My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 31: Monstrous

As they raced towards the commotion Kace let go of all his distracting thoughts. Letting his instincts take over. One wrong move when they got there could spell the end for him.

The tremors were growing more violent the closer they got. From time to time they were sure they could feel the very earth beneath their feet move. They began passing trees that had been blown to pieces. Some of them even had small fires burning upon them.

They soon exited the cover of the forest into a clearing. The clearing had been made by the ongoing battle between the two sides. Well, between two commanders. Grugda was in the middle of a heated battle with the Mercenary commander.

With spells flying all over the place neither the goblins or the mercenaries had any room to join the fight. Another fireball exploded upon a wall causing a heatwave. Behind the wall Grugda had created a trench for the goblins to take cover. Every so often a small green head popped out to watch the battle.

'Fuck! I don't think there's anything we can do here!' Kace thought, feeling despair. Joining in now would only be leading his squad to the slaughter. Grugda began to go on the offensive. Creating mudpits while firing off stone bullets.

The enemy commander clearly had plenty of experience. He used his fire to bake the mud to solidify it before it could trap him. With well placed spells he easily countered the bullets with his own magic.

At the rate they were going one of them was sure to run out of mana soon. If it was Grugda then there would be nothing to stop the greater number of the mercenaries from slaughtering the goblins. With baited breath Kace and his group watched the heated battle from the sidelines.

With a roar from Grugda the trees on the outskirts almost seemed to come to life. Their branches elongated to whip at the mercenaries being protected by their commander.

"Harold! We need help!" one of the ordinary soldiers shouted as he parried a branch that was lashing at him.

Glancing at the situation the enemy commander called Harold swore to himself. If he divided his attention to protect his troops it would only be a matter of time before he was taken out. If he left them alone then casualties would begin to appear.

Grugda let out a smile. Knowing that he was pushing at his opponents weak point. This made Kace feel like his efforts so far were pathetic. Grugda clearly far outstripped him in terms of power and experience.

With a sigh he resolved himself to watch the battle to the end. The pressure was quickly piling on Harold. Forcing him backwards until he had joined his troops.

"Retreat!" he yelled.

As they ran into the forest inevitably a few of the mercenaries fell to being skewered by tree branches and stone bullets still being fired after them. When they were gone from sight Kace and his group approached Grugda.

Now that he could see him up close he noticed the Eljeins complexion was a good bit paler from usual. 'He's probably exhausted.' Kace thought with concern.

"Can you go on?" Kace asked.

"I'll be. Fine." Grugda replied in his usual slow tone.

With a nod their two groups gathered into one again. Before they could move they heard yells from where the mercenaries had fled to. One after the other the dead bodies of mercenaries flew into the clearing. Landing heavily on the scorched earth.

"What the fuck?" Kace exclaimed in surprise. All his people were next to him and they were a distance from the goblin kings army so there should not be any friendly units nearby.

"Trolls." Grugda grunted, "Felt them. Coming. Better to. Wait. Than Run."

Kace realised what he was trying to say. Grugda had held his ground knowing reinforcements were on the way. This was perfect timing. 'Gyn, Kharja. You did it!'

The ground rumbled as more mercenaries turned to meat paste. As the first troll came into sight Kace was surprised. They looked similar to Grugda except they were a good foot taller and bulky with muscle. A small round mark of thick skin was present in the middle of their foreheads where the Eljein had a third eye.

With every swing of their clubs another mercenary would explode in a painting of gore. Harold had slowly backed up into the clearing surrounded by his men. Launching fire at the trolls their skin would blacken. Though this was useless. The trolls had a natural regeneration that soon cured these burns.

'Talk about thick-skinned.' Kace thought.

With a roar Kharja burst out of the forest. Demolishing the stragglers and enjoying his bloodlust. On top of the leading troll Gyn popped his head out from behind the trolls. With laughter he began tossing balloon like items. When they struck they burst open, causing their targets to scream in pain as an acid like substance melted them to their bones.

'He's gone and got his hands on something troublesome again.' Kace thought merrily.

"Everyone! Into the fight!" Kace yelled in excitement. Not wanting to miss out on free exp.

The mercenaries defense became even more chaotic as they were crushed from the front while goblins swarmed their rear. Kace was revelling in the slaughter as he smiled while cutting down them down. In the end Kharja was the one to maul Harold. Putting an end to the annoying fires that kept targeting them.

Before he went down however he managed to let a fireball off into the sky. Alerting his comrades to where the enemies were. He died with a sickening smile on his face. Full of pride.

"Sir. I feel. Many feet. Coming here." Grugda announced.

"No time for pleasantries! We're getting out of here!" Kace yelled at everyone present, "Grugda think you can manage one last thing for me?"

"Hmm. What you. Need?" Grugda asked curiously as he furrowed his brows.

*

"Sir! Our troops have made a horrible discovery."

"Out with it." Guild master Urien commanded.

"Our scouts have been annihilated. That's not all. The enemy dismembered their bodies and strung them in some kind of web."

Urien felt a headache coming on. He had swiftly mustered all the mercenaries present in the town when heard of his son's murder. He had not expected them to escape from the town alive.

What was worse was that on his way to the walls, he was provided with news of the assassination of a number of influential people. Then he was told that the perpetrators were nothing but common low tier monsters. Goblins! Of all things.

This had concerned him. This was not the usual actions of such creatures. Sure every now and then they would kidnap children when given the opportunity. However they had never been so bold as to waltz into town like this before.

At that moment he had thought there had to be something behind them pulling the strings. His assumptions were soon proven to be right as the following report mentioned a black coloured monster with red spots. This monster had golden eyes and a humanoid figure. This was the target of his vengeance. It was this one that had slain his son.

Other reports came in that the monster was actually human. Who would believe that though! A human working with goblins? Ridiculous. A pathetic excuse to try and alleviate the blame on themselves for allowing a monster to slay his son.

Another worrying development was when Harold's fireball had been rendered useless by the fleeing enemy. Their was a proficient user of mana among the group of monsters they were after. He had only seen them from a distance and he was certain his target and the mana user were not goblins. There height and stature gave that away.

'We have to kill such dangerous things here and now! Before they threaten us again!' Urien thought frantically.

"Go and cut down their bodies. We must get them back to town for a decent burial." He commanded.

A battle of magic suddenly lit up the night sky followed by tremors. Not failing to notice the obvious Urien quickly rallied the main force by his side. Marching them at full speed towards the battle.

He kept a new bunch of scouts only slightly away from the main body. This was to prevent anymore God forsaken ambushes. For awhile the battle in the distance appeared to get more heated before dying down. 'Has Harold already came out victorious?' Urien briefly thought.

What came next was the horrifying scream of his men being slaughtered. They were almost there but would they make it in time? Soon after a bright, blazing fireball rocketed straight up into the sky. Sorrow filled Uriens heart. He knew this to be Harold's signal that they had been wiped out and his final duty to inform them of the location of the enemy force.

As they arrived on scene another horrific sight greeted them. Striking fear into all the mercenaries who gazed upon it. The earth was broken and scorched. Painted with broken body parts and their insides. In the centre stood many tree branches turned into upright spears. The heads that were still whole of his men gracing them. On the tallest one rested Harold's. His eyes, tongue and ears ripped from his skull.

'This... is monstrous...' Urien thought as despair washed over him.

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