As a longtime adventurer, Jyulem Tyre had built up a rind around his heart. He didn’t easily feel empathy for the foes that constantly threatened human civilization. Too many had tried to shove rusted weapons or claws down his throat, or drench him with poison, or drag him from the warm sphere of torchlight into the darkness for him to feel pity for their eventual demise.

Yet when he watched the Censor of Judgement, Jaython Myasstia, and his gaunt shadow, the Troll Evicka Parn, approach the goblin line, he couldn’t help but wince. He pivoted and spoke sideways to the Adventure’s Guild irregulars arranged around him on the hill. “There’s no shame in looking away. Watching these two work in concert… especially you, Danzer. It will be-”

“A shock? Impactful?” Kamaedra o-punned, earning a glare from Jyulem.

The half-ogre Danzer raised his eyebrow, but Jyulem could only shake his head and turn forward. Only by seeing it, would they understand.

The Goblin Liege Subjugation group had made good time, moving through the rolling hills in search of their quarry. There were only two brief skirmishes, as Mercy’s Verdant Grove forces and the People’s army, respectively, each encountered and demolished goblin patrols. But with the encounters, they had zeroed in on the goblin base.

To their credit, the goblins had infested a rugged canyon that gave them a natural choke point. The subjugation team marched forward, while hundreds of armored goblin bodies clogged the main pass and danced on the steep walls. They waved their spears and hooted out challenges at the humans.

Jyulem dispassionately scanned their labels; most only had Levels in the early 30s, but their numbers made him grimace. He also didn’t see any goblin variants in the outer layer of defenses. Which meant there would be even heavier fortifications waiting within.

Toward the hooting, chittering mass of goblins walked Myasstia and Parn. Their steps were so smooth it was easy to imagine they approached for some other reason than violence.

The first squat goblin stepped forward and swung an ax. Unamared, Myasstia simply pivoted to the side, allowing the blow to tickle his face with a breeze. He reached out, his hands preternaturally quick, and put a palm against the goblin's armored chest.

Then the Censor of Judgement was gone. The goblin blinked and spun around, but the force of the movement caused the goblin to bounce off the ground. The goblin flailed its arms, struggling to understand why its weight had suddenly been reduced to an amount less than air. And while the goblin panicked, the gaunt, long-limbed Evicka Parn was there, grasping the stunned goblin by the collar and flinging it up into the air.

Despite the fact that the two of them were surrounded by goblins, they had so much of a Level advantage that the goblins couldn’t touch them. Besides, they moved so quickly, and the combination of the Censor of Judgement’s strange power meant that the press of bodies never became overwhelming. In thirty seconds, almost fifty goblins tumbled up in the air, floating like leaves caught in an autumn updraft.

The duo didn’t slow as they pressed forward, throwing more and more goblins up into the air. Furious goblins, deprived of their weight and drifting in the air, screeched and threw their weapons down at the two’s back, but they had already moved through the area. Those goblins who were clinging to the canyon walls were confused at first but then began obviously mocking their companions, holding their stomachs and slapping their knees as they laughed.

Ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet, fifty feet… the goblins tossed in the air slowed as they rose; Myassatia’s power didn’t completely take away their weight, it just reduced it to a minuscule amount. About a hundred and fifty bodies floated in the air, most of the crowd that had previously blocked the mouth of the ravine.

Jaython Myasstia looked around, nodded, and then snapped his fingers with a neutral expression. Jyulem closed his eyes.

The power making the goblins near weightless vanished. Most didn’t realize the danger at first, even as gravity grasped and tugged them back toward the ground. Their eyes widened. The strange joviality of the watching goblins hadn’t even completely dissipated when the bodies started hitting the ground.

The worst part is always the sound, Jyulem shivered as the bodies hit the ground.

Bones snapped and tore through flesh. Organs popped. Armor dented, inflicting as many wounds as it provided protection. Some goblins had tumbled around and were killed instantly in the fall, but most survived.

With their arms or legs shattered, the survivors began to wail. The adventurers and the religious representatives who hadn’t seen the Censor in action before gaped. Beside Jyulem, Danzer dry heaved.

The People’s Army marched forward in tight formation, drawing their thin swords to finish of the living, even while their mages blasted the ledges above the chokepoint with concentrated fireballs to scare away the surviving goblins.

“Let’s go,” Jyulem sighed and led his shaken troops forward into the breach.

Kamaedra, saint that she was, took quick steps to reach the front of the group. She arrived at the goblin bodies first and began wielding her hatchets to silence the worst of the sobbing and agonized shrieks. The Irkan contingent marched through, most of the adventurers turning slightly green as they stepped around legs with jagged femurs poking through the skin, or avoiding skulls where the fall impact had popped the eyeballs of the goblins into wet and gooey final tears.

Behind their group, the religious contingents gathered up and began to approach; Jyulem didn’t know whether to bless or curse them for mouthing their prayers to their chosen god.

