Surprisingly, it took them over an hour of walking to reach the east side of the sanctuary. As they walked, they could spot less and less prisoners, and soon, they could see the leaves on the trees becoming yellow. Xavier started to realize just how strange this forest was, as each section had different types of trees and he was guessing the south was the same. Mickey's vigilance increased as soon as they entered the forest full of yellow trees, as held his sword in hand and scanned every bush and behind every tree with his eyes.
After fifteen more minutes, his vigilance proved warranted as ugly, short humanoid creature jumped out. The monster was around the same size as a child and wore a dirty loin cloth while carrying a rusty knife. Before the monster could even land, Mickey appeared infront of Maria and swung his sword, slashing the creature's neck and spilling light green blood everywhere. Now that their sneak attack didn't work, the five other goblins hiding in the bushes showed themselves, and surrounded the three humans.
'They don't seem like that much of a challenge, but...she might have a hard time.' Xavier thought as he took out his daggers and looked at Maria, whose hands were trembling as she held her sword. Xavier sighed before lunging at one of the goblins, who swung it's rusty sword, but Xavier easily dodged and slashed it's neck with the dagger. Unlike the imps, it only took seconds for the goblin to die after it's throat was slashed. Xavier grinned and lunged towards another, easily deflecting it's attacks, before stabbing it in the chest.
As he finished the second goblin, he observed the other two fighting. Mickey was fighting against one of them, and although he wasn't struggling, he didn't seem to have the upper hand, making Xavier feel a little disappointed.
'No, I shouldn't be thinking like that. The reason I'm able to hold my own is because my agility attribute is so high. His and the goblin's seems to be around the same.' Xavier thought and then turned towards Maria, who as expected, was struggling. She was barely deflecting the goblin's attack while being pushed back and she had a terrified look on her face. As she was focused on defending herself from a single goblin, another sneaked behind her without her noticing.
*Whooosh*
"Argghh." The goblin screamed as the dagger pierced it's skull and Maria turned around in surprise to see the dagger sticking out of the monster'a head.
"Don't take your eyes off the person you are fighting, or in this case, the thing you are fighting. But at the same time, be aware of your surrounding." Xavier said as he killed the last goblin and Maria looked at him in surprise.
"T-thanks." Maria said
"Don't thank me, do better next time." Xavier said harshly and she held down her head in shame. Xavier looked over at Mickey who finished killing his goblin, and turned around, only to see the rest of them dead.
"Y-you killed all of them?" Mickey asked in surprise and Xavier nodded his head.
"Let's collect the monster stones and move on, we still have eighteen more of these guys to kill. Hopefully, there is no one else on this side of the gate." Xavier said and started butchering the monsters. The other two started doing the same, and within ten minutes, they were on the move again.
"Maria, if you don't mind me asking, what did you do to land yourself in prison? You don't seem like the typical prisoner." Mickey asked, surprising both Xavier and Maria. Maria suddenly had a sad expression on her face and held her head down.
"I got landed in here for participating in illegal underground fighting. I needed to make some extra cash for my family, and since every single job I could get paid pretty much nothing, I decided to try my luck in the arena. I earned quite a bit of cash, until the cops found the underground arena and busted us." Mickey confessed, and Xavier looked at him.
"I've been to a few arenas before, but they were too bloody for my taste." Xavier commented and Mickey looked at him skeptically. His prison uniform was covered in blue stains, tears and fresh goblin blood, which didn't help his case. Just then, Maria started sobbing uncontrollably, catching both of their attention.
"I didn't do anything, it was sir...that rich asshole. My mother works for the Johnson family, and that rich bastard tried said he wanted me and I refused. He gripped my hand, a-and tried to...so I scratched him across his face with my nails. He told everyone I tried to kill him and he got me arrested and thrown in prison." Maria sobbed uncontrollably as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, but they kept flowing.
"I find that hard to believe. A guy loaded with money made an advance on you, and you said no. Your life would have been pretty much secured if you had sucked it up and said yes." Xavier said casually and Mickey glared at him.
"HE WAS FAT AND UGLY, AND FUCK YOU!!!" Maria shouted while crying even more.