I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 351: The Death Star Shines

This Ogre Leader was clearly the type who acted ruthlessly and spoke little, deeply understanding the principle that villains die from talking too much.After locking eyes with Gauss in a mutual stare-down, its thick legs swelled up once more, blasting two deep craters beneath its feet.

"Thump!"

The Ogre Leader's massive body stretched into a blur, pouncing in front of Gauss in the blink of an eye.

That black cleaver was wrapped in terrifying energy, descending with a momentum to crush everything.

Clearly, the Ogre Leader's intention was very clear: it wanted Gauss dead.

And right now, immediately.

Fortunately, Gauss was also very decisive the moment the ogre moved.

The Sturdy Scale Bloodline and Ghost Form activated simultaneously.

While the ogre was charging forward, his body had already completed the ghostly transformation.

His hair lengthened, losing its color.

A strong, icy white airflow energy enveloped his entire body.

With a series of crackling sounds, his physique became more slender and elongated.

Two sharp, curved white horns pushed out from his forehead.

From his back, his wing-like shoulder blades sprouted a pair of pale energy-formed wings.

To some extent, his current form did bear some resemblance to this ghost-transformed Ogre Leader.

But only some, mainly in the white hair and the small horns on the head.

There remained an insurmountable gap in terms of specific aesthetics.

The wings behind Gauss flapped once. There was no howling wind, no surging airflow. After just a slight flutter, the surrounding light seemed to warp.

His figure instantly blurred, leaving behind a slowly dissipating white afterimage in his original spot.

As for his true self, he had already flashed to the left side of the Ogre Leader.

Fast!

Beyond the limit of what the naked eye could capture!

Perhaps due to using this strongest stacked state multiple times, even though his body was still rapidly losing energy, Gauss felt much more at ease compared to the first two times.

Different from the ogre's enlarged transformation, while the former's physical change was much greater than Gauss's, the boost in strength wasn't as outstanding as Gauss's Ghost Form. The reason probably lay in the differing purity of their respective states.

Moreover, the ogre's enhancement was mainly focused on the singular aspect of strength, while Gauss's was an all-round reinforcement, especially in Agility and speed bursts.

The ogre's physique destined it to not be overly outstanding in mobility and agility.

Thus, its powerful, heavy first sneak attack ended in failure.

"!!!"

The over-ten-meter-long black cleaver left a dozens-of-meters-long deep trench in the ground.

Having killed quite a few ogres tonight, his original title [Giant Hunter] had long since leveled up to the higher-tier [Giant Killer].

Current effect: Weak Point Strike. When fighting half-ogres, ogres, and related advanced giant race creatures, it's easier to perceive the location of individual weak points. Attacking weak points can cause additional damage.

Besides the original effect from the Giant Hunter period, upon promotion to Giant Killer, the title also gained an additional Bane effect.

Bane. When fighting half-ogres, ogres, and related advanced giant race creatures, damage dealt is increased by an additional 20%.

When Gauss flashed to the Ogre Leader's side, the two effects of the [Giant Killer] title were naturally activated.

Several red dots, large and small, appeared like brands on various parts of the Ogre Leader's massive body and were clearly reflected in Gauss's vision.

The effect of the [Giant Killer] title was very intuitive and powerful.

It allowed him to perceive weaknesses from an almost "x-ray" perspective.

Nothing in the world is perfect; even the most formidable body has its vulnerable points.

But finding those weaknesses isn't always simple.

Especially for bodies gradually approaching the Transcendent level, this is even more true.

Sometimes, what ordinary people consider weak points or vital spots might not actually be the true pain points.

Because areas such as the head, eyes, neck, heart, internal organs, and even reproductive organs might no longer be fatal weaknesses.

As the body evolves, these vital areas are reinforced accordingly, even forming special protections, and the regenerative ability of corresponding parts also improves.

The small red dots on the Ogre Leader's body appeared on its eyes, spine, ankles, and knees.

Besides these weaknesses, the largest vital red dot appeared in its torso, three inches below the shoulder joint wrapped in massive, thick muscles. That spot seemed to be a hub for strength and energy transmission.

If that node were damaged, although it might not be immediately fatal, it would be like a grain of sand stuck in a precise gear set, severely disrupting the smooth transmission of power throughout the entire body.

But Gauss didn't immediately look there, because he sensed this wasn't the best moment.

The Ogre Leader's greatest weakness was shrouded in layers of protection; it would be difficult for him to hit it.

If he missed and made the Ogre Leader realize he had discovered its most fatal weakness, the difficulty of trying again would likely skyrocket.

