Ignoring the firespores, Gobta and his friends focused on gathering nuts and fruits instead. In addition to the group he was in, there were others by the river, replenishing their water supply, as well as cooking the food they’d found.
Just as they all had finished their jobs and were about ready to prepare dinner—
“Groooooar!!”
—they heard a terrifying, earth-shattering roar. A magical beast appeared, exuding rage as it eyed the caravan. It was that blade tiger again, the B-ranked beast that Gobta had inadvertently defeated a few months back. The poison spores had damaged it, but it had been lucky enough to be near a lake that must have helped it recover. It was still as angry as ever, though, more than angry enough to convince the low-ranked goblin that had once escaped it that all was lost now.
The beast, proud by nature, had sworn it would avenge the slight upon its reputation. With another roar, it used Voice Cannon to cleanly blow one of the guards away. The single blast made it all too clear how powerful the blade tiger was—even the stoutest of hobgoblins would face grave injuries after taking the brunt of it. If it weren’t for the full-plate armor protecting him, he would have died instantly.
“My brother!”
Another hobgoblin let out a yelp of surprise, but he was too petrified to move. All he could do was hold an unsteady ax in his hands and keep a watchful eye on the blade tiger. No one could blame him. Hobgoblins were ranked C or so. They weren’t made to take on a tiger like this.
“Don’t prod him,” the female guard quietly warned. “This guy’s dangerous. It’d take ten of us to have at least a chance of taking on a blade tiger. Merchants! We need to give up our goods and slowly step away from the area.”
She knew that angering a blade tiger would do nothing but make the situation even more treacherous. She at least wanted her clients to survive the encounter. While the tiger was feasting on their horses, they could at least attempt an escape—if they were lucky, they might even make it.
But that hope was quickly dashed. The blade tiger didn’t want a meal. It wanted revenge. It eyed the rest of the guards slowly, seeking out the goblin it really wanted. Then it snarled at the kobolds slowly edging away from their encampment. The merchants fell to the ground, understanding they’d be allowed no mercy.
“Well, this is it,” one of the guards muttered. “It’s not gonna let us go.”
“What should we do, miss? We can’t win this?”
“Guess we gotta charge it. Merchants! Once we’re on our way, I want all of you to run like hell! And don’t bunch up, either, unless you want to die.”
The guards were ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their clients, using themselves as bait to let them survive. Despair filled the air around them, but one among them failed to read the mood. That was Gobta, of course, who took the blade tiger’s roar as nothing less than his big chance.
It’s that tiger, isn’t it?! The guy I chased off with that mushroom? Even I could beat him!
It would have been a fatal mistake for anyone else, but Gobta was the only one in the camp not completely stricken by terror. He leaped forward as the blade tiger let out another sinister snarl.
“You fool!” the female bodyguard shouted. “What could you ever do?!”
“You can leave this to me!” Gobta shouted back with a smile. Then he dashed into the forest. The blade tiger immediately gave chase, ignoring everybody else.
The rest of the group were left dumbfounded, if only for a moment.
“That idiot… How could he be so reckless…?”
The seemingly selfless move shook the guards to the core, but they knew they couldn’t let this chance go unheeded.
“Everyone! Get out of here now! We’ll hold that thing off here!”
“But…”
“Don’t worry. This is our job. If we can get away from that monster, we’ll send a flare up to signal you.”
“He’s right. We’re not intending to die here, either. I’d kinda like to see you guys again, all right?”
With that, the guards piled the merchants into the wagon. Gobta wouldn’t give them much time to work with, but if the guards stayed behind, that would open up a chance for the merchants to get out safely. They waited for the wagon to set off, then plunged into the forest where Gobta left them.
Meanwhile—
Ahhh! This is scary! This is so scary!!
Now the sight of the blade tiger catching up to him was getting a bit unnerving. It deserved every bit of its B rank when it came to speed, and soon it was right on Gobta’s heels.
Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to act all cool back there—
There was no point regretting it now. Gobta was too busy trying to widen the gap to care. But even as his chances of being cornered grew by the second, another brilliant idea entered his mind.
Maybe if I use this—
Gobta stopped, standing his ground, and took something out from his pocket. With a defiant grin, he threw it straight at the blade tiger. The creature stopped, more surprised at the sudden end to this chase than at the object hurtling toward its head. This would normally be when the blade tiger used Voice Cannon, its mightiest weapon, to pulverize whatever was in front of it. But the memory of its past errors made the tiger hesitate.
It was intelligent enough not to repeat the same mistake twice—but what would normally be an advantageous trait spelled doom for it. Instead of Voice Cannon, the blade tiger figured it would bite down on the incoming object to stop it. With its reflexes, it would be an easy thing to do.
