Threads of the Soul

Now, Hemogoblins on their own weren't much of an issue, all it took was a single swift kick to their head, which was conveniently placed at kicking height, to put them down on the ground where you could easily finish them. Simple enough, right? If only.

The thing is, you are rarely ever going to find a Hemogoblin on its own and, judging by the horde of red faces, that rule still didn't change. Although they were weak in body and mind, they were powerful in numbers. Like bees surrounding and killing a giant wasp or an ant stinging an elephant to death. There was always power in numbers, especially when your numbers didn't care much for their lives and gleefully threw themselves into battle with the only purpose of spreading as much pain and destruction as possible.

Whilst the Librarian hadn't yet deciphered the meaning of the runic language crudely scrawled onto the pebbles, that didn't mean their purpose was completely unknown, only their specifics. Seth might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was smart enough to put 2 and 2 together.

However, as if the universe was eager to confirm his suspicions, He observed as one of the staff wielding crimson goblins took a stone from the pouch on its hip. Under the dwindling and flickering orange light of the flaming arrow, the goblin dropped the stone into a pool of blood that had gathered at its feet.

Nothing happened for a few moments, ripples ebbing outwards from the point of impact of the stone before calming into an eerie stillness. The pool of blood suddenly began to boil, the crimson liquid bubbling erratically for a few moments until a hand burst forth from its surface.

The hand, crimson as the blood itself, dug its claws into the ground and pulled the rest of itself from beneath the surface of the crimson puddle that was simply too shallow for something to be submerged beneath.

First came the head, with pointed ears, a crooked nose and a wicked, sadistic grin already cracking its newly formed face. The head was quickly followed by another arm, then torso and finally the legs.

As the newly birthed Hemogoblin dragged itself into existence from the impossible depths of the puddle, the puddle in question shrank with every part of its body that was formed. So, when the goblin was finally, fully birthed, there was not a single drop of blood left on the ground. Every millilitre used not to cover their skin, but to compose the entirety of its body.

Such a vile creature created in an instance, all from a single carved stone dropped by one of the staff wielding goblins.

That's right. One of them. For this time, there were four of them in total heading this army which was more than triple the size of the one they had previously fought. As if that wasn't enough, the four mages stood behind what could only be assumed to be the true leader of this goblin horde.

Standing at an impressive 7'2, which put him at over double the height of the rest of the goblins, was a muscle bound behemoth of a hemogoblin. It still shared many of the others features, such as the red skin and the elongated ears, yet it's face was more refined. Still ugly, but a bit closer to human standards. Instead of the rounded head of the smaller of his kind, his skull was definitely in the shape of a humans, with a surprisingly chiseled jawline. His nose was bulbous and pressed almost flat against his face, instead of long, narrow and crooked like his Ilk.

It had a full head of hair that flowed down to its shoulders, and was naturally matted with dried blood, and wore a loose belt with a variety of different skulls adorning it. Some of which were human. Whether it was an abnormal mutation, a sub-species like a Hobgoblin or simply one that had lived long enough to grow up, Seth had no idea.

But wait, there's more! Eager to drive the rod of despair deep into the hearts of the pitiful humans, atleast that's what Seth assumed was his mindset, the large boss goblin let out a series of sharp barks and grunts that sounded like a dog trying to puke up a golf ball. Apparently, it had been an order in some language that Seth had never heard before, although that was hardly surprising, as right after it was finished nearly puking the others began to move.

Their ranks split apart, leading out an arks worth of different beasts. Rats, Dogs, Ants, Birds, Spiders, Snake and many more, including a variety of abominations that used to be human. There was even a colossal, elephant sized Rhino that made people worry about how big the Elephants would end up getting.

The appearance of this beastial army, alongside the horde of sadistic Hemogoblins, was finally enough to knock the guards out of their stupor.

They rushed around like headless chickens, desperately trying to organise themselves and remember the incredibly meagre of substandard training they had been given a crash course in.

