He hurled the small bomb at the wave of goblins approaching him, burning a hole in it. Their screaming quickly reached his ears as a large portion of the small beasts began burning alive, falling over and stopping the other goblins from continuing on. The burning goblins formed somewhat of a wall, blocking the others and burning everything that crashed into it. Suddenly the flaming wall of goblin corpses bend and broke apart. A few pieces of still-burning goblin bodies flew around the battlefield after the wall was hit by a large hammer.

It was wielded by a goblin as tall as the typical adult man, its eyes were red, its ears far larger and its body more muscular and less bony.

A hobgoblin.

The hobgoblin began screaming at Zane with a high pitched voice as it charged at him. Zane dodged the first swing of the hammer by ducking under it and rammed his katana into the side of the hobgoblin. It let out a scream of pain as Zane pushed his blade deeper into its body. Blood began gushing out of the wound as he pulled out the blade. The hobgoblin stared up at Zane who was far taller than him and still managed to dodge its attack so easily with a sense of disbelief. Zane swung his blade at the hobgoblin's throat during the opening created by its confusion, cutting deep into its neck.

The creature fell backwards, its head nearly ripping off at the base of its neck. It hung there like the lid of a chest that had been pushed open as far as possible. Blood was gushing out of the wound and dripping down past its head and onto the ground, creating a puddle that gradually increased in size.

Other goblins were staring at Zane with fear as he approached them, flicking his blade to remove some of the blood, which sprayed all over the place due to that. A few brave goblins charged at Zane with their rusty daggers, swords, axes, maces and spears.

Zane stepped on the spear, breaking the shaft in two and slashed the goblin from above, creating a clean cut in the middle of its head. The one with the mace jumped up, trying to crush Zane's head. But he just stared at the small creature, caught it mid-air and held it away from his head, by the neck. The goblin managed to get a few hits in on Zane's arm before he managed to crush its throat between his fingers. Zane suddenly sensed something coming from behind and managed to dodge just in time before the one with the dagger could bury it in Zane's leg. He stepped on the goblin's head, crushing it beneath his foot and blocked the attack of the sword wielder with his katana. With a swift kick, he brought distance between himself and the sword wielding goblin and proceeded to focus on the one with the axe. The goblin had been circling around him for a short while now, looking for some opening. Zane purposefully lifted his katana and let it rest on his shoulder, some of the goblin blood dripping onto his cloak. The goblin used that moment to attack, Zane stepped to the side, spun around and used the momentum to cut open the back of the goblin, revealing its spine. He then turned to the goblin that had the sword and watched as the creature sank to the ground as it saw the massacre that was happening. It was as if it hadn't realized what was happening before. Zane slowly approached the goblin, put his katana to its throat, pulled back the blade and swung it, removing its head with one, clean swing.

The battlefield was chaotic, dead goblins everywhere and alongside them was one of the guards, his chest plate hacked open by many axe strikes.

Merana might get pissed at me for this . . .

But Zane had no time to look around when he noticed a massive club in the corner of his eye. He managed to lift his arm just in time to block some of the blow. Zane was thrown into the nearest wooden wall and felt some of the wood crack under his weight. His arm was throbbing with pain, nearly making him drop his katana which had been damaged as well. Some of the small, round guard that was at the top of the hilt had been cracked and broken off.

This was expensive you stupid shit.

Zane glared at the hobgoblin that had attacked him. It was smiling at him, showing him its sharp teeth and dark tongue. Resting on its shoulder was a large club made of the trunk of a tree. The hobgoblin slowly approached him as he stood up and held his throbbing arm. He had barely any time to think before the hobgoblin jumped towards him, dirt flying up into the air. With a loud crashing sound it hit its club into the wall that was on the ground after Zane had crashed into it. The wood splattered at the point of impact.

Zane had just so managed to roll out of the way but had in the process dropped his katana due to the pain in his right arm.

Shit, shit, shit, shit. I won't be killed by a fucking hobgoblin.

Zane quickly looked around, the hobgoblin stood right above his katana. He continued looking for some kind of weapon he could use and saw the spear he had broken in half before on the ground not so far from his current location. Zane sprinted to it as fast as he could, avoiding another swing of the club. He picked up the broken spear and turned it in his hand, the tip pointing backwards.

