Seeds of Chaos: Chapter 23 (Title Withheld)

 Chapter 23

Awakening is the process of unlocking the abilities sleeping within the seeds of chaos. As every seed was unique, the awakening process should be unique as well. Since there’s no fix procedure in awakening a ‘seed’, those who were gifted with the ‘seeds’ must discover the method themselves.

 The first awakening of Rennel’s ‘seed’ happened inside the forest, known as the Mazes of Trees while desperately fighting against a horned rabbit. Before her first awakening, Rennel was no different from a regular person.

But after her first awakening, Rennel’s abilities skyrocketed to the point that she could subdue a monster king. Of course she still needed to train in order to use her newfound power properly.

Unfortunately, after reaching a certain level, Rennel find it difficult to advance even further. When she asked her teacher about it, Chaos told her that she had reached the upper limit of her first awakening.

In other words, she must have a second awakening in order to break through her current limit and advance further.

There’s just one “small” problem, she didn’t know how…

According to her teacher, every ‘seed’ possessed unique awakening method and special circumstances. Unless she found the method to awaken her ‘seed’, Rennel would be stuck on her current level. Still, her first awakening had substantially made her stronger.

Even if she didn’t find the method for her second awakening, she would still be much stronger than most people and monsters. As such, Rennel wasn’t really that concerned about it. Although she’ll be limited by her upper limit, the girl thought that she’s strong enough already.

How wrong she was.

Only after fighting the newly “upgraded” goblin king did she realized that her power was still greatly lacking. Although the goblin king was also a monster king similar to Black, it was still a goblin. If a goblin was already giving her this much trouble, just imagine what would happen once she encounters more powerful monsters.

If she did encounter a powerful monster that she could not defeat, was her only option to run?

Somehow, Rennel find this unacceptable. If she didn’t want to be constantly saved by her teacher while journeying the land, then she must possess power that could not be easily threatened in this world.

While she was racking her brain for the method to have her second awakening, a help in a form of a petite girl dropped from the sky… err, approaches her.

The girl in question was named Mina, a shy cleric who offered to buff her ability with magic. When Rennel heard about it, something in her mind clicked. A stimulus!

Her teacher, Chaos, once said that awakening her ‘seed’ required stimulus. Back then, the girl had no idea what her teacher meant by stimulus. But after Mina told her about buffs, an idea that made her excited suddenly struck her.

What if she uses the buffs to directly stimulate her ‘seed’?

Her idea sounded really absurd. How could a ‘seed’, given by higher life form be easily stimulated by magic buffs from a primitive world?

Nonetheless, her instinct was telling her to try that method. Anyway, even if the method she had thought of failed, she won’t suffer any loss. On the contrary, she would be gain a temporary boost to her abilities which might be enough to kill the goblin king.

Therefore, without any hesitation, Rennel asked the cleric, Mina, to cast her buffing magic on her. Once the first buff was casted on her, she quickly redirect it to her ‘seed’ that was inside her soul. And to her surprise, she felt a reaction!

It was working!

Suppressing her excitement, Rennel asked the girl to continue. Only after the girl, Mina casted all of her available buff did the process stops.

Did she succeed?

Yes and no.

Yes, because she can feel that her abilities had risen considerably. No, because the buff wasn’t enough for a full awakening. Still, that’s enough.

Her ‘seed’ had been stimulated. All she needed now was a “push”, and it’s just happen that she knows what’s going to push her for her second awakening – a battle to the death with the goblin king!

****

Spear strikes after spear strikes rained on the goblin king. Unable to neither dodge nor follow the girl’s movement, the goblin king could only do its best to protect itself.

And as for the goblin king’s insane regenerative ability, it was being stymied by Rennel’s spear, ‘nameless’ that had also experienced a sudden increase in power following the girl’s growth.

Just like what her teacher said, ‘nameless’ would grow with her.

