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OPI Chapter 293: Goblins, Fire, and Blood
🕑 Added 2025-02-19 23:08:46 +0000 UTCUnder the light of two moons, one blue and one red, the rays of light filtered through the dense black foliage, projecting an intricate network of white lines in the dark forest.
The unmistakable sound of a propulsion mechanism broke the silence of the night, accompanied by a sharp whistle that cut through the air.
[Swish! Thump!]
An instant later, a sharp metal harpoon stabbed into the trunk of a tree with a loud bang. Immediately, a figure wrapped in a green cloak lunged forward, propelled by a steel cable.
"Hu————"
The night wind hit his face as the mechanism of his equipment allowed him to move precisely between the trees. A slight smile appeared on his face.
This was the life Levi wanted.
Not to stand in the shadow of the queen, playing the role of a silent guardian.
However, this time everything was different.
He no longer had his fellow reconnaissance squadron members at his side. The sound of his three-dimensional maneuvering equipment echoed alone, breaking the monotony of the night.
But it didn't matter.
Levi Ackerman didn't need a squad.
He was a reconnaissance squad in his own right.
[Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!]
Levi moved at high speed through the forest.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, a reddish glow caught his attention in the distance, and his gaze sharpened.
In the blink of an eye, he slipped through the dense foliage, turning off his three-dimensional maneuvering equipment and moving stealthily through the vegetation.
The night was dark, but that fire illuminated the area with an intense glow, revealing several figures.
Levi narrowed his eyes, carefully observing the small beings gathered around the campfire. Some were eating, others were laughing or playing with each other.
They were creatures with pointed ears, greenish skin and crimson eyes. They wore leather rags and wielded daggers or crude spears.
From the way they communicated with each other, it seemed evident that they possessed a considerable level of intelligence.
"Pointy ears… Are they elves? But the drawings on the base showed elves as taller beings with human features…"
At the base, he had seen the prophetic illustrations provided to Cipher Pol. In them, new and strange figures were depicted: wizards wielding short wands, a blonde elf with long ears…
And dragons.
But in the next instant, Levi's expression turned grim. He had clearly seen what those creatures were eating.
It was human flesh!
The bodies had been stripped and were being roasted over a bonfire. Not far away, several men in metal armour were tied to a tree. Judging by their clothes, they looked like soldiers.
However, with their heads down and their bodies covered in blood and wounds, he couldn't tell if they were still alive.
A flash of anger crossed Levi's gaze, but he held back. With the coolness of a professional, he pulled a small Den-Den Mushi from his pocket and took several photographs of the scene.
After taking the photos, he put away the Den-Den Mushi and, at the same instant, activated his three-dimensional maneuvering equipment.
One of the harpoons shot out like an arrow, piercing the back of one of the creatures facing away from him. A jet of scarlet blood gushed forth instantly.
Levi coldly watched the scene as he approached, propelled by the cable.
In the blink of an eye, before the rest of those green creatures could react, a greenish shadow flashed past.
One of them barely had time to let out a gasp before her head rolled to the ground.
"Graaah!!"
"Aaaagh!!"
The group of creatures roared in fury, raising their crude weapons and charging forward. But Levi was too fast.
In a single blink, he had already crossed the battlefield, cutting down two more in a single move.
Only two wet, tearing sounds were heard, the sound of flesh separating.
“Wind Breathing…”
Suddenly four green wind claws appeared in the air out of nowhere.
The last of the creatures could only watch in horror as the rest of his companions were torn apart, reduced to unrecognizable chunks of flesh by blades of green wind.
Fear paralyzed him.
He looked up and saw the figure of Levi, standing on a thick branch. The human had his back turned to him, but his cold gaze pierced him with icy contempt.
...
Atop a hill to the south, Uzui Tengen looked up at the night sky, where two moons shone brightly in the darkness.
Behind him, a dense forest stretched out in the gloom.
"Oh, are you back?"
Suddenly, a raven descended from the sky and perched on his right arm. It had two rows of precious stones around its neck and two black feathers standing on its head.
Tengen smiled and asked, "Did you find any villages or any humans?"
“No! No!”
"I see..." Tengen sighed, but the next moment the crow spoke again: "But I saw many corpses! Human corpses!"
“Oh? Which direction?”
