Chapter 211 — The Shaman’s Fury
Inside the Shaman's building, moments before the screams erupted...
The Shaman kept his distance from the strange orb.
No goblin dared to approach it either.
The palm of the unfortunate scout who had first touched it was already burned beyond recognition; the skin peeled away and raw flesh exposed.
Yet rather than making the Shaman abandon his curiosity, the sight only made him more cautious.
What exactly had that human sent them?
He narrowed his eyes and raised his wooden staff.
A faint green glow gathered around its tip.
Without touching the orb, he began applying his magic to it from a distance.
The pressure slowly increased.
Crack.
A thin fracture appeared across the bone shell.
Another followed.
Then another.
The crude bone sphere trembled under the invisible force until the fragments finally began breaking apart one after another.
The Shaman remained focused.
He had expected some kind of magical object.
Perhaps a poison.
Perhaps a cursed artifact.
But what emerged from the shattered shell was something completely different.
A small sphere of black-and-white flames floated silently in the air.
It did not fall.
It did not spread.
It simply hovered there, constantly fluctuating as if two completely different flames were struggling against each other within the same core.
The entire hall fell silent.
Even the Shaman's expression changed.
'What... is this thing?'
An instinctive sense of danger crawled across his skin.
There was something deeply ominous about the flame.
Something that made his instincts scream not to touch it.
Yet none of the goblins understood that warning.
One of them slowly approached.
"Lord... what is that?"
The Shaman's eyes narrowed.
"Don't touch—"
Too late.
The curious goblin extended a finger and lightly poked the floating flame.
Nothing happened.
The goblin blinked.
He looked at his finger in confusion.
There was no pain.
No explosion.
Nothing.
Then a tiny flame appeared on the tip of his nail.
His expression changed.
"Eh?"
The flame slowly crawled across his finger.
Then his hand.
Then his arm.
Within seconds, it had engulfed his entire body.
"AAAAAGHHHHHH!"
His scream tore through the building.
The goblin desperately slapped at the flames, rolling across the ground and trying to extinguish them.
Nothing worked.
Wherever his burning body touched, another flame ignited.
The wooden floor.
The walls.
Another goblin.
Then another.
The entire situation erupted into chaos.
"AAAGHH!"
"Get away!"
"Water! Bring water!"
"Lord!"
The flames spread through the hall like a living creature.
Within moments, several goblins were burning.
The Shaman's expression turned ugly.
"STOP!"
His voice exploded through the hall.
He slammed his staff against the ground.
A wave of green magic swept outward, forcing several goblins away from the flames.
But even then, the fire refused to disappear.
The Shaman stared at it with disbelief.
He had already understood something.
This wasn't ordinary fire.
It wasn't behaving like an elemental flame at all.
It was attached to whatever it touched, consuming the target from within rather than simply burning its surface.
"Nobody approaches that thing!"
The Shaman's command immediately froze the remaining goblins.
By then, eight of them had already fallen.
Their charred bodies lay scattered across the burning floor.
Yet the strange orb remained perfectly still in the center of the hall.
The Shaman's expression darkened.
He tried several spells.
Binding.
Suppression.
Compression.
Even a simple force spell to push the orb away.
None worked.
The flame remained completely unaffected.
Meanwhile, outside the settlement...
Evan stood atop the settlement wall, watching the chaos unfold.
The screams had already spread throughout the entire settlement.
He couldn't help but grin.
'Not bad.'
A system notification appeared before his eyes.
[8 Goblins have been slain.]
Evan glanced at it before looking back toward the burning building.
'That is a little lower than I expected.'
His eyes narrowed.
'But the real show hasn't started yet.'
His fingers moved slightly.
That tiny movement was all the signal required.
Inside the building...
The Shaman was still staring at the floating orb.
Then his pupils suddenly contracted.
Something had changed.
The flames inside the orb began fluctuating violently.
The Shaman immediately raised his staff.
Two nearby goblins were suddenly dragged through the air by his magic and positioned directly in front of him.
