I awoke to a rattling noise.
Looking around I noticed the guards putting Goblins in chains, one of them was chasing 21 right now who desperately tried to avoid being chained. After several more guards joined in the catch game they finally got him.
Having lost the little bit of freedom he had he immediately started to sulk.
When they finally managed to get all of us two guards took out whips and signaled us to follow them.
As I was about to go through our cells door I turned my head to see if the old Ogre was following us.
He just sat on his thatch and looked at me with a sad expression. His aura stopped to regenerate.
The tunnel the guards brought us through was dark and only the torches they now held brought some light into it. It was made from stone bricks that looked like they were placed there dozens of years ago.
Thanks to my night vision ability I was able to see some small passages which likely lead to other cages like the one we were in just minutes ago.
While the guards weren’t looking I head butted 21 who was walking directly in front of me to get his attention. I gave him one of the shives I made and a few pebbles. He didn’t seem to realize in what situation we were and was overly happy about these presents.
Shortly before we arrived at the end of the passage I whispered him to always stay on my side, he nodded full of excitement.
The place we arrived was about double the size of our cell and was lightened by several torches.
A huge wooden door, full of holes which look like they were made by axes, swords and hammers was the only thing that separated us from the outside world.
From behind the door I could hear a loud voice.
[Announcer]“WELCOME TO THE ARENE DEAR LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
TODAY WE GOT THE BEST OF THE BEST FOR YOU! A BATTLE ROYALE BETWEEN TWO DOZEN GLADIATORS! BUT FIRST WE PREPARED A LITTLE WARMUP FOR YOU!
SADLY THE GLADIATOR WE PROMISED DISSEASED THIS MORNING! BUT OUR BENEFACTOR KING ROBERT HERE PROVIDED US WITH AN EXOTIC BEAST WHICH WAS JUST RECENTLY DISCOVERED! IT WILL FIGHT AGAINST A HORDE OF 37 YOUNG GOBLINS! THEY WERE ESPECIALLY BREED FOR THIS EVENT! PLACE YOUR BETS NOW AND HAVE FUN!” A deafening applause erupted.
The King is here and he brought some kind of monster? That does not sound good.
Looking through one of the holes in the door I could see parts of the arena. Its ground was sand, bloodstains everywhere.
Shattered over the whole ground were lying wooden sticks and clubs around. In the middle of the arena stood a medium sized cage, it contained the creature the announcer spoke of.
It looked like a mix of a bear and a horse, swift and long like a horse while having a bear’s face and paws.
BoreesNameBoreesTitleKings PetLevel???
He named his Borees ‘Borees’? He sure does have great naming sense (obviously sarcasm).
While the guards opened the gates we Goblins already swarmed out into the arena. Most of the other Goblins looked frightened when they saw the Borees, a few remained their calm, 16 was one of these.
21 simply laughed and started to grunt. Taking out my cleaver and a shive, 16 and 21 followed my example and equipped the weapons I gave them, 21 took an additional club from the ground near him.
To get any advantage possible I took another quick look around the arena. The spectators where about ten thousand and probably belonged to every category of citizen, many looked poor, but some had noble clothing and had guards which separated them from the common folk.
The walls of the arena were spiked so that no one could climb out, maybe I can think of a use for these.
After the crowd settled down the announcer continued his screaming:
“THE BETS ARE MADE, THE FIGHTERS ARE IN PLACE!”
Then the King stood up, everything instantly quieted down.
With a loud and dominant voice he announced:
“Let the slaughter begin!” with these words he made a strange sign with his hand and the cage which held the Borees in place simply vanished.
About a dozen Goblins immediately rushed towards it, they all had either clubs or sticks in their hands. While several jumped at the beast or simply started hitting its feet, one got killed by a single swipe of the beast’s paw and another overzealous Goblin got bitten in the throat.
Making a leap the Borees instantly created several meters distance between itself and the Goblins, the attacks it received only left a few scratches, it was barely bleeding.
Being brainless fighting addicts the goblins charged towards it, meanwhile the beast turned around, leaped directly into the crowd of Goblins, killing of another 4 instantly.
Luckily I was able to stop 21 who also wanted to rush at the enemy, he seems to really respect me that he follows my orders already. 16 was covering behind me, using me as a meat shield. She is indeed a clever Goblin.
