Behind Milo, a strange green creature chased after him. It was quite ugly. The creature had green skin, bald head, scrawny body, pointed ears, a simple brown cloth covering his private area, and a worn out knife in his hand that was stained with fresh blood.
It was a creature that wasn't in The Battle Cats. It's a common monster known in many fantasy stories and games.
It was a Goblin.
[First Quest received: save Milo and kill the goblin!]
Adrenaline filled Ethan's body as he watched the scene. His friend was being attacked. He got up and charged at the goblin in fury.
"Attack the goblin! Help Milo!"
Ethan yelled as he ran past Milo. His eyes met with the goblin's, and it understood that it would have to go through Ethan in order to reach its original target.
Ethan wasn't sure how strong he was compared to a goblin, but he didn't care. He wasn't ready to experience loss so soon, especially against a nasty creature like a goblin.
"Die!"
The goblin yelled and slashed its knife right at Ethan's face, but he managed to jump back just in time to avoid the attack. Sweat dripped down his back at the realization of how dumb charging straight at an armed enemy was.
"Grahhh! Stop it!"
The goblin yelled in pain as Nina attacked from behind and bit into it's calf. Due to the goblin being a little over ninety centimeters in height while Ethan and his group were around sixty centimeters, it was best for them to attack the lower half of the goblin's body.
Blood soaked Nina's mouth as she kept biting and refused to let go. The goblin was about to stab her with the knife, but luckily Burt appeared and slammed his entire body into the creature.
Though Burt was only level one, he managed to make the goblin stumble a bit which also caused its arm to move away and not attack Nina.
Ethan took the opportunity and ran before jumping, latching onto the goblin's arm that held the knife. He bit down as hard as he could onto the creatures forearm, quickly making it bleed.
"Ahhhhrggh!!!"
The goblin screamed louder and dropped the knife it held.
Ethan held on for dear life, refusing to let go, but that turned out to be a mistake as he felt a burning sensation on his back.
The goblin swiped at Ethan, using its nails to leave a big scratch on his white back.
"Gah!" Ethan lost his grip and fell to the ground as he grit his blood-soaked teeth.
"How dare you!" Maya yelled in anger seeing her leader being hurt. Her and Milo jumped at the goblin's chest at the same time, and with Nana behind one of its legs, the goblin fell backwards onto the soft grass.
"Bastard!" The two bit down on the goblin's shoulders, making it scream in agony, but it's suffering soon ended as Burt bit down on its throat with all his strength, killing the creature after a few more seconds of desperate struggling.
The group stared at the now lifeless corpse of the goblin. It was bleeding from numerous areas and had multiple bite marks on its green body.
The Cats were victorious, coming out of the battle with a knife wound on Milo's cheek and a scratch on Ethan's back.
[Your Cats have killed a level 1 goblin! You have earned 15 Coins.]
[Quest complete! Your reward is: 1 Normal Ticket!]
Ethan stared at the screens while panting and sitting on the grass. Adrenaline still coursed through his small body while thin streams of blood cascaded down his back from the wound.
"We… we did it," Ethan mumbled.
Everyone looked at him in concern. Milo was also hurt, but Ethan took priority.
"Don't worry about me… I'm fine. Milo, go clean your wound in the river. Everyone else rest and keep a look out for any threats."
Ethan commanded as he slowly stood up. Luckily for him, Milo, Maya, and Nina ended up putting the goblin in the perfect position for Burt to kill him easily. If not for that, the battle would've lasted longer.
They didn't mean to knock the creature down which made Ethan frown. They were at risk because their leader couldn't command them properly during the battle. They won fairly quickly with so few injuries thanks to partial luck which made him upset. Not because of his companions, but because of his lack in ability to lead.
'I have to improve quickly. I was too caught up in having others to talk to. This is a dangerous world, I can't afford to be careless!'
Ethan thought to himself as he got into the river, letting the water clean up the blood. He hoped the goblin's knife and nails didn't have anything strange on them since he and Milo would be at higher risk of infection and didn't have anything to prevent it.
———————-
Another hour passed. The sun shone high as the group prepared to head back home.
The group had rested and recovered, and cleaned all the blood from their mouths and wounds. Maya ended up removing the goblin's cloth and cleaned it thoroughly to use as a bandaid.
They ended up putting leaves over Milo's and Ethan's wounds, then covered them in some sort of sticky sap they found from a tree before finally putting pieces of the goblin's cloth over the now sticky leaves. It wasn't the best, but they didn't have much to work with for covering wounds.
Once Milo and Ethan were patched up, the group gathered up some nearby items to take back home.
Maya and Nina both carried stacks of leaves on their heads, Ethan and Milo carried a few fruits on their heads that they managed to find under trees, while Burt carried a bunch of sticks on his head and in his mouth.
The group went back home, leaving the bleeding corpse of the goblin. Ethan planned to come back the next day and dispose of the corpse so it wouldn't attract any sort of monsters that could be living nearby, such as wolves, or other goblins.
The journey home was longer since they were carrying stuff and also had to keep it all balanced on their heads.
Ethan had no experience surviving in the wild, but he tried his best to have the group gather items that could be of use.
They eventually made it home and settled in for the day. It was quite eventful, but Ethan had learned a lot.
'If the goblins in this world are anything like the ones from all those stories, then there might be some sort of goblin tribe living nearby…'
———————-
AUTHOR NOTE:
Please let me know what you thought of the chapter! I've never written a fight scene, so I hope it turned out well as the first battle of the story.