Ruthless: Path of Conquest

Well, there are a lot more of these things than I was expecting, James thought. My quality definitely beats theirs. Who was it that said quantity has a quality all its own, though?

His Non-Elemental Mana ball bounced off the ground, and he used the opportunity to survey the battlefield from above. The sight was not reassuring.

The Goblins weren’t organized in any particular fashion, but he definitely counted in the high hundreds of heads. Probably over a thousand.

I don’t think Xenocide is a viable option here anymore. I didn’t want to do it. Now I’m pretty sure I can’t. Not unless they let me stop and take a break in the middle.

Some looked to have been mining shiny rocks from the walls when he came in. Others had been cooking, cleaning, playing some form of sport with a red ball, and one small group of Goblins were operating a little smithy that had a primitive stone chimney that led somewhere outside of this chamber. At one end of the chamber was a small lake, and several Goblins sat around it fishing. The chores and joys and habits of everyday life.

These things really are like us, he couldn’t help thinking.

A large number of Goblins were wrangling or playing with or otherwise training Mole People—like humans with horses. There seemed to be a few hundred of the Mole People amongst the Goblins, standing or laying or walking around docilely. An area of the cavern was fenced off like a petting zoo with young Mole People and young Goblins playing together affectionately.

Most of the space was more threatening than that, though.

Some Goblins, usually on the periphery of the cavern, were armed and prepared for battle. A small share of these were mounted on Mole People. More Goblin Knights.

And, of course, most of the Goblins, whether apparently civilian or military, had now paused in their activities and turned to look at James. Their gazes were not quite friendly. Cold, scrunched up eyes filled with suspicion. In many eyes, James saw fear.

Those he viewed as part of the warrior caste—those who were armed—appeared particularly afraid of him. The civilian Goblins seemed more confused and wary. They didn’t know what to expect, he assessed. The quasi-military types looked at James like a nightmare they had never expected to see in real life.

And in the back of the vast underground chamber, he sensed an aura. Through the thick tangle of Goblin bodies, James couldn’t directly see the owner of the energy he felt. Or perhaps the owner of the power could conceal himself in the crowd. These Goblins were undeniably tricky.

The Mana ball bounced twice on the stone floor before James was satisfied that he had done as much reconnaissance as would do him any good.

Then he ordered it to change shape to fit his body around his armor so that he could land properly.

How are we doing this, master? Roscuro asked.

As nonlethally as possible, James replied. Do you have some experience with Goblins?

I seem to recall they existed in my universe too, the Soul Eater sent.

Well, how would you deal with them? James asked.

—

As Goblin King Duncan looked over the crowd’s reaction to the human’s arrival, he swallowed nervously.

Three months ago, he had been just an ordinary Goblin. Fortunately for him, the non-Goblin population of his Orientation, humans and monsters alike, had been incompetent. Now, by cunning, violence, and leadership, he had ascended to the pinnacle of his Race in this universe. The leader of all his kind.

Now a human had arrived, with a fearsome aura. Duncan had some difficult decisions to make.

How can I get rid of him? How do I protect my people? I hoped the Knights might send him packing, but that was obviously ridiculous. At least without more of them. Maybe if they all swarm him now, in this place with enough space to properly use their weapons…

He also considered how he could save himself. My aura failed to scare him off, so that trick is out… This human was perhaps not susceptible to mental attacks. No, the illusion worked on him back in the tunnel.

That settled it.

Duncan used his power as the Goblin King to speak into the minds of his subjects.

All civilian Goblins, take the children and the Mole People that are not fully combat trained and retreat from the main cavern into the side tunnels. A battle is about to commence. All adult Goblins, protect your families and my Queen.

Duncan paused, thinking about what to say next. The Goblins were already moving with his orders.

The Goblin Queen stepped forward to stand next to her husband.

“What will you do, beloved?” she asked. Theirs had been a whirlwind courtship. Neither of them had expected to live this long. Every creature had some intuitive idea of its own rank. Even if they occasionally challenged enemies out of their leagues. And Goblins knew they were at the bottom of the hierarchy. If Kobolds were the dirt, then Goblins might well be the worms beneath the dirt, though the Goblin King would never admit that openly.

