A single goblin on the first floor was currently patrolling a section of the area near the stairs along with a few other of its brethren. The goblin wielded a spear that rested on its shoulder while walking around. Its yellow eyes were observant of its surroundings as it continued to monitor its section of the floor, hoping to encounter prey soon that it could attack.
Several of its brethren felt the same way, eager to find more intruders like before so they could attack and have their way with them. However, at the moment, the green gremlins were roaming the area aimlessly, waiting for something to happen. And sadly, for them, they were about to get their wish.
As one of the goblins strolled near the stairs, it suddenly heard a faint clang nearby. The creature whipped its head around, trying to locate the source of the noise. For a brief moment, it caught a blur of something passing by a pillar. Alerted by the presence, the goblin called out to its other brethren, warning them of an intruder. Being warned, the goblins nearby started to scour the area of the first floor.
Despite their best efforts, the monsters couldn’t find the culprit. The only thing they could see for a split second was the same blur as before. Two goblins quickly spotted the blur near some crates, and quickly pursued it. However, once they got to the wooden boxes, the blurred figure was gone in an instant, as if its traces were completely erased.
When one of the goblins turned their backs on their brethren to locate the blur, it heard a brief yelp from behind. Spinning around, the goblin’s eyes widened after witnessing its kind disappear in the blink of an eye like the blur from before. However, sniffing the air, the creature suddenly picked up the scent of blood. It attempted to find the source, only to witness a dark figure towering over it, its crimson red eyes glaring at the creature, not as an enemy…but as prey.
Just before it could cry out for help, the figure took care of the goblin in an instant, only leaving a puddle of blood as it pooled over the cement floor. Just then, several goblins approached the spot where the last two were, only to see blood splattered on the floor. The gremlins looked at one another, their faces filled with worry and fear. More than that, there were traces of anger as well.
What was killing the goblins? What kind of predator were they even up against?
While questioning this, the goblins soon heard more clanging nearby, instantly grabbing their attention. However, to prevent any more of their own from getting taken, the group decided to call upon more members to increase their numbers. The more of them there were, the harder it would be for whatever was killing them.
After increasing their numbers, the horde number was well over a dozen. Plenty of backup to protect themselves from whatever was in this building, killing them one by one. With the group of goblins assembled, they started marching toward the noise from before in unison, all of them prepared for whatever they were about to face.
As the monsters got closer to the noise, they were greeted with a rather interesting sight. Hiding behind some crates were…humans. Humans that wore armor and wielded weapons that were much more polished and durable than theirs. There were three of them, moving away from a crate as they were fully revealed to the goblins.
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One was a young man wearing plated armor like a knight, while the other two were female. One girl had short black hair and wore gauntlets while the other had long blond hair and wore a white and blue priestess outfit. All three of them looked to be in their early twenties, maybe even just crossing the threshold.
When the three humans noticed that they were caught, they immediately panicked, not knowing what to do. Seeing this, the goblins smiled maliciously, spotting their next prey as the trio cowered in fear.
“Run!” The girl with the gauntlets shouted.
The three humans ran away from the goblins, causing the horde to chase after them. While pursuing the humans, the green monsters noticed that they were running toward the stairs, likely trying to get to the second floor. Realizing this, a couple of the goblins stopped while pulling out bows. Knocking the arrows back, they fired at the humans to try and wound them and slow them down.
Sadly, the humans had better reflexes than they thought, as the girl with gauntlets and the knight easily parried the arrows away. They didn’t even stop running when they did this and continued to climb the stairs to the second floor. Realizing that they weren’t able to get a hit, they ditched the bows and continued their pursuit along with the rest of their brethren.
The horde followed the humans up to the second floor, right on their tail to the point where they could possibly lunge at them to take them down. Getting to the second floor, the three humans were halfway on the level before they stopped and turned around to face the goblins after them.
They stiffened with fear while slowly backing away from the goblin horde, not sure what they could do at the moment. As for the monsters, they smiled wickedly, believing that they managed to corner the humans. However, it wasn’t the humans that were caught, but actually the goblins.
Making a couple of more steps, all of the goblins soon found themselves standing over a large magic circle made of some kind of red paint. Only it wasn’t paint. Once one of the goblins got a whiff of metallic iron, the majority concluded that this circle was made from blood. And not just any kind of blood. Goblin blood.
However, the gremlins weren’t phased by this, still believing that they had the upper hand against the humans. Only for another person to appear and prove to them otherwise. The figure stood behind the horde, near the circle by mere inches. When one of the monsters turned around to see the figure, they saw a man with black hair and wearing lightweight leather armor. As the person looked down, his crimson-red eyes glared at the creatures as a wicked smile was shown on his face, displaying his fangs in full view.
“Checkmate, you green freaks!” The figure sneered.
As if on command, the blood circle that the goblins were under soon lit up like a lit bulb, illuminating the spot in a crimson light. The monsters were blinded by the light as they slowly dropped to their knees. As they glanced at one another, they immediately noticed that their brethren were shriveling up along with them. Any muscle mass they barely had was reduced to nothing as they were left in a husk-like form as if they hadn’t eaten in days.
As they continued to lose strength, all of them eventually collapsed completely, unable to move anymore.
While this happened, one of the goblins looked up at the figure that yelled at them, only to see a menacing smile that gave it chills. It was right then that the goblins realized that they weren’t the predators in this situation. They were the prey.
The last thing that the goblin saw as everything faded to black was the smiling human before it. As it slowly died, in the back of its mind, it was convinced that this person wasn't human. If anything…he was an even bigger monster than the goblins.
…And that was certainly the case.