Goblins

The goblins had set off at night, in order to get to the bear’s cave by first light. This was because the silverback bear was diurnal just like humans and goblins, and that only got emphasised by the fact that bear was planning to go into evolution that very day. All of this added up, basically meaning that the bear would be extremely aware of its surroundings during the day, due to its incoming self-induced period of weakness. Thus the goblins had decided to get to and camp near the bear's cave during the night, meaning all unnecessary movement could be minimalised in order to not rise awareness in the bear before its evolution.

It was a good plan but it forgot one matter; the fact that the bear would be extremely aware during the day due to the dangers it could face at night, dangers far more fearsome than a pack of goblins. The dark was the hunting period of the true monsters, monsters so strong that a silverback bear was nothing but a fat cat to them. It was the reason why the bear wanted to evolve amongst many other reasons. Now this was all well and good for the bear but it was another thing when it came to the goblins, monsters who were top tier one at best and basically equivalent to plankton in a food chain at worst. The moving goblins looked like ants to some of the monsters, barely noticable, while others saw them as easy food.

Withil's POV

It would explode anytime now, my god damned ear-drums that was! Fear was something I utterly despised, it was an emotion that would through all logic out of the window just to increase survivability, no matter the cost.

The pain in my legs were only increasing but I couldn’t stop them, not now at least.

Why did the bumbling fool of a pack carrier have to step on an Acid worm, the god damned thing shone fluorescent and gave of a rancid odour! Who in this world would want to go near that thing and yet this retarded 3 year old ran straight to it like it was his toy or something. AND. THAT. WASN’T. EVEN. THE. END. OF.THAT!

Of course it wouldn’t be, a goblin of that size would barely act as an appetizer for such a disgusting monster.Now what would be perfect as a follow up main-meal would be a grown up warrior goblin, but why did it have to be my fucking man instead that bastards'!?

“SKRAAAA”

I rolled to the side as I heard the deafening sound, though nothing seemed to go well today as I felt a scorching pain on my arm.

“ARGHH!”.

Fuck! I could see it coming, not really as my eyes were well blurred up by now but then again you didn’t need the best vision to see such a bright hell hole heading your way.

“SKRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

This time it screamed in pain, at what I didn’t wonder or care about, as I instantly jumped backwards behind a thick tree that protected my body from immediate danger. Frantically searching, my hand finally stumbled upon the Black water in my waist satchel. It seemed to splatter more on the forest floor than my arms as my shivering hand tried to pour it onto the acid that continued to burn away at my arm.

Offense is the best defence and the best type of self-torture, especially when the water you are using is an extremely strong and effective disinfectant. The pain was unimaginable to say the least, I felt better having the arm scorching away than disinfecting it with black water.

“Garrgh!?”

Severe back pain quickly spread over my back in less than a second as I looked backwards, though all that entered my vision was a thick dark tree in contrast to a blindingly bright monster behind it, not at all unlike the sun peeking over the horizon. My vision seemed to blur further-still as my brain fully registered the pain on my back, added with pain over my arms and legs. I instantly bit into my able hand in an attempt to stay awake, I would be dead if I slept here after all but to it was to no avail…

...

“Ugh huh hu uh hu uh”

My body was heaving violently, even after my eyes broke open their barriers. The whole place was an un-naturally dark, unlike midnight. At midnight, you had moonlight but right now I had no light. Though it didn’t matter much as I was currently seeing with my night vision, I looked around and saw about a dozen or more goblins in this little enclosed space. It should have been a perfect 15, it should have been but it wasn’t. My heart seemed to feel an incorporeal pain, one that I could sense but in no way fix at the loss of my man.

Had I been particularly close to him? No, he had followed me due to his belief in me but that was enough for me to look after him. Furthermore half my arm had been melted away, half my god-damned arm. Rot had started growing over the aftermath, although that wouldn’t matter much as long we evolved. If we evolved that was. Anger bubbled inside my mind and only grew as I thought of it, why had we even brought pack carriers? Keep us in our best situation my ass, all of us here were mentally and physically exhausted due to their naivety.

It took quite a while for my mind to calm down, though we had an abundance of time since the attack on the bear would be at night; we wouldn't even be able to move around today due to the chance of giving away our presence.

*sigh*

I edged over to one of men, perhaps my longest serving one. I could see the scumbag Raraak watching me, the bastard was big for sure though I doubt anything was happening up in his head.

“Ahh Withil, you are up!”

“Yes I am Roger, though not in the best conditions”

“Haha, of course not but which one of us here isn’t exhausted due to that unlucky encounter”

My mouth soured downwards at that as my eyes grew more slanted. It seemed Roger got the cue not to talk about it as he dryly coughed it away. All of a sudden, something clicked in my mind as I wondered why I hadn’t died? Thinking back, I had seen something shining bright green whack the tree I had been leaning on, which was clearly the acid worm. But why? It had 1000’s of more effective attacks and yet it had decided to attack me by whacking itself into the tree? And why had I not died after fainting right in front of that disgusting monster?

It was like Roger could read my mind as he quickly changed topics to the very ones I had been thinking off.

“Ahh Withil you must be wondering what happened after you fainted. Yes?”

“No tell me even before that, I had been leaning on that tree but that worm decided to just whack me? What happened to it for it to do that?”

“Mmm, that was that pack carrier. What his name again?”

“Pack carrier?! He did what?”

“Of course, it was young Damon. You know, that goblin who was challenged for his position and killed the challenger with a knife. He did similar to the worm, a good battle sense on the boy, as he threw knives right into the worms sensors. It is granted that anyone can tell where its sensors are without ever seeing it before since they move around like crazy, sensing the air, but its another question to hit them both.”

