“Khekeh!”

  “Kiieegh!”

  “Ghegki!

  “Do you still think this is a minurity?” Lilith scoffed at Price, her tone ced with defiance.

  The green, potbellied monsters didn’t give the warrior an opportunity to silehe outspoken mage. Without fear or hesitation, they advaheir faces torted in nasty sneers. Knives, cleavers, axes, clubs—each goblin wielded a menag array of ons.

  Price broke into a cold sweat as he stared at the ons, eae stained with the telltale signs of blood. As he imagined his own blood giving the ons a fresh paint, he let out a cowardly battle cry, his eyes wide with fear.

  Instead of meeting the advang beasts with his sword like a proper warrior, Price frantically reached for the vials of liquid secured to his hips. In a desperate bid for survival, he hurled the expensive iments at the ining horde.

  The gss bottles exploded on impact, unleashing a cacophony of elemental chaos upon the goblin assaints. Fire roared, ice crackled, acid sizzled, and poison spread, engulfing the creatures in a maelstrom of destru.

  Kiiiieeehhhk!!

  As the goblins filed and screeched in agony, Price clumsily charged into the fray with his sword, hag and cleaving through their ranks in a frenzy. With each swing of his bde, he rent flesh and bone, sending blood and gore spraying in all dires.

  WHOOOSHH!

  Following a swift intation, a wheel of fire materialized and shot forth from the tip of Lilith’s wand, engulfing a group of unsuspeg goblins in a searing inferno. They screamed and filed fruitlessly as the putrid stench of burning hair and flesh permeated the air.

  However, instead of succumbing to fear, the goblins’ rage only intensified. With a collective roar of fury, they turheir attention to the mage who was already weaving the words for another deadly spell.

  THWACK!

  An arrow from a goblin archer found its mark in Lilith’s shoulder with a siing thud. A sharp cry of agony escaped her lips as searing paihrough her body, causio crumple to the ground in torment. Her wand slipped from her grasp, cttering to the ground beside her.

  “Wh-what’re you doing?!” she yelled at Amara in both arm and disdain, her eyes wide with panic. “Hurry up and cast a healing spell!”

  Amara staggered back, tears brimming in her eyes as she watched the chaos unfold before her. She was utterly petrified by the violend death that was more overwhelming than what she read iextbooks.

  “You stupid bitch!” Lilith cursed through gritted teeth, her other hand reag out for her wand with desperation. But before she could grasp the on, a thrown dagger found its mark in that shoulder with another siing thud.

  She couldn’t eve to the burning pain before the savage beasts fell upon her like a pack of wild dogs. But instead of satisfying their appetites for food or revehe goblins had another desire that was inspired by their leader.

  Lilith cried out in terror as her clothes were violently torn from her body, leaving her exposed and vulnerable. The otle-hardened expressions of the goblins transformed into lecherous grins and sinister snickers as they beheld her flushed and silky skin.

  Instinctively, Lilith attempted to curl into a protective ball, but the green devils pinned her hands a, rendering her helpless. A pair of goblins seized her breasts, their razor-sharp teeth menagly close as their tongues curled around her vulnerable nipples, wringing a shudder of revulsion and dread from her.

  Amara stumbled backward in horror and disbelief, her heart pounding in her chest as she fell to the ground. She could only wat abject shock as every orifice of the girl was used and abused—vioted by the hordes of goblins that swarmed around her like a violent wave.

  “B-Blergh!”

  Price tore his gaze away from the ghastly se unfolding before him, his stomach ing at the sight of the vomiting healer. He didn’t have any time to be ed with others, not when his supply of debuff and attack potions were dangerously low and the ranks of the goblins were swelling well beyond his trol.

  “Mana, what’re you doing?!” he yelled angrily, his eyes wild with urgency. “Hurry up and cover me!”

  The archer downed a pair of goblins that narrowly missed restraining her before she turo the warrior with a puzzled gaze. Ign her own dilemma, she addressed the ohat was the most pressing.

  “What about Lilith?!” she demanded worrisomely.

  “That’s why I need you to cover me!” Price bellowed back.

  Mana did as instructed, a deluge of arrows raining down upon the goblins up front that was about to mount an overwhelming assault.

  Price didn’t squahe opportunity. He turned and began sprinting at full speed, his heart pounding in his chest. But another wave was already hot on his heels, their cws outstretched as they closed in on him with terrifying speed.

  “Kyaaaaak!”