Whilst one ran inside, screaming his head off in an attempt sound the alarm and arouse their reinforcements, the others rushed to gather at the top of the wall. Arriving just in time to see Corvus drop from it and land beside his battle ready statues.

Reaching behind him, Corvus plucked a pair of steel edged feathers from his flowing cloak before brandishing them by his side like a pair of swords.

Lifting one of his blades, he pointed it directly at the assumed Boss of this veritable army before drawing it across his throat slowly. Even if they spoke different languages or were nothing more than mindless monsters, this sort of gesture was universal.

The towering Hemogoblin, seemingly understanding the wordless challenge, let out a guttural laugh as a sadistic smile spread across his face. He reached behind him drawing from his belt a pair of wicked, blood stained axes, that were no doubt called something moronic like Chopper and Lopper.

It performed a series of chops in the air, clearly trying to show off its prowess to its opponents, before it raised one of its axes up to its head and drew its tongue along the glinting blade.

That action drew a cacophony of guttural and chittering laughter from the rest of his horde, like a orchestra of cartoonish hyenas. Yet when he looked over his shoulder, ready to bark orders to the mages, the words caught in his throat. The cruel smile melted away, first replaced with a look of utter bafflement before twisting into a boiling rage.

The source of this rage, was the dagger piercing through the mages throat. The magical Hemogoblins eyes bulged out of its sockets as its spell Weaving fingers clutched helplessly at its own throat, trying to halt to scarlet waterfall gushing out. It tried to speak, whether to cast a spell or simply beg for help it wasn't clear, but no matter what it tried to say all it was able to get out was a serious of gargles and gags as it drowned in its own blood. How ironic.

Despite the rage that was turning its knuckles white from its grip on its axes, the Boss didn't move an inch in an attempt to save the mage. Only when the dagger pulled itself from the mages freshly made corpse, did the Hobgoblin finally move, tearing his axes downwards in an attempt to destroy the floating weapon.

Unfortunately for it, the dagger simply flew out of the axes path, causing it to plunge into the ground after decapitating the already deceased mage.

Standing beside an open window on the second floor of the Library, Seth overlooked the entire horde, his face completely void of a single shred pity or remourse for the wretched life he had just took.

With Omelette perched on one shoulder and a spectral spider that was his Spirit Animal on the other, Seth retrieved his dirk with little more than a thought.

Under its masters command the [Kiss of Death] plunged through a few more Hemogoblins, thinning the herd even by a tiny margin, before finally returning back to Seth's side.

He could hear the guard scampering on the floor beneath him, doing his best to rouse the warriors and explain the situation without causing a panic within the non-combatant population. His terrified demeanour was not helping him on that last front.

The Hobgoblin, unable to contain its rage and bloodthirsty tendencies any longer, pointed one of its axes towards the indomitable wall surrounding the library, and at the five figures stationed outside. His throat trembled as he bellowed out a single order. Seth didn't even have to speak the language to know what that order was, the evidence spoke for itself.

Kill.

The ground trembled as the assortment of beasts, as well as a portion of the regular Hemogoblins, charged forward with dreams of murder glistening in their eyes. The fact that the monster knew to stagger its attack, to exhaust its opponents with their numbers, was somewhat worrying and pointed to atleast some level of intelligence.

Yet, Under the pressure of the incoming stampede of blood hungry monsters, Corvus stood resolute and the statues sunk deeper into their stances.

Even if they had no muscles to burn, nor lungs to heave from exhaustion, they were still only 5 bodies. While the guard was rousing as many as he could as fast as he could, Seth knew that against this army it would be a fools errand to go charging in whenever each individual was ready. A staggered attack would only get them killed by superior numbers, and further feed their enemies numbers.

No, they had to take some time to organise a proper reinforcement. Which left the 5 defenders to shoulder the burden until such a time arrived.

As the two forces finally reached each other and began their clash, Seth couldn't help but mutter under his breath.

"And so it begins."