It took about ten minutes for the last of the horrible goblin screams to fade. Ronan assumed that every single goblin in the settlement had been killed by the insidious black smoke. The screaming faces and other horrible shapes it twisted into as it rose into the sky above the structures were disturbing, to say the least.

He didn't rush right back in once the spell had worked its course. If this was a trap laid by a goblin or hobgoblin shaman then he might simply activate it by heading back too soon.

While he had his mana breathing to counteract dangerous spells, there was no guarantee he would survive inhaling such dangerous smoke or be able to fight a boss immediately afterwards if it damaged him enough. He couldn't wait forever, though.

Another minute passed and Ronan couldn't see any black smoke remaining. He did, however, hear a strange groaning sound. That could be attributed to the invisible shaman, so he was confident in approaching the settlement once more. If the spell was still active he had a few ways to counteract its effects.

The most efficient of those was killing the caster.

Unlike the lively place full of goblins that the city had been when he first arrived—even though they'd tried to kill him, their existence and life was still strangely familiar—it was now devoid of life. Eerie and haunted were the words he'd use to describe it.

When he reached the place he'd been fighting the goblins before, Ronan stopped to stare at the stark difference. Only hollow husks of skin remained where before there had been corpses and living goblins. The skin was pale, drained of vibrancy, and even the bones had turned into a goopy liquid.

Goblin bone broth.

He almost wanted to retch, but there was no time to be grossed out. He looked in the direction that the black smoke initially came from. That was where he would find his opponent.

Looking around as he walked, Ronan started to frown. There was no sign of the larger body—Zagbar the Bloodthirsty. He reached the spot at which he'd cut down the mini-boss, but the hobgoblin champion's corpse was nowhere to be seen.

That was a strange and worrying sign. He thought back to the normal difficulty tutorial and the third stage. He hoped this wasn't going to be a repeat of that. The fact the goblin corpses were still strewn around indicated it likely wouldn't be, but he had no idea the breadth of magic that a goblin shaman had access to and couldn't guess at the outcome of its spell.

He passed through the area he'd fought in and reached a wider street. The clustered buildings grew further apart until eventually there was only one left. A circular hut with bone charms and trinkets hanging from the thatched roof on strings, clattering as they were blown about in the wind. A torn sheet of fabric hung over the door, occasionally giving him a peek into the darkness within as the wind lifted the corners of the sheet.

Ronan marched towards it. The hut was ominous, but he hadn't been scared of the first goblin he'd fought, back when he was newly integrated, and he wasn't going to start running away from them now.

He crossed half the distance to the entrance when he heard the strange groaning noise once more. This time it came from behind him. Ronan froze.

He heard heavy thudding sounds and whipped around, taking a step back towards the hut as he turned. A familiar, yet changed, hobgoblin stood in front of him. Zagbar's skin was a pale green—not the lifeless, sickly green of the drained goblins but a far lighter hue than it had been when the champion was alive.

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For it was certainly dead now. Even the tag above its head confirmed the fact. Despite that, the hobgoblin walked and stared at Ronan as though it were still living. He knew a second battle between them was inevitable.

[Zagbar the Bloodthirsty - MINI BOSS][Zombified Hobgoblin Champion Lv.45]

Not only had the hobgoblin been raised from the dead, but its level had increased by five. That wouldn't increase the difficulty much for Ronan, especially given that he had already gained a few levels from defeating the champion the first time.

Before he could prepare to attack the undead hob, he heard the sound of clattering bones from behind him. A glance over his shoulder let him know that the zombie wasn't his only foe. The real enemy had made its first appearance.

Like a twisted cross between Tharaxes and Magriz'al, the towering shaman had arms that hung down its knees and a hobbled back. Even hunched over, the hobgoblin towered over both Ronan and Zagbar, easily nine or ten feet tall and probably closer to eleven if it stood straight.

A twisted staff formed from two interlocking bones was clutched in its blackened fingers. He felt the mana crackling around the staff and from the hobgoblin even across the dirt road, knowing it was one of the most powerful enemies he'd ever faced.

[Ragar'vath the Soulstealer - BOSS][Goblin Chief Shaman Lv.60]

He just about read the tag above its head before a swoosh noise made him turn just in time to see Zagbar's blade swinging towards him from above. He sidestepped the wide, sweeping slash with ease, but realised immediately that the undead champion was far quicker than it had been in life. Those five levels were clearly not representative of the power it had gained.

This was a conundrum. The shaman chief was clearly the strongest of the two, being the boss and an evolution of goblin beyond a hobgoblin, if Ronan was reading the tag correctly. However, there was no way the zombie would let him attack the shaman without intercepting.

Whether it was under direct control or not, Zagbar clearly only had one goal: killing Ronan. That wasn't going to happen. Ronan had too many tools in his arsenal to allow a mere pair of goblins to fuck him around.

He started dashing to one side, putting space between himself and Zagbar. The zombie immediately started lumbering forwards, but while its attacks were quicker, its steps seemed awkward and slow. That worked perfectly.

He saw the shaman staring at him, seemingly unbothered. The creature had every reason to be confident. It was muttering under its breath, red and purple sparks dancing from its blackened fingers and around the bone staff it clutched in its hands.

Its lips peeled back into a sadistic grin, revealing teeth even blacker than its fingers. Around its neck were layers of necklaces strung with bone charms, fingernails, and toes. There was even a goblin-shaped skull hanging from its waist.

Ronan started gathering his mana and forming a rainbow bomb in his hands. While the spell excelled at wide-area damage, there was no reason he couldn't use it against a single target. It was more destructive than a mana bolt and he wanted to see how the shaman would fare against his spell.

In his right hand he conjured a small throwing knife. He needed a distraction to ensure the spell struck true. While the shaman continued to cast its voodoo, Ronan started tossing a stream of knives at it.

The first was easily deflected by a subtle shift of its bone staff, but a few of the others struck its skin. Ronan was shocked when the first simply bounced off the chief's leathery hide, but a few of his more forceful throws pierced the skin. Even those only went a couple of centimetres deep.

While he was surprised at the lack of damage, he wasn't particularly worried that his distractions couldn't hurt the boss. They were simply the opening salvo.

It was a race between Ronan and Ragar'vath. Whichever of them completed their spell first would take the advantage in the battle. Ronan continued to create space between them, but made sure he always had a line of sight on the shaman and the zombified champion.

Zagbar was approaching him faster than he'd hoped, but there was enough time to finish casting the rainbow bomb before he'd need to take on the hobgoblin or throw it off his tail once more. The shaman chief was still muttering and casting its voodoo when Ronan's mana stopped flowing into the rainbow bomb. Without wasting another second he launched the destructive spell at the shaman, rushing forwards to be ready with a follow-up strike.

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