Twilight Bridge: Immersion (Volume 1)

Chapter 12: Endured Pain

The girl would be sold, Jaden thought. They intended to kidnap Renee back to the Realm of Darkness and sell her as a good!
If this continued without us doing anything, Eugene and I would likely be killed, but the fate that awaited Renee would be even crueller!
Jaden couldn't just give up and let it become a part of simulation. She, like me, is a human— and just a 15-year-old girl at that. In that case, what I should do—
"There's only one choice." Jaden muttered. Beside him, the frozen body of Eugene moved at last. They had to save Renee no matter what.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. The difference in battle strength was too great.
While the 30 goblins were all equipped with machetes and armor equipment, Jaden and Eugene didn't even have a stick in hand. But even so, they had to go. What led to this situation were his careless words in the first place.
"Eugene." Jaden stared in front and quickly whispered. "Listen up. We're going to save Renee. Don't move."
"Got it..." the recently dropped Eugene replied.
Jaden immediately heard the response. Just as what he expected, the heart within him was rather strong.
"I'll count to three, and then we'll knock down those four at the front to break through them. Our sizes are different, and we'll definitely succeed if we're not scared. I'll take the left, you take the right." Jaden explained. "Don't throw away the lit grass. Once the flames are out, pick up a sword from the ground and cover my back. Don't think of trying to beat them. I'll use this chance to deal with the big one."

"...I've never swung a sword before." Eugene stuttered in fear.

"It's just like the axe. Let's go..." Jaden readied  "one, two, three!"
They were on ice, but Eugene and Jaden didn't slip as they ran at the fastest speed they could muster. They kept praying that this luck would continue till the end, and Jaden roared out from the bottom of his abdomen.
"UWOOOOHHHH!!!"

Eugene was slower by a bit as he shouted "WAAAAAHHHH!!!" It sounded like a scream, but it did seem to be effective as the 4 goblins widened their yellowish-green eyes.
However, they probably weren't stunned by the shouts, but by the fact that the Ium brats lunged at them.

Jaden grabbed dust, and threw some to the eyes of few goblins. He then noticed some weapons laying inside a barrel. Jaden stretched his hands, and grabbed two swords. He tossed one to Eugene. "Just don't let 'em get close!" Jaden yelled.

Eugene reluctantly took the sword, and stepped further back.
"Ja...Jaden!?"
"I'll take 'em down." Jaden replied as his UI displayed.
        

  ...Initiate Battle Mode...

A group of goblins charged against him, but Jaden successfully dodged them as he delivered multiple hits. The goblins then tried circling around Jaden, attacking from every direction. Jaden, on the other hand, used [Arial Dash] and knocked most of them down.

Meanwhile, Eugene was struggling with another group of hungry goblins. They were surrounding him as his body was barely holding itself together. One goblin raised his machete, but stopped halfway as Eugene pushed his illuminating plant towards him. The goblin retreated, and looked very irritated.
Oh, does this light bothers them?, Eugene thought.
Eugene then, kept waving his lit plant to break the goblins away, so he can reach Renee.
Another group of goblins were charging towards Jaden. He stood for a second, and rushed towards them. "[Ground Swift]!!" Jaden yelled.
His sword slashed through each goblin coming his direction. One after the other, the goblins kept collapsing, and their leader wasn't at all happy.
"GURAAH! YOU LUM BRAT...YOU DARE TO TAKE ON THIS «LIZARD KILLER UGACHI»!?"
The leader glared at Jaden with one eye and closed in on him as it roared, drawing the large machete at its waist with its right hand. The pitch black blade had blood that seemed to show signs of rust on it, giving an abnormal pressure.
"NO! I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE YOU ON!" Jaden rose his blade. "I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU!"
He shouted, partly directed at the leader and partly directed at himself as Jaden immediately dashed through the remaining distance.
His left foot took a large step forward, using the sword to slash down at the left shoulder of enemy diagonally.
The goblin leader's reaction was a lot faster than what he had imagined. It ignored his attack pattern and swung its machete horizontally.
Jaden kept his body down and barely managed to dodge it. He felt that his some of his hair touched it since it felt like they were ripped off.
His sword hit home, but only shattered the metallic shoulder armor.
Jaden would have been overwhelmed by force if he stopped. He kept his center of gravity low and moved beside the enemy, aiming for the opened flank of the abdomen before swinging a horizontal attack. This time was the same as well.