It took him three more days after that initial battle, but Rick managed to complete his task. Every bit of essence required to evolve to Tier Seven was now finally gathered and absorbed.

  ‘Show me my status Velora. I need to see it.’

  [Understood.]

  {Status}

  {Name – Rick}

  {Age – 22}

  {Race – Goblin King}

  {Tier – Six}

  {Strength – 470}

  {Agility – 290}

  {Dexterity – 295}

  {Intelligence – 170}

  {Endurance – 400}

  {Mana Pool – 800/1800}

  {Essence – 0}

  {Evo Points – 90,720/90,720} Evolve?

  {Skills}

  {Velora}

  {Ruknar}

  {Will of the King}

  {Khaal’drez}

  ‘Finally…Finally. We can go home now…’

  [Yes, and I advise you to hurry. We have spent far too long here. Based on the reports that were available when we left, the war should have long since began by now.]

  ‘I know. Trust me.’

  “Commander Meegra. We are leaving.”

  “Yes, My King.”

  Meegra and Rick didn’t waste anytime after that and immediately began sprinting back to Goblin controlled lands. Of course, because they were now throwing caution to the wind, they picked up a lot of attention from all manner of beasts seeking them.

  But there was no time for fighting or anything of the sort. Rick and Meegra simply ran with all they had, and at their level of strength? That was blistering compared to what was chasing them.

  And since they were not holding anything back, the time that it took for them to reach Goblin controlled lands, versus the time it took to reach as far as they did, was only one day.

  One full day of sprinting was all it took for them to make the journey back. Once they neared one of the fronts, they had no choice but to skirt around thousands of enemies at that point, but they were weak and posed no threat.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Especially not when the Goblins that remained on the front noticed who it was that was rapidly approaching from behind the ranks of enemies.

  “THE KING!!! THE KING HAS RESTURNED TO US.”

  Loud shouts went up all around the front as Rick quickly made his way past the enemies and behind lines of safety.

  “Protect me.”

  That was all he said to no in particular before quickly accepting the prompt to evolve and beginning his evolution to Tier Seven right then and there. Rick would’ve loved to run all the way back to his house and complete the evolution there, but he saw the state of front.

  The number of Goblins that should be guarding it was lower than it probably should have been. Far too low. There also wasn’t a single Tier Six Goblin on the front at all. To make matters worse, Rick couldn’t even sense the presence of a Chief in the area.

  He took solace in the fact that the front was still being guarded in the first place, but he realized this was no time to worry about evolving in any type of comfort. The situation was clearly not favorable and every second wasted is a second in which the situation could become even more unfavorable. There was also the fact that he had no idea just how long this evolution was going to take so there was time to waste.

  Meegra noticed the situation as well, but she had no choice but to have one of the Goblins around her send word to, well to wherever the Royal Guards were. She didn’t the full scope of everything that was going on, but the fact of the matter is Rick could never be allowed to die.

  As long as he was alive the Goblins would rise again. As long as he was allowed to grow, then everything would be alright. So, she stood fast around the unmoving body of the King, as work quickly spread throughout the 14 Goblin Clans that Rick had not only returned, but he had begun his evolution to the Seventh Tier.

  What Rick and Meegra didn’t know was how badly the news of the return of Rick was needed. The situation at the front was barely a glance at the reality of the state of the war at the moment.

  To understand, one would have to go back a number of days. Back to when Rick had just reached valley with Commander Meegra. On the day the GES finally entered Goblin lands in full, and the war was properly kicked off.

  …

  On that very same day as riders, knights, Demi-humans, martial artists, and powerful beings poured into the forest…

  “Forward! It is time for these creatures to learn their place in this world! Do not doubt your actions for even a second! It is their crime for daring to rise above their station! The King of Verdan has given us a task, and the Knights of Verdan will accomplish it!”

  “OHHH!!”

  The Knight Commanders of every group gave their own speeches and their Knights responded in kind as they all marched on to defeat their enemies.

  It wasn’t just them either, from the riders of North Balarian, to the Wood Elves of Liasante, everyone had their own little battle cries that they screamed out. Of course this was a war, so almost every single action had meaning to it.

  All of these battle cries served multiple meanings.

  To motivate the troops that did them whilst also intimidating the enemy that they were about to face. This was also something that the Goblins understood, so a series of ‘For the King’ cries were bellowed out as they prepared to meet the advance of the enemy.

  But the Goblins didn’t immediately charge out just yet. At least not all of them.

  Two of the Chiefs did though.

  Chiefess Jluug and Chief Grul. With the Chiefess holding a deadly command over water and the Chief being the only one who could command darkness, both of them together could inflict massive amounts of damage and a wide scale with relative ease.

  Chiefess Jluug in particular was gathering mana from the second the reports came that troops were marching towards them. There was no need to wait for any buildup, nor was there any need to wait for the enemy to come to them.

  From seemingly nothing, an entire lakes worth of water just appeared in the skies above the encroaching army. The amount of water wasn’t anything to sneeze at especially when Chiefess Jluug had no intentions of just dropping it from such a height.

  While the opposing Tier Sevens were still quickly preparing their own countermeasures, Chiefess Jluug commanded the entire body of water to crash into the army and at the exact same time Chief Grul made his move and the entire battlefield descended into darkness.

  If there was a rule that the strongest of each force had to wait until a certain point of battle was reached before they acted, the Goblins didn’t care for it.

  The opening act would be theirs.