'A B-class monster and I'm below half my mana capacity and missing a hand, should I just run?' Kayn couldn't stop from thinking that he should just run since he was outclassed in every way currently.
This thought stopped though when he looked behind the hobgoblin into the tent and saw several women of all races, including younger ones that had to be around his age, all with swollen stomachs.
Behind these women he saw a pen that was full of young goblins who were probably no more than a few months old running around and eating bodies that were thrown in there for them.
"I'll kill you, you bastard!" Kayn shouted out at the top of his lungs. His rage began to peak once more even if he didn't understand exactly why. But he couldn't stand innocent people being enslaved and abused, especially children. On top of that they were being used as play-things to reproduce more goblins.
Since the time from conception to becoming a full adult goblin was around 7 months, it was no wonder goblins were able to form giant groups to raid with.
Kayn had read that when a woman was impregnated with goblin seed, their bodies wouldn't necessarily change or give birth faster than their races normal time period, but the goblins would cut out the babies after 2 months or so of pregnancy.
Each birth wasn't individual, but a birth of a litter of monsters. Each pregnancy resulted in around 6-10 goblins each.
Kayn was once again glad that he didn't bring Kinzie along because if he ended up running, he didn't believe she would be able to keep up with him and would end up in a similar state to these women.
Kayn ended up coming to the conclusion that the young goblins were most likely eating their mothers who were killed giving birth to them. At that point Kayn's irises had turned completely black while the whites of his eyes turned purple.
"UNFORGIVABLE!"
He was seething with rage and wanted nothing more than to bestow his wrath upon monster in front of him.
The hobgoblin noticed his change in state and began to charge at him since it was time to kill the being in front of it. Kayn's right hand moved faster than the hobgoblin though as a stream of black translucent fire shot out of his palm and covered everything in front of him.
The hobgoblin leader, the tent, the pregnant women, the children, nothing was spared from the fire as it began not to burn what it touched, but disintegrate everything in its path, as if nothing existed there in the first place.
On top of that black lightning bolts encompassed Kayn's body and began to spread out around him. The lightning vaporized the rock surrounding Kayn as it continued to expand. Without even thinking about it, Kayn began to float by using a wind spell.
It was as if he wasn't in control of his body anymore as his rage had taken over. His anger was controlling his movements and thoughts and Kayn was barely aware of what was going on around him.
The black fire and lightning were two unstoppable forces of destruction that left nothing in their path. Nothing remained where they passed with the sole exception of the hobgoblin, it seemed that Kayn was controlling the fire and lightning around it.
The lightning stopped the hobgoblin's movements while burning away at its flesh. Fire coated every part of its body. The armor that it was wearing had vanished and its skin was gone, while now even its muscles were disappearing without it being able to do anything.
The fire and lightning had only been cast by Kayn for a total of 3 seconds, but everything in front of him was gone except for the still screaming hobgoblin. The fire and lightning disappeared at that point and a sneer appeared on Kayn's face.
"So, you like playing with innocent women and children huh? I guess it's my turn to play with you."
Kayn spoke at he ran toward the hobgoblin that was laying on the ground still shuddering from electrical shock. Kayn kicked the hobgoblin as hard as he could, sending it flying toward the wall, creating an indentation in the hard rock wall.
He wasn't in his right mind or really in control of his actions, all he wanted was to inflict pain upon this hobgoblin leader that had tortured these women and children. He wasn't even aware that he had just killed every single one of them and not even a particle of dust remained of their bodies.
Even though Kayn was shorter than the hobgoblin, he still picked him up by the neck and held it as high as he could while floating slightly above the ground before placing the stump that was his left hand below the hobgoblin's crotch and casting ice magic to freeze it.
He continued to channel the ice magic for at least 10 seconds before switching to regular fire in order to activate the thermal shock effect that would take place. The hobgoblin's consciousness came back at that point, but its muscles were so deteriorated from the black fire and lightning that all it could do was scream in pain.
Kayn continued to burn and freeze different parts of the hobgoblin's body until life left its eyes. At which point Kayn finally dropped what was left of the torso and head to the ground.
It was only then that Kayn turned around to go and rescue the women and to see if there was something he could do about the monsters growing inside them that he realized what he had done when he saw nothing there.
At that point his rage was snuffed out like a match under a waterfall. His eyes reverted to normal while he fell to his knees. Kayn's mind was a mess at the atrocity he had just committed.
