The Sound of Drums

“Frost, bind it! (Frost Nova!)” Folke's staff was instantly surrounded by countless icy-blue points of light.

Guided by the staff, these points of light swarmed toward the giant goblin. In an instant, countless crystals climbed upward like a waterfall, attempting to freeze the visibly abnormal goblin in ice.

However, the ice, which covered less than half of its body, quickly cracked.

Its massive size was both a blessing and a curse.

While such a massive body made it extremely easy to hit with spells, it also granted it the ability to ignore most restriction spells.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

Serandic had only just slain the last Goblin Shaman. Surrounded by monsters, expecting to break free at this moment was undoubtedly a pipe dream.

He had ventured too deep.

“Go!”

Instead of retreating, Ogre charged forward, sweeping his spear left and right, taking down goblin after goblin.

‘Too late...’ Ogre calculated the distance, a sudden chill running through his heart.

...

By now, Serandic had already faced off against the colossal goblin that looked like a green giant.

It wasn't that he wanted to confront it, but he simply couldn't escape.

The giant fist swung the club. Even a missed strike whipped up a gale-force wind that could force a person back several steps.

Agile as Serandic was, he could not avoid being hit by the flying debris of goblin corpses blasted apart by the impacts.

Hardly anyone would doubt whether a single blow from that club could crush someone to death.

The wide-sweeping smashes left Serandic exhausted from dodging. The pile of goblin corpses he had excitedly slain earlier had unexpectedly become the greatest obstacle to his escape.

Just four or five consecutive sweeping strikes completely stripped him of his room to dodge.

‘Damn it, I can't dodge!’

“You beast! I'm not afraid of you!” Seeing that he couldn't dodge, Serandic had no choice but to channel all the battle qi he could muster to withstand it head-on.

The pale gold energy covered most of his body, leaving only his head unprotected. This was a choice Serandic made to unleash his full strength!

Strength pooled in his fists, and qi gathered in his arms—Overlord Lifting the Cauldron!

Before the pain registered, Serandic heard the sound of his own bones fracturing—

Right after that came the agonizing pain. His hands, his feet, then his arms and legs—his limbs were completely ruined.

“Pfft...” A mouthful of blood erupted from Serandic's mouth.

That he hadn't lost consciousness yet was entirely due to the adrenaline.

The eagle's cry pierced the air.

Serandic watched as the sky, which had been obscured by the massive club, suddenly lit up again. Unfortunately, he no longer had the strength to run.

At this moment, the lower half of his body was almost completely driven into the dirt.

“Ogre, Lange! Hurry and take the others away! Leave this place to me.” Folke's voice arrived from the sky.

The one who had forced the colossal goblin back just now was indeed him—or rather, the gryphon beneath him...

Looking closely, the pendant on Folke's chest was gone—he had finally used his trump card.

After casting Frost Nova, he had spared no expense to activate his personal pendant, which stored a high-level spell—Beast Imprint!

A High Professional Mage who mastered Polymorph, Mana Shaping, Mimicry, and Puppetry, paired with a magical beast's mana core, could recreate a magical projection with sixty percent of the beast's living strength to control until the mana was depleted.

And the trump card Folke carried was a Beast Imprint containing the projection of a gryphon!

But due to his own limited strength, this gryphon could only exist for five minutes. Furthermore, because he was not the primary caster, Folke could not control the gryphon like his own limbs; he could only issue some simple commands.

Yet even so, this trump card was extremely precious. After all, even a gryphon with sixty percent of its strength possessed combat power at the Professional level.

“This is such a massive loss... You better not die on me,” Folke muttered casually, before commanding the gryphon to charge forward, forcing the giant goblin back dozens of meters.

Folke could have easily abandoned this blonde boy whom he had only met a few times, but he charged forward anyway.

This young master from the interior, who not long ago would vomit because of harsh environments, had now unknowingly developed a bit of resolve.

“Serandic!”

As Serandic collapsed, a hand caught him. The newcomer was Ogre, who had rushed up at full speed.

“Senior brother... apologize... to Teacher Yade... for me...” Serandic struggled to squeeze out a weak smile.

“What are you talking about! If you want to see him, go see him yourself!” Ogre snapped.

He could easily tell that after that last strike, Serandic was hanging on by a thread...

“Thank... you...” After saying this, Serandic's life force plummeted. In an instant, even his bloodshot eyes closed.

“Don't close your eyes! You can't give up yet!” Ogre, remaining extremely calm, used his other hand to unfasten the pack on his back.

‘I still have some styptic powder... Damn it, if I'd known, I wouldn't have sold that Recovery Potion!’

Though Ogre's mind remained calm, his heart was pounding with rare, violent intensity...

He was nervous after all.

“Ogre! Catch!” Lange's voice rang out at that moment.

A bottle containing a red liquid, wrapped in protective battle qi, was thrown over. It was thrown by Lange, who was rushing over as fast as he could.

Ogre reached up to catch the flying Recovery Potion, then squeezed his hand to crush the bottle, ignoring the pain.

The red potion flowed down Ogre's palm and dripped onto Serandic.

As the potion made contact with Serandic's body, his breathing visibly stabilized.