Screaming at the rest of the Goblins I got all remaining ones to attack the Borees’ legs.
A few died but they managed to make the beast fall, that was the moment me and my two followers charged at it and started stabbing and slashing it with all we got.
When I thought we finally made progress I suddenly felt a warm feeling in my shoulder.
After a small fraction of a second this feeling started to hurt, surprised I looked down, just to see that something silver grayish was sticking inside my shoulder. It was the Borees tail, why didn’t I notice that it had a tail?
I felt to the ground, time felt like it was a hundred times slower. The beast’s tail already stuck inside another Goblin’s head, killing him instantly.
Lying on the ground I only felt despair, I don’t want to die again!
My blood slowly flew out of my body. I lost hope. Again I saw one of my old memories, my brother dying in my arms, after I made an accident while driving him home.
I heard someone sobbing next to me and saw 21, who then suddenly had a look on his face as if he just remembered something of great importance and took something out of the rags he was wearing. It was a small phial filled with a strange, clear fluid.
“Stole from bad human. Dis for you!” Between tears he said these words and opened the phial up.
When the fluid dripped into my mouth I first felt nothing, after about half of it my strength slowly came back to me, after 21 emptied the whole thing into my mouth the pain slowly got less and less and after about half a minute it was completely gone.
Looking down, where just a minute ago a lethal wound was located was only skin now, it completely healed and not even a scar remained. 21 looked as if someone he loved just came back from the dead, well he probably does feel like that.
While I still swelled in happiness I heard a scream behind me. 16 just ran away from the Borees.
Skill: Leaping learned
So I now can even steal skills and probably ability, maybe even arts from beings, just by seeing them?
My ability sure has evolved.
Only moments before the beast would have killed 16, I used my new skill, leaping towards it, but it had better reflexes that I expected.
I aimed to hit its eye with my cleaver but it ducked away. At least I still managed to cut one of its ears off. This will be my trophy of this fight.
Using leaps to gain some distance I quickly took a look around. Approximately 8 Goblins were still alive and in condition to fight. Two more were lying on the ground with a grave wound in their bodies, they will die soon too. Nothing I can do to help them.
Avoiding The Borees attacks with continuous leaps I took every chance I had to injure it, but even now I only managed to inflict some small wounds, but thanks to the cleavers magic properties my foe lost a lot of blood even with only these small wounds. Its movements started to grow slower.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
But I also grew weaker because of the blood I lost before, my energy ran low. I lost concentration for about half a seconds and then at the border of my sight I saw the monsters deadly tail coming at me.
At the last second before it would hit me 21 sticked his left hand between my face and the deadly tail, using his other hand to grab it while it was stuck in his left hand.
“NOW!” he screamed, his voice clearly in pain.
Holding my cleaver with both hands I repeatedly hacked at the tail, till it finally severed.
Using the moments in which the Borees screeched in pain I used all of my remaining power to stick its own tail into its thick throat, it died almost immediately.
Another two Goblins died trying to help me fighting, now only us 6 of the original 37 Goblins survived. Truly a slaughter.
Received Blessing of the Elder (Special conditions set by Ogre Tralgur: ‘Survive the fight’)
Most of the crowd which spectated the fight were quiet, probably they never saw Goblins fight like we just did.
One of the nobles laughed loudly, he was fat but also had a charismatic aura. The man sitting next to him handed him a big leather packet, probably what the fat noble just won with his bets.
“SOMETHING TRULY ASTONISHING JUST HAPPENED BEFORE OUR EYES! THESE FEW GOBLINS MANAGED TO SLAUGHTER A BEAST THAT SHOULD BE ABLE TO KILL THEM ALL WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THIS IS A…” he immediately shut up when the King stoop up.
“Truly, it’s unheard of that Goblins beat a Borees. I am looking forward to see you six fighting again next week” with these words he made a sign with his hand and my wounds immediately healed. Taking a look at 21 his wounds also healed, his hand was fully usable again.
“A little present will be brought to your place Goblins, don’t disappoint me at your next fight!”(King)
He turned around and obviously with the plan to leave this arena now.
“King Robert the main event, the battle royale is going to be next. Surely you don’t want to miss it?”
