The Goblins
The moon was fully revelling in its glory as Damon searched over the scene of carnage outside the cave. He had woken up not too long ago and was searching for the knives he had thrown at the bear, which had lost its purchase on the bear’s body as the bear had tangled with the centipede.
He was different now. In fact that was an over-simplification, after all his whole body had been changed by the evolution! From the moment he had awoken, he could tell something had happened since his skin was in utter pain the second he woke up. For some reason his skin's sensitivity had increased a hundred-fold or so, since he could feel the cool air slicing into him. It was in the least an unpleasant experience, one that all the neighbours knew about due to the intensity of Damon’s screams.
The next thing he had noticed had been the change in physique, he grown at least a solid 40cm leaving him at 160 cm. His whole walking experience had changed as well because he felt a difference in how his limbs actually moved, due to the new-found difficulty in actually orienteering his legs to walk normally. This could very well be due to inexperience in his new body, though a definite change was that he felt that he could explode out with his legs in mere milliseconds. It had just been a mere feeling but proved more than it’s worth when he tried running out of the cave using all his force: what happened spontaneously was a cave in, due to the force he exerted on the centipede’s home. It was a pity that Damon couldn’t feel pure happiness at his new-found power as instead he felt his muscles rip apart under pain.
It was clear that this was a move he couldn’t do often due to the massive strain they put on his legs!
Outside of his legs, he noticed that his torso and arms was much larger. He looked like a muscular human now, which although he wasn’t chiselled to perfection was still an amazing transformation from a scrawny goblin child. Not that anyone would mistake him for a human though, no way! After all his skin did a very good job at distinguishing himself from humans since his skin was a murky mixture of red and brown, essentially a dark shade of maroon. This had been the colour of the centipede’s shell and he had of silver hair growing over his skin, clearly the same colour as the bear’s silverback. It was clear to any fool that he had been influenced by the monsters he used to forcibly evolve alongside many other factors.
A glint was shining in the moonlight, one that Damon walked towards to as he recognised his knife. It was on his way there he noticed a big puddle, one large enough to see a clear reflection in the moonlight. It was his first time looking at himself in the reflection and it showed as his face suddenly shone in joy. The maroon skin was plastered over his face, and only added to how demonic he looked. His eyes were the same shade of black as before, but their shape itself had elongated, creating a feeling of constant glaring. The overly large nose had stayed the same size but fitted in more snugly on his bigger face, alongside with the dark brown lips. His ears were pointed towards the sky and opposite to them was his very prominent jawline.
Overall the look created was creepy to say the least and scary to the say the most as he looked much more evil than before.
Moving on in glee, Damon picked up his old-knife which all of a sudden felt a lot smaller in his palms. You needed the weight of the knife to be right, otherwise it was like throwing a feather and this knife did not feel at all heavy enough in his hand. He gripped the shaft before he extended his arm backwards, before arcing it into a throw forwards while using his chest to propel it towards the centre of a tree.
The knife shot through the air, making a noise akin to a sonic boom albeit quieter. Within one second he had thrown the knife but in the next it was nowhere to be seen.
*Thump*
Confused, Damon walked towards the tree before looking closer to find out the knife had actually ripped through the edge of the tree, making a hole which started and ended on opposite ends. A hit and certainly a kill…
Feeling ever the more pleased with his evolution, Damon found the knife quite a distance away from the tree before walking towards where he reckoned the tribe was. Now he wasn’t to blame for getting lost, after all he had been chasing the silverback bear at the time and had for some reason ended up where he had never been before.
What Damon hadn’t noticed was the pressure which had before been bearing down on him like a truck had completely disappeared. Instead what replaced it was a feeling of normalcy where he had been and a feeling of weaker air where he was walking towards. This was hard to explain but the weaker air made him feel like someone who had always carried around 50kg on their back, only to suddenly lose that and feel a lot more free, movement and energy wise. Although he felt better on the whole, he would have noticed if he tried to push his legs to the limit again, the result would be a lot more lacking here than it had been deeper in the forest.