With the monster’s regenerative ability being affected 'nameless' ability, its effectiveness dropped significantly. Although it didn’t disappear completely, as proven by the goblin king’s mysterious red aura, it could no longer heal the monster’s injuries as fast as before. That’s the reason why the goblin king was full of wounds.

The adventurers and the soldiers from the army stared at the battle excitedly. When the goblin king showcased its insane regenerative ability earlier, many of them fall into despair. But after seeing the silver-haired girl’s performance, everyone’s hope was ignited.

Right now they could only hope that the girl doesn’t disappoint or that nothing unexpected crops up.

“Not bad. You actually found the method for your second awakening so quickly. It's good to know that my effort of hinting you the method didn’t go to waste. Now you only need one last push, Chaos said to himself.

“Thankfully, the push you needed is just in front of you…” Saying so, Chaos narrowed its eyes, “Don’t disappoint me, administrator. Since you decided to interfere, you better give my student the push she needed.”

As if reacting to Chaos’ words, the red aura on the goblin king’s body experienced a sudden change!

The read aura grew more intense and the recovery rate increases as a result. But despite the increasing intensity of the red aura, it still could not compare to the recovery rate it had before Rennel had her semi-awakening.

Nonetheless, it was still enough to heal the more serious injuries like that on the monster's right eye and throat. The non-life-threatening injuries on the other hand were left mostly untouched.

“How heartless; you don’t even care if your toy breaks. Chaos mirthlessly laughs after seeing the goblin king’s situation.

“Forcefully stimulating all of the monster’s potential might make it stronger but it would also kill it. Even if the goblin king manages to win, the poor creature would also die afterwards. From the looks of it the monster will die in less than an hour…”

Chaos watches everything unfold, it didn’t even bother to warm Rennel about the interference of a certain administrator.  It wanted to see how Rennel would tackle the situation.

A frown appeared on Rennel’s face after seeing the red aura growing much stronger. Still, the girl didn’t panic. Even though the goblin king seemed to have grown much stronger, what she must do didn’t change.

The goblin king seemed to have grown slightly bigger after intensity of the red aura grew stronger. But at the same time, it seemed to have lost any semblance of control as the berserk light in its eyes grew much deeper.

Roar!!!

The goblin king rushes towards Rennel without much as a warning and wildly swung its axe towards the girl. Every swing of its axe sunders the earth and creates powerful wind – signifying that it had changed.

Seeing this, scene the hearts of the people watching could not help but lurch. The situation changed once again. Still, there's really nothing much that they could do but watch.

Even the few remaining goblins didn’t dare to do or say anything. If their king wins, they might be able to survive, if the king loses, the adventurers would never let them go. The goblins could not also move to help their king under the watchful eyes of the adventurers and the soldiers. Outnumbered and low in morale, the goblins could only watch in silence…

Rennel dodges the goblin king’s attacks. The wild attacks were so fast that Rennel could only dodge within hair’s-breadth of each strike, putting much pressure on her. But unlike earlier, the girl welcomed the pressure with open arms.

That's because in order to complete her second awakening, she needed this pressure.

“It’s not enough… I need more pressure!

The girl’s eyes shone with excitement. She could feel that her second awakening was nearing completion, and that only a tiny filament was what separates her from her second awakening.

Changing her tactics, the girl decided to counter attack while dodging every of the monster’s attacks. This would make dodging more difficult but it should also give her the pressure she desperately needed.

“Is she crazy? Why isn’t she focusing on evading those attacks?” A male adventurer that was nervously watching asked.

Another adventurer nodded before commenting, “I’m not sure what she’s planning but she’s obviously taking a lot of risk by not focusing on defense. One wrong move and that axe could split her in half!”

“Then should we… help her?” Another adventurer chimed.

General Souren who was also nearby looked at the three adventurers and spoke: “Don’t do anything stupid. At the current juncture, any help would just trouble girl and make her lose her concentration.”

“Yes…”

The adventurers nodded in agreement. Although they have no idea why Rennel was risking it, they understood that any sudden help from them might spoil whatever plans she had. Although worried and somewhat unwilling, the adventurers could only watch silently.

