In the hut made of straw and mud, children lay starving while adults lay on mats that will soon become their deathbeds. Food had been scarce after the war had started, and it would only get worse. The elders talk in whispers about the smell of food two miles away, as the few remaining warriors offer to go on the hunt. This is the meeting of goblins, a race like any other that is willing to do now anything to survive.
"Be careful, I sense bloodlust in the distance," Luciel whispered into Doryu's ear.
The human was walking barefoot across the forest, trying to find the smallest creature out there to "fight." Doryu was good at perceiving threats and even better at running from them; that was what he had done for the past sixteen years of his life before his deal with the dragon, a habit he didn't plan on stopping.
He finally comes across a small creature that resembles a rabbit, yet nowhere close to the animal's speed. The creature is covered from head to toe in white fur that weighed it's stubby little legs down. One might say it looked cute, but for Doryu, he had learned there were no exceptions in life.
As he reached down ready to strangle the creature to death, an arrow whisks past Doryu, grazing his cheek.
He feels uneasy, his world starts to slowly dim.
"Poison" he whispers. But it is nowhere as bad as the chimera's, his five senses are still intact, allowing him to hear the sound of sprinting behind him. He is barely able to sidestep away from the arc of a scimitar. He looks up, the yellow eyes of a goblin looks back at him. A monster that would warrant the need for an adventurer to intervene. "I can't do it" he thinks to himself.
"GRAAAAA!" The sound of screaming echoes around him, as half a dozen other goblins march out of the thick vegetation.
They have him surrounded.
The poison makes his movements sluggish, more and more of his vision becomes black. So when Doryu dodges the arc of another scimitar, he couldn't react to the rush of two other goblins that had snuck up behind him. Doryu feels the blow of two hammers smash his back, bones are broken, he coughs up blood. The traumatized child sees red.
Doryu's entire world becomes that one hue. The goblins start to fade into the background, his wariness starts to slip away and in its place is unfiltered anger.
He stretches out his hands, as each fingernail slowly turns into crimson red claws. The goblins are shouting at him, but Doryu doesn't care. The person who has always run away from threats takes a lunge forward for the first time.
He slashes across the torso of one goblin before twisting around to dodge the hammer swing of another. The warrior has his mouth open in shock, Doryu uses it as his chance to plunge his dragon claw-like hand into the chest of the goblin. Before anyone else could come to the fallen warrior's aid, Doryu picks up the blunt weapon and throws it at a goblin charging towards his right.
Three down, four to go.
He feels arrows pierce his body, he doesn't care. All he wants now is to kill.
Flesh is ripped apart, bones are shattered, as the shouts of the goblins start to quiet one by one. Until there is only one left. The one who holds a bow, poison-tipped arrow locked in. He shoots, Doryu weaves around it.
Before the goblin can load another arrow, Doryu is in front of him. The two of them stare at one another as a wave of understanding passes.
The claws of a human pierce the goblin.
The hunter has become the prey.
Afterward, Doryu drinks each goblin's blood. Before the world grows dark.
In the small village of goblins tucked deep inside the forest, seven children will never see their Fathers again.
Around the forest a war is taking place. One that will soon involve Doryu.