They didn't even understand what was happening.
Then—
BOOM!
The flame sphere violently collapsed inward.
For a split second, everything became completely silent.
Then the orb exploded.
Countless fragments of black-and-white flame shot through the hall in every direction.
The Shaman's expression changed.
"Not good!"
The flames struck the walls.
The floor.
The ceiling.
The goblins.
And every place they touched erupted into violent fire.
The two goblins dragged in front of the Shaman didn't even have time to scream.
The flames instantly swallowed their bodies.
The remaining goblins scattered in panic.
But there was nowhere to run.
The entire building had already become a sea of fire.
The Shaman desperately erected layers of magical barriers around himself.
One shattered.
Then another.
He kept reinforcing them while the flames consumed everything around him.
"Human!"
His roar shook the burning building.
"YOU DAMN HUMAN!"
Eventually, the screams stopped.
The flames continued burning.
And the Shaman remained standing alone in the middle of the ruined hall.
His cloak was scorched in several places, but his body remained untouched.
He stared at the destruction surrounding him.
Pure rage burned within his eyes.
Then he walked outside.
The moment he emerged, the entire settlement descended into chaos.
Several nearby huts had already caught fire.
Goblins were running everywhere with buckets of water while others desperately tried to stop the flames from spreading.
Nobody understood what had happened.
Nobody had ever seen their settlement fall into such disorder.
The Shaman slowly raised his head.
His eyes swept across the settlement.
Then the surrounding forest.
He wasn't looking randomly.
He was searching.
'You're here.'
His eyes narrowed.
'I know you're here.'
The human hadn't gone through all this trouble merely to kill a few scouts.
There was a purpose behind everything.
The Shaman's gaze eventually shifted toward the settlement walls.
For the briefest moment, his pupils gleamed.
But there was nothing there.
Evan had already moved.
He watched the chaos from a distance with a satisfied expression.
More importantly...
His eyes shifted toward the mountain pathway.
The goblin patrols that had previously guarded it were rushing back toward the settlement.
The path was becoming empty.
'Perfect.'
Evan immediately turned toward the mountain.
This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
However, he didn't notice the small silhouettes circling high above the settlement.
Several birds flew through the night sky.
Their movements appeared natural.
But their eyes remained fixed on the surrounding forest.
Back inside the settlement, the Shaman suddenly looked upward.
A faint magical glow appeared within his eyes.
His vision seemed to pierce through the darkness.
Then...
He smiled.
"Found you."
His gaze locked onto a distant point.
But his expression quickly changed.
"What are you planning...?"
He thought for a moment.
Then his eyes widened.
"Wait."
He immediately grabbed the nearest goblin warrior who was carrying water.
"Where are the mountain guards?"
The goblin trembled beneath his grip.
"Lord... they just returned to help extinguish the fire..."
The Shaman's expression instantly became grim.
"As I thought."
He released the goblin and turned toward the settlement.
"All mountain guards!"
His voice thundered across the settlement.
"Return to the mountain pathway immediately! An intruder is attempting to enter the mountain range!"
The goblins froze.
The guards who had only just returned exchanged glances before immediately obeying.
None dared question the Shaman.
One group after another rushed toward the mountain.
But by then...
Evan was already approaching the pathway.
He could almost taste freedom.
Until he noticed something.
Two figures remained ahead.
Two goblin guards were still standing at the entrance.
Evan's expression darkened.
'What?'
He looked back toward the settlement.
The rest of the guards were already moving.
'Why are these two still here?'
For a moment, he considered retreating.
But then he remembered the twenty-four scout groups searching the forest behind him.
His eyes hardened.
'I won't get another opportunity like this.'
Two goblins.
Or twenty-four patrol groups.
The choice was obvious.
'Two it is.'
Evan tightened his grip around Crimson Edge.
His Nightstep talent had remained active throughout the entire operation.
His mana had almost completely recovered as well, with only a few hundred points missing from his maximum.
He slowly approached.
Forty meters.
