Yet, much to Kor'Ak's delight, when a torrent of fire erupted around his armour and engulfed his body in a wavering and roaring inferno, his foes didn't run, they merely paused, looking over the once-fallen warrior as he rose to his feet, bleeding wounds cauterised by the flames that licked against his exposed flesh. The warrior glanced at his sword and shield briefly, before shrugging and tossing them aside, steel clattering and bouncing off of the cold ground.

Status Set

Trait Gained

STR + 450%

Pain Tolerance + 95%

Poison/Toxin/Curse/Fire Immunity

Status Set

-15HP/s

MP/s = 0

Trait Gained

Every time the user of Hellish Bloodthirst kills a living being, they gain +3 HP per Job/Race level of the slain creature.

Kor'Ak's normally stern face curved to a wicked, joyous smile as the first three goblins stepped tentatively towards him, worried and scared by the human's sudden shift in actions.

For good reason.

The Djaal was upon them in less than a second, crossing the three foot distance faster than the goblin's could react, his right arm shot forward, gripping the right-most monster's bulbous and malformed head with his blazing palm. The creature writhed and struggled to free itself as the scorching flames seared it's eyes and roasted it's flesh. With the still-squirming goblin in his right arm still clutched in his searing grip; Kor'Ak brought his boot up, a sharp crack erupted from one of the goblins jaw, along with a spray of blood from it's toothy maw as it's fangs tore a jagged chunk out of the goblin's own tongue.

The wounded creature reeled back, trying to make some distance between itself and the infernal Djaal, it managed less than a step backwards before Kor'Ak was upon him, left-hand gripping the creatures shoulder and pulling it towards the raging warrior.

He could feel the sound of cracking bone as he brought his knee into the goblin's face, plated knee demolising the creatures skull.

A slight chuckle escaped the warrior as he took a deep, relaxed breath. The sickly miasma clambered up his body, taking the chance to try and force it's way down his throat. Green fog curled it's way into the Djaal's mouth, then was expelled when he finally breathed out. The last of the three that attacked him let out a surprised yelp as it tried to scramble away like it's former kin, though it didn't make it very far, as Kor'Ak stepped forwards, swinging the still-writhing goblin down in a wide arc and slamming his fleeing foe to the ground. The goblin struggled and tried to get up, but Kor'Ak slammed the body down again, then again, then again, until both bodies went still and silent.

Nearly two dozen smouldering, blackened, broken and brutalised little green corpses lay at his feet now. The slab of pestulent meat had stopped gurgling, it's fleshy mass no longer slapping eagerly towards him, and the vile, diseased goblins had stopped pouring in droves through the single entrance to the cave, a black smog hung in the air, slowly, slowly rising up in snaking trails, through the winding passage that crawled it's way upwards to the surface.

HP Below 5%

Status Lost

Trait Lost

Status Lost

Trait Lost

He felt his rage, his anger, his brutality just... go. As quickly as they'd swallowed him.

Kor'Ak felt him, like a worm in his mind that was slowly, laboriously wiggling it's way out. A gentle whisper, smooth, silken and all too sweet for such a horrible creature.

"Kor'Ak sweetie, I've went ahead and done a few little negotiations and talks whilst you've been... raging out..."

The Djaal managed to struggle for a reply through ragged breaths, eyes still focused on the boil-speckled goblins that were huddled around the door, and the noxious mountain of flesh that had went still, only the occasional ripple in it's flesh and rising of what could only be assumed to be a chest beneath endless rolls of squishy fat and postules.

"It's.... your fault... that happened."

"It is also my fault that you're alive, much to one of my less-friendly associates dismay."

"Demon... Warlock..."

"Kor'Ak my dear, what are you muttering to yourself now?"

"Your associates... One of those, maybe both..."

"It's none of your concern my cute little soldier, now, scurry off with your little friends, like I said, my associate isn't happy, but he's agreed to let you leave."

Kor'Ak's eyes quckly narrowed at the living pile of flesh in the center of the room. "Is... that thing your associate?"

