The rusted dagger slashed through the air, before reaching Hecares back. The dagger's shoddy state and the inexperience of the one throwing it meant Hecares suffered miniscule damage. The dagger tip barely stung as it bounced off his skin and clattered harmlessly to the ground. Oh, sure it hadn't hurt, had barely stung in fact, but Hecares was ready to brutalise whoever had dared to attack him.
It had been the older goblin grampa who Hecares had been hunting for. No words were needed this time. He would offer no mercy and accept no pleas. That dagger toss had sealed his fate. The axe was upon the old goblin before he even realised his sneak attack had failed.
First was his arm, Hecares aimed for the elbow, leaving behind a useless stump. The severed limb flopped onto the dirt, excreting a copious amount of blood.
The old goblin's screams didn't even register in Hecares' mind as readied his axe again, this time aiming to embed his blade in the enemy's chest. The old goblin started to retreat which saved his ribs from getting spit by the axe. Hecares had anticipated this backstep and accordingly re-aligned his swing. The blade cut deep into the guts of the goblin, the axe carving a deep opening into the goblin's stomach.
This time the blade failed to gain any leverage. Hecares hadn't been wiping the blood and gore from his blade after each kill, the only reason he hadn't come across problems sooner was because he had been dragging the axe behind him as he walked, the dirt floor taking the worst of the gore off the blade. The consequences of the axe failing to remain embedded were severe for the old goblin.
The slash across his stomach had been deep enough to cut into his intestines. The old goblin therefore faced a choice. Try and retrieve his dagger or attempt to keep his insides, inside. The fool chose the former. His attempt to scramble past Hecares ended in failure as the crimson goblin swung his axe down amputating his leg at the knee. The now detached leg joined the arm in the dirt. Seconds later the old goblin fell face down into the dirt as well, unable to support his body.
The screams of the old goblin couldn't be ignored anymore. Hecares was mostly annoyed by the old man, how rude of him, his siblings were still just babies and wouldn't be able to go back to sleep if he didn't shut this idiot up.
Hecares first made sure the old goblin could no longer move. With one leg and one arm it wouldn't be impossible-just difficult. It seemed the old man's spirit had broken though, as he lay in the dirt crying and screaming. Hecares then retrieved the rusty dagger. He had left this on the goblin uncle's corpse since it was too shoddy to use and he vastly preferred his axe.
The dagger was made of a greyish brown metal. Hecares thought it looked prettier than his stone axe but that it was a much worse weapon. The blade of the dagger was covered in scars and chips, it could barely be used to cut fruit, never mind flesh. The dagger had no handle either, instead the bottom of the blade was wrapped in beast hide to act as a grip. It was uncomfortable in Hecares hand, much worse than the smooth wooden handle of his beloved axe. The dagger barely had a point anymore, having been ground flat.
The goblin uncle had a habit of always pushing the dagger point into the floor and grinding it back and forth when he was stressed or angry. The once sharp point had been blunted over time, yet some semblance of a tip remained. Hecares was still seething. He had worked himself into blind rage and his instincts demanded suffering and blood.
The older goblin, who had begun pitifully crawling towards the passage he came from, was kicked over. He saw the cave ceiling and the red one standing over him. Then his right eye was impaled. The dagger moved nimbly in Hecares' grip and remined lodged in the eye socket he had plunged it into. The old goblin had blacked out from the pain, similar to the grampa goblin from before. This wasn't enough to calm Hecares down.
He reached into the gash in the stomach of the old goblin, ripping out anything he could get his hands around. The intestines came out and the old goblin re-awoke from the pain. He had torn his vocal chords so he could now only wheeze pathetically as Hecares balled his organs up and threw them into the corpse pile.
"Still not enough."
His foot slammed into the hide grip of the dagger as Hecares spoke, sending the blade into the brain of the aggressor. The old goblin spasmed as he died.
"It's still not enough!"
Stomp.
Stomp.
Stomp.
Hecares continued to stomp until the goblin's head had been reduced to a puddle of pulp and fluid. The stench in the corpse room was overwhelming before, but the stink of the fresh kill exacerbated it further. Hecares hefted the corpse over his head, throwing it to the end of the corpse pile. His rage began to cool as he remembered the purpose behind his killing.
"Gotta protect the family…three down, one to go"
He chose to leave the dagger's remains on the floor, in the gore puddle. It had snapped in half from the force of one of Hecares' more violent stomps. It was shoddy before and now it was broken.
The only one left was the sick adult, Hecares had only seen him once. He had been covered in pustules and sores, his arms thin and frail with narrow legs incapable of supporting himself.
He reminded Hecares of his twin. Useless, broken and weak. Food. Right on time the second god chimed in to tell Hecares something or other. He had decided this god was much too free to always be talking to him.
[You have slain a Goblin Elder. 50 EXP has been awarded]
There wasn't much the god said this time, which was fine by Hecares. He actually preferred it like that. He departed the corpse room and began moving back to the main room. Along the way he realised how the old goblin had found him. The blood on his feet and axe had left a trail behind him. Hecares didn't bother trying to hide his marks. It would let the sick uncle know what was in store for him.
Arriving in the main room Hecares saw the sick uncle standing over the body of the dagger uncle he had killed earlier. The sick uncle still looked terrible, but his arms were regaining muscle, his legs could support him now and the sores and pustules were fewer in number. The sick uncle was a full head taller than Hecares, and he was carrying a reddish-brown blade. Hecares had never seen such a weapon before but it looked like a longer dagger.
Hecares didn't immediately charge the sick uncle. That blade scared him a little and the sick uncle hadn't seen him come in. A quieter approach was probably in order.
