Author's Note: Welcome! I appreciate the time you took to read my story out of the many others, I will do my best to tell you this story. Feel free to skip to the story if you don't care about this. Before we begin, I'd like to say the tags in this story may seem out of place at first, but they'll make sense as the plot progresses. Besides, if this story were just all gloom and doom, I'd get bored writing it really fast. The plot will go into some bizarre, dark places and possibly inspiring places but... Let's just leave it there. If you have any reservations about the tags in this story, you should leave now, this is your warning.
But before we move on, if you're expecting a stats heavy story with boxes and numbers to quantify a character's power, yeah, not doing that. Mainly because I don't feel like keeping up with all the numbers, so think of this as a Light LitRPG. Mentions of stats and skills will be addressed in-universe, but hard numbers and books worth of abilities is not my style, even if I enjoy stories with quantifiable power levels.
Anyway, enjoy, leave a review and let me know what you think.
----------------------------------------
The creature was massive, walking on two legs like a man, yet it wore no clothes. Even though it had a hunched back, it still stood roughly as tall as two men. Its body was covered in dark fur, except for the green skin of its face and palms. Its fanged mouth hung open slightly, drool escaping as it tried to remember what it was doing. It was known by menfolk as an Ogre, a man eating monster with no sense of mercy.
Little creatures, barely taller than toddlers and clothed in the furs of rats and possums, scurried pass him as he stared down at them. They were called Goblins, but the Ogre didn’t bother to learn any of their names. With their warty, green skin, huge noses and pointed ears, they were the definition of ugly. Though the Ogre didn’t know or care, their noses and ears did allow them to smell and hear potential enemies more easily than a human, the Ogre still felt disgust when it looked at the tiny creatures.
Oh yes, what was the Ogre doing again? It was thinking about what to eat… Grunting, it grabbed one of the passing Goblins and picked the tiny creature up.
“Food. Now.” The Ogre grumbled in its deep, rumbling voice.
“Y-Yes!” the came the high pitched voice of the Goblin, before the Ogre dropped it, and it ran off to find it some food.
The Goblin went outside the cave entrance, and the Ogre patiently waited for it to return, feeling the familiar sting of hunger worm its way into the Ogre’s stomach.
After about five minutes, and feeling slightly hungrier, it grabbed another passing Goblin and stared it in the eye, “Food. NOW!”
The process repeated a few more times until a loud, high pitched scream came from outside the cave, making the Ogre turn to look at the cave entrance. Grabbing its crude, human-sized wooden club, it began to lumber its way towards the cave entrance. Not because the Ogre was worried about the Goblins, but whatever killed the Goblin was likely food… And if not, the Ogre could he always eat what was left of the Goblin… Or all the Goblins until it was full. It wasn’t picky, food was food, and it was being patient enough with the tiny, green skinned creatures.
The Goblins that were still in the cave dared not to speak up or stand in its way, merely standing backwards in the deeper recess of the cave he had taken over.
The light of the sun burned the Ogre’s eyes before they adjusted to the light of the forest its cave was built in to find none of the Goblins that guarded the entrance were out there.
“Where?” the Ogre asked as it looked around, “Better not run off.”
It could smell blood in the air, and it began licking its in anticipation, moving towards the smell. The Ogre kept moving, before it found the source of the smell of blood, only to find five dead Goblins. Their bodies were broken in various ways, but the Ogre could tell it looked like a large stake had been rammed through their chests and skulls.
“… Mmmm…” The Ogre blinked, before looking around for whatever killed its minions, “Come out!”
“Hey man, what’s up?!” a voice said.
From behind a tree came a tiny human. He was a thin male, with white skin and had blonde hair in a ponytail and green eyes. The white shirt and grey pants he wore made him fairly bright in comparison to the green and brown of the forest. In one of the tiny man’s hands was a small, pointy, metal stick.
The Ogre didn’t care to learn the names of the weapons the menfolk used, they were far too small for it to use… Maybe it could hold one in a single hand that they held with two hands, but the tiny metal stick was too small for the Ogre, so it never bothered to learn what the stick was called.
