Chapter 7: Hobgoblin mage!

"Let's see if you can..." The hobgoblin said as it raised its hand, pointing it at Lucian.

Fire suddenly ignited in the palm of its hand, and a large fireball shot towards Lucian at high speed.

Lucian raised his shield as fast as possible, and the fireball slammed into it, exploding on impact.

Lucian had managed to stay on his feet thanks to his large body, but he could tell if he got hit by one of those, it would hurt. Fireproof or not.

"Take this! Fireball!" The hobgoblin shouted as it fired another barrage of fireballs towards him.

Lucian used his speed to run across the room to avoid the magical attacks one after the other as they exploded against the stone walls.

Lucian hadn't come upon anyone that could use magic yet, but he would never have guessed it would be this hard to deal with.

The Hobgoblin was getting sick of Lucian dodging his fireballs and ignited his other hand in fire also.

"Time to cook you alive!" He shouted as he shot both hands forwards, letting a massive blast of fire loose towards Lucian.

Lucian had nowhere left to run and instead raised his shield over his face to protect himself as the fire consumed his body.

To his surprise, it wasn't hot, and after a moment, he stood back to his feet, realising he was taking no damage at all.

"Why you!" The hobgoblon shouted in surprise as it tried to pump even more magic into it's fire attack.

Lucian charged through the fire stream as it had no effect on him and quickly swung his sword at the hobgoblin mage taking him by surprise.

Lucian's attack took both of his hands off, and the fire magic stopped as they fell to the floor.

"Aarrgghhhh!" The hobgoblin screamed in agony as blood started to pour from his wrists onto the floor.

Lucian watched as the hobgoblin fell to his knees before him, still screaming like a madman.

If he remembered correctly, goblins were weak against fire magic, and it quickly became apparent why he was the leader. Unfortunately for him, fire didn't work on Lucian.

"This is the end for you," Lucian said as he placed his sword on the hobgoblin's neck.

Its eyes opened wide as it tried to think of a way out of this situation.

"No! Please! I will do anything!" It pleaded.

Lucian didn't care. He had already blocked the emotion from his mind and loped the hobgoblins head off with one clean swing.

It was over now. Lucian had killed all of the goblins, and the village and its people would be safe from their terror.

Lucian flicked the blood off his blade and re-sheathed it, also placing his shield onto his back.

He turned to look at the girls and headed over to the cage they were locked away in. Lucian grabbed the lock and easily snapped it with brute strength opening the cage door.

All the girls look terrified as Lucian was covered in blood and looked like a savage, his red eyes glowing in the darkness. All except for Elana as she dived at him, wrapping her hands around his waist with tears falling from her eyes.

"It's ok. Your safe now. All of you are safe now." Lucian said as he brushed her hair with his hand.

Suddenly a small banging sound caught all of their attention, putting the girls back on edge. Lucian pushed them behind him as he looked over to where it came from.

Lucian picked up a small crack in the cave wall and headed over to it slowly, drawing his sword as he got a little closer.

Lucian reached his arm out to touch the wall and quickly realised it wasn't a wall at all. It was a camouflaged sheet that had been placed to look just like part of the wall, no doubt hiding a secret room.

Lucian pulled the sheet away, getting ready for another goblin to jump out at him, he raised his sword in defence, but nothing came.

Lucian ducked down and entered the small tunnel following it until he came upon another room.

He was shocked to see what was in there once his eyes adjusted. Another handful of girls led here clearly just as tortured as the last one he had seen.

Among them was a small cluster of goblin children no taller than a 3-year-old.

They hissed at Lucian as they cowered in the darkness.

"So this is a breeding chamber..." Lucian said, wanting to look away in disgust.

Some of the girls were already dead, and the others not far from it. Lucian wasn't sure he could save them and decided it would be kinder to end their suffering.

He drew his dagger from his hip and slowly crouched down, placing the blade to one of the girl's neck.

Lucian hesitated as he thought back to his own friend's deaths, and he closed his eyes, pulling the knife away.

"I can't do it." He said, almost shaking as he felt sick at what he was about to do.

Killing monsters was one thing, but killing a person, let alone a human girl was completely different.

"Please..." The girl said weakly as she reached out, taking Lucian's hand in hers.

She slowly pulled his arm back towards her until the tip of his dagger was close to her neck again.

" I can't," Lucian said hesitantly.

"Please..." The girl said again, struggling to get the word out.

"Don't be a coward," Satan said inside his head, pressing him to do it.

