I Am Not A Goblin Slayer

The only reason it could think of was that its opponent cherished the lives of his people too much. In order to reduce the casualties of the humans defending the wall behind him, he was desperately trying to beat back the goblin legion’s advance, even while locked in combat with it.

Perhaps this really was of great help to those other humans. However, acting so recklessly against a powerful opponent like it could only be described as courting death.

Thus, during the first half of the battle, Snaz remained optimistic despite realizing how troublesome Gauss was.

Especially when Gauss unleashed a Fireball Technique into the goblin ranks; it could practically see the Magic Power rapidly depleting from his body, the scales of victory slowly tipping in its favor.

”BOOM!”

”BOOM!”

It continuously dodged the Missiles Gauss fired, keeping a mental count of the Spells he cast. At the same time, it constantly tried to close the distance between them, intending to use its body—far tougher than steel—to shatter Gauss’s defenses.

But as time slowly passed, it began to realize that something was wrong.

Why hadn’t Gauss, who seemed to be mindlessly burning through his Magic Power, shown any signs of weakening yet?

On the contrary, the internal injuries in its own arms and thighs, caused by the prolonged battle, were already throbbing with pain. The black light energy entwined around its body was no longer as powerful as it had been at the start.

It wasn’t surprised by the decline in its own condition. In such high-intensity combat, no creature could maintain its peak state indefinitely—not even a Level 15 Demon bolstered by the battle momentum generated by its legion.

But why did its opponent’s state seem completely unchanged? His defenses were just as impenetrable as they had been at the beginning, and even the time it took him to recover after being injured hadn’t slowed down at all.

Was he just gritting his teeth and forcing himself to hold on?

Snaz swallowed hard. It refused to believe that anyone’s Magic Power could be virtually limitless.

It convinced itself that Gauss was pushing his abilities to the absolute limit, forcefully maintaining his peak condition, and breathed a brief sigh of relief. After all, doing so would undoubtedly cost the human even more strength. Once he crossed a certain critical point, his condition would collapse like a landslide. As long as it kept fighting—perhaps for just a little while longer—the situation would drastically change. Clinging to this belief, it continued the fight.

The two figures battled their way from the north all the way to the south, and the time slipped from dusk deep into the dead of night.

”SWISH—”

Snaz flickered to Gauss’s side, delivering a chop with its hand, wreathed in black light. When the sure-hit attack suddenly missed, failing to strike Gauss as intended, its body stiffened for a fraction of a second, and its pupils rapidly contracted.

It slowly turned its head to look at Gauss, who had already flown over a hundred meters away. Then, it looked down at its own arm, which was trembling slightly from being overworked. It fell into a long silence.

Since when had it become unable to keep up with his speed? Was he that fast? No! It was just that it had become too slow!

Without it even realizing, its condition had plummeted to rock bottom due to fighting all night. The black light formed by squeezing out its physical stamina was less than fifty percent of its peak. Internally, it was riddled with injuries, constantly going through a cycle of tearing, healing, tearing again, and healing again. This vicious cycle had quietly lowered the maximum explosive power its body could unleash. It wasn’t until it could no longer keep up with Gauss—who had originally been much slower than it—that it finally woke up to the truth.

Looking at the dazed Snaz, Gauss figured that the Goblin Lord had probably snapped back to reality and realized something.

He was also feeling somewhat exhausted at the moment and couldn’t be considered at his peak. However, his advantage lay in his still-abundant Magic Power, putting him in a much better position than Snaz.

Both of his 6th-tier Spells—Spiritual Prison and Splendid Light Ball—had leveled up to Level 3 proficiency thanks to the effect of his Demonic Hour Talent.

”Total Monsters Killed: 98,155”

Although he hadn’t been able to fully focus on killing other monsters due to the Goblin Lord’s relentless entanglement, the team’s contributions—combined with his occasional kills to trigger his bloodthirst effect for Magic Power recovery—had quietly brought the total kill count to over ninety-eight thousand. He was now just one step away from the hundred thousand mark.