Classifying the handsome man versus the goblin as a fight felt morally wrong. The scene could only be described as some international humanitarian war law was definitely being violated.
The handsome man had defeated the goblin alone with nothing but his fists. Axel hadn't been watching the entire fight, but those who did looked at the handsome man not in awe, but in fear. Green blood oozed from the goblin and stained the face and clothes of the handsome man.
The goblin's skull had long yet shattered, and its brains leaked out, but the man continued to punch and pulverize its body with his bare fists. The goblin's fingers and legs violently twitched.
Still, over and over, the handsome man threw punches with a determined look on his face.
Finally, the blond man stood up, drenched in the green blood of the goblin, and slicked back his long hair. He began to walk away from the goblin, finally signaling the end of his rampage, only to stop and retrieve its sword.
He swiftly spun around and ran the blade through the goblin's chest, using it to pick up the goblin and throw it to the ground, where he then decapitated it.
After that display, nobody there dared to speak a word. Those who'd been screaming the entire time stopped. Some pissed their pants and fell. Others began violently vomiting.
Though some still tended to him, most attention that fell on Axel's savior was now utterly directed at this blond maniac.
The blond man held up the decapitated head and smiled.
"I killed it!"
'No shit, Sherlock!'
The handsome man paused for a moment before turning around and examining the body of the goblin. Then, he dug his hand into its chest and pulled out something shiny. He examined it for a second before looking up to assess everyone's reaction.
He cocked his head to the side in a sort of confusion, then, after a couple of seconds, he cleared his throat and said:
"Ahem. Listen all! I know that I know nothing more than any of you, but I will make this plea nonetheless! I know you just witnessed that scary sight, but I can assure you I only took that extreme measure because of this bizarre situation! It may not seem like it, but I'm as scared and uncertain as the rest of you! We have no idea what will happen to us if we fail this trial, but I assure you, it won't be desirable. My name is Lucas Hajek, and I'm going to make an earnest plea. Please follow my lead, and we'll make it out alive. I know it's a tall ask when we've just been thrust into this unexplainable situation, but with a thirty-day time limit, we have no time to waste on a power struggle!!"
He was still parading the severed head in one hand and the shiny stone in the other.
With this corny statement, he raised the goblin's head higher. It seemed like he expected people to start cheering or something. When nobody moved, he threw the goblin's head over his shoulder, shrugged, and continued:
"Everyone, line up!"
Green goblin blood spurted from his mouth as he spoke. Only a few listened at first before he repeated himself, and people started to actually listen to the handsome, crazy man. The only three who didn't were Axel, the kind man, and Maks, who was tending to the kind man.
"You two can tend to him, but listen closely."
With that, Lucas turned to the group and counted them aloud, eventually stopping at 50. He spoke his first order of many:
"It seems fifty of us were summoned! For now, I think we should designate this area as a base while we figure out our plan of operation."
Lucas raised the short sword for a moment. He spoke in complete seriousness:
"We were given no weapons to slay this so-called goblin king. Our immediate goal should be to arm ourselves. However, having a weapon will mean nothing if we're all crawling, unable to use it due to dehydration and starvation. We must first scout the land and obtain rations. For tonight, scouting the land will take higher priority as blindly looking for food is just blatantly relying on luck to survive. I plan to divide us into groups, allowing us to scout as much of the area as possible. Finding a water source, a food source, and enemy locations will be the priority. Keep in mind, finding, not gathering."
Lucas deftly began to pace back and forth while flipping the shining stone in his hand.
"You, nor the person next to you, can be replaced. If you encounter an enemy, do not engage with them and do whatever you can to avoid them. If it comes down to it, run with all your heart. I do not care how much of an advantage you may find yourself in. Run."
Lucas stopped in the exact middle of the line.
"While it's not the main focus, it would be a great boon to us if we got to eat tonight, so I will dedicate a group in charge of obtaining food—in other words, a group focused on gathering. This group may come back with nothing, but with enough luck and skill, we might even eat meat tonight. With that said, those who are adept at hunting or foraging step forward."
For an entire minute, everyone stood stock still, causing an unbearable silence. It was already a miracle anyone was listening to him. It was unnatural how fast he was adjusting to this situation. Did he not realize how strange it was for him to be this calm and put together?
While from a pragmatic perspective, order and a leader were a good idea, but this was too fast. Most people here hadn't calmed down at all. The people here, Axel included, needed more time to process this whole situation.
Some seemed only to be listening because they couldn't form a thought on their own, while others just followed the herd. It was also entirely possible people could think he was suspicious, an agent of the angelic being, given how nonchalant he was acting about the kidnapping and mysterious floating entity.
But, in the end, nobody stood forward in complaint or stepped out of line.
Surprisingly, a young girl with silky brown hair tied tight in a ponytail who looked no older than eighteen raised her hand in response to Lucas's question.
"Eh.. ehm… My grandpa took me hunting sometimes"
"What's your name?"
"J… Julia, Julia Dove."
"Good. Julia is in charge of hunting and foraging for food. I will entrust you with this."
He held out the sword. At first, she seemed confused, but growing impatient, Lucas shoved the sword into her hand.
"You, you, you… you… and you, help her," Lucas barked orders while pointing at different people. "Everyone else, I will assign you to scouting groups," he calmly added while looking at the rest of us.
While Axel could speculate, he hadn't a clue how everyone else felt about this. Nothing good would happen if he raised a fuss, though. Lucas seemed competent despite his somewhat irrational behavior.
Lucas divided the remaining thirty-four of them into four groups, placing himself in one of the scouting groups as well. They ended up with two groups of eight and two groups of nine dedicated to scouting.
The two groups only had eight due to my savior being injured, and another man, Maks, who had been tasked with protecting the kind man.
Axel slightly questioned only stationing one man to defend the injured, but decided not to raise a fuss because challenging him would've been foolish and only sewn discord.
And, it was unlikely that if another goblin appeared, someone would fight it off. So, Axel left it up to fate and entrusted his savior to Maks
And… if his savior did die. Then he'd just prove himself to be like all the rest, but at least he would ease Axel's mind for a little.
Lucas, after sorting everyone ou,t barked one last order:
"You've been given your directions. Don't forget, unless tasked to, only scout, do not gather. Any extra gathering can be done once we know the lay of the land. Do your best not to engage in combat—It should be beyond just a last resort to fight. Know that if you fight and win, you will not be commemorated upon your return but will be heavily scolded. Now that that's over with…"
Lucas tossed the stone high in the air and caught it.
"...Any ideas on what this could be?"