“Back in the Sol system, during the time of the Alpha Centauri fortification construction. Those who had emerged to become the leaders of humanity were increasingly, many suspect, at the behest of the Magi, to arrange marriages based on the perceived power of the two intended to create more powerful offspring.

The houses that would emerge from these strategic unions would not only shape the future of humanity but also become the very pillars of its budding empire. It is speculated that it is also where the seeds of discord began to sprout.

No longer would planets be ruled by the most educated or most qualified but by the most powerful. As humanity seems to make the same mistakes over and over, The cracks of discord were being sown, not by a foreign power, but by the greed of an emperor and those in power circling the throne on Luna demanding more.

A positive outcome of the breeding programs was the overwhelming support of the liberation forces. The orphan program reached new heights as it became a tradition for the ruling families to send every third child of a union to join the Legions.

Taking their lead from the budding nobility, the wealthy and well-off started following in their footsteps. New legions were rapidly trained and cleared for deployment, more than ready to meet the demands of the ever-growing fleet of humanity.

The Magi, combing through the ruined palace of the constructed planet circling the Alpha Centauri stars, discovered techniques and text about the domains that expanded our understanding of them by leaps and bounds. Maybe the most important thing they discovered was a way to awaken one's connection to a domain with only a one in ten chance of death, unlike the previous method where one in three did not make it. Even if the percentage of the populace with the ability to awaken was low, this was a great boon for humanity.”

-Elistar Iscariot, Grand Magister during the second Kingfisher dynasty.

Looking back at the goblin camp and the hole in the fortifications my body had made, I almost considered running, but watching the lumbering troll-monkey thing surrounded by its band of goblins making their way towards me, I couldn't just let it stand.

I may have lost my barrier during my most recent attempt at flight and consequent tumble, but I was whole. The barrier had spared me from harm, well almost spared me.

Stoking the broken feather one last time, I put it back in my hat. I would have my revenge. Standing up, as the group was almost on top of me now, I dislodged the broken bow and drew my sword one more time. In the other, I took a few arrows and arranged them so only one would be sticking out towards the enemy when I held it.

The first of the goblins were trying to surround me by then. I considered their point of view and decided the answer was no,

Fainting towards the one in front of me, I drew my sword in a wide arch to the right as I stepped in after the goblin swing and showed an arrow up into its skull, hard enough to lift the ugly creature off the ground. That made 103 moths of power my body had consumed over a short time, and I was almost shaking with it and my anger.

I felt the sword tip run through the throat of the goblin to my tight without looking and kicked to one on my left as it swung a branch at me. The branch broke, as did the arm holding it, and it was the goblin's turn to take flight.

Continuing the spin of my kick I swung around towards my left and planted an arrow in the skull of the goblin behind me. It dropped as a sack of potatoes.

Behind me, the ogre-monkey-thing roared. Turning back towards the enemy, I saw the goblins had stopped. The big one was swinging its oversized fists around, killing them in its attempts to no doubt get its teeth into my meaty posterior.

Seeing a few goblins trying to flee into the night, I couldn't help the grin spreading on my face. Don't mind if I do, I thought before I started running towards the group. The thirty or so remaining goblins broke and scattered in every direction.

That suited me just fine. The moon was barely visible. Most of the light came from the campfires, sending shadows into the already dark night. I almost felt at home as I opened myself to my domain, letting the power run through my body. The hunt was on.

Ignoring the big lumbering ogre-monkey-troll or whatever it was for now, I started running after the largest group of eight goblins. Even as power from my previous kills entered me, the strange pearl drank deeply of the power, and the remaining went to the ability crystal and through the domain rift.

I was almost as surprised as the goblins when I caught up to them moments later. My blade sang in the night as the first of the goblins lost its head. When I finally managed to turn around, I had to run back toward the remaining seven, who scatted when they noticed me in front of them again.

The third goblin served as a crunchy stepping stone for me to take spring from and land on the fourth one. The fifth died as I rolled into a standing position, stabbing it in the eye with the last arrow in my hand.

Keeping an eye on the lumbering one wasn't too difficult anymore, as it was mostly trying to reach me in strength lines. Going wide around it, I pulled another few arrows from my quiver and set off after the next group of goblins.

A group of four was in my reach moments later. Opting for efficiency over doing anything fancy, I lounge forward with my sword, catching one where I thought its liver would be. The next one got an arrow pushed into its brain from above as I slammed my fist down on the top of its head.

