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Sahusa the Great was not having a good time, contrary to popular belief.

It was not the fact that he was named after a myth of his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, or that the name automatically implied that he was a goblin ladykiller or that he had five arms. Of course, those made him irrationally angry as well.

But what really irked him was the bickering of the five goblin tribe leaders in front of him, which had been going on for nearly five days in a row now. And he, as the Goblin King, had to sit here and listen for hours and hours on end while surviving individual meetings with each of the tribe leaders in order to hold everything together.

King Sahusa sighed. It’s only been a year since I took over, and yet everything has gone to waste. Sahusa kind of regretted assassinating his father now. He had always thought that ruling as a king was the ultimate goal, but here he was, forced to slave away and listen to old farts grumble and argue with each other.

Sahusa was enraged now, his bottled fury bursting forwards as he stood up.

An arrogant hobgoblin crossed his arms, flexing his muscles and the skulls mounted on his shoulder.

Another scrawny old tribe leader pointed out.

A third tribe leader spoke.

Osir grunted as he slammed his fist on the table, causing the entire wooden surface to reverberate

Sahusa interrupted the conversation, raising a scepter in his hand that was completely covered in dense engraving. The scepter seemed to amplify his voice as it glowed. The tribe leaders tried to talk but realised that their voices could not be heard by anyone but themselves.

King Sahusa put his foot down, before storming off out of the meeting hut

He grumbled to himself as two servants immediately fell into line behind him, keeping pace as he pushed aside the cloth marking the entrance to the meeting hut, and stepped out.

The meeting hut was positioned on a cliff overlooking the valley between to Culdao Peaks mountains. He stormed down a stone path that was carved out of the valley’s slope, leading to a small palace that was embedded into the mountain in a large alcove.

Sahusa sighed loudly, stopping to take a look at the valley. The goblin city was large but was mostly made of mud, wood and stone mined from the mountains. They were dispersed through the long valley save for a central market area, where he could see thousands of goblins clamouring for the latest meat or cave carrots and mushrooms to eat, nearly trampling over each other or fighting non-stop.

His warriors were working around the clock to maintain the peace, but even he could tell that exhaustion would soon hit them. This is not sustainable; I must find a solution immediately.

The servants gasped, looking at each other. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event to consult the Oracle – nearly no one living had seen it in person. Sahusa himself had not personally seen it, but the procedure has been passed down through stone tablet inscriptions over the generations.

The last time it was done was four generations ago. The servants quickly scrambled, reading up on all the ancient texts of how to consult the Oracle.

An hour passed before King Sahusa was prepared. The servants put on a ceremonial robe on him, one that was pure white in nature and had sharp corners on the shoulder pads, along with a weird extra flap of fabric near the breast pocket.

The procession paraded down towards a grand cave, which led to a large metal door, reflective enough for King Sahusa to see his handsome face in it.

The goblin servants began to read off the ancient texts, following the directed pronunciation as guided. They struggled with many of the intonations, causing the words they spoke to sound like an accent of a foreign language that Sahusa had never heard of before.

As soon as they finished reading the text, a large red light above the door came to life, with a klaxon suddenly blaring out an alarming sound, scaring King Sahusa. He roared, prompting the servants to immediately scamper out of the grand cave and back into the valley.

King Sahusa felt dejected, recalling the myths of the Oracle told to him by his father. The Oracle was the reason why his tribe was even able to dominate nearly half of the goblins in the Culdao Peaks Area, making them the superior ones.

If the Oracle does not even want to help me, what hope do I have left? King Sahusa began to ponder his options.

Starting a war during a famine is one way, but I must be assured of victory. A prolonged conflict would only cause more issues. Sahusa returned to his room, planning while using a makeshift map of the area as known by the goblins.

It was a given that the area could only support so many goblins’ hunting and foraging in the forest and caves, which served as a natural barrier to the population.

However, Sahusa was not content with simply letting his people starve nor send them off to war simply to cull the number of heads to feed. He did not want to be callous, but the thought continued to remain in the back of his mind as a potentially easy way out.

Before he could think further, a warrior barged into a room, panting heavily. “King Sahusa! The scouts have reported that another two tribes has fallen to Gulak!”

“What?!” King Sahusa stood in shock. He had thought the expansion of Gulak would be slow and measured – but two tribes in a single day was a completely absurd notion to Sahusa. Not even the original Sahusa managed to achieve that in the tales!

“Have you told any of the other tribe leaders?” Sahusa asked.

“No, your Majesty, but the scouts might have told them directly as well!”

King Sahusa’s eyes widened in shock. “Quickly assemble all my warriors for battle! We must-“ His words were caught in his throat as he could already hear the cries of his servants and the sounds of metal clashing echoing through the stone palace. “We must defend our territory, now!”

“Y-yes sir!” The warrior scampered off, while Sahusa walked into a separate room, his personal armoury where his father’s armour rested – a full steel armour stolen from a young human noble, complete with an arming sword.

Before he could put it on, however, the door to the armoury was blasted open, with more than fifteen goblin warriors under Osir’s command entering. They immediately tackled the king to the ground in a rush, pinning down and restraining him.

Sahusa shot back as he was forced to kneel on the floor.

Osir let out a hearty chuckle.

Sahusa was about to retort before Osir delivered a kick, slamming the jaw of Sahusa with force.

Sahusa struggled against his restraints as he was dragged unceremoniously through the hallway. The bodies of his servants and loyal warriors were strewn across the palace’s many corridors, the stench of blood and meat filling the air as more and more rebel goblin warriors entered the palace. The rebel warriors did not seem shocked by the turn of events, raiding and pillaging the palace and digging out all the valuable goods.

Osir scoffed as he marched ahead of his warriors.

They soon reached the balcony, where the true scale of the devastation caused by the rebels was made obvious to King Sahusa. Tens of thousands of goblins were embroiled in fighting and fleeing, with the battle raging all across the entire length of the valley. Everything was being pillaged while the loyal warriors of Sahusa’s tribe continued to fight for their lives.

The rebel warriors strung Sahusa up onto a pole, hoisting him up high over the valley. Osir grabbed the sceptre handed to him by a warrior before activating it and amplifying his voice over the entire valley, echoing off the slopes and mountains.

[] Osir declared through the sceptre, shouting over the land. The rebel soldiers cheered in response as they continued to fight, while the loyal warriors’ morale began to deplete rapidly as they saw their king captured.

The common goblins were also quickly surrendering, unwilling to fight any longer to the death against a losing cause. What reason was there to defend for a king that has already been captured?

[] Osir finished his speech.

A warrior asked, earning a slap to the face.

Osir ordered them to drag Sahusa down from the pole. Sahusa smirked as he knelt on the ground.

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