No more,
he thought to himself as he still struggles to catch his breathe.
He has been scarred, belittled and shamed.
Dignity.....?, he no longer has such a thing.
Why should dignity have to be of importance in the first place?, not when a life is at risk.
He thought he could take it all as long as it does not kill him, but he was wrong.
He has been berated and turned into nothing.
His pride now more worthless than junk itself.
He is scared,
Scared that the Goblin king's word would soon come to pass.
He said he would surely break with enough time, and surely enough, the chained Goblin's heart is starting to waver.
All forms of resistance towards the Goblins treatment on him is starting to feel accomodative and acceptable.
Not knowing if days, months, or years have gone by.
Just sitting in the cell pooping and peeing all over it, and only given a tiny portion of meat that would not even satisfy a kid much less an adult.
After eating, comes the streak of the brutal torture carried out on him by both the first and fourth general.
He cannot say for certain how much time has passed, but he knows that a lot of time has gone by while he was locked in here.
He has started cracking and it is only a matter of time before his shell breaks and they grasp full control over him.
He finds his situation a little bit similar to that of what main characters in a story goes through,
Being of a lowly born and having someone from a higher position bear animosity towards you.
He finds it ridiculous and nonsensical because he does not believe in things like a protagonist and an antagonist.
More often do you see stories involving a peasant climbing his way up to becoming a royal, with the other nobles harboring hatred towards him/her.
Such a person is referred to as a protagonist, while the nobles baring hatred are known as antagonist.
The protagonist are meant to be liked by the masses because they are pitiful and deserve to have a better life,
While the antagonist are to be hated because they are an hindrance to the protagonist.
"....."
How stupid is that?....
He does not believe in a logic as dumb as that, and finds it even repulsive that such logic existed to begin with.
What his believe is centered on, is "choice".
Both the protagonist and antagonist are both beings born and are destined to one day vacate the world.
Why should there have to be a difference between the two when it is their choice that guides them to becoming what they are.
Protagonist, antagonist. Are both people with lives to live.
The protagonist getting maltreated by the antagonist, before eventually getting strong enough to vanquish the antagonist is a porpostrous idea for the chained Goblin.
One should not be favored more than the other, but rather they should both be portrayed in an equal limelight.
That is why, the chained Goblin does not think of himself as a protagonist nor does he think of the king Goblin as an antagonist.
He does hate the king Goblin to the point that he would stab him every chance he gets, but that is not enough to delude himself into thinking he is a bad person.
The chained Goblin, has taken lives of many while trying to survive,
So who is he to say the Goblin king is a bad person for trying to protect what is his?.
He thinks of the king Goblin as just another one trying to protect what he has worked so hard for, from the hands of the one destined to take it away from him.
He is protecting his prized possession in his very own way that he knows he can.
The same goes for the chained Goblin.
If he ever finds himself in the same situation as the king Goblin, he would no doubt have taken drastic action to nipping it in the bud.
With that said, what difference is there between he and the king Goblin?.
The answer is none. There is no difference.
what there is, are two different people with a choice of their own, each contradicting the other.
A protagonist?..,
A funny joke that should never be related to a world where survival is all that matters.
This is the real world, and in it, there are people with different mindset and logic.
A world filled with a large number of people, so how come just one person can be considered as a protagonist over the others?.
What about them?, what about the life they have lived?, what about the struggles they have had to put up with all this time?.
He is no protagonist, neither is the king.
This, is not a world of a protagonist and an antagonist.
This is a world of survival, and what they both are,
Are people doing their best to survive.
And from now on, he plans to do his very best to survive as well.
***
From his abdomen, he held his breathe in.
After a while, he releases it heavily.
He performed this acts a few more times before stopping.
This was an action meant to prepare his mentality for what he is about to do next.
He wobbled up and activated his Meta Strength skill.
With the effect of the skill, he pushed himself forward to try to break free from the chain, but it did not budge.
He stops and pulled the chain itself, but it still did not budge.
He already knew it wasn't going to work, but he had no choice to at least give it a try, because he was scared of using the alternative he had thought of.
Having no other choice, he proceeded to use his last hope of getting out of here.
He grabbed the chain that tied down his left hand, close to the wrist.
he then activated his thorn manipulation skill and sprouted out thorn from his right palm.
He squeezed his face hard as he aims the thorn on his left wrist.
The thorn sharply sliced through his wrist in one cut, and blood gushed out fast.
He squeezed his face harder, and wraps his mouth inward as he painfully endured the throbbing pain from his wrist.
He activated the thorn Manipulation Skill once more, and this time, he sprouted the thorn from the hole of the hand that had just had it wrist cut off.
He did that to stop the hand from bleeding out.
He endures another streak of pain, and stood still for some time.
When the pain had minimized, he continued his actions until he had done his four limbs.
All replaced with thorns coming out of them.
As for the feet, he altered the shape of the thorn to look exactly like the feet he had cut off, while the hands are just plain thorn meant to cut through anything.
He makes his way to the cell gate to begin his escape away from here, while enduring the pain coursing through his body.