Though he still looked like he was on the verge of death, his life was temporarily hung in the balance.

“Geh!” A goblin's shriek came from beside Ogre.

It was an archer goblin, killed by a shard of glass Ogre had flicked with his hand.

Ogre's peripheral vision kept monitoring his surroundings, alertly guarding against any ambushers.

“Ogre! Serandic!” Lange also finally caught up, retrieving a second bottle of Recovery Potion from his person.

“Lange, please take care of my junior brother.”

Ogre dug Serandic out of the dirt and handed him over to Lange.

“What are you going to do?!” Lange said to Ogre as he poured the Recovery Potion. “We can't join this fight. Hurry and leave. We can wait until the Young Master comes back and...”

Before Lange could finish his sentence, Ogre had already pulled his spear out of the dirt.

“I'm counting on you.”

Lange had never seen Ogre look so cold and stern; for a moment, he actually forgot to stop him.

“Wait, you don't mean...!” Lange guessed Ogre's intention and reached out to stop the irrational Ogre.

But it was destined to be in vain.

Because he could not abandon the half-dead Serandic lying in his arms.

“I'm going to—make them pay!”

With one hand clutching his chest and the other holding his spear, step by step, he walked resolutely toward the restrained giant goblin.

Whether it was an illusion or not, as Ogre moved, Lange caught a fleeting glimpse of electrical sparks on Ogre's body.

A drumming sound, coming from nowhere, suddenly echoed across the battlefield.

As Ogre slowly released his hand from his chest, the sound of the drums became faster, clearer, and more rhythmic.

At this point, looking at Ogre's exposed hand, one would find that all his veins were bulging and throbbing.

As the sound grew clearer and clearer, Lange realized—this was no drumbeat; this was clearly the sound of a heartbeat!

This heartbeat even caused Lange's own heart to accelerate involuntarily. He looked ahead in shock.

He realized that the strange drumming sound just now was actually Ogre's heartbeat!

This was the power Ogre had obtained by using electricity to forcibly accelerate his heartbeat and blood flow!

Right now, he was stronger than he had ever been!

“It can only last for four minutes!” Ogre muttered to himself after estimating his physical stamina.

Ogre was currently adapting to this power; the intense high pressure made every word he spoke carry a sort of trembling, angry resonance.

He had discovered this technique during his training over the past couple of days, but he wasn't very proficient with it yet. Every time he used it, he required a long warm-up to adapt and calibrate his body.

“But it should be enough!”

Beneath his mask, the corners of Ogre's mouth curled into a slightly menacing grin.

This was Ogre enduring the immense pain brought by this technique.

Faint blue patterns slowly surfaced beneath Ogre's skin—this was the characteristic of his ogre constitution manifesting to resist the electric currents and heal his body.

This rapid, fluctuating manifestation of his ogre constitution not only represented the degree to which its resistance was activated, but also meant his stored physical stamina was being rapidly consumed. This was a phenomenon that occurred only when the body hovered between damage and repair.

After about three breaths, Ogre's body, sensing the pain, cooperatively secreted hormones that briefly enhanced him.

“It's time!”

At this moment, the technique was complete!

Ogre's hands had already tightly gripped the spear, and his eyes, flashing with electricity, were locked firmly onto the rampaging giant goblin.

Everything was ready!

Next, a striking spark of electricity leaped from the tip of his spear.

In a flash, Ogre vanished from the spot!

Not far away, Lange finally recovered from the shock of the drum-like heartbeat.

He blinked, looking toward the ground where Ogre had been standing just moments ago—only to see a footprint depression at least four fingers deep...

‘How... how is the gap between us this huge?’

For a moment, Lange's heart was truly filled with both joy and sorrow.

Joy, because the strength Ogre displayed might actually help Folke kill that monster.

Sorrow, because he felt his chances of regaining his pride were drifting further and further away.

At this moment, his pride was completely shattered...

“Better get everyone out of here first.”

Lange only let his emotions drift for a brief moment before pulling himself together.

He glanced at Serandic. Having downed two bottles of Recovery Potion, his life was temporarily saved, but how well he would recover was hard to say.

“Sigh...”

With a sigh of pity, Lange hoisted Serandic onto his back.

To tell the truth, he quite liked this youth who was close to him in age. But looking at his condition, even if he survived, he would likely be left with significant lasting complications, which would be extremely fatal for a Knight who had yet to complete their Life Circle.

He could only hope that the local Cleric physicians would be competent enough. Otherwise, this guy's path as a Knight might very well be cut short—with injuries this severe, whether he could even continue cultivating was another story... a permanent disability was almost guaranteed. What a pity for such a promising future.

“Geh!” (Goblin tongue: Kill!)

“Lu... geh!” (Goblin tongue: Kill this invader together!)

At this moment, a clamor of noise interrupted Lange's wandering thoughts, pulling him back to reality.

He looked ahead.

It was the remnants of the goblin forces. They did not flee, and they would not flee, for this was their home!

“Perfect! I've got a stomach full of anger myself!”

With one hand supporting Serandic on his back, he lifted his one-handed sword with the other.

...