But the moment the object was between its teeth, Gobta shouted:
“Unseal!!”
Before the blade tiger could understand it, the incantation took effect. Just as Gobta had hoped, the magical tube provided to him by the transfer office did exactly what it was made to do—unfurling all the pots, pans, weapons, and even his wagon inside the tiger’s mouth.
This had exactly the effect Gobta had been hoping for—it ripped the blade tiger’s jaw off its head.
“All right!” Gobta shouted in joy. But that wasn’t the end of his plan. He still had one final weapon on hand—his Flame Knife. Considering a blade tiger’s performance in battle, merely losing its lower jaw wouldn’t be enough to send it down for the count. That was why Gobta figured his pride and joy—his one magic weapon—would be what it took.
Then Gobta noticed the (slightly bloodied) items strewn on the forest floor.
But if I burn this here, I’m going to burn my stuff, too, aren’t I? Maybe I should try to lure him deeper in.
Once again faced with an agony it had never known, the confused blade tiger was starting to lose its ability to make rational decisions. Gobta’s fleeing enraged it. It could no longer consider its adversary’s schemes or ultimate goals. Instead, it followed instinct and gave chase again.
The pain was intense, but it was the humiliating loss of Voice Cannon that made it especially furious. All that filled its mind was a consuming desire to kill Gobta for good.
After creating a measure of distance between him and the tiger, the small goblin dove into a dense thicket. This reduced the blade tiger’s advantage and further widened the gap between Gobta and his pursuer.
Turning around, Gobta focused on the blade tiger. Just as he’d thought, it was making a beeline for him.
Okay! I can’t miss from here!
Caught up in the dense underbrush, the tiger found itself robbed of its mobility. A straight throw, Gobta figured, was all he needed to hit home—and he had magic to trigger, too. Not even a magical beast would crawl home from that in good shape.
With Voice Cannon gone, the blade tiger had nothing to block with. Gobta knew it. So he threw the Flame Knife.
“Fire!” he shouted, the word the dwarf had taught him. That activated the knife. Flames encompassed it as it zoomed toward the blade tiger. A magic weapon like this would normally be nothing to a B-ranked magical beast, but the tiger was on its guard. Fatally so, as it came to be.
Using one of the bladelike fangs on its upper jaw, the blade tiger deflected the flame-infused knife. Gobta gasped in despair…but that was exactly what he needed. The Flame Knife bounced off the tooth, hurtled downward, and thrust itself into the ground. There, as it happened, grew a mushroom with certain special qualities. A kind that spat out lethal poison when exposed to heat. One that was fully mature, ripe, and packed with spores.
The firespore exploded in all directions around it, triggering cascading explosions across the area. The blade tiger was right in the thick of it, with no escape, its body exposed to every one of the searing spores. It had deflected a strike that would’ve been merely a flesh wound at best, only to expose itself to devastating damage instead.
Too tired to take another step, Gobta was greeted by some familiar voices.
“Wow, nice one! We’ll handle the rest!”
“Dang, kid… You’re one hell of a fighter after all, huh? That’ll learn me!”
The guards could handle a blade tiger this injured well enough. Soon, it was all over. Gobta was victorious.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was now time for them to take their own paths—Gobta deeper into the wood, the caravan back along the river to the demon lord’s lands.
“I broke my treasure in the battle,” Gobta whined, “and I’ll have to pull that wagon all the way back home, too…” The smile on his face, however, indicated he wasn’t especially torn up over it.
“Well, thanks to that, you saved us all,” the head merchant said. “We really need to thank you again.”
Gobta grinned sheepishly at them.
“You know,” the goblina guard stammered, “I—I think I could—”
“I’m gonna get stronger, miss! I’m gonna beat another magical beast just like that—all by myself! So I can save your life sometime!”
“Huh? Um… Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Keep it up!”
Gobta had stopped her before she could finish the sentence. Which was probably a good thing. It likely gave Gobta all the encouragement he needed to keep striving for loftier heights, besides.
Thus the two of them parted ways. Gobta’s love would have to remain unrequited, maybe for his whole life.
✦ ✦ ✦
Pulling the wagon behind him, Gobta walked deeper into the forest. The guards and merchants watched as he did.
“You know,” the female guard whispered to herself, “I wouldn’t mind bearing children, if they were his.”
“Not too late, miss!” one of her friends said with a laugh.
“No, it’s fine. He’s probably different from the likes of us anyway. He’s got something, you know? He has to. Otherwise he never could’ve survived any of this.”
“Maybe so, maybe so… You’re right, I think.”
They stood there until Gobta finally disappeared from sight.