Goblin Head Soup, Part 5
"Wow, their civilization is actually more advanced than I expected."
Excluding the structures I had already pulverized, the goblins' stonework and architectural skills were surprisingly impressive.
Though they lacked steam power, there were buildings that seemed to run on some strange mechanical energy. Even the paved roads and the cultural style of the architecture were quite striking.
If I didn't know this was a goblin empire, I might have felt like I was traveling in some exotic foreign land.
However, I couldn't just wander around whistling as if I were out for a casual stroll.
Thwack!
"There are still so many pests around."
Were they Goblin Knights? I recalled hearing that a single one was roughly B-grade, meaning a group of them could pose a significant threat even to an A-grade hunter.
The Goblin Shamans were also B-grade on average, though occasionally some individuals were rated at A-grade level on their own...
The Goblin Archers weren't much of a threat. Their crossbows, arrows, and even the firearms they had looted couldn't pierce my skin in the first place.
I thought I had wiped them all out at the entrance of the underground empire, but the moment I entered the city, a large number of knights wielding massive greatswords ambushed me from above.
Their speed was nothing special. More than anything, their blades couldn't penetrate my skin. I pretended to take one of their strikes head-on, then threw a straight punch, bursting the fragile flesh inside the armor.
One, two, three.
Three on the left, three on the right. Six in total.
To avoid getting dirt or dust in my eyes, I tilted my head slightly and intentionally let their attacks land on my torso.
When their blades failed to pierce my skin, they bounced right off, leaving them wide open for my counterattack.
Clang!
"Kirik?!"
"Kwek?"
As the Goblin Knights' greatswords deflected off my body, I immediately lunged forward, grabbed their heads, and slammed them into the ground.
Their helmets crumpled like tin cans, followed by the sound of crushing flesh.
Ah, these ones smelled quite nice too.
Being B-grade, they would surely taste much better than the common goblins.
However, they weren't what I was after today.
If I hadn't discovered this Mimic Dungeon, I would have cooked up a couple of Goblin Knights and happily ended the stream.
But now that I knew an Emperor Goblin was here, why settle for these lesser creatures when I could have a true delicacy?
While Hobgoblins were merely rare variants among common goblins, the Emperor Goblin was a unique, singular Origin entity.
This was a god-given opportunity to taste it. How could I possibly let it slip away?
Besides...
Growl...
"Ugh. I'm hungry again..."
This was bad... My hunger was returning.
Although the amount of holy power I possessed was practically infinite—channeled directly from the stars—using it still drained my physical stamina.
Simply put, the more powerful the miracles I performed, the faster my hunger returned.
The meager goblin corpses my flesh tentacles had devoured earlier weren't enough to satisfy me, and the hunger had flared up again in no time.
Huh?
Just then, as I was glancing at the chat, my vision suddenly blurred, and I felt a strange fluctuation of mana.
This wasn't just a temporary blurriness.
Everything around me, including the chat window and my entire field of vision, was completely blacked out.
Losing my sight so suddenly without warning was quite disorienting.
Fortunately, the holy barrier I had placed over the drone camera was still functioning normally, so the stream seemed to be running fine. However, not being able to see the chat was rather annoying for a streamer.
Is this a hallucinatory spell from a Goblin Shaman...?
It was a different system of power from my holy energy, but it wasn't difficult to sense.
After all, the holy power I wielded was a higher-order energy compared to mana.
I had expected them to throw physical spells like fireballs, so having my vision stolen was a surprise.
Did they realize physical attacks were useless against me and intentionally blind me instead?
If so, the goblins of this empire possessed a level of intelligence and tactical capability far beyond what I had anticipated.
Usually, goblins just ambushed or charged mindlessly, so the fact that they could use their heads like this was impressive.
To dispel this... Well, since it's my first time experiencing this specific spell, resisting it immediately is a bit tricky.
Given time, I could probably deflect the spell, but the Goblin Knights in front of me weren't about to give me that luxury.
"Kekeke...!"
"Kyarrr!"
I heard the sneering laughter of the Goblin Knights nearby.
They must have realized I had lost my sight when I stopped moving.
