Chapter 42

While the night was silent Vorbuk watched as his companions all fell into their slumber. His body was itching to dash out into the forest for the night, but he did not want the others to be aware of his desire to get stronger. It was not that he was worried they would not accept the idea of him gaining power that bothered him. He simply did not want them to know how far he desired to push himself.

Slowly his body raised itself up from the ground and he gracefully trotted off into the darkness of the trees. There was the sound of snoring and moving about in their sleep behind him as they dreamed, had no idea what they dreamed about, but he could tell they were rather relaxed and that put his mind at ease.

The further he moved into the land away from the others the more at ease he felt because he knew they would not be able to hear him struggling to hunt whatever he came across. In the dark he felt there should be an abundance of things he could easily find that he could kill. Everything around him was filled with sounds of animals and beasts moving around in the dark of the night. Some of the sounds were simple creatures that would cause no problems like wild rabbits; while others were more dangerous to any simple merchant if they came across them like goblins and other various beasts.

"Looks like I will have a long night." The wolf thought to himself as he ran at the goblins and slammed his body into them. As his body impacted against their chests they were sent flying. Some of them died upon impact while others managed to survive the first attack only to die upon a second one.

His body had long ago exceeded the power to kill a weak beast like goblins easily. They had never been that difficult to him, but he could feel his body still gaining power in his soul from the experience of killing them. Vorbuk was not one who liked to kill the innocent, but goblins were far from something innocent. They were short like a human child, but would murder anyone they stumbled across that was weaker then themselves. In a way he felt like he was cleaning up trash by killing the evil little things that he saw before him.

"Who dares slaughter my children!" a ferocious voice bellowed out from the shadow of a cave in the distance.

As Vorbuk turned to look he saw a goblin walking out of the cave. It was taller then the rest and it's pointed ears were longer. There was a long staff in the hand of the goblin as it glared ferociously at him from where it stood. The aura of the beast was different from the rest of them that had tried attacking with daggers and bows. It felt like something else as the wolf stared at the goblin.

I get it! He must be the king of the goblins here! Vorbuk realized as he thought about it more intently. He could remember the stories about how goblins, orcs, all other creatures like them tend to have a king leading them from behind the scenes.

"Beast! You dare slaughter my men!" The goblin king pointed it's wooden staff at Vorbuk as if he was judging him for his sins of murder.

"I find your judging tone as nothing but a joke! Your kind slaughter many innocents without reason and you judge me for doing nothing but the same to you?" The mockery in the wolf's voice made the king grit it's teeth with rage.

"KILL HIM!" The goblin king shouted at all the goblins as he slammed his staff down.

Vorbuk smiled and his body burst into a mist of black smoke. The smoke flowing through the air as the goblins tried to swing their daggers at it in attempt to slay the wolf in vein. Smoke swayed back and forth through the air as it simply dodged through every attempt to cut it apart. His body fading back into solid view right in front of the face of the goblin king.

The goblin king vanished and reappeared further in the distance away from him. Shock flashed across the wolf's face for a moment as he did not expect the goblin king to have such an ability to move suddenly.

"What was that?" He asked himself for a moment. Shaking the thought away he returned to his goal to kill the goblin king.

As he turned to dash for him again a sudden burst of flame exploded against his chest. A growl and yelp of surprise and pain escaped his muzzle. The goblin king had cast magic against him! That was something that Vorbuk was not used to dealing with.

Keeping his solid form he swiftly dashed for the goblin king. His body slamming against many goblins causing them to fly across the air like bowling pins. As he neared the king he pressed against the ground hard and sent his own body flying up into the air. The height his body reached was enough to shock all the goblins for a moment as the amount of force he had used to take off had sent him so high that a normal wolf would not be able to replicate his action.

The goblin king began to panic and cast another spell, but as the flame left his staff and flew at Vorbuk the wolf was already upon him. The sharp claws and fangs of the wolf drove themselves into his neck and body. Crunching sounds could be heard as the goblin king was beheaded by the shear force behind the wolf's bite.

A loud growl could be heard as the wolf stood there above the fallen goblin king exerting a powerful aura to kill all the murderous fiends behind him. He could hear the panicking goblins as they all scattered to flee for their lives. At the sight of their fallen king they all knew it was flee or die.

No matter how fast they fled, however, the wolf was faster. As the night went on goblin by goblin fell to the wolf as he eradicated the area of the fiends he had witnessed take innocent lives many times since his arrival into the realm.

There was not a shred of guilt in his mind at all as he removed them all from the realm.

If life is a game of hunt or be hunted then I shall be the hunter who protects those who cant protect themselves. He thought to himself as the last goblin fell to him. His muzzle slowly raising to the sky as he gazed at the stars above. A soft and sorrowful howl escaped his throat as he thought about how many lives had been lost by simply such a weak beast as the goblins. He knew there was many more groups of them across the realm, but if he saw them before