Goblin King: My Innate Skill Is OP-Chapter 304: Devour
I warped, taking Gork, and a heartbeat later, a compressed surge of force so dense it punched through the space we’d occupied like a sniper’s round.
THOOM!
The shockwave rippled outward, snapping branches apart in its wake.
Had we stayed even a fraction of a second longer, we’d have been erased.
We reappeared hard against the forest floor, dirt scattering beneath our feet as I released Gork and steadied us both.
I turned to him immediately.
"Go," I said, my voice firm, leaving no room for argument. "Get as far away from here as you can. I’ll find you. Just stay alive."
Gork didn’t hesitate for even a second.
The moment the words left my mouth, he was already moving, putting distance between himself and the clearing with a speed born from pure survival instinct. These opponents were far beyond anything he could handle. Staying would’ve been suicide, and he knew it.
The same couldn’t be said for me.
This wasn’t unfamiliar territory.
Dangerous, yes, but still within the range of what I considered manageable. More than that, it was an opportunity.
I stepped out of the forest, into the open, and the effect was immediate.
Every massive head in the clearing turned toward me at once, the herd’s attention snapping into place with unsettling precision. Eight sets of enormous eyes fixed on my position, their gazes heavy, calculating, and stained with fresh blood. The air itself seemed to thicken under their collective focus, pressure bearing down like the onset of a storm.
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t intimidating.
But my mind settled quickly, fear receding, replaced by clarity.
As imposing as they looked, as overwhelming as their presence was, they weren’t obstacles meant to stop me. They were resources. Steps. A brutal but necessary ladder toward what I needed next.
Levels.
Power.
Evolution.
Their size, their strength, their murderous stares... all of it reduced to a single, practical truth.
They were nothing more than a means for me to level up.
The matriarch took a single step forward, and the ground responded as if a falling mountain had struck it. The earth groaned, trees at the edge of the clearing shuddered, and dust lifted in a low ripple that spread outward from her foot.
At the same time, I felt it, a subtle but undeniable shift in the air, as though something unseen had settled into place.
Yet... there was no pressure.
No restriction.
No suppression.
Then she spoke.
"Goblin," the matriarch said, her voice deep and resonant, carrying a weight that rolled through the clearing like distant thunder. The sound reached my chest first, vibrating through bone and muscle, before my ears finally caught up and translated it into words. "Do you seek to avenge one of your own?"
I didn’t hesitate.
"No," I replied plainly. "I couldn’t care less about the goblins you killed, you see."
The reaction was immediate.
Her massive features tightened, irritation flashing across her face, subtle but unmistakable, as if my answer had offended something fundamental in her understanding of the world.
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and the atmosphere thickened just a fraction more.
"Then," she asked, her voice dropping lower, harder, edged with threat, "what do you seek?"
I met her gaze without flinching, already knowing my answer, already feeling the pull of what this confrontation could offer me.
Power was standing right in front of me.
And she had just asked why I’d come to claim it.
"Power."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"And how do you intend to obtain this power... goblin?" she asked.
The way she said goblin made it obvious she held no fondness for my kind, the word weighted with condescension despite the majesty of her voice. I didn’t care for her tone either, no matter how grand it sounded echoing through the clearing.
"By doing the same thing you just did to my kind," I replied calmly.
"Devour."
I drew in a breath and stretched my hands toward the herd, intent settling into my posture.
But their reaction was instantaneous.
The air pressure around me dropped sharply, so suddenly it felt like the world itself had flinched. And a split second later, the clearing erupted as compressed streams of aether tore through the space between us, a barrage of ballistic force screaming toward my position with lethal precision.
I didn’t move.
Not because I had the ultimate defense.Not because they were faster than I anticipated.But because there was no reason to.
All I needed to do was:
[Swap]
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The barrage landed exactly where it was meant to. Just not on me.
The matriarch let out a thunderous bellow of pain as the compressed aether rounds slammed into her massive frame one after another, the force of her own herd’s attack detonating against layers of armored flesh. Shock rippled through the clearing as the impacts stacked, each strike compounding the last, the ground buckling beneath her weight as she staggered.
The herd froze at the sound of their leader’s cry, and immediately cut their assault short, instinct overriding momentum. Dust and smoke billowed through the clearing, obscuring everything for a brief, disorienting moment. When it finally thinned, they saw her.
The matriarch.
Standing exactly where the green midget had been a heartbeat earlier.
Her hide was torn open in several places, blood running freely down her legs and pooling beneath her feet, the runes along her tusks flickering erratically as if struggling to stabilize.
The realization hit the herd all at once.
They had done this.
I stood several paces away now, right where the matriarch had been moments before, facing the stunned behemoths as their massive heads turned toward me in confusion.
"Cruel, isn’t it," I said calmly, my voice carrying easily through the clearing, "to be the cause of your matriarch’s downfall."
Their confusion hardened into rage.
One of the higher-level behemoths launched itself forward, triggering the rest of the herd to move in unison, the ground convulsing beneath their advance so violently that I nearly stumbled, yet I still struck before they could close the distance.
