1 Desperation of a goblin

It was supposed to be the greatest moment of all, the attack that would secure power to the one who had proclaimed himself the king of goblins, he had evolved from a simple goblin that lived in a small cave, in a small forest were the unimpressive goblins were the biggest threat.

A lowborn without anything special about him, part of the most bland of goblin species, all had pointed to him simply dying in his small forest but unlike other goblins, he was emboldened by something unknown and had managed to progress from a simple goblin, instead of evolving into a stronger version of himself, he had broke past his status and had become a creature that was rarely seen, a primordial goblin, his strength and intelligence allowed him to be recognised as a king by the system, his influence made the goblins around him evolve too, becoming high, grand and arch goblins.

However, a goblin is a goblin and he had been too greedy, he had attracted too much attention to himself and a venator had come for him and the other goblins, they had stood no chance against the hardened monster killer, the king without his subjects was now no more than a simple goblin, the former king ran away in fear, into a forest uncommon to him as the old hunter chased after him, the goblin could feel it, the venator was slightly faster than him, he would be caught soon.

Entering a clearing whose soil had been replaced by some sort of stone, the goblin stopped and turned around, his cloak fluttering as he revealed an axe of nice craft, he wasn't going to run and die a dog's death, if he was to pass, then it shall be by fighting.

Almost immediately, the venator appeared before the former king, a strange weapon in hand and wearing a long coat, the hunter was old, his beard and hair were white.

The old venator reajusted his hat and then his weapon extended beyond its original proportions.

"You a fast one, ain't you?" spoke the man, the goblin has intelligent as he was understood his words but didn't respond as he grasped his axe anxiously.

The hunter suddenly lunged forward, the goblin barely had time to block the strike, the cleaver-like blade of the weapon managed to somehow dig into the handle of the axe, in a hurry, the former king pushed his assailant away and went in for an attack, an overhead strike that only struck the ground embedding the axe into the stone ground and cracked it.

Before he could react,the goblin saw his arms still grasping onto the axe as he jumped away, both of his arms had been cut off.

Right as he was about to die, the stone ground beneath the both of them let out a loud crack and the ground seemed to sunk a bit, the venator jumped away and the goblin managed to get away in extremis as he was bleeding out, already feeling like fainting.

However, he was sound fully awake and alert as the ground broke off and a strange presence bursted out from the hole, the goblin was drowned in fear and the venator let out a drop of sweat.

A horrifying, majestic and mad howl came out of the hole and opposite to the side of the venator a creature climbed out of the hole, it was tall, probably nearing the three meters if it stood up, its body was thin, it seemed as if skin was simply laid out on the bones directly, its skin was a grayish pale, its hands had five fingers and sort of ressembled that of a human apart from the fact that the hands and fingers were much bigger and longer as well as possessing sharp dark claws.

Its feet had four toes which ressembled fingers who shared their appearances with that of its hands, except that three were at the front and one one at back.

Its face seemed completely smooth and devoid of anything, until the skin seemingly tore off to reveal small holes all over its head, they seemed to contract a bit and it turned its eyeless head to the bleeding goblin as the holes disappeared and an enormous mouth full of teeth appeared, it seemed to be able to open its mouth wide enough to make the upper part of its head touch the back the lower part.

The goblin, paralysed in fear was unable to do anything as it leaped at him and plunged its right claws right though his mouth, before opening its hand wide, making the goblins head burst.

It started eating the corpse, covering its body in blood and bits of cadaver, seeing all of this, the venator was able to immediately assess that this monster was blind but seeing how he had seemingly turned its head into a nose for a moment, it might be able to see, the old hunter moved away from the scene, without taking his eyes off the monster as it feasted on the body of the goblin.

In his moment of shock and slight fear of the unknown monster, the venator stepped on a branch, producing a crack, a rookie mistake.

The sound of eating stopped as the crack was made and the monster turned its blood covered face toward the venator.

'Fuck this' thought the old hunter and he started running away, the monster leaped into a tree and gave chase, uncaring about its unfinished food, it maneuvered through the trees with great agility going into a straight line toward the fleeing hunter.

The hunter noticed that the creature would catch up, he may be an experienced venator but he was specialised in goblins and some other pest-like monsters, he was able to follow and defeat the goblin despite its strength thanks to the bonuses of various titles and skills acquired through his carreer and the monster chasing him was not any of those.

Soon, the old hunter ran out of stamina and he was only able to turn around before the monster landed into him, pinning him to the ground and knocking the air out of him, the faceless monster put both of its hand onto the venators arms, keeping him from moving them and approached its still bloody face near his.

Its large mouth once again appeared, only this time it appeared vertically in the middle of its face and it spoke a few words, with this small action, the venator realised how intelligent the beast in front of him was before it bit half of his face off.

"You a fast one, ain't you?" it said in the voice of the venator.