I Am Not A Goblin Slayer

Gauss glanced at the Splendid Light Ball floating around him and quickly followed. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief at Snaz’s choice. If the other party had insisted on drawing the flames of war toward the city walls, he would have had to try and force a kill on the spot.

The Goblin Lord’s condition was not too bad yet, but the longer this dragged on, the more advantageous it would be for Gauss. As the saying goes, even a cornered beast will fight back; he refused to believe the monster lacked any plans for a desperate dying strike. The more critical the moment, and the closer he was to victory, the calmer he had to be. He had to carry out his war of attrition to the very end.

The Splendid Light Ball beside him remained unreleased, following him and hovering right above Snaz’s head, serving as a deterrent like the Sword of Damocles. Facts proved that this effect was indeed significant. Under the deterrence of this Tier 6 Spell, Snaz’s movements had visibly grown more cautious. Whereas it would previously attempt to attack him, it now did not dare to get close at all, terrified that upon approaching, Gauss would suddenly unleash a volley of Tier 6 magic orbs, blasting it before it could dodge.

Snaz constantly changed directions, but Gauss was faster. Now that the roles of the strong and weak had been reversed, he could use multiple methods to block Snaz’s path of advance. Whether by using Spells or physically blocking the way, he exerted immense pressure on the monster. It was just like when Snaz had faced Gauss earlier: whoever was stronger held the initiative.

BOOM! BOOM!

Spells continuously bombarded Snaz. Although they did not deal much damage, they gradually weakened the Goblin Lord’s momentum. Gauss stared intently at the blackish-green figure, his mind becoming extremely calm. He knew his opponent wouldn’t just sit and wait for death. Every creature had a survival instinct, let alone a Monster Lord that had lived for over a century.

It had neither chosen to break through his defenses to attack the human garrison nor attempted to run toward the other Green Dragon Army generals. Was it waiting for his strength to run dry? Even if it had such an idea initially, the moment he broke through and allocated his points, it must have detected his overflowing, excessive aura of Magic Power and abandoned that unrealistic thought.

So, what was it planning?

Gauss pondered this while continuously using Spells to chip away at Snaz’s defenses. He mentally reviewed the Goblin Lord’s movement trajectory over the past few moments. He connected those movement paths in his mind to form a cohesive picture. At first glance, they seemed irregular, solely meant to evade his pursuit.

But...

Gauss’s eyes narrowed slightly. He then superimposed the overall situation of the battlefield onto those paths. Finally, his eyes lit up as he reached a conclusion.

It was taking a detour toward the densest cluster of monsters!

Although he didn’t know exactly what it was plotting, whatever his opponent wanted to do, Gauss had to stop it. The dragon wings on his back erupted with powerful force, instantly propelling his body forward at a terrifying speed. It was so fast that it even created an uncomfortable, piercing sonic boom. Relying on his speed advantage, Gauss arrived first despite moving later, once again blocking the Goblin Lord’s path of advance ahead of time. At the same time, several ”Dawn” effects lit up one by one, merging together to form a solid wall that declared a dead end!

However, under Gauss’s unwavering gaze, the black light on Snaz’s body condensed once more. Its direction of travel shifted abruptly. Tanking the bombardment of several Dawns’ Holy Light head-on, it bypassed Gauss and continued toward its target destination. As if realizing that Gauss had seen through its purpose, it sprinted fiercely across the ground like a black beast.

Gauss took a deep breath and flew in pursuit once more.

After seeing the other party take the full brunt of his Spells consecutively, Gauss knew he couldn’t let it advance any further. He sensed the black light strengthening energy on the Goblin Lord’s body surface, which was now only at thirty or forty percent of its peak. He glanced at the magic orb beside him and the Spell in his mind. Working in tandem, they should be enough to kill it.

Gauss felt he had worn the enemy down sufficiently. Since he already had a premonition that the other party was plotting something, there was no need to drag this out and invite unforeseen complications.

He accelerated his flight. His figure flickered in the air a few times before he once again overtook Snaz and flew ahead of it. Only this time, he didn’t prepare any Spells; there was only the Splendid Light Ball that always followed him, silently releasing a soul-stirring, terrifying glow.

Suddenly, while flying at extreme speed, Gauss abruptly turned around. His dragon wings trembled violently, instantly bringing him into a stationary hover. His gaze immediately locked onto Snaz’s raised eyes in the midst of its high-speed sprint.

Time seemed to freeze at this very moment.

Future Sight!

Snaz instinctively sensed that something was wrong, but it was already too late. Another surge of powerful Magic Power that Gauss had long been preparing swept out explosively.

”Spiritual Prison!”

All of his actions had a purpose. Stopping instantly was to gain the bonus from the Master of Stable Spellcasting Profession feat.

Maintaining a Tier 6 Spell without unleashing it, while simultaneously condensing another Tier 6 Spell—especially a mental-type Spell, which had the highest requirements for Spiritual Power among all Spell types—was extremely difficult. Other Extraordinary Casters would never even entertain such an almost arrogant idea; only Gauss would attempt it.

Fortunately...

The previous Intelligence point allocation had restored his Spiritual Power to its peak. Gauss’s gaze grew resolute as he forced his mind into a state of optimal concentration. After a brief turbulence of Magic Power within his body, Gauss instantly smoothed it out with a kind of brute-force control.