Ruthless: Path of Conquest

As the shapes of the approaching enemies became clear, James raised an eyebrow. The image that presented itself before his eyes only created further questions.

Four Mole People moved forward—and seated on their backs, hunched figures sat, dressed in ragged clothing. The figures were somewhere between the size of a grown adult human and an adolescent. Like overgrown children. Their yellow-green skin sprouted unruly tufts of gray hair all over. Each of the humanoid creatures clutched a rusty-looking pike in its misshapen hands. On their heads, they wore peculiar goggles with crystalline lenses.

Identify.

Goblin Knight, Lv. 17 (Male)

Goblin Knight, Lv. 15 (Male)

Goblin Knight, Lv. 18 (Female)

Goblin Captain, Lv. 19 (Male)

Mole Man, Lv. 13

Mole Woman, Lv. 14

Mole Man, Lv. 17

Mole Woman, Lv. 16

What the fuck is going on? Dean hadn’t mentioned anything about Goblins. Had he not known? If so, where did they come from? When did they appear?

No. Figure it out later.

“I come in peace!” James proclaimed loudly. “Take me to your leader.”

“Oh, take you to our leader, we will!” cackled the first Goblin Knight in a voice that fell somewhere between a frog croaking and trying to sing. “You can come in pieces!”

“Kill him, for the King!” agreed the Goblin Captain. “He looks weak!”

At that taunt, all four of the vile creatures dug their heels into their mounts—James noticed at that moment that the Goblin Knights wore makeshift shoes with spurs—and the Mole People charged.

This feels cruel, he thought as he easily dodged the tips of their weapons. I expected to find a monstrous Mole King or Queen somewhere, but it looks like the Goblins have enslaved the Mole People or something.

He punched the first Goblin Knight who had spoken the taunt with such force that his head turned to paste in one strike.

Oops. I need to take at least one of these things alive. The body began disintegrating before his eyes. The Mole Man that had been under the Goblin Knight tried to claw James, so he kicked it on the side of the head. The creature slumped to the ground, instantly unconscious.

Better, James thought. I used more control that time. I don’t want to kill all of them until I know what’s going on. Especially not the Mole People. They might not be in control of their own actions.

He barely dodged another pike thrust, and grabbed the next pike that followed after it. The Goblin Knights had wheeled around on their mounts for another charge, but their weapons were too unwieldy for the tight tunnels. It was easy enough for James to yank a pike out of one of their hands, and he used the butt of it for a sideways swing that knocked two of them off of their Mole People. The third mounted figure, the Goblin Captain, managed to lean back on his mount and avoid the blow.

The two Goblin Knights that had been forced to dismount drew daggers from their sides and rushed at James alongside their mounts.

Forcing them off of the Mole People might actually have made both the Goblins and the Mole People more dangerous, James thought as the Goblin Captain tried once more, again unsuccessfully, to impale James with his pike. Those weapons clearly weren’t made for this environment. They’re way too damn long for these tunnels! So where did the Goblins come from if not here?

James grabbed the closest Goblin Knight to him, the female, and tossed her head first down the long slide of the tunnel. A sound of distant screaming echoed for several seconds as she fell a long distance. Then he kicked her mount under the chin for another knockout blow.

The next Goblin Knight and his Mole Man mount both slashed ineffectually at James’s armor. He saw that the dagger the Goblin Knight used and the Mole Man’s claws both left scratches, but did little actual damage to the Royal Exoarmor.

“This is a real bad matchup for you guys,” James said, looking down at the scratches. “I just wanted information and to talk to whoever’s in charge. Do you really want to die over that?”

“You will be doing the dying!” the Goblin Knight insisted as he inflicted a particularly deep scratch on the surface of James’s armor.

I tried. Stubborn bastards.

James gave the creature an open-handed slap to the face, and he flopped to the ground, unconscious. The Mole Man tried another slash, aimed at the chest of his armor, and James punched him in the chest. The monster instantly collapsed, clutching his chest.

James dodged another pike thrust from the Goblin Captain, still on his Mole Woman mount, and delivered a quick and decisive chop to the back of the injured Mole Man’s head. He went down.

