Dawning Skye

470 Hunting Trip(Part Nine)

***CONTENT WARNING: LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, DARK STUFF, AND EXTREME GORE***

“Why would I tell you anything: you’re slaughtering my people,” the Goblin King replied as his guards moved in front of him.

Marco shrugged; “I was hoping to spare some of you by choice, but you turned that down before. If you answer a few of my questions: I’ll let you select five to save.”

The Goblin King’s anger spiked; “That won’t be a problem if we kill you here..”

Without another word, the troll standing directly in front of Marco punched him. He was able to brace himself before impact, but he was still sent backwards a meter or so. His feet left indented drag marks in on the forest floor from keeping his stance.

As Marco glanced through his arms, he quickly dodged to his right; avoiding the war hammer of one of the other trolls. The moment his feet hit the ground again, Marco propelled himself further back to avoid the third troll’s axe. As he flitted back and forth, the Goblin King smirked with unearned satisfaction.

Taking it as a kind of challenge, Marco stopped dodging, and lunged at the nearest troll. It stopped so suddenly that the Goblin King didn’t realize what had happened at first. Not until he saw the dark green blood dripping from it’s backside..

“H-How is that possible?! It shouldn’t be possible!” The Goblin King exclaimed as he watched the human wiggle his fingers.

“I’m assuming that this one didn’t have magic?” Marco commented as he pulled his arm out of the troll’s gut, and sidestepped the now-corpse as it fell forward.

.....

As he shook the excessive blood from his arm, Marco added; “I hope some among you have magic.. I thought all Fae had magic?”

The Goblin King glared at the human in front of him as he replied; “We do! What Are you?! No human can take down a troll in One hit!”

“Oh, but I can. I am a human, but I will become something...more, very soon. If you had any love for your people: you’ll surrender now. This is the last time I will offer it. If you refuse again then the ones that will survive will be very few.”

“Fuck you, you walking sack of Meat! Survival of the strongest is our Creedence! We are a race built by Warriors! You were born to be our prey!”

Marco scoffed at the Goblin King’s declaration; “Well, it’s quite common for humans to topple anything on the food chain above them.. What will you do, Goblin King? Will you continue to hide behind your guards, or will you show me why they named you their king?”

It was bait, and the Goblin King knew it, but his guards were staring at him now. If he outright turned down the challenge, then it wouldn’t matter if he survived the fight or not. The horde would strip him of his title and kill him if he refused a direct challenge like this..

“Alright, meat bag. When I win: I’m going to devour you alive. I usually prefer my meat cooked, but I want to hear every scream you have as I tear your flesh from your bones!”

Marco smiled at his foe; “You’re a very vivid storyteller, but I’m afraid that the fantasy ends here..”

The Goblin King looked at his two remaining guards as he said; “He has openly challenged me, so let him come! One more roast for the fires can’t hurt..”

“Are you sure that you don’t want them to help you? It’s not a real challenge for me if they don’t join in,” Marco stated with a completely serious face.

The Goblin King outright laughed at him, then replied; “You’re entertaining, for a sack of meat. Too bad you were born a human: I feel like we’ve could’ve gotten along..”

Marco chuckled sardonically; “No, we wouldn’t of. We would have tried to kill each other as soon as we would’ve met: just like now.. I do admit that I find you equally entertaining. Too bad you’re not house broken. I might’ve kept you as a pet.”

Enraged by his opponent’s lack of respect and taunting; the Goblin King gave a ferocious roar, then jumped at Marco. He evaded the overgrown goblin easily, but didn’t expect him to spring back so quickly. He barely got his arm up in time to protect his face before the Goblin King had sent him flying into a tree.

Marco grunted loudly as he felt his back smash against the solid trunk, but that wasn’t where the majority of his pain was coming from. His right arm had snapped in two places, and threatened to pierce his flesh with every jostle. As Marco caught the breath he’d lost by slamming into tree, the Goblin King laughed arrogantly.

“With all your talk, I thought I’d have a better fight against you, but you really are just another pathetic sack of meat,” the Goblin King looked over at his two remaining guards; “I didn’t even get to use my magic against him.”

The two trolls grinned as they nodded at their King for a moment, then went completely motionless. The Goblin King called to them, but they just stood still with glazed-over eyes. Right when he started to wave his hand at them, the human said; “You don’t need to bother with them anymore..”

The Goblin King whipped around to see Marco standing right in front of him with a devilish grin as he added; “Those ‘sacks of meat’ are on my side now.. So what did you say about magic?”

The Goblin King actually jumped back in fear at the human before him. In all of his two hundred years, the king had never seen such a vicious human. As he looked at his now-perfectly fine arm, the Goblin King started to realize who the human was..