It was a miracle they had lasted this long. Duncan and Sarah’s miracle.

“Sarah.” He squeezed her dainty, yellow-green hand. “I think I must—” He sucked in a breath. “I think I must stay behind. Support the troops’ morale. You know their powers are most effective when they fight near me.”

“In the thick of danger? The rest of us need morale too, you know.” She attempted to keep her tone playful, but Duncan could hear the worry in her tone.

You are a soft magic user, how will you survive in the thick of this clash? She had to be wondering something like that. And until he spoke, Duncan was uncertain as to what he was doing. He had run away from more than his share of fights in the past. It was his illusions that had allowed him to best the Mole King in this place, not his Strength or Agility.

He smiled thinly. “Go, Sarah. Support the others’ morale while I guide our warriors.”

She placed a hand on his shoulder and swallowed.

“Remember what the Goblins were like without your leadership, Duncan. You can’t die here, damn it!” As she finished speaking, Sarah choked up slightly. Her grip on his shoulder tightened like a vice.

But Duncan did not need the reminder. He remembered everything about the environment he and his Queen had been born into. Chaos. Brother eating brother. Cousin killing cousin over half-rotten scraps of food. No better, at first, when the System transported them to this universe. They remained feeble creatures, weak-willed and slow-witted. Their default survival strategy morphed from killing and stealing food from each other into ganging up on humans and trying, usually unsuccessfully, to defeat them in combat. Until Duncan showed them a better way.

Duncan and Sarah, who were born with just a few more wits than the average Goblin.

Now my brothers and sisters are even armed, Duncan thought. Not with rocks and sticks, but with real weapons. They are not the best quality of weapons, but we have had to improvise our craftsmanship and steal. We earned every piece of equipment we have with grit and violence.

Duncan blinked and realized his mind had wandered for a moment. His Queen was walking away. His eyes returned to the front lines. The human had stopped bouncing now. He stood at the front of the cavern, still far away from Duncan and Sarah. The man didn’t seem to have spotted the Goblin King and Queen.

They were behind a veil of illusion that kept them invisible to everyone in the chamber. Duncan had triggered it when this human shot out of one of the tunnels. But even so, the Goblin King did not feel safe. Did not feel that his love was safe.

Leave her out of this, he half-prayed. Let her survive, even if my head ends up on this man’s wall. Sarah and our unborn child.

He knew their lives might become worthless to the other Goblins if something happened to him. It was not as if the Goblins had some long-established and honored history of respecting lines of succession. But he could not afford to think of that now.

Warriors, hear me! Follow my instructions, and we will emerge triumphant. The knights must strike the enemy first. This single warrior is highly dangerous. Form up in rows of five, and hit him hard! Carry your charges through even if your pikes do no damage to him. Do not be afraid. Use all your power and crush him beneath the claws of your mounts.

Duncan had been trying to teach himself tactics ever since he received the Lesser Blessing of Loki. The dungeon where he received his blessing held a multitude of books, but Duncan had only been permitted to take one book with him from the unrestricted section of the library. His interest in tactics had pleased the god, he had thought. But it was only now that it became urgent.

Infantry will follow on after cavalry have disoriented and damaged the enemy. Rush in with spear points from as many directions as you can so that he cannot dodge, and turn him into a pincushion!

Everyone was moving as he sent the instructions, following his orders. Trusting in his leadership. That had been hard earned. Those with natural Strength became leaders far more easily. The power of the mind was compelling, but it required more effort to achieve the same result.

He thought a moment more before he added a motivational line.

This is the champion the humans have sent to exterminate us. One of their strongest fighters. The walking symbol of their desperation. If we can best him, this land is ours!

With that, the first of the knights, Daven, let loose a loud battle cry.

“For the King!”

The front row of knights who stood alongside him all echoed his call. Then they added a war whoop of their own.

“Raaahhhh!”

Thank you, Daven, Duncan thought. His older sibling was a better Goblin than Duncan deserved to have for a brother.

Daven led the charge toward the armored human.

Though Duncan had little confidence that any of his warriors could actually defeat this fighter, he felt a stirring of something in his heart as he saw them formed into lines and ready to rock the human’s world. Even if the human had great power, he was only one man.

