While still in the air, Tatehan threw both chakrams down at the clustered group.

The enhanced weapons tore through them like a chainsaw through cardboard. Bodies separated, cores shattered and metal components scattered.

He landed lightly, still maintaining reduced gravity, and immediately had to roll to the side as three more goblins tried to tackle him.

The move resembled that of an American football player dodging a tackle.

His sword came up in a defensive position, and one of the goblins bit down on the blade with its serrated teeth.

There was a screech of metal on metal, sparks flying, and Tatehan felt the vibration through his arms. The goblin was trying to use its jaw strength to break or bind his weapon.

But the Shadow-Forged Blade's enhanced durability meant it was virtually indestructible under normal combat conditions. The goblin's teeth, despite their metallic composition, couldn't damage it.

Tatehan activated the blade's weight manipulation again, making it suddenly extremely heavy.

The goblin, still biting down, was pulled violently to the ground by the sudden increase in the weapon's mass. Its jaw structure couldn't handle the force, there was a sickening crack, and the creature's mouth shattered.

Tatehan swept the blade horizontally, and the weighted strike took the goblin's head clean off.

Twenty-three down.

Thirty-eight remaining.

Tatehan was stunned with what he had done. How different was this sword now that it was upgraded. It didn't even carry an ounce of resemblance to how it was before.

This now looked like it a whole different thing.

The number of shadow goblins he still had to kill looked overwhelming though. This wasn't what he had anticipated to fight.

He was breathing harder now, not from exhaustion but from the constant intense focus required to track so many opponents simultaneously. His enhanced brain was working overtime, processing positions, trajectories, threat assessments.

Fighting them too was something stressful. Having to jump, do fancy dodgings and aim correctly. Deflect attacks, move fast…., all seemed to slowly exhaust him.

A notification flashed briefly across his vision:

[Warning: Multiple Energy Siphon attempts detected]

[Avoid sustained grappling]

Three goblins had managed to make contact with his armor during the chaos—brief touches, but enough to begin draining stored energy. He needed to be more careful.

This had been his most evident fear coming into this fight by the way. The shadow goblins were pretty easy and with his abilities and weapons, they were sooo easy.

But that would be if they didn't have this siphon stuff. This was even the reason he considered a threat in first place.

The remaining thirty-eight goblins seemed to sense his momentary distraction. They attacked as one coordinated mass.

Tatehan made a split-second decision.

He summoned his Devastator Hand Cannon.

The enhanced pistol materialized in his left hand while he kept his sword in his right. He aimed at the center of the charging mass of goblins and fired once.

The report was deafening, louder than any gunshot should be. The energy projectile shot forward and struck the ground in the middle of the goblin formation.

The explosion was massive.

A sphere of destructive force expanded outward, and Tatehan was glad he had his helmet on as debris and body parts flew in every direction. The blast radius caught at least twelve goblins, and they simply disintegrated, metal and flesh vaporized by the concentrated energy release.

When the dust cleared, there was a crater where the goblins had been standing.

Thirty-five down.

Twenty-six remaining.

But the explosion had done something else, it had scattered the remaining goblins, breaking their coordination. They were spread out now, disoriented, their pack tactics disrupted.

Tatehan didn't give them time to recover.

He holstered the pistol (too much collateral damage for precision work) and focused on his sword and chakrams.

He threw both chakrams in a wide arc, and they began their deadly work. Moving faster than the eye could follow, auto-tracking to find targets, the enhanced weapons carved through the scattered goblins with methodical efficiency.

Three kills. Return. Throw again. Three more kills. Return.

Meanwhile, Tatehan charged forward with his sword, using gravity manipulation to enhance his speed. He made himself lighter, and each step carried him forward in great bounding leaps.

A goblin tried to block his path, he increased his sword's weight and brought it down in a vertical strike that cleaved the creature completely in half.

Another goblin lunged from his left, he shifted the sword back to lightweight mode and performed a lightning-fast horizontal slash that removed the creature's legs.

Two more attacked from his right, he threw a chakram without even looking, and the auto-tracking system found both targets.

His enhanced reflexes and the upgraded weapons made him a whirlwind of death. Each movement was precise, efficient and devastating.

Fifty down.

Eleven remaining.

The last eleven goblins seemed to realize they were losing. Their chittering changed in tone—less aggressive, more... fearful? Defensive?

They started to retreat, backing toward the cave entrances.

But Tatehan couldn't let them escape. He needed those cores. All of them!

He used gravity manipulation to increase the pull on all eleven simultaneously (this took him great effort), making them so heavy they could barely move. Their metallic legs scraped against the ground as they tried desperately to drag themselves toward safety.

Tatehan walked calmly toward them, sword in hand.

One by one, he dispatched the immobilized creatures with precise strikes to their chest cores. It was methodical, efficient, almost vicious.

The last shadow goblin stared at him with those flickering red eyes, and for just a moment, Tatehan thought he saw something resembling understanding. These creatures were intelligent, not just weird parasite like animals. They knew what was happening. It was not like he gave a shit to this discovery. They knew or not, they were getting killed. And now, only one was remaining.

Then his blade fell, and it was over.

Sixty-one down.

Zero remaining.

Tatehan stood in the center of what had become a battlefield, surrounded by the scattered remains of sixty-one shadow goblins. Metal components, organic tissue, sparking circuitry, and most importantly, glowing cores.

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