Adil brought himself into a room built for training. It was a large bare room filled with training dummies and blunted weapons. Adil felt it was time to ease his thoughts. The place was already filled with many other fighters, training their skills for the inevitable fights to come and Adil thought he could show them a thing or two.

A match showcasing three on three shone out in the distance. It held some of the goblins against some Adil recognised as ex-mercenaries. Adil was worried at the sight of it, thinking they had yet to get over their differences and were instead trying to prove each others inferiority. One of the mercs managed to dodge two goblins coming into his blind spot and tripped one up. Launching a knife into the goblin's chest as he fell to the ground.

Adil grew concerned, they were fighting to the death? The cave was meant to protect these people not torture them. He started heading towards them, he was worried he had been missing out on the tensions building between the groups.

A third goblin had managed to bat away the soldier, saving the other goblin on the ground before Adil could reach them, only to be ganked by the other two mercs. Showing an abnormal amount of skill the goblin only took a graze on his knee. Then as a merc's foot was grabbed by a goblin on the floor and his guard was dropped, the standing goblin took an opportunist slash across a merc's neck.

"Stop!" Adil shouted, taking a goblin by surprise as the original merc came jumping in. Still, the goblin managed to manoeuvre the assault into throwing the man on the ground and having a knife pointed at his chest.

"Best of five?" The merc said from the floor. The goblin picked the merc from the floor, grasping his hand. The goblin then proceded to move the edge of the merc's blade lifting it to an angle to a point on his own shoulder.

"Don't aim for here, go for here."

The goblin moved the blade in a position pointing more down into the gap under his collar bone.

"Great leader," the goblin called facing Adil.

Adil looked at him and enhancing his vision to show their name tags. He saw the goblins name was "Marv".

"What are you doing, stabbing each other. Do you not feel pain? Is this some kind of masochistic dick-measuring competition between races?" Adil asked.

"We are practising for the coming fight."

"Then what's with the stabbing. The goblin versus a human you have going on?"

"This is the most efficient balance of our strengths. I am the most trained whereas the other goblins are the least trained,"

"Right, right... but why fight to the death?"

"Great leader. The ability to come back from death allows the greatest training a warrior could wish for."

"Right... " Adil felt as though he had worried too much, it was as if all goblin human tensions had disappeared.

"Please, don't fight to the death. We have a limited amount of mana to resurrect members of the guild. There will be a fight coming and we will need as much as we can."

The goblin took to one knee.

"I'm sorry sir, I was not aware."

"At ease soldier, It just means we can't abuse it," Adil replied. He thought for a moment wondering about the goblin that was before him, he seemed older and more experienced than the others.

"I have to ask though. Do you still harbour hatred towards humans? Is this fueled by it?"

The goblin grew contemplative, he furrowed his brow in thought before looking up to Adil.

"It was hard at first. I followed you out of loyalty to Morganna rather than choice. Now though, I do not feel the pain I used to.

It is thanks to some of these men. Those we fight here and others we drink with. They released the tension. It is not them I feel that harbour the grudge. They treat us as they would themselves, make us feel the same.

Others still act with false smiles, they pretend that we are the same. Hiding their true feelings. But you can feel the differences, see it behind their eyes. I do not feel as though anyone here has a true reason to dislike each other. It is more the fear of others feeling that way which prevails. It is as the ancestral saying goes. Prophecies made from fear should be feared more than what they say. I judge not with assumptions based on race but on the actions they take."

The goblin looked into Adil's eyes for approval.

"That is.. Admirable," Adil said before exchanging nods.

Then one of the men fizzles out from the teleporter wearing a fresh set of cotton clothes. He waved at Marv before walking towards us.

"Mind if I join?" Adil asked.

"Bout time you showed us what you can do," one of the mercs said before getting a look from the goblin and a knock form one of the others.

"It would be an honour," Marv said.

They set up with the goblin taking Adil's side whilst the others stood against him. Adil shook his head.

"All of you try to get me."

"Are you sure?" The goblin looked to Adil and getting a confirmation in his eyes backed off.

Adil brought his grass-cutter sword forward and channelled some mana into it whilst he stared down the others. They charged but Adil manoeuvred around them, bending with the air as though he was being blown away from the wind of their attacks.

Sidestepping a verticle attack he took out the pommel of his sword and launched an electric burst through it in the back of the man's head. in a feat of teamwork, two goblins appeared in Adil's blind spot diving forward. Adil dodged them both doing a sideways spin in the air whilst he pushed down on one goblin's back. The goblin went to the ground lifting him higher.

One of the mercs pushed to the limit of teamwork as Marv held his hands out for the man to step off them. The merc was launched skyward to face off against Adil, Adil only just manoeuvred to see the jagged sword pass by. He saw Marv then closing in on him. Their coordinated effort meant he had no way out.

Adil focused on his power and let out a mighty gust, knocking everyone in the area back. A few of them had displeased looks as though they thought that they had been cheated out of a win. Adil knew it wasn't over and he had to wait a decent while before he could use something like that again.

"Cheeky move," one of the roguelike humans said circling into Adil's blind spot.

"Is a fight ever fair?" Adil asked looked down at all of them about to close in. he channelled lightning into his sword, seeing it fragment off the weapon.

Then Adil saw Marv charge in whilst others circled. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a build-up of dark energy. He dodged around from Mar's baiting move and into the line of a ranged attack. There Adil spun his blade to chop a blast of black fire which burst into a dark cloud, obscuring his vision.

Adil focused and brought out his mana sense. He now saw through the smoke a couple of ninja goblins coming again from down low. Adil charged the lightening in his sword ready to take them out when an impact threw him spinning through the air. A kick straight to the side of his face with enough force to launch him. The mercs had again come from up high. Marv called out, "NO! Stop!" As the other human spun around to stick a blade in Adil, having been launched towards him.

Adil saw the blade had penetrated his chest and looked on to the group that wore faces of worry. Adil coughed a small amount of blood then drew a smile towards them, holding a thumbs up. "Good job," he said before he passed on.

Adil woke in the spawn area, he grew a smile as he thought about the abilities of his new men. The skill and coordination they had working together, he had bit off more than he could chew by challenging them all. The will and thoughtfulness they had to get passed any tribal sense of hatred towards each other still stuck a chord in him, he wasn't much of a philosopher but after his exchange thought of Marv with admiration.

Then Adil saw Urakle run towards him.

"The army is on approach," he said.

With those few words, Adil's mind sank into hard focus and concern. He walked with the small goblin silently through the cave, not looking directly at people he passed but seeing them run around getting ready for whatever is to come.

"How long."

"Twelve to eight hours. They have more of a direct route."

Now at the war-table, he saw the army. Rather than the previous battalion he now saw an army of hundreds. Shinning plate-armour and banners. They marched through spaces made clear from the past assault, each man showed an efficiency not present in the previous group. Their armour of a higher quality.

Further behind the approaching army, Adil noticed that the town's major and lieutenant were present. The army was about to enter into the growing range of the Spawn crystal's influence. The far-reaching areas in which mutated and enhanced creatures lay. They would have to carve their way through the new animals and creatures before they could reach the cave and every kill they made would only add to the Spawn crystals power as it absorbed the manna and essence that would come from any human or creature deaths in the area.