“West! West!”
The crow spread a black wing, pointing west. Tengen thought about going to investigate, but at that moment, Levi's voice rang through his earpiece.
"I found a survivor. Should I take him to camp?"
Biba's voice was then heard: "No, just give us your location. We can't risk revealing the camp."
"I'm 800 meters north of the Dimensional Gate point. There's a campfire here, you should be able to see it easily."
After hearing the information, Biba gave instructions, "Alright. Tengen, come with me to investigate. If we don't find anything out of the ordinary, we'll return to camp."
"Understood~"
Tengen gave up the idea of going west to see the corpses.
...
A few minutes later.
Biba and Tengen came to a clearing in the forest, where violence and blood still permeated the air. There, a campfire burned brightly, and a human body was roasting on it.
However, what was most striking was not the macabre spectacle of the fire, but the countless corpses of green-skinned creatures scattered on the ground, along with the nauseating stench of blood.
To one side, six bodies of human soldiers, dressed in armor, lay neatly lined up. Levi stood beside them, watching the arrival of his comrades.
"Where is the survivor?" Biba asked, after taking a quick look around the place and deducing what happened.
"Here it is." Levi responded, pointing to a soldier who was close to him. Levi then turned his body slightly, revealing a green-skinned creature tied with a rope behind him.
"I also caught this creature alive. It seems to have close to human intelligence."
Biba walked over and examined the creature, whose face reflected terror and despair.
At that moment, Tengen also approached and, seeing the green-skinned creature clearly, let out an exclamation of surprise.
"Wow! This looks a lot like... a goblin from Western fantasy!"
"Tengen, could you share with us what you know about goblins?" Biba asked with a smile.
"Of course. Goblins are humanoid creatures that frequently appear in Western European myths and legends. They are often described as an evil race with a marked hostility towards humans," Tengen explained.
"I see..." Biba and Levi nodded, pondering the information.
At that moment, Biba turned his attention to the wounded soldier. "And as for this man, he seems to have suffered serious injuries.
"I gave him an emergency recovery pill. His condition should have improved a little, but he's exhausted and still asleep," Levi replied calmly.
"I see. Then wake him up. We need to talk to him."
"Okay." Levi nodded.
Without another word, he raised his right foot and delivered a fierce kick to the unconscious soldier. The man's body flew out with a resounding crash, rolling across the blood-covered ground until it came to a stop after several turns.
The soldier writhed on the ground, moaning in pain and stifling screams of agony.
"He's awake now," Levi announced lightly.
"..."
Biba and Tengen were at a loss for words for a moment. Finally, Tengen couldn't help but ask, "Was it necessary to be so blunt?"
Levi replied with the same coldness as always: "It was the fastest way. Besides, I controlled my strength. He's not going to die. Besides, I was the one who saved him."
Biba sighed and shook his head in resignation. "Okay... I guess it's best to talk to him right away. I just hope we can understand each other without any problems, otherwise this will get pretty complicated."
...
The three of them silently watched the soldier who, after recovering from the pain, remained half-kneeling on the ground, his face full of anger as he shouted something unintelligible at them.
Was he insulting them?
They didn't understand.
Suddenly, Levi disappeared in an instant, the next moment, a brutal kick struck the soldier's cheek, causing his head to violently spin to the side as he spat out threads of crimson blood.
But it didn't end there.
Just as his body was about to fall backwards, a hand grabbed him firmly by the neck, lifting him off the ground before throwing him to the ground.
“Shut up. You’re making too much noise,” Levi coldly warned the stunned soldier. Then, he turned his head to Biba and said, “We don’t understand your language. We need Mr. Tucker to come here.”
“There is no other option,” Biba nodded calmly before pressing a button on his headset. “Mr. Tucker, the foreigners we encountered do not speak our language. We need you to bring your Teigu.”
“Understood.” Soon, Tucker’s response echoed through the earpiece.
“In the meantime, we can secure the area. Hmm?”
Before Biba finished speaking, he sensed a large number of presences rapidly approaching from the west.
At the same time, Tengen and Levi also sensed the situation.
“The sounds they make are similar to this goblin’s. There are about forty of them, and one in particular has a stronger presence and a deeper voice,” Tengen analyzed, using his special Kenbunshoku Haki.
