[rework] Minglings - chapter 6: Goblin rage

Sandra kept her back straight, her head up and cooly looked at the multitude of eyes turning towards her and the other non-goblins. From the corner of her eye, she saw the remaining Goblins in her squad quickly distance themself, lining up with another group without so much as a wave.

She gritted her teeth as she put them out of her mind and cast a glance at the Kobolds behind her. They were all roughly the same size but smaller than her, barely reaching her shoulder. Their scales were also duller, all primarily green or brown. A sudden sense of superiority came to her, something she had never felt before, and it instantly made her feel deeply uncomfortable. She shook her head as if to clear it, suppressing the alien feeling as best she could. Still, it lingered in the back of her mind.

By now, only a few of the Goblins were still staring at her, but most had turned to the Fiends. A growing sense of hostility grew, and she saw a few goblins whisper, insidious looks on their faces.

"Form up and tell me your names. We might be stuck together for a long time, so let's get to know each other," she whispered as she took a small step back.

The Kobolds obeyed, their well-coordinated but somewhat shaky movements showing they had retained their former skills just like the Goblins. Although standing in reasonably neet lines, the wiry green beings had begun getting distracted and were hitting and slapping each other.

They've changed so much, she thought. A silent worry grew in her mind that she, too, had changed more than she ever realized.

It's about time to get out of here, she thought.

She snapped her hand down, motioning her new squad forward, keeping a close look on the Goblins to see how they would react. She moved away from the larger group while instinctively trying to keep her distance from the insidious insect people. Any time she looked at them, she felt revulsion and fear. It was far stronger than what she felt while looking at the goblins. Those just annoyed her, as a juvenile delinquent would annoy her. The insectoids, however, reminded her of Hannibal the Cannibal, and she felt a deep-rooted need to rip them apart.

One of the insectoids turned its multifaced eyes to her, and she immediately looked away, absently realizing the Kobolds had just said something.

Right, names, she thought.

She was about to ask them to repeat themselves when she was stunned to find she actually knew their names even though she hadn't been paying attention. Something must have shown that she was paying attention, as the kobolds inched closer.

"Sarge, why did you decide to disobey orders?" Denson asked. He was marginally larger than the other four.

Sandra felt the wave of superiority grow again, almost forcing her into a rude response. She managed to hold it back and wondered what she should say. I overheard two scientists, and it seemed like a better idea at the time, didn't seem like a good one. Eventually, she sighed and forced out a small chuckle.

"Because I heard that amongst lizards, the females are the strongest! Now pipe down and keep alert," she said, adding a grin to show she wasn't being serious.

The soldier kobold opened his mouth when a thunderous roar came from the dark, gloomy jungle a few hundred feet away.

The kobolds beside her jumped, hands lowering to empty holsters -wait, where did the guns go?- while Sandra's hands spread out, her body instinctively lowering as she felt the urge to pounce.

An enormous bull-like creature stood at the edge of the forest, scraping at the earth with vicious-looking clawed hoofs. Then, as if it sensed eyes on it, it raised its head, glittering black eyes looking around, then it raised its head and let out a rare that would scare a tiger.

I wonder if the indigenous animals changed like us, or if this is something else, Sandra thought.

A weird itch came from below her scales when many roars echoed from deeper inside the jungle. The distant tips of trees started wildly swinging around while the low beating of hooves thrummed the ground like a drum.

Sandra backed up a half step, her eyes narrowing as she began thinking of the best way out just as a group of ten bull monsters burst out of the dense green and purple undergrowth. They slowed as soon as they saw the large group in the distance. For a moment, a silent threat hung in the air, then the first bull roared and began galloping towards the lines of soldiers. The rest followed it with no hesitation.

"Are you joking me?" Sandra whispered.

"Everybody fire at the… Where the fuck are the guns? FUCK," one of the two master sergeants roared. "Spread out and get your knives ready. Aim for their legs to bring them down!"

The second master sergeant began barking similar orders, and the Goblins followed them without a hitch. Faster than the Insectoids, Fiends, or even she and the other Kobolds, the Goblins arranged with combat knives drawn and ready in a spread-out pattern.

Seeing the incredible speed at which the Goblins gave and followed orders, Sandra instantly reevaluated their threat level. Then she signaled the others to get ready, but hold.

The earth was shaking now, stones rolling about as the bull-beasts covered the few hundred feet like a group of tanks. A line of goblins stood before them, the much smaller figures shuffling, looking around anxiously. The bulls lowered their horned heads; thick boney lids slid across their eyes.

The goblins held vast, showing bravery that caused Sandra even more worry. She slowly backed up, not with a plan, but knowing that they couldn't stay here.

The goblins waited till the last moment, then jumped out of the way. However, the bull-beasts were much more nimble than they or Sandra had anticipated. Taloned hooves dug into the ground, and the bulls made unbelievably sharp turns spearing three unsuspecting goblins while the others barely managed to dodge out of the way.