Finally some gold uncovered from the shits.

“Tell me more about this Damon. Has Raraak already recruited him under his banner by any chance?”

“Not at all. You know what Raraak respects with that body of his, people alike him who fight fully frontal. In fact I believe Raraak actually belittles the boy for using knives, though I believe its more so because he saved your ass. Haha”

My face soured again, though this time he seemed to take no heed of the hint as he chuckled away.

He soon stopped and carried on about Damon. “Right , about the boy. I’m not entirely sure about his situation, though I heard he has been practising knife throwing for quite a long time. Now I’m not sure but I reckon its due to Gregal, you know how he throws those axes of his. If I was a kid who saw him do ones of his throws, I too would be obsessed like young Damon.

Something seemed up in his mind as he stopped for a few seconds, before looking me right in the eye and saying "I think you should go and intimidate him into joining your banner, after all we just lost the two talents of Rodrick and Ragger. It wouldn’t hurt to heal those injuries a bit, especially since Raraak has been acting a lot bolder after your losses. The boy Damon is still young and small, a goblin variant like you could easily shape his thoughts now so that he follows you later.”

He had a point that I couldn’t refute, the boy had a good battle sense but that didn’t get rid of his naiveté, it was only something that disappeared after experience.

Damon

Damon sat huddled in a corner of the cave, he had hoped his prowess had set him apart from his fellow pack carriers and yet he did not see Raraak coming over. Raraak was with no doubt the biggest goblin he had seen, reaching 1.9m. The goblin was muscled to the toe and was seen by other goblins as the ideal image to aim for, and yet Raraak and his flagship avoided Damon like the plague, despite his performance. Instead Raraak talked to another pack carrier who had had also set himself apart from the crowd, although it was through being bigger and carrying a heavier load. Inside of him was a feeling of disappointment at his dashed hopes but worse still were the feelings festering within him: feelings of disdain for the mediocrity shown by the pack.

He had worked himself hard to increase his skill to such a high level and yet some fool had got all the favourable attention for just being big. *sigh*

It was at this moment Damon noticed a goblin edging towards him, someone he instantly identified as Withil. Withil was the most popular goblin against Raraak, which was a bit surprising since Withil did not have any notable physical features, such as bigger size, distinguishing himself from the other warriors.In fact Withil was almost the polar opposite of Raraak, since Raraak had distinguished himself through brawn while Withil had done it through his brain. It had been the reason why the Chieftain had banned direct conflict between the two, as both were invaluable for the tribe’s prosperity.

“Hey Damon”

“Yes sir”

“Call me Withil boy. I’m pleased to see another day boy, you saved my life. I have heard about how you did it from my man and I'm impressed by your skill on the knife. Enough so that I can offer you a chance under my name, you can be my man from hence onwards.”

Shock filled Damon’s mind as he thought over what had been said. Of course he had saved Withil and had expected some kind of reward for it afterwards but surely going under Withil's banner was too cheap of a gift. In fact it wasn’t even a gift…

Living up to his rumours, Withil easily read Damon’s face as he saw the shock and disdain.

“Don’t misunderstand me, coming under my banner isn’t some random gift. It means when I get the beasts body, you will be able to get a higher quality part and be associated with me in the future when I become the chief. Perhaps you think me too ambitious and would rather Raraak, but have you ever considered all the people in his group. They are all big and strong with nothing else, who cares about your knife skills when you are close to half their size.”

“Just join me boy, believe me when I say you will not regret it”…

The Trolls- ???

In front of him stood the Chief’s hound, a pathetic troll that all trolls looked down upon. He was a troll who licked the previous Chief’s feet in order to reach the top and then proceeded to flounder his false power.

I looked him down, his blue skin looked diseased as it was shaded a murky green. All troll’s took care of their tusks and yet the troll in front of him had cracked tusks. His eyes were as beady as they got as he alike stared me down. Directly in front of me was a good old bludgeon, it wasn’t fancy but did the job. The rough wood of the body led to a heavy top made out of iron metal, I was told it had been a weapon stolen from some dumb humans, a story I refused to believe as this bludgeon itself was 1.5m long and weighed 45kg. How could any of them wield this!?

Within an instant, the hound had contracted his body and ran forwards. It was a fast dash, one that was used to catch one of surprise, but I reacted just as quick as the cold metal of the bludgeon smacked the air as I lifted the weapon of the floor. I raised the weapon into a defensive position, though it was perhaps over the top as the hound suddenly slipped during his dash, whilst within my range. Foolish! My legs moved with pure instict as my pose changed in order to whack his diving head.

I was wrong. He mush have chuckled as he saw me follow his lead, just before he instantly straightened his body, flashing the cold glint of a short sword before my eyes: it had been a trap…

My hands opened up as I reacted, dropping the bludgeon whilst punching one of my fists into his body. But it was too late, far too late as the short sword pierced through my ribcage, only centimetres away from my heart. His body flew onto the floor as my weakened-punch still did damage, bruising his arm.

I don’t know what it was, no that was a lie. I knew what it was, a feeling of the past, the feeling of pure unadultered anger. It had its source deep within my confidence in my body, and yet it had only ever weakened me. After all it's easier to deal with an angry monster than it is to deal with a crafty human hunter.

But I must have forgotten all the beatings I had gotten in the past for my stupid anger, I must have forgotten all the times I had come close to death due to it because I let it grow within me. What entered my head was the primate feeling of anger, and what exited was a pure roar of hatred…