Dawning Skye

469 Hunting Trip(Part Eight)

***CONTENT WARNING: LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, AND GORE***

Marco couldn’t keep the grin off of his face as he walked towards the thinning trees near the caves. Hundreds of Fae huddled together behind lines of goblins, orcs, and trolls. A few other types were mixed in like lichts, wraiths, and Barghests on chains.

“Now that I think about it, I recall that a few of the Barghests I killed had collars. Do you think they’ve tamed them somehow? The hellhounds I get, but Barghests are like their elites. How the hell did they manage that?” Draco asked as he stood on his king’s right side.

Benzo scoffed from Marco’s left as he said; “Does it matter? They’ll all do whatever our King says while breathing, or do it as a corpse. It’s that simple.”

Marco chortled before saying; “I like that, Benzo. But we need to be diplomatic about this. I need workers, too. The dead aren’t competent enough to dig intricate tunnels, but goblins and orcs are. I don’t care what happens to the rest, but I need at least sixty percent of the strong ones left.”

Sheri chimed in over her communicator; “The children can grow into laborers loyal to you, if treated properly. Allow them and their mothers to live, and-”

“No. It will cost too much to house and feed them. They’re better off either serving me as a corpse, or not returning to the dirt,” Marco replied in a hard tone, but Sheri wouldn’t give up.

“They don’t need to be housed or fed. They can just stay in the caves, and be incentive for the others to work. They can hunt for their own food. You lose nothing, but gain loyal workers.”

Marco lost his smile as he replied; “If the women and children live, then the others will think that they have a future worth fighting for. Something to keep them ‘fighting the good fight’, and all of that nonsense. If I want them to become malleable workers, then I need to take away their will to fight.. I need to break them to rebuild them.”

.....

Sheri was silent for a few moments before she replied; “I understand, My King..”

“Do they even have females? They all look equally disgusting to me. How do you tell which is which? They aren’t dressed any differently one to the next,” Benzo commented.

“The ones holding the children, idiot,” Draco replied with a cocky grin, irritating his comrade.

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“How does that make them female? I’ve seen plenty of men coddling their kid as I killed them. That kind of instinct isn’t exclusive to women,” Benzo replied with an annoyed tone.

“Enough you two. It seems we’ve taken too long.. Clear me a path to the forest’s edge. I wish to speak with this...Goblin King. When the big ones come, I’ll send you my power then. Now go,” Marco stated with a placid expression.

Draco and Benzo looked towards the Fae to see a large group of at least two dozen running at them. The two guards shared a twisted grin between themselves, acknowledged their King’s orders, then took off. As they pulled out their blades, Benzo’s laughter carried over the impending battlefield..

Marco felt the corners of his lips turn upward into a dark smile as he started to gingerly walk towards the Fae. Draco and Benzo zipped back and forth in front of him, clearing away anyone or anything that came too close to their King. As he went step by step, Marco kept his eyes locked on the Goblin King’s.

He was far larger than any text book or tome said that goblins could get, but it didn’t really matter.. ‘I’ll kill him, take over, and use his home as my warehouse for my army.. His people will call me their king, or never speak again..’

Neither Marco nor the Goblin King broke their eye contact as he came closer, even as the latter shouted out orders to his people. As the invaders slaughtered Fae after Fae, the Goblin King called for his people to stop..

Stepping out to the front, the Goblin King stretched to his full height as he yelled; “Why have you come here, Meat?! It was beyond foolish to ruin my Receiving Day for my son!”

Marco kept to his steady pace as he replied; “I don’t know what that is, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Nothing you creatures do or say has any value in this world.. And yet I still have found a use for you. My terms are simple, Mr. Goblin: surrender, and a portion of your people may live to serve my kingdom. Or resist...and all of your people will still serve me. The difference is that we’ll kill you humanely instead of enjoying ourselves..”

The Goblin King grinned cockily at the arrogant human coming towards him, and asked; “Are you sure that you’re human? Because your magic tells me that you’re more like us.. No matter. If you think the three of you can handle hundreds of my people, then by all means: give us a go..”

Marco’s smiled grew wide; “Why would you think that there’s only three of us?”

An eerie silence filled the forest for a moment, allowing everyone to hear a thunderous, grinding crunch noise. As it grew louder, panic began to spread among the Fae. Their defensive lines broke without the humans even having to do anything.