"Shut up you!" Lucian replied.

His attention returned to the girl as she tried to use the last of her strength to pull the knife to her neck.

"Do it!" The demon lord shouted.

Lucian closed his eyes as he pulled the knife across the girl's neck, slitting her throat clean open, ending her suffering in a matter of moments.

Lucian stumbled back and dropped the dagger onto the floor as he realised what he had just done.

"What have I done?" He said as he looked at the blood that stained his hands.

"You did what needed to be done." The demon lord said.

Lucian's attention drifted over to the goblin offspring as anger started to replace the horror.

He picked up the dagger off the floor and walked over to the goblin children.

"If I let them live, they will just do the same..." He said, tightening his grip around the handle.

The goblin children cowered in fear as he got closer to them and raised his weapon into the air.

"Gawww!" They screamed as he killed every single one of them. Showing no mercy to them, closing his heart to his emotions.

He had now killed them all and remained silent as he held his dagger in his hand for a moment. Relishing in the silence.

"Waaa!"

The cry caught Lucian's attention, and he headed over to see what he had missed. He pulled a wooden box away from where the cry had come from, and Lucian found a goblin baby.

It was a tiny little red thing with a small tuff of white hair atop its head. The little thing must have been a newborn, and Lucian had almost thought it was cute.

He knew the little thing wouldn't survive by itself and that killing it now would be a mercy. The only question was, could he bring himself to do it.

Lucian slowly raised his dagger over the baby and held it there as it watched the creature for a moment. Ready to end it's life.

The goblin baby opened its purple eyes and looked, Lucian in his. It was an innocent thing only just arriving into this world, uncorrupted by the rest of its species.

Still, it was a goblin like the rest, and if it survived, it would most likely do the same. Lucian raised his dagger, ready to finish it once and for all, when the baby gave a small giggle and reached its arms out for Lucian to pick it up.

That was it. Lucian couldn't do it after that. He just couldn't bring himself to kill a baby no matter what race it was.

"I can't just leave it, though. It will die anyway." He said softly, trying to think about what to do.

"You would be wise to keep that goblin, little hero," Satan spoke suddenly.

Lucian took note but wondered why the demon lord was even bothered.

"Why do you care?"

"I don't. It's just that little goblin has tremendous magical potential. One you don't see very often." The demon spoke.

Lucian couldn't help but ask more. After all, he had no idea how magic in this world worked. Other than from his experience of playing the game.

"What do you mean it has magical potential?"

The demon lord sighed.

"You really don't know anything, do you, boy. Magic in this world is split into the potential that each race holds. Some have a natural affinity for more than others. However, every now and again, someone is born with a magical ability beyond their race." Satan explained.

From what Lucian could remember, magic was split into different fields of use or elements as such.

They included Fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, light and dark. Each of these elements then branched off into more advanced forms, the more versed one was at using them. Such as an advanced water mage would be able to use ice magic, and so on.

"Every being is born with a natural affinity for magic from the day they come into this world, and it never changes." The demon spoke as if he was giving a lecture.

"So how many does this goblin have?" Lucian asked, knowing that the highest was all seven.

"Most goblins don't possess any affinity for magic, and the ones that do usually have two at max. This child, on the other hand, has an affinity for five types of magic." Satan spoke.

"So it's a real prodigy then..." Lucian said, impressed.

"That's right. One that could be best used to serve you." The demon lord said.

"Serve me, you mean like a slave?"

"Of course, what else would it be." The demon lord said.

Lucian took another look at the baby and put his dagger away.

"Looks like today is your lucky day, kid." He said as he scooped the thing up, placing it in an old cloth he found on the floor.

Lucian walked back into the room. The other girls were waiting for him, and they couldn't help but notice he was carrying the baby.

"Is that a goblin baby?" One of the girls asked, seeming nervous.

Lucian nodded as he held it on one arm.

"It is." He said.

"Kill it!" The other girl shouted.

"It shouldn't be allowed to live!" She continued.

Lucian looked down at the baby goblin and then back to ths girls. Elana was quiet as she couldn't bring herself to say anything about it.

"I can't kill it..." He said, causing the girls to go quiet.

"It hasn't done anything yet..." He said getting all of the girls to turn soft again as they remained quiet.

Lucian pulled the cloth over the babies face so the girls couldn't see it, and he walked over to the exit.

"Let's get you all home." He said, changing the subject.

Lucian escorted the girls out of the goblins layers and into the forest. The girls couldn't help but see all of the gore along the way, taking note of how many dead goblins there were.

