Chapter 052: Taken

Within the goblin tribe, the ghostly blue flames of the Netherworld fire had engulfed the entire settlement. This fire was born from the skill "Nether Fireball," wielded by the two goblin skeleton mages under Karen's command.

This flame differed greatly from ordinary fire. Most notably, its harm to the undead was far less than that of normal fire, and its temperature was lower as well. Yet, one could not underestimate the lethality of the Netherworld fire; its destructive power was astonishing, especially against living creatures.

Once touched, this fire would ignite the blood, causing it to burn rapidly. For those without combat aura or special abilities, this kind of burning was nearly impossible to extinguish. Once ignited, they could only die in agony and despair, ultimately becoming bloodless mummies.

At this moment, the goblin tribe was almost entirely shrouded in the ghostly blue flames. Out of the thousand goblins, more than half had been tainted by this fire. Hundreds were engulfed, and the air above the tribe was filled with cries of despair and pain.

Even Karen, the mastermind behind all this, felt a ripple in his heart upon hearing these wails, let alone the goblins trapped within the settlement.

Under the relentless cries, the goblins who had not yet been touched by the flames dared not even attempt to flee. They avoided the terrifying blue fire as one would avoid venomous snakes, their sole focus now on escaping into the mine.

Only within the mine did they believe they could survive. This became the consensus among all goblins. The leader of the tribe stepped forward at this moment, rallying his goblins to charge toward the mine occupied by Little Green and his companions.

Meanwhile, some goblins who had been working overnight or guarding the mine were roused and began to fight their way out.

Facing this situation, with attacks coming from both front and rear, Little Green called Ironbone over with a rattling voice: "You, here! I, behind! Understand?"

Ironbone nodded blankly, and Little Green turned and headed to the rear alone.

At this moment, Little Green displayed remarkable intelligence—not only assigning Ironbone to guard the front, but also, without hesitation, activating his innate skill, "Power of Sacrifice," as he turned.

Almost instantly, his right hand was covered with blood-red runes.

Little Green then burst forth, fiercely attacking the goblins surging from behind. Though he held the "Bow of Bones," he had no intention of using it in such cramped conditions, where it would only serve as a club. He was unwilling to use the weapon Karen had given him for such purposes, so all his attacks were executed with his blood-rune-covered bone claw.

After unleashing the power of sacrifice, Little Green's bone claw became terrifyingly powerful. Each strike pierced a goblin's heart with ease.

About twenty goblins attacked from the rear of the mine—aside from one second-tier goblin, the rest were all first-tier.

These goblins were no match for Little Green. In the narrow space, they could not gang up, and Little Green slaughtered them effortlessly, even the second-tier goblin falling to a single blow.

More importantly, after becoming undead, Little Green’s sacrificial power seemed even stronger. Grasping a heart for just a second transformed it into energy, absorbed into his body.

After sacrificing those twenty goblin hearts, Little Green’s strength increased noticeably. Excited, he turned to face the goblins at the front.

Elsewhere in the mine, as Little Green and his companions fought fiercely, events outside in the goblin tribe were also changing.

Though the goblin skeleton mages' Netherworld fire was formidable, it had a drawback: its duration was too short. Since the fire was conjured by two first-level skeleton mages, it could burn for only half an hour, after which it gradually faded.

Nevertheless, half an hour of Netherworld fire was enough to fulfill Karen’s purpose. By now, over seventy percent of the goblins had either been burned to death or wounded, and the tribe itself was reduced to ruins.

Under these circumstances, Karen led his hundred undead into battle.

With Karen’s undead advancing, the conflict reached its most critical moment. The goblins attacking the mine realized that the flames outside had vanished.

But before they could rejoice, Karen arrived, leading more than a hundred undead.

Although most of Karen’s undead were zero-tier, the majority of goblins could not distinguish between these and the nine second-tier undead within the mine. They presumed all the undead were equally powerful.

Immediately, the already timid goblins fell into a state of collapse, their morale plummeting.

Seizing the opportunity, Karen pressed the attack, and Little Green, sensing Karen’s approach, emerged with Ironbone by his side.

With both forces attacking, especially with Little Green’s explosive power from the sacrificial skill, goblin morale shattered further.

Karen saw his chance and shouted in goblin language, "Surrender and you will not be killed!"

His words had a tremendous effect; in their panic, the goblins were stunned for a moment, then most quickly surrendered their weapons and ceased fighting.

Little did they realize that by abandoning resistance, they had essentially relinquished their lives.

After the goblins surrendered, Karen immediately took control of the tribal leader and several key figures, bringing them into the mine, while leaving the remaining goblins entirely to Little Green.

As Little Green’s master, Karen knew well that Little Green could strengthen himself by sacrificing goblin hearts.

He eagerly awaited to see how powerful Little Green would become after sacrificing two to three hundred hearts.