Lil' Jubu was stoked. Not too long ago, the Chief of their goblin village had been selected for Ascension. He was now an attendant of the gods and their whole village got to move to heaven! Life's been pretty smooth sailing ever since, as heaven has been super accommodating for all of them.
Lil' Jubu looked around at all of his goblin brothers and sisters in approval. 'Case and point,' he thought. A local emissary had visited their new home in heaven, and informed them that they had all been invited to a special showing. The entire village came! All 86 of them! This was a very special occasion, as blood runs deep, but organizing an entire family of goblins was hard since, well, ya know… business is business.
Normally they were busy stabbing, robbing, hunting, looting, pillaging, burning, executing, enslaving, destroying and violating any sort of decency in general. That's a busy schedule! He smiled, 'Only the big wigs in heaven could organize such a feat!'
Lil' Jubu leaned back in his reclining chair and grabbed his bucket of popcorn. He watched as his family members took their seats within this theater, which was located within an arena. It was all very elaborate! Who knew that the citizens of heaven would want to watch a group of goblins enjoy a movie? What a treat! They were even playing some badass Heavy Earth music too!
Jubu's favorite part was the fact that they even let them bring their emotional support tools with them. Jubu always felt a little emotionally distraught whenever he didn't have his bat with him. His favorite goblin carried a bat, and he made it all the way to the stars! One day, he will too.
A magical ball of light appeared and it floated down from the sky and floated above the open air theater. It shot against the wall and morphed into a giant curved movie screen. One of the village elders rolled in a cart with a projector on it. The projector had duct tape on the corners and someone scribbled "FRAGILE!!" on the side with a permanent marker.
The goblin elder smacked the side of the projector and it kicked on, shooting white light onto the screen. Lil' Jubu could hear Glurt shout "I'LL KILL HIM!" in the audience, but he didn't recognize the voice and thought nothing of it. The goblin elder shrugged and walked to a nearby open seat.
The lights dimmed and the music stopped.
Another ball of light came down from the sky and floated above the theater. Unlike the previous light, this one was very small, about the size of a pencil tip. The tiny light slowly descended into the projector and the screen now had an image. A few bright flashes from above summoned in a few big speakers and now the theater had sound.
The goblins "Ooo"ed at the screen as a cinematic intro of their beloved Chief appeared in front of them. Lil' Jubu clapped at the sight. Any win for his Chief was a win for him!
The cinematography was super heroic. There was a montage of the Chief working his way up through the ranks. His head looked up towards the stars and he clenched his fist in anticipation. The next scene began. It depicted a dramatic courtroom. The camera zoomed in to the Chief as he rolled in a projector. Suddenly, the screen cut to an image of the wheel on the cart hitting a snag in the carpet, accompanied with the sound of a record scratch as the music stopped.
The world around the Chief seemed to disappear and soon, he appeared alone on a black screen. He then dropped down into a very familiar arena and looked horrified at the camera.
The village elder who smacked the projector was now sweating bullets as he looked around nervously.
The scene turned and revealed a beefy man wielding an axe. The music switched to a song that one would associate with a western showdown. A door next to the screen opened and a bloodied version of the very same man on the screen walked in.
—
Pebble pushed open the door and hobbled into a dark room with a projector in it. After blinking a few times, he recognized it as a movie theater. He looked across the seats and there were dozens of goblins staring at him. He sheepishly waved and they looked back at the screen. He turned and looked as well.
Pebble whistled as, for the first time, he got to see a clear close up image of his new face. "Now that's a handsome man!" He beamed.
He had a heroic jawline and stone gray eyes. His hair was waving in the wind dramatically, as he stared intensely into the eyes of the goblin from the first room. The audience looked back at Pebble for a moment before returning their attention back to the screen.
Without warning, the images on the screen changed to the goblin Chief rushing in and swinging his bat. It showed a slow motion capture of Pebble's kneecap blowing up and everyone cringed.
"Uegh!" Pebble shuddered. It was surreal to him that he was able to walk after watching what just happened to him a few moments ago.
The rest of the scene played out. It showed the second goblin brushing past his Chief as he shoved a dagger into Pebble's gut. Pebble winced again as he watched, but he was surprised to hear his own words.
"I'll f*cking kill you all now." The camera's point of view changed to be from the perspective of the Chief as he watched Pebble's axe enter his chest. The camera provided a close up of his face as the severity of the wound dawned on him. The scene was accompanied by a high pitched violin suddenly stopping and the color drained from the screen. Two silhouettes could be seen on screen and they slowly depicted Pebble ripping his axe out of the Chief's body and screaming.
The curtains closed on the screen and there wasn't a dry eye in the audience.
Pebble knew this was trouble, there were too many goblins for him to count right now and he was still in a bad condition. He just had a whole epiphany about not hesitating during his last battle. He knew what was about to happen, but here he was, in front of a horde of enemies, hesitating again.
A lone goblin in the front row got up and pointed at Pebble.
"Why'da do it, man?" The goblin had a lisp. "Why'da go and kill our village hero? Wasth the damn projector worth more than histh life and our dweamsth?" The goblin's eyes were welling with tears. "Well my nameth Lil' Jubu, and you killed my hero. Prepare to die!"
Pebble prayed that this new world had some decent therapist, because he's heard enough. He suppressed his guilt in a healthy manner and bottled it up as he stomped the ground and summoned a trusty rock. Lil' Jubu took a few steps forward and a couple of his relatives were getting up to provide backup. Pebble launched the rock right into Jubu's face, crushing his jaw.