What can one human do, anyway? Duncan and his Goblins had managed to outsmart and outfight the humans in his Orientation, even though there had been hundreds upon hundreds of them.

His eyes returned to where the human stood, and he saw the man was glowing. Duncan recognized the blue-with-sparkles shimmer of Illusion Mana around his body. That was the same form of magic that he specialized in, after all.

The human seemed to ignore the charging knights and continued pulling Mana from within his body even as the Goblins drew near him.

The first wave of warriors struck the human—or should have! Daven, who rode in the lead, closest to their opponent, smashed the tip of his pike into the center of the enemy’s armor. But it did not seem to even reach the human’s body. Duncan blinked to clear his eyes, thinking he must have missed something. Daven’s body was thrown from the back of his Mole Person mount, and he slammed heavily into a wall.

The other charging warriors were slightly luckier. Two of them missed the human—not quite as well trained as Daven—while the others seemed only to graze the area around his body. There was something there, Duncan saw dimly now.

An invisible shield had appeared on both sides in between the tips of the pikes and the enemy’s body. He immediately started thinking about how this battle would be affected by that, and how he should use his own powers to support the remaining waves of knights.

But Duncan’s mind was slightly distracted by the continuing growth of the aura around the man. He must be preparing an unusually complex illusion, Duncan thought. And more importantly, He has so much damn Mana! Are there others out there like him? Why was our Race cursed to stand at the bottom of the universe’s hierarchy?

All of a sudden, the huge swell of Mana dispersed as if it had never existed.

Where did it all go? What is the illusion going to be?

The one thing Duncan felt fairly certain about was that the human had not targeted him. Nothing in his field of vision had altered at all in the moment since the Mana disappeared. And even if the enemy had wanted to target the Goblin King, Illusion Magic required designating an area of effect. But Duncan had hidden his location behind a curtain of illusions of his own—along with hiding the side tunnels where the civilian Goblins were now lurking.

With time, the human would surely be able to suss out the locations of both Duncan and his vulnerable civilians. But before he could do that, more waves of cavalry would hit him, until his magic shield was drained of energy, and then Duncan’s cavalry and infantry would poke him full of holes.

The second line of Goblin Knights began charging the human as Duncan had this thought.

This time, the human moved. Now that he was no longer busy casting, he poured his whole attention into the fight. This time, he only blocked a couple of the pikes with his magic defense. A third one missed. But he stopped the other two of them with his hands and tipped them straight up with a whip-like flick of his wrist. The two riders holding the pikes lost their position on their respective Mole People’s backs and flew through the air toward the human.

Duncan sucked in a deep breath as he saw the human’s foot make contact with the first Goblin Knight’s body. The enemy’s kick struck the Goblin right in the seat of his pants—and kept going until the enemy’s foot emerged where the Goblin’s shoulder had been. The Goblin Knight fell to the floor in two uneven, twitching piles of flesh and bone, joined together by a thick tangle of blood-soaked entrails.

The other Goblin Knight landed near the human and had a moment to gain his footing before the human could turn his attention to him.

This Goblin, seeing what had happened to his squadmate, tried to run. With a single punch, the human tore his head from his shoulders, and a small geyser of blood gushed out as the body tumbled to the side.

Duncan put his hands on his knees and stared at the floor, trying desperately not to vomit.

No one could see him, but if he let himself throw up, he thought he would lose all composure and command of the situation.

Have to remain calm. Have to analyze what he has done. How he is doing this. More than just prodigious Strength and Agility were involved, that was certain. Though those were undeniably there too.

It must be the illusions, he thought desperately. That was the only thing that made sense. He must have thrown off the knights’ coordination slightly and made it easier to grab their pikes out of the air without risk to himself. Well, two can play the illusion game.

Duncan began focusing his power. He only had to manifest his intention to use Illusion Magic in this space. This was his Dominion. He had tried to infect the human with fear earlier, then attempted to fool him with an illusion when Duncan fought the man through the Goblin Captain’s body earlier. Neither had properly succeeded.

But this time it will work, Duncan told himself. It has to work—or it will mean extinction for us.