Chapter 11: Leader
Four days had passed since Rain had been living as a goblin, and she had settled into a routine she was beginning to grow accustomed to.
Waking with the first rays of sunlight filtering through the trees. Helping collect wood. Participating in food preparation. Exchanging simple grunts with other goblins. Discreetly infecting anyone who wasn't yet within her reach.
Over those four days, she had added seven more infected to her collection.
-(Eleven infected. Only seventeen left untouched, including the Leader.)-
But the Leader was different. He was always surrounded by others, always vigilant. Infecting him would require a more careful approach.
-(Soon. But not yet.)-
When the time came to feed the prisoners, Rain volunteered. The guards, already accustomed to seeing her carry out this task, simply grunted their approval and handed her the containers of food.
Dried meat. Murky water. Nothing generous, but enough to keep them alive.
She approached the animal cages first, leaving food quickly. The already-infected rabbits and squirrels ate eagerly, oblivious to her true nature.
Then she reached the girl's cage.
She found her awake, sitting in the farthest corner with her knees pulled to her chest. Her noble dress was dirtier than in the days prior, stained with earth and torn in several places. Her jet-black hair was tangled and disheveled.
But her green eyes still burned with the same defiant fury.
Rain crouched in front of the cage and pushed the food container between the bars.
The girl looked at her with contempt.
-You disgusting creature!-
She shouted in a language Rain didn't understand, but the tone was unmistakable.
-I refuse to eat that garbage! When my father comes, he'll exterminate every last one of you!-
Rain tilted her head slightly, unbothered by the outburst.
-(I don't understand the words, but the feeling is clear. Fury. Fear disguised as bravery.)-
She didn't give it any importance.
She simply pushed the container closer and pointed at the food with a simple gesture.
The girl clenched her teeth, clearly frustrated by the goblin's lack of reaction.
-I told you I don't want it!-
Rain ignored the shout. She crouched down and began doing something different.
With her four-clawed finger, she began to draw in the loose dirt in front of the cage.
First, she drew a simple circle. Then she added lines extending from the center.
The girl watched with distrust, but her curiosity eventually won out.
-What... what are you doing?-
Rain continued drawing. A sun. Crude trees. A small figure with a long skirt.
The girl.
Then she drew several smaller figures around her. Goblins.
The girl frowned.
-Are you... drawing me?-
Rain pointed to the drawing, then to the girl, then back to the drawing.
The girl processed the gesture slowly.
-You... are you trying to communicate?-
Rain nodded, a universal gesture.
For a moment, the girl's expression changed. The fury softened slightly, replaced by confusion.
-But... you're a goblin. Goblins don't... they don't do this.-
Rain took advantage of the pause in her hostility to try something more.
She erased part of the drawing and began to write.
Not in the goblin language, which was more spoken than written.
In her previous language. The one from her original world.
Letters from the alphabet she had used throughout her human life.
-Who are you?-
She wrote slowly, carefully, making sure each letter was legible despite the limitations of her goblin fingers.
The girl looked at the marks in the dirt with a furrowed brow.
-What is that? I don't recognize those symbols.-
Rain felt a pang of disappointment.
-(Of course. Different world, different language. Even if I could write, she wouldn't understand it.)-
She erased the letters and drew something simpler: a figure with a crown. Then she pointed to the girl.
The girl narrowed her eyes.
-Are you asking if I'm from the nobility?-
She hesitated, clearly debating whether to answer or not. Finally, she lifted her chin with pride.
-I am Elena Von Portglass. Daughter of Duke Artorias Von Portglass. And when he finds out what they've done to me...-
Her words were cut off abruptly.
A roar.
Not a goblin grunt.
Not a wolf's howl.
A deep, guttural roar that made the very air vibrate.
Rain went still.
Not by decision. It was the goblin body reacting before her mind could, fur standing on end, muscles freezing, a primitive alarm firing from somewhere that wasn't quite her.
But the fear that followed was hers.
