Our work done, the Khtraal riders looked on in fear as I inspected bodies to toss into my Inventory, dissecting those whose flesh was no longer suitable so Vamp could sate himself. Butcher and Beast, able to take down an overwhelming force generally considered to be the next most powerful after the chief, our nonchalance was death had them quaking in their boots.

I was also testing out my Level 5 ability, {Fear Aura}, that could have had something to do with it.

The distinction as to friendlies and hostiles piqued my interest most. In Underworld, a perk would be needed to keep it from affecting certain beings, making it directional, or a gaze attack, all those sorts of things didn't come with the basic {Fear Aura} ability.

Since my blood started to settle after leveling up, I could feel a new power within it alongside {Negative Energy}, though perhaps saying it rested in my soul would be more accurate. {Fear Aura}, the concentration of all the ills that inevitably gathered around a Necromancer, death, murderous intent, disease, betrayals, sorrow, and of course fear, among others. Since the Necromancer was a path that dealt heavily with the soul, these sorts of primal emotions could be gathered up by mere willpower.

Fluff aside, {Fear Aura} was a collection of many emotion-themed auras with diverse effects. At the lowest level, I could only ‘gather’ fear. The ability was quite weak in its starting stages, which was reflected in the real world as well. It wasn't so much gathering emotions of the dead, but rather willing others to experience what had been seen before. Due to this, even without obtaining the perk, I could both keep the ability on at all times and only target those I chose.

My ability seemed limited to only enacting within limits of my own belief though. Wishing fear upon the late warg patrol, they only became uneasy. I wasn't really feeling a great deal of malice towards them, just exasperation. So I could feel I had more potential within, but couldn't bring any more out at the moment.

Scared off by my [Fear Aura], Vamp and I took the time to recover. We couldn't run all the way to Yhrack and back and still be in condition to fight, instead we would rest up a bit before striking at the Uhkhjk forces. Just needing time, I collected up all the corpses and weapons, tossing Vamp the flesh from the bones I cleaned. Truly vampiric, his wounds closed the more he ate. Sufficiently prepared, we headed back south.

Unlike the warg riders, Vamp and I didn't need to work back to back, despite a seemingly endless horde. There may have been more goblins than ants, as they swarmed between the trees shouting and moving forward en masse. The battle must have been producing casualties in the hundreds every moment. I'd like to think I was a good portion of that number.

Having [Fear Aura] activated, the goblins were just too weak. Even if only a few points stat reduction, on the already pathetic goblins my mere presence was enough to reduce their vitality to 0. Using a combination of and a thin sword, anything that stepped near me was quickly dispatched.

The lack of a challenge bored me, unlike the time with Ross and Troy, {Fear Aura} abilities were crowd control. With my increases to Endurance, Strength, and Intelligence, I would need to be swarmed for much longer before even starting to become a little tired. Almost asleep at the wheel, wherever I stepped, goblins would fall. Vamp seemed to be going on a leisurely stroll as well, so we played a game of catch while fighting.

Shirt removed to try and preserve what I could, my skin was accumulating a layer of blood that slowly caked onto me. Being so bored in the middle of a battle, covered in blood, wishing for someone stronger to fight, I really was a battle junky then. Though it may seem dull, I wasn't challenged by any notable figures before the Uhkhjk were routed yet again.

Peering through the dense leaves above, it seemed we somehow finished the main course before mid-afternoon. The war wasn't over yet, Khtraal planned to march on Yhrack as soon as possible. Marching through the evening, the Khtraal and Iyrkraal would strike in the night, before the enemy had a chance to recover. I would be accompanying them as well, a wildcard counter against pretty much anything. Luckily they planned ahead, so I had notice to tell Rion to feed Ria. Mostly lucky for them, as it meant I could then bring a level of strength way beyond their usual mooks to fight.

The Khtraal didn't set out right away, instead going to scavenge the weapons from the battlefield. Lacking their own method of production, looting the enemy was the best way to obtain a better weapon. For some reason the Uhkhjk army looked armed to the teeth, more than half had weapons. Now that they were felled, that power went to the Khtraal, and once enough picked up a weapon, they would all march for Yhrack. In the meantime, I would do as the Romans and similarly went about looting bodies and looting bodies.

Eventually the density of goblins milling about with their weapons hit a critical point, all of a sudden the horde began to move. Vamp and I were still diligently harvesting the dead in our own ways, but decided we should move with the swarm. The goblins were pushing themselves to an irregular jogging gait, but it was a nice and easy pace compared to wargs. Invisible fields pushed cowering goblins away from us, and we ran to the front of the pack.

It was a thunderous tide behind us. Numbering ten thousand at least, judging the size of the endless waves wasn't easily done. Trampling and crashing, even the small footfalls once multiplied thousandfold shook the trees. Looking around every so often I would catch sight of a few wargs running about. They likely belonged to higher ups like Khtraal and his direct subordinates, because it seemed the Khtraal warg riders had yet to return. Strange, but I didn't make anything of it.

I should have though, because when we reached Yhrack at nightfall, a terrible scene awaited me. Among the Uhkhjk army, at least 40 warg riders were interspersed among them.

They were totally monopolizing all the kills! These guys only gave bite sized amounts of experience already, and they were hogging huge amounts for themselves! They couldn't even level up!

