Chapter 59: The blood goblins and the red flowers
The war chief's building was bigger than they thought, almost like a mini fortress on its own. And the bodies are much more here, it was very obvious that this was the place where the battle was the thickest.
Jael shifted uneasily as he picked his way over the body-covered ground. 'Why is it that only goblin bodies are here? What are they fighting? Don't tell me...'
As if reading his thoughts, Litha shook her head. "No matter how you might want to look at it. The goblins fought and killed each other."
No one disagreed. They could see it, in the way their sword cut into each other on the floor. Some goblins' sword is still stuck in their neighbor's body.
"Are you ready?" Temur said as they stepped into the building, crossing over the smashed stone door. He raised his sword sharply but there was no one there. Just bodies and more bodies. Goblin and humans.
Awakeners lay on the ground with the goblins, they carried the same wounds as the monsters.
"So finally we see humans. A fight happened here between the two groups." Somehow, it was comfortable to see human bodies, and Jael felt himself relaxed a bit.
But that didn't explain what happened in the goblin territory so they searched the whole place. The building was of two parts, the ground and the top that was connected by a stone stair.
They searched all the rooms below, but what filled them was blood and goblin bodies, green and red. Mixed between them are Awakeners bodies. The wounds on all the bodies, monsters and humans are all violent wounds that made the Gold team cautious as they began to climb the stairs up.
They knew there was still living beings in this building after all.
The silence and tension between them as they climbed was almost thick enough for a sword to cut through. No one talked as they focused grimly.
The thick smell of blood that covered the whole building wasn't helping either. A single hallway met them at the top, and the stairs led them to the start of it.
Litha lifted her hand and pointed without speaking.
They understood her, she was pointing to the end of the hallway where a room without a door lay. They saw light shining through and began to walk towards it.
Everyone got ready and the air hummed around them with unleashed power. Jael's eyes glowed green with power as he ready his bone spell and unholy magic.
They got in front of the door, and Temur raised his hand; he pointed at Litha and started to count down from five. Immediately, it was down to zero. They jumped in, Litha first, and she blocked the doorway with a straight shield.
Jael expected attacks to rain down on them, but what they heard was a chuckle. A low, dark, rumbling laugh that raised the air on their body and made Dile bristle.
Litha began to expand her shield as they entered until a dome was formed around them. They froze at what they saw. Goblins and Awakeners.
The goblins are sat on a long table, slowly eating as if this wasn't more than dinner time for them. But the Gold team were frozen to horrified silence.
Five goblins are eating a human that was laid down on the table, their claws and fangs sinking into flesh and ripping it out brutally.
"Kelekekekakaka!" The goblin at the head of the table chuckled again, it was a mixture of red and green so big it filled out his chair, with muscles that stretched tight over its body. The goblin raised its head to look at them, and they flinched.
"What the hell," Jael said. The war chief's head has been carved, the flesh carefully stripped away, but it was the eyes that were the strangest.
Each eyeball has been removed, replaced by red flowers made of blood that ran down its bloodied cheek and dipped into its food. It was the same for the rest of the goblins too.
The Awakeners, on the other hand, were hung from the ceiling with thick ropes around their necks, their neck slited and there's buckets underneath them to collect their blood.
Temur raised his sword. "I don't know what is going on but I think it's time for some cold steel."
Jael nodded and swallowed, death pressed around him, and if he listened closely, he was sure he could hear murmuring that wasn't from this plane, but not surprisingly, he felt no fear. "Let's destroy them."
Litha brought down her shield and raised her hand where hot blue mana brewed. "Let's be quick then." She said darkly and sent a bolt into the chest of one of the goblins, sending it flying from its seat with a melted chest.
But the goblin stood up calmly, as if it hadn't just been hit by an attack that ate through flesh and bones. "Kekekeahhhhhh!" It roared and pounced forward, fast as shadow.
Litha jumped to meet it, shoving her surprise away. A small shield parried the creature's claws and another blot to the head that liquefied it to the chest, the monster fell to the ground with a thud. "For a moment there I thought....!!"
The blood on the ground and some in the bucket sloshed forward together and covered the monster. And as they watched, the monster returned to normal.
Litha took a step back in surprise. "Regeneration? I hate it!" She pulled her mana together again, but before she could do anything, a blur passed her side, and the monster was suddenly cut into four pieces.
Temur stared down at it, his sword pointed. "Don't you dare stand up?"
But it did. While the other goblin on the table continued to eat.
Jael hung back, something was bothering him that he couldn't put his hand on. 'So physically the monsters can't be beaten. Because no matter how we cut it up and crushed it, a bit of blood and it's already regenerated'
"How about burning it?" Jael suddenly said.