Lord Of Goblins

"Skraaaaaaaaa!" The hiveling screeched as its broken body laid convulsing on the ground covered in deep gashes and wounds across its tattered body along with bluish-green haemolymph dripping from where its abdomen should've been.

The screeches ended once Lev and two of his men simultaneously pierced their spears into its head and the yellowish light in its eyes dimmed. They finally managed to kill the hellish creature… They finally took down the last one of these damn things…

Lev took a deep breath before he took a look at his surroundings. The hiveling managed to take down five other bogeys with one of them belonging to his group.

'Another one died…' He thought to himself, giving a silent prayer to the lost soul. It's been two months since the expedition had begun; six of his men had already died before finally reaching the fourth layer.

He thought back on how it had all begun… How once the goblins arrived, this expedition would be different. The number of men, whether they be goblins or bogeys, were double the usual amount, that along with the demoralized gaunt forms of the goblins and the addition of new goblinoids slaves to the expedition, spoke of how something drastic must have happened on the surface.

All the past expeditions were only made up of goblins and bogeys. There were never any exceptions, it was even rare for other goblinoid races to appear in the cavern.

Throughout their enslavement, many bogeys speculated the reason as to why the goblins prevented contact between the enslaved races with the most likely reason being that the higher-ups of the goblins feared collusion between the races.

It was the first time for many commoners and greyborns that they saw these different yet similar creatures. The goblins brought with them many species from the ten giant yellow ones known as 'Bugbears' to the twenty red and muscular goblinoids with a curved horn called 'Dekas' that resembled a few of the horned noble-born goblins - only more vicious looking. There were also fifteen 'Burga', a species that looks similar to normal goblins but slightly larger and they have a tail and a larger and stronger jaw, and ten 'Dargs' a dainty purple-skinned species of goblinoids that sports long hair and long ears which Lev thought looked quite similar to humans.

What was more shocking than the addition of these new peoples, was that the expedition will be spearheaded by Bulgu, the youngest heir of the chief of the Jiira! This confirmed everyone's suspicions that something was wrong. First the food shortages, then doubling the number of men, the addition of newcomers, and now this… This definitely proved that something was wrong.

In the end, the expedition force marched after a speech from Bulgu and a recital by the shamans of the hymn of bravery. It was a known tale among goblin-kind wherein 'Jom' the father of all was slain by 'the one from the void' plunging the world in darkness and madness, a drop of his blood formed a young girl with long white hair, pointy ears, and red eyes known as 'Zeja' who unlike the children and wife of 'Jom' braved the dark depths of the underworld to gather the fragments of his soul and bargained with the death god 'Nom' so that he would re-forge them into one whole thus reviving him.

After reviving 'Jom', 'Zeja' gained his blessing and the right to lead the gods in the battle against 'the one from the void' and his minions, and she pushed them back into the abyss of space thus ending the chaos and gaining her the title of the goddess of war.

In the beginning, excluding the new goblinoids, the gathered expedition force consisted of six hundred bogeys with four hundred and fifty of them being greyborns and a hundred and fifty goblins - excluding Bulgu and ten goblin nobles.

After going through layer after layer while fighting for survival and resources against the denizens of the underground with the worst of them being the hiveling packs which increase in numbers after every floor, about five hundred bogeys remain with three hundred and sixty of them being greyborns… Even the newcomers lost some of their members as they fell victim to the traitorous terrain of the previous layers.

"Do we begin harvesting, sir?" Someone asks Lev, causing him to break from his stupor. He turns towards the voice to find out that it was Jem.

"Yes. You can begin. But do be careful.".

Jem smiled "This isn't my first expedition, sir. I'm sure everyone can now harvest the crystals from these damn things whilst they're asleep.", then, as he looked at his surroundings, his smile faded "I wish we knew how to kill them easily in our sleep too…".

Lev Sighed as he couldn't agree more. This was the biggest hiveling attack till now with their numbers reaching sixteen drones. 'Thankfully there weren't any warriors.' He shuddered as he thought of the gigantic monstrosity that they fought three days ago.

As they turned through a corner, a gigantic hiveling three times bigger than the one he just had slain, appeared accompanied by three drones and a spitter. It had larger and sharper mandibles capable of cutting a bogey in half, its chitin was so hard that most weapons can't harm it, leaving the majority of the expedition forces to aim at its eyes and the gaps between its three segments, its six feet were equipped with claws so sharp that they can slash through the shields, rendering them useless.

The spitter, on the other hand, was slightly smaller and physically weaker than a regular drone but it was capable of shooting a potent acid from its abdomen that can melt the flesh of its victims. Thankfully, the warriors and spitters rarely appeared before the sixth layer. But as if fate was spiting them; they had to be attacked by both at the same time. This attack caused the most losses as it lead to the death of thirty-four Bogeys, five Dekas, three Burgas, four goblins, and a bugbear.

Lev looked at the surroundings to find that an additional thirty bogeys were lost with another eight more critically injured. He sighed as he knew that most, if not all of the injured, will pass away in the next few days if not treated properly. The medical supplies that they were supplied with were insufficient and the medical techniques of the witch doctors, shamans, and healers were underdeveloped.

Magic could be used to mend their wounds, but alas, all healers capable of magic were reserved to the higher-ups and noble goblins who are too reluctant of wasting what could save their life on frontline cannon fodder. Even if one of his men is injured, all he can do is basic first aid.