'I'm a monster.' This was Kayn's last thought before he passed out from exhaustion, blood loss, and overuse of his mana.
…
Kayn woke up only to see the sun already high in the sky and there were tree branches in his line of sight. Kayn's reflex to get up as fast as possible kicked in, but when his stumped left arm hit the ground, pain shot through his arm sending a shock through his brain.
Kayn looked over at his left arm only to see that it had been crudely bandaged to stop the bleeding. He then used only his right arm to sit up and take a good look around at his surroundings.
He saw five women or more precisely four women and one teenager looking at him with a mix of expressions. The younger ones showed fear while the older gratitude, respect, and sorrow. They were all now dressed in makeshift clothing scavenged from the goblins and were sitting around a fire.
"So, you've finally woken up. I apologize that I wasn't able to wrap your arm better, but none of us here have been trained in first aid aside from simple wound dressing." Kayn turned his head to the one who had spoken only to realize it was the 2nd stage magic swordsman, or in this case swordswoman.
He raised his hand and shook his head to try and convey that it wasn't a big deal as he wasn't really in the mood to talk with these people right now. He still had his clothing on, so he wasn't concerned with them having seen his face either, not that it mattered to him right now.
"My name is Carline, I am a guard for the Morath family, of which these three belong. Thank you for saving us, however, we should try to leave here and return to a town soon. There can be dangerous rune beasts in these woods, and I want to get my mistress and her daughters treated and safe." Carline spoke with a somber tone.
Kayn only nodded his head and then lowered it to look at the ground. Carline noticed tears silently falling from his eyes and couldn't help but ask what was wrong, he should be happy he was alive and able to save a few.
"I killed them. The pregnant ones in the back of the cavern. I didn't mean to, it just…happened. I'm a murderer, does that make you see me in a different light?" Kayn couldn't help but mutter without thinking much.
Carline's eyes widened at that point, but she soon regained her calm and spoke in a voice that sounded motherly. She realized that the person in front of her couldn't be as old as she assumed.
"From your tone and seeming lack of knowledge, it would appear you're quite young. I'm impressed with how powerful you are despite your age. But just know that even if you killed them, that's the greatest mercy anyone could give those women." Carline paused before continuing.
"Unless it's caught within the first week, there is no turning back from being impregnated by a goblin. No amount of medicine or magic has been discovered to cleanse those vile beings from a woman's body. They were dead when the second week of their pregnancy began. And why is that?
"Each pregnancy produces a small litter of goblins, and no humanoid species can hold that many offspring to their race's full term without exploding from the inside since goblins grow so quickly. And if the monsters are removed through an incision after the first week, they release a toxin into the woman's body that will kill her within a few hours anyway."
Kayn glanced at Carline to look into her eyes at this point to search for any dishonesty. He wanted to know she wasn't just making up lies to make him feel better about what he had done. Seeing that there didn't seem to be any deception, he closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind for a few minutes to calm his thoughts.
As he was in the process of standing up and about to grab his bag that was used as a pillow, Carline once again spoke.
"Before we set off, since you were able to use healing magic, would you happen to be able to use a diagnostic spell to determine if any of us were impregnated? Since it has only been around a day since we were all initially captured, it would be fairly easy for a healer to rid those parasites from our bodies." Carline had a desperate look in her eyes as she pleaded with Kayn.
Kayn silently nodded and began to perform his diagnostic spell to get as detailed of a view as he could of their wombs before seeping darkness magic into anything foreign that didn't belong or was trying to take root. Lastly, he used light and water to heal any injuries they may have sustained internally.
The younger girl was startled when Kayn began to approach her, but her mother calmed her down enough to let Kayn finish his work. As a light in the darkness, it appeared his initial speculation was correct that nothing aside from the bruising and cuts had happened to her before he arrived.
After he completed his task, he picked up his bag with his right arm and slung it over his back to get his left arm into the loop.
"We should first stop at the ambush site of your carriage to see if we can find better clothing and maybe a couple of bags for you all. Myrem is the closest town to here, it should take us a week and a half if we remain on the road and encounter no troubles. I will escort you all there."
Kayn was tired to put it lightly, and he didn't want to expose that he could heal his hand in front of these people with his current core strength. He just grew some skin over the wound site in order to prevent infection and rewrapped it out of the women's sight.
It was time to begin the journey back, and Kayn couldn't wait to heal himself and sleep for a day or two. He needed time to sort out his thoughts after what had happened.