Piercing shrieks, death wails like none that had ever been heard before on earth, caused everything to freeze for a moment as the Goblins screamed while clutching the thick horns that protruded through their bodies.

Sandra shoved the fear away with some effort. The bulls weren't heading their way, but if they continued on, they would pierce through the heart of the goblin lines. She stepped back, bumping into one of the other kobolds that blinked, then looked at her.

"Keep moving," she whispered.

The kobold, brown scaled and with deep green eyes, nodded and pulled the others along.

Sandra kept her head on a swiffle, noting that the other Goblins were watching silently, appearing mesmerized by the sight of their kin bobbing up and down, impaled on vicious horns.

"Rahahahaha" a sudden burst of loud laughter drowned out even the death throes of the goblins and the roars of the bull-beasts.

Sandra looked up, and her eyes widened.

With a knife in each hand, Peltmans ran forward faster than any human sprinter before the change. He reached the side of the horde of bulls, keeping up before jumping forward and ramming his knives into the side of one. His body dangled sideways from the running bull, but Peltmans just climbed up with his daggers.

The bull started bucking, but Sandra saw a mad glint in Peltman's greenish eyes as he continued up until he reached the neck. Then he began chopping into it just below the ear. Purple blood gushed out, splattering across peltmans, and the bull-beast screeched in terror, shaking its head to remove the assailant. Peltmans seemed unruffled, holding on with ease, as an insane and high-pitched laughter filled the air. He continued slashing, and more and more blood spurted out. The bull-beast slowed, staggering away from the others until it stumbled to a stop and dropped to its knees. Peltman's roared as he drew both daggers across the bull's neck, causing a geyser of blood to splurt upward followed. There was a single, unwilling moan. Then it was quiet.

Peltmans, covered in purple blood, moved away and turned. He slowly raised his two daggers at the group of bulls that were still storming through the goblins that had created a wide corridor for them.

"ATTTACCKKK" Peltmans roared before he sprinted forward like a madman.

He didn't seem to notice the brown and green, dimly glowing lights that floated away from the corpse behind him and disappeared inside the ground. But Sandra did.

What the hell are those, she thought as she watched the tiny lights whisk after Peltmans, catching up before disappearing inside him.

A multifaceted roar came from the surrounding goblins, shattering her focus, as she looked around, getting ready for a fight.

As if injected with drugs, the goblins screamed and raged and, without regard for their own life, rushed forward, swarming the bulls. Within moments, ten or more goblins each jumped atop the bulls, trying to copy what Peltmans had done.

The Goblins quickly took down four of the bull-beasts, ignoring their own that were impaled or trampled. Under the insatiable hacking of Goblins, the superior bulk of the bulls seemed useless.

Sandra had slowed as she and her pack looked at the frenzied Goblins.

"Listen up. We are going to back away. Those guys are completely out of their mind, and I have no idea what is wrong with Peltmans, but he is freaking me out," Sandra whispered.

She continued backing up from the battleground. A glance showed her that the Insectoids were standing around a bull-beast corpse. They weren't paying attention to the Goblins anymore but buried their heads inside the body. Their stomachs rapidly swelled up.

"Oh man, what are they doing?" Denson muttered, his brown and yellow lizard-like eyes widened as he looked at the Insectoids.

"Feeding and laying eggs," a soft voice said.

Sandra spun around in a combat stance, looking at the speaker. Standing next to them were three Fiends, huddled together, their eyes glued to the Insectoids.

How the hell did they close in without us noticing? Sandra thought, keeping her gaze fixated on them and watching for any sudden moves. The Fiends didn't look back, shivering as they looked at the Insectoids.

She blinked as she realized that the Goblins had become quieter. A quick look showed they were laughing as they stood atop the bull bodies, slashing parts off.

"How likely is it those crazy fuckers will attack us next?" Sandra snapped.

She unconsciously used her command voice while pointing at the Goblins.

One of the Fiends, a tall spindly female, turned to her.

"I don't know for sure. But an educated guess? Very likely. That big one seems to be an evolved form or a higher-rank Goblin. If you ask me, I'd say he will be in charge after this is all done. I don't think we want to stay and wait until that happens."

"Sarge, we might be too late," one of the green-scaled Kobolds hissed as he pointed to the Goblins.

Peltmants stood in the middle of the goblin group, the sand soaked with purple blood from half a dozen Bulls. Roughly twenty small and unmoving green things lay scattered around them. Goblins were still chopping at one that still moved, seeming in a frenzy. From the sides, the goblins were dragging the other bodies to the center, laughing and screaming.

One had unmistaken holes in the sides as if ravenous bees had eaten their ways inside. The corpse of the Insectoids!

Where are they? Sandra thought as she looked around in a rush, wondering where they had gone.