After the chokepoint, the ravine opened up into a rather spacious canyon. Which, it turned out, just served as a massive stage to demonstrate the disparity between the two forces.

The bodies goblin bodies here were slain in an altogether different manner; several looked like they had been hacked in half by a giant, enthusiastic child with a dull pair of scissors. Evicka had let loose, then, Jyulem noted. The corpses of their foes had been battered and piled in great mounds, the second defensive barrier obliterated by the two powerful frontrunners.

Squads from the People’s Army interlocked their tower shields and marched toward the corners of the canyon, blocking up small game paths down out of the surrounding hills. Goblins javelins and arrows whizzed and pinged off the defensive formation. The legion rumbled closer, pressing the goblin bodies back and slicing with their short swords until the resistance was shredded to ribbons.

A few goblins were desperate enough to wait until the groups had moved near enough to the cliffs to leap down, trying to land behind the lines, but the back line of the People’s armor pivoted and cut them down all the same.

We overwhelm them now, but how long would it take for the situation to be reversed? For our assault to be a dire, hopeless affair? Jyulem’s eyes scanned the surroundings. Although he would never indulge his curiosity, the analytical part of his brain craved an answer; at what point does a Monster Liege become almost inevitable?

Jyulem sucked on his teeth and refocused. “This was a well-chosen spot. Had we struggled to push through, we would have been constantly harassed as we fought to take the canyon.”

“Humanity is a poorly chosen foe,” Kamaedra returned. She crossed her arms and shook her head. “Why do you think we dwarves haven’t wiped you off the face of the planet?”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“What would you gripe about, without humans?” Danzer offered. Most of his color had returned and he now spoke in an overly gruff voice, to overcompensate for his earlier reaction. “Dwarves love their complaints.”

“We are the only people with taste. Can you imagine the pressure we are under to keep you grass-heads from capsizing culture? You’d complain too.” The hatchet slayer sniffed.

Jyulem led his group the rest of the way across the canyon to the far wall, where a series of cracks in the granite cliff gave him a sinking feeling in his chest. Waiting outside the largest of the cracks was Myasstia, still looking totally pristine in his armor, without a drop of blood on him.

While next to him, blood dribbled down from Evicka Parn’s long arms.

“Heavy resistance within,” The Censor of Judgement said with all the affectation of a soothsayer talking about the weather. “The initial caverns have been cleared, but more wait within. You possess a subordinate uniquely suited for scouting the area, do you not?”

“Yes,” Jyulem said. His hands tingled. He resisted the urge to methodically check the buckles of his armor. “We will handle it.”

He strode forward, with Kamaedra, Danzer, and the rest of the irregulars following him. His heartbeat quickened, despite all the preparations he made. But part of it was a flash of excitement; perhaps he would be able to fight freely, in the confines of the cave, without his newly earned Constellation being revealed.

As his eyes adjusted to the gloom of the caves, only to see heavily armored hobgoblins butchered and tossed to the side of the entranceway, Jyulem gestured. “Danzer.”

“Got it, boss.” The half-ogre grunted and padded forward. Despite his massive, muscular body, his steps became almost light. Then, at the far end of the cave, he stomped a foot.

Danzer tilted his head to the side, listening with his Tremor Sense Skill, mapping the surrounding caves. It was a useful Skill, but it also made him uniquely vulnerable to the horrid impact from earlier.

Danzer released a breath. “Can’t see far enough down the tunnels to see where they are gathered, but their are goblins lurking around every corner. Left tunnel is wider and appears to head deeper. If we are going, we go in steel first.”

“Guess that’s our cue,” Kamaedra chuckled. She then flashed a grin toward Jyulem. “First to fifty bodies wins?”

“Miss Overmountain, we are professionals,” Jyulem said as he unstrapped his spear and tested its weight. “It’s beneath our dignity to count the slain. Especially when our foes have lives, culture, and art. Did you know that goblins invented the latrine?”

“You ruin everything,” Kamaedra shook her head.

Without having to be told, a few of the old scout-type adventurers pulled torches out of their packs and lit them. Then the Irkan Adventurer's Guild threw their bodies into the darkness.

They rounded the first stony crag and were faced with three goblins. Two fell almost immediately, hatchets materializing in their throats. They released bloody rasps as they dropped their weapons, almost in shock, and put their hands against their wounds in a small attempt to stem the flow of blood.

The third goblin hissed out a curse and hopped over its fellows, raising its wicked ax and aiming for Kamaedra. Tyre planted his feet, pounced forward, and then unleashed a flawless thrust that pierced through the goblin’s right wrist.

Your Skill (Earned) Martial Genius has grown to Level 14.

The goblin’s eyes widened, but Jyulem twisted his weapon, so the blade of his spear churned through the goblin’s arm. The monster screeched as the hand disconnected from its body, but Jyulem already cut sideways with the spear and slid the weapon through the goblin’s neck.