"... I have standards, naturally that... garish mountain of disease isn't the sort of thing I'd dare to be in direct contact with."

"... Direct..."

The djaal could feel Maal quickly becoming irritated with his constant comments and assumptions, and his voice quickly faded as a sharp pain burst through Kor'Ak's mind, though it faded swiftly.

Kor'Ak would have stared down the stack of putrid, putty-like flesh, if he had any idea if it had eyes, or where they might be. Instead, he had to merely keep his eyes on it as he scrambled over to grab Steal's unconscious body. It took almost a minute to find the goblin, the odd, toxic miasma had begun to fade by now, though it was still thick enough that it was difficult to discern features from within, only by luck did he come across Steal, barely managing to make out the slightly darker pigmentation of Steal's skin that was one of the few ways Kor'Ak could differentiate him from the other, far more aggressive goblins.

After slinging Steal over his back, his eyes searched for Kelvin, the wizard was slumped to one side, back pressed against the caverns walls. He was clutching a wound on his shoulder that was still flowing blood, whilst his wounded arm weakly held a dead goblin's body infront of him. The creature's pale green back was scorched, melted and scarred; whilst the wizard looked relatively unburnt, his clothes were riddled with small, smoldering holes, but otherwise, he wasn't burnt.

Kor'Ak moved forwards, searching through the satchel at his side for a bandage to wrap the wizards shoulder in. Kor'Ak quickly got to work, wrapping the wound tight, perhaps a little too tight, but it would keep the wizard alive, the djaalic veteran figured Kelvin shouldn't complain, and the wizard didn't.

Instead, he merely gazed into Kor'Ak's face blankly, speaking with a definite shakiness "What... what was that..."

The warrior responded roughly as he tightened the wound a little more. "Doesn't matter, walk, talk later."

Kor'Ak pulled a mirky red liquid filled bottle from his satchel, popping off the wooden cork and passing it to the wounded wizard "Drink up, don't attack unless they attack."

"B-"

Kelvin was cut off as Kor'Ak practically rammed the vial down the young blonde's throat, forcing him to swallow the foul tasting liquid before discarding the practically empty bottle.

Of course, the blonde kept talking after spluttering and coughing, though this time with a little more anger than fear and confusion. "But they attacked us, why the hell would they stop?"

"Just because. Get moving."

Kelvin stared down Kor'Ak, only finally standing up and following after him when the wizard felt a wave of nausea and dizziness take him.

The party made there way towards the exit slowly, the goblin's didn't attack, instead, they scuttled away further down the tunnel, letting them through. Both Kor'Ak and Kelvin followed the three goblin's that seemed to be making their way upwards; after a few dozen metres, the humans had to crouch low, after another dozen metres, they were crawling forwards on all fours.

It wasn't long until they were at the surface, scrambling desperately into the dim light that still peeked through the canopy.

Kor'Ak took a chance to stretch the moment he made it onto the grass, whilst Kelvin merely whined and grabbed the hilt of a dagger at his side.

The three goblin's that had led them to the surface were stood ahead, though they now took grip on their spears, smiled, then loosed them at Kor'Ak and Kelvin. The javelins flew, though Kor'Ak managed to batter two away from him, whilst the final one flew too high and merely pierced a hole in Kelvin's tophat, the hat flew off his head as it dragged along the spears trajectory.

Then screams, roars and howls echoed through the cave as the human's looked to each other, aching muscles already uneagerly anticipating what was almost certainly going to be one hell of a sprint.

Kor'Ak felt him again, that smooth, soft-spoken leech in his mind.

"In all fairness, he never said he'd leave you alone, just let you leave the cave."

Kor'Ak wasn't listening, the warrior was focused on sprinting ahead, crashing into one of the scrambling, wretched goblins whilst he broke back into the treeline from the small clearing, Kelvin following close behind, though struggling far more than the Djaal.

More roars, the sound of footsteps and eager, angry and joyous cackles.