[ Your soldier ( Winston ) is evolving! ]
Rowan received a notification the moment the new sensation bombarded the body of Winston.
The battlefield was still pretty hot, and the others failed to notice his condition in time, except Rowan and of course, Bryce, who had been keeping an eye on him while he fought, marveling at his exceptional sword skill that surpassed the others.
"Winston!" Bryce called out while hurling away the goblin he was dealing with.
The helpless goblin collided against a nearby tree and bled profusely. One of the new soldiers took the opportunity and landed the finishing blow, slaying the goblin.
Bryce, on the other hand, began storming his way toward Winston.
Winston was still lying on the ground while his body twisted in silent pain. His reaction was akin to one reacting to severe burns and active mental trauma at the same time! His eyes were tightly shut, his fist clenched, and his body tensed; his body perspired unnaturally and soaked his clothes.
The sword with which he slew the goblins lay unmanned beside him, rendering him defenseless and open to all sorts of harm.
Close to him — some of the goblins who formerly dreaded him while he fought, began approaching him maliciously and cautiously after noticing his helpless condition.
The goblins exchanged looks with one another as if communicating their next steps. Goblins are naturally cunning and they are aware of how cunning humans also are; also, after witnessing Winston's prowess it would be pretty stupid to approach without caution.
Rowan noted the goblins' reactions from the sideline.
[ 'Why aren't you helping Winston? He is going to die.' ]
Blaze who was standing beside Rowan turned to him and asked after witnessing Rowan's nonchalant reaction to the current situation.
Rowan shook his head and pointed at the battlefield, "Bryce is already taking care of it."
Blaze traced his eyes down to the direction Rowan pointed; he saw Bryce stomping his way over to Winston.
"I need Winston to slay the goblins around him and accumulate enough evolution points to evolve, I want to check something out." Rowan spoke out.
[ Your captain: Bryce slew 1 goblin and gained 30 evolution points ]
[ 10% of evolution points have been transferred to you ]
[ Your captain: Bryce slew 2 goblins and gained 75 evolution points ]
[ 10% of evolution points have been transferred to you ]
"You ugly goblins, step away before I grind your skulls!!" Bryce yelled furiously, startling the entire battlefield.
Both monsters and humans turned in his direction, including the goblins around Winston.
The goblins around Winston saw the cold look in Bryce's eyes directed at them and they could not help but shiver nervously.
Bryce ran faster and leaped when he came closer; he grabbed two dwarfed FF-rank goblins beside Winston who were too stunned to move and tossed them at the other two behind Winston.
"You shameless piece of ugly shits attacking, come at me if you have the balls!"
Bryce stormed the goblins one after the other and took care of them easily one by one till the six goblins who tried to sneak attack Winston were slaughtered.
Nevertheless, while he was taking care of the last one, a sharp sensation of pain greeted his body, causing his eyes to widen in horror as his body went numb by the second.
Bryce landed on the ground and began shivering uncontrollably from the pain, his eyes shut and his body tensed.
Rowan received the same notification as that of Winston, and the smile on his face brightened.
"Come with me, Blaze."
He told Blaze and then launched towards the location of his two best soldiers.
At this moment, all the soldiers around the two of them became confused by their condition.
They could easily tell that their two best comrades were going through intense pain, but they couldn't find any injuries on them, and they didn't even see them getting attacked by any of the goblins.
Indeed, they wouldn't believe that any of the goblins would be able to injure two of them, talk more of hurting them to such an extent.
"What is happening to them?" They could not help but whisper this question among themselves.
They saw Rowan and Blaze approaching and knew at once that something was wrong.
"Lord Rowan, what is happening?"
The nearby soldiers asked.
"They look really hurt? Are they going to be okay?"
Their worries were evident in their voices.
"Focus on your fights, they would be okay in a few minutes." Rowan washed away their worries for the short time with his reply.
Rowan and Blaze arrived beside the two of them.
Rowan activated his system and analyzed their conditions.
[ Bryce — Evolving... 7% ]
[ Condition: Temporary blindness, numbness, intense internal body heat, muscle strain.... ]
[ Winston — Evolving... 36% ]
[ Condition: Temporary blindness, numbness, intense internal body heat..... ]
'Exactly the same as what I experienced during my first evolution,' Rowan noted.
He gave a signal to Blaze.
Blaze nodded and grabbed the body of Bryce carefully and brought him out of the battlefield, while Rowan did the same for Winston.
They laid both of them down under a nice big tree faraway from the goblins' reach.
[ Bryce — Evolving... 21% ]
[ Winston — Evolving... 45% ]
The completion of their first evolution kept drawing nearer the more time passed.
Rowan's eyes remained fixed on them, observing their reactions.
He took his eyes off for awhile and also watched the battle which was closing to its end.
The goblins population had reduced to less than a hundred and the soldiers were still full of energy to battle another horde of at least two thousand goblins without getting tired.
As for Winston and Bryce, their evolution speed was getting faster, especially for Winston.
[ Bryce — Evolving... 39% ]
[ Winston — Evolving... 78% ]
Rowan noticed that the speed of Winston's evolution got faster after he hit the 50% point, it kept increasing rapidly afterwards, unlike that of Bryce which seems to be getting slower by the seconds.
Rowan also noticed that as the evolution got closer to completion, it seems to cause more pain to its target as he could see such in Winston's eyes which knotted together tightly while his muscles became even more tensed.
While this was ongoing, the last pair of goblins was slain by Captain Roland and Captain Josh.
Afterwards, both captains gave the orders to the soldiers to do the usual harvesting of monster cores while they went to meet Rowan and inquire about the current situation with their colleagues.
"What exactly is happening Lord Rowan, both of them reacting this way at the same time is not natural at all." Roland said when he arrived beside Rowan.
"They are in so much pain but there is not a single sign of injuries on them," Josh added.
"Yeah, I was surprised when Winston fell first and then Bryce tried to rescue him and also fell, it was too unreal to watch." George added.
The other captains also gave their various remarks, relaying their curiosity to Rowan.
"They are about to evolve!" Rowan gave a simple answer, resulting in surprised gasps from the captains.
"They have reached the threshold and would soon break past the limit of their body, they would be able to utilize strength and speed beyond the human limit."
Rowan explained further, even going as far to remind them of the war against Glenwood, reminding them of the day he broke through his own natural limit.
The more he explained, the wider the eyes of the captains became.
The other soldiers who were done harvesting monster cores came to submit what they had harvested and heard the happy news about their colleagues whom they were worried about.
They thought both of them were going to die but it was actually the opposite — they are getting stronger!
"This is good! But why are they in so much pain?" One of the soldiers asked curiously.
"Do you expect such a complex process to be easy and painless?" But Rowan replied his curiosity with a question.
The others considered it and nodded at once, agreeing voicelessly.
They all placed their attention on the body of their comrades with looks of anticipation plastered on their faces.
Rowan also returned his attention to the two, checking their evolution stats.
[ Bryce — Evolving... 49% ]
[ Winston — Evolving... 97% ]
Winston condition looked the same as it was few minutes ago — he was still going through so much pain. Bryce was the same.
[ Winston — Evolving.... 98% ]
[ Winston — Evolving.... 99% ]
[ Winston — Evolving.... 100% ]
DING
[ Your soldier ( Winston ) has evolved successfully ]
DING
[ Your soldier has awakened a new skill ] .
DING
[ You have unlocked achievement — Evolution Instructor ]
[ Your NOVICE RANKING has gone up by 100 for achievement ]