With a thought, he released the 4th-circle spell [Control Water].

The Godwater transformed into thousands of strands, coiling around his body.

"Thousand Threads Severing Boundary! Slice!"

Countless slender water threads condensed in Gauss's hands as he appeared beside the Ogre Leader.

The Ogre Leader had already detected Gauss's presence, but its speed wasn't sufficient to react in such a short time.

"Too slow!"

"Shriiik!!"

The Ogre Leader barely twisted its body, consciously trying to hide its weaknesses as much as possible.

Those seemingly delicate water lines quickly sliced onto its body.

Instantly, a slight change flickered deep within its brutal eyes.

Pain!

So much pain!!

As a Commander-level Monster with a special bloodline, it was among the top tier of combatants even among monsters of the same level.

Although the monster world is savage, it also has its own order.

Two monsters of similar strength often wouldn't easily engage in major conflict.

As for those Transcendent monsters stronger than it, out of respect for its master, the Green Dragon Queen, they wouldn't easily make an enemy of it—after all, when beating a dog, one must consider its master.

Being served by a powerful ogre tribe had allowed this Ogre Leader, if not to live in luxury, at least to not encounter a worthy opponent for a considerable period.

Originally, in its perception, Gauss was still quite a distance away from being a threat.

Yet now, after wrapping himself in that familiar yet strange pale energy, that puny human could actually harm it through its proud steel-like hide.

Waves of pain transmitted so clearly to its brain.

It hadn't felt this sensation in a long time.

"Tsss tsss tsss!"

Its exceptionally tough outer skin was rapidly cut by the water threads, leaving white marks. The white marks gradually deepened, turning into crisscrossing blue scars. Finally, with a dull "plop plop" sound, the deeper blue marks violently split open, revealing the deep blue flesh within.

"ROAR!!!"

In just the blink of an eye, the Ogre Leader's body was covered in wounds.

"Seeking death!"

Bloodshot streaks flashed in the Ogre Leader's eyes.

The long-lost pain made it even more desperate to smash this annoying insect into paste in the most violent manner.

Its slowness was relative to Gauss in his current Ghost Form state. Whipped by the pain, its muscles writhed like giant pythons, erupting with even greater strength and speed. Immense force transmitted from its soles to its waist and hips, then poured into the thick arms gripping the hilt.

It swung the ten-meter-long great blade in its hand with terrifying brute force.

"Whoosh!"

The black cleaver traced a heavy semicircular arc from below to above, slashing back towards Gauss at its side.

This slash was extremely heavy.

As the blade passed, the air was instantly compressed to an extreme, emitting a mournful explosive sound, ultimately forming a pale airflow that enveloped the blade as it chopped towards Gauss.

Its powerful physique gave it enough margin for error, allowing it to prioritize launching a counterattack immediately while enduring Gauss's assault, rather than dodging!

It couldn't wait to chop Gauss into mincemeat.

Not only because Gauss had given it long-lost pain, making the usually privileged Ogre Leader feel humiliated, but more importantly, the trace of abnormal bloodline gradually burning within its body was urging it to kill the target before it and plunder his bloodline.

It was like devils constantly whispering in its ear, gradually clouding its mind, making its eyes see only Gauss's existence.

Desire...

On the other side, Gauss also had to halt his offensive.

The intensity of that blade was such that even he couldn't easily withstand it.

Death or severe injury.

The pale wings behind Gauss flapped violently, and his figure urgently retreated sideways and backward at the critical moment.

"Bang!"

He barely avoided the slash.

So close that he still felt intense vibrations in his arms.

The white energy scales covering his arms developed fine cracks.

One could say that with just a slight hesitation, he would have been cleaved in two by that strike.

Fortunately, he was extremely focused now, his mental state having reached a peak.

This wasn't accidental; the permanent effect of his highest-quality talent [Encountering Evil Hour] was active.

Superior-quality talent [Encountering Evil Hour]: When the host faces evil creatures, their [Spirit] state increases by 20%, making it easier to perform exceptionally.

Coupled with the stacked state of Ghost Form and Dragonkin, his body had also reached its peak.

One could say that currently, whether in terms of physique, spirit, or combat state, he had reached the extreme of what he could achieve, entering his prime form.

Unless he encountered an enemy who could easily overwhelm him in strength, even if there was a clear gap in raw power, he could precisely grasp those few opportunities.

Right now, he was practically a born monster Bane!