Lil' Jubu was utterly shocked as he crumbled to the floor and began spazzing. Pebble shuttered and sent another rock to follow up and executed him before the fight could begin.
<+5CP>
<+25 Exp>
Life on Kill activated and a red mist wisped from Lil' Jubu and floated in the air before flying towards Pebble.
<+10 HP>
<22/42 HP>
The wound in Pebble's pelvis completely closed and he felt like he could move unhindered again. The sight of the spazzing goblin was haunting, he was a dreamer just like Pebble. He shook his head and snapped out of it, stomping on the ground again and summoning another rock.
The crowd was now split. Some were shocked and confused, a few were still processing the fact that their Chief died and were complete emotional wrecks. However, about a dozen were already on the way to get sweet revenge against the maniac who did this to them.
"You monster!" One of them shouted.
Reeki's voice echoed from the crowd, "PLAY THE MUSIC!!" and the crowd erupted into cheers again as the band dropped to a lower key and began shredding.
Pebble launched the rock at the closest goblin. It landed in the goblin's gut and knocked the wind out of him. The creature fell to the ground and became a trip hazard as two goblins who were running closely behind him fell with him. In the spirit of not hesitating, Pebble began swinging his axe as he activated Sprint and closed the distance. He made sure to get the timing right this time as he brought the axe down vertically and ended the lives of all three of the fallen goblins.
<+25 Exp>
<+25 Exp>
<+25 Exp>
Red mist now enveloped the entire corner of the theater as Pebble absorbed it.
<+10 HP>
<+10 HP>
<42/42 HP>
His body flexed as red mist arose from the corpses and entered Pebble through his pores. His shoulder was as good as new as the wound, once again, immediately sealed. The heal he received was intoxicating. It brought a smile to his face but it didn't last long as four more goblins rushed him. He quickly lifted his axe in preparation for the next four goblins. and it left behind three mangled corpses.
The four goblins pushed forward, "Disgusting beast!" One goblin shouted as it attacked.
<35/42 HP>
<31/42 HP>
<24/42 HP>
A tire iron hit his shin, an iron knuckle punched into his arm and a knife pierced his ribs. Pebble grunted as he tanked the impacts, but he still managed to block a golf club from smacking his skull. He followed up with his block by shoving the pommel of his axe into the mouth of the golf club wielding goblin. He shoved violently and it made a sad, pathetic noise as it raised its hands to its neck and fell over. Pebble regretted how he went about this. If he could have found a cleaner way, he would have, but he had to focus on not dying and this was the best he could do.
Pebble lifted his leg and aimed another rock throw into the crotch of the knife wielder. He brought his leg down on the head of the fallen goblin and a crunch was heard as Pebble received more CP and experience along with his Life on Kill.
<+10 HP>
<34/42 HP>
A rock came out of the ground and ended any possibility of fatherhood for the sad green fellow directly in front of him. The goblin fell to his knees and dropped his knife. His friends cried out in outrage at the sight of the wanton murder they've just witnessed. They followed up with another punch and a swing of the tire iron.
"Kill this friggin' scumbag!"
The iron fist landed square on Pebble's face.
<22/42 HP>
Pebble felt rocked, but never lost focus. However, there was no reprieve as the tire iron landed on the top of his skull and he felt like lightning jolted down his body.
<4/42 HP>
Pebble felt his heart beat like it's never beat before. It almost felt like an entirely new organ. Instead of pumping blood, it felt like it was pumping anger and battery acid. His system hasn't said a word recently, like it did when he first heard a female voice with every prompt. Now the voice was back and it sounded panicked as it urgently read what was displayed in front of him.
<3/42 HP>
<2/42 HP>
Pebble had no idea what was going on, but from his point of view, the world faded into nothing and he was alone. He watched his muscles as they spazzed and burned. Red steam started bleeding through his pores. It was an alarming sight to behold, but he felt elated. Actually, he felt euphoric and his vision came to life with vivid colors. He felt like he was back at home, playing a video game and this was his big moment.
A creepy ear to ear grin appeared on Pebble's face as he grabbed the head of the kneeling goblin with his left hand. In a stunning act of battle prowess, he then jumped and cartwheeled over the goblin, using him as a fulcrum and squeezing his hand in the process. He crushed the little green dude's skull like a balloon. Red mist flew into Pebble as Life on Kill activated once again.
<12/42 HP>
<11/42 HP>
Pebble also received his normal CP and experience, but he barely noticed. His muscles continued to steam and burn him alive from the inside, but his body moved on its own and landed with a leg sweep that knocked both of the standing goblins down. Before even Pebble could tell what he was going to do next, his axe was brought down in a sweeping arc, decapitating both victims.
Red mist appeared from the corpses, but it didn't matter as a golden light shone from inside of Pebble.
Pebble was in a whole different world mentally as he didn't even notice that he had already opened his menu and put 3 more stat points into constitution, bringing his health pool up to 48. The menus flew by at lightning speed as Pebble's mind was on autopilot. After the stat points, he went into the skill tree and unlocked Cleave.
<48/48 HP>
Pebble's temples were pulsing. His eyes filled with bloodshot rage and his shoulders bounced as he began to chuckle, looked up past the view of the rolling heads and continued to grin at the remaining goblins. His body sizzled as the bloody steam continued to cook his flesh.
<47/48 HP>
<46/48 HP>