What stood in front of him was supposed to be an abandoned small town.
The buildings were dilapidated. Windows were broken. Doors were barely hanging on their hinges.
Most of the brick and concrete structures remained intact, but even some of them were damaged.
No sound of people was heard even in the supposedly busy afternoon.
It was indeed an abandoned village. And there weren't any people there.
However, there were other creatures.
Ash had only heard and seen them in videos and pictures on the internet.
This was his first time ever seeing such creatures with his own eyes.
Well, it wasn't really his first time.
"So this is where those annoying idiots came from."
Ash stood about a hundred meters away from an abandoned village filled with goblins.
Yes. Goblins. Those creatures Ash had learnt to spawn on Earth after the Ascension Event.
The appearance of magic and powers on Earth also brought these short green creatures to Earth.
"Maybe this is what Earth's will meant when it said the Ascension Event was forcing Earth's evolution. These creatures weren't supposed to exist on Earth."
His journey from the Verdant Necropolis back to the city was quite uneventful.
Humans now live close to each other to protect themselves from the goblins and other mutated creatures of Earth.
The small towns without any proper defense were abandoned as the humans packed themselves inside well-protected cities.
So, Ash didn't see anything other than abandoned villages, empty streets, the occasional mutated animals, and of course, the goblins.
They had been attacking him on sight ever since he met his first ever goblin.
And it was starting to get on Ash's nerves about the number of goblins he had found in his short 3-hour walk.
"They clearly had pushed the native species of the land away from their natural habitat…
Who do they think they are? Suddenly appearing out of nowhere someday and started claiming the land as theirs?"
Ash had followed the trails of these goblins, and he finally found their home in this area.
An abandoned human village filled with goblins.
There were dozens, maybe more than a couple of hundred of them around and inside the village.
Some of them dragged animal carcasses inside the village, a few tended to the campfires, and others just lounged around inside the dilapidated buildings.
And Ash took personal offence at that.
"Come on, boys, let's do some pest control."
With his command, the group split apart.
Keen took to the sky, circling over the area, and started reporting the whole situation to Ash with his caws.
The three doppelganger brothers moved as one unit, charging straight to circle around the village.
Going to the other end of the village.
As for Ash himself, he began jogging.
"Come! Come! Your end has come to visit you first!"
His shout caught the attention of the goblins. Earning him tens of shrieks that resounded throughout the whole goblin village.
After the shrieks, came the charge.
Several groups of goblins rushed from the village.
Some brought spears, some brought bows, but most of them only brought clubs, crowbars, or any blunt weapons their hands could find.
Seeing their charge, Ash increased his speed.
From a casual jog to a full run.
His speed didn't max out once he started running, though.
The berserker thorn appeared from his skin and stabbed itself to Ash's thigh. His speed instantaneously doubled.
A single step of his feet crossed a 3-meter distance with ease.
But Ash wasn't satisfied yet.
His tier 2 berserk skill then activated.
His muscles swelled, his strength rose. Every step he took left a small crater on the neglected intercity roads.
Now, only a small distance separated Ash and the group of charging goblins.
With his current strength, Ash would only need three steps to cover them.
He wasn't afraid of the crash. A single weak punch from him was much more than enough to shatter a goblin's skull.
But there wasn't just a single goblin in front of him.
There was a literal small army of them.
But Ash also wasn't done with his preparations.
With a smile that never left his mouth, Ash activated the new skill he got from copying and adding the Verdant Flower to himself and upgrading it.
Titanroot vines bloomed from the flower in his chest.
Dozens of them shot outwards, twisted, and braided themselves into each other.
Covering every single part of Ash's body and wrapping it inside them.
Ash's titanroot vine armor came to life.
Ash grew several heads taller, now towering over the goblins that were only as tall as his thigh.
In the next moment, the crash came.
Arrows from the goblins flew and instantly got repelled by the titanroot vines.
Not leaving even a nick on their surfaces.
The spears aimed towards Ash snapped in two. And the hands holding them also suffered the same fate.
The fragile goblin bodies couldn't handle such force exerted on them.
With Ash just extending his feet forward in what could be called the laziest kick in existence, 7 goblins' souls were sent to the afterlife.
Another stomp with his other foot took more lives. A sweep of his extended hand incapacitated half a dozen of them.
Even the further ones weren't safe from him as thorns shot from the giant vine creature.
The thorns flew fast and exploded upon contact. Releasing acid that easily ate through the goblins' skins and melted their bones.
In just a short exchange no longer than 10 seconds, a couple dozens of goblins were turned to mush.
Even the crazed creature that said to know no fear had the expression ingrained in their hearts now.
The remaining goblins who were slow enough not to get exterminated by Ash in the first 10 seconds stopped their charge.
They ignored all the shrieks that called them to fight.
They weren't scared of dying.
But knowing anything they did was bound to be useless in front of this creature, they refused to fight.
They began scrambling. Stumbling upon each other.
Releasing their own shrieks to warn their comrades of the unstoppable force of nature that had decided to visit them.
A strangely tall and bulky goblin jumped out of the village.
It saw the strange giant creature, roared, and jumped once more.
Its fist was loaded, putting every ounce of strength it had into the attack to the viney creature's head.
The viney creature saw the large goblin, recognized the form it had as an attack, and decided to generously return it.
The viney creature raised its two fingers, folded the rest, and thrust it to the large goblin that was as tall as its chest.
When the two clashed, there wasn't anything to see.
The braided vines that looked like two large fingers just shot forward, left a large hole in the huge goblin's head, and that's it.
All sounds left the large goblin's body. No more shrieks, no more screams, and no more breathing.
It just lay on the ground motionlessly.
And that was the trigger.
Every single one, even the newborn goblins, all fled the vicinity.
Not a single one of them dared to exist in the eyes of the murderous vine creature.