Episode-253

Words : 1607 Updated : Oct 3rd, 2025

Chapter : 505 They reached the edge of the Shadowfen Forest. It was like stepping from day into a perpetual, gloomy twilight. The vibrant green grass of the plains gave way abruptly to a carpet of black, spongy moss and twisted, grasping roots. The trees were gnarled, ancient things, their bark the color of old bone, their branches a tangled, claw-like canopy that blotted out the serene blue sky of the Farm, creating a world of shadow and gloom. A faint, foul-smelling mist clung to the ground, carrying the scent of rot, of stagnant water, and of the raw, green-skinned scent of the forest’s inhabitants. The moment they stepped under the shadow of the first gnarled oak, Lloyd’s senses, amplified by his bond with Fang Fairy, screamed a warning. Ambush. Three o’clock. High. He didn’t even have time to process the thought before a crude, heavy net, weighted with sharpened stones, dropped from the branches above, aiming to entangle and immobilize them. Simultaneously, the forest floor to his left erupted, a section of the mossy ground giving way to reveal a deep, spike-lined pit trap, its sharpened wooden stakes gleaming with some dark, viscous, and undoubtedly poisonous, substance. It was a classic, coordinated goblin ambush. A trap from above, a trap from below, designed to catch an unwary traveler, to force them into a single, deadly choice. But Lloyd Ferrum was not an unwary traveler. He was a Major General. And he had a Transcended spirit partner who could move faster than thought. “Fang Fairy, clear the net!” his mental command was a sharp, instantaneous flash. She moved, a blur of silver-grey and azure light. She didn't try to dodge the net. She met it head-on. Her Lightning Cloak flared to life, not as a defensive aura, but as an offensive, explosive pulse. With a sharp, crackling FZZZ-T, a wave of high-voltage energy erupted from her form, incinerating the crude hempen ropes of the net in an instant, turning it to a shower of blackened, smoking ash before it had even fallen halfway to the ground. At the same time, Lloyd himself reacted, not with a panicked leap, but with a smooth, controlled application of his Void power. He focused his will, and a single, almost invisible, steel wire shot from his hand, not at an enemy, but at the thick, low-hanging branch of a nearby oak tree. It wrapped around the branch in an unbreakable coil. With a sharp, mental tug, he used it as a grappling hook, a pivot point. He swung, his body a graceful, pendulum-like arc, sailing effortlessly over the gaping, spike-lined maw of the pit trap. He landed in a silent crouch on the other side, the steel wire dissipating back into nothingness. The entire, complex, two-pronged ambush had been neutralized in less than two seconds. From the surrounding thickets, a chorus of high-pitched, frustrated shrieks erupted. Three small, green-skinned figures burst from the foliage, their faces, a grotesque pastiche of snouts and sharp, yellowed teeth, contorted in masks of savage fury. They were goblins, clad in crude, mismatched scraps of leather and rusted metal, wielding jagged, saw-toothed blades and crude, heavy clubs. They had seen their perfect trap fail, their prey effortlessly evade their cunning. And now, their surprise had turned to a mindless, vicious rage. They charged, their screeching cries echoing in the gloomy forest, their movements low, scuttling, surprisingly fast. Lloyd watched their clumsy, furious charge with a cold, almost bored, detachment. Predictable, his internal strategist noted. Failure of initial ambush leads to disorganized, direct assault. Textbook primitive tactics. He didn't even bother with his chains. This was a job for the scalpel. Fang Fairy, his command was a quiet, deadly whisper. Target prioritization: all three. Simultaneous incapacitation. The Chirp. Keep it... tidy. Fang Fairy, who had landed silently beside him, her golden eyes blazing with a cold, predatory light, inclined her head. She lowered her stance, her ethereal form a coiled spring of contained, elemental fury. The air around her began to hum, to crackle, the familiar, high-pitched, and deeply unnerving, shriek of a thousand birds beginning to tear through the gloomy silence of the Shadowfen. The three charging goblins faltered, their crude minds struggling to process the bizarre, ear-splitting sound. They saw the beautiful, silver-haired woman before them, and then they saw her right arm erupt in a blinding, incandescent nimbus of pure, azure lightning. She moved. She was not a blur. She was an impossibility. She seemed to be in three places at once, a flickering afterimage of storm and light. Chirp-SLICE. The first goblin, the one on the left, simply... stopped. Its screeching charge cut off mid-stride. A single, clean, cauterized line appeared across its throat, and its head tumbled from its shoulders, its body collapsing into a boneless