“Regardless of the circumstances Chief, it killed nine of our own and for that he must be punished accordingly. It has to the follow the rules just like everyone else!” yelled a rather pointy ogre. Spikes lined his spine, shoulder blades and joints.

“Yes… while it’s regrettable you’re correct Captain. For now lock him up and in a few days we’ll go ahead with the proper ritual, I just hope it survives it,” lamented the old Chief.

The captain spat on the ground in annoyance. “Why? Why do you want to keep such a monstrosity alive, it’s practically human and not even the strongest here. We don’t need such a thing in our tribe and now it has gone and killed nine people. You should want it dead too!” roared the Captain.

“You’re wrong Captain. It is most definitely the strongest here. You were not there when it exploded, and with such pure mana which, mind you, instantly disintegrated over two hundred of our own already. Even without that, it has tremendous healing capabilities that can completely restore itself from almost death in seconds. That by itself makes it a strong asset, one that Queen will reward us greatly for. Well, provided it survives this, so please try not to kill it,” asked the Chief gloomily.

“You know I can’t hold back anyone for this one Chief. They want blood and I do too,” answered the Captain, walking away and ending the conversation.

********

Drip… Drip… Drip… Drip… Drip… Drip… Drip… DRIP! Ash woke up, roaring with anger to find himself in a very familiar place. The distinct smell of blood and faeces entered his nose and he belched. Ash curled his fists, relishing the feeling of once again having a body, taking in all the senses, with the exception of smell of course. Ashton however, failed to respond to anything, he was completely out of it. The combined feelings of shock, horror, regret and disgust that came from killing had erupted into a mass of stress and anxiety, knocking him back into the furthest depths of their consciousness.

The feeling of cool stone and rough dried blood felt pleasant on his palms, giving him a sense of firm existence. The dreaded feeling of misplacement and lack of being that the lack of a body gave him was no longer there, now he could do as he wished with nobody to interfere. Little did Ashton know, but whenever Ashton was unconscious, Ash had total control over the body and could do whatever he wanted and it was only when he was conscious that he was forced to use mana to take control. Ash was hesitant to reveal the truth to him, as he felt him knowing could only cause more harm than good overall.

After a long set of complex exercises and stretches, Ash had once again adjusted to his physical body and was pumped for some action. As if responding to his thoughts, the nostalgic sound of the exit blocking boulder rolling out of the way reached his ears. Ash sat himself down in the corner of the cell and made himself look as frail and scared as possible. A huge ogre covered with dangerous looking spikes walked in, staring at Ash like he’d just shit on his birthday cake. Taken aback, Ash let a look of genuine look of surprise show on his face before he quickly reverted back to his weak and helpless act. The ogre grunted at him before… CRACK!

 Its meaty fist connected with Ash’s jaw sending him flying across the room and into the wall, leaving a large bloody smear. Ash promptly healed his shattered jaw and fractured skull, still sticking with his weak and helpless act. Storming over loudly, the ogre loomed over him and hissed a few raspy words at him, Ash didn’t even need to know what they were to figure out they were really toxic insults. The ogre then yanked Ash up by his neck and walked out of the cell, carrying him like a child would a teddy bear.

As the two ascended the stairs of the jail house, Ash could hear a low rumbling noise in the distance, as they got higher and higher, the noise got increasingly louder. Over time the rumbling noise gradually transformed into an eerie chant comprised of roaring and screeching. After they left the safety of the building the noise exploded into a frenzied bloodthirsty death screech. Ash looked straight ahead at the monumental sight of hundreds of goblins and ogres all surrounding a large ring on a section of flattened hill. As the two approached, Ash identified the substance that constructed the ring as blood and the entire tribe was squashed up against it as close as possible, but taking care not to cross it. The spiky ogre abruptly threw Ash to the ground and kicked him in the back, grunting madly. Ash quickly leapt to his feet and walked forward to the ring, the tribe chanting again, with twice the ferocity.