  Without an ounce ret, the desperate warrior shoved the helpless healer into the encroag horde. Then he raced by Lilith and Mana without so much as a gnce, his focus fixated on the open gates a mere stohrow away.

  Suddenly, a group hed and menag figures rounded a er, brandishing impressive ons and leather and armear. For a fleeting moment, Price mistook them for fellow adventurers. However, the sinister gleam in their eyes and the predatriched on their faces shattered that illusion in an instant. They were bandits, and they were somehow in league with the goblins.

  Price’s hand trembled as it hovered above his hip, but instead of reag for his sword, he hurled a vial taining a peppery vapor at the bandits in a desperate attempt to keep them at bay. Yet, before he could slip through the gates and escape, he was ensnared by an Orc that was entering the vilge.

  Amidst the chaos of betrayal aless attacks, Mana tio find deadly marks for her arrows while ensuring Amara’s safety. But it wasn’t long before her quiver ran dry, leaving her defenseless against the encroag horde of goblins.

  “HALT!!”

  For better or for worse, a booming voice shattered the spell of madness, anding attention and bringing a sudden stillo the chaotic se. The threatening cws of the goblins paused in their advance as all eyes turowards the source of the authoritative voice.

  In that moment of respite, the tip of a cutss hovered mere inches from Mana’s eyeball, frozen in mid-air. The Orc’s thick fingers looseheir grip around Price’s neck, and the rolling waves that did the unspeakable to Lilith ceased.

  I-Is that a Hobgoblin? Price thought hesitantly, his gaze fixed on the creature that clutched a peculiar staff.

  Mana’s expression turned pale. Did… that goblin just speak?

  The goblin iion stood several ialler than its kin, its daunting figure devoid of the typical potbelly and instead boasting a hardeomach. It was draped in a ragged cloak and a loincloth adorned with a rge skull at the front.

  As it sloroached, Amara studied its grayed beard and wizened tenanoting a sense of refihat set it apart from the wild and uncivilized demeanor of the oblins. Yet, despite its posed appearance, a simmering anger radiated from its gaze as it surveyed the se, its fury palpable at the sight of Lilith’s motionless body beh a horde of his lustful terparts.

  In a bizarre dispy of subserviehe imposing Orc silently k before the goblin, presenting his trophy with a revereure. Price desperately writhed and squirmed, but he couldn’t free himself from the vice-like grip of the monstrous fiend.

  In the same beat, the leader of the bandits approached like a sewer rat attempting to sge a risky meal. “Hey, Boss,” he called with a nervous grin, eagerly rubbing his hands together like a greedy mert. “…won’t you sider handing over one of these girls this time? The boys and I would be eternally grateful. What’dya say?”

  The bandits eyed the archer and healer with sacious huheir lecherous gazes treating them like mere sbs of meat on a ptter. Their tongues wagged in anticipation as they pantomimed inappropriate gestures, their depravity on full dispy.

  Without uttering a single word, the elder goblin sigo the Or a swift motion, the beast’s meaty arm shed out like a thick club, delivering a punishing blow to the bastard’s face. The impact sent him hurtling through the air and crashing into the ranks of his men.

  The elder regarded the bandits with disdain, his grip tightening around his staff. “Wasn’t the arra for you lot to take all the ons and other valuables while we cimed the humans for ourselves?” he questioned, his voice dripping with pt.

  The man clutched his bloody nose, his ckeys assisting him to sit upright while they growled and sneered in his defense. But he calmly kept them in line.

  Ign them, the elder angrily turned his attention to the unresponsive female beh the weight of his kin. He was grateful for the loyalty and hard work of his underlings, but their primitive behavior and ck of self-trol often proved burdensome. heless, he knew he couldn’t ge the course of events; the damage had already been done.

  With a simple wave of his hand, the goblins, devoid of any sembnce of remorse, tio indulge in their savage acts without restraint.

  In that moment, any misception that Amara and Mana held about the elder goblin was shattered. This monster was not merely a mindless brute like the oblins; he possessed intelligence, making him infinitely more dangerous.

  Price paled as the elder gobliured toward him , his heart sinking as he observed the Orc drooling profusely. He was certain he was about to be devoured then and there, but as his armor, on, and even his underwear were fiscated, he realized his fate was far more sinister.

  With frantic desperation, he cwed and filed as he was hoisted over the shoulder of the massive beast and swiftly carried away.

  Vaughn_RR_Seider