Just then.
Lance's sharp Perception caught an unusual gust of wind.
A scout had actually circled around behind them!
Those scouts' synchronized heavy blows earlier had not been meant to break his shield, but to cover their companions' footsteps and create an opening for the one circling behind.
A cunning Goblin Scout had already moved around to their flank and rear. Raising its stone spear high, it viciously thrust it toward the unconscious Damian's head.
If that blow landed, Damian would undoubtedly die.
Without a second thought, Lance spun around, using the centrifugal force of the turn to viciously slam out his shield.
"Bang!"
The ambushing scout was sent flying, its bones and tendons shattered.
But that life-saving strike also completely exposed Lance's back to the enemies in front of him.
It was a fatal opening.
"Pfft! Pfft!"
Two dull impacts rang out.
Even with the protection of leather armor, it still seemed terribly fragile against full-force stone-spear thrusts at close range.
The sharp spearheads pierced the leather armor and sank deep into Lance's lower back.
Blood instantly seeped out, staining the gray leather armor red.
The reduced pain brought by his altered Constitution kept Lance's movements from warping under the agony. His fighting spirit even remained high.
But physical damage to his body's structure could not be ignored.
The pierced muscles began to spasm, causing a fatal sluggishness to appear in his once-agile movements.
The rhythm of the battle was completely thrown into disarray.
The next few seconds became Lance's one-sided suffering.
Unable to dodge in time, he was struck in the shoulder and knee in succession by the Goblin Brutes in front of him.
"Die!"
Lance's eyes turned bloodshot. Taking another spear through the chest, he forced himself one step forward.
The short sword in his hand became a cold flash, accurately plunging into the chest of the scout that had landed its ambush and was about to retreat.
This was the last one.
Almost simultaneously.
A thick, spiked wooden club whistled through the air and smashed heavily into his back.
"Crack."
The crisp sound of his spine breaking was clearly audible, and a large section of Lance's back visibly caved in.
Several stone spears followed close behind, mercilessly piercing his chest and turning him into a pincushion.
Lance swayed, and the short sword slipped weakly from his hand.
He slowly dropped to his knees before Damian, utterly losing all signs of life.
By then, corpses littered the shallows.
Of the nearly twenty-strong Goblin force, fewer than ten battered survivors remained.
Seeing this terrifying human finally fall, the surviving Goblins looked at one another before letting out cries of victory.
"Wala! Wala!"
They waved their weapons, celebrating this hard-won victory.
However.
At the height of their cheers, a blue screen visible only to Lance suddenly appeared in midair.
[Biological Research level increased: LV1 → LV2] [Race trait unlocked: Weakness Insight (Goblin)]
As those words appeared.
The Goblins' shrill cheers in the shallows suddenly and strangely died down.
"Wala?!"
The Goblins that had been cheering moments ago abruptly fell silent like ducks with their throats seized.
The green-skinned monsters discovered in horror that the human corpse that should have been dead was undergoing an extremely bizarre change.
From Lance's horrifying wounds, vast amounts of scorching white steam suddenly erupted.
The steam billowed upward with a strange, piercing whistle.
The stone spears lodged in his chest were forcibly pushed out by the erupting steam, falling onto the pebble shore with several clatters.
The mangled flesh that had once curled grotesquely was wildly wriggling and healing at a visible rate.
In the blink of an eye, it had fully recovered, without even a trace of a scar.
Even the broken bones in his spine were forcibly reset amid a series of teeth-grinding cracks.
Only a few seconds had passed since he fell.
The terrifying human, who had clearly stopped breathing, slowly rose amid the curling white steam.
"So this is what death feels like?"
Lance lowered his head to look at his palm, then clenched his fist tightly.
It did not seem much different from his previous life.
He bent down and silently picked up the short sword and round shield from the ground.
The handle of the iron-rimmed round shield had already loosened somewhat, and its covering was badly torn. It would probably be completely ruined after this battle.
As he adjusted his breathing, Lance felt his body instantly return to its peak, fully restored state.
All the pain from before vanished without a trace.
Looking back on it now, his earlier belief that he could kill dozens, even hundreds, of monsters a day after gaining his Talent had been far too ignorant and arrogant.
No matter what kind of creature it was, when you did not possess an absolute crushing advantage, numbers could truly bring about a qualitative change.
These Goblin Brutes had strength attributes of at most three or four points, while his own strength already exceeded theirs by one and a half times.
Yet even so, he could still be surrounded and killed in a melee.
"It seems I underestimated these low-level monsters."
Lance's gaze turned icy.
Seeing this human return from the dead, the Goblins instinctively felt a chill and gripped their weapons as they retreated several steps.
Taking advantage of this opening, Lance glanced at the system notifications frantically scrolling across his retina.
The topmost one explained [Weakness Insight].
No wonder.
In his current field of vision, the Goblins before him were covered in red spots of light, large and small.
Some were on their throats, some beneath their arms, and others on their abdomens.
The system notification clearly marked them: as long as he struck these glowing spots, he could deal up to 200% critical damage.
For a race as physically frail as Goblins, being struck in a weak point basically meant instant death.
As Lance's cold gaze swept across their bodies.
The Goblins inexplicably felt a bone-chilling dread, as though an invisible blade rested against their throats.
And beneath the trait was a long string of densely packed information.
[Life signs vanished. Beginning death assessment...] [Talent: Ouroboros Ring activating...] [Assessment passed: Congratulations, you successfully defied death.] [Great Deed information detected...] -- 1. Completely lose all life signs during a battle. 2. Revive and return to the world of the living within 60 seconds. 3. Possess a strong desire to protect at the time of death; not suicide or an accident. -- [Congratulations, you have accomplished the Great Deed: "I Successfully Defied Death"] [Great Deed effect: When you face another death check, all attributes temporarily increase by 10%. For three minutes, you are immune to instant-death effects, mind control, and fear effects. Unless physical mutilation leaves you unable to move, you can continue fighting until death. (Note: Those who have defied death are less likely to die again.)] [Several compatible Great Deed Class information streams detected. Decrypting...] [Successfully decrypted a Great Deed Class path: Pale Sentinel...]
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