This was fun.
Driving people to despair and dismantling their power systematically like setting a sequence of domino pieces all falling together just with one push while just doing nothing but playing a grand scheme.
It is really fun.
The current psyche of Leon simply felt malicious enough to play such a long game. All he needed was his mask and he kept having fun thereafter.
His mask gave him a trait that is inborn to Goblins and all other subterranean races, Darkvision.
As he put on the mask, he started going around the area hunting down both humans and goblins alike. He knocked a few of them down and here he used the other function of the Goblin Mask.
"AARK! It hurts… it hurts… kin, help, kin, come, fight."
"Well well, isn't that courageous?" Leon lowered his posture and grabbed up the Goblin which he just messed up.
"Help! Ugly kin! Help!"
The small goblin held up with one hand was indeed unsightly. His disgusting features would cause people to lose appetite along with other things.
"You…" Leon wanted to speak but the goblin struggled more.
"AAARK! Scary kin! Help!" The goblin squirmed and struggled even more.
"Hold on!" Leon then realized something and a vein almost popped on his forehead, "You were calling me Scary… and Ugly?"
Leon immediately pinned the scared goblin to a tree and took off his mask then compared its features with the goblin.
"… It's not that bad!" He said half in denial.
"AAARK, AAAK, KAAK." The goblin screamed in non-understandable language.
"Oh, sorry." Leon then returned the Goblin Mask on his head, "You were saying?"
Without the mask, Leon wouldn't understand the goblins and they wouldn't understand him. That's the most basic function of this thing.
"Help! KAAA!"
"Alright, let's start again."
Leon lost what little patience he had thanks to the goblin and took out his knife intending to let this conversation flow faster and hopefully to a point.
"You talk without permission, this happens." He said and saved the knife completely making a finger from the goblin's left-hand fly.
"AAAH!" The goblin could suppress its screams but the noises from the nearby battle were enough to cover for itself.
"I said, you scream without permission…" Leon then almost cut another finger making the goblin go silent in an instant from the shock before turning its ugly cunning eyes to the human which spoke its tongue.
"It seems I established basic sense. Great!" Leon smiled behind his mask, "Now, let's talk about the entrances and the exits of that little cave of yours. I am sure sleazy little fucks such as yourselves will have multiple ins and outs… no way you only use one way without a secret place to sneak out from, right?"
Leon's words were heard by the Goblin. Although its usage of vocabulary was simple, it could understand Leon right away. Sinister it was the words of Leon once they fell and the goblin couldn't think of how to deal with the troublesome predator.
"AAAK! Help! Kin, come, help!"
"You sure are noisy."
This time, Leon carved out an ear. The goblin screamed, struggled, glared at Leon, tried to bite him; only to end up getting its face kicked.
"Next will be your nose." Leon said, "Now, guide me to where that hidden entrance is."
No matter how much the goblin resisted, it will be impossible to escape from Leon in such a sorry state. Moreover, Leon was the kind to enjoy torturing their captives on any little mistake. As this basic understanding was established between the captive and the captor, the goblin could only take Leon to where the goblins are supposed to go in and out from. He might have been calling for his kin for help but a goblin is no loyal creature, if its life is endangered then its life is more important than anything.
Unsurprisingly, it was a very small tunnel that would only fit one small person to crawl through which makes it dangerous because of the lack of freedom of mobility along with a hundred different reasons.
"This is going to be fun." Leon said with a twisted smile.
He dropped down the goblin and kicked its head until it passed out then immediately turned to the hole. With his Air Magic, Leon circulated the Mana and aimed his hands forward.
"Aero Detection!"
The magic rushed out of his hands, controlled the wind around him, and slowly started invading the small tunnel. Thanks to its narrowness, the air was forced to take a longer route inside which by its part elongated the detection range of the Aero Detection spell to almost ten times the distance away from the caster.
Leon could see the inside of the Goblin Den to a certain degree now… it was vast at some points, narrow at others. Leon couldn't spread his detection thinner unless it is in narrow places thus he kept focusing on making a mind map for the den from inside and making a count for the enemies inside which was an awful lot of them. Still, at some parts, Leon felt that his detection wasn't getting through at all as if being blocked by some sort of protection that went eating away his Mana.
Strange! It felt like something soft but at the same time impossible to go through. A sponge of Mana or rather… a cloud.
