As the leaves began to change from lavish emerald green to an orangeish red, the season of summer had come and gone and the middle of autumn was already here. Two men were swiftly making their way through the forest, behind their backs the wind and in front, wild game. As the two men ran down their meal, with the release of an arrow their prey had finally fallen. Approaching this small boar, the two men couldn't help but lick their lips.

*Phew*

"Thomas, we finally caught it, we'll be eating good tonight, haha."

The man named Thomas laughed with a gut full of spirit.

"Hahahahaha, this will be a nice feast, how much meat do you think it is Jack, 400-430 lbs?"

Jack shook his head.

"Nah its gotta be around 390 lbs max, you gotta remember once we take its tusk that's about 15-20 lbs right there. Including what we'll throw away, that's another 20 or so lbs gone, besides that, we've got quite the haul here, hehe."

"I suppose your right, well, let's get to work."

The two men quickly pulled two well-maintained knives from their sides and started gutting the boar, after that, the two tied the boar's feet and hung it from a branch preparing to drain its remaining blood, after hanging the boar the two men sat around to chat.

"So Jack, how's the ki...."

*Thud*

Before Thomas could finish his sentence, something had impacted him heavily from behind, all the nerves in his back lit up like lightning as his back felt as though it were both on fire and freezing all at once. Thomas had never felt such an excruciating agony in his entire life, he could see Jack in front of him was collapsed on the ground, he couldn't tell whether his friend was alive or dead and right now he didn't care. All he could think about was the pain that was running from the base of his skull to the tip of his tailbone. Thomas tried to feel his back but for some reason, he couldn't even lift his arms. At this point he was in full panic mode and tried to shout, now he realized he couldn't hear anything as well, it was then that he thought.

(How strange.)

With these two simple words passing through his mind, his vision quickly began to darken. With no more control over his body, he was utterly powerless and simply fell over and like that, he was dead.

From behind a few trees, 9 small child size green goblins made their way over to the two men. As one of the goblins approached Thomas, he grabbed the object protruding from Thomas's back. With two small green hands the goblin gripped tightly and with one strong pulling motion he extracted an old rusty ax from Thomas's back. As the blood dripped from the blades rounded chipped edge, the goblin sniffed the blood and gave it a lick. Consuming the blood, the goblin became more excited and began hacking at the corpse below him, reveling in the bloodshed like a child with a brand new toy.

Jack had just come to, the side of his head was leaking red turning the ground beside him into sticky mud. Next to him was a small bloodstained rock, he had been struck from afar and lost consciousness. Now that he was awake, his head was spinning in pain. As Thomas slowly opened his eyes, his blurred vision steadily regained their clarity, looking around he groaned in pain.

*UGH*

"Thomas, what the hell just happened? We were talking and something hit me I..."

As Jack's vision returned, he saw a horrific scene just a few feet in front of him. His friend, his best friend was being hacked to pieces, bits of blood and viscera hit him in the face. Jack couldn't recognize what he was seeing, he instantly leaned over and puked. The small green goblins witnessing this laughed in excitement, especially one of the goblins who carried a sling in his hand, to him this was especially fun. Jack struggled to his feet, a wave of intense dizziness hit him repeatedly. The blow he took to the head really affected him but he had no time to think about that. Right now there was only one thing on his mind.

(I have to run.)

Jack turned and dashed away at his quickest speed but before he could even get 10 feet, a ball was tossed out from one of the goblins. Simple by design but genius in form. With a weighted ball tied on either side of a rope, once it's thrown out it becomes a weapon directly targeted at entangling the legs and feet. With this simple toss, Jack was tripped up and entangled, with a small crash he landed face first in the dirt. Jack yelled out.

"Why are you doing this? What about the agreement?"