Thirty.
Twenty.
The two guards finally sensed something.
They turned.
At fifty meters, they had barely noticed the disturbance.
At forty...
A shadow emerged from the darkness.
At thirty...
The silhouette became clear.
A human.
The goblins' eyes widened.
"Enemy!"
Evan didn't stop.
His expression remained cold.
He released the concealment effect of Nightstep.
The moment his presence fully emerged, Crimson Edge erupted with crimson flames.
The blade burned like a beast awakening from slumber.
Evan lowered his stance.
Then he charged.
The battle had begun.
Both goblins immediately assumed fighting stances.
One rushed forward with a rusty sword raised high, while the other stepped back and drew his bow.
The first arrow flew.
Evan twisted his body and narrowly avoided it.
The second followed almost immediately.
He evaded that one as well, only for the rusty sword to come crashing down in front of his face.
Evan didn't retreat.
He raised Crimson Edge and met the attack head-on.
Clang!
The difference between the two weapons became obvious instantly.
Crimson Edge sliced through the rusty sword as if it were nothing more than rotten wood.
The broken half flew away.
Evan's momentum didn't stop.
He stepped forward and drove Crimson Edge toward the goblin's neck.
But the weakened state of his body immediately showed its limitation.
The blade pierced the goblin's neck...
Yet it failed to cut all the way through.
'My strength is still too low.'
The goblin's eyes widened in terror.
Before he could react, the crimson flames covering the blade surged outward.
They crawled across his neck and rapidly spread over his face.
"AGHHHH!"
The goblin collapsed onto the ground, desperately clawing at the flames.
Evan glanced at him once.
He was already finished.
His attention shifted toward the archer.
The goblin was staring at his fallen companion in disbelief.
Evan took a step toward him.
'Better finish this quickly. I don't know when the rest of them will arrive.'
He suddenly dashed forward.
The archer snapped out of his daze.
He immediately drew another arrow and released it.
Evan tilted his body.
The arrow passed beside his shoulder.
Another followed.
He deflected it with Crimson Edge, but the impact still sent a sharp vibration through his wrist.
'Ouch.'
He shook his hand slightly.
'If that thing hits me directly, my bones are going to complain for the rest of the day.'
The archer kept retreating.
He refused to let Evan get close.
Every time Evan tried to approach, another arrow came flying toward him.
The situation was becoming troublesome.
Then, just as Evan was about to close the remaining distance, he noticed something strange.
A grin appeared on the goblin's face.
It wasn't the expression of someone who had regained his courage.
It was the expression of someone who had just seen reinforcements.
Evan's instincts immediately screamed.
He stopped.
Slowly, he looked behind himself.
His pupils contracted.
A large group was approaching through the forest.
More than twenty goblins.
Twenty-two, to be exact.
And among them...
The Shaman was there.
'How?!'
Evan's expression changed.
'They should still be dealing with the fire in the settlement.'
His gaze instinctively swept across the sky.
Two tiny silhouettes were circling above him.
Birds.
Evan's face went blank.
"...Oh, come on."
He finally understood.
Those creatures weren't ordinary birds.
They had been watching him.
The Shaman had been using them to track his movements.
'Damn it.'
Evan immediately launched himself toward the archer.
He had to finish him and escape before the entire group surrounded him.
But before he could reach the goblin...
"SHOOT HIM DOWN!"
The Shaman's voice thundered through the forest.
Evan's expression turned ugly.
A rain of arrows descended from ahead.
'Are these idiots serious?! Their own people are standing right there!'
He stomped his foot against the ground.
The earth responded instantly.
BOOM!
A thick earthen wall erupted before him.
The arrows slammed into it.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The barrage was completely blocked.
But Evan's expression changed when he looked beyond the wall.
The two goblins caught between the attack hadn't been so fortunate.
The already wounded goblin was pierced by several arrows.
The archer was struck through the leg and fell to one knee.
Evan clicked his tongue.
He couldn't waste another second.
Another volley was already being prepared.
