Somehow, I am the only one that only looks in disgust. Most of the others that entered the room with me have sad faces. Some have mad faces aiming their anger at the goblins.
"What do you think you're doing, hnreeh?" An extremely annoying voice is heard from across the room. It's extremely high pitched and scratchy, almost like an old man.
One of the young men that entered with me then speaks out. "We are here to seek vengeance against you horrid monsters!" After he shouts that many of the young men start charging after the goblins, the older ones stay behind to stop any from escaping.
It's a massacre. Goblin blood is everywhere. I bring myself to wondering, why didn't they do this sooner. I bring myself closer and closer to asking.
"So why didn't you do this before?" I end up asking one of the older men.
"Because of the lord of goblins that lives here, we would have died, but you seem strong so maybe you can save us." The old man says leaving a lot of holes in my understanding. Lord of goblins?
The lord of goblins must have been the voice we heard after entering the room. I don't see why this old man expects me to defeat something that could keep this army of people at bay. Either way, the once captives are now taking on their captors. If they fail now, when their morale is highest, It would be a tragic tale.
The women are screaming, the men are also killing them. It seems like I did the right thing in the last room, at least to soothe the pain they must have felt. The blood floods the floor, soaking into the stone. Purple blood and Red blood, It makes a maroon colour, it is wonderful.
Chunks of goblin flesh and human flesh scatter the floor, It's anomalously enlightening. Learning what I see as beautiful is something this gruesome is fearsome.
I don't quite understand this feeling, I must be smiling, seeing all of these monsters die. But people are also dying, so why am I still happy? Maybe I see them as monsters after what happened to them, even if they can't control that.
I feel confused, should I prepare myself for combat when all of the enemies are being slain? Although nobody has slain the leader of the monsters, I feel so relieved. Although, I should trust the old man so I might as well prepare myself.
Wait. Now that I notice it, all of the fighting noise has stopped, and the goblins are nearly all vanquished. In my opinion, it isn't good to let your guard down too early. I can still feel the energy of monsters in this room.
I can feel an overwhelming blood lust coming from the room, extremely intimidating. A lot of the men, that are malnourished and wounded, throw up as soon as the presence can be felt. Even I am frightened, not as much as most of the men though.
I wonder why they trust me, the captives that is. I have a hair colour similar to tattered books, and the eye colour of a demon. That's all anyone called me when I was a baby, "Demon", until I told them my actual name.
I don't know why they didn't kill me if that's what they thought about me, or maybe it was just a comment on how I looked and they didn't actually hate me? I don't know entirely but it's always good to think of the past as you can learn from it.
Either way, I expect the goblin lord to make its appearance soon, I will try my best against it, for the people that survived this torment. I believe I should do at least this much for them after finding them in such a condition. I just hope I can do that much, as they all seem to fear this being.
I ready my axe for the grand combat that I expect to be under way soon. My heart is beating at a rather rapid pace, and my legs are trembling. That's how noticeable this malice is, it drives me to such fear of the prior beast that destroyed everything I have ever known since childhood.
Although if you were to think about it carefully, as I have you might notice that it is just leading goblins and turning them into functional human-like monsters that socialise. Then again that makes it sound much scarier.
Either way, It couldn't be as bad as the troll. At least not in my opinion. Others may think it is stronger based on its presence alone but that would be a false assumption.
The goblin lord comes out from behind what seems to be a throne at the top of the room. It's about the same height as most of the men here. It has an animal skull for a helmet and a few scars on its face. Its skin is a grass-like colour and it has a muscular physique.
It wears cloth around its waist, but that's all it wears. The weapon it has in its hand is a large sword around the same height as itself, although it does look dull, almost as if the blade hasn't been used or taken care of in a while.
It has a dark green metal armour on one of its arms and one of its legs. I doubt they made it so maybe they found it on one of the captives while they captured them. I find myself disgusted by these fiendish monsters, well, I guess I have been for some time now.
Wait. It's fast. It's already down from its throne and attacking people on the floor. How in the world did it get down so fast? Maybe jumping? I don't have a clue but I would like to know.
I run up to the beast and swing my axe at its body, of course it dodges. Now that I notice it, it seems to have had a glow around it, a light purple glow. Magic?
After avoiding me it goes on to cut down two of the captives with its long blade. Well, I understand that. If my entire team got ripped apart by someone we had imprisoned, I would attack the former prisoners too. But the difference is this one being a monster, that makes me not want to relate to it.
I yet again go in for a swing with the large axe only to get slashed at before I can even manage to reach the beast. It hurts. I have a massive cut across my chest, blood is flowing out. I don't think it got too deep but I dislike this feeling.
Now that I am fighting it, it might be stronger than the troll was, it just lacks the ability to heal. . . So as long as I hit it once it might take a large amount of damage!
