33 A Solemn Vow
My mother thinks they are all equally savage and they equally deserve death.
Sure, she's completely right, as usual.
But its the ones that aren't savages that are the worst. For some reason or another, the ones half as smart as me continue to rut and hang out with the animals. THOSE are the worst and deserve worse than death. Playing poker in a society of thousands where only a hundred understand what currency is?
Those 'smart,' Gobs that don't move for greater pastures are the worst.
-Odd Meirvere 2109 FE
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With a cocktail of basic knowledge, complete lack of experience, and a deep seated, irresistible desire to procreate and evolve quickly, Proto-Gobs are almost always bloodthirsty simpletons that waste their innate talents. More than other, higher evolved Gobs, Proto-Gobs exist to fight, eat, and fuck anything they can find.
Athaulf was born as one of the abnormal ones.
The first thing he did when he was born, was to take a stock of his surroundings. He was in a clearing and a myriad of trees looked down on him.
But no friends. No family.
Most Proto-Gobs would have walked off and looked for food without a care in the world.
Athaulf was not most Proto-Gobs.
Whether it was from his father, or his mother, he inherited an intense desire to imprint himself on someone, but he was all alone.
[Anomaly Who Feels Fear] title unlocked
He called himself Athaulf, because he asked the Connection for a name and it gave him one. It was something to hang onto amidst the dreadful loneliness.
So Athaulf wandered. He met tribes of Goblins and Hobgoblins. He didn't like what they did, but he forced himself to act as a brute.
He didn't like the idea of what they ate, but he forced down every morsel with a brave face.
So, when Athaulf evolved, he became a Green Goblin, despite what he felt inside. He continued to live his life among savages, despite his inner nature.
The full year passed and Athaulf was able to smile from the heart when he became a Green Hobgoblin. It was proof that he fit in.
Yet, Athaulf wasn't destined to be happy. It seemed that every tribe he joined, whenever he got a family, he would eventually come home and see it ravaged or that the tribe moved on without him.
He even got the title, [Cursed One] to show for it.
When he joined the tribe in Cripclaw Valley, it was business as usual. He made some friends, tolerated others, and forced a smile on his face. With a positive attitude, he tried to be social among races of people who would rather eat, fuck, and kill, rather than talk with him.
It was on a simple slave raid that changed everything. They found a dark elf wandering in the forest, half naked and alone. A body that was built for sin, even in her incoherent state, the sight of her violet hair that was almost as dark in the night seemed to capture the moonlight that existed solely to brighten her figure.
She was stumbling and swaying, her eyes were closed as if she was asleep. Yet, she must have had some kind of [Sleepwalking Affinity] or [Drunken Master Affinity], for she was acting like a powerhouse. Every Hobgoblin or Gob that went to clasp her in Connection Shearing Chains were slapped aside by a fierce glow of pink lightning that crackled in her hands.
"Go ashmay, fookers, I, I'm looking for my sheeshter. Merliiiiina, tha fook sh-sh-are youshh?" she cursed slovenly.
But Athaulf was not to be undeterred. He had lived through multiple extinctions of multiple tribes! This woman, so full of shapely grace, would be his!
He waited until she had just smacked Gobs away with sparks of pink lighting from each of her two hands and was forced to kick one. Athaulf saw the soft, bouncing flesh and lept into the fray at the perfect time! He got her! He won the right to be the first one to sample her!
After they got back to the Pitt, Athaulf smiled as his friends cheered him on in his moment of victory. The quite Percy, under his bandanna and cloak , even shot him a thumbs up.
That moment, when he took that dark elf, was a moment to remember.
He barely lasted two seconds before he got off inside her because he was so excited, but when he did he was thrown back. To this day, he swore he saw black lightning. But that's impossible, she was in chains!
What was unforgettable, is that his heart had given up on him. He was dying. Most everyone was laughing because he was having a heart attack after his orgasm. Thankfully, Percy came over to him. He threw the shaking, dying Hobgoblin over his shoulder and brought him to Roark's father.
Then, through the force of his willpower and the [Cursed One] title, he saved some of the control over his soul and retained his sanity while turning to a Ghoul.
The necromancer even patted him on the back and told him it almost never happens to fight his control! Athaulf was told he had a little over a month to rest at the stronghold because it takes some time for the soul to get used to not having organs anymore and a few other things. Athaulf never knew necromancy was so complicated!
In the end though, Athaulf was told he would eventually join Roark's special autonomous war band near the edge of the valley and they would even let him keep his dream woman, so they sent her to the cave ahead for him!
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Athaulf looked at the wrecked sight of Cripclaw keep. Everything of worth had been taken and the rest was burnt down.
He had given up. He really was the [Cursed One].
If only he hadn't chased after that anomaly. Or maybe if he wasn't so stunned when he saw him wearing his best friends clothes!
The thought still makes him burn with anger!
"That's what I'll live for now," Athaulf vowed. "I don't care how long it takes, I will get stronger, and I will kill that bastard for everything he did to me. It was him that started all of this!"
But Athaulf knew he wasn't strong enough. The way the anomaly slipped past him, he knew it could do it again to him at a later date. The Hobgoblin Ghoul needed a better plan. He also needed power.
He turned towards the northwest. Athaulf trudged towards the wilds, where civilization had never prospered since the current era. Towards the mountains of Alaska and one of the two lands in the continent under compete, savage Gob control. The creatures there needed to evolve more powerful and more bloodthirsty in order to survive in the perilous environment, where death lied around every corner.
Athaulf had always been alone before.
He was alone now. But now, he had a goal. A goal he would die to accomplish.
