Lucious stared at the scarred goblin leader, his crimson eyes glowing with a violent, predatory intensity in the dark.
The sheer absurdity of the situation momentarily stalled his wrath.
Goblins could talk.
In all the cheap fantasy novels he had read back on Earth, goblins were nothing more than mindless, screeching fodder.
They were supposed to be beasts driven solely by hunger and crude instincts, entirely incapable of forming a coherent sentence. Yet, the hulking green creature standing before him had just communicated a clear, malicious threat.
’They possess language,’ Lucious noted in his mind, his analytical side warring with the burning pain radiating from his bleeding side.
He decided to test the waters, masking his surprise behind a thick wall of cold indifference.
"Leave the villagers alone," Lucious spoke. He kept his tone completely flat, devoid of any fear. "Pack up your filthy camp, walk away from this territory, and we can call it fair. No one has to die here tonight."
The words hung in the suffocating silence of the forest.
The scarred leader’s yellow eyes widened in genuine shock, the crude rusted sword in its grip lowering by a fraction of an inch. The other goblins surrounding them stopped their dark chuckling entirely.
They exchanged confused, wary glances, shifting their weight nervously on their heavily muscled legs. The popping sounds of their distant campfire seemed to amplify in the quiet clearing.
"You speak..." the scarred goblin rasped, its jaw unhinging slightly. "You understand the words of the deep woods."
The creature took a slow step backward, the malicious confidence it held moments ago suddenly cracking. The stench of roasting meat and unwashed bodies seemed to thicken as the goblins grew highly agitated.
"He speaks our tongue!" one of the smaller goblins screeched from the flank, pointing a trembling, clawed finger at Lucious. "He is a devil! A demon of the dark magic!"
The scarred leader bared its rotting yellow teeth, shaking off its momentary fear and replacing it with a desperate, cornered aggression.
"Devil!" the leader roared, spitting a glob of dark saliva onto the wet grass. "Devils trick! Devils lie! If we do not kill the devil now, it will eat our souls! Kill the evil one! Kill him now!"
At the exact moment the leader issued the frantic command, an ethereal blue system notification flared to life directly in Lucious’s line of sight, casting a faint glow over the encroaching monsters.
[Target identified: Forest Goblins.]
[Rank: F-Rank Monsters.]
[Threat Level: Low individual threat. High threat in current numbers.]
Lucious scanned the floating text with a deadpan expression.
They were merely F-rank trash. However, the system’s warning about their numbers was not to be ignored, especially since he was currently bleeding and entirely unarmed.
He quickly evaluated his options. His Faction Grid still had plenty of space for Willing Blood Kin, but as he looked at their grotesque, bulging muscles, dark green skin, and rotting teeth, a wave of pure disgust washed over him.
He absolutely refused to waste his divine God Mark on such ugly, filthy creatures. If he was going to build an elite army to conquer this world, he was not going to fill it with screeching green runts.
’I cannot use them as willing kin,’ Lucious reasoned internally, watching the circle tighten around him. ’But once they are dead, they will serve perfectly as mindless bloods to thin out the rest.’
A guttural roar shattered his thoughts.
The goblin standing directly to his right, wielding a thick, jagged wooden club, lunged forward with reckless abandon.
It moved fast, entirely driven by the terrified command of its leader, aiming a crushing blow directly at Lucious’s ribs.
But to a True Vampire, the creature’s explosive dash looked laughably slow.
Lucious did not even bother to dodge. He pivoted on his heel, his movements fluid and terrifyingly precise. He reached out with a pale hand, his fingers clamping around the goblin’s thick green throat with the force of a steel vice.
The creature choked, its yellow eyes bulging from their sockets as its momentum was violently halted.
Relying on his immense strength, Lucious lifted the heavy, muscular goblin entirely off the ground and slammed it brutally into the wet dirt.
The impact cracked the earth beneath them, forcing all the air from the monster’s lungs in a sickening wheeze. The jagged wooden club rolled harmlessly away into the bushes.
Lucious pinned the thrashing creature down with a single knee pressed firmly into its chest, completely immobilizing it.
"Dori!" Lucious barked, his voice echoing with absolute, unquestionable authority.
He looked back over his shoulder to where his newly named vampire stood trembling near the massive tree trunk.
"Pick up your weapon and stab it!" he commanded, gesturing to the helpless goblin writhing beneath him. "Kill it now!"
This was the perfect opportunity. He had pinned the enemy, completely removing the danger. All Dori needed to do was deliver the finishing blow, claiming the kill and proving she could be a lethal asset in his faction.
But Dori did not move.
She stood completely frozen, her bare feet rooted to the damp forest floor. Her glowing crimson eyes were wide, staring blankly at the thrashing green monster beneath her master.
The loud, guttural screeches of the goblin echoing in the clearing did not trigger her predatory instincts as Lucious had expected. Instead, the horrific sounds acted like a violent key, unlocking a dark, suppressed corner of her traumatic past.
Before her eyes, the dark forest seemed to warp and twist. The surrounding goblins faded into massive, shadowy figures.
She was no longer a powerful vampire standing beside her master. She was a helpless, dirty child again, shivering in a hollowed-out tree trunk while towering monsters circled her small territory.
Flashes of absolute terror assaulted her mind.
She remembered the deafening roars, the agonizing sting of claws tearing into her fragile skin, and the hot, metallic smell of her own blood pooling in the mud. She remembered the endless days of running, hiding, and starving, utterly powerless against the beasts that hunted her for sport.
She was terrified of the monsters.
But as she stared at the sharp wooden stick resting near her feet, a deeper, far more paralyzing fear gripped her heart.
The thought of inflicting that same agonizing pain, of hearing the sickening tear of flesh and watching the life drain from a screaming creature by her own hands, made her stomach churn violently. She had survived her entire life by hiding from monsters, not by slaughtering them in cold blood. The fear of becoming the very thing that haunted her nightmares was overwhelming.
Her entire body trembled. Tears welled up in her crimson eyes, blurring her vision. She could not force her hands to reach down. She could not bring herself to hurt it.
"Dori! What are you doing?!" Lucious yelled again, genuine confusion breaking through his cold facade.
He stared at her frozen, weeping form, completely failing to comprehend her hesitation. She had literally tried to plunge a heavy blade through his neck the first time they met. Why was she suddenly paralyzed by the thought of stabbing a helpless goblin?
That brief moment of confusion proved incredibly costly.
Lucious had taken his eyes off the surrounding threats to focus entirely on Dori.
From the blind spot on his left, a second goblin closed the distance with a screech of pure malice. It leaped high into the air, gripping a thick, heavy branch with both clawed hands.
Before Lucious could turn his head back around or react to the sudden movement, the heavy wood slammed brutally against the side of his skull.
A sharp, blinding pain exploded behind his eyes, ringing loudly in his ears as his vision instantly doubled.