Goblin Theater: first scene; Don't dance with vermin. Kill them and without hesitation.

* Well. Well, well, well. What's happening to our beloved team of adventurers? It's a question that everyone wants to know, but that only I know the answer to. Do you want to know? Well, I'm not going to tell you. Why wouldn't I? Because nobody moved a finger when my sister stole my slice of pizza. I've got hate, and you're going to pay for it. So have a nice day and end this chapter. Close.

"5 min later"

* I've still got a headache. You don't have to be so rough on me, bro. You're the one who gave WOQ my share, so it's kind of your fault. I'm not sulking, that's not true. All right, I apologise. Readers shouldn't be punished for the mistakes of big brothers and sisters. But you'll pay for that one day.

* Right. Let's start again. Why is the little band of adventurers in trouble? Good question to answer, let's go back a bit. First of all, are you familiar with the flower known as true twilight? It's a flower with a rather special virtue. It changes colour four times a day. In the morning it's yellow and white, the rest of the day it's pink and at night it's blue. The colours depend on the time of day, but it is said that at dusk it takes on a different colour from all the others. A light red of unparalleled beauty. Although it only lasts a short while, this colour is so beautiful that it brings together the hardest of hearts in the face of beauty.

* It is also known as the lover's flower in certain regions, where it is customary to offer it at the time of marriage proposals, at dusk. It is also known as the flower of death in certain regions because of its twilight symbolism. The connection is that death is the twilight of a life. Apart from that, there's nothing extraordinary about the flower. It's found everywhere in people's everyday lives. In flower pots, in the kitchen, in the garden, etc.

* Flowers are edible and give off no poison or thorns. But when, and only if, it is burnt, the flower gives off a very unusual smoke. The smoke from this flower is a powerful poison that breaks down all the physical defences of the person who swallows it. On top of this, it circulates a very specific poison that inflicts serious damage to the organs without being very lethal. Its mortality rate is very low and even considered impertinent due to all the medicines capable of countering it. What's more, everyone knows that this flower must be kept out of the fire to prevent any potential danger. So it really isn't taken seriously as an evil flower.

* But it's its poison that makes this flower dangerous. Yes, even if it's considered impertinent by the common people, this isn't the case with adventurers and, on the contrary, it's much feared and used by these hunters because of another of its virtues, which is the total absence of smell when it's burnt. In other words, you can burn this flower and poison yourself without even realising it. Even the keenest noses are unable to smell it. An artefact of choice for the most vicious adventurers and warlords. And the little goblins understood this. They had burnt a large quantity of the flower along with the houses in the village, which they reduced to ashes.

* When the small group of adventurers arrived on the scene, they first extinguished the fire so that it didn't spread into the forest and then they stayed there for a good while to bury all the dead, which exposed them for several hours to the posions in the air. Moreover, they themselves had noticed that the goblin horde was very easy to track, but they were far from suspecting such a machination.

* Rule number 1: never underestimate your opponent. Let's get back to our dear adventuring team. Arcadia was on her knees on the ground. She was vomiting a large quantity of blood. Blood was coming out of her mouth, her nostrils and her eyes. She had no idea what was happening to her, but she suspected that the goblin in front of her had something to do with it when she saw his smile and his vicious look of satisfaction.

- Shit... what's happening to me? Have I been poisoned? I haven't been touched by any of the goblin's attacks. Could it be because of the demon he summoned? It's true that I took quite a few rays but they weren't poisoned, although I'm not too sure about that either.

* She coughed and it wasn't a mistake for her to think that way because she was in a bad way. During their fight, the demon had managed to pierce her several times, although she had managed not to be hit at any vital point. She felt all her strength leave her body when she heard footsteps coming from the corridor.

- Goblin reinforcements? she asked herself worriedly.

- No...