Your Skill (Named) Tyre’s Tidal Spear has grown to Level 9.

By the time the goblin hit the ground, it was dead.

“Two to-”

“We aren’t counting,” Jyulem interrupted Kamaedra and stalked forward.

Not in any attempt to compete, Jyulem accelerated as they moved around the next stone passage and arrived in a larger cavern. At least a half dozen goblins pivoted and screeched at him. But when the adventurers followed him and the torches came out from around the corner, Jyulem could see the goblin’s flinch as their eyes, adjusted to the darkness, were blinded by the sudden fire.

He stepped into that opening.

One hobgoblin possessed enough sense to swing wildly with its greatsword to keep Jyulem from stepping forward, but the Adventurer's Guild Leader shook his head at the blind attack. He swung the butt of his spear and clanged it against the heavy weapon, knocking the blow further astray. So instead of lashing out at the newly arrived group, the strike went sideways, smashing into the ground in front of its fellow goblins.

Jyulem stepped forward, to the left of the unbalanced greatsword wielder, and kicked him in the side.

Your Skill (Earned) Martial Genius has grown to Level 15.

The hobgoblin sprawled on its stomach, squawking in displeasure as another goblin scrambled forward and stepped on it. A third tripped over the dropped greatsword.

Which meant the adventurers ripped through the resistance like a sharp knife through paper currency.

Once the goblins had been cleared out of that cavern, Danzer checked again on the tunnels and led them deeper. The group rotated cleanly who participated in engagements, so aside from a few nicks and scrapes, they were largely unharmed. Their stamina was intact. However, the group still hadn’t encountered any truly dangerous goblin variants.

It made Jyulem begin to worry. The Goblin Liege had chosen this position deliberately. Despite the fact they had largely invalidated the advantages, he suspected the monster would have more cards to play.

Besides, Jyulem thought grimly. More than anything… we need to see what Level the Liege has reached.

If there was one positive about their movements, it was that they were simply heading deeper in the ridge, rather than down into the ground. At the next intersection, as the group took a break in the flickering torchlight to drink water and eat small amounts of tasteless rations, Danzer executed another stomp.

Frowning, the half-ogre reached over and touched the stonewall. “Yeah, this is wet. I wondered… looks like there is an aquifer here.”

“Easy access to water would make this place a good candidate to simply wait us out,” Kamaedra commented. “Hard to know how well the Liege understands its own advantages, but it will win in the long game.”

Jyulem felt a headache to think about it; a siege would not be fun in the depths of the cave tunnels. It was hard to imagine a defensive setup that would hold up against an impatient Myasstia and Parn, but it wasn’t impossible. Still, he shook his head. “I doubt it will come to that. At least, in this instance, we can be thankful that the Censor of Judgement is present. There are no doors that won’t swing open for those hands.”

Despite the darkness, Jyulem felt Kamaedra look at him in askance. Sometimes, knowing someone as well as the Hatchet Slayer and he knew each other made him deeply uncomfortable.

She didn’t ask about their current situation, but about the development that had led Myasstia here, the sudden disappearance of Princess Matrice. Her wide brown dwarven eyes contained a thousand questions, which boiled down to a single query: would they do anything about it?

Jyulem didn’t return the gaze. He hated himself a bit for his reaction, but the longer the awareness of the escape percolated, the more he felt jealous. Jealous that she hadn’t attempted to contact him.

Which, he supposed, meant that he would have thrown away his life’s achievements, the nearly finished Promotion Quest, in order to help Matrice. From the tension Jyulem felt in his own shoulders, he suspected Kamaedra could read the predictable line of his thoughts even as he experienced them.

She nodded, very slightly. Jyulem didn’t acknowledge the motion.

The adventurers continued to drill forward, cutting their way through the goblin resistance. As a pair in tight spaces, Jyulem and Kamaedra were nearly unmatched. And with Danzer’s guidance the group soon found a tunnel that led to a cavern so large that the half-ogre couldn’t get a sense of its scale even with his Tremor Sense.

What he could say, however, was that it was lousy with goblins. The heavily armored, variant types that they hadn’t encountered thus far.

Most of the expedition gathered in that last tunnel before the cavern, elite groups from each of the delegations waiting in grim silence. The Censor of Judgement appeared, calm and collected and untouched by the carnage of their blitz. He looked around and smiled. “Let’s finally see what surprise the Goblin Liege has for us, shall we?”.

*****

In the depths of the cavern, a single shadow giggled and watched the confrontation between civilization in the goblin Liege. But mostly, its attention fixated on one hobgoblin in particular, standing in the honor guard of the Goblin Liege.

A hobgoblin that, if one looked close enough, seemed to have limbs of mismatched sizes.

Let’s cause some chaos, shall we?

In that hobgoblin, a Sapphire jelly core whispered to itself that he was the protagonist.