SSS-RANK: The Time God-Chapter 36: A Forest of Blood

Dawn broke cold and gray over the assembly point. Hundreds of students prepared for departure, their nervous energy filling the air with tension.

Class A moved with military precision, their enchanted gear gleaming. Classes B through D checked equipment with varying degrees of confidence.

Robin and Norman stood at the edge of the crowd, ignored by everyone.

"Move out!" the Academy officer commanded.

The teams dispersed into Gloomwood Forest through different entry points. Robin watched them go, loud, obvious, announcing their presence to anything with ears.

"They’re treating this like a parade," Norman observed, his enhanced hearing picking up the chatter and clanking armor from multiple teams.

"Let them." Robin turned toward their assigned entry point, a narrow game trail that led deep into the forest’s heart. "We’re not here to make noise."

They entered the treeline. The moment they crossed into shadow, both transformed. Gone was the casual student bearing. Their movements became purposeful, silent and predatory.

Norman’s golden eyes swept the terrain constantly, processing information at inhuman speed.

"Goblin scent. Faint. Maybe two hours old. Southeast, heading toward the ravine system."

"Numbers?"

"At least six. Possibly eight." Norman’s nostrils flared. "They’re tracking something. Deer, maybe."

Robin’s tactical mind activated immediately. "If they’re hunting, they’ll be spread out. Focused on prey, not threats. Perfect."

They moved through the forest like ghosts. Robin’s enhanced perception from his stats made navigation effortless. Norman’s beast senses eliminated any chance of ambush.

After thirty minutes, Norman raised a fist. Stop.

Robin froze instantly. His hand moved to his sword hilt.

Norman pointed ahead. Through the dense undergrowth, movement. Green-gray skin. Crude weapons. Five goblins clustered around a dead deer, arguing over the carcass in their guttural language.

Robin’s mind cataloged everything in seconds. Positioning, weapons, apparent hierarchy. The largest goblin probably F+ rank based on size held a crude iron sword. The others had wooden clubs and stone knives.

He gestured to Norman with silent hand signals developed during their midnight training. You go left, draw attention. I flank right, eliminate the leader first.

Norman nodded once. Understanding complete.

They separated. Robin counted down on his fingers. Three. Two. One.

Norman exploded from the brush.

His speed was shocking even to Robin, who’d trained with him for weeks. One moment he was hidden; the next he was among the goblins like a golden-eyed demon.

The goblins shrieked, scrambling for weapons. The largest one raised its sword.

Norman’s blade took it through the throat. Clean. Precise. The goblin dropped without making another sound.

While the remaining four goblins focused on Norman’s aggressive assault, Robin emerged from their blind spot. His sword just standard Academy iron, nothing special found the gap between a goblin’s shoulder blades.

[GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED: +10 EXP]

The creature didn’t have time to scream.

Three left. They finally realized they were being attacked from multiple directions. One turned to flee...

Norman’s thrown dagger caught it in the back of the skull.

The final two attacked desperately. One charged Norman with a wooden club. The other lunged at Robin with a stone knife.

Robin sidestepped. Minimal movement, just enough. The goblin’s momentum carried it past him. His blade opened its throat on the return stroke.

[GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED: +10 EXP]

Norman blocked the club strike, then drove his elbow into the goblin’s face. Bone crunched. The creature staggered. Norman’s blade finished it.

[GOBLIN WARRIOR DEFEATED: +15 EXP]

Silence. Five goblins dead in under thirty seconds. The fight had been brutally efficient, no wasted motion, no unnecessary risks.

"That’s how it’s done," Norman said, not even breathing hard. "Quick. Silent. Complete."

Robin was already moving to the corpses, checking for anything useful. The goblins had nothing of value, crude weapons, scraps of hide armor. But that wasn’t what mattered.

What mattered was that they’d just proven their system worked perfectly.

"More ahead," Norman said, his enhanced senses already tracking. "The scent is getting stronger. There’s a nest nearby. Big one."

Robin’s eyes gleamed. "Show me."

They moved deeper into the forest, following Norman’s nose. Other Academy teams were miles away, crashing through the underbrush and making enough noise to scare away anything intelligent.

But Robin and Norman were hunters. Silent, patient and deadly.

"There." Norman pointed to a rocky outcropping ahead. "Cave entrance. I’m counting... at least twenty distinct scents. Maybe more inside."

Robin studied the terrain. The cave entrance was narrow, defensible. A frontal assault would be suicide against those numbers. But the rocks around it offered elevated positions, and the wind was in their favor.

"We draw them out," Robin said. "Small groups. Kill them before they can organize."

"How?"

Robin picked up a rock. "Goblins are aggressive but stupid. Noise and blood will bring them running." He looked at Norman. "Make noise. I’ll be waiting in ambush position."

Norman’s grin was feral. "Finally. I’ve been holding back."

Robin climbed the rocks, finding a position that overlooked the likely path goblins would take when leaving their cave. He settled in, sword ready, barely breathing.

