The Achievement Junkie

Bart drew his longsword, meeting Maynard's swinging katana head-on. He yelled, "I thought we had a deal! Does the Balt Guild think it can stand against the Royal Court!"

Both guards ignored Bart's shouts and drew their swords in defense of the wagon.

The most shocking thing was that both guards stood strong in the face of the hooded men. Bart and his men were shocked by the discovery of the guards' strength, which rivaled their own, unlike anything they'd expected from casually dressed guards from the Balt Guild.

"I believe you're mistaken," laughed Shlad. In the blink of an eye, both guards' human forms faded away into nothingness. In their place was a pair of goblin guards with wild grins, with their levels finally revealed.

"But… Goblins!?" shouted Bart. He stepped back from Maynard to reassess the situation. "What's going on here?"

"You were warned, so you can only blame yourself," stated Rydel, still taking shots at his moving target.

"Whatever, they're only goblins. Just hurry and kill them. Obviously, no one wants to surrender so we'll have to do things the hard way," ordered Bart.

The longsword began to shimmer as a heavy swing left a streak of blue light in the air. It was aimed at Maynard's head, forcing the samurai to go on the defensive.

Maynard's katana glowed red in retaliation to the incoming longsword. His crossed blades met Bart's, pushing him back a step to contain the force of the attack. He quickly tilted one katana and let the longsword slide by the side of his face, narrowly dodging a heavy blow.

As the heavy blade dropped, the ronin jabbed his second katana toward Bart's chest without mercy. The serious look in his eyes showed Maynard's resolve.

Not being outdone so easily, Bart sidestepped and allowed his sword's momentum to carry him past Maynard's jab.

Without a second thought, both swordsmen repositioned themselves and prepared for a difficult duel.

Rydel was still holding off Harton, but Harton was much closer and would be in striking distance soon.

The man was no longer hooded thanks to the volley of arrows he was under. Harton showed numerous cuts and had an arrow lodged just below his left shoulder. He wasn't doing too well, but he was confident that Rydel wouldn't be able to best him in close combat.

Thinking the same thing as his opponent, Rydel did his best to use ranged attacks while he still had a chance. As Harton neared Rydel, he sped up and nocked three arrows at a time.

This caused Harton to frown in disbelief. Harton was very familiar with Rydel and his archery abilities. Based on Rydel's performance in past missions and archery contests, Harton assumed that Rydel's limit was two arrows. Only the best archer in the branch was able to shoot three, and that wasn't even during battle.

But right before his eyes, Harton watched as he became the target for three simultaneous arrows. Barely able to keep up, Harton almost abandoned defense as he charged Rydel at full speed with sword drawn.

In the back, both guards had their hands full. Shlad was faring well, standing almost equal with his hooded opponent.

The other guard, Blod, was struggling to keep up with his match. He was doing alright, but everyone watching understood that Blod was at a disadvantage to the muscle-bound man beneath the hood.

Seeing this, Brunar took a deep breath and readied his sword to attack.

"No! Don't try it; ya can't fight him yet," yelled Maynard as he exchanged blows with Bart again and again.

Clenching his fist, Brunar gritted his teeth and gripped the hilt of his sword tightly. Accepting his master's wish, Brunar contained his growing rage within an intense glare. The young samurai couldn't help but imagine what Jack would do. He pictured Jack bursting into flames and standing up against the men despite his lack of strength.

Troni remained neutral; not acting out in any way or form. By remaining still and calm he knew that no one would try anything against him, thanks to Bart's earlier promise and his background as the heir to the Salendar Family.

Slivia was frozen in place, clutching the reigns tightly. She knew that the guard wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer, and it would only take a moment for the muscular man to tear through the wagon's canopy and grab Jack as a hostage.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine."

A gentle voice brought Slivia back to her senses. She glanced back into the wagon and saw the queen coming to her feet, now in her true form.

"Ha, you're not worth my time!" shouted Gradan, as he pulled the hood off his bald head. The man resembled Zariff but appeared to be a single size smaller. Scars adorned the little amount of skin he showed, from the top of his head to the bottom of his chin.

Blod grunted and did his best to defended against the studded brass knuckles that pounded into his side. After a few body-blows, the goblin was on the edge of defeat.

"Just die already!" Gradan reached to grab hold of Blod in an attempt to drive his knee into the goblin's chest.

But unexpectedly, Blod's body flew back a couple of meters, out of reach of Gradan's bloodthirsty muscles.

"You think you can treat my guards like this and survive?"

Each of the assailants did a doubletake and stared at a figure that jumped out of the wagon. To their surprise, it was a small, feminine figure with smooth grey skin and pointed ears.

"Who in Halmut's beard are you?" questioned Gradan, realizing that the new challenger was the one who kept him from finishing off his prey.

"You'll pay for mistreating a captain of my guard," said the goblin queen with a frosty tone. "You will all leave your lives behind as repayment."

"If you wanna interfere, then I'll—"

Before Gradan could finish his sentence, he felt the soles of his feet heating up at an unbearable pace. Anxious to relieve the swelling heat, Gradan looked down at the ground and felt fear weigh down his breathing.

The dirt path beneath him was rapidly melting, becoming molten rock at a visible pace. It offered no secure footing for Gradan to jump away and began to bubble up around him. A scream left his mouth as a plume of lava engulfed him.

Everyone paused what they were doing and looked at the goblin queen with newfound terror. Bart's party knew that they had lost the moment the lava pit appeared. Rydel and the others were suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of relief that they had worked things out peacefully with the queen.

Unlike most of the goblin captains which were rushed to lv. 30 and higher with a lot of help from azure crystals, the queen demonstrated power that rivaled extremely talented human mages. She was worthy of being the goblin queen, and she didn't waste an opportunity to prove it in front of everyone.

The plume of lava died down and left nothing behind of Gradan, not even a spatial storage item.

With a glance, the queen scared Jayms, Shlad's opponent to his knees. She squinted and watched the full-grown man pant and cry as he scrambled back to his feet.

Jayms tried to run but a ball of flames flew from the queen's palm and devoured him in seconds, leaving no trace of a corpse.

Bart was doing his best to stay calm. He refused to lower his guard against the battle-hardened Maynard, however, he had no choice but to pay close attention to the angered goblin woman.

"Remember Bart, we tried to persuade you otherwise, but you chose this yourself," yelled Rydel. The hunter was still launching arrows at an incredible speed, not giving Harton a chance to breathe.

Harton had taken a second arrow to the same shoulder while he was distracted by the goblin queen and was desperate to escape. The problem was, of all the opponents he could have, the only ranged threat was his opponent, and there was no way he could escape Rydel's arrows unscathed.

"Next, it's your turn." The queen turned around and noticed Harton entering a state of fight or flight. The light around her hand became warped from the immense heat as it was coated in flames.

Harton yelled as he successfully evaded the arrows, only to find himself in line with the speeding fireball.

While Harton's body was burnt till nothing was left, Bart recognized his dire situation. Not daring to waste time, he hurriedly took out a contact crystal. "Hurry, we've—"

Bart tried to contact those back at the Royal Court about his mission's failure but was quickly silenced by an arrow from the back of his neck.

Blood spilled into his throat as Bart tried to reject his death. His fingers fumbled the longsword as he grabbed at the tip of the arrow, but he only felt something cold cut through his wrists. Bart attempted to look down and see what had happened, only to have his head tumble off his shoulders and fall into his hands, lying on the ground.