My Goblin System : Levelling up with my SSS Class Devouring skill-Chapter 325

He spread his arms wide in a theatrical gesture, and his forty fighters stepped forward from concealment in synchronized precision, weapons drawn and ready.

"And you’ve walked right into my trap! You actually came to kill me, walked straight into a prepared ambush with overwhelming force, gave me exactly what I wanted without me even having to hunt you down! How... perfect."

Satou stepped out of the shadows fully, letting his hood fall back. His dragoblin features became clearly visible—scaled skin glinting in the candlelight, sharp teeth showing as he spoke, eyes glowing with that predatory intelligence that marked him as far more than a simple monster. He stood at his full height, showing no fear despite being outnumbered forty-to-one, his body language projecting confidence and deadly intent.

"You think this is a trap?" Satou’s voice was calm, controlled, the absolute opposite of Richard’s emotional outburst. "I beat you once already, had my blade at your throat, and the only reason you survived was Chronus’s interference at the last possible second."

He let that sink in for a moment.

"So tell me, what makes you think forty hired swords will change the fundamental reality that you’re not good enough to beat me? You think numbers matter when I’ve already proven I’m faster, stronger, and more skilled than you are? All you’ve done is guarantee that when I kill you this time, there will be forty witnesses to watch you die."

Richard’s face flushed with rage at the casual dismissal of his preparations. "Because I’m not the same as I was before!" he shouted, and temporal magic flared around him like visible heat distortion, far more powerful than what Satou remembered from their previous fight.

The air itself seemed to ripple and warp, time bending in Richard’s immediate vicinity. The candles on nearby tables flickered as temporal distortion affected the flames. Dust motes caught in the effect moved at different speeds—some accelerated, some slowed, some seeming to freeze in mid-air.

"After our fight, after my humiliation before Chronus and the other demon lords, I worked to strengthen our connection." Richard’s temporal magic intensified further, and for a moment his form seemed to flicker between multiple positions simultaneously as time distortion affected even his physical presence. "To make me more powerful. To ensure I would NEVER lose to an upstart monster again. To guarantee that the next time we fought, the outcome would be very, very different."

He demonstrated, moving his hand in a simple gesture that should have been slow and easy to track. But with temporal acceleration active, the movement became a blur, his hand appearing in a dozen positions at once as he manipulated his personal time flow to move far faster than should be possible.

"I’m faster now than I was before." Richard’s voice seemed to come from multiple positions at once, temporal distortion affecting sound as well as sight. "My time dilation ability has been enhanced—I can now move at quadruple normal speed instead of triple. My temporal perception has been refined—I can see further into potential futures, predict attacks with even greater accuracy. My age acceleration can now affect larger areas and work faster. My chrono-shield is stronger and can be maintained for longer periods."

He gestured to his forty fighters, and they moved into more aggressive positions with military precision.

"And I’m not alone. These aren’t common soldiers or mercenary rabble. They’re the Second Seat’s elite hunters—warriors and mages chosen specifically because their abilities counter shadow magic and the kinds of techniques you’ve demonstrated. They’ve studied recordings of our previous fight. They’ve analyzed your movement patterns. They’ve prepared countermeasures for every technique you showed."

Richard’s smile returned, colder and more predatory than before.

"So Goblin. Try to fight me again. Try to use your shadow tricks and your surprising speed and your accumulated abilities from whatever creatures you’ve devoured. It doesn’t matter. Tonight is different than our last encounter. Tonight, you die. And when I present your corpse to Chronus, when I show him that I’ve killed the creature who humiliated us both, my honor will finally be restored. The other demon lords will see that the Second Seat is still worthy of respect. And I will have my revenge for months of shame and mockery."

His sword came up into a perfect combat stance, centuries of martial training evident in the positioning.

"Just you and me, goblin. A proper duel to the death, witnessed by these forty warriors who will testify to your defeat. No escape this time. No last-second rescue. Just combat, and death, and the restoration of my honor through your blood."

Satou regarded Richard calmly, his tactical mind processing everything he’d just learned. Richard was stronger—significantly so. The temporal magic enhancement was immediately obvious, and if his other abilities had been improved proportionally, this fight would indeed be more difficult than their previous encounter.

But Satou wasn’t the same either. He’d spent months training specifically for this rematch, refining every ability, eliminating every weakness he’d shown in their first fight, adding new capabilities to his arsenal. The dragoblin who’d fought Richard before had been improvising, using half-understood abilities in combat for the first time. The dragoblin standing here now was a refined weapon, every technique practiced to perfection, every ability pushed to its absolute limit.

More than that, Satou had already beaten Richard once. He knew Richard’s fighting style, knew his patterns, knew how temporal magic worked in combat. Familiarity was an advantage that cut both ways—Richard might have studied Satou’s techniques, but Satou had direct experience fighting temporal manipulation and had developed specific counters.

"We’ll see about that," Satou said quietly, his Shadow Blade manifesting in his hand with a thought.

And then everything exploded into motion.

Richard moved first, his enhanced temporal acceleration making him blur with speed that far exceeded what Satou remembered from their previous encounter. One moment he was fifteen feet away in a ready stance, the next he was crossing the intervening distance in a movement too fast for normal eyes to track, his temporal sword cutting toward Satou’s neck.