Goblin King: My Innate Skill Is OP-Chapter 293: Headfall
"Your alpha is dead," I said evenly. "Leave this place immediately."
The queen howler stepped forward, smooth and deliberate, with three elite howlers flanking her like shadows that knew exactly where they were meant to stand.
Up close, she looked different from the alpha I had killed in the forest
She was sleeker, her frame leaner and more refined, with crimson lines running down her mane like living sigils, and eyes so sharp and measured that it felt as though she were dissecting me piece by piece.
She came to a halt a few steps ahead of the others, the two elites stopping in perfect sync behind her, and then she spoke, her voice low, steady, and unsettlingly composed.
"Identify yourself, goblin."
No surprise there. She could speak too.
"I am the chief of the goblin clan standing before you," I replied calmly, meeting her gaze without flinching. "And you?"
She didn’t answer.
Instead, her eyes narrowed slightly, a faint curl forming at the edge of her mouth as though she were amused rather than threatened.
"Lying goblin," she said coldly. "Our leader confronts the One-Who-Drains-All with his entourage as we speak. You are not a leader."
The One-Who-Drains-All.
I almost smiled.
That was... actually a pretty good name for a wielder of Deathroot.
"You’re right," I said evenly. "He did confront me."
Her posture shifted just a fraction, the elites behind her tensing.
"But he couldn’t defeat me," I continued, my tone unchanged. "So he’s dead."
For the first time since I stepped forward, the air truly changed.
The queen’s eyes widened just slightly before hardening, the crimson lines along her mane seeming to pulse as a ripple of restrained fury passed through the howler ranks behind her.
"Dead?’
She muttered in disbelief, narrowing her eyes, the muscles along her jaw tightening as though she were restraining something volatile.
"Fool," she said coldly. "Is your plan to frighten us into retreat?"
"Scare you?" I replied, exhaling slowly. "I assure you, I’m doing no such thing. I’m simply telling you the truth."
She scoffed, the sound sharp and dismissive.
"Goblin," she continued, her voice dripping with certainty, "it is only a matter of time before destruction befalls you. You cannot escape your fate."
I sighed.
She wasn’t listening. Or rather, she had already decided what she wanted to believe, and no amount of words was going to move her from that path.
So I stopped talking.
In the same breath, I warped away.
The forest snapped back into view, the scorched earth and shattered trees marking the place where the alpha Varkuun Howler had fallen. Its massive body still lay there, lifeless and cooling, the rage that once fueled it long gone.
Without ceremony, I stepped forward, raised my blade, and with a single clean swing, severed its head.
Then I warped again.
I reappeared before the howler army just as their tension peaked, and without a word, I hurled the severed head forward.
It hit the ground between the ape queen and her elites with a wet, heavy thud, rolling once before coming to a stop, its lifeless eyes staring blankly at the sky.
One of the elite howlers recoiled instinctively, letting out a low, startled grunt as the severed head rolled to a stop, and for a split second, it looked like it was about to strike the object in reflex.
But the queen lifted a single hand.
The elite froze immediately.
The head lay there between them, heavy and unmistakable, the white-streaked mane matted with blood and ash, the expression on its face locked forever in the same fury it had worn in life.
I broke the silence.
"Is that enough proof?"
The queen stepped forward slowly, her movements measured, almost reverent, as though approaching something sacred.
She stared down at the head, and the moment she truly registered what she was seeing, I watched the sequence of emotions ripple across her face in real time.
Recognition.
Disbelief.
Shock.
And then, a rage so dense it felt like pressure against my skin.
"Who is the fool now?" I said quietly.
That was when she snapped her head up.
Her body flushed crimson as heat surged through her frame, the markings along her mane blazing brighter as her muscles swelled and tightened, her breath coming out in heavy, shaking bursts.
The air around her distorted slightly, vibrating with barely restrained fury as she entered what I could only describe as a full rage state.
But...
Of course, I had expected this.
There was never going to be an ending where she simply bowed her head and walked away.
I was already in front of her.
One moment, she was roaring, power flooding her body, and the next, my blade was at her throat, angled cleanly for a killing strike.
She was the greatest threat on the field. That much was obvious. If I left her alive, she would become a rallying point, a disaster waiting to happen, especially if I intended to let my goblins clash with the remaining howlers. A queen like her would not retreat, would not hesitate, and would not forget.
So I didn’t hesitate either.
My blade tore through her neck in a single, decisive arc, and for an instant there was silence before her head separated from her body and sailed through the air, trailing a violent spray of blood before crashing to the ground.
The elites froze.
Every howler on the field froze.
They stared at the fallen head of their queen, disbelief written across their faces, as though their minds simply refused to process what their eyes were telling them. Their leader, their anchor, the one who should never fall, lay dead before them.
I didn’t waste that moment.
I raised my hand toward the sky and activated [Event Collapse], and for a split second the world seemed to hesitate, as if reality itself were bracing.
Then space screamed.
A massive rift tore open directly above the howler formation, its edges folding inward like reality itself was being dragged into a collapsing void. The air warped violently, pressure building as the pull began to assert itself, strong enough to uproot debris and drag loose bodies off their feet.
The elites snapped out of their shock almost immediately.
"ATTACK!" one of them roared, voice cracking with fury and desperation.
Their mouths...
