1 Chapter 001: Burning Village

The 12-year-old Shelly and her 9-year-old brother Kelly, both hiked through the forest on their way back to the village. On their backs, they each carried a full straw basket of red and green apples.

"I can't wait to eat dinner." Kelly merrily swayed his head from side to side, walking alongside Shelly. "Hopefully it's boar meat stew and boiled potatoes."

"We could've been home already, but you kept eating apples all day instead of collecting them". Shelly pinched Kelly's ear with an irritated scowl. "Plus, you had the NERVE to fall asleep and then beg me to help you".

"Ow!" Kelly cried, "I couldn't help it… I was too hungry."

"Is that how you say sorry for slacking off!?" Shelly pinched his ears harder. "Because of you, all the other kids left us behind and we're the ones late. You're lucky if we don't get yelled at when we get home!"

"Ah! Ow! Ow! That really hurts!" Kelly cried out in agony. "I'm sorry! I'm SORRY!!!" 

"Good!" Shelly released his reddened ear. "Don't let it happen again. Or next time, I'm leaving you behind. Understood?"

"Yes… sis…. It won't happen again". Kelly rubbed his pained ear in sorrow. "But you didn't have to pinch my ear so hard".

In the air, the alarming smell of smoke trailed into the forest from the direction of the village.

"Wait..." Kelly pointed his nose in the air. "Is that?..."

"Oh no! It's coming from the village!" Shelly grabbed Kelly's arm and started bolting towards the source of possible danger. 

The further they ran, the smell of smoke became more apparent. Soon becoming clear to them was the soaring black smoke in the bright orange-coloured sunset sky. 

"No! No! Don't let it be true," Shelly begged for the good amidst the obvious bad. "Mama! Papa! Please be safe!"

Soon after, they both burst out of the forest. The clear view of their burning village shocked them. Its image scorched in the back of their eyes. 

Why was this happening?

"Mama! Papa!" They both yelled out, dropping the basket of apples from their backs and sprinting towards the burning village, looking for their parents. 

Running by the burning wood houses, the heat warmed their skins. The screams of men, women and children echoed through the flames and a merciless high pitch chuckle always followed.

Payton, a boy who just went apple picking with them, broke through the door of a burning house screaming and wrapped in flames. 

"Help! Help me! It hurts! Make it stop! PLEASE!" Payton rolled across the ground in anguish, trying to stop the fire that melted his skin.

While they both trembled in fear, Shelly gathered enough courage to take a step forward to try and help their friend. 

Just then the vile sight of a goblin charged at the burning Payton. It jumped, then plummeted its club on his flame-melted face.

"CRACK!!!"

The sound of his skull being crushed by the club sent severe chills down Shelly's and Kelly's spine.

It beat him. As he screamed out in pain, it beat him. Payton's cries for help stopped, but instead, his body just twitched wildly. The small and few flames left, sat on his body.

"Stop.... Don't hurt him... He's dying. Please, Stop!"

Shelly thought to herself. Her mind growing dull as she felt the urge to helplessly cry. But she was frozen in place as she watched her friend's death unfold before her.

Being even more merciless, the goblin raised its club and slammed it down on Payton's head once more. And then again, then again, then again, THEN AGAIN! Even when his body stopped twitching on the dirt path in front of the burning house, the goblin continued.

"Kah! Kah! Kah! Kaaah!"

Up and down the club went as the demon of a monster cackled. Each time tearing through his dead body like a sack of rice stained with bloody mud. Payton's blood and brain matter splashed onto its body more each time. 

Kelly, seeing this gruesome display of malice, fell to his knees weakened, crying in horror and wetting his pants. 

Shelly, who was still standing, knew that they needed to run to stay alive. But nothing shook her from place. Her legs trembling, too scared to move. 

"Haa! Haa! Haa! Haa!" 

The goblin finally stopped after it was tired. It turned around with the club in one hand, grinning from ear to ear at the two frozen and horrified children before it.

They saw the face of the demon that brutally massacred their close friend. The light from the fire gleamed on its mud-coloured skin and its eyes were a piss-coloured yellow.  Bumps, warts and sores covered almost every inch of its body with only a dirty, stained loincloth covering its lower half. 

It stood no taller than the average child, but the cruel and heartless nature of it was NOWHERE near the pure innocence of one. 