-(That sound...)-
She remembered it. Not as a distant memory but as something engraved in a place deeper than memory, in the very fabric of what she now was. The jaws closing around her torso. The bones cracking. The black substance burning from within. The darkness arriving before she could do anything.
-(No. It can't be the same one.)-
But it was. Even before seeing it, she knew.
She breathed slowly, forcing the panic to become something more useful.
-(Focus. You're in another body. It doesn't recognize you. You're just another goblin.)-
It wasn't entirely convincing. But it worked well enough.
-(How...? Did it follow me?)-
The roar echoed again, closer this time.
The goblin camp erupted into chaos.
The working goblins, craftsmen, gatherers, the weakest ones, fled in terror toward the cave, screaming in their guttural tongue. Goblin mothers dragged their small young. The elders staggered in their haste to take shelter.
But the warriors reacted differently.
Approximately nine armed goblins emerged from different parts of the camp, brandishing spears, daggers, and bows. Their expressions were ones of determination mixed with instinctive fear.
And then, from the cave, he emerged.
The Leader.
His presence was imposing even amid the chaos. He carried a massive greatsword that seemed too large for his size, made of dark metal with notches and rust stains. The blade must have weighed as much as a small goblin entire.
The Leader roared something in his language, and all the warriors lined up behind him.
Rain, still beside the cages, observed from her position.
-(I can't move. If I flee now, I'll raise suspicion. I have to stay and see what happens.)-
Elena, the noble girl, had crawled toward the front of her cage, gripping the bars with wide eyes.
-What is that sound?-
She whispered, fear finally seeping into her voice.
Rain didn't respond. Her eyes were fixed on the edge of the camp, where the vegetation was beginning to move.
And then, the beast appeared.
It emerged from among the trees with a presence that seemed to distort reality around it.
Its ashen gray fur. Its multiple eyes blinking asynchronously. The pale rock spines jutting from its spine. Its mouth full of disordered teeth, dripping that black, corrosive substance.
It was exactly as Rain remembered it.
And it was terrifying.
The goblin warriors instinctively stepped back, but the Leader held firm. He raised his greatsword and roared a challenge, striking the ground with the weapon to make a threatening sound.
-GRAAAAWR-
The beast turned all its eyes toward the Leader.
And attacked.
It moved with a speed that contradicted its massive size, closing the distance in seconds. Its claws extended, aimed directly at the Leader's chest.
The Leader blocked with his greatsword, and the impact resonated like metal clashing against stone.
The force of the blow sent the Leader stumbling back several steps, his feet carving furrows into the earth.
But he didn't fall.
-NOW!-
The Leader roared in his language.
The goblin warriors reacted immediately. Four of them dispersed, attacking from the beast's flanks while the Leader held its frontal attention.
Two spears sank into the creature's left side. A dagger managed to cut a shallow line across its hind leg.
The beast didn't even seem to notice.
There was no howl of pain. No retreat.
It simply continued attacking the Leader with relentless fury.
Rain observed from the distance.
-(It doesn't feel pain. Or at least, it doesn't react to it. Wounds don't stop it.)-
The Leader dodged a swipe that would have torn his head off, rolling to one side and raising his greatsword for a counter. The blade struck the beast's shoulder, but only managed a shallow cut.
And then, the beast changed tactics.
It lunged forward with its jaws open, ignoring the greatsword entirely.
Its teeth closed around the Leader's right shoulder.
-GRAAAAGH!-
The Leader roared in pain, but instead of trying to pull free, he did something unexpected.
With his free hand, he grabbed a bone knife from his belt.
And drove it into himself.
Into the bitten shoulder.
Right where the beast's teeth had pierced.
Then, with a brutal motion, he cut.
He tore away a piece of his own flesh, separating it from his body before the black substance from the beast's mouth could spread further.
The infected chunk of flesh fell to the ground, smoking and necrotic.
Rain watched in absolute astonishment at what came next.
The Leader's wound, a gaping hole where muscle and skin had been, began to... close.
It wasn't instantaneous, but it was visible. The flesh regenerated before her eyes. New tissue growing, the blood stopping, the skin forming again.
Within seconds, the Leader's shoulder was completely healed.