“You kill them?” the Ogre asked.
“Yeah, so what are you going to do about it?” The blonde man said.
“DAMMIT ZHIRO! WE HAD THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE!” another voice shouted, making the Ogre look over to another tree near the one the blonde man had come from behind.
“It’s just an Ogre, besides, we get more XP the longer the fight, right Trigna?” Zhiro asked.
“… Dammit.” The voice said before its owner stepped out, “You realize we could have just killed him easier, right?”
This one wasn’t human, but the same size as the blonde human. He was also a somewhat muscular-looking male, but his skin was a pale grey. His brown eyes and black hair weren’t as vibrant as his friend’s. The green shirt and brown pants he wore helped him blend in somewhat with the colors of the forest, though the Ogre noted this one wore open toed sandals instead of boots like the full human. Most notably were the pair of small, rounded, fuzzy ears that sat atop his scalp… They reminded the Ogre of a dog or… Maybe a bear? It killed many bears before, it was sure those were bear ears. Strangely though, bear-man had no weapons.
Stolen novel; please report.
Both appeared to be young, maybe middle teenagers? Young adults? What were they doing challenging someone as strong as an Ogre who was wielding a club as tall as they were?
“You both food.” The Ogre smiled, laughing, “What you do with stick and hands?!”
“This is a sword!” the blonde human, Zhiro, said while he held up his pointy, metal stick.
The Ogre held up its club. It was really smart coming to the edge of this area, the humans closed off within their walls were going to be easy prey. They even came out here to practically offer themselves to be eaten by it!
The two tiny menfolk looked at each other for a moment, before nodding to each other. The beastly human, Trigna, made his finger and toenails elongated to being barely the length of his fingertips.
“… Puny claws smaller than bear claws, bears die, you die!” the Ogre laughed louder.
“Kick his ass!” Zhiro pointed, as he held up his sword, which began to glow with a blue light.
Trigna moved forward, far faster than the Ogre anticipated, but not fast enough.
The Ogre slammed its massive club down onto the charging beast human’s form, only to widen its eyes as the tinier being dodged to the inside of the strike at the last second. Trigna slid his small claws into the wrist of the Ogre, drawing blood as his claws went up the Ogre’s forearm for a foot or so, before dipping under its arm to circle around the Ogre’s back.
“YOU…!” the Ogre shouted, enraged at the pain, but also that its clubbing hand was now having a much harder time gripping the club.
The Ogre turned to try to grab Trigna with its still remaining hand, having to turn its back to the other human. Trigna backed away, the Ogre still focused on him, before the Ogre heard the rapidly approaching footsteps and turned just in time for the glowing blue sword to slice into one of its calves, forcing the Ogre to cry out in pain.
Zhiro began hacking quickly with his blade, striking the Ogre in the legs as it turned to smack him backwards, only for a rectangular shield of blue light to appear on his empty arm. The force still knocked him back a few feet though, and left several large cracks in his shield.
“Dammit that hurt!” Zhiro yelled, shaking his arm a little.
“STOP RUNNING!” the Ogre shouted.
“HIYAH!” Trigna shouted from behind the Ogre, just in time for Ogre to turn around to see the claws of the grey skinned demi-human fill his vision.
The next thing the Ogre knew, it couldn’t see, before burning pain filled its eyeballs and it began to scream, holding its face with its still functioning hand.
“YOU BLIND ME! WHY!?” the Ogre shouted.
Trigna glared at Zhiro, who smiled in response.
“If you didn’t bring that shield up just now, you’d be dead.” Trigna scolded.
“Yeah, but I’m not?” Zhiro shrugged.
“Right…” Trigna said, before grabbing Zhiro and stepping backwards as the Ogre began to wildly swing its still functioning arm around blindly.
“YOU BLIND ME! DIE! DIE DIE!” the Ogre cried.
“Now we can practice our techniques on it.” Trigna said.
“Yeah, except it can still move its arm…” Zhiro commented.