The goblins completely ignored Jack's words. After tripping Jack up, they achieved their goal and rushed in with great speed. Jack could only turn over by the time the goblins were right in front of his face. With their rusted old blades, they all went for the kill, stabbing, piercing, striking, there was no holding back. Jack shut his eyes in fright as death came before him. All he could do was tremble in fear and await his impending doom but nothing came, no pain from a blade nor blood from a wound, nothing. Instead, Jack heard a few quick screams and then silence. Opening his eyes, what laid before him was nightmare inducing. Even worse than when he saw his friend being hacked to pieces, the scene before him was absolutely horrendous. The ground was a puddle of green blood, intestines and other innards were strewn all over. Arms separated from bodies and heads crushed from brute force, once more Jack threw up, this time fully emptying the contents of his stomach on the ground beside him. Standing in front of him was the back of a tall broad figure covered from head to toe in green blood. In his hands was a large silver battle hammer with a pointed tip, stamped in the head of the hammer was the face of a ferocious wolf.

Seeing the back of this figure as well as the unique battle hammer the man carried, Jack recognized the man immediately.

"Ben!! you, it's really you."

Jack burst into tears of wild joy and then sadness for the loss of his friend, he quietly muttered the same words over and over.

"Thank god, thank god."

Ben hearing this turned and faced Jack, with an annoyed face Ben spit at Jacks feet.

*Ptew*

"God didn't save you, it was me."

Jack continued to shed tears as he quickly apologized.

"I....I'm sorry."

Jack knew this man's personality, looking at him he lacked any emotion of someone who just slaughtered 6 goblins. It was now that Jack noticed there were still 3 goblins alive, one was unconscious while the other 2 were kneeling down.

After Ben heard Jack's comment, he turned his back to these goblins but even with their enemies back to them, the two goblins that were conscious were paralyzed to the ground in fear. What they witnessed just now was a slaughter and they had no wish to be the next victim. With this mans speed they couldn't run, with this mans strength the way he swung that heavy hammer like a twig, he could clearly crush them with one hand and with his reflexes, even if they made a move at his back, they would both be dead before they could even stand. At this point, there was no other choice but to surrender.

Ben nodded at Jacks apology and turned and grabbed one of the goblins by the throat. With almost no effort he lifted this small goblin from the ground, pointing at Thomas's deformed and brutalized corpse, Ben calmly asked.

"Why did you kill that man?"

As the goblin struggled to breathe, he uttered in broken words.

"Territory ours, he crossed, he broke rule, he die, we no wrong."

Jack now realized what happened, looking around, he could see plain as day where he was at. Chasing down this boar, he and Thomas had ended up just a few hundred feet in the goblins territory, with that he realized this small mistake had cost his friend his life and nearly his as well. Jack, however, couldn't accept this, he screamed at this ugly little goblin.

"YOU FUCKING ANIMAL!! You killed my friend just because he was a few feet in your territory. You could have just told us to leave and we would have, we didn't even realize we crossed, why didn't you at least warn us? Why didn't you at least try to talk to us first?"

The goblin looked hatefully at Jack, once more he repeated his words.

"Territory ours, he crossed, he broke rule, he die, we no wrong."

This completely infuriated Jack, he picked up a rock and ran up to the goblin wanting to smash his brains in but right as he swung the rock at this goblins head.

*Whack*

With a solid swing, Ben gave Jack a swift backhand, knocking Jack straight on his ass.

Jack was shocked, he looked up at Ben and shouted angrily.

"What are you doing!! why the hell are you stopping me?"

But this time it was Ben's turn to be angered, with a roar his voice shook Jack to his core.

"That's my question, you dare try to kill what's mine! These goblins have already surrendered to me, therefore, they're now my personal property. You try that shit again and I'll let these goblins finish what they started, do you understand?"

Jacks body trembled in fear, this man in front of him was absolutely terrifying. Jack realized there was no room for argument and in the end, could only nod in agreement. Ben tied the goblins hands and forced the two awake to walk, with the other one he forced Jack to carry him, like this they made their way back to the village. After a few hours, Ben, Jack and the 3 goblins arrived at the village. Walking in, many people grew panicked but seeing the goblins some were curious, while many were just scared but seeing it was Ben, many people settled down. If he was in control then things should be fine they thought. Someone ran ahead to inform the elders while Ben and Jack made their way forward. As they arrived in the chief hall, the three elders were already waiting, Ben tugged the goblins in front of them and ordered.