(Noble who sat next to the King)
On his way out the Robert turned his head around, in a normal volume he answered, but it felt like his voice was magically strengthened so that everyone in the arena would hear him:
“I don’t think your lousy battle royale can beat what we just saw.” He was calm and left without saying a single other word.
Skill: Human language (minor) upgraded to Human language (average)
Received Title: The Kings Favorite
Received Blessing of the Conqueror (Special condition: If King Robert, the one that bestowed this Blessing upon you gets disappointed or bored of you, you will lose this Blessing)
The crowd cheered again and many left the arena already, blindly following their kings judgement about the fight.
After I pulled the Borees tail out of its throat(it will make an excellent weapon) I talked the remaining Goblins into carrying it back to our cell. They also brought a few clubs with them.
On our way back the guards didn’t say anything about us taking the Monsters corpse with us, it is probably normal for the winning monsters to take some spoils for themselves.
When we arrived the old Ogre Tralgur wasn’t there anymore, after I asked the guards (who looked surprised when I talked in their language) they told me that he died while we fought.
After he shared viable information with me and gave me his cleaver, I respected him like some kind of teacher or elder. It makes me truly sad that he died like this.
Also I really wanted to ask him about the Blessing of the Elder which I received, the old guy probably set that up only moments before his death. I feel like I could’ve learned a lot from him.
While looking through his thatch bed I found several hidden daggers, two short swords and one medium sized (in comparison to me) axe. 21 could probably wield it as a two-hander.
I gave two daggers and one short sword to 16, took the remaining one for myself and distributed the remaining daggers between the other Goblins, I only kept one for myself.
Because I’d really like to have some kind of normal clothing I stopped the hungry goblins from tearing our dead foe into pieces and started skinning it with the dagger I took by myself.
Its hide was really sturdy so it took me several hours to obtain all the usable pieces of it, because of the slashes I made most of it was unusable but I got about enough to make at least a few pants. Maybe even some kind of pouch.
After I gave each of the Goblins a big piece of meat, slightly bigger ones for myself and my two allies, I cleaned the Borees bones and started my work.
In the following five hours I managed to fabricate 4 hide pants and one backpack. I used bones to make the backpack sturdy, I also added a few to each of the pants to upgrade their defensive abilities.
16 and 21 were extremely happy about the pants I gave them as a reward for their help in the fight, the last remaining one I kept as a backup for myself.
Skill: Skinning (minor) learned
Skill: Skinning (minor) upgraded to Skinning (average)
Skill: tailoring (minor) learned
My craftsmanship skills will probably be very useful in the future, I should keep making clothing and weapons whenever I can.
After eating my meal, which tastes absolutely delicious, I called 16 and 21 over to debate our strategy for upcoming fights, this time we were only saved because our enemy focused on the other Goblins.
Now that most of us Goblins are dead, there won’t be another such distraction we can use.
Sadly 21 didn’t even understand what the purpose of a strategy is, he simply wanted to rush at the enemy and hit it with all he’s got.
To get rid of him I thanked him for the potion, he immediately jumped up in excitement and ran to the guards, he probably wants to steal another phial.
Our strategy will look like this in the next fights: If we fight against a single, big enemy, Every Goblin except for me will start attacking its feet, when it falls they will try to grab onto its arms (or paws) to stop its movement. Then I will leap in and strike its head with my cleaver.
If we have to fight multiple enemies we will form small squads, one is me, 16 and 21 and the other one contains the remaining three Goblins.
After we finished making preparations I walked over to the old Ogres former sleeping place, I guess it’s mine now. Before I lied down 21 ran to me cheerfully.
He told me that he didn’t manage to steal a potion, but that one guard secretly gave him two phials, while the other one wasn’t looking.
What a nice guy. If I get the chance I will thank him tomorrow.
Both phials contain a liquid looking exactly like the one we used before so it’s pretty safe to say that the effect will be the same.
When 21 finally stopped annoying me with his senseless talk and laughter, my muscles started to feel weak and hurt. The strains the whole day set upon me now showed effect.
ANNOUNCEMENT: CONTIDIONS FOR EVOLUTION HAVE BEEN CLEARED! AVAILABLE EVOLUTIONS WILL NOW BE LISTED