-(What the hell...?)-
Elena gasped behind Rain.
-Regeneration... the Leader has regeneration...-
Rain didn't understand the words, but the phenomenon was clear.
-(He has some kind of accelerated healing ability. That explains how he's survived so long as the leader.)-
The combat lasted longer than Rain expected, and with tremendous ferocity.
Three goblin warriors fell in the first few minutes, torn apart by swipes that left no doubt as to their fate. Two more were hurled against the trees at the perimeter and didn't rise again. The camp floor was splattered with green and black blood mixed together, a chaotic map of everything that had gone wrong.
The Leader was still standing. But barely.
He had a deep wound on his left side that the regeneration hadn't fully closed, probably because the black substance was still active along the edges. His greatsword visibly weighed more in his arms with every passing moment. Each movement was slower than the last.
And the beast remained standing as though the battle had only just begun.
-(It doesn't feel exhaustion. It doesn't feel the wounds. It will keep going until there's nothing left.)-
Rain watched with a tension she hadn't expected to feel. Not for the Leader. But because if the beast won, if it crossed the camp searching for more prey...
She didn't finish the thought.
The Leader roared something that sounded less like an order and more like a decision made for himself alone. He gathered every last ounce of strength remaining in him, visible in the way he tensed every muscle in his body, and charged.
The beast launched itself at him simultaneously.
They collided in the center of the camp with an impact that shook the earth beneath Rain's feet.
The Leader took a swipe that opened his chest. Blood poured out before the regeneration began to work, slower than before, fighting against the venom in the air.
But the greatsword was already in motion.
An upward arc. Then downward. Directly onto the beast's head.
The blade fell with all the force left in that battered body.
And it was enough.
The skull split with a dry crack, exposing the creature's dark, viscous inner tissue. The multiple eyes blinked erratically one last time, without synchrony, like lights going out one by one.
The beast collapsed, and its massive body struck the ground with an impact that shook the earth.
And it moved no more.
The Leader dropped to one knee immediately after, panting, gripping the greatsword embedded in the corpse to keep from falling entirely.
The regeneration worked visibly and slowly, closing the destroyed chest at a rate that made clear this time had been far too close.
Several seconds of absolute silence.
Then he lifted the weapon toward the sky with the arm that still responded well, and roared.
The other goblins, both warriors and workers who had been watching from the cave, erupted in screams of celebration.
Rain observed everything with a quiet intensity.
Her mind processed every detail.
-(The Leader is strong. Far stronger than I thought.)-
-(Regeneration. Brute force. Combat experience.)-
-(That beast... the thing that nearly killed me... he defeated it.)-
A strange emotion stirred in her chest. Not exactly fear. More like... anticipation.
-(I need that body. That strength. That regeneration.)-
-(If I take the Leader... if I dominate that power...)-
She looked at the infected goblins celebrating alongside the others. Fifteen of them. More than half the tribe.
-(I just need to eliminate the rest. And then...)-
-(That tribe. That Leader. All of it will be mine.)-
The Leader walked toward the beast's corpse and, with his greatsword, began to methodically dismember it.
The other goblins approached, some with caution, others with morbid curiosity.
Rain slipped silently away from the cages, returning to the main camp.
Elena called out from her cage as Rain began to move away.
-Wait! You, goblin! Wait!-
Rain stopped. She didn't turn around.
She could hear the urgency in that voice. The fear the fight had awakened, which the usual bravery wasn't quite enough to cover entirely.
It was the voice of someone who had just witnessed something they hadn't expected to see and who desperately needed there to be someone, anyone, who would respond.
Rain understood that better than she would have liked.
-(Not now.)-
It wasn't cruelty. It was necessity. She had plans to build, infected to coordinate, a Leader to take. Elena would have to wait.
But as she walked away, she stored that tone of voice somewhere.
For later.
Rain returned to the main camp with measured steps, while behind her the Leader kept roaring his victory and the goblins celebrated around him.
Eleven infected. A Leader with regeneration. A girl who resisted the virus.
-(All in good time.)-