Then there was just James and the last remaining Goblin and Mole Person pair, squaring off.

“I want answers,” James said. It was obvious that the Goblin Captain and Mole Woman were not a threat. He wanted to give them one more chance to behave rationally, so he wouldn’t have to beat the answers out of the next goblins he encountered.

“Find them in the afterl—” The Goblin Captain’s face went slack in mid-taunt. His head dipped down as if he was falling asleep. Then it sprang back up.

What the hell happened to him?

The Goblin Captain’s eyes were hidden behind those strange, crystalline goggles, but his face had a strange cast to it now.

“What was it you wanted to know?” asked a voice that seemed much deeper than the Goblin Captain’s to James.

“Who—how—” James stopped and took a deep breath. “Why are there Goblin Knights mounted on Mole People here? Who put them together? For what purpose? Who’s in charge?”

“Such silly questions, human,” the unnatural voice said. “The Goblin King is in control down here. He defeated the King of the Moles and subjugated the rest of them to his will. Naturally, he needed creatures for his Goblin Knights to ride.”

James heard rather than saw sudden movement close to him. He spun and lashed out with his foot before he could even see what the movement was. He struck a solid, living thing, and it slammed into the tunnel wall. He looked to see what it was he’d hit, and he saw the Goblin Captain. His kick had caved in the creature’s right set of ribs, and a trickle of blood oozed from his mouth.

What the hell? James turned his head to look at where the Goblin Captain had been before, but the image he had been looking at had vanished. How?

It looks as if he caught us in a sort of illusion, master, Roscuro commented. It seems these Goblins are tricky creatures.

“I’m familiar with this style of fighting,” James said. It was how he had decided to approach fights when he thought he might be outmatched. How he’d beaten the Soul Eater. Illusions and trickery were powerful weapons.

I thought these Goblin Knights seemed weak for their levels. But if their usual fighting method is to rely on trickery and illusions, I need to be very careful. I can’t afford to just keep taking on squads like this one. He’ll try to slowly bleed me and wear me down. I’ll eventually be surrounded by a whole army, if this Goblin King has any sense. Which he probably did.

It’s time to fight dirty.

James grabbed the Goblin Captain’s goggles and ripped them roughly off his face.

He leaned in close to make the most direct eye contact he could in the darkness. Compulsion!

“Take me directly to the Goblin King,” he hissed. “Use the safest possible route. I don’t want to pass by any Goblins that I don’t need to.”

We’re not going to play it the way this Ruler wants to.

He released the Goblin Captain from under his foot. James knew he would win the battle of Wills, so he let the creature’s body slump to the ground.

But as he looked at the Goblin Captain, expecting the inner conflict to begin at any moment—or perhaps for the creature to simply fold to his Will in an instant like a house of cards facing a stiff breeze—the creature’s eyes rolled back in his head. He began foaming at the mouth and then lay still.

James received a notification.

[You killed Goblin Captain Lv. 19! You gained 800 exp!]

Huh?

“Are you serious?” James said.

What happened? Roscuro asked.

“I tried to mind control this creature, and he died.”

“I guess his mind wasn’t very strong?” Hester said.

“That’s not a result I’ve ever experienced before, though, Hester.”

It seemed as if his mind was already being controlled, Roscuro suggested. By that Goblin King.

Yes, and? James replied. Does that make it dangerous for me to use Compulsion?

For weaker minded creatures, I believe it can cause brain damage. Sometimes fatal damage.

“I can’t believe I killed this thing just by trying to use it to find the Goblin King,” James said.

I think there are more coming if you would like to try again, the Soul Eater observed.

James could hear them as well. A slow crunching movement of clawed feet climbing uphill from further down in the tunnel. They were further away than the first crew of Goblin Knights and Mole People had been when James sensed them; he was paying more attention now. But they would undoubtedly be here in a minute or two if he wanted to fight them.

No, I’m not going to waste my time beating up any more of these stupid Goblins if I don’t have to, he replied.

“What are you going to do now, sir?” Hester asked.

My question exactly, Roscuro sent.

