To the east of Akor’s territory, quite far, nearly 60 km away, a bloody war was happening. It wasn’t of demons though, even if the creatures at war looked very similar to imps. No, these creatures were goblins, short, green skinned, long eared and ugly humanoids. More than 50 tribes were at war for supremacy, of which 6 of them controlled the rest.

These 6 tribes all had a supreme chief which were the goblins most common tier 2 evolution, hobgoblins. That said, although the race doesn’t change as much as demons, with demons having several distinct forms, goblins don’t, not in this stage at least. What is different though is their natural sizes. As humanoids, when hobgoblins appear, they range between the size of a human to much taller than them.

One of the chief was a particularly big one being nearly 2 meters tall and he used a large monster bone as a club and had several furs as armor. His muscles were thick and powerful.

At this time, the war had reached its apex where the six chiefs had come out to finish off their main enemy, the other chiefs.

The one most likely to succeed was this hobgoblin because of his immense size.

The others were more human sized and used wooden clubs or some animal claw weapons.

The 50 tribes were in a warring frenze as the chiefs all killed the others members and reached for each other.

Because of this state, they didn’t notice a small group of goblins appear. At their front was a strange cloaked hobgoblin. Her head donned an old ragged leather hat and a fur cloak covered her body except her hand that held a wooden staff.

She watched the war unblinkingly before raising her staff, “It is our time.” she said simply and her tribe entered the fray.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

***

In another area, close to 70 km to the northwest of Akor’s territory, there was another war going on, even more bloody.

Demons are merciless and this clearly showed it, there was no distinction between tribes even, it was simply a bloody killing pit for demons here. There was a strangeness about these demons that ranged from minogita to imps and even some unknown demons spread out amongst them. Their eyes glowed red as if under control of something.

They all only had killing in their minds and with each kill came experience for each of them. It was like the bloodbath that birthed a devil.

This strangeness is actually something to do with the biology of demons, under normal circumstances demons are under the command of powerful overlords such as dark lords or strong village chiefs. That said, something recently killed all the powerful leaders leaving a void in power within this region.

This kicked in a special pheromone in the demons which was what would ultimately breed a very powerful demon that will suppress their impulse of destruction.

At the center of this mess, a blood pool gathered of demon blood and a strangely calm imp stood there. His red color wasn’t the same shade of red as the common demons and imps. It was a deep bloody red, his body seemed to slowly absorb the blood and the strangest feature is the strange item in his hand. It was a big black rock in the shape of a hammer, it wasn’t a forged item, it was a natural item. Like the imp, it absorbed blood slowly.

Finally all that blood suddenly seemed to ignite and all of it began to gather rapidly in the air in front of the imp. The caused the frenzy to suddenly stop and they all looked at the blood gather into the air compressing and gathering heat.

After a while the blood formed a small pearl like item which finally combusted into a burning bloody flame. It slowly lowered until it finally reached the imp and entered it’s chest.

He roared in pain as it’s body suddenly began to change and grow bringing great pressure to the warring demons. They were all suppressed by it and finally bowed to the new powerful leader that had immerged before they could grow.

When this demon finished growing, he turned towards the countless demons, “Come!” he ordered simply and the war ended like that but a dangerous creature had been born and such a being would not be far from war for very long.