Lucious grunted loudly in pain, his leg buckling under his own weight as he stumbled down to one knee.
Immediately, three more goblins piled onto his back from behind. Their heavy, incredibly dense, muscular bodies pinned him forcefully to the damp earth.
Sharp, filthy claws dug deep into his shoulders, tearing right through his skin and drawing fresh trails of crimson blood.
He thrashed wildly, trying to throw them off, but the combined weight of the monsters held him firmly in place against the dirt.
The rustling of leaves signaled the approach of the scarred leader. The massive goblin stepped directly into Lucious’s line of sight, bearing an ugly, victorious grin that exposed its rotting yellow teeth.
It raised a crude, jagged wooden spear high into the air, aiming the sharp, bloodstained tip right at Lucious’s glowing red eye, fully prepared to execute the bleeding demon.
Suddenly, a loud, feral scream tore through the clearing.
Dori finally moved. The sight of her master being pinned and moments away from a gruesome death finally managed to break through the thick walls of her childhood trauma.
She threw herself forward, completely abandoning the safety of the massive tree. She did not bother to pick up her fallen weapon. Relying entirely on the raw, explosive strength coursing through her veins, she slammed her bare hands squarely into the chest of the scarred leader.
The physical impact was tremendous. The heavy goblin was shoved violently backward, its feet leaving the ground entirely as it stumbled and crashed hard into the dirt, dropping its jagged spear.
Dori scrambled forward and stood directly in front of Lucious, spreading her arms wide to shield his pinned body from the rest of the encroaching horde.
But she did not press the attack. She did not bare her fangs or use her newfound speed to slaughter the fallen leader.
Instead, her knees buckled. She fell heavily to the muddy ground right in front of her master, her hands flying up to cover her face as she wept bitterly.
"I cannot do it," she cried loudly, her raspy voice completely broken by agonizing sobs. "I am sorry, Master. I am so sorry. I am incompetent. I cannot hurt them, please do not make me do it. I am scared."
Lucious completely ignored the pain radiating from his thigh and his shoulders. He utilized his newly increased strength to violently heave his torso upward, throwing the three goblins off his back and sending them rolling into the bushes.
He stood up, his chest heaving rapidly. His pale skin was smeared with wet dirt, and his ruined clothes were completely soaked in a mixture of dark goblin blood and his own crimson life force.
He looked down at the weeping, trembling girl kneeling in the mud before him, and the cold, predatory calmness in his mind completely shattered. His anger reached an absolute boiling point.
"Are you telling me I picked wrong?" Lucious yelled, his voice cold, booming, and completely devoid of any mercy.
Dori flinched violently at his tone, looking up at him with wide, tear-filled eyes, but he did not stop.
"How dare you want to spit in my face like this, Dori!" he berated her, stepping forward and pointing a pale, bloody finger down at her trembling form. "I saved you from a pathetic life of hiding in a hollowed-out tree! I gave you my blood, I gave you my absolute protection, and I gave you a name! And you repay me by crying in the dirt while I am bleeding out to protect you?"
The surrounding goblins were slowly recovering from the shock, picking up their rusted weapons and tightening the circle once again, but Lucious kept his intense, furious gaze entirely locked on her.
"Fight, or you die!" he roared, the sheer volume of his voice making the goblins hesitate. "That is the absolute only way this brutal world works! The humans hunted you for sport, and these monsters will rip you apart just for fun. There is no place for weakness here."
Tears streamed continuously down Dori’s muddy cheeks. She reached out with a shaking hand, wanting to grab his ruined shirt to beg for his forgiveness.
"The option is given," Lucious continued, his words cutting through her like a physical blade. "If you cannot even manage to kill these lower-tier, pathetic monsters to defend your own life, then stand up, walk away right now, and never turn back. I do not need a useless burden in my faction who freezes when my life is on the line!"
Dori looked up at him, her glowing red eyes wide and filled with absolute, soul-crushing despair. The thought of him abandoning her, of him sending her back to a life of utter loneliness after showing her the warmth of his blood, was a fate far worse than death.
She opened her mouth to speak, to beg for just one more chance, to promise him she would try.
But the words never left her throat.
A sickening, wet tear cut sharply through the humid air.
The scarred goblin leader had recovered from her shove. Driven by pure malice and the opportunity presented by their distraction, it had lunged forward with explosive speed. It drove its crude, jagged stick directly into Dori’s unprotected stomach.
Dori gasped loudly, her red eyes widening to an impossible degree as the heavy wood pierced deeply into her flesh. Warm, crimson blood instantly spilled from her pale lips, dripping down her chin as the goblin twisted the makeshift spear with a sadistic chuckle.
Time seemed to freeze for Lucious.
As he stared in absolute shock at his first willing blood kin being impaled before his eyes, a strange, burning sensation suddenly flared violently in his own side.
He quickly glanced down at his waist, where he had been stabbed by the very first goblin at the start of the ambush.
The wound was acting incredibly strange. The jagged hole left by the wooden stick was aggressively spreading a dark, sickly green infection across his pale skin, the poison traveling rapidly through his veins like creeping vines.
But at the exact same time, his flesh was actively bubbling and shifting, rapidly healing right over the infected veins.