Vrek had been having a bad month, ever since he had been granted the task to take care of the breeding sows of Chief Xarn, making sure no one touched them. Taking care of the spawns and putting aside those that showed the potential that Xarn was looking for.

Xarn had moved his current special sows to the largest cave in the area. This cave Vrek was told had a special connection to the magic in the area. All running just through a cave room that Xarn had prepared with more magical runes and placed minced corpses around, to create the dark miasma that would form around such an area.

Vrek had been taught how to check on the sows health, if they could carry enough spawns. But he also learned to differentiate between the spawns. He was told to be on the look out of spawnlings that had the same traits as Xarn himself. These were of the out most importance, but none had been birthed ever since Vrek had been on the job, clearly they were extremely rare.

Then Xarn had sent a special prize to the cave, A elven whore that he had already mated with, she was to be placed in the prepared chamber and her spawns were to be closely examined for the traits. She only got to birth the first one, one of the goblin types that was able to walk under the sun without problems. Vrek was disappointed at this, but even more horrified to find out that the elf had somehow managed to cast spells and secure herself from harm. Vrek knew that magicians could pull all kinds of tricks and knew she had to be destroyed as fast as possible.

But then came that wooden horror, it ripped his team apart and took his arm. Then it disappeared taking the valuable elf with it. Vrek knew he was in trouble the instant that happened, now the enemy knew where this cave was, Xarn had lost a prized sow and his mana dense cave's hidden location.

Vrek quickly moved all the important resources out of the mana cave, leaving only a few goblins behind to take the hit if any reprisals were to occur. All the special spawns were secured, the goblin bosses divided up to go to their own locations and wait for new orders once Xarn had returned from the dark lords missions.

Vrek was fortunate that Xarn was away on tasks for his master. If he had been here Vrek would have been killed instantly, if he was lucky... But now he had a small chance to regain some clot with Xarn before his return. After securing his own groups new cave. He took the majority of the goblins out and traveled to the other side of the mountains. Near the city that had been destroyed by the dark masters during his last conquest, also the same place where he got the elf sow from.

He planned to search through the area around the city for farmsteads and villages that now would have little to no defenses since the major city hub was destroyed. It was a risky gamble but villagers would have no where to go, and would stubbornly try to defend their meager lands.

Vrek hoped he could find new sows to gift Xarn on his return, to lessen his anger against him he had no chance of escape ever since Xarn had marked him with a dark rune that allowed him to contact him when he desired and keep track of him. Luckily he had not done so, or Vrek would have been doomed.

Taking 70 goblins with him out along the mountains till they reached the giant fallen human fortress that had been destroyed and was a utter wreck. This once glorious fortress city covered a split between the mountains. It was filled with many routes to get through it and to pass into the humans side. Humans did have adventure camps here for when they decided to go to the dark kingdom to raid for monsters and materials. But now there was none due to the last invasion that occurred that took the city out.

This was the time to move out and perform small raids, while the humans were still recovering and picking new safe locations. Perhaps they were even focused on reclaiming the city, pulling resources from far away demanding even more attention away from the outlying villages that Vrek had his sights on.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

They managed to scout out 3 villages, but 1 of them had a adventurer group in it to defend against goblins. They steered clear of that village, Vrek could tell when it was time to back off. He would have lost to many goblins to make it worth it compared to the amount of loot they could get. Plus he was not sure in his own abilities since he lost his arm.

Something he could feel from the other bosses. They were practically salivating at the thought of killing him to take his place, but they were most likely restraining themselves. To make sure that once Xarn got back he would take out his anger fully on Vrek and not the new leader of the group.

Vrek had to focus on being the dominant boss constantly to suppress the urge, of those that wanted to try and kill him. They were the ones that thought killing Vrek and giving him as a gift to Xarn would be the correct choice.

Luckily Vrek was still able to hold the killing urges of the gobs in check. Even a brief moment of weakness and they would pounce at the chance. Vrek managed also to use the raid to distract the goblins killing urges away from himself onto something else.

They managed to assault the two villages, Vrek spent most of the time not fighting but capturing women and pounding it into the head of the goblins to not violate a single woman. He needed to capture prime speciments for Xarn, if they had been used Xarn would sometimes say they had lost their potential as prime sows.

He was in luck at the second village..

He found a prize that would surely make up for the loss of the elf woman, but it was almost lost. He was directing the goblins around in the village they had stormed into. Ordering them to kill and capture the correct targets. When suddenly a fire blast exploded over near a house. He instantly regrouped over there with the other bosses, Inside was a woman guarding a younger woman.

Her hands had fire flying out of it roasting any goblin that came inside trying to capture them.

Vrek held the goblins back from the house changing their orders to kill the woman casting the fire spells in front, he witnesses the girl behind also casting a spell but looked exhausted afterwards.

The sudden lull in the battle inside the house baffled the woman, but it was short lived as suddenly from every window and door goblins all burst inside at the same time. Even the roof was being attacked to create new openings for them to attack in.

The side that the woman targeted with her fire caused fire to cover the area, burning the goblins to a crisp screaming all the way to their doom. But from the other sides the goblin bosses leaped in. The woman fought bravely but was torn apart by the sudden onrush of goblins, Vrek captured the girl while the other goblins tore the flame caster apart alive in front of his evil stare and laughter.

Vrek quickly took out the small charm that Xarn had given him. He cracked it against the girls body and a dark shadow fell over her and she collapsed from mana exhaustion. These charms would last for months and could hold a spell caster or warriors spirit down making them almost helpless.

He administered the crying girl a poison that then paralyses her, making her only able to make the smallest of movements.

Vrek was sure of his safety now. He had lost one spell caster in exchange for another, plus a new haul of many other women. It had cost him 30 goblins but it were easily replaced once they could get back to the cave. Gathering the spoils of their raids they made their way back to the dark kingdom and the new cave.

When vrek entered the cave he divided the women up into the groups he thought would be interesting to Xarn, giving the rest to the goblins. That instantly threw themselves on the poor women in mass. Vrek had noticed that Form the goblin boss he had left behind to take care of the cave was standing by looking at Vrek.

"Form. What is it you useless gob.. And take that helmet off!.."

Vrek had left this gob behind, his weird fascination with the helmet Form was wearing made him weird. He never took it off, but Form did not relent. Instead he told Vrek what had occurred in the cave...

"Gege.. Frel is dead... The new spawnling was a shaman... He is the new Sun soaker boss.."

Form said to the now stunned Vrek who looked at him like he was crazy.

"What?!!" Vrek exclaimed in surprised anger, this was not what he needed to have happen!

The new spawn made by that elf sow, had in such a short time shown enough strength to kill a boss?? That elf had delivered such a potent spawn? This made it look even more of a loss for Vrek that the elf was rescued.

Grinding his teeth in anger he called the other bosses. Then walked over towards the crack in the wall. Two sun symbols on either side.

Meanwhile.. Back in human lands a farmer was telling a group of adventurers the horrid tale of the one armed goblin wielding a odd crystal club, that came to their village and destroyed everything, including their village chief that was a former adventurer.

A extremely pricey bounty was put up on the one armed goblin leader, to retrieve the crystal club, making the low level adventures salivate at the thought of killing this goblin.

*Achoo!*

Lurk felt weird after he sneezed, like someone was talking about him... Nah it must be a misunderstanding.