Red Monster

Chapter 55: A Hunter

Red was hiding in a tree, watching a group of four Kobolds. They were nothing alike to all creatures he had found so far, but they fit the description the Matron told him about.

A scaled snout, two small horns, and a long, scaled tail. Maybe because of their scales, they only wore plate armor on their bodies, covering only half of their stomach with it. The Kobold was taller than the goblins, maybe a head taller, but still shorter compared to him.

Each of them was armed with a round shield and a short blade hung at their waist. He used Appraisal on them without getting caught.

Two of them were Level 7, one Level 8, and one Level 9. Overall, they were stronger than the goblins in his village. He only had a handful of Level 7 goblins under him, and the remaining guards and hunters were below Level 7.

But of course, these four were not enough to cause destruction in his village because they had the number. Then a question popped into his head: What were they doing here?

Red decided to tail them even though he had devised several plans to take them down. The Matron told him to look for the Kobold and what they were doing.

He intended just to do that until he discovered their levels. It was hard to find monsters above Level 7, and now four of them were presented before him. He planned to take them down since the level gap was not that big.

However, he agreed with the Matron that he needed to find out what they were doing. He didn’t understand much about his village’s territory. He saw the jungles as an open place that anyone could enter and hunt, not his village’s territory.

The issue was that their village had a history with the Kobold. It would be dangerous if they came too close to the village, or even found the village. He was worried that the Kobold was looking for the village instead of just hunting.

Red decided to tail them, ensuring he didn’t get too close to them. The group of four was walking in one direction, looking around. After following them for a while, it seemed they were looking for something instead of hunting.

They met a Dire Lupus and didn’t bother to kill it. They just drove the Dire Lupus away and continued their patrol. However, they didn’t get closer to the village either. He was following them to the Marget’s area.

He had a high patience as a hunter and followed them for much longer; at least he got something. He had confirmed his guess that they were indeed looking for something.

The most frustrating thing was that they didn’t talk at all. They just followed the taller Kobold without words or conversation. He hoped that they were talking so he could learn something from them, but he got nothing.

Another half an hour passed, and Red started to realize that they were actually getting closer to the village. They were scouring the path area still, but they got closer to the village as they kept going.

A suspicion arose in his head. He might know what they were doing and what they were looking for. Kobold was looking for a goblin. They wanted to kill a goblin who was out to hunt, reducing their numbers. Of course, there was merely suspicion, but he was confident with his guess.

That explained why they scoured the area and did not hunt the monster. They were patrolling to find a small group of goblins that were easy to kill. If this continued for another week, the village would be in danger.

The Kobold was smarter than they looked to come up with such a plan. It was totally different from the goblin. There were only two strategies that he knew of. It was to attack and defend, nothing else.

As he was speculating about all kinds of scenarios, he finally heard something from the group. He could not hear it clearly, but they finally spoke.

He jumped between the trees silently, making little noises until he got close enough to hear the conversation.

"Where are these little ugly goblins? We haven’t found a single one of them after so long!"

It was not a conversation, just the leader talking by himself, frustrated that he could not find the goblin.

Those words confirmed his conjecture on what they were doing here. At that moment, he quickly made his decision to kill them. He stood and pulled the spear from his back.

The strongest one was Level 9, and he was not confident in killing the Level 9 Kobold with one spear. He targeted the Level 7 Kobold instead.

Despite the limited space of the tree branch, he still managed to put power into his throw. The spear whistled through the air and pierced the kobold’s head.

The Kobold flopped to the ground as blood sprayed. The three shouted in panic, looking around to find who threw the spear. At this moment, Red already threw the second spear.

Taking advantage of their panic, he aimed the second spear at the Level 8 Kobold. The spear whistled through the air, and three Kobolds looked up toward the noise.

The moment they looked, the spear was already closing in on the target and pierced the Level 8 Kobold. The moment the spear was sent, the Level 8 Kobold fell backward. With a spear stuck in its head, it never stood again.

"Above!" The Level 9 Kobold yelled.

The two remaining Kobolds pulled the shield from their back and drew their blade from their waist.

Red still had one spear left, but he didn’t intend to throw it. Instead of throwing it, he turned his back and climbed down the other side of the tree.

Losing sight of the red, weird goblin, the Level 9 Kobold yelled to chase. The two Kobolds picked up their speed and chased after Red. When they were about to get to the other side of the big tree, a spear glinted from their blind spot.

The spear came so abruptly that the Level 7 Kobold could not react in time to raise its shield as the spear pierced through its head.

The last Kobold watched the last member of his group be killed before its eyes. It backed down, leaping backward two times to create a distance from the attacker. It thought there would be more than one goblin, or even a hob.

However, Red came out, holding his Slingshot instead of a blade. He didn’t take the spear out just to ensure that Kobold was dead.

’It’s a pity. I want to ambush the level 9 one.’

Red mused to himself as he took out his spiky metal ball and loaded the Slingshot.

The Kobold didn’t recognize the Slingshot because it was still looking around, trying to find the other goblins. It quickly realized that Red was alone because it didn’t see anyone else.

The Level 9 Kobold regained its confidence and grinned at Red. He lost three people, but it didn’t matter as long as it could kill this weird goblin.

"You are not as smart as I thought..." Red muttered as he released the Slingshot.

The Kobold said something, shot out toward it, and raised its shield unconsciously. The small ball was aimed at its head, so it raised the shield to cover its head.

Bang!

The metal ball hit the wooden shield, and the Kobold was surprised that its prized shield cracked. It lowered the shield to gain a vision of its enemy, but Red had already shot his second metal ball.

Red aimed at the head on purpose to conceal his second shot. Kobold could not see his second attack, which was aimed at the right knee.

The moment the Kobold lowered its shield, the second shot was already close to it. It didn’t even know Red had already released his second shot until an excruciating pain, which was followed by a cracking noise, resounded in his ears.

"GRAARGGHHHH!"

It growled in pain as it fell on his knee. But before it could proceed, the third shot hit its left knee. It growled even harder as it fell on its knees. It tried to get back up, but it was too painful, and it didn’t have the strength to get back.

In panic, it tried to look for the red-weird-goblin. Only to find out the goblin was no longer in his sight. Then suddenly, its vision turned upside down, and it found the red goblin and also saw its headless body.