"Kneel!"

With terror in their hearts, the goblins immediately kneeled in front of the three elders bringing a smile to each of the elder's faces. With the feeling of authority, one of the elders spoke.

"Benjamin, what is all this? Why have you brought these vile creatures here?"

Ben just ignored this man giving him no face, instead, he asked his own question.

"Wheres the Chief, I need to discuss something with him."

Being ignored did not sit well with this elder, he scrunched his brows in annoyance.

"Benjamin, why are you ignoring me, answer me! What are you doing with those goblins?"

"Hmph, that's none of your concern, now tell me where is the Chief? I have business to attend to so hurry up and tell the Chief to come out."

Ben's attitude infuriated that elder and he was just about to explode with fury but another elder saw this and stepped in to mediate.

"Benjamin, Chief Roland is in closed-door training, he said he will be in for around 3-4 days so in the meantime we three elders have full authority over all village matters, so if there's something you wish to discuss with the chief, you can simply talk to us three in his stead."

*Sigh*

"As you can see I've captured these goblins. I'm going to Jizhen to sell them to slavers. I just wanted to know if Chief Roland wanted to send some people with me to buy some supplies. The village is running low on medicine and spices, either way, it doesn't really affect me."

The elder's suddenly understood, the elder that was mediating looked at the other two elders and they all quickly discussed it. After not even a minute, they all came to an agreement and the mediating elder said.

"Jizhen, that town is about 5 days journey from here, the village has little money so we can only give you valuables for payment, what do you say?"

"Hmm, I don't understand, valuables, payment, payment for what?"

Ben tilted his head quizzically, playing as though he didn't understand. The elder who broke out in anger before flared up again.

"Benjamin, stop playing, your our peoples best bet for protection for that journey. Just tell us clearly, how much do you want?"

Ben's face took on a slight smile, with his hand he held up 2 fingers. Seeing this, that elder was about to lose his shit but the mediating elder quickly stopped him, once more they had a brief discussion before finally coming to an agreement.

"It's agreed, we'll pay you double in valuables, in exchange you will protect the villagers we send as well as their goods to and fro, agreed?"

Ben now had a big grin on his face, he looked at the elder who constantly flipped out and said condescendingly.

"Agreed but are you sure you don't want to ask Roland first?"

This time it was the calm elder who nearly lost it, he spoke through gritted teeth.

"Ben, I've already said we three elders have full authority, now if there's nothing more, please leave. We'll gather who and what we need to gather and meet with you in the village square in a bit, now go."

Ben grabbed the rope and pulled the goblins along, picking the other one up from Jack, he laughingly made his way back home. The calm elder looked at Jack and ordered him to immediately tell him the situation. After hearing the events, the elders couldn't help but shake with a bit of fear.

"This Ben is so strong, no wonder he acts so confidently."

The other elder had only contempt for him.

"I'll admit he's strong but he's also a cocky piece of shit. If he didn't have that strength I'd have driven him out of this village long ago, hmph."

Making his way deeper within the village, Ben came upon a rather large home. It was one of the biggest in the village and even had a big yard in the back with a garden. Making his way to the back, he quickly washed up removing the blood from his body while at the same time staring daggers at the goblins, daring them to make a move. Afterward, he finally walked in dragging the goblins in tow. With a large shout, Ben yelled out.

"I'm home, where are my little monsters?"

Suddenly the sound of pitter patter could be heard coming from upstairs, followed by shouts of joy.

"Dad's home, Dad's home, yay!!!"

Running down the steps and turning a corner, two children leaped into the arms of their father, embracing him with a big warm hug.

"Ah, there you two are, my little monsters."

After a while the three separated, rubbing their heads Benjamin asked his two children.

"Nia, Ben, did you miss me?"