The very creatures that had been trembling in fear moments ago were now laughing mockingly, clearly convinced of their victory.
And what is that smell...
They were even drooling and dripping some unidentified bodily fluids.
Did I look like a delicious meal to them?
Or did they see me as a female they wanted to mate with, putting them into a frenzy?
Well, this body of mine was indeed very beautiful.
I didn't know if goblins shared human standards of beauty, but there had been cases of goblins kidnapping human women to use as breeding stock.
...But it didn't matter.
Crunch!
"Pfft, gah!"
"Kerek?!"
"Kyauuu?!"
Even if my vision was gone, my other senses were perfectly fine. And the flesh tentacles growing from my back didn't even need my commands to seek out, tear apart, and devour enemies on their own.
"Coming closer to me only makes things easier."
Crack!
"Kebuk?!"
I swung my fist toward the source of the sound, shattering whatever was in its path. I could also sense the direction of their retreating footsteps and the shifts in the air currents.
I didn't know exactly where the Goblin Shaman who had cast the illusion was, but in this situation, my only option was to attack indiscriminately.
Having made my decision, I detected every presence, movement, sound, and scent around me and lunged forward.
I had fought with ruined eyes in my previous world before.
These goblins were foolish to think they had won just by stealing my sight and drawing close to me so arrogantly.
If they truly wanted to claim victory, they should have taken all five of my senses, not just one.
Crunch!
Thud!
Splat!
I grabbed the heads of the fleeing goblins, crushed them, and pursued the next.
Of course, not all of them were running away.
"Kereuk!"
Whoosh!
I felt the air split as a goblin's sword swung toward me. Your courage is admirable, but what do you expect to achieve with a blade that can't even scratch my skin?
Clang!
I swatted the sword away with my hand, grabbed the goblin's arm, and pulled, ripping it clean off like a toy part.
I was probably covered in a significant amount of blood by now, which might look rather gruesome to the viewers.
"Kirik! Kerereee!"
"Kauk, haguh!"
"Hie, hieee!"
The goblins who had been mocking me just moments ago were now screaming in terror, making a deafening racket.
I reached out toward the sound of footsteps that were slightly lighter than a human's, crushed whatever my hand caught, and moved on to the next target.
The flesh tentacles covered any attacks coming from my blind spots.
In fact, the tentacles seemed to treat this as a golden opportunity, slaughtering the goblins out of my line of sight and secretly devouring the corpses.
Normally, I would have ordered them to stop immediately, but since I was blinded in an S-grade Mimic Dungeon where anything could happen, I couldn't afford to be lenient.
If the Emperor Goblin attacked while I was blind, I couldn't guarantee a victory.
So, yes, eat and kill as much as you want.
Thwack!
Splat!
Crunch!
I had killed a significant number of goblins, but my vision still hadn't returned.
The shaman who had blinded me must be far away, because no matter how many I slaughtered, more kept crawling out of the shadows to ambush me.
I considered using another massive holy miracle, but if I did that while blind, I might accidentally fall into a pit or off a cliff.
In the heat of the battle, I couldn't tell if I was on a high tower, inside a building, or on the ground. Since this was a massive underground city, the risk of falling was high, so I had to refrain from using wide-area destructive miracles.
Securing my vision was the priority.
Even if I could sense my surroundings, being unable to see was incredibly annoying.
Then I'll just have to keep killing.
Miracle: Holy Body Descent
Crack, snap!
I felt the sensation of my spine fracturing and rapidly regenerating. The flesh cells boiling within my spinal cord expanded, forming muscle and bone to sprout into tentacles.
"Sigh..."
Activating Holy Body Descent once more, I let out a low sigh.
The number of tentacles erupting from my back doubled, wrapping around my body. The hunger felt by the tentacles transferred to me, making my craving even more intense, but under these blinded conditions, my options were limited.
"Faster..."
The tentacles unfurled.
Reinforced with holy power, the already dense tentacles began to thrash the goblins with even more devastating force.
Since I was certain the shaman wasn't nearby, I simply slaughtered everything that showed a sign of life.
Crunch!