* Her concern was even greater when she saw the ninja from her group appear before her, coming out of the tunnel. She was walking, holding the wall and covered in blood. Goblin blood but also her own. She had pulled down the cloth that hid her mouth and face. Like Arcadia, blood was dripping from her eyes, nostrils and ears as well as her mouth. But unlike Arcadia, she was in a worse state, as the simple act of walking was becoming more and more painful.

- Made...Miss Arcadia... she uttered before collapsing to the floor.

- Violet?! Violet!!!!

* Arcadia screamed before rushing towards her when she was pierced from left to right by a beam fired by the demon. She fell to the ground before vomiting more blood. Seeing her in such a bad state, violet tried to get up but could barely do so.

- Miss...run away...go away. It was a trap. she uttered as the goblin spoke.

- Human is naive. Gobu is very intelligent. The more human fight, the more poison kill human. The sicker the human, the quicker the human dies.

* Even though her sentence was poorly articulated, everyone in the room understood her and Violet said to herself

- I understand. If you're already sick, then you're more exposed, so I, who have a hereditary disease, am the most exposed. That's why I'm the only one who's already fallen. Forgive me Miss. I wanted... So much to be useful to you.

- Humans are ugly. Human is beautiful when human suffers. So human, suffer!

* Immediately, the goblin used his magic to make violet fly before smashing her violently against the wall of the roof. Then he let her fall and watched her smash into the ground too. Then he did it again and it seemed to amuse him. He made her fly up to the ceiling again and let her come crashing to the ground. Then he did it again, laughing and making fun of the two humans. At this point it was relentless. He made her climb again and again and again and again and again without even letting her breathe for a moment until the little girl remained motionless. But that didn't stop him and he started all over again. He relished every time she let out a soft little cry of pain, every time she vomited blood, every time her body made twisting noises. He revelled in her suffering.

* Arcadia, witnessing this spectacle, stood up as best she could before hurling herself at the goblin in anger

- Yhaaaaa gonna die!!!

* But she was surprised when another goblin champion appeared before stopping her dead in her tracks by grabbing her leg. He then lifted her up before throwing her violently into the wall.

* The impact was terrible. Several other small goblins appeared in the room before throwing themselves at Violet, who had just fallen again, breaking her ribs. One of the goblins grabbed her and held her down. Another hurried to rip off all her equipment and her trousers. He even went so far as to rip her trousers and strip her half-naked. Their smiles, their looks, their stinking mouths drooling at the mere sight of the girl, was most shocking for her, who had tears in her eyes.

* One was holding her right arm, one was holding her left arm and she was lying face down on the floor, her hip raised by a goblin who was about to go to the table with an overflowing desire. Well, yes, at the table. After all, it's a dinner, isn't it? I thought I'd break up the drama a bit with this little joke haha. Anyway, the goblin was about to penetrate the girl when the champion appeared and hit him with a backhand, sending him tumbling away. Everyone was shocked when the champion also stood behind the girl with his huge penis raised. He grinned and was about to penetrate her when Arcadia, who had half fainted, pulled herself together before screaming into the room. She summoned up all her remaining strength and leapt at phenomenal speed towards her enemy, the goblin champion. Along the way, she swung her sword with her blade, which stretched out to stick in the monster's belly. She then sliced him through the head before kicking him and sending him tumbling. She then used her sword in a flash to slice all the goblins around violet in half. Then she threw another sword at the goblin leader, who retaliated with a summons of a black iron bar, which Arcadia's sword sliced in two before cutting off the monster's ear, causing him to scream and writhe in pain. Taking advantage of the length of her sword and its speed, she then aimed it at the demon, who was just a few metres away from the goblin. The latter was surprised by the speed of the attack and ended up being cut in two without even having time to react to Arcadia's attack.

* Arcadia took violet on her shoulder and ran off. In the great hall, the fat man with the axe was fighting four goblin champions on his own and beating them badly. Even so, he wasn't spared from the poison. For his part, the elf was already down on one knee, but was still slicing up dozens of goblins who tried to get close to him. His condition was extremely serious and he was vomiting all his blood. After putting his spear through the heads of two goblins at the same time, he put both his hands on the ground for the first time because of his condition.