The Ogre Leader's powerful, heavy slash missed, instantly causing its blood to surge. Having suffered a hidden loss, its mood grew even more irritable, a nameless fire boiling in its heart.

This was already the second consecutive time its attack had been dodged. In its feeling, if it could just land one hit!

Just one! It could completely crush the enemy!

But that human was like an incredibly annoying fly, dodging and weaving, always managing to evade just before the attack connected.

This sense of humiliation drove it mad.

Gauss took a few panting breaths.

The energy scales on his arms, cracked with fine lines, repaired themselves between breaths.

It seems very impatient.

Gauss keenly detected the enemy's abnormal mental state.

Is it related to you?

Gauss felt the boiling abnormal bloodline within him.

During the close contact earlier, a moment of violent emotion had also surged in his mind.

But he quickly suppressed it.

On one hand, he wasn't purely ghost-transformed; the Sturdy Scale Bloodline provided balance, preventing this power from exerting sufficient influence.

On the other hand, his spirit was strong enough and, being in the Encountering Evil Hour, his will was as firm as steel.

If the Ogre Leader were in the same state, it definitely wouldn't be able to resist the control of that violent emotion.

Gauss understood this point instantly.

"Die!"

The wounds on the Ogre Leader's body healed rapidly. It ignored the pain signals coming from its body.

The muscles in its legs swelled to their limit. With a "boom," the ground beneath its feet collapsed downward, forming huge radial cracks. Relying on this small-earthquake-like force, its massive body leaped high into the air, plummeting down towards Gauss like a cannonball.

It had its own advantages: its larger size gave it greater strength, destructive power, and attack range.

Sometimes even the aftershocks could shatter an enemy's body.

"Thump!"

With eyes only for Gauss, the Ogre Leader launched a frenzied offensive.

It was like a heavy hammer constantly smashing into the ground.

One "meteorite crater" after another appeared on the once-flat ground. Even Gauss's squad and the monster army fighting nearby were forced to increase their distance.

But even so, over a hundred monsters died in the aftershocks of their leader's furious attacks.

The monsters scrambled away from the battlefield in a panic, only daring to look back with terror at the disaster-like center of the battle once they were far enough away.

Too terrifying.

The ground split open with deep, narrow cracks. The earth heaved and sank. Under the Ogre Leader's unrestrained onslaught, the once relatively flat land could hardly provide a stable foothold.

Those cracks were like the deep maws of monsters; anyone falling in would struggle to escape. The rumbling seismic movements would force the soil to crush any living being within into paste.

Not to mention low-level monsters; even Elite monsters caught in it would be instantly crushed to death. Probably only Commander-level Monsters could withstand the aftershocks within the battlefield range.

At the center of the battlefield, the Ogre Leader panted heavily. Prolonged outbursts made its blood boil, its entire body shrouded in a layer of white steam.

However, the frenzied offensive just now hadn't achieved the results it wanted.

This human was simply too troublesome.

Several times, it even felt like it had slashed something solid, yet he still managed to dodge.

Although, because he was too close, even if he avoided the direct attack, he would still be struck by the aftershock blade energy, it never caused a fatal injury.

That white "fly" also possessed powerful recovery abilities.

As long as it wasn't completely smashed to death, within the time it took to flap its wings a couple of times, that layer of white energy was enough to heal most of his wounds.

Gauss chewed the magic stone in his mouth like chocolate and swallowed it.

His abdomen now felt as if it were on fire, a burning pain.

He suppressed that pain impacting his reason, forcing himself to regain calm.

The more critical the moment, the more reason was needed.

The Ogre Leader before him, who had fallen into a frenzy due to irritation, was the best negative example. If it hadn't been blinded by the desire to devour Gauss, it could have adopted combat strategies more advantageous to itself.

Whether turning its spearhead towards Gauss's teammates, forcing him to actively defend.

Or prolonging the fight as much as possible, waiting until Gauss was exhausted, would allow for an easy victory.

Of course, this was based on having sufficient intelligence and maintaining reason.

Perhaps in the Ogre Leader's cognition, there was no concept of "companions," so it naturally didn't believe Gauss would risk life and death for his teammates.

Moreover, it would also need to carefully analyze, through Gauss's constant intake of "food," to know that his current state couldn't be sustained for long.

In short, whatever the reason, the Ogre Leader failed to grasp Gauss's "weaknesses."

Blinded by rage and bloodline temptation, it had been reduced to a beast with mere brute strength. In other words, it was already dominated by its bloodline.

After a brief rest, the Ogre Leader launched a new round of offense.

"Wham!"

After a certain attack, Gauss was finally sent flying in a sorry state.

