Soup watched her minions engage Six in combat. Despite being outnumbered one to three, the plantfolk kept them on the other side of the fence. Tanuki threw rocks with his healthy arm, most landed nowhere near their target, but one hit the leader in the face and broke its nose. It cried out in pain like a crazed monkey.

  Soup narrowed her eyes on Tanuki. No matter how she turned her head and looked at him, she could not understand.

  “What makes him the chief of his tribe?”

  She much preferred Six to the boy, albeit it might have been the allure of the mask that made her have that opinion. She felt just a tiny bit of sadness that her minions must tear him apart, otherwise she would have wanted to capture the plantfolk and take him as her concubine.

  The gate to the goblins’ tribal tent opened to a long corridor of dining tables leading up to a bonfire place. On the other end, on an elevated platform sat the shaman’s throne, adorned by six horns on both sides and a large blue minotaur’s head on top. Its fur still hung from its nape and covered the back of the overdecorated chair like a warm jacket.

  Today, Soup did not sit on her throne. She opened the portal ahead of the unlit bonfire so her troops could form a neat line before entering.

  All non-invading goblins were forbidden from entering the tent until the wave was over. Soup preferred it this way, so even if a wave would turn out to be an utter failure, she could tell sweet little lies about the heroics of the tribe’s warriors to save the others’ morale.

  Usually, that would be all, but this time she had another reason for retreating from view.

  Taps of naked feet grew from the gate. Soup paid little attention to it since she could tell which servant it was from the sound of their steps alone.

  As much as she hated her, this one could be trusted.

  “Your loyalty has not been brought to question. You should feel no need to demonstrate it.” Soup spoke without shifting her attention from the portal.

  The servant wore an old stolen dark cloak. The hood was way too big for her, half of it rested on her shoulders, the other hanging behind. She held a wooden bowl of green gel, and scooping some onto her fingers, she spread that on Soup’s side.

  Her fingers were skinny and not the same colour as the other goblins’. Hers mixed with blue and grey. Her fingers were long, and the nails curled forward like talons. Soup hated looking at those ever since childhood.

  While spreading the gel, she turned and accidentally made eye contact with the portal. She kept her gaze on the fighting goblins, before quickly returning to work.

  Soup noticed, but rather than belittling her, she spoke calmly.

  “We will lose.”

  The servant’s fingers were already dipped in gel when she stopped. She waited a second and braced in case Soup would choose to take her anger out on her.

  “Why does Soup says that?” the servant’s voice was hoarse, and her pronunciation unnatural.

  “Their defense is nothing impressive, but the same cannot be said of the swordsman guarding the fence. He’s going to defeat those fools all alone.”

  “Is he strong?”

  “No. But strength is only secondary compared to experience.”

  “But our gobboz’ are good with the pointy stuff too!”

  “Not these,” she raised her hand, pointing at the three warriors.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The servant thought about what to say but could not think of anything else that would not come across as an insult to the chieftess’s decision making. Still, she had questions, but thankfully Soup loved to speak and answered them before they were asked.

  “Do you know why we send the troops in waves rather than altogether? The system doesn’t allow us otherwise, but even if I could change that, I wouldn’t. It’s a great way of seeing who is fit for the tribe and who’s not.”

  “Those gobboz you sent… Is theys being tested?”

  “No. We test promising warriors in the second wave. These ones you see, I never planned for them to return alive. The cowardly, sick, old… all dead weight. We cannot let them leech on our resources.”

  “So… Soup sent thems to die?”

  “Yes.”

  “But…”

  “That seems wasteful, doesn’t it? I thought of that, too. The first time I did that, we nearly lost because of it. I realised even though the existence of these men is harmful to the tribe, it could be made to harm our enemies instead. If we dress them in some cheap gear, maybe give them an artifact or two, they might break down a few walls or take out a valuable officer.”

  The servant fell silent in thought, then spoke shyly.

  “That’s why theys have the cube?”

  “You’re correct,” Soup would have said, had the idea of agreeing with her not disgusted her so much. Furthermore, before she could have said anything, a sharp pain bolted through her body. Sounds would not escape between her sharp teeth as she bent forward to cry out.

  Pulling away, she slapped the servant with the back of her palm. She fell from Soup’s powerful strike and with that, the hood fell from her head. From her long black hair two pointy ears emerged as if they had been forced underwater by the cloth and could finally emerge for air. They were as big as her head, most of which was nothing but her two large yellow eyes, shining in the dimly lit tent. Next to her small nose, her puffy cheek was bright and bruised from the punch.

  Her shock and innocent eyes enraged Soup even more. She snarled and prepared to curse.

  “Maduka, you little…”

  But her words turned into cries again as she stepped away, holding where Maduka had touched her. Her skin peeled off as she drew her hand over the spot, revealing a dark spot of pus and rot.

  Her body had been acting weird for the past few days, but this was the first time she had come face to face with the cause of her discomfort. Without much thought put into it, she tried to wipe off the disgusting mass, but as she forced her finger onto the spot, the pain grew so much in an instant that she nearly fainted.

  Losing her balance, she fell forward and nearly hit her head, but Maduka sprung to her help, aiding her onto one of the rocks surrounding the unlit bonfire. She crouched in front of her chieftess and reached for the gel, but before she could apply more, Soup kicked at her, which she dodged in the last second.

  “Get away from me,” Soup grunted, mustering the force to shout, “Now!”

  Maduka hesitated, but sensing Soup would beat her after regaining strength, she fled, hoping in all the pain she might forget.

  Her thinking was right. Soup had too much on her mind to indulge in the hatred she felt for Maduka. That pain had been growing ever since Maduka rescued her from the arena, and with rot presenting itself, she worried about more than the success of the attack.

  “That bird man,” Soup grunted, “She must have done something to me with that explosion. Fuck… when I meet him again, I’ll have to tear him a new hole…”

  ¤

  The goblin with the iron helmet mustered strength and bellowed. After bashing its fist twice against its headwear, it ran headfirst into the barricade and destroyed the fence successfully.

  The warrior stopped on the other side, babbling incoherently, the world spinning with its head. Though the plan worked, it never considered the major concussion it would result. Nor that such states, being stunned would open up for attacks of opportunity, or in other words, critical strikes.

  Six struck the sword downwards and stabbed through the goblin’s exposed shoulder, the pointy edge disappearing somewhere in its abdomen. Whether he did it consciously or not, Tanuki could not tell, but he saw that the goblins noticed the pattern of impalement, and seeing the second of the day, their banners wavered.

  The wiser of the two, the one with blades lowered its head in thought. Its attention turned to the yellow cube in its partner’s hand, and growling something, pushed its kin towards the opening in the fence.

  The purple hatted goblin hesitated and tried to move away, but the other pushed it back. Pointing at the cube, it spoke something Tanuki and Six could not understand, but seemed like an instruction, one the other agreed to unwillingly.

  It slowly approached the opening in the fence and whimpered. Six struck his sword through the air, wiping off the blood in one motion, and began towards the invader when Tanuki yelled out to him.

  “Wait!” he waved for him to move away.

  Six did so, though a little confused.

  The goblin held out the yellow cube. It floated gently above the creature’s open hand and remained there, softly spinning.

  “Don’t let that thing near you,” Tanuki continued, more urgently than before.

  “What’s it?” asked Six while moving away.

  Tanuki answered only after a second of thought.

  “Whatever it is, we don’t want to find out.”