Below, Norman stood in plain sight. Then he howled.

The sound wasn’t human. It was a beast’s sound, raw, primal, echoing through the forest. Every creature within a mile would have heard it.

The cave entrance exploded with activity. Goblins poured out, screeching in rage at the intruder challenging them on their own territory.

Robin counted. Eight. Nine. Ten. They kept coming.

Norman retreated, drawing them away from the cave. Leading them exactly where Robin wanted them, beneath his position.

The goblins pursued in a disorganized mob, bloodlust overriding tactical thinking. They saw only one target, never looked up.

Robin dropped.

His blade took the rearmost goblin through the skull before his feet even touched ground.

[GOBLIN WARRIOR DEFEATED: +15 EXP]

The goblins shrieked, whirling around. Now they were surrounded, Norman ahead, Robin behind.

Panic set in. Half turned to fight Robin. Half continued after Norman. Their formation, if it could be called that collapsed completely.

Robin moved through them like death itself. Every strike was precise, targeting joints and vitals. Justin’s lifetime of combat experience made each motion effortless.

Parry a crude sword. Riposte through the throat.

[GOBLIN WARRIOR DEFEATED: +15 EXP]

Duck under a club. Blade up through the ribcage.

[GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED: +10 EXP]

Sidestep. Counter. Kill.

[GOBLIN WARRIOR DEFEATED: +15 EXP]

Norman was a whirlwind of violence ahead, his enhanced speed and strength overwhelming anything that got close.

The goblins broke. Those that remained tried to flee.

Neither Robin nor Norman let them.

They pursued with cold efficiency, hunting down every survivor. This wasn’t sport. This wasn’t glory. This was extermination.

The last goblin died trying to crawl back to its cave, Norman’s blade finding its spine.

Robin stood among the carnage, breathing hard. His leather armor was splattered with goblin blood. His sword arm ached from repeated impact.

But he was smiling.

[COMBAT SUMMARY]

[TOTAL KILLS: 7 GOBLINS]

[TOTAL EXP GAINED: +100 EXP]

[LEVEL 7: 255/700 EXP]

One hundred experience from a single nest. And the forest was full of them.

"The cave," Robin said, catching his breath. "Check if there are more inside."

Norman approached the entrance cautiously, his beast senses probing the darkness.

After a moment, he relaxed. "Empty. Just nesting materials and garbage. They’re all dead."

Robin nodded. "Good. Mark it cleared. We move to the next concentration."

"There’s another group northeast. Maybe a mile. I caught their scent earlier." Norman wiped his blade clean. "Smaller. Maybe six or seven."

"Then we keep moving."

They continued their hunt. Over the next three hours, they found and exterminated two more goblin groups.

Each engagement was the same silent approach, tactical positioning, overwhelming violence.

[GOBLIN WARRIOR DEFEATED: +15 EXP]

[GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED: +10 EXP]

[GOBLIN WARRIOR DEFEATED: +15 EXP]

The notifications came steadily. Robin’s experience bar climbed with each kill.

By midday, they’d eliminated twenty-eight goblins total. More than most Academy teams would kill in three full days.

And they were just getting started.

"We’re too efficient," Norman observed as they moved through the forest. "At this rate, we’ll clear the entire sector in one day."

"That’s the idea." Robin checked his sword. The blade was notched from repeated use against goblin weapons, but still functional.

"The mission parameters say three days. That means we can spend two days hunting in adjacent sectors once ours is clear."

Norman’s eyes gleamed with understanding. "Poaching other teams’ territories."

"They won’t even know. We’ll be gone before they realize goblins they were tracking have disappeared."

They continued northeast, following Norman’s nose toward their next target.

The forest became denser. Darker. The kind of terrain Class A students would avoid entirely, sticking to safer paths.

But Robin and Norman thrived in it. This was their element; dangerous, isolated, perfect for the kind of brutal efficiency they’d been practicing for weeks.

"Multiple groups ahead," Norman said suddenly, his voice tense. "At least three separate nests. Maybe forty goblins total. This is a major concentration."

Robin considered. Forty goblins at once would be dangerous even for them. But if they could pull it off...

[ESTIMATED EXP: 450-500 POINTS]

Enough to level up. Maybe twice.

"Can you separate them? Draw out smaller groups?"

Norman studied the terrain ahead. "Maybe. But it’ll be risky. If they all come at once..."

"Then we use the environment." Robin pointed to a narrow ravine ahead. "Funnel them through there. Limited frontage. They can’t use numbers effectively in tight space."

Norman’s feral grin returned. "Now you’re thinking like a beast."

They prepared the killing ground. Robin positioned himself at the ravine’s narrowest point. Norman would be the bait again, drawing the goblins into the trap.

It was insane and reckless.

Exactly the kind of challenge that would forge them into something stronger.

"Ready?" Norman asked.

Robin settled into stance, sword ready, every muscle coiled.

"Always."

Norman howled again. The sound echoed through the forest, a challenge no goblin could ignore.

And the hunt continued.