Odyssey of the Blind God

After Mathias and Nial defeated the Goblin Warriors, they quickly rushed toward Bella.

They hoped that she was fine, and reached her in no time.

However, upon nearing her, both of them were dumbfounded.

While Nial had already sensed that Bella was perfectly fine, he was still unable to hide his astonishment.

After all, the energy she released was far stronger than her Origin rank.

The mana of Bella had even taken on a different color which Nial was able to perceive.

This had never happened to him and shocked him as he had never visualized something different than the usual, blueish tone that mana seemed to have.

On the other hand, the energy currents of the last remaining beast that opposed Bella were extremely powerful.

Those currents belonged to the Lesser Goblin Shaman, and it could be the fire affinity, to some extent.

Fireballs were floating all around the Goblin, but it didn't fire them at the three humans.

Both of them found that something was weird as neither Bella nor the Goblin was moving.

Only when he and Mathias arrive did the entire situation change.

While Mathias instinctively shot several earth spikes out of the ground, Bella retreated several steps. Her eyes were still closed as she shouted in a near-hysterical voice,

"It speaks!!! The Goblin just spoke to me in the human language!!"

Bella's voice was overflowing with all kinds of emotions, clearly indicating her shock.

Yet, even then both Nial and Mathias couldn't really believe what they had just heard.

'A speaking beast?! What kind of nonsense is she spouting??'

But even before they could speak out their doubts, Nial sensed faint, nearly untraceable mana currents originating from under the torn pieces of cloth that covered the Goblin's upper body.

"Hchuuummaannnss MOARRR!"

The moment Mathias heard this, he froze in place, looking at the Lesser Goblin Shaman as if it was some sort of otherworldly existence.

However, on the other hand, Nial was unfazed as he shot forward.

He had perceived something that both Bell and Mathias were oblivious to.

Without the help of another device, Lesser Goblin Shaman was not able to speak, and it was just its means to intimidate its opponents, using the human language!

It was weird, and definitely not something normal, but in order to understand what was going on, they had to defeat the Lesser Goblin Shaman and figure out what kind of device it had been using.

The Lesser Goblin Shaman was wearing multiple rings, necklaces, and earrings, which made it look like a decorated Christmas tree.

The mana currents that were naturally released from all the devices the Goblin was wearing caused him to have a slight headache.

But this was mostly an accumulated reaction owing to the surrounding noises, the pungent smell of the Goblins' blood, the Goblins themselves, the vibrations that were caused by Mathias' terraforming the ground to initiate another attack, and everything he perceived owing to his high mana perception.

In fact, the major reason for his headache was likely to be Bella as her golden mana currents were bombarding him with a lot of information.

And he was not even able to decipher them which was probably the worst.

Nevertheless, Nial had already appeared in the range of the Lesser Goblin Shaman and was obstructing it from attacking Bella.

She seemed to have been affected by something that prevented her from properly seeing or moving around.

It was weird, and Nial was unable to tell what exactly was going on with Bella.

But for now, he had to ignore her issues as the situation ahead of him was likely to be far more dangerous than initially expected.

Upon activating multiple pendants, bracelets, and earrings at once, a multitude of fireballs manifested around the Lesser Goblin Shaman, adding to the few that were already floating in the air.

Following that, Nial felt as if somebody was hammering his head, making him understand that he had to face mental attacks as well.

This was certainly not great, but something Nial could accept.

It was not bad enough to distract him from protecting Bella, who began to visibly struggle.

'Are the pendants similar to some sort of curses?'

Nial's first thought was unlikely to be the case, but he had no idea what else could cause Bella to be restricted in such an obvious way.

She was barely able to move after the Lesser Goblin Shaman had activated the numerous armament in its possession.

In an effort to counter the attacks, Nial began to slowly move ahead, ignoring the severe pain that pierced straight into the depths of his mind, while circulating mana through his entire body.

Focusing on his legs, the amount of mana he utilized was more than half of his remnants.

Thus, his speed accelerated exponentially as he shot past the corpses of the two Elite Goblins.

Nial was able to sense that they were also in possession of a few armaments.

But instead of being worried about this, he leaned forward, while moving the Viper spear to his side in a smooth manner.

Followed by this, traces of mana entered the spear that began to gleam lightly as Nial advanced ahead through the barrage of fireballs being shot at his group and the stinging headache.

Noticing that Nial showed no signs of slowing down, the Lesser Goblin Shaman quickly fired a batch of three fireballs at Nial.

It had sensed that Nial didn't possess that much mana, while his mana core was much smaller than its own as well.

Thus, the Lesser Goblin Shaman was of the opinion that three fireballs were more than enough to obliterate Nial.

The remaining fireballs were required in order to defeat the other two humans, after all!

