"I command you, KILL... THEM... ALL!!"
The villagers looked at this small little green goblin and burst into wild untamed laughter. Each of them looked at this goblin as though he were an absolute and utter idiot.
*GACK*
"What are you doing? Let, let me go."
Suddenly from behind the men, one of the villagers began to shout in a panic. Whipping their heads around, they had just enough time to witness a strange scene. In Benjamin's left hand, he held a villager by the throat. Before the men could even comprehend this odd sight, Ben's hand began to squeeze tighter and tighter until an audible *Crunch* was heard, the man was dead. Like a sack of rice, the man's body was thrown aside as though he were nothing. Looking at their dead friend, none could believe what had just happened, one minute everyone's joking around and the very next instant their friend was no more. One of the men jumped up in anger and roared.
"Benjamin, what the hell did you just do!"
Benjamin's body awkwardly turned toward that man as though he were a puppet and began walking toward him. Benjamin didn't know how, but he knew in an instant he was no longer in control of his own being. As he approached the man awkwardly, he tried to resist moving with every fiber of his being but no matter how much he struggled, his body continued to lumber forward without control. Out of the corner of his eye, Benjamin spotted the goblin and saw a disgusting and eerie smile plastered on the goblins face and he thought.
(It's him, it must be, but how, how is he controlling my movement?)
As Ben stood in front of the villager, with absolutely no control over his limbs, he raised one of his hands high above his head. Seeing this, the villager grew frightened and backed away, but Ben continued forward clenching his fist in the air.
(No, my body won't stop.)
As Ben continued forward, with no other choice he had to at least warn everyone. With a loud shout, he said.
"Everyone, listen to me, I don't know what's happening to me but I can't control myself. You must run away before its too late!"
But everyone just stood there in shock not knowing what to do. It was then that the goblin mage spoke up.
"You.... kill..... too slow. Kill... Faster."
Like a switch was flipped, Benjamin's body suddenly accelerated toward that villager. The villager that was a second ago backing away, was so frightened by Benjamin's speed that he immediately tripped, falling to the ground. By the time he noticed it, Benjamin was already standing over top him. Jack and the others saw this and shouted in dread.
"No Benjamin!! don't do it!"
But it was already too late. With a speed easily missed by the naked eye, Benjamin's hammer like fist descended upon the man's head almost instantaneously.
*Snap Thwack*
Even though it happened so fast, still the sight these men saw both terrified and disgusted them. As Benjamin's fist landed upon the man's head, the first thing you'd think you'd see would be an explosion coming from the head, instead, there was odd flexibility to the man's neck. As Benjamin's fist made contact, the man's head at first sunk into his shoulders. The sight, if it were to be written down, it would look like a humanized tortoise, as though the man was seeking shelter inside himself. The next thing that happened was even more shocking. Before this man's head exploded into chunks, as his head sunk further in, the first thing to break was the man's spine. The place where the top of the spine in the neck connects to the base of the skull, the bone in his neck, under the tension of Benjamin's blow, exploded outward breaking in an instant. Followed immediately after was the man's head caving in before exploding into dozens of fatty chunks. Benjamin, being as close as he was, had blood, bone and even little pieces of the brain all over him. Whether it be his face, arms, and chest, they were all completely dripping with fluids.
As the sound of the man's skull cracking and his brain suddenly being turned to pulp echoed out, everyone stared on in horror, everyone except the 3 goblins, they seemed to relish in delight at the sight of their enemies slaying each other. Once more Benjamin roared at the top of his lungs.
"I can't control it, escape from me at once, FLEE!!"
This bestial roar snapped the men out of it, they instantly looked at each other and knew what needed to be done. With no more time wasted, they each turned in the direction of the four corners of the world, north south east and west, and like a storm that raged on for a 100 years they shot out like lightning, dispersing in every direction in the nearby forest. But Benjamin was not the one in control and with his speed, who could escape. Before two of the men could make it into the forest, Benjamin had already caught up to them. Swinging his mighty silver wolf battle hammer, he hammered in a man's ribcage turning his ribs into splintered bone, the man's death was instant. As the other man tried to flee without even looking, Benjamin threw out his hammer as though it was as light as a feather but as it impacted the man, to him, it felt like a demonic mountain. As the hammer struck this man in the back, it quickly passed thru him and like a carnivorous monster during a feeding frenzy, the hammer seemed to eat its way thru the man's back as it escaped out through his chest in an instant, before striking a few trees in the distance felling them. In these few seconds, Benjamin had already snuffed out the life of 4 men, but with his orders, he wasn't done yet. Turning to the forest, Benjamin darted toward his next victim, vanishing into the black night.
The men felt utter dread as they raced desperately for their lives in the dark forest. Meanwhile, the three goblins felt absolutely elated as they celebrated with utter joy. The one missing his ear couldn't help but ask.
"What do we do now, shouldn't we leave before your power runs out?"
The goblin mage looked at the other two and nodded in confirmation.
"Yes but we can't travel anywhere near the road, we'll have to take a long detour first."
The other two goblins were confused before the goblin mage spoke up again.