The Darkness spell, so that is what it does.
It is like a magic signal jamming but with even a visible effect.
Good stuff! Truly.
Leon was happy now that he got his objectives sorted out and started to prepare for the second phase… stopping the humans' attack. He needed both the Goblins and the Humans to be busy with each other but not too busy or in a deadlock either. Part of his objective is still inside.
How to do things now?
First, he killed the Goblin he captured and blocked the back entrance of the Goblin Den with a stone. Next, he went around the area looking for human scouts. It is best to avoid the students thus his target was the Knights and the Soldiers. The Knights are a bigger game thus killing them required doing it with a stealthy approach else he would risk himself being dragged into a noisy duel.
In half an hour, he managed to assassinate 5 knights who went on patrol and knocked down one soldier. With that, he was ready to start his show.
***
One, two, three, four… eleven, twelve… fifteen.
< [Marksmanship Technique] Level Up (1 → 2) >
Fifteen goblin kills with a bow were what needed to level up the skills. If his calculations are correct, he should be able to level it up once again with 45 goblin kills or what equals it in damage to a certain monster.
There was a lot of math here but the environment also had a say. Part of the reason why Leon was able to level up on goblins so fast is the fact that he hunted them from inside the Darkness cloud.
The Darkness cloud came from inside their cave and spread thinly outside to cover the Goblins fortifying the entrance. With them hiding behind stones from the arrows being shot by the Prince and his lackeys, Leon hunted down the remaining goblins which were outside the cave stealthily.
The plan was working in his favor so far. Part of his psyche was consumed by killing so much that he stopped questioning what he was doing. All he knows is that there is an emergency quest and he better finish it as soon as possible.
"Fire!"
Seeing the Prince shout one command after the other, Leon couldn't help but shake his head and wait for the pause to finally enter the Darkness cloud and he did so with nothing to hinder him at all thanks to the Mask's ability.
The Darkness spell has some abilities. First, it nullifies magic which is a common trait to the Shadow Element. Second, it requires a lot of Mana thus it is one of the superior elements.
In any case, there will be no removing of this spell any time soon unless…
"Spellcasters! Bring an end to that ugly curse!"
… they tried to overpower it with Light Magic.
This can't just happen, can it now?
Immediately, Leon took out a set of items from his Storage. 3 crossbows of the standard-issue, carried by most soldiers. Following them are the corpses of the Knights he just killed.
Five knights is a big number that certainly boosted his XP by a lot but these young knights seemed to be all juniors. It is a shame to die so young for someone so worthless. Leon smirked as he eyed the Prince from his spot.
With the sword, he mutilated the corpses around him and readied his trap thoroughly.
"ARG!"
"Shush!"
Instantly, a voice of a muffled struggle came from closeby. Leon aimed with his blade at the source and then gestured for it to be quiet. That lone survivor Leon had was the soldier he disabled and captured a while ago. Leon let him live but gagged and tied him well.
Finally, all his cards were put together nicely and the real showdown started.
***
Both Leon and the Prince were aiming to wipe out the Goblins hiding in the Darkness cloud. Only Leon knew that there were hardly any Goblins left as he was the only one who could see in darkness thanks to his mask.
The Prince gave a command for the magic casters to dispel the Darkness cloud by counter-charging it with brute Mana.
Leon sat his aim at the heart of the Prince's formation, the three Light Element junior mages. With the three crossbows he prepared, Leon immediately held the first, shot, dropped, took the second, shot, dropped, took the third, shot.
Three crossbow bolts flew directly towards the three junior mages aiming at non-vital spots.
The Prince intercepted the attack as he was standing behind the two girls with Light Element among the junior mages. Immediately, he managed to duck with them before they were hit yet the third mage, a male, was hit.
The defense heightened and the students started to prepare once again but Leon took a dump on their morale when he threw two severed heads from the corpses he mutilated towards them.
The Prince became nervous and ordered a volley of arrows to shower down the already overkilled Goblins so Leon managed to throw in the three whole corpses he had. Once the volley of arrows was over, Leon snuck into the Darkness cloud rather than staying in its side and started throwing the Knight corpses which were littered with arrows outside the Darkness which destroyed the mental strength left to the Human side now that they think that they killed their own.