It was as he was walking along that he began to use his new perception: his new sensitivity had left him excited as he followed his brain which registered in many new factors it had been unable to previously. To no surprise, he soon found a trace of the blood trail the silverback bear had bled out during its retreat. Looking at the blackened blood, Damon could tell that quite a while had occurred as he had evolved since the blood had fully dried up, crusting over itself alike to a scab.
What followed was simple but a long walk back to the tribe. Now Damon could have very well run the whole distance in around 3-4 hours in his new body, but he didn’t feel any rush to get back home. Instead what fascinated him more was discovering the new functions of his body: right after his evolution all he could do was go from 0 to 100 at using his muscles but eventually as he got used to his new body as now he could use varying ranges of strength. It felt truly amazing as he left behind a trail of carnage, as the goblin which had walked that way before had been a low-down goblin not even fit to fight the silverback bear. But what walked back the trail was a machine made for war: his whole body felt optimised for battle.
Along the way back, he saw a small pack of Alpha wolves drinking from a small water source. He was quite a distance away from them, but could instantly tell what they were due to the memories he had of them. This made sense considering Damon had only began putting hard-work into training after watching Gregal kill an Alpha wolf with a single axe throw. The fact that Gregal did it in 1 strike was absolutely amazing but it was only so because of the opponent he had been against, the alpha wolf.
Now alpha wolves were mid-tier 2 monsters, weaker than the silverback bear, but the wolves fought in a pack unlike the solitary bear. In fact a pack of wolves would find it much easier to kill the bear than the goblins had, nevertheless the wolves wouldn’t do it due to the price they would have to pay for quite a low reward. However in front of Damon right now was only 4 wolves, clearly scattered from the pack which was much larger.
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Buckling down, Damon eyed the distance between them to be around 100m before he fully tensed his calves, getting ready to explode out the power into the ground. Now note that Damon couldn’t use all his strength due to lack of mana in the air but he could still use around 70% of it at where he currently was and it proved to be more than enough as he exploded forwards. There was no sonic boom unlike his knife throw but it was unnecessary as the startled wolves had barely enough time to react anyway.
Out of fear, it instantly began running the other way. It was a pity for the wolf that Damon did the 100m in a bit less than 9 seconds, outpacing the wolf before it even got to properly accelerate. What followed was a swift knife stab downwards into the wolf's back, though it turned out to be more than a stab as the knife melted through the wolf’s torso.
"SKRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
The other wolves turned around, only to see a squealing wolf bleeding on the ground, although he became much less important in their eyes as what instead filled their vision was a maroon demon right in front of their eyes. In foresight, the wolves should have definitely just ran, although none of them would ever get the chance to think that...
It was close to around 40 seconds later that Damon felt the adrenaline fall a bit as he rested on his legs, surrounded by 4 dead bodies at varying distances. In fact most the time was spent chasing since 3 of the wolves just needed one strike to die. It was just for the last one that he had no time to retrieve his knife so had just instead jumped on the wolf and tried to pull its back apart with sheer strength. What followed was not what he had expected, as its back didn't pull apart from his pressure: he was not strong enough. Instead he fell off its back and the spooked wolf ran off with all its might, it was this chase that took the majority of the time.
Damon had already gorged on the remaining bodies of the bear and the centipede as he had woken up and thus wasn’t feeling very hungry at the moment. However in the end he decided to eat one anyway, before leaving 3 wolf corpses to rot in the rising sun.
...
The sun had already broken dawn around 4 hours ago by the time Damon saw the village, the same as always with the countless mud and plant houses. Instead of walking to his house, he walked over to the chieftain’s home. It was to his luck that the chieftain was in and busy with some kind of medicine sort of thing he was creating.
…
It was after much shock the chieftain recognised him.
“Ha-ha, I always knew we would get another evolved person in our tribe soon. I’m not surprised it’s you Damon, I always saw the potential in you ever since you took inspiration from Gregal.”
The aged chieftain continued to boot-lick a bit more before he realised how stiff Damon was to his compliments, mainly due to the fact he had never received it before that he was confused at how he was to react. Understanding the naivety of the boy, the chieftain immediately placed Damon’s importance in his mind upwards as he realised how easy it was to control the boy. After all it would become beyond difficult once the evolved goblin realised his power, which was something the chieftain knew very well due to Gregal’s evolution.
