Min-hyuk muttered as if he were about to reach the mountain peak at any moment and began his advance.
As soon as he moved, arrows flew toward him from all directions.
*Rumble!*
Traps rose to block Min-hyuk’s path.
In the meantime, he saw enemies trying to ambush him from various points.
Several goblin units even moved below the mountain ridge.
On the highest mountain in the distance, small sparks from goblin shamans were fired into the sky.
‘Is it an army?’
It was not the small unit he had dealt with so far.
He felt as though an entire army that had occupied a region was targeting him.
A battle between one human and a goblin army.
Perhaps because of that, Min-hyuk also dispelled his fighting spirit, which consumed a lot of mana, and only wrapped a minimum amount of mana around his armor.
No matter how large the level difference was, the distribution of power was essential to face an army-scale force.
“Heh!”
Goblin assassins dug in, taking advantage of the small hesitation as he dodged a poison needle aimed at a gap in his armor.
*Slash!*
Min-hyuk cut them all down with a single stroke of his sword.
However, while he was stopped dealing with the assassins, additional enemy units arrived.
Goblin spearmen, who had arrived before he knew it, began to apply pressure from both sides.
Countless makeshift walls were erected in front of him, and behind them, kobold archer units and kobold bomb units launched continuous attacks toward Min-hyuk.
‘Is this what it means to win the battle but lose the strategy?’
Even if one wins small battles continuously, there are cases where they eventually lose as long as they cannot disrupt the overall strategy.
Min-hyuk was in that exact situation now.
A single outstanding brave general might sweep through and slaughter the enemy camp, but in the end, they would exhaust their physical strength and kneel before a massive enemy army.
‘I might have to fight a more difficult battle than I thought.’
With that thought, he focused on breaking through the front.
*Boom!*
He used his Greatsword, condensed with mana, to blow away the wall blocking his path.
Shield-bearers gathered to buy time and blocked him, but Min-hyuk finished them off with a few slashes.
However, even during that short time, the enemy units were gradually increasing.
Seeing the goblin units already positioned in the rear, he stopped running and looked around.
“Whew…”
Goblins filled the surroundings of Min-hyuk before he knew it.
As if they were not the end, shrieks that sounded like they were urging subordinates on could be heard from afar.
‘There are many.’
Thinking about the units that would continue to swarm him, even if he overexerted himself to sweep the enemies away and take a break, that time would be extremely short.
The enemy pursuit teams would surely find Min-hyuk and attack him.
If his strength were chipped away like that, he would eventually have to face the boss with an exhausted body by the time he reached the top of the mountain.
It was on a different level from simply slaughtering beast-type monsters.
‘…Is it really difficult to deal with an army alone?’
It was just as he had this thought.
A phantom suddenly popped out and began to run frantically toward the target point.
It slaughtered enemies while parrying or avoiding blue streaks of light that looked like arrows with acrobatic movements.
Before he knew it, the phantom disappeared out of sight.
Then, this time, his body twitched.
It was as if to say he could also do the level of action shown just now.
“Is that how it is?”
Another meaning of the word “Butcher” came to Min-hyuk’s mind.
‘A person who kills innocent people indiscriminately.’
Fitting for a word with such a meaning, “Butcher” was also used as a nickname for those who killed a terrifying number of enemies on the battlefield.
As if to prove this, a battlefield appeared before Min-hyuk’s eyes for a brief moment.
A man holding a greatsword similar to Min-hyuk’s stood alone among countless soldiers, laughing.
The moment the enemy’s offensive began, the man’s dance started.
A cruel dance solely for the sake of “slaughter.”
*Ping!*
As a blue streak of light flew in and he reflexively turned his head, the phantom he had seen until now shattered.
At the same time, the enemy’s offensive began, and Min-hyuk’s body started to move.
‘The movement the phantom showed just now is impossible for the current me.’
If so, there was only one way.
‘Skill.’
It meant he should use it without holding back.
**[Butcher’s Sword Dance begins.]**
Min-hyuk felt his mana instantly amplify due to the skill that was naturally activated by his thoughts alone, even though he had not spoken it aloud.
As he turned his head, he saw hobgoblins swarming toward him.
‘I can see them.’
Min-hyuk swung his greatsword while watching the enemy’s attacks, which appeared more clearly than before.
*Crunch!*
The full-scale battle began with him crushing over ten hobgoblins in a single strike.
Using his armor, he did not dodge what was acceptable to be hit by, and he deflected bombs with an instantaneous release of fighting spirit.
He squeezed his body between the goblin spears trying to check him, cut their throats, and moved forward.
This time, shield-bearers rushed in to buy time, but he destroyed their front line by aiming for a very minute gap that appeared before they could properly form a formation.
*Thud!*
In an instant, 100 goblins lost their heads and collapsed as a group.
**[Butcher’s Sword Dance is deactivated.]**
Looking at the surrounding landscape that had already become a sea of blood, he furrowed his brows as if unsatisfied.
Compared to the phantom he had seen earlier, there were frequent mistakes.
His movements were not smooth.
Even though it was not a big difference, he could feel for himself that he had wasted a lot of power once they accumulated.
“I’m stiff.”
Min-hyuk, who rotated his shoulders that had become stiff after dancing with the sword for a while, raised his mana again as he saw the goblin unit swarming once more.
Since he had shown movements that were still impossible through the Sword Dance, it was natural for it to put a strain on his body.
Nevertheless, Min-hyuk used the skill again to perform the Sword Dance.