Splat!
Thud!
From that point on, the remaining Goblin Knights gave up on attacking and tried only to flee.
However, the blooming tentacles snatched and crushed the goblins faster than I could even react. They deflected the arrows and spells from distant archers, tearing the enemies apart with relentless fury.
After a relentless slaughter...
I finally felt a connection to a source of foreign mana.
Found you.
As I charged forward to kill the shaman who had stolen my sight, I felt the surrounding goblins surround me in a desperate, final stand.
"Kereee!"
"Kyaru!"
"Kuuu!"
They seemed to realize they had no chance of survival if the shaman died.
But unfortunately for them, I reached the shaman far faster than they could form a defensive line.
I could feel the twisted mana connecting me to the shaman, so my direction was precise.
"Kwek?!"
The moment I got close, I swung a tentacle and crushed its body.
Splat!!!
"Ah, I can see now."
As soon as the shaman died, the darkness obscuring my vision vanished. The other goblins, who hadn't expected me to accelerate so suddenly, stared blankly at me and the remains of their shaman.
I blinked my blurry eyes a few times, and my vision fully returned.
The chat window... Ah, it was fine.
Fortunately, the broadcast had been running smoothly.
"Sorry, guys. A shaman was blocking my vision until just now."
I grabbed the head of a goblin trying to sneak up on me and crushed it while looking at the chat.
"Anyway, let me finish wiping these guys out first. This is a genocide stream, after all."
The viewers watching the stream expressed their confusion as the host suddenly froze in place mid-fight.
Usually, their question marks were meant to tease her for some ridiculous behavior, but right now, she was inside a dungeon—and a highly dangerous one like the Goblin Empire at that—completely solo without any support.
Stopping dead in her tracks while surrounded by numerous Goblin Knights was bound to cause panic among the viewers.
One wrong move could mean death.
Someone hurriedly sent a donation, but unfortunately, the streamer's eyes were completely out of focus.
Seeing her lack of movement, some viewers realized this was the work of a Goblin Shaman.
Even the previous expedition of hunters, which had included S-grade hunters, had suffered massive casualties due to this very spell. No matter how sharp a hunter's senses were, losing their sight so suddenly made it incredibly difficult to cope.
Because of this, the viewers began to imagine a gruesome end for the streamer, who had confidently started a "genocide stream" only to potentially end up as a corpse or a captive of the goblins.
Without any support, blindness usually meant defeat.
However, there were two things the viewers had failed to anticipate.
"Coming closer to me only makes things easier."
Thwack!
First, she was far stronger than they could have ever imagined.
Crunch!
And second, she was far more ruthless and merciless than they could have ever conceived.
Thud! Splat! Crunch!
Miracle: Holy Body Descent
Even while blinded, she activated another miracle. While she previously had about five tentacles assisting her, they now bloomed outward like a flower, leaving the viewers speechless.
The flesh tentacles growing from her back were undoubtedly grotesque, horrifying, and monstrous.
Yet, she claimed to be a saintess.
Despite her chaotic personality, her noble and beautiful appearance remained intact. The contrast between her beautiful face and the monstrous tentacles triggered a strange, conflicting fascination in the viewers.
Unable to see the chat, she swung her tentacles, crushing the Goblin Knights without hesitation. The B-grade knights were being pulverized like bugs by a single strike, which was no longer even surprising.
The viewers watched in awe as she scaled the city walls by driving her tentacles into the stone, ruthlessly slaughtering the goblins that lunged at her. When she finally located the hidden Goblin Shaman, the chat erupted in praise.
Once the Goblin Shaman was slain, the camera captured the focus returning to her eyes.
"Sorry, guys. A shaman was blocking my vision until just now."
As she spoke, she grabbed the neck of a nearby Goblin Knight. Though she was covered in blood, she still looked strikingly beautiful. If anything, the blood-splattered saintess seemed to stir a dark fascination in the hearts of the viewers.
"Anyway, let me finish wiping these guys out first. This is a genocide stream, after all."
At those words, the viewers had a sudden realization.
Ah, she really is going to make soup out of the Emperor Goblin today.