I think it is about time I tried using magic again too, after all, I have all of this blood floating above me from that massive attack! Why not try making the blood into more of the sword blades and have them fly at the goblin lord!
I attempt to turn all of the blood above me into many swords, but the most I can do is an icicle-like shape. This should do some damage if I can throw them right. I could make around five of these magical projectiles.
Lets try throwing one of them while the goblin lord is distracted while massacring all of the survivors. I might as well, right? While it thinks I am dead or crippled heavily.
I aim toward the beast-like goblinoid and attempt to throw the blood thing at it. It moved when I willed it too, although it is moving at a rather rapid speed. I didn't think it would actually move!
Whoa, it hit, in the arm but it still hit. I don't believe it hardened as much as I would have hoped. It still did some damage though! Maybe I should make the projectiles smaller and thinner, like arrows. I'll try.
Well, it noticed me again. And it is headed directly for me. Maybe I should try defending before attacking again.
I bring the crimson blood mass floating above me and attempt to bring it down and guard me from the goblin lord. It moves, now it's time to solidify! Yup, nope. I don't think I have enough experience yet.
The large wall of blood should slow down the goblin lord though, while that happens I can try to prepare a strong attack.
I hold the axe above my head and prepare to slice down right at the goblin lord. The goblin lord follows through the blood wall and I swing down my axe atop it, catching its shoulder and cutting off its left arm, blood gushing everywhere from its stub of an arm, disgusting purple blood. Wait, there is red blood too. Now that I notice it, I don't feel the lower half of my left arm either. Nor do I have the axe in my hands.
I feel warm, warmer than ever before. I focus all of my remaining strength on hardening the blood on the goblin lord's face. It works, but I fall unconscious as I see the beast fall.
I wake up to the extreme pain of my nub where my forearm used to be. The wound has been cauterised and is no longer bleeding, I feel extremely weak. I don't know if it is just because my arm is gone. It might also be because I lost so much blood in my last fight with the goblin lord, wait where am I even?
Oh yeah, I'm still in the cave where the goblin city was. Why wouldn't they have taken me with them? Was it because of my heavy injuries, well, they did try to fix my arm at least. My chest wound is no longer open; it has been seared shut just as my arm has. Now that I think of it, I might just feel weak because I lost a fight against a goblin, or I guess tied?
Wait a minute, the wounds that were closed are delicately burned, like it was with magic, none of the people that were caught could use magic, so who or what healed me?
Now that I think about it my body feels extremely sticky, probably from all of the human and goblin blood. I should probably get moving even though I am exhausted, I think I'll try to wash off in the stream in the mushroom fields.
Now that I am up and can see my surroundings, I can see I really did a number on the beast, half of its head is missing. The area I am currently in may be littered with bodies of monsters and people but it is still quite a well designed room, it has a multitude of large chairs all circling around the centre of the room almost as if this area was used as some sort of entertainment facility.
Either way I should probably keep moving, the pain from my wounds is immense, but if it means survival I can take it. It's definitely harder to do everything with these wounds, I actually need a new weapon too, the axe and the long sword are both missing even if I could have tried using one of those. I think a stone knife should work just fine for now, I doubt I will find any more goblins.
Now that I am no longer inside the small room, the area seems to have been evacuated at an earlier time, did they really leave me behind? That's fine, as someone did stop me from bleeding out with the wounds I had. I should just focus on finding the exit.
Before I leave I decide to take a rest and bathe at the stream near the waterfall. I don't enjoy being covered in blood after all. My clothes are also ruined to the point of no return so I might need to find somewhere to get new clothes when I find the exit.
I feel much more refreshed after bathing, the pain has gotten a lot worse after all of the movements that I have been doing since getting up though. I really do hope the exit isn't too far from here, the sooner I can rest in comfort the better.
Although, I do doubt that just anyone would allow a nearly naked, bloodstained, child that's missing their left arm into their own home out of the goodness in their hearts. Some people might but that doesn't mean everyone is the same, some people might degrade you for looking like I do currently.
Either way, I can figure out what I will do after I get out of this hellhole, when I eventually do get out. Let's hope that will be sooner than later. Now that I think about it, there was a strange mark on my neck when I looked at myself in the water. It seems to be some sort of bite mark? But it isn't an indent or scar, it's a dark velvet colour and it doesn't change even when I try to wipe it off. It's almost like the mark that those one mages left on my arm when I was younger.
I can see where all of the people probably started heading as there seems to have been quite a lot of traffic through the area. I might as well just head in that direction assuming they were right on their choice. They really did a number on the path though, It looks almost nothing like it did back last time I went through it. Even though I may be in extraordinary pain, I somehow don't feel that bad.
The tunnel seems to have shrunk a little bit, now that I think about it a little harder, the pain isn't only coming from my arm and chest, it's coming from everywhere. But it seems to be much easier to get through the tunnels now that it's smaller.
