Lord Of Goblins

Silence.

Silence enveloped the area as the gathered bogeys stood in attention. A kind of discipline most men would not expect of this bunch of lowlifes, for this gathering of these now organized vagrants fall under the command of one greyborn, Gelmar.

Discipline isn't something that these bunch were known for, instead, they're known for the opposite. They're known as the scourge among the rest of the Vyrga's men as not only are they the largest party under his banner, but they're also the vilest of them all.

All 64 of them now looked as tame as puppies for one reason alone, to avoid the wrath of their now furious leader.

Gelmar was livid. Not only did Vyrga not choose him to be his successor, he now orders him to put down a runt. Not any runt, but one with enough numbers to decrease his own. If it was just a single naysayer or a small gathering of them, there wouldn't be a problem, but one with half his number of men is obviously a deliberate attempt by Vyrga to cull his numbers thus preventing his future coup.

"Gelm!" A voice shouted startling the men. What kind of mad man would call their leader by such an inappropriate nickname!?

When they looked at the direction of the perpetrator they all thought 'Oh, it's just Heimo.'. Everybody knows that among the other leaders, Heimo is the closest to Gelmar.

"Heimo… What do you want?" Gelmar said coldly to the second youngest of Vyrga's elite causing him to frown.

"Why are you treating me like this? You know it wasn't my choice and I don't even want to be Vyrga's successor."

Gelmar snapped at the reminder and began his tirade "But he still chose you over me! And you know what's worse!? Os! He also chose Os!".

"Bro, Calm down-".

"Don't you Bro me! We never were brothers! You were just another bastard that Vyrga picked up and one that took what's supposed to be mine! I hate you!" Gelmar yelled, shocking both his men and Heimo. Gelmar never treated him this way and from Heimo's expression, it's easy to see that he was hurt.

"I-I just wanted to make sure you stay safe…" The disheartened Heimo told Gelmar.

"Why? Do you think I'm that useless, Mr Genius? I'm just going to hunt runt. Isn't that right boys!?" He yelled at his men receiving silence in return. They were still shocked at what happened. He never acted so imm.a.t.u.r.e yet heartless towards Heimo. Towards others? Sure, but not Heimo.

"I said, ISN'T THAT RIGHT BOYS!?" he roared with a murderous glint in his eyes.

"Y-Yeah!" They yelled in discord. Causing Gelmar left eye to twitch.

"See!? We're ready to squash this bug!".

"Don't underestimate him. This Gherm isn't a bug. He managed to build a force with only 2 kills to his name. And from what my spies managed to find out before getting found out, though his men consist of regular miners and other usual targets, from what I found out he's been training them in an outlandish fashion. Training your men in using spears, shields, and slings is normal, but training all your men on how to stand and walk in certain positions and how to use slings isn't normal! There's something not right about him. Even if you don't want me as a brother, I beg you, watch out!" Heimo pleaded.

Gelmar sighed. He managed to calm down and after Heimo's display of worry, he feels ashamed at his actions but this isn't the time to apologize. He already tarnished their bonds. "I know about the slings and the training, Vyrga told me. Look at our equipment.".

Heimo then realized that all of Gelmar's men are wearing wooden cap helmets and wielding small round wooden shields. The shields looked crude and wouldn't last more than a few shots and the helmets could only be described as hastily made and unreliable.

"What? We were only informed a few hours ago! Besides we're double their numbers. I heard they're only thirty-three people.".

"That info is a week late! We don't know how many more men he gathered under his command and what tricks he's hiding from us! You can't just go like this!"

"What do you expect me to do!? That piece of shit forced us to go!" Gelmar yelled.

"That man who you're calling a piece of shit raised us!" Heimo yelled back, as he can accept getting humiliated by Gelmar but what he can't accept is Gelmar, or anybody else, insulting their benefactor. For if it wasn't for Vyrga, he would've been a broken mess a long time ago.

"He's using us like everybody else!".

"We chose to follow him!"

"You're a dog like the rest of them!".

"Do you even know what a dog is!?".

This stunned Gelmar as he never expected Heimo to ask such a question as a reply and to be honest he never saw one in his entire life. "It's…" fl.u.s.tered he questioned back "Do you!?".

