Gray Fog Goblins

"I saw them. What disgusting creatures."

Ashina's red eyes shone with the crimson glow of divine power in the Gray Fog.

The enemies were resting in a clearing, toying with the female slave's corpse.

"I'm so jealous you can see through the Gray Fog. I can't see a thing." After signing the contract, the lord had also gained immunity to the toxins of the Death Miasma, but he still couldn't see through the Gray Fog. All Field could see was a blanket of white. "What attacked the territory?"

"A bunch of... little people. Dwarves? But not as fat."

"Can we beat them? If not, we should attack with the guards."

"No problem! They're just ordinary living creatures." Feeling the warmth of Field's chest against her back, Ashina unconsciously let out a contented purr, though her tone remained casual. "We can just crush them. They haven't noticed us."

Field carefully drew his longsword, trying not to make a sound, then lowered his voice. "Then let's wreck them!"

"Awooo!"

A wolf's howl, thick with killing intent, shattered the frozen silence of the Gray Fog.

A burst of frantic, panicked shrieks answered the howl. Only then did a mass of red exclamation marks appear on Field's Mini-Map.

Just as I thought. Creatures that aren't corrupted have to become hostile toward me before a warning appears.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

A volley of javelins pierced the Gray Fog, hurtling toward the two of them.

The giant wolf dodged swiftly, its body blurring as it evaded them with ease.

"The enemies can see us, so there's not much point hiding in the Gray Fog."

Field lit the Mist-Driving Lamp, and his surroundings immediately became clear. Tentacles and vines cast shifting shadows all around them, and rotting corpses littered the ground. But the most striking sight was still that group of "dwarves."

More precisely, they were a bunch of goblins with large noses and sharp teeth. Unlike ordinary goblins, these little monsters had the cloudy white eyes of the dead and ocher skin.

The female slave they had abducted had already been killed by the Death Miasma while being dragged through the Gray Fog, yet they had still stripped her naked and tortured her. Corruption had caused a dense cluster of tumors to form on the left side of her abdomen. Field, who suffered from trypophobia, nearly dropped dead after a single hurried glance.

At the sight of humans, the Gray Goblins waved their arms and stamped their feet in taunting gestures.

"They're immune to the Gray Fog. That's not good news." The moment Field saw their appearance, he understood that Gray Goblins were a species that had survived the Death Miasma's lethal selection. "Let one escape. Kill all the others."

Ashina made no attempt to hide her killing intent. "Understood."

Shunk!

The giant wolf abruptly appeared above the goblin at the front of the group. Looking at the slave's brutally mangled corpse, Ashina's pretty face flushed with anger, and the spear in her hand accelerated again. With the sound of steel piercing flesh, it plunged into the unlucky goblin's chest. Blood sprayed wildly as the giant wolf's momentum sent it flying. It landed in the distance like a torn rag, its bones and sinews shattered.

There were more than thirty goblins. Wearing ill-fitting armor, they swarmed forward like an ocher wave. Rusty spears thrust from every direction, while the more frenzied ones leaped at them with limbs spread wide, trying to drag them off their mount.

"You're asking to die!"

Those crowd-pleasing scenes of defeat were merely inventions of the Empire's novelists, written to entertain the masses. Against the terrifying combat power of a Chosen One, goblins-ordinary goblins, at least-stood no chance whatsoever.

The giant wolf didn't even need to breathe fire. It barreled through the goblin horde while Ashina thrust her lance again and again, each strike taking the life of one goblin or several.

Blood spread, then seeped into the soil of the Northern Frontier, gathering in little pools in the hollows. Wails and screams rose one after another. Together with the Northern Frontier Province's distinctive "Cthulhu" terrain, the scene resembled hell.

"Aaaah!"

After suffering devastating casualties, the goblins began to rout. But exposing the unprotected backs of their heads to an extraordinarily mobile Wolf Rider was sheer stupidity.

Ashina didn't slaughter them all immediately. In truth, a single blast of fire from her Dragon-Breed Wolf could have wiped out these ratlike creatures in an instant. Drawing her long saber, she leisurely pursued the fleeing goblins.

Even Field could pick his moments, sweeping his longsword through the fleeing goblins and hacking them into chunks of flesh.

Soon, only one goblin remained. Ashina followed it from a distance.

Creatures gripped by terror often couldn't think. They tended to return to the safest place they knew.

After entering a forest, Field could tell from the Mini-Map that a gravel road had once run through this place. Ten years ago, countless travelers and merchants had used this safe, efficient route. But after so many years of corruption, Field couldn't see a single trace of its past.

The succession of skeletons along the roadside, however, convinced Field that he was heading in the right direction.

A camp deep in the forest was filled with corrupted brambles. These thorns, writhing like earthworms, were already the best shelter this band of goblins could find.

These goblins called themselves the "Blackwood Tribe," a name their chief loved. They were noble descendants of the Orcs Expeditionary Army. To attack the gateway to human lands-the Holy Griffin Empire-the orc emperor had launched a grand expedition.

It would have been even better if they hadn't lost. The despicable humans seemed to have tapped into the power of devils, unleashing the Death Miasma and killing every living creature throughout the Northern Frontier.

Otherwise, he would have been living in a warm, comfortable human city, indulging freely in everything humans possessed.

Fortunately, the tenacious goblins had adapted to the corruption and evolved into Gray Fog Goblins. They would still have a chance to breach those damned human walls, capture the humans, and enslave them mercilessly! The goblin chief indulged in his fantasies.

Hurried footsteps interrupted his thoughts as an ocher goblin stumbled into the camp.

"Boss! We found a human camp!" the goblin said in a language only they could understand.

The goblin chief brightened. "The Beast God be praised! Where are they? I'll..."

Before he could finish, the goblin chief's smile froze. A giant wolf more than two meters tall was already standing proudly within his sight.

"Fuck! Shit! You led the enemy here!"

There were over a hundred goblins in the camp, but they were weaker than the previous thirty. Field swept his gaze over them twice and quickly assessed the situation.

What do they eat? Corrupted plants? Field wondered, but this wasn't the time to study nature. He waved a hand and said bitterly, "Burn them all to ashes. They dared attack my people. They must be tired of living."

These were no longer ordinary goblins. They needed to be hit hard.