The duo exited the desolate alleyway, and turned into a semi-empty parking lot, with five cars parked in the distance and dead bodies littered around the area. The hoard of goblins that passed through this area had already moved on to a livelier street, so there was no sign of life, but a single goblin feasting on one of the fallen civilians.
"Finn, since your weapon has more reach, attack it first," whispered Oslo, as he darted to the right side of the goblin while staying outside its peripheral vision.
With absolutely no fighting experience, the two depended on their instincts alone, going against a skilled fighter as they were right now would be nigh impossible, but these unintelligent little goblins were a good source of combat experience- for now.
Finn rushed in quietly and hit the goblin on the back of its head, creating a big squelching sound that vibrated throughout the air, had he done it?
The goblin stumbled forward, and with a fractured parietal bone, the goblin was now even more vulnerable than it was before the encounter.
Taking advantage of this newfound opportunity, Oslo rushed in and struck the goblin's skull- ultimately finishing what Finn had started. The brain matter and blood of the goblin splashed all over Oslo's face and torso, and in a daze, he continued smashing the goblin's head reducing it to a pile of mush.
After two minutes of beating the goblin's head to a paste, exhaustion filled Oslo's body as his adrenaline rush died down, and his eyes now sparkled with a vestige that wasn't present before.
Oslo's breathing became heavier with each passing breath, while sweat fell down his temple like a waterfall. As Oslo wiped the sweat and blood off his forehead he muttered, "I'm truly out of shape, right Finn?"
The fatigued man looked over toward Finn.
The previously confident and outgoing Finn now stared at Oslo with a look of fear. Was this really the Oslo he knew and grew up with? If so, how could he kill a living being with such brutality, where was his sense of morality? Killing to survive was still acceptable, but killing like this... who was truly the monster, Oslo or the goblin?
Finn took a step back as he stared into Oslo's dark abysmal eyes, "why'd you have to take it so far?"
"Don't you see, Finn, we humans. We're always evolving, and if this is the step I need to take to evolve..." Oslo paused and stared at the disfigured goblin corpse, "then I'll choose this path ten times over."
Finn let out a heavy sigh.
The sudden change in Oslo's attitude and personality change clouded Finn's mind- almost numbing his feelings toward taking a life recently.
He looked down at the bloodied mess that Oslo had made, the goblin's distorted figure quickly etched itself into his memory as a slight burning sensation swelled up in his throat. A hot mix of alcohol and undigested macaroni escaped Finn's thick lips and fell onto the floor in front of him.
He couldn't fully comprehend what they had just done, sure they discussed it, but actually taking a life was on a completely different wavelength from what he was used to. They weren't gods, so how could they take a life so easily?
The gut-wrenching stench of Finn's vomit coupled with the heavy iron smell coming from the blood all around made Finn empty out even more of his stomach's contents- as he crouched over trying to forget the image of the disfigured corpse in front of him.
Suddenly, a series of joyous shouts could be heard in the distance, the humans had resisted enough to clear the streets of its first wave of goblins. The streets had been filled with civilians, due to their new year's celebration, so there was quite a number of individuals fighting back- sadly many deaths had occurred in the area too.
Surprisingly, the humans in this area adapted fairly quickly to the situation, the alcohol in their systems giving them the confidence to fight the horrendous-looking five-foot goblins.
With no time to relax, a series of footsteps could be heard approaching Oslo and Finn.
Oslo pushed Finn's current feelings aside, dropped the brick he had used previously, and picked up the rusted knife used by the goblin before its death.
With no information of what was happening outside the parking lot, Oslo rushed over to Finn and shook his lifeless body while saying, "yo, Finn, get yourself ready for another battle."
Finn hadn't heard a single word Oslo just said, as he crouched in despair, the guilt of taking a life weighed too heavily on his mind.
With all the overwhelming events happening, Oslo ran toward one of the cars and crouched behind it before the owners of the footsteps arrived. He stayed low and watched as a group of five men walked into the parking lot, each armed with a weapon; worn-down shortswords or rusted daggers like Oslo's.
"Are there any survivors over here?" Shouted a man surrounded by a natural aura of leadership- making Oslo believe that this might be the captain of the five-man team.
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Once the men laid eyes on Finn, they got into an unorganized formation; with the leader in the middle and two men on each side of him.
The leader of the men looked around and monitored the state of the parking lot, "watch out for any goblins, they might be dumb, but I wouldn't put it past 'em to lay traps like this."
With all five men on high alert, they slowly approached the crouching man. Their hands trembled as they approached Finn, their fear and inexperience in battle became apparent to Oslo as he watched them approach.
"Hey, you there, is everything okay?" Asked one of the men holding a shortsword.
"Look at him, Nall, does that man look okay?" replied one of the men in Finn's stead, as he stared at the vomit surrounding Finn.
"Well, I had to ask... you know."
The group had come to the conclusion that Finn was alone in the parking lot, and approached him with ease.
"Nevan, pick him up, we'll take him with us to the market. Hopefully, he recovers by the time we get there and he should prove to be useful to our group," ordered the leader, staring at the goblin corpse in front of Finn- totally appalled by his brutality.
A large man, with a bear-like build, standing next to Finn swiftly picked him up like a sack of potatoes and slung him over his broad shoulder. With a shortsword in his right hand, and Finn's limp body hanging over his shoulder, the man looked like a hero debuting in a fantasy-based show.
Finn was too stuck in a gaze to react to the current situation and was safely carried away by the crew- a different path in the new life was now paved for this man.
"It's better like this," muttered Oslo to himself, watching the group of six depart.
That whole ordeal took about ten minutes, and with a now empty parking lot, Oslo got up from behind the vehicle he hid behind and stretched his body. The path he chose was a treacherous one, a path that the current Finn could not walk with him. As an avid reader of Webnovels, and LightNovels, Oslo had a slight grasp of his situation, but his hypothesis was yet to be proven correct.
Currently, they were in some sort of test stage, to prove who was worthy enough to cross over to this new world, 'Planet Newborn.' He had assumed that the more he killed, the more merit he would gain once he crossed over, giving him an edge over the others who were to also be transferred to Planet Newborn.
They were most likely to also receive skills, and magical abilities once crossing over, which made the nerd's body twitch in excitement.
He may have enjoyed studying and filling himself with useless knowledge, but he also craved having strength that was incomparable, speed faster than light, and maybe, just maybe the ability to fly.
If his hypothesis proved to be correct, he would need to claim more merit in this little test stage and gain strength that he could never obtain on Earth.
If his hypothesis did prove to be correct, then maybe he could live a life he actually could enjoy, and one where the empty void inside of him would be filled.
***
Author note:
This will be the last short chapter (under 2k words), from here on out expect 2.5k/more words a chapter, I've used the prologue and chapter 1 to briefly introduce a few characters, and give you a little insight into their mindsets FOR NOW. please take into consideration that my mc will not be an edgy dark lord that kills everything in his path, but I will be having as much fun as I want creating a mons- wait, I'm saying too much. Sit tight and enjoy ♥ thank you for reading!
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I do appreciate constructive criticism and a lil comment here and there. XD
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