The closest goblin suddenly spun around with its club swinging horizontally. I barely had time to push forward and past its swing, as the branch lightly smacked my bum as I was on the other side of it again. You little perv, I thought while decapitating the one who would offend my virtue in such a way.

The last one got a kick to its belly before I stomped on its throat. More moths of power entered me as I drew deeper from the hungering dark. It was becoming difficult to think past the sweet feeling of gathering more power.

Somehow, I managed to stay clear of the big one until the last of the goblins were down, but it was difficult, so difficult. Every part of my being screamed that it was trespassing on my territory. To destroy it and consume its blood and roar out my victory into the night. The dark was mine, and this place belonged to me.

Listening as its steps grew closer, I stood on the other side of the three, a long branch in my hand.

It was so slow I had to keep baiting it so it wouldn't lose me and steal my loot.

Then it came around the three, barely visible through the clump of rots I hid behind. As it took a step forward, I thrust the log between its legs and scrambled to the top of the roots. I could hear a loud crack followed by a bellow of anger, but no thud of a body hitting the ground.

Peering down, I could see it had stopped and was looking down on the now-cracked Ironwood branch. True, the branch had fallen some time ago and was far from as sturdy as a new branch or the tree itself, but that was just ridiculous. It had been as wide as my leg.

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Not wasting the chance, I jumped down with a foot on each side of its massive head, plunging my sword into its neck before jumping off and running the other way.

It stood there for a moment before it gently brought its right hand up to its neck and looked at it. The bellow of anger and rage was a balm on my soul as it turned around and started walking towards me.

Well, not as effective as I had hoped, but it did seem to hurt it as it kept bringing its hand up to feel the place I had stabbed it.

Waiting by another three just out of its sight, I jumped out and, with my arm infused with power, slashed across its belly before hurling myself between its grasping arms. I did not doubt that if I weren't an Awakened, its speed would have been much higher than mine, but so far, I managed to keep ahead of it.

Peering from under another root, I saw it had stopped trying to come after me. It seemed to try and keep its intestines from flopping out. The monster seemed to have some success in keeping it in at the beginning, but in the end, it just flopped out.

To my absolute disgust, I watched its belly heal around its flailing intestines. They were dangling back and forth with each step as the monster walked toward where it last saw me. I'm almost sure that's not how anything's body should work, but it did look to have a fair bit of troll in it. They are infamously known to be too dumb to die.

I needed a bigger weapon if I was going to stay in the Hunter guild or an enchanted blade…Possibly both.

Racking my brain for how to kill this thing, I carefully circled it and sat waiting on a rot a dozen steps from where it would pass by a tree.

Trying something stupid I started gathering power from my rift, flooding myself with it. When I felt about to pass out, I started sending all the accumulated power to my right hand. I had to keep looking at it to see that I still had a hand.

The moment the ugly prick showed its face, I struck. Putting my entire body behind it, I slammed my fist into its face at the same time as it lifted me.

Dangling from its grip, I'm almost positive my fist was broken, but a ripple of darkness spread out from where I had hit it and pulsed across its body. The scream of pain and fear coming from its mouth almost made me forget my pain for a moment. Kicking its chest, I managed to free myself from its weakened grasp.

Rolling as I hit the ground while cradling my right arm, I sat on my haunches a few steps away from the monster as it stood screaming, its sharp nails digging furrows on its face and upper body.

Scrambling back a few more steps, I saw the troll-ogre thing suddenly start hammering its forehead against the trunk of the nearest tree. It couldn't quite make the three shake, but I would hate to be a wood rat or something living in that tree right now. Maybe file a neighbor complaint?

Moving further away, I was really starting to wonder what I had done to the thing as it went on, smashing its head against the trunk until I could see an indentation on its forehead. Then it just stopped and seemed to be lost as it looked around.

While it was doing, well, whatever it was doing, I did a quick inspection of my hand and couldn't find anything broken. It was just blue, black and swollen. Not sure that's a particularly good thing, but I could, with great pain move all my fingers.

I was just about to find my backpack to see if I had anything that could move things more in my favor. I was running out of time as I could feel the power slowly leaving my body, turning me into a shaking husk of hunger. Sure, the pearl was having a field day, apparently, and the ability and almost a quarter of the ability crystal were now filled with darkness, but that didn't do against big and toothsome. I just didn't have another attack like the last one in me at the moment.

Racking my brain, I bumped my hand against something hard. Cursing under my breath from the pain, then cursing myself for being a dumb ass.

