Driving my freeze-inducing slug forward, I slithered towards the lead goblin while he continued to threaten his hostages. Following the pre-programmed instinct of the creature, I next opened its mouth and began to breathe an icy-blue fog that seemed to turn the surrounding foliage into popsicles. A slow moving foe, however, Dirx spotted me trying to advance on him, causing him to step backwards to avoid the slug's icy breath.
Smirking, the rotund goblin simply flanked my new vessel and threatened to scorch it with the torch in his hand, forcing me to take further action using my own corn body. Switching strategies, I wondered if I'd be able to force the goblins into a retreat without using a real attack, as I didn't want to initiate another shockwave that close to the two still-bound women. I don't know if I got this idea from an anime I watched a while back, but I figured that I'd be able to project an image or something using my energy.
Focusing my kernels into one spot, I let an image of a random, threatening character pop into my mind. For some reason, Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z was the first thing I imagined, so I decided to just go from there. Time seemed to slow as Dirx loomed over me from behind, where from my corn form, I concentrated on generating an apparition right there on an empty patch across from where the goblin leader was. A wispy trail of red energy began to flow out of my yellow-kernel body, exciting me greatly.
"Yes, yes!!" I thought to myself. "Appear, Vegeta, appear as if Goku just challenged you to a dick-waving competition!"
Through the eyes of that blue slug, I watched as the Saiyan prince began to materialize out of thin air, startling Dirx, the two women, and the other goblins who were finally beginning to recover from my shockwave attack earlier.
"W-who the heck is that!?" Krissy whined as she rubbed one of her large, jiggling, and evidently-pained green buttcheeks.
Who the heck was that indeed. As my apparition of Vegeta continued to take shape, I realized that something had gone awfully wrong in translation. My "Vegeta" had an oversized head with his left eye bulging out like a frog's, while his limbs were disproportionally small and one leg in particular didn't even seem to have a knee. His trademark widow's peak was rounded instead, and the whole thing was constantly twitching and floating there like a puppet with no strings. It was actually pretty horrifying.
Lyka and Darotha shrieked in terror at the disfigured Saiyan, and despite being taken aback by my own projection, I continued with the ruse. Focusing my kernels on speaking, I let loose a blast of energy as I did with Lysander, which enabled my thoughts to be heard.
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"I AM THE GREAT…uh…VEGHEETO, WARRIOR PRINCE FROM THE STARS," I exclaimed telepathically. "FLEE THE AREA, OR SUFFER MY WRATH."
Most of the goblins shrieked and scrambled away into the forest despite Dirx barking at them to halt, where his sister too remained as they stared at my grotesque creation hovering there menacingly.
"Vagino, please, save my corn cob there!" Lyka cried, kicking her legs out as she nodded to my corn body, which I found incredibly sweet.
"Dang Lyka, lets focus on getting on getting out of here ourselves first," her dark-haired friend sighed.
"None of you are going anywhere until girly's mayor papa sends us some money!" Dirx growled as he stooped down to pick up a dropped sword and pointed it towards my apparition. "Vagorto? Never heard of him, he's obviously just some freak trying to out-rob us. Come on, sis, we can take him."
"I'll sit on his face, he's actually pretty cute," the voluptuous goblin kissed as she picked up a sword of her own. "Give me 10 minutes with him, and I'll have him tell us anything we need to know."
Just my luck, those idiots were calling my bluff. I decided to make my Vageta do a fake spirit bomb or something to enforce his threat.
"Okay…I'm going to attack now!" "Vegheeto" exclaimed as I made the apparition raise his arms above his head. I then attempted to conjure a large energy ball above his hands, but for some reason upon thinking of something "large", an enormous jumbo jet began to appear instead.
"Whoa, w-what the crap!?" Dirx stammered as he stared down the giant Boeing 747 airliner that had just materialized above the fake warrior prince. The aircraft looked completely foreign to anyone in this new world.
Lyka and Darotha merely shrieked and covered their eyes, huddling close together as the resolve of the goblin leaders quickly crumbled at the sight of Vageta's "attack". As the large jet slowly fell towards them, I gave them some extra motivation by firing some frost bolts at their feet using the slug that I was still in control of.
"You know? This isn't worth it," Dirx spat as he tapped his sister on the shoulder. "Let's just split, Krissy!"
Nodding in agreement as she dodged a frost bullet, the curvaceous goblin turned and fled with her brother close behind her, where they both ran in the same direction as the rest of their goblin horde had fled in. Before Dirx was out of sight, however, a leg suddenly swung from behind a tree and hit him the face. Groaning upon taking a boot to the nose, the goblin fell back, clutching his face while a shadowy figure loomed over him.
"Bro!" Krissy cried as she stopped near the mystery person, where I immediately shuddered at recognizing the vibrant kernel energy emitting from them.
"Well this looks interesting," Lysander whistled as he looked up at my two apparitions in dull amusement, his dark armor blending in well with the blackened forest. "Is that your doing this, cultivator? I'm impressed that you learned projection in such as short amount of time."
"Shit!" I exclaimed to myself. I was actually in the process of beating the goblins back, but this Lysander guy was a different ballpark.
"B-BE GONE, MORTAL," I made Vageta stammer. "OR I SHALL—
Lysander merely swiped his scythe, which was already in his hand, and smirked as the slash sliced through the apparition and caused it to fade away like vapor. My bluff exposed, I'd have to think of something, and fast.