Unlike their first skirmish, Jonathan was hesitant to get closer to the goblin king. An increase in size didn’t necessarily mean an increase in ability but only an idiot would assume that he could take it on after its transformation. A tense moment passed between the two of them before the goblin king charged. Jonathan was able jump out of way but the effort pushed him off balance and onto the floor. He was able to dodge a stomp by rolling to the side, using the momentum to jump to his feet before he was sideswiped by a tackle from the goblin king all the while blinking away the notifications that appeared in his vision.

[The Goblin King has activated the skill: [Berserk Field]]

[All goblins under the control of the goblin king have entered a berserk state.]

The force of the tackle took Jonathan off of his feet and drove both combatants into a group of goblins who Jonathan belatedly noticed where all much bigger, matching the kings’ transformation. Jonathan barely had enough time to blink away the tears from his eyes before he felt himself get lifted up and thrown into the ground, forcing the breath from his lungs. Jonathan barely avoided a downward chop to his ribs and rolled over to his side just quick enough to avoid a stomp from the king before shuffling out of the way of a punch that he was sure would have knocked him out cold if it didn’t knock his head straight off of his shoulders. He caught a breath, giving the king enough time to move in close enough to knock him off of his feet again. This time the king took the opportunity to grab Jonathans’ throat to try and crush his windpipe.

Blood rushing in his ears, Jonathan tried to protect himself by putting his hands up which the goblin king responded to by raining down blows on Jonathans face. Jonathan tried to kick at the king in an attempt to create some space but was barely able to get him to budge. Keeping his arms in the way of the kings fists now a priority, Jonathan flailed wildly kicking at anything and everything his feet could reach until he was able to land a shot at the goblin kings’ groin giving him enough time to roll away and to his feet. His left eye rapidly beginning to close shut and being closely followed by an enraged goblin king, Jonathan ran into a group of tents hoping to distract the king long enough for him to either think up a better strategy or find a weapon. The king demolished all tents he ran into, barely stopping as spokes tore themselves out of the ground and tarp was dismantled keeping Jonathan in his sight the entire time.

“Hlaza!”

His eye now thoroughly shut, Jonathan grabbed at nearby a nearby rampaging goblin as it ran at him and threw it at the king and ran at where he hoped Hlaza was fighting the second in command. Getting no reply in return at his shout, Jonathan just ran for where the second loudest commotion was, the loudest commotion caused by the increasing roars of the king being inconvenienced as he gave up on throwing goblins and instead just weaving through and over the increasingly chaotic battlefield. Grateful as Jonathan was for his high agility, the run felt much longer than it should have as seconds seemed to stretch to minutes as he ran towards where he hoped Hlaza was.

The sounds he heard gave him hope as he heard sounds of battle to the north of his position. Briefly stopping to gauge the distance between the rampaging goblin king and himself, he decided to grab a weapon in the pandemonium around him. He was able to find a dagger that had a blade vaguely shaped like a wave that he was sure was dropped by a goblin in the chaos. Slashing at any and every goblin that ran at him, Jonathan ran until he came upon what he imagined cartoon balls of violence looked like in real life.

Hlaza was besieged by goblins on all sides which he either cut at or threw at what Jonathan recognized to be the rail thin form of the second in command that was in turn throwing a mixture of knives and rocks at Hlaza where a large amount of them hit the goblins surrounding Hlaza instead. The goblins around him were dying quickly and in visible numbers. Still it was clear that Hlaza was overrun. Attacking the goblins surrounding Hlaza didn’t seem like a good idea, especially in the pinch he was in, so Jonathan decided to attack the second in command to get the heat of Hlaza for long enough for him to focus on the smaller threat.

Trying to keep his noise to a minimum while the goblin second in command had all his attention on Hlaza, Jonathan readied his sword and ran in for the blow just as the goblin was turning around, aiming to stab the goblin at the small of his back. The impact sent both Jonathan and the second in command goblin rolling. Jonathans stab successfully finding its way through leather and into the goblins’ side. The stab was deep enough to be fatal but was shallow enough for the stab not to be fatal immediately. Jonathan jumped up, ready for any retaliation before an explosion of pain in his leg forced him down onto his knees. The second in command had apparently managed to stab into his thigh when they collided.