Lucian led them through the forest and back to the village, arriving safely with the three girls he had rescued.

He had tied the baby goblins cloth around his shoulder so that it was wrapped snug around his back, out of sight.

It would most likely not be a good idea to let the villagers know he had saved a goblin offspring that was the result of them raping one of the village's girls.

It was dark when they arrived back at the village, and the only light was the torchlight scattered around the village for those that wandered around at night.

It didn't take long for word to get around, and soon the entire village had come out to greet him and the girls. Their families welcoming them back with open arms and tears of joy at their safe return.

Eric the blacksmith and his wife, Helen, embraced Elana so tightly that it seemed they would never let her go again.

"Oh, my baby!" Helen shouted as she wiped away her tears.

Eric walked over to Lucian taking notice of the state of his gear.

"We feared the worst, but you did it. Praise Khazotz!" He said.

Lucian became cold at the mention of that name. The memories of that man still fresh in his mind as he craves for revenge against him.

Eric noticed Lucian's sudden coldness but put it down to fighting he must have done.

"How many did you battle, lad? You look like you've come out of a war." He asked.

Lucian snapped out of his coldness as he looked Eric in the eye.

"Must have been at least forty goblins... And three hobgoblins leading them." He said.

The entire village went silent as they overhead what Lucian had just said.

"You're telling me you took out forty goblins and three hobgoblins alone!" One of the men shouted as he pushed to the front.

The entire village started to whisper, and Eric almost had to shake the expression off his face.

"I knew you were special, lad! From the moment I met you." He said as he turned to face the rest of the village.

"This calls for a celebration!" He shouted as the entire village started cheering in agreement.

"To Lucian! Our hero!" He said, getting another cheer from everyone.

"Lucian! Lucian!" They cheered over and over again.

Eric placed his large hand on his shoulder, giving him a smile.

"Let's get you cleaned up and into some fresh clothes." He said through the cheering.

Lucian nodded, returning his kindness with his own smile and then Eric grabbed his arm, lifting it into the air in a victory pose.

After the village had finished praising him, Eric had finally got him back to his bathhouse, where his wife Helen had drawn him a hot bath to let him soak and wash away the blood and grime.

He was hailed as a hero now and had even been offered to stay at the village chiefs house, who, of course, owned the largest home in the village.

Lucian wasn't bothered about all that and instead took Erics offer up, returning home with him and his family.

Lucian had so far managed to keep the baby goblin a secret from everyone, and he only hoped that Elana and the other girls would not reveal it.

Lucian stripped off his gear and tossed it to the side, for the time being, placing the baby goblin on the floor as he did.

Lucian then tested the water and decided he would get in, bathing the kid along with himself.

He lifted the goblin up and slowly lowered it into the bath as he sat down in the hot water himself.

The goblin baby didn't cry and instead kicked the water, seeming to enjoy it giggling as it splashed around.

"Looks like you like it, eh, little fella." He said with a small smile coming to his face.

"Hmm. Fella? Or..." He said as he noticed that the baby didn't have a boy thing.

"A girl maybe..." He thought, not sure how it worked with goblin gender.

"I don't even know what to call you." He said as the baby staired at him with its purple eyes.

Lucian had realised that he didn't know what to call the little guy or gal and wondered if he should give it a name.

"Hey, demon." He said, getting Satans attention.

"Do you know any common goblin names?" He asked, waiting for a response.

The demon lord chuckled a little before he replied.

"You really are a fool." He said, getting an angry reaction from Lucian.

"Monsters don't have names." He said with a growl.

Lucian was confused.

"What do you mean they don't have names?" He asked.

"The only way for a monster to be given a name is for it to form a magical pact with a master, who will, in turn, bestow it with a name. Monsters with names become stronger and can never break the contract with their master unless they die. Most monsters refuse to serve any other than another monster, and monsters can't name other monsters." The demon lord said, once again educating Lucian in matters he had no idea about.

"Wow... I had no idea." Lucian said, still having many questions.

"So what would happen if I gave it a name without it wanting one?" He asked.

The demon lord sighed.

"I am not your go-to information package, you know!" He shouted.

"But if you have no magical potential or try to name a monster without it agreeing, nothing will happen." The demon lord finished.

Lucian nodded and tickled the babies belly getting a little giggle from it.

"Well, I guess I'll hold off naming you. For now, I'll just call you red." Lucian said, smiling at the baby goblin.

"Now I just have to find out how to hide you from the others."