“Hold on.” Trigna said, before moving forward just as the Ogre slammed its arm forward.
The Ogre would have widened its eyes again as it felt two smaller, but incredibly strong, hands stop its own hand. It was almost like it smacked a tree with its bare hands.
Trigna grunted as he twisted the Ogre’s arm as hard as he could, forcing the large monster to its knees.
“STOP!” the Ogre cried, but Trigna kept going, before a loud snap went off.
“You broke his wrist…” Zhiro cringed.
Trigna had twisted the Ogre’s hand a full 180 degrees, and now it was a useless limb.
“LET ME GO! PLEASE!” the Ogre cried.
“You were going to eat us!” Trigna shouted back.
The Ogre stayed silent for a moment, not sure what to say next, before it felt its club ripped from its still somewhat functional hand.
“Think we can sell this to anyone?” Zhiro asked, as he watched his friend hold up the club that was easily as tall as he was.
“It’s a club, pretty sure could just make one with a little bit of time.” Trigna said, giving the club a few experimental swings with his one hand.
“Yeah… Besides, not sure anyone we know could even use it…” Zhiro said, rubbing his chin.
“Besides Warriors?” Trigna asked, treating the massive weapon like it were made out of paper.
“I guess…” Zhiro shrugged.
The Ogre began to whimper. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, it was supposed to eat them, not get beaten by them!
“Ok... So what are we doing with him?” Zhiro asked, pointing to the whimpering Ogre.
“Kill him obviously, if we’re going to be adventurers, we need all the Experience we can get before we start.” Trigna said, before tossing the club a few feet behind him, “Besides, I specialize in my claws, so I don’t really need to keep something that huge on me.”
“Right.” Zhiro said, his sword glowing with its blue light again, “Well, let’s-“
“Wait… Are you by yourself?” Trigna asked.
“YES! LET ME GO!” the Ogre shouted.
“Well we can take our time then.” Trigna said, moving forward.
“Ok, so, I’ll take the legs, you take the arms…” Zhiro said, also moving closer.
For the next few minutes, the forest was filled with the loud screams of an Ogre.
The Goblins had heard their new leader screaming, and fearful of what mood the Ogre would be in when it returned, they hid themselves in the further recesses of the cave. Any that tried to run away from the Ogre would either die from exposure, predators in the wilderness or be hunted down and boiled alive… To their surprise, the Goblins saw two humanoids walk into the entrance of the cave, both covered in blood and smelling like their Ogre leader. Despite the smell and sight, the Goblins were happy, some reaching to draw their small bows and aim at the intruders, glad to know the humans couldn’t see them in the darkness of the cave.
“… Hm…” Trigna muttered, his eyes staring into the darkness of the cave, before he tackled Zhiro to the ground, just as five small arrows flew through where they were both standing a moment before.
The two quickly got up, Zhiro making a large shield of energy appear in front of him, while Trigna got behind him.
“What are they?!” Zhiro asked.
“Goblins!” Trigna answered.
“Ok, more XP!” Zhiro laughed, while Trigna glared into the darkness of the cave.
Trigna saw the Goblins reloading their arrows before firing again, the arrows bouncing off Zhiro’s shield, but still making a small crack appear in it. In the moment they went to reload again, Trigna leaped over his friend and the large shield, flying 15 feet through the air, and landing in the midst of the Goblins. With his claws drawn, he began to slash furiously, drawing their putrid blood to the surface as it sprayed on his body and the walls of the cave.
Trigna turned to Zhiro, his eyes now a bright gold, before quickly returning to their original brown. Trigna huffed a little, before smiling, “Now let’s see if they have any treasure!”
“So, you think we can leave now?” Zhiro asked.
“I’d say so, we’ve cleaned out most of the goblin hordes… So you’re packed up?” Trigna asked.
“Sort of… I need to start. What about you?” Zhiro asked.
“Of course.” Trigna said.
“As of tomorrow, we’re adventurers.” Trigna smiled, “And we are out of here!”