"Heh, looks like the kid is getting the hang of it too." Says Jem as he was looking at Volker puncturing a hole in the middle of the abdomen of a drone with a long-handled adze causing the digestive acid to spill from its refinement sac onto the ground, causing bubbles to surface as the acid was melting through the stone.

Along with the acid, there were a few yellow stones and metal balls which were the greatest benefit of the hivelings. They were capable of refining ores which they mix in their wax to build their hives. T

They can also cure a special type of rare mana crystal that's surprisingly more plentiful the lower you head down in this cavern. It is known as a haze crystal. Haze crystals were one of the main reasons, along with the strange artefacts, as to why goblins chose this cavern for bogeys to dwell in. The crystals were a great alchemical reagent capable of storing immense amounts of magical energy, but before curation, they were corrosive to beings with low magical resistance which made the bogey race, especially the greyborns, the perfect candidate to mine and cure them.

In the past, nobody knew the hivelings were capable of naturally curing the crystals so it cost a lot of resources to perform the process. The expeditions were shorter and safer as they were allowed to avoid the creatures and the creatures, in most cases, avoided them.

Once it was discovered that the hivelings were able to do such a feat, it lengthened the time of the expeditions and due to the greed of the goblins and their overhunting of the hivelings, all goblinoids are now considered a threat that needs to be exterminated.

"Come on you lazy louts! Harvest all the loot! You know it's worth more than your miserable lives!" A vile voice roared.

"Gods, I hate that guy." Said a certain large greyborn accompanied by another one slightly shorter than him.

"Rak and Hem, how's the loses on your end?".

"Ten loyal men, kid... Ten loyal men…" Hem muttered with a tired sigh.

"It's all those damn goblins' fault…" Rak spoke while grinding his teeth, fuming in anger.

"What are they even after!? It's clear from the way they handled the expedition and previous events that this isn't just about some damn rocks and mere trinkets! Why are they in such a rush to kill us all!?" He roared out loud.

"Maybe he can explain." Lev said as he pointed at another approaching duo of greyborns.

"Vyrga and one of his pets. And it had to be Oswald." Hem spat on the ground. He then turned to Lev "As much as I respect you kid; do we really need to work with such sc.u.m?".

During the first month, everyone realized that this wasn't the time to undermine each other and those who tried got killed by Bulgu and the goblins. This never happened before.

In previous expeditions as goblins never cared about discipline and the quarrels of the conscripted slaves. The decapitated head of Veer, a leader of a small gang consisting of 15 men who tried to secretly kill his rival Guru. His two main men proved that at these times such acts are not tolerated.

Instead of just trying to avoid each other, Lev thought that it would be best to make an actual truce with Vyrga that would at least last until the end of the expedition. Neither him or Rak were fools to believe that under normal circ.u.mstances, Vyrga and his men would abide by this agreement, but with the death of two more gang leaders and a noble, it was a known fact that no one could escape Bulgu's wrath if they attempted to undermine the expeditionary force. They could also use this opportunity to closely study Vyrga and his inner circle albeit also allowing him the chance to study them in return.

It was Rak who replied, "As much as I hate to say it, at the moment we do…"

"F.u.c.k!" Hem cursed.

"It seems you're happy to see us.".

"Yeah, I'm so happy I could kill you from joy." Hem growled.

"This isn't the time for this, Hem. Not now anyway." Rak said while wielding his axe.

Vyrga sighed "Seemed like you're still mad about my test, Rak.".

"Test…? TEST!? YOU TURNED MY BEST FRIEND AGAINST ME!!! I KILLED HIM BECAUSE OF YOU!!! I OUGHT TO-!".

"Ought to what? Kill me?" asked Vyrga with a sneer. "Don't blame me, he was a rat, Rak. He was using you and would've eventually betrayed you. Even if I didn't approach him, someone else would have done it. Deep inside you know it was inevitable.".

"GRRRAAAH!" Rak roared as he was about to bring his axe down on the calm and collected Vyrga only to be stopped by both Lev and Hem.

"Stop you fool! Do you want to die!?" Yelled Hem.

"Calm down! This is an easy way for him to get rid of you without dirtying his hands! Don't be a fool!".

"Now you're calling me a fool!? You think you can order me around!?".

"I can't order you around, Rak, but one's actions say if they are a fool or not. Do you want everything you built to end because you fell for his ploy? For just another one of his tests? Look at your men and tell me".

Rak then realized that his men gathered around them and some of them were being beaten by the goblins as they were trying to persuade them not to get involved. Seeing this scene, he calmed his wrath and took a deep breath "I'm fine now. Let me go.".

After a brief moment, they released him and he started walking towards his men.

"Where do you think you're going, boss?" Asks Hem.

"Going to fix what we started, of course. Lev will handle everything here.".

"Lev?" asks Oswald who stood silently all this time.

"That's what the kid goes by these days. You better remember it. And Hem, take care of the kid." Rak said, before going to diffuse the situation before it escalates.

"Of course.".

Lev sighed and turned towards Vyrga "Now, I believe you didn't just come here to piss us off and try getting us killed. Mind telling us your true motive?".

Vyrga smiled "I just was informed by a few of my acquaintances of the two main reasons for the expedition.".

"And they are?".

"A mythical weapon once wielded by Ainshart and a war between siblings to inherit the chiefdom.".

…

"What?".