My Goblin System : Levelling up with my SSS Class Devouring skill-Chapter 304

They continued past, voices fading into the forest. Satou waited, counting his heartbeats. One minute. Two. Five.

"Bandits," she whispered, so quiet he almost couldn’t hear even with enhanced hearing. "Deserters from some military force, probably. Not enough discipline for real soldiers."

"They’re patrolling," Satou whispered back. "Looking for something."

"Us, maybe. Or other monsters. Either way, their presence complicates things." Sylvara’s eyes were calculating. "If they’re patrolling in groups of six, there’s probably a camp nearby. Maybe two dozen total fighters."

"Should we avoid them?"

"If possible, yes. But..." She trailed off, listening intently.

The voices were returning. Growing louder again. Coming back toward them.

"—swear I saw something. Right over here."

"You’re seeing things."

"No, seriously. Disturbed ground. Fresh tracks. Someone camped here recently."

Satou’s stomach dropped. The patrol had spotted their hidden hollow—or at least evidence of their presence.

He and Sylvara exchanged looks in the darkness. The question was clear in both their eyes: What do we do?

"Hey!" One of the bandits was very close now. "Look at this. Someone definitely stopped here. Footprints in the soft earth. Two sets—one human-sized, one... bigger."

"Monsters?"

"Maybe. Or travelers trying to avoid notice. Either way, whoever it was can’t be far."

More footsteps. The bandits were spreading out, searching the area. It was only a matter of time before someone looked behind the vines and spotted the hollow.

Sylvara leaned close to Satou’s ear, her whisper barely audible. "If they find us, we have to kill them. All of them. Quickly and quietly. If even one escapes to raise the alarm...

Satou understood. They were in hostile territory. Witnesses meant pursuit, reinforcements, their mission compromised before it even really began.

He nodded slightly, already running through his arsenal of abilities. Shadow Manipulation for silent kills. Soul Strike for attacks that left no obvious wounds. Nightmare Projection for psychological warfare. The assassination techniques from Merc Assault’s memories flowing through his mind like dark instruction manual.

"There!" A bandit was right outside their hollow now. "Behind those vines. I see something—"

The decision was made.

Satou exploded from the hollow like a nightmare given flesh, Shadow Manipulation creating weapons from the darkness itself as he emerged. His Shadow Blade materialized in his hand.

The bandit who’d been reaching for the vines didn’t even have time to scream. Satou’s blade pierced through his throat with surgical precision, the Shadow Blade’s nature preventing blood spray that would alert others. The man crumpled silently.

But his companions had seen the movement.

"Contact! Monster in the—"

Satou didn’t let him finish. Shadow Step teleported him behind the shouting bandit, covering the ten feet between them in an instant. His clawed hand clamped over the man’s mouth while his other hand—now wreathed in void energy—delivered a Soul Strike directly to the bandit’s spine.

The man died without making a sound, his soul simply... stopping.

"Fuck! It’s fast! Spread out and—"

Sylvara emerged from the hollow like a ghost. She was on the third bandit before he finished speaking, her blade slicing through his vocal cords with the kind of precision that came from decades of practice. The man tried to scream but produced only a wet gurgle before collapsing.

Three down. Three more somewhere in the darkness.

Satou’s enhanced senses tracked them. One to his left, panicking, about to run. One to his right, trying to be brave, readying a weapon. One behind a tree, smart enough to seek cover but not smart enough to realize it wouldn’t help.

The runner first. He couldn’t be allowed to escape.

Shadow Bind erupted from the ground, tendrils of solidified darkness wrapping around the fleeing bandit’s legs. He crashed face-first into the forest floor, opening his mouth to scream—

Satou’s Shadow Blade punched through the back of his skull before sound emerged. Existence Erasure from the Void Fang’s influence meant the wound didn’t bleed normally—the matter simply ceased to be. The man died instantly, his last thought probably wondering why there was no pain.

Four down.

The brave one rushed Satou with a roar, sword raised high. Bad technique. Telegraphed attack. Satou didn’t even need his combat abilities to counter it—just stepped aside and let momentum carry the bandit past him, then delivered a casual Soul Strike to the exposed back.

Five down.

The last one—the smart one who’d taken cover—was trying to be quiet. Trying to stay hidden and maybe slip away when Satou and Sylvara weren’t looking.

But Satou had Merc Assault’s assassination instincts now. He knew every trick an outmatched enemy might try. Knew exactly how someone trying to hide would think.

He activated Nightmare Projection.

The bandit’s consciousness was suddenly pulled into a realm of pure terror. In the nightmare space, every shadow held death. Every sound was the approach of something that wanted to kill him. His worst fears given form—spiders erupting from the ground, darkness that suffocated, the faces of people he’d killed coming back for revenge.

In the real world, the bandit stumbled from his hiding spot, eyes wide with primal terror, mouth opening to scream at horrors only he could see.

Sylvara’s thrown knife took him in the throat. Poison-coated. The man was dead before his body hit the ground.

Six down.

The entire fight had taken less than thirty seconds.

Sylvara moved between the corpses with clinical efficiency, checking each one to confirm death. She wiped her blade clean on one of the dead men’s clothes, retrieved her thrown knife, and began searching the bodies.

"Deserters, like I thought," she said quietly, examining badges and equipment. "Originally from the Merchant Guild’s private army based on the insignia. Probably got tired of poor pay and hard work, decided banditry was easier."

"Should we hide them?" Satou asked, though his mind was already working through a different calculation.

"No time," Sylvara said, straightening from her search. "This was a patrol—they’ll be expected back at their camp eventually. When they don’t return, their companions will send search parties. We need to move immediately. Put as much distance between ourselves and this location as possible before sunrise."