“Boy why don’t you stick around a bit more with me. The fight for leadership between Withil and Raraak will be happening in the afternoon which I’m sure you want to go to, but why don’t we talk a bit before that?”
Surprised at what he heard, Damon responded “Wait what?! How can Withil fight if he his arm is injured?”
“Oh that? Yes I heard that his arm only got worse even since fighting the bear. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing boy. I tried my best to make sure that the chieftain could be decided without a death since both of them are such talents but it will be at least another year before we find another opportunity like the bear. So second best would be if they fought and one won without any injuries, like Raraak would. After all Raraak has only gotten stronger after his failed evolution, he will certainly be able to beat Withil considering his arm is injured…”
Within moments, Damon said his goodbyes to the chieftain, much to the chieftain’s disappointment, before he began his walk to Withil’s home.
There was a reason why Damon had been able to get so good at knife throwing despite all the other goblins quitting. He had strong dedication to anything he committed himself to, and he had committed himself to Withil. He had declared his allegiance to him, and he felt a bad taste in his mouth as he thought of such a staged fight for such a grand position. But most of all, he had evolved and enjoyed such power, why would he have to any longer follow anyone else’s schemes?!
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The Trolls-???
It was my second fight, this time against one of the elders. He was in fact one of the oldest trolls here, even in terms of the other elders. You could see the age everywhere on him, whether it be his hair or his wrinkles and yet his figure did not look aged at all. He was smaller than me, as was every troll here, but not by much.
In my hand I held my trusty bludgeon, though it felt much heavier than it had before. This wasn't physical weight but rather the weight that bore down on my mind. I had to end this battle quick and clean, otherwise the worst case scenario would happen which was in essence my death
"RAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHH"
The elder screamed a war cry as he charged into me: a big mistake. You can scare big people by showing anger but you couldn't do the same for angry big people.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Even my head felt like exploding as my scream filled the air, showing visible worry on the elder's face although he still ran onwards. I raised the bludgeon before striking it downwards. A strong fury burnt inside of me as cold fear ran through the elder, rushing to get out of my way.
Hot passionate red flowed onto the arena as the elder's arm went flying. Following up, I dashed forwards before smashing my foot against his with a strong kick. It was to my surprise as the elder stood strong, before he stabbed his axe into my chest. I could feel the metallic taste fill my mouth as I punched him across the face. Just as my punch was about to make contact, the elder ducked before stabbing me once more.
The pain was overbearing but nothing like the anger I felt. Nothing at all like the power I felt. And certainly nothing close to the bloodlust I craved... Shit.
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"WAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGHHHH"
The audience watched as the falling giant immediately rose again in anger. The shadow overcast by his body only seemed to get larger as he wrapped his arms around the elder, before lifting him. Struggling violently, the elder tried to grasp his freedom though to no effect. Perhaps if he knew he was struggling for his life instead, he would have been much more extreme. But he wasn't...
The giant began to close his arms, beginning to squeeze the elder. Finally sensing the danger he was in, the elder began to truly struggle for his life as he began to kick and bite away at the giant. It was to his pity that the giant didn't let go, in fact the giant didn't even react to his protests as the massive troll only squeezed harder.
You could physically see the elder's chest getting smaller as bones crashed into other bones, crushing up into a bloody pulp of gore. The elder's blue skin was dyed red all over, but it was even more frightening as his still-blue head began to go red under the sheer pressure he was in. Losing all strength to struggle, he lost all sense of life as his mind shut down under the strain it was in.
That hadn't stopped the giant from desecrating the hound's body and it certainly wouldn't stop him from desecrating the elder's body. Instead the looming shadow began to extend its head downwards as the he released the pressure over the elder's chest, revealing an open organ system, albeit a bit unclear due to all the blood and gore.
Closing in, the yellow teeth covered the scalp of the dead body's head before biting in. Followed by another bite. And then another one...
It took a bit of time before the giant dropped the elder's body which lifelessly fell to the ground. It was in better shape than the hound's body, though it mattered not to the giant as he continued to chew away. The flesh was easy to do but the bones were a bit more difficult to digest...
Around him even the other trolls were shocked as they watched the behemoth do all of this, creating open dread upon their faces.
It was on that day a true monster had been created amongst their midst...