"You can come out child, I know you're there."
It was a voice racked with pain, but a voice which carried a certain tempered tone. It was a tone which Hecares felt he could trust. It lacked all the fear and hate which Grampa had in his voice.
Hecares stepped out from the darkened passage. The sick uncle sucked air in between his teeth, realising what had prompted the others to act.
"Cursed by the gods and an Overlord? Life dealt you a terrible hand child."
"What do you mean uncle? The gods talk to me all the time, especially after I kill"
Hecares' intelligence threw the sick uncle off. Normally it took fourteen days before the children could speak, but this one was only two days old. Overlords were truly abnormal.
"That's no god child, that's the Spirit. Everything you do is seen by the Spirit and performing deeds will let you grow stronger faster."
The second god wasn't a god? Hecares felt betrayed, at least the weird first god had told him it was a god before talking in his head.
"You're really smart uncle, so now tell me what an eeexpee is!"
"My name isn't 'uncle' child. I am called Sopo, chieftain of this clan."
"Cool! But I still want to know what eeexpee is"
Sopo sighed. Never in all his years had he been questioned so intently.
"EXP is how your growth is tracked by the Spirit. I'll teach you more later, for now help me take these bodies to the pile."
Hecares temporarily shut up. The promise of more knowledge was attractive and Sopo hadn't even tried to kill him. He liked this adult so far. Hecares quickly got to work, using his reliable axe to cut apart the dagger uncle's body.
"Child, what are you doing?"
Hecares revised his opinion. Sopo wasn't as smart as him, but he was still better than every other adult.
"The body is too big to carry. I'm too small still and you're still sick. If we cut him up we can move him piece by piece.
Sopo thought for a second, before agreeing.
"Alright we'll do it this way then child"
Sopo's blade cut through flesh even better than Hecares' axe. He was intensely jealous of Sopo because of this and decided his second order of business was to get an axe which would beat that shiny blade.
They worked in silence. The goblin grampa and uncle were both hauled to the main cave, dismantled and then hauled into the corpse room. Sopo called it "emergency rations" which Hecares didn't get, but he trusted the older goblin to make use of the corpses.
"Where is Soko's body child?"
"Soko?"
"The other Elder Goblin"
"I already tossed him in, he tried to ambush me, but he was too weak, so I killed him"
Sopo picked his way through the mass grave until he found Soko. The sight of the goblin he had been through thick and thin with, now reduced to a brutalised corpse, produced only derision in Sopo. To be beaten by a child, truly a waste of greenskin.
"You said he was weak young one- what do you think his weakness was?"
Hecares didn't need to think about his answer.
"He threw the dagger at me instead of sneaking up to gouge my eyes out or slamming it into the back of my head. He wasn't violent enough."
"This is truly an Overlord" thought Sopo. The intelligence, the absurd growth, the propensity for violence and his absurd skill with that axe. This child would one day place all the world beneath his feet and stomp it to death just like he had done to Soko.
"Ah I forgot to grab my brother and sister."
"Why would you bring them here young one?"
Sopo never forgot the next thing Hecares said and the cold dead look in his eyes as he said it.
"Well they got crushed to death by Grampa while I was fighting him. It's sad they died but I don't feel pity for them. They were just too weak."
Hecares turned and left the corpse room, dragging his axe along with him on his way back to the nursery. Sopo remained still in front of the pile of rotting flesh and wondered aloud
"Have I misjudged the child? Surely an Overlord will lead us to prosperity, just like the old stories say?"
Hecares remained blissfully unaware of the turmoil in Sopo's heart.
The entire goblin population in fact remained blissfully unaware of the mass panic the humans were going through. In a bar in Mena a man sat unconcerned with the "Crimson Tyrant" nonsense. He just wanted to get his latest job, then drink 'till he passed out. He was one of the few men sat in the bar at this time. Most respectable folk wouldn't start drinking until 5pm, but Regulus had been here since 9am.
"Ah uhm are you Regulus?"
Regulus looked up from his mug of ale to see a thin bespectacled man standing in front of him.
"And you must be that fancy researcher fella, Reece right, what can I do for ya?"
Reece stood trying to find the right words to describe the delicate matter he had in mind. Noticing the apprentice researcher's unease, Regulus rose to his feet, yelling at the barkeeper as he did so.
"Marty, I'm using the backroom, tell anyone who comes lookin me that I died!"
Marty to his credit kept quiet as Regulus dragged Reece into the musty backroom. Regulus regularly used it for clients who wanted to avoid prying ears. The backroom was furnished with only a single table, which bore many indents all of which were a result of Regulus growing tired of the constant haggling he dealt with. Slamming a knife into the table made people shut up and pay most of the time. The knife went somewhere else if they were still averse to paying him.
"So, then mister smarty pants whadda ya want from a simple hunter like me?"
Reece's timid persona vanished as he produced a bag of gold.
"The intact body of the new Overlord, the Crimson Tyrant. 100 gold upfront, 1,000 on completion with subtractions from this amount should you fail to get an intact corpse."
"No messin huh, well alright fine, when do you want the little bastard brought in?"
"Two months from now at the latest"
"Done deal Mr. Researcher, see ya in 2 months"
Reece stopped at the door, turning back to Regulus who was busy counting his coins.
"Don't delay, an Overlord is still an Overlord"
Reece departed at this point and Regulus snorted.
"Pfft its still a goblin though, 2 months isn't enough time for it to grow up at all."
That 100 gold was going to keep Regulus drunk for the month, the stupid baby goblin could wait.