Spiky, as Ash had called him, lead him through the crowd, their passionate screeching sending saliva all over his face. Once they arrived at the centre, Spiky slapped him across the face, knocking out a few of his teeth in the process and then stripped him of all his clothing.

Ash’s face paled, “Oh dear… I didn’t think it was one of these types of events,” thought Ash grimly.

Spiky walked away, leaving a naked, apprehensive Ash in the centre of the hundred metre diameter circle, the chanting slowly coming to a halt. A smaller, older ogre, with furry white hair on its shoulders walked out from the crowd and rambled on about something, using no words that Ash could recognise, and when he finished a loud roar, or perhaps cheer erupted from the crowd. Elsewhere a gong crashed loudly, silencing the crowd and a large goblin, or perhaps a hobgoblin emerged from the audience and approached Ash. He wore no clothing just like him and many painful looking scars lined his body. Other than that, and his venomous smile, nothing else separated him from the others to Ash. The goblin cracked his knuckles threateningly and Ash let out a sigh of relief knowing it was just an ordinary battle to the death.

The gong’s obnoxiously loud clanging sounded from behind Ash and the goblin leapt into action, lunging towards Ash’s throat. Smirking, Ash parried its wild swipe, closed the distance between the two, grabbed its furry ear and kicked it in the back of its knee, knocking it to the ground while simultaneously tearing off its ear. As it screamed in pain, clutching its bleeding ear hole, Ash hopped on its back, ramming its head into the ground. Ash listened to its repeated cursing and hissing as he repeatedly lifted its head as far back as possible before smashing it back down into the ground with as much force as he could muster. The satisfying sound of its screams as its head was driven into the dirt was pleasant, washing over the unpleasant screeching of the crowd.

The clanging of the gong was mere white noise to Ash as he brought the head down again and again. Blood, bone and brain piled up on the soft grass, a stray eye could be found rolling though the bloodied blades.

Ash looked down at the goblin paste before him and sighed, “Only nine times before it gave way. Well, hopefully these others will do better!” he thought to himself as two more naked goblins ran towards him, frothing at the mouths.

Clamping down on the corpse with his legs, Ash rolled over, bringing the corpse above him. The enraged swipes of both new goblins were deflected by their dead friends’ stomach, tearing open the organ and spilling its stomach acid out all over the grass, instantly liquefying it. Ash looked at the powerful acid and thought to himself he should play with that later on. Ash tossed the corpse at the two goblins, one tumbling over backwards and the other rushing towards Ash. A powerful stomp narrowly missed Ash’s skull as he rolled out of the way, leaping to his feet. The goblin charged forward intending to tackle him to the ground and Ash simply side stepped and ran to his friend on the ground, stomping on his head, its brains bursting out of its skull like a party popper. Ash huffed, annoyed at the easiness of the fight as the other goblin came charging towards him again. Instead of simply dodging the charge again he ducked down and flipped the goblin over his shoulder, sending him flat on his back. The goblin’s head hit the ground, sending it into a daze and Ash smiled, ready for another round of playing. Regrettably, after a simple kick to the side of the head, the skull caved in, spearing the brain and killed it instantly.

CLANG! Ash looked around, searching for his new toys, already associating the sound of the gong with more victims to play with. It seemed as if they’d stopped going easy on him as a group of fifteen naked goblins emerged from the crowd. Ash could feel his blood buzzing underneath his skin from excitement and he quickly thought up a plan to take care of them. The feeling of warm blood and the soft squishy texture of flesh as he wriggled his arms around, elbow deep in a corpse for no reason invigorated him. After satisfying his temporary craving, he peeled away at the flesh of a goblin’s thigh and tore out its thigh bone, or femur to be precise. The group of goblins looked horrified at Ash, a slight tinge of fear evident in their eyes. Before they could spread out and surround him, Ashton ran towards them, bringing the bone down onto one of their heads, killing it instantly. The next closest to him swung at him with its long, menacing claws, but Ash ran underneath it, driving the bone upwards through the bottom of its jaw, either killing it or knocking it unconscious.

“Two down, thirteen to go,” laughed Ash, staring lustily at the remaining goblins.