heap. Chapter : 506 Chirp-SLICE. The second goblin, the one in the center, managed a single, wide-eyed look of pure, uncomprehending terror before Fang Fairy’s lightning-wreathed hand passed through its chest, leaving behind a smoking, fist-sized hole where its heart had been. Chirp-SLICE. The third goblin, the one on the right, had just begun to turn, to flee, but it was far, far too slow. The final, brilliant flash of azure lightning caught it at the base of the skull, its spine severed instantly, its body sent tumbling into a nearby thorny bush. The fight was over. Three enemies, neutralized in the space of a single, brutal heartbeat. The Thousand Chirp Strike, wielded by a Transcended spirit with a perfect, symbiotic connection to her master’s will, was not just a weapon; it was an act of instant, absolute erasure. The forest fell silent once more, the only sound the faint, lingering crackle of residual lightning and the soft, dripping of a foul, black liquid from a nearby, menacing-looking mushroom. Lloyd walked forward, his boots silent on the black moss, and looked down at the three still, steaming goblin corpses. A familiar, almost invisible, wisp of dark energy seemed to rise from their bodies, dissipating into the air. He saw the faint, golden glow of the Farming Coins appearing above them, waiting to be collected. The harvest had begun. And the forest, he knew, was full of prey. The Shadowfen Forest was a relentless, grinding classroom in the brutal art of asymmetric warfare. Each new encampment was a fresh tactical puzzle, a new lesson in the primitive, but often surprisingly effective, cunning of the goblin mind. They were not just mindless beasts like the slimes; they were a true, if savage, society, and they fought with a desperate, cornered-rat viciousness that demanded respect. Lloyd and Fang Fairy became a seamless, two-part engine of destruction, their synergy honed to a razor’s edge with each new encounter. They learned the goblins’ patterns, their tells. A certain arrangement of fallen logs almost always concealed a spike pit. A narrow, seemingly clear path through a dense thicket was invariably the kill-zone for a net trap or a volley of crude, poison-tipped arrows fired from concealed positions in the trees. A single, lone goblin, seemingly lost and vulnerable, was always the bait, the lure to draw them into a larger, more comprehensive ambush. They learned to counter these tactics with a cold, ruthless efficiency that was a perfect fusion of their disparate strengths. Lloyd’s mind, the mind of the Major General, became the battle-space command center. His enhanced senses, amplified by his bond with Fang Fairy, allowed him to perceive the forest not just as a collection of trees and shadows, but as a living, breathing tactical map. He could feel the faint, almost imperceptible vibrations in the earth that betrayed the hidden pit traps. He could sense the subtle disturbances in the air, the faint traces of Void energy used to hold the trigger mechanisms for the net traps in place. He could see the heat signatures of the goblins hiding in the dense foliage, their small, hot bodies betraying their positions to his analytical gaze. He became the spotter, the strategist, the fire control. He would identify the threats, analyze the terrain, and formulate the plan of attack in the space of a single, silent heartbeat. Two archers, ten o’clock high, concealed in the ironwood canopy, his mental command would flash to his partner. One shaman, six o’clock, behind the large, moss-covered boulder, preparing a crude earth-spike spell. Five grunts preparing a frontal assault. Trap at our one o’clock. And Fang Fairy... Fang Fairy was the weapon. The scalpel. The thunderbolt. She had transcended mere instinct; she now understood strategy. She would receive his commands, process them, and execute them with a speed and a precision that was breathtaking. Acknowledged, Master. Prioritizing ranged threats. Eliminating the shaman first. She would move, a silent, silver-grey ghost, flowing through the shadows with a speed that was almost faster than sight. The goblin shaman, his gnarled hands raised, his voice a guttural chant as he drew power from the corrupted earth, would never even know what hit him. A single, brilliant flash of azure lightning, the high-pitched shriek of the Thousand Chirp Strike, and the shaman’s head would simply... cease to be attached to his body. Before the other goblins could even register the death of their leader, she would be gone, a blur of motion, already moving on to the next target. The archers in the trees would have just enough time to nock an arrow before a shimmering blade of solidified lightning, a smaller, faster variant of the Spear of Justice that they had begun to call a ‘Lightning Dart’, would punch through their chest, silencing them forever.

Episode-253

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