He peeked around the edge of the earthen wall.
The goblins were getting closer.
And behind them...
The Shaman was approaching.
Evan's eyes shifted toward the mountain pathway.
There.
The path was open.
Only twenty meters separated him from it.
'Twenty meters.'
He looked at his mana.
Around seventy percent remained.
'If I use everything necessary, I can make it.'
He clenched his fist.
"Come on, Evan."
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"You can do this."
He stepped out from behind the wall.
Instantly, several arrows flew toward him.
Evan raised both hands.
Cold energy surged outward.
The temperature around him plummeted.
Frost!
A violent burst of ice erupted across the battlefield.
The incoming arrows were swallowed by freezing mist before becoming trapped inside a rapidly forming mass of ice.
BOOM!
A huge block of ice formed between Evan and the goblins.
The entire group stopped.
For a moment, nobody moved.
The Shaman stared at the frozen arrows.
Then his eyes shifted toward Evan.
And his expression became even darker.
The human was standing there.
Not attacking.
Not retreating.
Instead...
Evan threw a fireball toward the massive block of ice.
The flames struck the frozen surface.
Hissssss!
Steam exploded outward.
Within seconds, a thick fog spread across the entire area.
The forest disappeared.
The goblins could no longer see each other.
The Shaman's expression changed.
"So that's your plan..."
"He's using the steam to escape!"
He immediately raised his voice.
"Archers! Shoot toward the front! Don't let him reach the mountain!"
The goblins hurriedly nocked their arrows.
But Evan was already moving.
He sprinted through the fog.
The mountain pathway was right ahead.
Ten meters.
Five.
Two.
He stepped onto the stone path.
A surge of relief passed through him.
'I made it.'
Then—
Pfft!
Evan froze.
A sharp pain exploded through his torso.
He slowly looked down.
An arrow had pierced straight through his body.
Blood flowed from the wound.
A metallic taste filled his mouth.
He coughed.
Blood trickled from the corner of his lips.
"...Damn."
He turned his head.
Through the thinning fog, he saw the goblins.
The Shaman stood among them.
A wide, almost crazed grin stretched across his face.
The wind swept through the forest.
The fog dispersed.
More arrows were already aimed at Evan.
But there was something the Shaman hadn't noticed.
Evan was already inside the mountain pathway.
The stone walls rose on both sides of him, leaving only a narrow passage ahead.
Goblins with clubs and crude swords rushed toward him from behind.
Evan's eyes narrowed.
His mana had already dropped below half.
His body was bleeding.
His escape route behind him was filled with enemies.
There was only one direction left.
Forward.
He turned and walked deeper into the mountain.
The goblins chased after him.
"Don't let him escape!"
"Kill him!"
The Shaman followed closely behind.
But just as the goblins were about to catch him...
Evan stopped.
He placed one hand against the stone wall.
Then slowly turned his head.
His expression was strangely calm.
The Shaman's grin disappeared.
Something was wrong.
He could feel mana gathering around the human.
"HALT!"
The Shaman's warning came instantly.
"Nobody move!"
But it was already too late.
Two goblins had entered the narrow passage.
The stone walls suddenly trembled.
Rumble...
The goblins froze.
"What...?"
BOOM!
The walls moved.
The narrow passage began closing from both sides.
The two goblins screamed and tried to retreat.
There wasn't enough space.
Stone crushed bone.
Their screams were cut short.
The walls slammed together.
Silence returned.
Evan stood on the other side.
His hand remained against the stone.
He looked directly at the Shaman.
There was no fear in his eyes anymore.
Only cold determination.
"I'll kill you the next time we meet."
The Shaman's pupils contracted.
Before he could respond, Evan stepped deeper into the mountain.
The passage collapsed completely behind him.
The human disappeared.
The entire goblin group stood frozen.
The Shaman stared at the sealed pathway.
His face twitched.
Then his expression twisted into pure fury.
"That damn... mouse!"
His roar echoed throughout the forest.
But Evan was already gone.