"If we follow the same path back we might run into that strong man. As you know I can't repeatedly spam that technique. If we're traveling and I become exhausted again, I won't be able to use it. For that man, it would be an opportune moment to kill us. So we can't take the same path and beside's, even if it's not him if someone else shows up and they escape, how long do you think before they send some people to slay us. Remember, this is human territory, to them, we are the trespassers, the invaders. For the detour, we'll travel just outside eyeing distance of the road and well follow it back to that ugly human village. Once we're there it will be quite easy to get back home. As long as we do this and travel cautiously at night, we should be back home in less than 2 days time, how's that?"
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The other two goblins readily agreed, after grabbing a few rations from the carts, the three goblins disappeared into the night. If they weren't so cautious then right now they'd be roaring in laughter all the way back home.
As the mood for the goblins was one of bliss, on the opposite of that was an atmosphere filled with grief and terror. As the men fleed, how could they make it a distance to actually escape from Benjamin? With his incredible speed, he soon caught up to another and then another. Every so often you could hear a loud scream echo out into the forest followed by a quick silence. In this repeated action, the surviving villagers could count on one hand how many of their friends were still alive and how many had already been embraced by lady death. Jack couldn't think of any of that right now, he could only run for his life. As he raced through the dark forest, sweat poured from his skin like a fountain. Each fiber of muscle in his legs felt as though they were being ripped apart, Jack had never run so fast or so hard in his entire life. With each breath, it felt as though his lungs burned with the eternal flames of hell. As this point, he had been running as fast as he could for an hour and even though he was now wheezing like an injured animal, he still pushed himself forward, it was then that he heard it.
"AHHHHHHHH!! NO Ben PL...."
With that short scream, silence immediately followed. Hearing this, Jack lost focus for a split second and tripped over an overgrowing root, causing him to snap his ankle. As he was about to shout in pain, his hand was already covering his mouth stifling his own voice into agonizing murmurs.
(No no no, that was only a few hundred feet away, what do I do, what can I do?)
Jack lifted himself gently and using every ounce of strength he crawled over toward a hollowed out dead log. With every inch that he dragged himself forward, his broken ankle would drag against the dark forest floor, causing him to be in such agony that he'd rather have someone amputate it at this point then endure it any longer. Finally, he dragged himself into the hollowed out dead log. By this time he no longer had the energy to turn over on his back, instead, he lay there and listened silently. The forest had now grown completely quiet, the wind no longer rustled the leaves on the trees and the insects seemed to have all but disappeared, even the birds had seemingly vanished like ghosts.
*Snap Crunch Snap*
The sound of twigs and leaves being broken could be heard only a short distance away, someone was approaching. Jack laid there with his mouth covered and his eyes shut tight, he thought if he just stayed completely silent and still, then Benjamin wouldn't notice him. As the sound got closer and closer, Jack noticed his heart beating loudly like a wild drum. Whether it was from running that entire time or from the fear of death approaching or both, either way, it was loud, way too loud. Jack's mind raced with one singular thought.
(Heart, shut up shut up shut up.)
Now the sound of twigs snapping came from right next to the dead log. The slight sound of someone crying could be heard, with this, Jack suddenly gained some hope.
(Someone must have gotten away, who, who is it?)
Jack was just about to call out when an impact suddenly struck the dead log. The dead log burst open revealing Jack laying face down on his stomach, terrifying Jack to the utmost. With a great force, something grabbed the back of Jack's shirt and lifted him off the ground. Opening his eyes, his nightmare stood before him. Holding onto him by the shirt, Benjamin cried sorrowfully. Jack's adrenaline kicked in and he began punching and kicking Benjamin repeatedly in the face and body. Even with his foot that had the broken ankle, he struck Benjamin with it with full force. Unfortunately to no avail. No matter how hard he struck Benjamin, Jack couldn't leave so much as a mark or a bruise, instead, he hurt himself more and more. With his death imminent, Jack had unleashed everything he had within him and more but with no results and his adrenaline fading, Jack's last ounce of hope faded with it. Looking at Benjamin's tear-filled face, Jack was confused but also too tired to care. With a hoarse and dry voice, Jack could barely mutter the word.
"Please."
With nothing left to lose, this was all he could do but looking at Benjamin, there was no hope, how could there be. Accepting his fate, Jack took in a long breath and waited for death. Benjamin raised his hand up high and with an unrecognizable speed sliced down at Jack's head. Once more a head was going to explode, once more another horrifying scene was going to take place. Just as Benjamin's hand touched the surface of Jack's head, Benjamin suddenly felt something and in an animal like roar he shouted.
"NOOOOOOO!!"
With precision and control, Benjamin threw his hand to the side with all his might. With that kind of speed it was too late to stop it but with enough precision, he was just able to change his hand's direction. With a swipe at the air, the wind made a large whooshing noise as Benjamin's powerful hand moved it out of the way. With his other hand, he released Jack, causing Jack to fall on his feet, sending another wave of excruciating pain through his ankle but right now he didn't care about the pain at all. Staring at Benjamin he shouted.
"Ben, is that you?"
Benjamin stared at his blood-soaked hands in shock, as his mind trembled with guilt from the atrocity he just committed, more tears streamed down his face as he quietly whispered.
"My body, my body, how?"