Now it was Heimo's turn to get fl.u.s.tered, only a few greyborns ever saw an actual dog and he wasn't one of them; even Vyrga saw one once by chance when some supposedly important noble secretly visited him to give him an assignment. Heimo could only give Vyrga's description as an answer "It's a… giant domesticated fox.".

"Those creatures in the underground forest?" Gelmar didn't know what confused him more. That it turned out that those things can be tamed or that a dog was something similar.

"Yes…Those…".

As they stood there in awkward silence one of Gelmar's men decided to break the silence and avoid them further embarrassment. "Umm… Boss. The men are ready.".

Happy to find a way to divert the conversation, Gelmar replied "Great! Alright, boys, time to squash some bugs! We only have ten days before the expedition, so let's finish this early! Are you ready!?".

"Yeah!" his men screamed with vigour. Finally, they can go kill, ****, and plunder to their hearts content.

"You won't take this seriously, will you…?".

"Despite what you all think, I'm not stupid Heimo. I'll send a few scouts beforehand to avoid any nasty surprises. I won't let some pipsqueak with a silver tongue stop my dream.".

"Your dream? You really think you can accomplish that?". Heimo asked as he knew exactly what Gelmar wished for, and he knew how impossible it was even for someone such as Vyrga, not to mention Gelmar, to achieve it. Many greater bogeys, goblins, and other people from other species tried and failed to do it. To reach the height of the enlightened one.

"As always you think I'm delusional.".

"The enlightened one is a myth, Gelmar. Do you really believe that there was once a goblin who conquered all the people of the forest and made a clan consisting of hundreds of tribes, a great clan consisting of bogeys, goblins, kobolds, tree people, cat people and all the other species?".

"Who knows what's possible under great leadership?".

"Oh, really?" Heimo rolled his eyes "And how about the part that he made large bronze cauldrons that can shoot thunder and lead balls? Or the part of how he and his inner court could make iron stronger than bronze? Stronger than bronze! Iron!".

"Many mysterious were lost through time," Gelmar said while folding his arms. He always argues with Heimo when it comes to the enlightened one.

"And what about the part where he mysteriously grows stronger and changes his form every few battles? And I'm not just talking about him becoming more muscular due to constant physical exertion, but how he suddenly doubles in size in less than an hour! And that spiel of how he can grant that ability to his subordinates! I call that bullshit! Creatures, with the exception of insects, can't change their form!".

"We've both saw goblins, Heimo. How can you explain how some rare ones have horns and others have red skin or some other weird colour?".

"Easy, birth defects. I've once seen a bogey born with 5 fingers on each hand.".

"That doesn't sound like a defect to me. I thought you were smarter than that.".

"You know what I mean!".

"Heh, I know. Non-believer.".

Heimo sighed as he rubbed his forehead "If Ainshart the great also known as the enlightened one is real, can you please explain to me where did all that progress go to? How did all those marvellous tools and wondrous magic disappear? And why nobody recreated them?".

"Another easy question. After he was poisoned by his own children, they divided his great clan among themselves and fought each other until almost nothing was left. They destroyed all those innovations because they didn't want their rivals to get them, and the reason nobody rediscovered them was because, without Ainshart's blessing which increased, not only their strength but also their intelligence, goblins are getting dumber over time. Not to mention as they keep warring nonstop with the other races, there's no time to invest in rediscovering those old secrets. Oh, and because non-believer shits like you keep screwing us followers of the enlightened over and over.".

"You just repeated that spiel that we hear keeps getting said by those religious nuts every time someone questions their beliefs. They keep repeating the exact same thing.".

"Well most bogeys are believers and all of us speak the enlightened one's language. Heck, most of us, including you, are named using this language. The only people that come to my mind that are named using the old tongue are Vyrga, that Rak guy, and my target, Gherm. Speaking of him, it's time to go." Gelmar told Heimo before turning his back and walking towards the front of his men. He stopped midway and turned back to the saddened Heimo, for once he let go of his pride and said what he truly wanted to say "And I'm sorry, bro. I was a little too pissed off.".

This surprised Heimo and caused him to chuckle "Hehe. No worries, bro. Just take care of yourself, and don't lose." He said the last part with all his resolve.

"I won't. See you next time." Gelmar said with a grin before leading his men to battle. There's blood to be spilt.