Clyde and his party were also watching the ongoing battle with worried expression on their faces. Unlike the others, they knew that Rennel was trying to force a breakthrough using the pressure of death as a stimulus. In all honesty, they were also worried to death but could only helplessly watch; fully knowing that any interruption would be deadly for Rennel.

There’s also another person who was worried sick of the girl’s safety. Guild Master Tigre, also have a rough idea of what the girl was planning. After all, Rennel was not the first one to use the pressure of death to forcefully raise her level.

In his many years as an adventurer and as the guild master, Tigre had seen countless people use that strategy. Unfortunately, very few of them actually succeed – he, himself, being one of the few who did.

Since the guild master roughly knew what the girl was planning. He had been on guard all this time for a sudden sneak attack. After killing a goblin champion and helping the others to kill more goblins, he had been vigilantly watching the remaining goblins’ with eyes like a predator. If any of the goblins dare to make even a peep, he would massacre them all!

Of course he had no intention of letting the goblins go no matter what the result of the battle is.

****

A powerful axe light flashes and almost cuts Rennel from the head downward. Thankfully, the girl was able to skillfully evade the attack by sidestepping to her right. She then countered by stabbing forward.

Puchi!

The spear pierces the goblin king’s abdomen which sends blood flying. The goblin king twitches a little in pain but that's all the reaction it showed. Instead, the goblin king ignored its injury and swings its axe horizontally. Rennel, who was already expecting the counter attack rolled forward and appeared behind the monster. She then stabbed towards the center of the goblin’s king back – aiming at the monster’s spinal column.

Sensing the threat, the monster king forcefully spins around in an attempt to kill the girl while protecting its spinal column; as if knowing that it’ll be put in an extreme disadvantage if the girl succeeded.

The goblin king’s quick reaction saves it from suffering grave injury. But although it succeeded in preventing a spinal injury, it still suffered a severe wound on the side of its body.

Still, compared to what could have been a life-threatening injury, the injury it received was nothing.

The human and the monster continue to exchange deadly attacks but from their exchange till now, it was cleared that Rennel had the advantage. Compared to the goblin king’s injuries, Rennel’s injuries (that was caused by the sharp wind and debris) were relatively shallow.

“Just a little more…”

Rennel could feel her imminent breakthrough. The pressure from the goblin king was pushing her closer and closer to her goal. But at the same time, she could also feel that the goblin king becoming more desperate and insane.

It was as if it could feel the threat of her imminent breakthrough…

“Is this the instinct of a monster?” Rennel thought as the pressure on her grew stronger.

“It’s amazing what desperation could do to a living being. Although it seemed to have lost its mind, it could still instinctively feel its imminent death. But… it’s too late!”

A faint golden aura suffused the girl’s entire body. At the same time that the aura appeared, the girl’s attacks grew fiercer and her movements growing much sharper.

It’s a breakthrough!

After good-knows-how-long, and the never ending change in the tides of battle, Rennel finally completed her second awakening!

The awakening was neither loud nor too eye-catching but anyone watching could tell that something about Rennel changed. They couldn’t tell what exactly changed but they could tell one thing: It’s over for the goblin king.

As if answering everyone’s expectations (with the exception of the goblins), Rennel stabbed towards the goblin king’s head at an incredible speed. Knowing that it couldn’t dodge the attack in time, the goblin king could only raise its axe to stop the spear but…

*Shatter*

The moment the axe and the spear meets, the axe shattered!

‘Nameless’ went through axe head, shattering it into pieces before piercing the goblin king's brain through its thick skin and skull!

The goblin king’s eyes were wide with disbelief. At the last moment of its life, it somehow gained some clarity. The monster opened its mouth as if wanting to say something but before it could say anything, it head exploded into thousands of pieces!

Bang!

And with that, the lifeless corpse of the goblin king fell backward: It was dead.

****

Title: Death of the Goblin King

To be continued

Previous Chapters: https://read.cash/@beastion