Before the Prince could give any speech that would flip their bad situation or any hidden variable came to the surface, Leon rushed his plan and introduced his lead protagonist of the scene, the Hostage Soldier.
Everyone saw a human kneeling on his knees, begging for his life, crying out names of his loved ones as he was trapped between the rock and the hard place with his life being used by the mysterious goblin. While on the other side, a gathering of humans stood completely unprepared for this event, and the man who is supposed to be leading humanity in this part of the world standing helpless as his face almost became like someone who swallowed the bitter pill.
They all could see what's standing behind that poor hostage.
A Goblin… a Goblin whose face was simply monstrous as it stared at them with bad darkness over the one which he was already shrouded in. The moment that Goblin showed its face, it looked straight to the Prince and displayed a suffocating feeling of malice and hate.
Then…
"NO! NOOO!"
He dragged the soldier back to the Darkness.
All that was left was the shadow of the soldier still kneeling with the goblin behind him completely hidden. A terrifying notion that this raid has come to a halt.
Leon smirked, Prince Edward cussed in frustration, Eleanor couldn't help but feel intrigued… and in the shadows, a number of experts laid in wait for any to befall their patrons.
What broke the silence was…
*BOOM*
*Crack* Crack* *CRUSH*
It felt as if a mountain was falling. A slight earth tremor followed a cloud of dust rising within the Darkness cloud.
Something felt rather wrong.
"Move back!"
Eleanor shouted as she stepped ahead of everyone and raised her hand. With a single swing, the remainder of the Darkness spell was suddenly dispelled in an instant with an overwhelming pressure of Mana.
And the hidden scene showed itself as the dust settled.
A lone soldier lying on the ground with a crossbow bolt penetrating his skull, a field of rocks and stones with hundreds of goblins lying dead littered with countless arrows, and finally the Goblin Den… blocked by the rubble of rocks covering the entrance.
"Those crazy goblins… they locked themselves inside?"
"Impossible. If they had such powerful firepower, they would have used it against us."
"What exactly did they do?"
This was by far the most interesting goblin deb raid Eleanor ever witnessed and she witnessed a lot. The reason for that is how these Goblins managed to resist so long so far.
But this… this is something she had no explanation to.
Dirty tactics are known as a goblin trait but psychological warfare, executing hostages, manipulating the opponent, buying time, and then using a solution this insane to bring down a cave. As a practitioner of the Arcane Arts, she was already biting her lower lip with anticipation.
Looking backward, she saw the students already on the verge of losing their cool. They weren't stupid, they witnessed it all as well.
The Goblins used such dangerous magic to create Darkness, the black goblin which used a hostage, the Prince's terrible performance at the end, the astonishing last trick the goblins used to block the cave… it all made them uneasy.
"Earth Mages, start clearing the rubble." Eleanor spoke, "Let's see how long those goblins are willing to resist."
As she gave orders, the students looked at each other than between her and the Prince who was still in command of the operation.
"Headmistress, this is a cooperative raid between the Students and the Knights. There is no reason to…" Prince Edward wanted to say something but Eleanor cut his words.
"I relieve you from the leadership you assumed." She replied.
Not only was she acting within boundaries as a Headmistress, but she was also fully taking advantage of the current situation to demean the Crown Prince.
"The Knights…" He wanted to speak again.
"The Knights can turn around and leave if they want to. If they want to avenge their comrades, they get to stay." Eleanor said before her glare turning towards the Knights, "Of course, they do want to enact revenge but they will still act in line according to the chain of command."
In a second, she pulled the carpet off his feet before he could even recover and resolve the problem. On the records and the reports, this will be understood as if he failed in leadership and was relieved from it thanks to the mistakes he made.
In his mind, he wasn't even bothered by the dead knights, the soldier, and the injured student. He is clearly bothered by the fact that he was played around and failed to enact revenge for Pearl from the pesky goblins. Even now, he was ordered to get in line just like the other students.
If this wasn't his most bitter evening, then it is Leon's most fortunate day. The very same Leon who was driven by his inner darkness into the Goblin Den through the back entrance.
Psycho-Leon is fun!
Looks like he deleted mentally stable from his dictionary at last.
I'm awaiting the day he starts calling the Ring... Precious.
Honestly, I'm baffled about who influences what in his behavior. Is it just the ring? Something else?
Blob Neutral
"Help! Ugly kin! Help!"
lol