4.pt2 ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

His eyes roamed over the growing crowd. Only one real choice. If Goblins were anything like levelers then killing their strongest would be devastating for morale. More often than not a leveler army broke and fled if their strongest died in battle, he would have to gamble the Goblins relied on their elites just as much.

He set his feet and charged, sand pluming up behind his paws as he shot forward like a crossbow bolt straight at the Chief who appeared to have been taken by surprise by this sudden attack.

"Stop it, don't let it get near me!" yelled the Chief waggling his hatchet at the other Goblins.

A Goblin with a spear leapt into Rain's path, the tip of the spear shifted as It tracked him. Rain didn't hesitate, he knew he would only have a limited window of opportunity to kill the Chief. He reached a paw forward and then as the spear neared he grabbed the blade in his paw and tugged it back and to his side. The Goblin caught unexpectedly was thrown off his feet and face planted into the ground. Blood gushing from his paw Rain didn't stop and leapt onto the unfortunate Goblin's back where he drove himself forward in an explosive dive straight at the Chief.

He sailed through the air, claws outstretched and blood particles streaming from his fur in his wake.

The Chief screamed, hatchet held high, but Rain caught his arm in his paw and held it away as he lunged for the Chief's face as he rode him to the ground. Razor sharp reddened teeth puncture flesh and with a savage twist Rain tore half his face off. Adrenaline pumped through his body and kept Rain going, had it not been he was sure he would have been frozen in horror by what he'd just done. Instinctively he'd treated his opponent as food, ripping and tearing as he would a dead body.

Terrified Goblins began shouting and screaming around him as he crouched over the fallen Chief. Suddenly something rammed into him from the side and he was forced away. He rolled to the side and looked up to see a Goblin even larger than the Chief, a Goblin rippling with muscle. By Rain's reckoning this bastard had to be at least five and a half foot tall, in other words as tall as a human on the shorter side. The muscled Goblin roared and long strings of drool were flung from its yellow toothed maw.

Rain tried to find space but looking behind him he found a wall of Goblins holding bits of sharp metal. No dice. In front of him the Chief stumbled to his feet, his face a ragged mess with only one good eye remaining. He held one hand over the gore, trying to hold what remained together. He pointed at Rain and screamed something unintelligible before staggering into the crowd of Goblins.

"This is the worst case, absolute worst case, gods I'm going to die again aren't I."

His breath came ragged as fear built up, mental images of being tortured and mutilated by a vengeful Goblin Chief if he was subdued surfaced in his mind. No. never again. He would either survive this or he would die fighting. There was no other option.

The muscled giant screamed in anger, beat its chest and charged, its crude wooden tower shield a battering ram aimed at Rain. Rain dove forward and slid onto his back, he raised his footpads and the tower shield slammed into them, he let the momentum carry the shield up and over and then with all he could muster he powered his legs upward. The shield, with unusually large Goblin atop, launched skyward and arced up and behind him.

He and the Goblins looked on in shock as the flailing Goblin went up and up then crashed into the crowd behind him eliciting angry screams.

It occurred to Rain that the Goblins were not in fact unusually light weight but that he was instead greatly underestimating his own strength.

He rolled to his feet, he wasn't sure what else he could do apart from follow his original plan so he snatched up the spear he had earlier pulled from the first Goblin to come at him and ran at the wall of Goblins that the Chief had disappeared behind. Panicked Goblins tried to get out of the way but only ended up blocking each other. Rain stormed toward them, the spear acting as a lance, and he skewered the nearest Goblin, then the next Goblin, the weight of his momentum forced the spear through three more Goblins until he had a total of five skewered on its length. He barely paused and shoved the screaming howling line of Goblins to the side opening up a hole in the crowd which he dived into.

A Goblin dove in his way, a sword that was more rust than metal pointed at him. Rain struck it aside and it bent under his paw, his other paw reached up and tore out the Goblin's throat. He pushed the Goblin out of the way as it clutched its neck. He moved onward. Two more Goblins that were easily brought down one on one tried to stop him, but at last he burst out the other side of the crowd amongst rows of Goblin tents.