Most ordinary attuned relied on their on to act as a focus. But some with more financial support could afford the very expeerials required to have the focus tattooed onto their body. Elves were the only humanoid exception to this because they were one of the very few races capable of casting spells without a focus. The others all being magical beasts.

  In fact, innate spellcasting was an elf’s definiure. Any humanoid race with the innate ability to el mana is mutated by it to bee simir in appearance, creating a new breed of elf. This was the in of the myth that elves were once human in the distant past. The myth was debunked by the existence of Grandmagus. Individuals that could cast magic without a focus who are not elves.

  The nameless goblin crossed the arena sand at a leisurely jog. He was only half the height of the human in heavy armour with mana tattoos. Anyone in their right mind would flee when faced with an attuned warrior, but the nameless goblin was uurbed as he recalled his lessons on are focus history. He was limited by his small goblin body. He couldn’t access his raw and untapped mana reserves ying dormant like a sleeping dragon.

  All of his knowledge and experien attu was useless without a foana tattoos. He would o rely on his peerless sword skills to ter the mana amplification. Using only his meagre goblin strength to overwhelm the superior human physique. The nameless goblin yawned as he he first veteran.

  The man noticed his approach at the st minute. He had been keeping a close wat the phantom cat stalking the goblin mage. It had bee uain areated until its back was against the magie. It was a standoff between man, goblin, and phantom cat as they all eyed each other warily. None were willing to make the first move. The veteran turo face the nameless goblin, he smiled in ptuous amusement at his approach.

  “Haha, you little goat-fucker. Do you think that you win this fight?” the man mocked.

  “Goat-fucker? That’s a new one, but I like it. I’ll have you know that I’d stand here a you kill me if I ever even sidered fug a goat. Now, stop fug around and raise your sword,” the nameless goblin replied indifferently.

  The man ughed at his response, obediently raising his sword as he dropped into a bat stahe nameless gobli a tingle on the back of his neck. The veteran wasn’t reckless. He took the nameless goblin seriously as he elled mana into his sword to sharpen the bde.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got that makes you so fident. e,” The man said as he beed with one hand before taking a double-handed grip on the hilt.

  The nameless goblin grinned as he began to circle toward the outside of the man’s stance, away from his dominant hand. He was twirling his crude iron shortsword as he sauntered closer. The man adjusted his stao follow his movement. Suddenly he luoward the goblin as it advanced within attack range. He overextended his weight to lean down to swing at the shoblin. That was a mistake. It arent that the man was unfamiliar with fighting smaller oppos. The man’s bde moved with superhuman speed. But it was too easy for the nameless goblin to anticipate his target.

  He took a half-step while shifting his weight onto his rear foot, lifting his slightly. The bde missed its target by less than a finger width. The man’s eyes widened in surprise, quickly ging to horror as momentum carried his bde too far to recover his defen time. The nameless goblin stepped behind the man to strike at the back of his armoured khe man was forced into a kneeling position with his arms exteo prevent himself from nding face-first.

  The nameless goblin’s eyes narrowed as his expression became tight. He took no pleasure in killing men. His crude iron short sword fshed in a fluid motion. The man’s face tained a mix of emotions, fear, shock, and denial, as it tumbled through the air to nd on the sand before rolling to a stop. The crowd was stunned silent. Only the master could be heard in the distance screaming orders at his guardsmen from somewhere outside the stands.

  The man’s headless corpse colpsed into the sand with a thud. Blood raying in a rge arc around the wound as the heart tio beat. There wasn’t even a drop of blood on the nameless goblin after he executed the first attuned veteraossed aside the crude short sword and repced it with the man’s superior quality steel hand-and-a-half sword.

  He didn’t know how to fight against a goblin. Well, few do. Killing goblins is usually as simple as butchering chis. They only bee an issue when there’s a swarm of the fuckers. His sword is better than mi’s only a bastard sword, but it feels like a cymore in parison to my small stature. It’s been a long time since I’ve used this style, about two hundred years or so. This should be iing.

  Too bad that it’s not a focus, I wouldn’t even have to worry about that annoying barrier if I could harness my mana. Not that a human focus would work for me, mind you. But a goblin dream, ’t he? Whatever those hags did when they cursed me, they magnified my mana reserves expoially. Welp, I better go save that little goat-fucker if I want to have any holding that elf hostage.

  The nameless goblin sighed as he slung the bastard sword up to rest the ft of the bde on his shoulder. He started to walk toward the goblin mage standing off against the remaining attuned warrior and the phantom cat. The reddish-brown goblin’s expression became filled with relief as he tried to plead with his eyes.

  “Stop givihose puppy eyes. I’m not doing this out of goodwill. The only good goblin is a dead goblin,” the nameless goblin said while pig his h a cwed finger.

  “B-but aren’t you a goblin?” a spectator asked from the stands.

  The nameless goblin paused his pig, removing his finger and flig away its tents in disgust. He hesitated as he processed what they had said.

  “ht. Sometimes I fet. It still applies though. Because I am very, very bad,” the nameless goblin responded with an evil grin.

  He hefted the bastard sword as a predatleam entered his eyes. The sed attuned finally took notice of him and cursed after seeing the decapitated corpse of his panion. The phantom cat was edging away slowly while trying to avoid his attention. The goblin mage had a grudge against the feline and chose this moment to exact revehe are runes shimmered with mana as it prepared to cast a spell.

  The phantom cat hissed with its hackles raised and lithely jumped atop the transport cart. It panicked after realizing that it had made itself an easier target. The cage with the phantom cat still on top of it was encased in fire. The nameless goblin could feel the heat as he scratched the back of his neck. The fmes ended as the goblin mage colpsed in exhaustion. The iron tticework of the transport cart glowed red-hot as the st of straw is fmes died out.