“I’m going to bypass the shrimp and go straight to the leader.”

James began Silent Spellcasting, gathering Non-Elemental Mana around his body. As he worked, he could hear the Goblin Knights and their mounts moving toward him, up the tunnel. That didn’t add much pressure, since he was confident he could kill them all without breaking a sweat. But he was trying to avoid casualties here as much as he could.

Since I’m leaving this place behind as quickly as I can… He used Mass Pillage on the Goblins he had actually killed, harvesting them for Stats as well as a few odd items: their Goblin Meat, Weak Goblin Daggers, Crude Crystalline Goggles, and Rust-Coated Pikes.

It was interesting that the Goblins did not drop any useful items made from their bodies. It seemed that they really had no natural weapons at their disposal, unlike other monster species. Their hands had long, almost claw-like nails, but those weren’t fit to be used as weapons.

James tried on the Crude Crystalline Goggles and almost blinded himself—it turned out that they were devices that, through a combination of magic and optics, sharpened vision and made dark areas significantly brighter. With James’s Hand of Glory still active, it was almost as if he’d stared directly into the sun for a moment until he removed them.

These things are like primitive little engineers, aren’t they? This increased his desire to avoid killing more of the creatures than he needed to in order to resolve this situation.

“In terms of the way they fight and survive, they might be more like humans than any other monster species I’ve ever encountered,” James murmured.

“How so?” Hester asked.

“Instead of fighting with teeth and claws and magical energy attacks, they mostly use cobbled together items that they probably invented. They have some magic, but they’re basically relying on their wits. It’s a very human quality.”

“Well, Lord Anansi did always say that was the greatest strength humans have,” Hester replied. “Also their most dangerous trait. They never stop tinkering. Never stop inventing. Even if they’re tinkering with the things that keep them alive.”

James wondered if that was meant to be passed on as some sort of a warning from Anansi. Perhaps a little oblique, but that was Anansi. He liked to be indirect much of the time, even when it inconvenienced his Chosen One. Like when he declined to describe the nature of the threat in Mina’s Orientation. Or when he tested James’s willingness to run from a challenge rather than fight it directly, by making him think Anansi’s sons might eat him.

Anansi had indicated that the System required this circuitous approach to certain kinds of divine information and aid, but James wouldn’t be surprised if the Spider God also preferred for things to be this way. He was also a Trickster God, after all.

Those were probably fun moments for him. Definitely the bit with his sons. He would probably think that was good, clean f—

Are you almost done casting? Roscuro asked urgently. They are almost upon us!

“I know it,” James said, responding to both Hester and Roscuro. “Hold onto your seat, Hester!”

The Non-Elemental Mana took the form of a ball shape wrapping around James’s body.

“Are we about to hit some—”

James leaped down into the darkness.

“Woooo!” Hester screamed in her tinny voice. It wasn’t a bad scream, James imagined. More of a roller coaster ride scream.

As the invisible Mana ball containing James and Hester struck a surface within the tunnel, it bounced but continued spiraling downward. The tube-like structure only became steeper as you moved further down, it seemed. James imagined he would probably want to use a Skin Balloon to float back out of this place, or it would be a long and steep climb.

But that was a problem for later. For now, he used Full Body Control to keep his organs from being too jumbled by the uncontrolled descent. Otherwise, he was certain the insane turbulence would have made him vomit.

As they dropped further down, James’s ball struck and bounced off of several lumps in the surface of the tunnel. He recognized by the sounds of pain and alarm that these were more Goblin Knights, and that the sudden impacts knocked some of them out. He didn’t try to slow down. The goal right now was as few casualties as possible, until he at least got in front of the leader.

After all, these creatures might be mine sometime soon. The Goblin King had probably thought something similar at some point, James was dimly aware. But James was different. He had never exploited the creatures he controlled in such a degrading way. Turning them into mere mounts for his minions.

The Non-Elemental Mana ball kept going despite all obstacles until it finally came to the end of the tunnel. James burst out into a vast underground cave. An open area the size of a football stadium.

And what looked to be a thousand Goblin heads or more turned to face in his direction.