Chapter 1033: Life and Death, That Is the Question

The heavenly thunderstorm conjured by the Gorgeous Magic Ball unleashed absolutely terrifying power. A small, charred basin was forcibly carved into the ground, its geological makeup fundamentally altered by the overwhelming electrical shock and sheer destruction. In this sense, Gauss’s strike had practically reshaped the terrain permanently.

The brilliant, intense light turned the night into day for a good ten to twenty seconds.

“What happened over there?”

Many people further away, despite their Detection of the intense light on the horizon, remained completely ignorant of what was actually happening. They merely had a vague sense that something monumental—something capable of influencing the entire battlefield—must have occurred.

Meanwhile, the monsters closer to the epicenter—especially the Commander Level and the extremely rare Extraordinary individuals who hadn’t been caught in the crossfire but had directly witnessed the strike’s destructive power—were plunged into deep shock. Was Goblin General Snaz really dead?

Following that heavenly lightning strike, the once-powerful black light never reemerged. If one looked closely, a pitch-black, elongated object could be seen right in the center of the basin. That unidentifiable lump was all that remained of the Forest Green Black Beast, a creature that had reigned supreme in the forest for over a century.

As one of the few true powerhouses in the entire Jade Forest, Snaz’s reputation far exceeded that of an ordinary Extraordinary Demon. This wasn’t just because of its brutal nature or the frequent pillaging raids it launched throughout the forest. More importantly, as the apex individual of the forest goblin race, it naturally commanded the reverence of hundreds of thousands—if not more—goblins.

The lower the tier of the goblin, the deeper its worship. In their hearts, Snaz was an omnipotent king, the perfect form of a goblin they all aspired to be—at least, according to the judgments formed within goblin brains that were scarcely larger than pine nuts. Having never encountered a stronger goblin, Snaz was their absolute peak.

But now, the “sky” had fallen for many of these goblins.

Snaz had been obliterated on the vast battlefield in a manner akin to a public execution. An unimaginable wave of debilitating panic rapidly spread through the main assault force. If one were to survey the entire battlefield from high above, they would notice that of the four terrifying auras—originally looming like four giant beasts—one was rapidly weakening and withering away. After losing Snaz, their sole unifying core, the army spearheaded by the goblin legion seemed to have its spine broken. Although their remaining forces and individual units were still massive, they could no longer firmly coalesce.

They thought in panic, “What do we do?”

The first to succumb to fear were actually the rare Extraordinary Goblins and Commander Level goblins. Although they continued fighting their respective opponents, their minds were already in complete turmoil. Usually, when the sky fell, the tallest bore the weight. But with the tallest among them—Snaz—dead, these second-tier individuals were next in line. Even though their current battles were progressing smoothly enough, the moment that human shrouded in Platinum light joined the fray, the scales would instantly tip into a one-sided slaughter. Since he was capable of killing Snaz, slaughtering them wouldn’t take much effort either.

As for the vastly more numerous ordinary goblins, their bloodthirsty frenzy gradually began to cool. For some unknown reason, they felt that boiling, hot-blooded strength rapidly fading. A few of the sharper-witted individuals watched as their companions, who had just scaled the nearby walls, were hacked down by human soldiers. As the bodies plummeted from high above and smashed into bloody pulps on the ground, these smarter goblins instinctively recoiled, as if catching a glimpse of their own imminent futures.

Snaz’s death had a profound impact on the battlefield.

The Rot-Winged Dragon Bat, Aleks, who was currently suppressing Monroe, was one of the first creatures to detect the disappearance of Snaz’s aura. It had actually sensed the goblin’s aura steadily weakening beforehand, but it had been too busy fighting Monroe to give it much thought. Furthermore, in its understanding, creatures of their caliber simply couldn’t be killed in such a short amount of time. Although the current battle had been raging for the better part of the night, this duration meant absolutely nothing when measured against the stamina, regeneration, and endurance of a peak Level 15 Demon. In a confrontation between equals, they could sustain a battle for a full day and night—or even longer without external interference.

In other words, the difficulty of defeating a creature of their level and the difficulty of actually killing one were leagues apart. Its current battle was the perfect example: even though its strength was significantly greater than Monroe’s, it still hadn’t achieved a crushing advantage. Once they reached Level 15, both Demons and humans possessed formidable life-saving methods, making it extremely difficult to quickly translate a power advantage into a lethal blow.

Up until this very moment, the Rot-Winged Dragon Bat, Aleks, found it hard to believe that Snaz was truly dead.

“Looks like that goblin companion of yours has been killed by our people.”

But opposite the beast, Monroe—who was currently coating his palms in Holy Light to swat away the venomous bats—wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip by.

However frustrated Aleks felt in this moment, Monroe felt an equal surge of exhilaration. The irritation of being constantly suppressed by the Rot-Winged Dragon Bat seemed to vanish into thin air. The rest of the sprawling city wall was already like rotting wood eaten away by termites, riddled with dozens of breaches large and small. Yet at this moment, with Gauss claiming victory in the apex battle, none of those breaches mattered anymore.