“Do you want me to take care of them?” Levi asked as he slowly placed his hands on the hilts of his blades, looking at Biba for orders. Biba smiled and replied, “I’ll leave it to you, but try to capture the one with the strongest presence alive.”
“Understood.”
After receiving the order, Levi activated the mechanism of his three-dimensional maneuvering equipment. With a snap of the steel cables and the roar of the thrusters, he disappeared among the trees of the forest.
The soldier, still reeling from the beating he had received, looked on in amazement at what had just happened. At the same time, he realized that he did not understand the language these individuals were speaking.
At that instant, the goblins' screams of agony and fury began to echo from within the forest.
“Gyaaaaahhh!”
“Grrraaaahhh!”
Meanwhile, Tengen pointed at the crow perched on his shoulder and said, “Captain Biba, just now, Hikarimaru informed me that he saw a large number of human bodies to the west.”
"Yes, yes, some of them are also wearing such silver armor and black robes!" the raven confirmed, pointing with one wing at the soldier on the ground.
“A war?” Biba quickly came to that conclusion and mused out loud, “So, maybe they weren’t captured by the goblins, but simply picked up by them?”
Given the performance of the goblin Levi had left behind, it was clear that his kind did not have the ability to defeat a well-equipped human army.
Little by little, the sounds of the massacre in the forest faded away.
Moments later…
Levi emerged from the thicket with a goblin with long, pointed ears firmly gripped by his head. He calmly walked over to where Biba and Tengen were standing by the bonfire and said casually, “I ran into a big guy. He’s much stronger than these goblins. Tengen, tell me, what the hell is this thing?”
"Ah!"
Suddenly, the soldier let out a scream, but none of the three present understood what he was saying. It wasn't until Levi gave him a cold look that the man immediately shut his mouth.
Tengen rubbed his chin as he looked up and down at the nearly two-meter-tall, green, blood-covered creature Levi had just captured. "It looks like a giant goblin… but I don't remember seeing anything like it in Western tales."
Biba smiled lightly. "Whatever it is, if they have a certain level of intelligence, then when Mr. Tucker arrives, maybe we can get some information from them. And if not… at least we still have a human alive to interrogate."
“That soldier is enough. These goblins should be eliminated as soon as possible.” Without hesitation, Levi tossed the giant goblin aside. Then, he rubbed his hands together gently, as if using a bar of soap. Within seconds, a large amount of white foam began to flow out of his palms.
When he finished, he shook his hands vigorously, dispersing the bubbles into the air.
Tengen, with a hand on his waist, watched the scene with an amused smile. "Wow, your ability is really useful. At least you don't have to worry about hygiene on the battlefield."
"Yes. It's one of the reasons I chose that Devil Fruit," Levi replied seriously. "Staying clean is essential, especially after a fight."
"I agree." Biba nodded as he smoothed his long pink hair.
"Well, we'll take care of these goblins and the human corpses first. They're a nuisance to the eye." As he spoke, Biba slowly unsheathed the sword at his waist.
The soldier looked at the blade in amazement: its surface was covered with bright, deep red patterns, as if they were the veins of a living being.
[Swish!]
With a single blow, Biba opened a pit more than two meters deep and three meters wide in the ground.
At that moment, a new voice resounded in the place.
"Sorry for the delay. The forest is difficult to navigate at night."
The soldier looked up and saw a middle-aged man dressed in a teal robe. The most disturbing thing was the green eye protruding from his forehead.
"Mr. Tucker, thank you for coming. Could you examine these two goblins? We want to know if they possess enough intelligence to reason and communicate."
Biba greeted him with a warm smile.
"Goblins, huh?" Tucker looked at the little goblin and the giant with curiosity, and muttered in amazement, "I never imagined that one day I would be able to see creatures straight out of fantasy with my own eyes."
He then focused his Teigu: Spectator on them. A moment later, he shook his head in a gesture of resignation.
"It won't work. The little one is completely overcome with fear, while the big one only feels anger. Plus, their intelligence seems to be quite limited."
Biba didn't seem disappointed. His smile remained intact as he calmly gave an order, "In that case, eliminate them. Levi, take care of it."
"Understood."
Levi nodded and slowly unsheathed his two swords.
