Tower of Paradise

Chapter 68: Goblin Champion

When the monster withdrew the axe he held in his hands, preparing to cut, I suddenly found myself caught in this strange sensation.

Move! Please... Move!

I knew I should have done that.

However, my body didn't move.

During this short period of time, everything I was taking in had slowed down to almost stopping.

I awakened my energy and made it burst uncontrollably in the hope of being able to move.

Now I felt dizzy, as if I were drunk. My stomach turned painfully. All kinds of emotions ran through my heart.

The boiling stellar energy inside me circulated fiercely and crashed against my entire body with the force of violent storm waves.

'I want to live...'

Sweat fell into my eyes and stung.

'I don't want to die...!'

My muscles froze from the blades of wind cutting my flesh. That was the terror of death I was feeling for the fifth time.

The world, which was moving slowly, suddenly returned to normal. And at that moment, my breathing stopped from the powerful fear and my body moved...

I gripped the shaft of the spear tightly, clenched my teeth, and stared at the monster I had dodged and was now descending.

I could only move because the fear I felt when I dodged that old man's fist was much greater than the fear caused by this monster.

In the next moment...

— Uwaa...!

I finally managed to straighten my arms that wanted to embrace backward.

And then...

The axe fell quickly and forcefully as if it wanted to split the world in two, and the spear slid smoothly upward and collided in the middle of the path.

I saw the blade of the axe. That was the end.

At the moment they collided, a terrible mix of disconcerting noises resonated in my auditory canals and my vision quickly darkened. The back of my nose felt burning and hot for some reason. The other sensations I perceived simply disappeared.

The metallic screech was no longer heard. I couldn't feel that I had been cut either. It was as if time had been interrupted.

But that only lasted a brief moment.

The horrendous pain...

— ...Ah.

...Came to knock on the door belatedly.

'Huuaaaaakkk!'

If I could have, I would have screamed loud enough to tear my vocal cords, but the intense and paralyzing pain did not allow me to open my mouth.

Could this be described as the pain I felt when blood flowed in reverse? It surely felt as if all my bones had broken and my flesh had exploded into pieces. The sensation of the muscles in my shoulder tearing and tearing apart was a pain of another dimension, a torture that could not be expressed with simple words.

What made me feel even more desperate was the fact that I couldn't feel anything in both arms.

It's not that I couldn't move my arms, no, it's rather as if they didn't even exist in the first place. I even ended up thinking that my arms must have been torn off by the force of the collision.

'Am I dead?'

Only then did I realize that the environment had also gone silent. Everything was deafening, as if I were listening underwater.

Was I going deaf or had I died? I was thinking that, but then I realized something was wrong.

If I was really dead, then I shouldn't feel pain. Since I was feeling it, then...

My mind got serious instantly and my eyes opened wide.

The first thing I saw was a huge axe, so close it almost touched my eyes. In fact, I even perceived the subtle trembling of the blade.

My two arms, which I thought would have been broken at the very least, were still attached to my shoulders. The shaft of the spear I was holding with both hands was pressed against the axe and prevented it from falling further.

My expression became stunned. Although I was the one doing this, my expression indicated my own disbelief.

...Even though I felt my shoulders would break at any moment and my arms trembled as if I would drop the spear even at the slightest hint of a push.

But if there's one thing no one can take away from me today, it's that I'm still standing with determination and resisting with tenacity. I knew from the beginning that I could never have faced the Goblin Champion.

This was a critical moment where a single mistake could lead to the annihilation of all my efforts. However, I managed to defend myself from a rather complacent attack that, nevertheless, attacked me without warning.

But it wasn't over yet. The distance between the monster and me was quite short. The monster's sudden intrusion took me by surprise, but the Goblin Champion knew that the human before him was no match for him. In fact, he was so weak that if he increased his strength a little more, he would trample me.

And then, the hands gripping the axe emitted a compression noise as the monster increased its strength. Just a little, a little more, he would trample the human and then...!

— Uuuuu...!

I spat out a groan when the pressure increased to another level.

The joy of having survived lasted only a fraction of a second. Now I could feel the cold blade pressing against my forehead. The blood fell and accumulated around my eyes. As my eyes reddened, thoughts of surrender invaded my mind.

The thoughts whispered that it was a miracle I had held out this far, that resisting more was impossible, that this time I would really die.

The moment those thoughts entered my mind, the "emotions" that had been silently submerged suddenly and violently returned. It felt as if I had been yanked out and returned to solid ground after having been descending deeper and deeper into the bottomless sea.

Did I rush to draw conclusions and give up? It wasn't as if I had given everything I could yet.

I gripped the shaft of the spear even more tightly. My palms must have been torn because they hurt a lot, but I didn't care. My fixed gaze on the enemy sharpened a bit.

The acceptance of the end that I felt transformed into determination not to want to end things yet.

The thoughts of giving up, of telling myself that this was impossible, changed to a burning desire that told me not to give up.

And finally, the desperation that told me I couldn't do it transformed into hope that I would really succeed.

My eyes, once trapped in blurriness and uncertainty, regained their shine the moment I began to "deny" all the negative thoughts in my head.

I breathed deeply, deeply, and...

I summoned every bit of strength and circulated every drop of stellar energy throughout my body.

The energy burst forth from the depths of myself. The overwhelming and burning energy that gushed like a tidal wave concentrated in my arms. The spear began to hum with a strange buzz.

My face turned red, all my muscles swelled, and my veins tensed to the point of almost bursting.

I clenched my teeth and slowly raised my arms. A scene that completely defied all common sense.

It was the scene of my spear slowly pushing up the Champion's axe. It wasn't that I couldn't fight him, but the fear I felt said I couldn't do it.

The axe that touched my face was pushed up above my head, then, very slowly, it rose higher and higher in the air. The goblin champion was also giving it his all, the proof was that his arms holding the axe were shaking violently. However, even then, the weapon rose agonizingly slowly as if it were lifting heavy weights.

Faced with a never-before-seen power that kept growing stronger, the Champion's eyes began to show signs of panic for the first time.

It was then that my body leaned and I lost my balance for a moment. The reason was simple: the champion could not resist any longer and took several steps back.

That's right, he had retreated.