"Sarge, over there," Blakely hissed as he pointed towards the jungle. A few figures were moving towards it at an insane pace, their arms and legs bending at inhuman angles.

"They are going to hide," the female Fiend said. "And I think we should too."

"Isn't that jungle dangerous?" Sandra said, looking at the looming dark jungle.

Before she could get a response, a loud shouting came from the Goblins.

Sandra looked around, seeing them stare at her and the others with eyes that almost glowed with an unnatural green light. A hiss came from them as some began moving towards them, purple blood still dripping from their knives. Behind them, Peltmans stood, holding the neck of one of the master sergeants in a tight grip as he glared at the much smaller Goblin. The second master sergeant lay in a crumpled heap on the ground.

"I think that jungle looks great right now," the Fiend whispered before turning around and running after the Insectoids.

The goblins screamed in fury as they sprinted forward.

"Follow her!" Sandra shouted as she turned and ran after the Fiend.

"KILL THEM!" an almost familiar voice roared behind them.

Sandra hissed, trying to speed up but quickly finding that running was different. Something about the tactile resistance of her feet on the ground just felt wrong. But she was used to hardship, always had been, and after stumbling a few times, she instinctively used her new tail to keep her balance as she leaned forward more. Immediately running came easier, and within moments she outpaced the Kobolds and Fiends, only occasionally losing her balance.

As she felt her claws dig inside the soil, she felt a thrill unlike any she had before. If this was what sprinters felt, she finally knew why they kept running. The sound of the others was falling behind, and she took a look over her shoulder, stumbling in the process.

The Kobolds and Fiends were a few dozen feet behind her, and the Goblins were gaining on them.

"Move it, soldiers, unless you want to become Goblin chow!" she shouted.

The Kobolds looked up at her, then across their shoulders. As they looked back ahead, Sandra saw fear in their faces.

"User your tails," she shouted.

The others looked at her, then her tail, and did as she said. Their speed almost instantly doubled, and they began outpacing the Fiends.

We got more than just new bodies, Sandra thought as she looked ahead at the jungle closing in fast. We also gained the skills to use them!

A many-throated roar from behind made it evident that their increased efforts had not gone unnoticed.

Sandra ground her teeth, trying to eke out more speed as her heartbeat increased until it felt like it would explode. Wait. Was her heart on the right side now?

She probably should have been worried about that, but she didn't feel any worry. Instead, she focused on the jungle. She had seen many woodlands, forests, and jungles, but she had never seen trees and plants like this. The dark green trunks were gnarled and bent almost horizontally in some places, while most leaves were dark green with purple highlights. Brightly colored pink and orange bushes grew across the ground, and the horizontal trunks, creating an odd amalgamation of alien-colored undergrowth.

In between the undergrowth, she saw a few bushes with narrow, pointy leaves with oddly gleaming edges, almost like metal. She tried to focus on them as she closed in, and her vision seemed to zoom in, giving her great detail even from this distance. Before she could worry, she realized that the pointy yellow leaves were actually made up of dozens of tiny ones around a center. The outside looked like dull golden blades attached to a silvery center leaf.

Getting an ominous feeling from the edges of the leaves, she made a mental note to stay far from those.

Her focus shifted back to normal when she stopped looking at the leaves just as she reached the jungle's edge. Bushes sat haphazardly, and she dodged around them as she ran towards the trees. They were gigantic, much larger than she had initially thought, and some of the leaves were so big she could probably stand on them. She also saw many of the dagger-edged, yellow-leafed bushes around them. What she didn't see were the Insectoid.

Fuck, where did those monsters go? she thought as she looked around, then back.

The Kobold soldiers were close, and the Fiends, although further back, had somehow managed to keep out of the Goblin's clutches. Behind them, the Goblins were slowing down, stopping at the jungle's edge. She saw them stare at the bushes, not moving closer.

What now? she thought as she turned back ahead so she wouldn't slam against a tree or run into the dagger bushes. She dodged between the widely spaced trees, the undergrowth getting denser in front of her.

"As soon as we enter the jungle, follow me. We will hide and see what those bastards do. We aren't going in any deeper than necessary," she said, hoping her voice wouldn't carry.

She got no response, and worried, she looked back, focusing on the Kobolds. They were far more out of breath than she was, panting and struggling to keep up. She slowed to a jog, looking at the edge of the jungle.

Seventy Goblins stood there, leering at her and the others while the two master sergeants tried unsuccessfully to regain some semblance of order. Peltmans was standing in front, almost inside the jungle, glaring at her. Seeing her look back, he pointed at her.

"You got no place to run to Saarrrggggeeee. Times have changed, and I am the boss now! If you come outside, I promise we won't kill you too much!"

"Too much?" one of the soldiers muttered in between breaths. "How the fucking hell would that even work?"

"Let's get out their sighs," Sandra hissed as she turned and moved deeper into the forest.