Six great powers ruled the Sariel Great Forest.
The Goblin race under the Goblin King was counted among them.
Physically and mentally inferior to other races in nearly every regard, the only reason they still held a place among the rulers was the sheer overwhelming weight of their numbers.
When the Goblin King gave the order, goblins flooded the forest in an instant, mowing down everything in their path as they advanced.
The sight of countless goblins trampling the forest at the mercy of their appetites was sometimes compared to a natural disaster.
The Goblin race had risen to power through that strength in numbers.
And yet in truth, they were an intensely ambitious and self-serving species.
Their unity was maintained only by the Goblin King’s power holding them down.
The more an individual had evolved and grown in particular, the stronger their ego — and while they swore absolute loyalty to the king on the surface, inwardly every one of them had their eye on the throne.
Gu-Zau, who had recently evolved into a Lord, was no exception.
Entrusted by the Goblin King with a small territory in the southeast after reaching Lord status, he had no intention whatsoever of ending his days in such a minor position.
His ambition was to eventually evolve into a Goblin King himself, claim the pinnacle of the Goblin race, and then conquer the Great Forest — taking the females of every race that had ever looked down on him, one after another.
For Gu-Zau and his horde, the Kobolds were ideal prey.
Weak, easy to hunt, and dexterous enough to be useful as slaves.
On top of that, the rocky mountain where they lived yielded precious ores.
The only reason he hadn’t made a move until now was a simple fear of the Great Serpent that protected them.
But that Great Serpent had lost its mind and shut itself away on the mountain.
And because of the Serpent’s rampage, nearly all the Kobold warriors had died in the attempt to stop it.
Threaten them now, and the cowardly Kobolds would fall into slavery without a fight.
Even if they showed some backbone, crushing them should be simple enough.
Neither Gu-Zau nor his officers doubted their victory for a moment.
And it truly would have been a near-certain win.
If Viktor hadn’t come to the Kobolds’ aid——.
“What……is that……?”
Gu-Zau had risen to his feet, ready to make the Kobolds tremble.
But what met his eyes was not cowering Kobolds — it was a formation of full-plated armored figures.
Standing roughly twice the height of a Kobold.
Whatever was inside them he couldn’t tell, but their orderly ranks put out a considerable aura of menace.
——Could they have asked the Elves for help?
Gu-Zau thought back to the Elven knight order he had clashed with once long ago.
But he immediately dismissed the idea.
There was absolutely no reason for Elves to help Kobolds.
And besides, the Elves’ territory was a considerable distance from here.
“They’ve put armor on and made themselves look bigger. A cheap trick for small minds.”
The Goblin Mage I-Ai, standing at the Lord’s side, offered his opinion.
——Right, exactly the kind of scheme you’d expect from weaklings.
Gu-Zau had just accepted that assessment when the village chief appeared.
“Goblin Lord! We will not bow to your demands! With a certain someone’s help, we have prepared our forces — now go home quietly!”
“Insolent wretches! Warriors — teach them what fear looks like!”
“RAAAAAAAHHH!!“
The goblins roared and charged in one surging rush.
But in the next instant, their bodies were sent flying.
The armored formation swung the spears in their hands and swept the charging goblins aside in a single motion.
The armored figures pushed the horde back, cutting down goblin after goblin.
It looked less like a battle and more like a massacre.
“……Impossible! Elite-class, taken down so easily……!”
“Don’t falter — keep going!!”
Gu-Zau literally kicked the goblins who had frozen in the face of the enemy back into the charge.
——Fall back and I kill you.
Feeling the unmistakable intent to do exactly that, the goblins pushed forward despite themselves.
But now a further rain of massive bolts came pouring down on them.
The goblins, who had barely held their morale together under Gu-Zau’s pressure, were beginning to collapse entirely.
“You’ll pay for this!! Kobold filth!! I’ll slaughter every last one of you!!”
At this rate the horde might be wiped out entirely.
Gu-Zau seized his great iron club and finally charged forward himself.
Red patterns flared across his whole body in an instant, and his muscles swelled.
Berserk state — the body’s limits stripped away momentarily by extreme fury.
The Goblin Mage piled on support magic, boosting his physical capabilities further.
His body was no longer that of a goblin — it was more like an ogre.
“GRAAAAAAAHHH!!“
The armored formation that had been trampling through the goblins.
Gu-Zau’s iron club smashed through it.
——BOOOOOM!!
With a thundering crash, an armored head went flying.
The goblins who saw it snapped back to life at once.
“Follow the Lord!!”
The Goblin Generals who had been held in reserve began to move.
They cut into the armored formation, working together to take each unit down one at a time, methodically.
The tide shifted — just barely — toward Gu-Zau’s side.
Then from the direction of the village, a strangely relaxed voice carried over.
“The Lord’s tougher than I expected. The Lancelots alone might not cut it.”
“Then I’ll go stop that big one.”
“We’ll handle the upper-tier officers. Let’s go!”
“Finally, I get to test this armor properly!”
“And I’ll show that fake mage what real magic looks like!”
Several humans emerged from the village.
And among them, a woman in flowing clothes came rushing straight at Gu-Zau.
——What is this, coming to beg for her life?
Seeing a figure who was clearly no warrior, Gu-Zau lowered his guard completely.
The fact that lust had stirred in him at the sight of her striking face and figure didn’t help.
But in the next instant——
“Eliminating.”
“………………WHAT!?“
A fist drove into Gu-Zau’s stomach, and his bones shattered.