The hobgoblin was still approaching him, letting the club drag across the ground and leaving behind a thick trail. Zane slowly began walking towards it as well, preparing himself to attack. When the hobgoblin sped up and began running at him while flailing around the club Zane sprinted towards it, dodged a club swing from above by stepping to the site, rammed the spear he was holding with his left hand into the side of the hobgoblin, pulled it out which made the hobgoblin scream in pain and then proceeded to ram the spear tip deep into the hobgoblin's neck. The speartip broke through on the other site and blood began gushing out of the wound as the hobgoblin sank to the ground, letting go of the large club.

Zane took a short break to look over the battlefield. Many of the goblins had fallen and only a small number still remained on the outside. They had all been driven towards the gate blocking off the entrance to the cave by the two remaining guards and the badly bleeding son of the village chief.

What happened to that one? And where are the sorcerers? I'm sure there were some here . . . not a good sign. They must have run inside.

He walked up to a tent and cleaned the blood off of his katana before going to the other three.

"Ah . . . sir . . . sir, Reaper," one of the guards said, having some trouble breathing. "We have . . . have nearly gotten all of them."

"Yeah . . . b-but there w-was no k-king," the chief's son said.

Zane chuckled and pointed at the gate.

"Inside," he said.

"How many?" one of the guards asked.

"A hundred or so," Zane answered coldly as he took out another firebomb, pressed the button and threw it at the remaining goblins, burning them all alive.

His three companions looked at him with shock and disbelief in their eyes. They couldn't quite believe that there were a hundred more goblins waiting for them inside the cave.

Zane sheathed his katana and picked up a long sword from the ground.

Can't lose the good blade before fighting the king.

"Let's go," Zane said coldly.

His companions were still breathing heavily. Without waiting for them to recover a bit Zane kicked open the slightly burned gate, revealing the inside of the cave. It was well lit with torches and reeked of rotting corpses and blood.

Zane stepped inside first and his companions slowly followed after him. The smell inside the cave almost made him puke.

"A-Are you sure we should be in here sir Reaper?" one of the guards asked.

Zane nodded with a grin on his face.

Been a while since I last fought against a king.

The floor of the cave was covered in mushrooms, bones and blood. With each step they took, they seemed to step on another bone that crunched beneath their feet as it broke. One of the guards had taken over the lead, holding up a shield he had taken off of one of the goblins outside. When that guards suddenly stopped and began tumbling Zane jumped backwards. He noticed a string on the ground that snapped as soon as the guard stepped on it and shortly after he began hearing rumbling as a trapdoor in the ceiling of the cave swung wide open and a dozen large boulders fell on the guard, crushing him and blocking their way.

Shit.

The son of the village chief had fallen to the ground from the shock and his pants had darkened in his crotch area along with a puddle that had appeared beneath it.

Some always piss themselves.

"W-What now sir Reaper? Should we retreat?" the one remaining guard asked.

Zane shook his head. He walked up to the boulders and leaned against them, slowly beginning to move a large one on top and eventually letting it roll down the other side. As soon as it began rolling he heard a goblin's scream. He looked through the hole he had created and saw a large number of normal goblins that had appeared after the boulders had fallen down. One of them had been crushed by the boulder Zane had pushed. It made him smile.

He took another firebomb out of his satchel, pressed the button and rolled it to the other side of the boulder wall. The wave of flames overwhelmed the goblins and turned them to ashes quickly as they were running around and screaming in pain while burning alive. Zane then began pushing more of the boulders onto the goblins on the other side. By the time he had created an opening large enough for all of them to move on the fire had been extinguished by the boulders and all of the goblins had either burned to death or had been crushed by one of the boulders.

Zane, the guard and the village chief's son climbed over the boulders and continued down the long tunnel. Even though the tunnel was well lit with torches the goblins had hung up it was still difficult to spot all their traps and Zane nearly triggered some on multiple occasions. After a while, the tunnel began to widen and eventually led them into a large chamber. The middle of the chamber was deeper than the tunnel and the goblins had built another camp down there. In the middle of that camp was a sort of watchtower on which a large goblin stood. It was far more muscular than even the hobgoblins, had horns growing out of its forehead and spikes growing out of its spine and going down its wide, pale green back. In one hand it held a thick spear and in the other, it held a dark orb.

"W-What now?" the chief's son asked quietly.

Zane felt into his satchel and discovered that he had only three firebombs left.

I want at least one against the king . . . and I should safe another for the other lords . . . wherever they might be.

