Defeating the slime was a simple and easy, I didn't even have to use any of the weapons I'd picked. I just pierced into it with my carapace covered arm and used my Flames of Necrosis to envelop it, killing it in an instant. Once about a minute passed I heard the rough sound of the portcullis opening once again this time revealing two slimes.
Adding a second slime didn't increase the difficulty of the fight by much and soon the portcullis opened again this time with three slimes. This process repeated until I had defeated a group of five slimes. When the portcullis opened the next time a small humanoid stepped out rather than slimes. Short, lanky, and green-skinned it was a staple monster of any fantasy, a goblin. It held a wooden club in one hand and released a screech as it began to rush towards me.
I drew the sword I'd chosen and similarly engaged by rushing in. Despite being a higher ranked threat than a slime the goblin was also rather easy to finish off. Goblins were best known for swarm tactics and ambushes so a straight fight like this was putting it at a disadvantage. Much like with the slimes I went through five total rounds of goblins before something new came out, but rather than another single creature, it was four goblins and a goblin warrior, an evolved type of goblin. The goblin warrior was stronger, larger, and smarter than it's lesser brethren but not by much and it had a wooden shield in addition to it's club.
I was rather annoyed with this sudden change. Fighting against five goblins was already hard enough and I'd only really gotten through because I was able to deal with them at range with the crossbow I'd chosen. I was thankful that at least this wasn't a battle of attrition and that I felt revitalized after each set of enemies, so I didn't have to worry about tiring out at least.
The goblin warrior was the largest problem I had to face, as its shield prevented me from using my crossbow to pick off the less defended goblins as they hid behind him. If I was fully grown I might have felt like this wasn't a large challenge, but as a child of only ten years I was physically similar to them in both size and strength. I was starting to regret grabbing the warhammer over a shield, as I'd yet to face anything that would have needed blunt force to deal with and I wasn't sure how much farther I'd make it in this trial.
Without much choice I had to rely on my carapace limbs and power of regeneration to deal with the foes before me. The fight started out rather one-sided, with me being on the losing side. The goblin warrior was adept at keeping my attention and defending the lesser goblins when needed, it was almost like they could telepathically communicate with each other and were intent on wearing me down. Unfortunately for the goblins, a battle of attrition was something I was quite good at, and I was soon able to turn the tides once I'd discovered such.
I had been fighting rather defensively trying to mitigate the damage I took, as even the lesser goblins were able to leave small cracks in my carapace. However I soon realized that Superhuman Regeneration also worked on my carapace and while it did take mana to sustain and repair, my mana pool was large enough to sustain the activity, I didn't have an S-rank Wisdom stat for nothing.
The brutal melee became rather messy once I'd given up on defense and focused solely on defeating the goblin warrior. Once I'd given up on attacking the other goblins the amount of damage I took quickly rose but I was able to heal through it, even while feeling my strength rising. I was somewhat frustrated with myself as I used my left hand which was more like claws to pierce through the goblin warrior's shield and yank it to the side as I drove the sword through him. I should have relied on Superhuman Regeneration from the beginning, between it, Masochism, and Pain Nullification dealing with the goblins became much faster. I also discovered that killing or hurting foes in close combat seemed to recover some mana and boost my strength, likely the effects of Sadism.
It didn't take much longer for me to cleave the last goblins head from it's body after I defeated the goblin warrior. I was covered in blood and my breathing labored as I stood among the disappearing corpses. Not only was I feeling high on adrenaline but between Masochism turning pain to pleasure and Sadism letting me enjoy the visceral feeling of killing and rending flesh I was also extremely aroused.
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