‘The Empress warned us all about two humans rising to power: one to defend, and one to destroy. I think I know who the destroyer is..’

As the thought crossed the Goblin King’s mind, Marco walked towards him with a dark smile on his face. He stepped back for a moment, earning disapproving shouts from the Fae behind him. Since their society was based upon strength, seeing their King shrinking back angered many of the Goblin King’s people.

He turned towards his people, and glared as he “I’ve beaten everything that’s challenged me until this human! I am Your King! You should be throwing your lives down to protect me!”

“Why should the members of a strength-based society protect it’s king? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Marco commented snidely.

The Goblin King turned back and glared at the human before he jumped at him. Marco easily dodged him as he said; “What’s the matter? I thought that you were the strongest here? At least your guard had gotten a good hit in on me.. You can’t even manage that? I thought that you had magic?”

As Marco taunted him, the Goblin King built up his magic..

“You want me to use it?! Here!” he screamed before a massive stone pillar shot out of the ground.

Marco hopped backwards as he laughed; “Earth magic, hmm? You’re a dime a dozen in this kingdom.. And here I thought that you’d be a Tank for sure.”

The Goblin King sneered; “My magic may be common, but not my skill!”

As one pillar shot into the air and Marco dodged it, one after another followed. The clearing in front of the caves was littered with stone columns. As Marco hopped from one to the next, avoiding the new ones popping up: the Goblin King grinned..

“And here I thought that You were some kinda overpowered boogie man, but it turns out that you’re just good at running away!”

As the Goblin King started to laugh, multiple spikes shot out of the pillars themselves. Instead of being flat on top like the columns, they were pointed. As Marco jumped into the air, a spike tore through the side of his overcoat.

He stared at the tear as he hopped back, then looked around himself..

Spikes were coming at him from almost every direction mid-air. Marco felt a burst of excitement as he tapped into his Tank and Dark magics at once, and created a kind of whip. As he twisted his body to rotate, the whip snapped all of the points off of the spikes at once.

The Goblin King’s jaw dropped as he watched the human destroying the spikes as quickly as he made them. It was almost like the black whip had a mind of it’s own as it protected it’s master. As the human started to laugh, me landed o the ground half a meter away from him..

Fury and fear mixed together as the Goblin King roared at the human, then pulled a hidden dagger out of nowhere. Desperate to win, the goblin summoned three spikes as he lunged at the human. Marco grinned broadly as the black whip broke the spikes, and his hand went into the Goblin King’s chest.

Green blood dripped down his arm, and off of his elbow as Marco dug his fingers in. He thought that he’d rip the so-called king’s heart out, but apparently goblin anatomy was different from a human’s. As he gripped and yanked, a lung came out instead.

The Goblin King spit and sputtered, then croaked out; “Just meat,” before he slumped over, and died.

The Fae watching instantly started to cry out with a mix of excitement, and fear. Their laws stated that the strongest ruled them, but they didn’t know if a human could be their leader or not. As the roars and screeches calmed, Marco looked at the pasty green lung in his hand, then dropped it, and looked at the remaining Fae.

There were a few that looked like they were ready to fight, but clearly only to protect the others. Marco grinned at them, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes as he said; “Do Fae not bow to their betters?”

As the gathered Fae stared at Marco with a mix of confusion and horror, a deep, booming voice shouted out from behind them; “BOW TO YOUR KING!”

A massive black cloud of thick fog came out from the side followed by a woman dressed in similar armor to the other human. The Fae all shrank back, not sure where the voice had come from. As they all cowered, the first human stepped forward as he spoke..

“Calm down, Ahriman. They’re still acclimating to their new situation,” he turned towards the crowds; “My name is Marco MacArthur, and I am your King now. I will select the strongest left for amongst you, and the rest will remain here for a moment.”

After selecting about two dozen or so of the strongest still alive, Marco led them away from the remaining Fae, and back towards their campsite. As soon as they were gone, Sheri and Ahriman turned back towards the remaining Fae..

“I’m so sorry,” Sheri mumbled before she and Ahriman started to kill them all.

Many took off running, but Draco and Benzo were waiting for them in the woods. They slaughtered every Fae, regardless of size or age. Sheri was doing as she was told when she came across the young troll that had spared her before.

Her heart screamed out at her, but the influence from Marco’s shard was too strong. She drew back her sword, and stabbed the child in it’s stomach as tears streamed down her face. The young troll cried out in pain, then dropped to the ground..

Sheri looked around at the bloodshed and screamed at the top of her lungs in anguish. The shard in her neck twisted her agony into pleasure, turning her screams into maniacal laughter. As she went back to killing every Fae that she saw, the young troll curled into a ball, and passed out with tears streaming down her face..