As soon as I spotted Ychk and his men off in the distance, traipsing through the Uhkhjk and cutting them down like stalks of wheat, I shot off. After this conflict, there probably wouldn't be many goblins I be able to killin good conscience. So I needed to get what I could, and put my all into mowing them down. Peeling ahead of the pack, my weapon set changed to dual wielded spears. With the distance [Fear Aura] gave me among goblins, enemies getting close was even less of a problem, and without the need for great power, I swept straight towards the heart of the hive leaving a long strand of OHKOs.

They may have been small fries but there were so many! Corpses, bodies, guts and giblets showered the battlefield. Rarely did I ever return to low level zones to pummel them, but the feeling was similar.

“*Look at you! You lot are nothing! You call yourself monsters, what are you monsters for ants? This one will show you power that can truly be called monstrous!*”

Looking at the trail left behind me, I boisterously laughed, and a goblin took the chance to stab at me. Feeling unstoppable, I decided to let it, and watch the reaction as I took the sword out of my chest and returned it with extra force.

“*Reach the apex? I am far beyond the apex! I have lifted myself further than any other, and I will continue to climb! All is beneath me!*”

Shouting until my voice grew hoarse, I ended up with only guttural yells like those of the goblins. Raspy laughs continued long into the night, as the ground became soaked in blood, and not a step could be taken without a foot squelching on the casualties. After an hour the fighting cooled down some, but Khtraal had been relentless in the assault. The order was to purge all Uhkhjk from the settlement. As for Chief Uhkhjk himself, it seemed after a short conflict with Khtraal he managed to escape. Even goblins can get nemeses and recurring villains too, huh?

Taking over Yhrack only a few hours after pushing the counterattack was rather impressive though, and as I understood it meant the game was essentially over between the two Chiefs. Politics would continue their slippery influence, as a reason why Yhrack fell so quickly was due to tKlor’t’t warg riders joining up to aid in the sacking. Previously unaligned in the conflict, it looked like Manyretch would be finding his way under Khtraal’s banner.

Finding me after battle, Khtraal practically waded through the bodies to come over once he saw me. There was no objection to my frankly greedy rate of acquisition, as it was impossible for the remaining wargs and goblins to consume all the bodies that were piled about. Still, taking away over a dozen bodies per minute was a frightening pace, as the lifeless goblins endlessly tumbled into a black hole before his eyes as we conversed.

“I am glad we were able to come to a deal Alric. Your assistance provided me a great deal of aid, whatever chikan I hunt will be offered to you. After dealing with the aftermath, your payment can be delivered. I will take two days of preparation and then deliver it to you.”

“Oh my, I really didn't do that much~” With a smile, another warg vanished. “But I accept the payment. Two days is before the first payment is great, but I do have to go on a trip some time, so don't delay. Be sure to gather mountains of chikans every day~”

“...” Khtraal furrowed his brow, looking concerned. “Did I use exaggeration incorrectly, or did you also respond in jest?” He asked slowly. I seemed to have undermined his confidence in using Derrish.

“No, your statement just sounds like a good plan to me. Bring me all the chikans you hunt, maybe not forever, just a few weeks would be fine. At the very least I'll need two chikans per goblin I killed. Making it around...hmm, how many?”

Remembering how much experience was needed for each level, and with goblins bottoming out at giving 5 exp. along with the sense of how much experience I had, I did some rough mental calculations. Maybe a bit over halfway to Level 7, that worked out to 500 or 600 experience. Plus the amount to fill up after reaching Level 6 from the warg riders would be another 500 experience points…

Wow, I scored a lot of kills. Hah, no wonder I was able to double level!

“So I need four hundred chikans at least. We can round to five hundred, that’s a good number.”

“Hkejk! You really try taking a mile when given an inch…” Khtraal laughed and sighed. “That’s no difficult task, it will be done. As you said before, I already have ordered the Khtraal and Iyrkraal to hunt them. You will get chikans for the next few weeks; there will be plenty.”

“Do goblins not eat chikan for some reason? You eat other goblins and wargs, what makes the chikan different?” Curious, I wondered how I managed to so easily get what would end up being literal tons of chicken.

“The power of what we consume affects both our own strength and the strength of our spawn. Little animals can keep us going, but they hardly suffice. Chikans are eaten in lean times, but with this war beginning…” He looked at me putting yet more bodies into my Inventory, not having hesitated once in moving to the next goblin. Hey, I could listen and put stuff away at the same time. “Despite your enormous desire for the fallen, those remaining will still be more than enough to fill us quite well, and produce healthy spawn.”

“Hmm, so like with these corpses, I'm really doing you a favor by getting rid of them, aren't I? Well no need to worry, I won't hesitate to take any of them!”

“You are a truly odd human.” Khtraal began to turn away. “There are still matters that I need to attend to. In the future, I will make sure your village stays safe; whenever you have the time, I would be grateful to accept your aid.” Getting a little formal towards the end, Chief Khtraal departed.

Making use of my extended day/night cycle and the fact I said I would be gone for two days, from midnight to evening I continuously worked at absorbing as many of the dead as I could. Literal thousands of corpses were accumulated as I worked fast enough to keep my Stamina from regenerating. Yet even with that absurd number, there was hardly a difference in the number of goblins piled around. I definitely needed to come back before the bodies were ruined. For the moment though, it was time to head back to town.

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Hickups wanted a list of goblins, so I modified my self-promotion thread to include a list of characters. That will probably end up being the manual for the novel eventually, feel free to start a discussion over there if you have any questions.