I quickly got my bearings. The bonfires still roared, so finding the only light source wasn't exactly difficult.

Standing up, I shouted, “Come, big boy! Let's get this done. I don't have all night, and you are turning into a liability. Shame on you,”

Its answering roar and the sound of its massive feet hitting the ground were all the confirmation I needed before legging it myself. Only stopping to make sure it was still following me.

Keeping ahead of the monster wasn't difficult in itself. It had done some serious self-harm by how its skull wasn't returning to normal, as I would expect from a troll.

The fact that I kept stumbling because I nodded off while running was more worrying. How little did I have left in me if I couldn't even keep awake being chased by a creature with its intestines dangling out of it?

Back at the goblin camp, I shouldered my way through a gap between two carts. The fires were still going strong, and I felt a moment of relief despite the camp looking like a slaughterhouse. Blood, inside pieces and outside pieces of goblins, were strewn about as if someone wasn't sure of what size cubes to size the meat in, so they had opted for all sizes.

Did I do this? Nah, I would never. It must have been another Alucard. I was far too refined…For some reason, that made me laugh out loud. It wasn't even remotely funny, but the entire situation, together with how tired I felt, must have started getting to me.

While I was exploring my sanity, I could hear the grunt of the monster making its way into the camp.

Turning around, I could see it just on the other side of two of the bonfires. “We meet again ugly and toothsome. Now, I have been asking myself what something like you are doing out here in the periphery of the woods. Your normal place would be much closer to the central rings.”

Giving the monster a big smile as it kept walking toward me, I slowly kept backing up towards the outer wall.

“You see, my conclusion is that you're an asshole. Nothing less, nothing more. Your just a dipshit that got kicked out of your clan or whatever society you have going on in there. Probably for being a coward. So you decided to go someplace where you could be big and strong without anyone looking down on you, where no one would call you out for being a weakling.”

I was at the last bonfire now before the fortification started.

“Now, don't get me wrong, I understand, and I fully support your decision. Always better to be the big fish. That is, until some bigger fish comes along, at least.”

Giving it a last grin. “Say hello to the bigger fish, asshole,” My villain monologue over, I threw my last tinpot in the general direction of its chest before hurling myself over the barricade.

It was raining monster bits as a massive influx of power hit me. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed since I didn't know what part of it was the bounty part. It could have been its left nut, for all I know.

The thud that suddenly came from beside me almost made me piss myself, but to my delight, it was the creature's disfigured head. Someone should have some information about what this thing was and where it could avoid meeting any more of them.

Taking the head by the little hair going down the back of its head, I dragged it into the center of the camp, where I found an appropriate-sized stick to mount it on. Then my tired body and I went looking for my backpack with my new walking stick. To my delight, the birds had started making noises again. Don't know what type this was, but calling it singing would be too generous.

With a sigh, I took out my water skin. This was going to suck. Before I liberally doused myself with ice cold water. Thank the great god of hedonism that Mira wasn't here. I would never hear the end of it. Making sure my broken feather was still in place I reached down into the sealed pouches of heaven my backpack contained. Stuffing myself between trying to get my hand in working order.

Nothing good lasts forever, sadly and despite myself, I was actually full without having emptied my entire stash of food. My hand was feeling better, however. Giving what I was starting to think of as my spiritual side a glance, my little white pearl had become the size of a sparrow's egg. It had also started getting a multi-hued sheen to it. Hopefully, it was something nice and not some sort of horrible disease on the spirit growing until it exploded.

For some reason, I felt really protective over the thing and didn't want anyone to know about it.

The ability stone had managed to turn two-thirds black. I couldn't complain about that.

The rift was just sitting there, playing dead, not really doing anything unless I stared poking at it. That suited me just fine, so I sent it a mental equivalent of a “Thank you.” It burped power at me in answer, and I was almost floored again, trying to wrestle the deluge of power into the right places. That was something else I had learned while dealing with big and toothsome. I couldn't help giving the head on top of my staff a grin. The power from the rift wanted to follow certain paths, and when the power followed those paths, I had more control over what it was doing and the mood it put me in.

I still had to map the entire thing, but one day soon, I promised myself to figure it out. One day, I didn't feel like I was about to fall over from exhaustion.

Ah damn, that reminded me. I had to check out the second camp. If there were any more goblins, they would be there. It was better to be safe than sorry when it came to having your throat slit during sleep, and I really, really needed some sleep.

Repacking everything, I set off wet and annoyed towards the second camp, well, where I imagined it was.