Having endured prolonged frustration, the Ogre Leader finally erupted, a flicker of joy flashing in its eyes.

"ROAR!"

It roared, stamped its foot, and its figure rapidly closed in on the flying Gauss.

However, when it saw Gauss flap his wings and fly towards the sky, a trace of fear and anxiety finally flashed in its eyes.

Unbeknownst to it, the battlefield between man and beast had already shifted from the original tent center to a place quite far away.

Was he going to flee?

The Ogre Leader's pupil continuously contracted.

Completely dominated by the desire in its bloodline, it was utterly panicked.

If that agile fly was determined to escape, it might not be able to keep him.

In straight-line burst speed, it held a clear advantage, but the other was too nimble. It knew catching him would be difficult.

If he flew high enough to leave its line of sight, it would be a situation of "the sky is vast for birds to fly."

The Ogre Leader couldn't care about anything else. Gritting its teeth against the burden and tearing sensation from its ankles and knees, it erupted with unprecedented power a second time in an extremely short period.

Tough muscle fibers snapped under the strain.

It leaped high, swinging its cleaver. The blade energy stretched horizontally, blocking the path ahead of Gauss's upward flight trajectory.

At this speed, Gauss would be slain by this attack.

But the next moment, Gauss's figure suddenly vanished from the Ogre Leader's blood-red pupils.

Gone?

"Whoosh!"

A slight fluctuation came.

The air seemed to be torn again. Gauss suddenly flashed into existence behind the Ogre Leader.

Of course, Gauss couldn't possibly flee.

On the contrary, he was worried that if he left, the disengaged Ogre Leader would vent its rage on his teammates.

So, the previous situation was entirely his creation, a dance on the edge of a blade.

Including this injury and escape, which was why he could instantly change his movement trajectory at the first opportunity.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

His gaze slowly lowered, looking at a certain spot below the Ogre Leader's shoulder blade on its back.

In its panic, it had become disorganized. The strong, sturdy back it had always deliberately dodged to prevent Gauss from easily contacting was now completely exposed before Gauss.

Having mustered all its strength, even risking torn tendons to throw itself high into the air, its old force spent, new force not yet born, a sense of powerlessness was gradually surfacing within its body. It had brought itself to the worst possible situation.

In Gauss's vision, the red light representing the weak point was exceptionally brilliant.

At this moment, its death omen was flashing wildly!

This was the best opportunity Gauss had been waiting for.

His gaze was intensely focused.

"Control Water!"

Water flow wrapped around his arm. The blue-gold Godwater intertwined with that pale energy, forming an extremely sharp multi-colored cone.

The moonlight spilling on Gauss warped.

Gauss was like a sky knight holding a lance, his wings trembling as he launched the final charge.

The Ogre Leader's single eye widened to its limit in shock. It could feel it!

That icy, bone-piercing aura of death from behind!

Clearer and closer than ever before!

It wanted to twist its body, wanted to swing its arm to block, but now was precisely when it was most vulnerable.

"Thwack!"

The highly condensed cone pierced through like splitting bamboo, easily tearing through the thin white light hastily formed on its body surface, then plunged deep into the Ogre Leader's steel-tough muscles, sinking to the hilt!

Time seemed to truly freeze for an instant.

"!!!"

Pierced by Gauss as precisely as if wielding a scalpel, accurately striking that tiny energy source point, the ogre let out a heart-rending, lung-tearing scream.

A chaotic ripple of energy, mixed with pale and filthy black, spread out in circles from the wound.

The boiling energy within the Ogre Leader's body seemed to have lost its source, beginning to run amok uncontrollably. The white steam surrounding its body was instantly stained with an ominous, ashen hue.

It tried to turn around. Its single eye was filled with venom, fear, and disbelief. But no matter how shocked it was, the once mountain-shattering, rock-crushing mighty power within its body was now flowing out rapidly from the pierced node like a breached dam.

A force of purification and destruction was eroding its body along the wound.

Having succeeded with one strike, Gauss showed no attachment to the fight. The pale wings on his back flapped violently, using the recoil to pull his body out from behind the Ogre Leader, bringing out a trail of blue-black sticky, filthy blood and energy residue.

The white energy symbolizing the Ghost-transformation Bloodline continuously flowed out from the Ogre Leader's body, converging into his own.

Below, the monsters witnessing this scene had pupils on the verge of shattering in terror.

Their undefeated leader had been killed by that human!

The imposing momentum formed by the monster army covering the mountains and plains crumbled with a resounding collapse.