Zane was suddenly ripped out of his train of thought as the spear the goblin lord had been holding flew past his head, nearly piercing straight into it. He looked to where the spear had landed, it was right in the chest of the remaining guard. The goblin lord's throw had been strong enough to pierce the guard's armour.

Well shit.

Zane immediately took out one of the firebombs, pressed the button and threw it at the approaching cluster of goblins. The bomb exploded into a wave of flames that swallowed a large number of goblins and created a flame wall between the two remaining humans and the horde of goblins. But they weren't held off for long. The goblin lord raised the dark orb and summoned a wave of water from it that extinguished the fire, drowning a few goblins in the process.

Really, lord and sorcerer in one. And an orb on top of that . . . this really is my lucky day, isn't it.

Zane watched as more and more goblins stepped over their burned and drowned comrades, walking towards them. Showing them their sharp teeth. In the back were the sorcerers Zane had seen in the camp outside and then some all with their staffs lifted into the air, forming spheres of fire in the air that they shot at Zane and the village chief's son. Zane grabbed the young man and jumped out of the way just before the six fireballs crashed into the wall behind them.

Fucking sorcerers . . .

The horde of goblins had now also reached them.

"W-What should we do?" the village chief's son asked with fear in his voice.

"Fight," Zane replied as he pointed the sword he had picked up at the approaching goblins.

Before they could reach them Zane jumped down into the now almost empty camp, still holding the village chief's son.

"I'll take the lord," Zane said as he ran towards the watchtower in the middle of the camp.

Two hobgoblins stood at the ladder, both equipped with some rudimentary armour and rusty greatswords. Zane managed to dodge a strike from one of them and blocked the other with his sword. He kicked the one he had blocked away, turned around and slashed at the other one. As the rusty sword hit against the neck armour it shattered and Zane was left without a weapon. In a desperate attempt, Zane caught the greatsword once the hobgoblin swung it at him again, which luckily for him had a dull edge, twisted it around which made the hobgoblin let go and rammed its handle into the hobgoblins stomach, making it fall over. By the time he had finished that attack the other hobgoblin had reached him again and was already in the middle of bringing his sword down at Zane. He threw himself on his back and managed to block the blow with his greatsword, kicked the hobgoblin in the crotch area, jumped back up and swung the greatsword straight at the hobgoblins stomach, cutting it open and watching as its guts spilt out along with large amounts of blood. The other hobgoblin had recovered from Zane's previous attack and was now running at him, both fists raised and ready to punch him. Zane barely dodged the first blow that was meant to hit him right in the stomach, took the second that hit his chest and brought down the greatsword, splitting the hobgoblins helmet and going all the way through its head, stopping at the beginning of the neck.

Zane couldn't pull out the weapon and went over to the other dead hobgoblin and picked up its greatsword. As he was about to climb up the ladder to the top of the watchtower he heard a tremor from behind. One of the sorcerers had shot an earth bullet at him which had just barely missed.

Zane jumped off the ladder and began to approach the goblin sorcerers that were hiding behind one of the larger tents when he felt the ground shaking and heard another loud sound. He turned around only to see that the goblin lord had jumped down from his tower and was now approaching Zane.

The goblin lord raised the dark blue orb it had and summoned another wave from it. Zane quickly found himself surrounded by water he couldn't escape and held his breath. The wave crashed into him, hurling him into a wall.

Shit.

The water disappeared but Zane was left with a feeling of numbness in his right arm.

Might be broken.

He had trouble lifting the greatsword even when using both hands as he prepared himself for a fight against the goblin lord that was approaching him, again lifting up the dark blue orb. But before it could summon another wave Zane began charging at it, swung the greatsword and managed to cut into the arm it was using to lift the orb. Blood gushed out of the wound and just like the head of the hobgoblin from before it leaned back like the lid of a chest, revealing the bone that Zane had managed to cut.

The goblin lord screamed in pain and jumped at Zane. It was nearly as tall as he was and punched him in the chest before he could react. Zane was thrown backwards into one of the fur tents. He quickly got up and stared at the still approaching goblin lord. It had pure anger in its dark green cat-like eyes. In the shock from getting its arm cut it had dropped the orb which now laid on the ground, shattered. With his still throbbing right arm Zane lifted up the greatsword, let it rest on his shoulder and began walking towards the goblin lord. All with a smile on his face.

I'm beginning to enjoy this.