"Shelly! Kelly! Get back!" The voice of their father shouted to them. "You Disgusting Piece Of Sh*t!!! I'll kill you!!"

"SLACK!!!" 

Their father slung an axe through the goblin's neck. The severed head rolled on the ground and the body tumbling down after.

"Haa! Haa! Haa!" 

Their Dad breathed heavily, blood trickling from a stab wound in his lower abdomen.

Their father quickly went to his knees and hugged them tightly.

"I'm scared! I'm scared, Papa!" Kelly shivered in tears.

Shelly stood where she was, still unable to move her feet.

"Talk To Me! Your mother! Where is she?" 

Kelly was crying too much to answer his father's question.

"I-I-I d-d-don't kn-know." Shelly heavily stuttered the words to her father.

"Come on! We're gonna look for her." Getting to his feet, he grabbed both their arms and pulled them along through all the smoke surrounding them. 

"Don't worry! Everything is going to be okay. Trust me!" Their father reassured them.

All that surrounded them was black smoke, burning houses and cries of the helpless being slaughtered by cackling bloodthirsty goblins.

Shelly was too young to realise it, but what she felt was a bubbling rage. But before that, was crippling fear and frustration due to her weakness.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!" The smoke made it difficult for their father to breathe since his height made it more dangerous for him. "The house… it's up ahead! Stay close… *Cough*...  The both of you."  

Finally reaching the house, the door was already broken down. The scene that the three saw in front of them was a traumatic and soul-crushing exhibition of pure malicious evil.

"YOU NASTY PIECES OF SH*T!!! GET OFF MY WIFE!!!" 

The father, engraved with an incurable rage, charged at the nine goblins that surrounded his wife. They ravished her beaten corpse on the floor, filled with stab wounds and bruises.

Caught in the first swing of his axe were two of the goblins closest to the door. His brute strength tore the top half of their torso clean off. The swing sent their blood and organs splattering across the walls. 

All except for one goblin ran for their weapon with their loincloth still removed. The one goblin that didn't rush for its weapon was too focused on the corpse's lower half. As the goblin enjoyed its despicable self, the pleasure made it quiver and tilt its head backwards, catching a glimpse of the wood ceiling. Suddenly, in the reflection of its piss-coloured eyes, a death sentence of an axe filled with anger dived towards it.

"SLASH!!!" 

The bloodied axe chopped through the face of the goblin, dividing the head horrifically in half. The lethal force used to swing the axe broke it at the stick near the metal, as it struck against the ground. 

It was a nearly beautiful sight when the goblin fell on its back and the opened halves of its head lay exposed to the air, showing the insides of its brains.

Continuing his rampage, the father surged towards another two goblins, ramming the axe handle through both their chest. 

"Gawk! Hrk!" 

A dagger was pierced into his leg by one of the remaining four goblins. With the dagger still lodged in his leg, and a death glare to the goblin foolish enough not to roll over and die, he grabbed the goblin by his lower jaw, then gripped its upper jaw and lifted the goblin in the air.

"I'll Kill You! EVERY! LAST! ONE OF YOU!! HAAAAAH!" 

The father with all his might, tore apart the lower jaw of the goblin, pulling away from his flesh until it finally peeled away at his chest and exposed his ribs and organs.

His fingers were shredded by its ragged teeth, but his mind was in too much of a frenzy to even notice the bleeding.

"THUD!!!" 

The jawless goblin dropped to the floor. The father raised his foot above the still breathing goblin's vulnerable chest.

"CRACK!!! SPLAT!!! 

With a mighty stomp, his bouldering foot broke the goblins ribs and crushed his vital organs.

Taking his foot out of the goblin's chest, he took a step towards the three remaining goblins, whom all cowered in fear at the raging beast of a human in front of them. 

"You burned my village! Killed my friends! Defiled my wife!" He took another step towards the trembling goblins. "I'll make you pay for-" 

Cutting his speech short, was his body suddenly dropping to his knees, then to his chest.

"W-w-what? No! Not now, please!" He struggled to push himself off the blood-soaked ground. 

The excessive bleeding paired with the goblin faeces and urine laced on their weapons to act as a poison started taking effect. The adrenaline rush from his anger could only carry him so far, but no further.

The goblins who were previously in fear now were grinning with arrogance. 

"WHACK!!!"

A goblin's club struck the father on the head and he plopped to the floor. Taking advantage of the situation, they repeatedly beat him.