I think I might be getting close to the exit based on the trail, for some reason it's starting to get even more wore down as it continues almost as if even more people have been through here compared to the rest of the path. Although that doesn't quite make sense. Where are the rest of the people coming from?
Strangely the closer I get to the supposed exit the louder the noise of laughing and cheering gets, almost as if some sort of party was going on outside the exit. Maybe some sort of celebration for all of the lost people that were found?
Well I found the exit. It's cloaked in crimson curtains that seem reasonably expensive. The curtains lead into a building, behind a counter. I assume this must be a restaurant or maybe even a tavern. Well either way, the speaking coming from said building seems to be that of the humans meaning it should be safe to enter.
Behind the crimson cloth is a room filled with what seem to be travellers, the travellers surround different tables in groups and are occasionally served food and brew by a young looking lady. The room seems to be made of an expensive dark wood, it has circular windows that have glass and curtains, the curtains being the same crimson colour.
I think I should just enter the room, whatever happens, happens. I don't think I should be too worried as I am sure the other people came through here and told them about what happened just a small while ago.
I walk into the room and the entire room falls silent.
" Who are you, young man?" An older lady I didn't see earlier that was behind the counter asks me in an extremely curious tone.
"Didn't the others tell you about me?" I ask another question as an answer and instead of a reply The lady gazes at a group of the travellers, a team of three that I don't recognise.
"No, Nobody has gone in or come out since this morning, and you certainly aren't someone that was verified for entry with that missing arm of yours." She states in an extremely professional tone, seeming rather upset at my presence. " Now that I think about it, I have heard tales of a young boy with a missing arm being in a room that couldn't be entered, but I only heard that story a few times." She says, now, again, in a more curious tone.
"What do you mean? I just woke up after the big fight, it shouldn't have been that long. There should have been a group of injured people coming through here not that long ago." I explain my situation in a little more detail than before.
"Do you happen to be the young vagabond from five years ago that saved that group of people? That should be impossible as it is rumoured that he died in the fight, although your wounds do fit. Along with your somewhat monstrous presence." The middle aged woman then lets out a sigh as she finishes questioning me.
What does she mean by monstrous presence? Wait, even more importantly, Five years?! How long was I sleeping for? I didn't think it could have been that long as I did have a dream.
"Either way, you should have something to eat, on the house." The older lady says, now handing out a loaf of bread to me. Would she have reacted differently if I was still covered in the monster blood?
"I thank you for your charity!" I graciously accept the bread I was given by the middle aged lady as she pushes me out of her tavern.
What an outrageous lady, pushing a one armed orphan out into the wilderness in rags. No, I expected this much as I did just show up from that cave in shredded clothing along with a missing arm. At Least she decided to give me some of her bread, which was an incredibly kind gesture to the likes of me.
Now that I am at the entrance of the tavern I can see its name, "The Goblin's Grove". What a unique name, perhaps they use the goblin village as an attraction for all of the tourists? Funnily though the entrance of the tavern is on a trail through the woods that makes me surprised it has any activity inside of it.
What should I do now that I am out? I have nowhere to go back to as my entire family and home was destroyed by the forest troll when I went to town. Wait a minute, maybe I could ask Viktor if I could live with him, we were friends after all. But I doubt he would even show up at our old meeting place. How about I just go to a guild hall in town and see if I can sign up.
The bread I was given is extremely delicious, after eating all of that goblin flesh it feels good to eat something as good as bread. Either way, I feel almost as if it is my first time eating in centuries as the bread completely disappears as soon as I take my first bite. I must have been out for quite a while to be that hungry.
It may have actually been a few years after all, the forest looks much different than before, different plants are growing and flourishing, some of the forest has been burned down, this new trail is here, so much has changed so I doubt I was only there for a month.
Now that I think about it, this is rather pleasant. It smells like nature and the world is so bright. I love it here, in the forest meadows, the delicate rays of sunlight hitting me through the leaves to make its own kind of effect that I have only seen in the days of my youth. It is quite wonderful.
Wait a minute, now that I think about it even more, I do seem to be taller than I was when I fell unconscious in the goblin city, much taller than back then. I might even be as tall as some of the young men I saved.
This trail is rather long, almost as if it runs around the city, or is off to a side of the main road. Now that I think about it I wonder how the orphanage is doing. Did anyone notice the strange lack of me in the streets every new week? Maybe the baker? I am extremely curious.
I think after getting clothing and a weapon I might head there to check on it and maybe bury any remains I can find. I do believe the people that I grew up with deserve some sort of burial after what they went through in their passing.
I think I can see the gates of the city now. They seem much smaller than before yet they are receiving as much traffic as usual. Lets hope I can get inside and find a place to rest.