- Bloody poison?! And what's this old man doing? If he's hit too, then he should already be downstairs getting us some potions, unless... He hasn't got any. Damn it! Out of the question to die here after 700 years of life and hunting ...

* Before he had even finished his sentence, a goblin managed to pierce his neck with a small rapier before withdrawing it. The elf looked at him in surprise before piercing him with his spear. He then stood up and put a hand on his wound before looking at him. Because of the thinness of the blade, the wound was very small, but there was a small hole in his neck. He put a hand on the wound and farted a cable before starting to slaughter the goblins like never before.

* The one with the axe had also just cut a goblin from head to toe with unprecedented violence. He could smell the blood dripping from his orifices, but it seemed to amuse him more than anything else.

- Hm hahaha hahaha it's not a very glorious way to die but dying in combat is an honour for all warriors. Although if I had to choose, I'd have preferred dragons instead.

- Shut up! Dying here is out of the question. There's no honour in dying against ordinary goblins. They'll all laugh at us after we die.

- What are you talking about? They're anything but common goblins if they're capable of trapping adventurers... What's that?

* Pronounced the man with the axe after noticing the demon that had just appeared above their heads. In fact, the demon wasn't dead and his master had ordered him to go and hunt humans, so he came into this room. Immediately, its laughter echoed through the room kriiikriiiikriiii the mage who was still in the room above, quickly identified it

- A middle-class demon? How many lives were sacrificed to summon this creature? First the poison trap and now this... The first rule of adventuring is never to underestimate your opponent. Obvious as it may seem, a rule from the gods should always be taken seriously. If I stay here then we'll all die, but if I flee then they're all doomed but I'll survive.

* It was then that the man with the axe saw Arcadia running towards him. She jumped on his head for support before jumping high. But seeing that wasn't enough, she used her sword to plant him on the ground and use it to climb even higher. She then threw violet at the mage, shouting

- Save her!

* Then she pulled her sword from the ground and made it shrink before aiming at the demon and attacking it with her sword at the same time. The demon avoided the sword before taking a deep breath and letting out a terrible scream throughout the room. As they were not prepared for such a sound, each of the adventurers took it in their stride. They screamed and clutched their ears in pain. The sound was so unbearable that the elf and Arcadia lost their weapons. Arcadia was in freefall and came crashing to the ground before losing consciousness.

- Haa, it's too late. I don't have the strength to beat the average demon, and I'm too exhausted from the poison. I'm really sorry, guys.

* Carrying the young ninja, the old mage fled down the corridors. Violet, for her part, tried to resist running away and stay by Arcadia's side, but she could only reach out towards the corridor light that could be seen in the tunnel. After the terrible sound, everyone came back, but the two humans were injured, so they took longer than the goblins. Especially the elf, who was barely able to get up and was quickly overwhelmed by the goblins, who stabbed him all over with joy and violence.

- Tsssss

* Said the fat man with the axe before swinging his axe in the wind. The projected wave then sliced through all the goblins who were attacking the elf. He smiled before falling to his knees and saying to himself

- That's it! At least you've been avenged.

* A champion who was still standing took advantage of his situation to hit him over the head with a club. He fell to the ground, so the goblin repeated his attack five times in the same place before stopping. An hour after the massacre on both sides, Arcadia came to and saw her friends' heads in the hands of the goblins. She vomited her meal. She herself was surrounded by many goblins who enjoyed watching her suffer in her wounds. Meanwhile, our hero, Sham, received another notification.

"Quest: exterminate pests, trigger.

* And it's at this point that I regret to say that the chapter ends here and this time I'm dead serious. See you in the next chapter to find out exactly what this quest is about and what it means for our hero. So much suspense kyaaaa I love it. Until next time.