Like all the previous opponents, even the Lesser Goblin Shaman had dismissed Nial as a weakling.

Which is why it was surprised to see Nial start moving in an eerie manner, allowing him to know the exact timing at which each fireball would reach them.

They might have been fired at the same time, but owing to the different factors such as the supplied amount of mana and the additional variables such as the force, velocity, and explosiveness of each fireball differentiated.

Others might not be able to notice this, but it was mostly owed to Nial's exceptional senses and mana perception that he could perceive the slightest difference in mana within each fireball.

This even included the outlines of the fireballs' structure.

As such, while moving ahead at a rapid speed, he swiftly destroyed the three fireballs ahead of him.

The impact of the explosions that followed after the blade of the Viper spear pierced through it didn't affect Nial at all.

Rather, he was able to twist the spear in a way that allowed him to make use of the explosions.

With a seemingly simple push of the exploding fireballs, his attack was accelerated as his momentum reached its peak.

In a single swipe of the spear that looked too smooth to have been made with his sheer instincts, the three fireballs were destroyed, giving leeway for Nial to advance.

When the Lesser Goblin Shaman noticed this, it hesitated for a moment, letting all possible outcomes of the battle run through its mind.

Only after it thought of a solution did it finally react, using the remaining fireballs that were now reduced to eight, to attack him mercilessly.

All the fireballs advanced toward him at a rapid pace, and some fireballs even began to spin, reaching an even higher speed.

This made Nial even more vigilant than he had already been.

He wanted to evade the attacks if possible but quickly noticed that this was far more difficult than first predicted.

Bella was only a few tens of meters behind him. Her demeanor had changed entirely and the golden mana of hers had dissolved.

She was holding her head between her hands while the shortswords were lying on the ground.

Blood oozed out of her ears, and her previously stable mana was fluctuating wildly.

All of this had been caused by the influence of multiple factors.

They had overlapped with each other, creating the condition in which Bella was caught right now.

While releasing her Innate ability, and [Outburst] ability respectively was not very dangerous, activating them at the same time was very taxing.

This was something Bella knew, but her disgust followed by her rage about the lustful gaze with which the Goblins had looked at her had been too much for her to not want to kill them right then and there.

She had wanted to defeat the Goblins as quickly as possible, and using her Innate ability and [Outburst] ability had been the easiest way to achieve this in no time.

Unfortunately, Bella had overestimated herself as she didn't expect to be attacked by the Goblins that focused on causing psychological harm to others.

Attacks that focused on damaging the spirit, mind, or even soul were something Bella had yet to face, and a Goblin was not supposed to be able to do so.

Initially, she didn't have any problem evading and destroying the fireballs she had been thrown at.

But the mental attack she had to face had been unexpected, thereby worsening her control over the combination of her Innate ability and the [Outburst] ability.

This had reached the extent to which Bella was unable to control her overly potent many anymore, only to enter an even worse state as the effect of the [Outburst] ability had worn off.

Under normal circumstances, she would have entered a weakened state owing to the combination of her two abilities.

To her misfortune, as she was still in a life-and-death battle, this was not possible.

Bella had to continue using her Innate ability, even though her condition was bad, and kept worsening over time.

Even when Nial and Mathias had arrived, Bella didn't dare stop using her Innate ability, in fear that her group would be unable to defeat the Lesser Goblin Shaman without her help.

However, that was a groundless worry of hers as Nial alone was already enough to protect her.

After getting back to his senses, Mathias was also ready to help.

His first action was to build a protective shield of earth around Bella with tiny holes inside to let some fresh air inside it.

This was more than enough to allow Bella to take a deep breath as she could not continue using her Innate trait anymore.

Afterward, she broke down on the ground, cursing herself for requiring the help of others just because she had acted recklessly.

​ 'For what did I even undergo a decade-long training…to make ridiculous mistakes that could have cost my life?!'

Gritting her teeth, Bella felt even more useless than Mathias had felt the day before.

She never expected that the Teradan military camp would teach her something without even stepping in it. Her reason to join the camp was completely different than everyone else's, to begin with.

Yet, what she learned on the second day since the trials of the Teradan military camp had started was more than enough to show her that she was far from being perfect, let alone unparalleled!

And, oddly enough, the worst realization was that someone, who was considered a newly awakened Original was currently protecting her.

But that was not everything, because Nial was also several grades lower than her, he had less mana than her, less experience, even less knowledge…and he was blind.

She had nothing against Nial, on the contrary, Bella really liked him and his personality.

However, right now, Bella couldn't help but feel useless and somewhat jealous as she could clearly sense that Nial was able to stay unaffected by the mental attack that had incapacitated her.

Little did she know that Nial was fighting not just the attacks but the severe headache that made him feel as if it was imploding and that only the thought of protecting the others as the only unscathed close combatant allowed him to strive forward!