With the goblin king rapidly approaching though, Jonathan couldn’t stay down for long. He briefly debated tearing the knife out from his thigh but despite his actions today, decided that he wasn’t Rambo. The goblin opposite him decided not to remove the knife from his side either and chose to grab at its side in an effort to keep from bleeding out though Jonathan was sure the stab hit something important enough for the effort not to matter much. He saw the goblin gurgle and spit out a particularly unhealthy amount of blood before he heard what he was sure were words in a jumbled but perfectly serviceable Octavian.

“-umans, always trying to steal territory where a goblin would understand that there is no need.”

Was that a joke? If Jonathan had any doubts as to the intelligence of the goblin, they were all gone now. Though why had the goblin chosen now to make a joke instead of before the fight where it would make sense? Jonathan barely had enough time to puzzle it out before the answer hit him with a right hook that sent him flying. It was a distraction.

The goblin king was somehow now even bigger than before. Where it was just gorilla size before, Jonathan would now hazard an attempt to call it the size of an elephant. Though he had never seen an elephant, he was sure that if he had seen one, it would be the size of the goblin that stood in front of him. Where the goblin had intense if oddly colorbred eyes, it now had eyes that visibly glowed as if they were the only source of light in the middle of the day. It was bleeding much more than it was mere moments before. In fact, it was Jonathan had no time to think about his next course of action before he was lifted by his neck off of the ground by the brute of a goblin.

Faintly, Jonathan realized that he could hear laughter from the second in command. It was building in intensity the higher the goblin king lifted him. The laughter was wet, as if the goblin was laughing with his head underwater. Darkly, he realized, the goblin sort of was, the wound probably meant that regardless of anybody’s actions, it was going to die because its blood was somewhere it wasn’t supposed to be. Jonathan guessed that unless Hlaza was able to help out soon, he was probably going to die soon too. All of the adrenaline having run out of his veins, he was a puppet with its strings cut. He was useless in any upcoming fights without rest and food, and there looked to be many many more fights before the day would end. He didn’t really have the energy to cry, and he hadn’t thought of any cool sounding one liners he would say before someone killed him because like any sane person he hoped that that would never come to pass. So he joined the dying goblin’s reverie and laughed. He laughed as Hlaza tackled the goblin king, separating them from each other and continued laughing as consciousness left him.

Hlaza felt fire in his veins. He had never felt a rush like this before. A small hint of what was to come had touched him when he and the boss had fought the wolves but he didn’t feel it in the battles since until now. Was this how battle was supposed to feel? If it was, he could see why the other ogres were intoxicated by the idea of joining The Slaughter. The feeling crept up on him slowly. He barely felt it when he fought off the first goblin but was drowning in it by the tenth. By the fifteenth he felt stymied. He had often heard his brothers tell him that blood too easily given was blood not worth spilling in The Slaughter but had often taken it to be the sayings of ogres that were drowning in their own bravado. He had never told him this, of course. The runt was never supposed to speak of The Ways if he hadn’t proved himself in The Slaughter for The Slaughter was life for an ogre.

He was stymied because the goblins’ blood was too easily taken. The numbers had kept the fires in his blood boiling but the goblin that he wanted to fight had started a fight with the boss and left. The one he wanted to fight outside of the boss had kept himself away from the axe he had taken up in the skirmish by keeping the goblins in between them. The goblins grew in size and briefly reignited the fire but didn’t keep it going on for long before the boss came back looking like he lost a fight with an ogre and kept the thin goblin off of him long enough for him to get rid of the rest of the goblins surrounding him.

He was freed! The boss had come through again but now it was time to come through for the boss, the weirdo that he was. He jumped into the fray against the ogre sized goblin, and it was glorious. The blood of the big goblin flowed freely but had to be earned. It was exactly what he needed. The fire in his blood had turned into lightning as fist met fist again and again. Still he had to put his all into fighting the big goblin for the big goblin fought with viciousness even ogres had a hard time matching.

It had no rhyme or reason to each punch or kick but it was strong, immensely so. He was certain it was stronger than him by a large margin even. It also showed that it was immune to his [Paralysis] spell. For all its strength though, it was slow. So slow that Hlaza was returning twice the damage he was taking. The fire died from its eyes just as the laughter around him died. Suddenly he was returning twice that, then twice times that until his fists reached goblin flesh and found the bones underneath broken and unresponsive.

He waited for the lighting to subside and his blood to cool as he took in his victory before he went to save the boss’s life. What else was new?