  Event 1 has ended.

  Event 2 will begin on day 13.

  A follow-up announcement will be made in 3 hours to detail what comes next.

  --

  “Finally, some good news,” Alex cheered, raising his sword up high, enjoying the moment.

  The remaining goblins lost their frenzy and bloodthirstiness. Most turned and ran into the forest, though few continued to fight, but it was rare, and they were no threat.

  They had won.

  Both the battle and the first event. He could hear a few of the rescued prisoners cheering, and everyone wore a look of relief, even his party members.

  Patreon. You can read 15 chapters ahead! (Todays release was chapter 66)