The creaking of wood ceases, replaced by the soft crunch of dirt under his feet. As Jed cautiously heads toward the village, his magical vision quickly adjusts itself as night arrives, allowing him to clearly see the creepy totems along either side of the path. They are made up of wooden posts rising from the ground with crude ropes linking skulls and a myriad other bones together, bound tightly in a spiral that spans the length of the posts. The wooden pillars are sharpened at the very top and most of them skewer human heads in various states of decay.

Taking a closer look at a particularly gruesome piece of goblin artwork, he feels a deep sense of discomfort somewhere in his heart. Unsure of why something feels off, Jed thinks back to his past before all that time spent in the colorless void and manages to piece together a few pleasant memories. One stands out from the rest and he delves deeper into it, feeling a strange warmth that he'd all but forgotten.

Sitting at a dinner table with his parents and a little girl that must be his sister, everything feels right. Their faces are distorted blurs caused by the missing chunks of memories, yet somehow he can tell that they're smiling. Just as he opens his mouth to speak, the vision fades and the abomination is once again in front of him.

Despair overtakes him for a moment, he knows that he can never go back to those days. Loss. That's what was eating at him since he'd first seen the totem. How had he forgotten what it meant to care so deeply about something, only to have it wrenched away from within his hands? Maybe one of these skulls belonged to someone whom others loved, perhaps even now they felt the pain that he knew.

On the verge of having a mind-shattering revelation, he's suddenly forced back into reality upon hearing guttural screeches and noticing the light of torches in the corner of his eye. A group of four goblins are sprinting toward him while yelling for their allies. Two carry torches and a dagger, while the other pair have small, roughly made hatchets. As they grow near, Jed can hear their excitement as they say something to each other about not having eaten a dwarf before.

Rage billows out from within, slowly spreading until it numbs thoughts of anything other than crushing the creatures in front of him. The short, cloaked figure's head rises and tilts backward enough for the four goblins to see two blue lights shining out from the depths of the hood. They glow brighter, though this time it isn't out of glee, the shape of the luminescent orbs changes until they resemble the flickering flame of a candle.

The lead goblin slows a bit and quiets down, shortly followed by the other three who look at each other and then back to figure, now unsure of it really being a dwarf. Hefting the axe up onto his shoulder with one arm and stepping toward the group as rocks burst from the earth around him, Jed sees several more torches in the distance now heading toward him.

'Good. Four won't be enough.'

The goblins look startled upon seeing the showers of dirt and floating rocks which are almost the size of their entire body. After a moment of hesitation they all charge.

"Kill fast! Tiny man have magic!"

Both small boulders come flying from either side of the first goblin and sandwich him, crushing bones and spurting blood mixed with goblin bits all over the place. One of the remaining three is enraged and increases its pace, hatchet raised high in the air as it screams a cry of vengeance for its fallen comrade. The other two are not quite as brave, they only stare in horror at the puddle that used to be a goblin. They hardly even see it coming as both of them are impacted with one of the rocks and die from the blunt trauma.

The last remaining goblin is nimble, ducking under the swing of Jed's axe and following it up with a chop to his arm. The hatchet tears a a small gash in his robes but the blade slides right along his rocky hide, leaving him hardly scratched. Taking a solid kick to the stomach, the goblin goes down, scrambling on the floor for its dropped weapon before it's bisected horizontally at the waist.

As he's pulling the axe up from the dirt, another group of three goblins arrive shouting gibberish that he's pretty sure are chains of very rude words. Behind them are an additional two groups and further back he can see a lone figure with a torch running toward one of the bonfires, probably to call for reinforcements.

No longer inside a cave, it is more difficult for Jed to find larger rocks, as they are mostly buried underneath all the dirt and therefore take a large amount of mana to bring to the surface. Knowing that, he realizes what he does have plenty of and makes an explosion of dirt right in front of the group. They cough and bat at the air with their hands, temporarily stunned and blind, making easy prey for the angry elemental.

Jed jumps into their midst, cutting a large gash across the chest of a goblin with his axe and skewering another through the heart with the arm he's now formed into a lance of stone. A club smashes against his side as one of the goblins fully regains its awareness of the situation and Jed can feel a few cracks forming where he's hit. Jed kicks the goblin who hasn't fully recovered and it topples over, leaving him time to focus on the one wielding the club.

It comes at him for another swing but he easily knocks the weapon aside with his spiked hand and brings the axe around in an arc, slicing off its arm at the elbow. Howling in pain, it grips its shoulder with its one good hand and is soon after put out of its misery.

The last goblin is back on its feet and tries to tackle Jed onto the ground but its strength is much lower and he easily tosses it aside. A heavy stomp pushes the little green man down against the dirt and holds it there as streams of soil rise and envelope its entire head, pushing into its mouth and nose until the goblin dies of suffocation.

He feels several arrows chip away at his back and decides that it's time to turn on Assimilation now that he's taken a few hits. Because the robe is a bit too long for him and the streams of healing earth are coming from the ground, covered from view, the goblins can't tell that they've even done any damage at all. They just see a short, robed figure with an axe that all of their attacks bounce off of uselessly.

As he carves a path toward the village, leaving behind a trail of green corpses, Jed can hear screeches of fear and calls for the others to come save them from the 'midget demon' which seems to be their name for him now. Knowing that there will most likely be stronger goblins further in, he tries to conserve mana by cutting them down with his axe or arm lance whenever possible. Thanks to this strategy, he's almost back to full by the time he reaches the center of the village.

A row of six heavily armored (for goblin standards) guards with spears stand in front of him and between the two bonfires sits a pile of bones which a much larger goblin is using for a throne. It is hard to tell while the figure isn't standing, but Jed guesses it is comparable to a tall human, only green, really ugly, and wearing a loincloth made of the remains of what looks to be a flag, which is bedazzled with a skull right in the crotch area. Must be the latest in goblin fashion.

The big goblin stands up from his trash heap of a throne and sticks out his chest with pride.

"Me Gergablerga, strongest and biggestest of all tribe. Me elect big high war chief by small ones."

"...e..lect..?"

"Right. We civilize people. We democra sea! All who want kill tiny axe demon raise hand."

All the guards and the few goblins who are still alive and standing far away from Jed proceed to raise their hands. A unanimous vote.

"Tiny axe demon judge guilty! Penalty death. All go kill!"

Jed can only gawk as the goblins raise their spears and get ready to attack. This was definitely not what he expected of a village full of goblins.

'I want my lawyer...'