**[Butcher’s Sword Dance begins.]**
The goblin massacre began again with the Sword Dance.
When the dance ended, he would catch his breath and rest for a moment, and when they swarmed, he would repeat the Sword Dance.
Even though he felt his physical strength hitting rock bottom to the point of gasping for air after only a few dances, there was a sense of leisure on Min-hyuk’s face.
“Have I dealt with all the monsters in this vicinity?”
Muttering so, Min-hyuk summoned a campfire.
The reason he had overexerted himself and performed the Sword Dance despite being at the entrance was because of the campfire.
It felt as though his health was filling up just by sitting there, but when he added special recovery potions and food, the speed rose even more sharply.
“I wonder when they’ll come.”
Did he really need to overexert himself to climb that mountain?
No matter how much of an army they were, there would be a limit to the number of goblins gathered here.
It was a simple reverse-thinking idea: just catch and kill them as they swarm, then go up when they no longer come.
That brought leisure to Min-hyuk.
He planned to kill the swarming goblins and rest repeatedly while even adding firewood without dispelling the campfire.
“They’re coming just in time.”
Smiling leisurely as he saw the goblin unit swarming again, Min-hyuk placed meat on a stone plate.
“I’ll be back before this meat is fully cooked.”
Muttering as if talking to the campfire, Min-hyuk drew his mana.
“I can feel the urgency all the way here.”
He had worked hard to chip away at his health, so if he recovered, it would all go to waste.
It seemed they intended to send the fastest unit the goblin army had to check him first and then send the main force again.
That was because a gnoll unit, which reminiscent of cavalry, appeared.
Goblin cavalrymen rushed in while riding gnolls that looked like dogs and holding short spears.
The moment a special unit combined of gnolls and goblins, which had a strength in speed, swarmed toward Min-hyuk, he performed the Sword Dance again.
‘The current skill is only half-complete.’
It was true that his strength and mana were temporarily amplified by ten times, but the true power of this Sword Dance lay elsewhere.
It was only when he could perfectly perform the dance of the phantom that matched his body that he could show the true value of an EX-grade skill.
As if his thoughts were the correct answer, slightly more difficult dance moves were added every time he showed signs of getting used to it.
“Mmm… As expected, meat eaten after sweating is honey-sweet.”
Min-hyuk, who had just finished another bout of battle, wore a satisfied expression while biting into the meat.
As soon as he took a few bites, he repeated practicing the Sword Dance against the swarming units and returning.
When the surroundings were filled with goblin corpses, the goblins no longer swarmed.
“Are you telling me to come now?”
No matter how many units they sent, they only died.
Since the human would have to come to where he was to clear it anyway.
“It’s about time I get up.”
Rising from his seat as he saw the campfire that was already burning out, Min-hyuk moved toward the final goal.
Then, the enemies also began their attacks again.
The interesting thing was that his response had changed from the first time.
Through the intense movements caused by the Sword Dance, Min-hyuk’s movements, which had adapted to the armor, began to naturally produce acrobatic movements as if he were not wearing armor.
‘The defense is weak.’
Even at the first line of defense or the base fortress, only a very few goblins remained and only activated traps.
‘It’s as if they’re trying to buy time.’
Sensing that something was happening at the mountain peak, Min-hyuk did not even collect the weapons or armor left by the dead goblins and headed straight for the summit.
*Boom!*
The moment he broke through the gate of the massive goblin fortress and entered, a goblin was standing in the center of a giant circle made of goblin blood.
He saw many shamans dead nearby, and many other goblins had also collapsed.
—…Have you come?—
Min-hyuk grimaced at the sensation echoing in his head and looked at the goblin.
—You are strong. I would not be able to win even if I moved the entire army.—
The Goblin Lord said as if admitting it readily.
—So, I prayed to god for ‘the power to punish you at the cost of everything.’—
Did the god answer?
Unique patterns were engraved on the bodies of all the dead goblins in the shamanic circle.
However, the strange thing was that the same pattern was also engraved on the body of the Goblin Lord.
“Are you going to die, too?”
The Goblin Lord stood up without answering those words.
Min-hyuk, who noticed that the Goblin Lord would face death after the battle with him, quietly drew his mana.
Then, the Goblin Lord took a step while looking at him.
“Ugh!”
Was leaving the spot a condition?
The moment one foot stepped out of the center, something massive began to take shape behind the Goblin Lord’s body.
It was fighting spirit he had already seen many times.
But it looked a little different this time.
As if to prove it, the moment the form of power emitted by the Goblin Lord stepped on the ground, a giant footprint was made.
Min-hyuk, who was bewildered by the appearance as if it were a real form, instead broke into a smile.
‘Is it the next step?’
With that thought, Min-hyuk also released his fighting spirit.
It was a miserably small and unstable form compared to the Goblin Lord’s fighting spirit, which looked as if he were possessed by a god.
It was impossible to overcome this with skills alone.
Min-hyuk’s body also seemed to feel that, as his eyes were stained red.
*Thump!*
Along with the sound of his heart thumping, his combat senses rose, and his stats increased.
**[Butcher’s Sword Dance begins.]**
The moment the skill was used, Min-hyuk’s figure moved toward the enemy.
Min-hyuk’s small and unstable fighting spirit flickered like a candle before the giant goblin’s fighting spirit, but a deep smile was drawn on the corner of the rushing
Min-hyuk’s mouth.
A smile like that of a child playing with a toy, not thinking for a moment that he would lose.