Goblins and orcs rushed towards Marco, but died ten feet or so away from him. The was a good nine or ten meters between the human king, and the goblin one. As the gap slowly shrank, a handful of trolls were screaming from the side.

A female human followed by a massive cloud of black fog had everything that breathed crumbling to their knees as they gasped for air. The Goblin King snarled low, knowing of only one way for him and his people to survive.. ‘But first: I need to test the humans’ strength..’

After barking a few orders, the six oversized trolls that were his king’s guards stomped forward. They were over three meters tall, and had a variety of weapons such as maces, axes, and hammers. Swords were, apparently, not big enough.

“Clear them, but do minimal damage. Doctor Stein will want their corpses,” Marco stated loudly, earning shouts of agreement from Draco and Benzo.

The smallest two ran forward, swinging a mace and a war hammer as they attempted to rush Marco. They got about four meters from him when two blurs rushed out from the trees, and sliced their throats open in perfect synchronicity. As the trolls dropped their weapons and desperately tried to stop the blood from spilling out, they fell to their knees, and drowned in their own blood.

Marco nodded towards the Goblin King with a demon’s grin as he yelled; “Next!”

With earth-shaking roars, the four remaining trolls dashed forward. Draco and Benzo easily took out the ones closest to them, but the other two rushed Marco. As they came within a meter of him, the human King lept forward, and punched the troll closest to him..

It immediately when flying backwards five meters or so, and landed with it’s body facing up. The troll’s chest had been completely crushed and indented inwards from the impact. Blood rushed out from anywhere it could, making the gathered Fae become enraged.

As they lined up and readied to run over the monster in human skin with their numbers, the thunderous noise from before became deafening..

“Oops.. Looks like the good doctor lost a test subject. Oh well. Ah-Norvis must be finally be here,” Marco said out loud, but he was more or less talking to himself.

Trees crashed to the ground, shaking it like an earthquake as a massive machine came in to view. Marco grinned as he took in Norvis’ creation, then turned to the Goblin King and shouted as loudly as he could; “Are you Sure that you don’t want to surrender?!”

The Goblin King’s jaw hung low as he watched a human creation he’d never seen crushing the overgrown trees of the forest with ease. As he stood dumbfounded, terror spread through his people like wildfire through dry brush. As the iron monster rolled towards them, the Goblin King cried out; “Take out the human controlling it!”

A hundred goblins, trolls, lichts, and all manner of dark Fae ran towards Norvis with murderous intent. But he was more than ready to deal with them..

A long time ago, Norvis had read a book about how humans would chop down forests for their lumber. He didn’t remember much about the story, other than it involving a human man, a fairy girl, and a comical bat. But there was an illustration of a machine with a monster that now reminded him of Ahriman’s black fog.

The one he rode now was based off of what he’d read about in the book. Massive rotating saw blades that could cut through anything were out front of the machine in a kind of angled triangle shape. It cut through the trees, and nudged them in the opposite direction of main machine to avoid injuries.

In addition to the barrier blades, Norvis controlled four ‘arms’ with similar rotating blades on the ends of them. He controlled them with his Manic trait while simultaneously steering the giant machine. Three rows of tires with a tract over them on each side allowed for smooth maneuverability, even when going over fallen trees.

As the Fae rushed towards them, Marco and his guards smiled as they all ran at the horde in anticipation..

Most ran around Marco like water around a rock. They could feel his Dark and Ether magic and had seen him fight, so they knew that they didn’t stand a chance against him. But what lay passed him turned out to be much worse. Scores of Fae: slaughtered in an instant.

Norvis laughed as he let the intoxicating feeling of his King’s power wash over him. Even as green, blue, and red blood splattered all over him; he smiled and laughed like he was having the time of his life. And he wasn’t the only one, either.

Benzo and Draco were rotating between laughter, shit talking, and exclamations of happiness. Flesh and bone were akin to butter as they carved their way through. Reveling in every moment. As the last of the combative Fae passed him, Marco kept going towards the Goblin King and his three remaining guards.

The smell of blood, and the sounds of horrific screams carried through the forest, chasing away anyone within a kilometer of it. Birds, elk, and everything in between had all left after Ahriman swept through the woods. The only things that had stayed were Fae and beasts, which meant that none of them had to hold back.

As Marco came to a stop a meter and a half away from the Goblin King, he smirked and asked; “Is there any way that we could have a polite conversation before we try to kill each other? I have some questions about the Empress and Queen Celestia that I’d like you to answer..”