The slaughter echoed through the tunnels like a never-ending thunder. Screams bounced off stone walls, cut short by the wet thud of axes and the gurgle of spilling blood. Bodies piled in the galleries—green limbs tangled, eyes staring blank at the ceiling. The orcs pushed deeper, laughing as they swung, goblins falling like wheat before a scythe. At this rate, Drekk thought, his back pressed to a cold wall, the mine would be empty in an hour. Every last goblin dead or taken. The fall was coming, inevitable as night.

Vrognut crouched beside him, nose twitching in the dark. His sharp eyes gleamed with something wild, not fear. "Feel that?" Vrognut whispered, voice a low rasp.

Drekk nodded. The air carried it: a heavy orc scent, thick with bloodlust and sweat. Kraghul. The chieftain's son had slipped into the mines. But he wasn't alone. Another smell mixed in—female orc, pregnant, soaked in blood.

It was Naz. How could he forget the scent of the orc who interfered with his fun time.

Drekk's claws dug into the stone because this was a wide scale assault that touched every part of the mine but he knew Vrognut could care less if this mine stood or fell.

"He's with her. Why?" Drekk decided to ask the important questions. Vrognut's lips pulled back from his teeth.

"To kill the whelp. Can't you smell his intent? He sees it as filth—half-goblin spawn," Vrognut knew this was common practice so he wasn't shocked by Kraghul's act.

Drekk's face remained unchanged. Children were sacred to goblins, blank slates waiting for the right hand to mold them into perfection. Guidance, training, shaping—that was how every goblin in existence was created. To kill one unborn? That was something they had to stop. Vrognut rose, shadows clinging to his scarred frame.

"Watch the entrance. Keep them off my back," Vrognut instructed Drekk.

Drekk grabbed his arm but not out of concern.

"You're going after him? Alone? That's suicide," Drekk spoke some common sense into his brother.

Vrognut shook him off with ease, he had his own ulterior motives for doing this and it wasn't to be a hero.

"If that child lives, I take it. Raise it my way. Shape it into something unbreakable. It will belong to me the moment it is born," Vrognut knew there was a chance he could create something impressive.

If it didn't reach his expectations, he could always just eat it.

Drekk stared. This wasn't mercy. This was greed—Vrognut's twisted hunger for control. But he nodded because in truth, he didn't care about that as there might lose everything by morning.

"Go. I'll hold," Drekk aceepted to be the lookout.

Vrognut vanished the next second, taking to his heel to intercept Kraghul, ignoring the orcs subduing the other goblins

They popped out of the side of the mine and out into the open, Kraghul carried Naz on his shoulder, her feet dangling in the air.

The pregnant orc gasped with each step, one hand clutched over her belly. The knife in his hand kept her quiet as she knew he could take her life at any given moment.

He had left the main fight to his warriors; this was personal. The child inside her was an abomination—orc blood tainted with goblin inferior DNA. It had to die slow, where he could watch the light leave her eyes as he carved it out.

But as he rounded a bend, a shape detached from the shadows. It was Vrognut. Kraghul's sense of smell had been overwhelmed by this place as the stench of blood was all he could smell at the moment not to mention, Vrognut was skilled in hiding his scent.

The goblin stood right in front of him, a sword in hand gotten from one of the orcs he must have killed, grin wide and feral.

"Let her go, big one. The whelp's mine," Vrognut was quick to assume ownership of the child.

Kraghul paused, axe shifting in his grip, tilting his head to the side in amusement.

"You? A cannibal runt wants to play father?" Kraghul questioned, dropping Naz to the ground without any worry for her child

Vrognut's eyes gleamed. "Children are clay. I shape them my way. Strong. Hungry. Like me. No orc filth touches it," Vrognut responded without missing a beat.

Naz's eyes widened at the goblin's words—Vrognut's "care" was worse than death because she knew what kind of fate awaited her child. There was no way she was going to allow it become like that monster over there.

"Bold words. Come take her," Kraghul laughed. He couldn't believe the audacity.

Vrognut made the first move, darting low like a striking snake. His knife flashed for Kraghul's knee. The orc stamped down, boot crushing the stone where the goblin had been a heartbeat ago.

Vrognut twisted mid-lunge, slashing at the thigh—cloth tore, blood welled, but shallow. Kraghul swung his axe in a backhand arc; Vrognut rolled under it, coming up behind and stabbing for the kidney. The blade skittered off the flat surface of Kraghul's axe.

Kraghul elbowed backward with his other hand, catching Vrognut in the chest. Air whooshed out; the goblin was sent flying a couple of meters away but manage to land a slash, nicking the arm.

He skidded to a stop by planting the knife into the ground with a satisfied grin.

They circled, Vrognut fast and vicious, knife weaving like a living thing. He feinted left, struck right—another shallow cut on the calf. Kraghul roared, charging. Vrognut dodged, but the orc's free hand clipped him, sending him spinning into the wall. Stone cracked. Vrognut bounced off, blood trickling from his mouth, but his grin never faded.

Naz watched, trying to find a loophole she could exploit. This was her chance—slip away while they fought. But her belly slowed her, and the injuries from earlier cuts burned.

Vrognut lunged again. Kraghul caught his wrist mid-stab, twisting hard. Bone snapped. The knife clattered free. Vrognut headbutted him, forehead smashing into tusks. Kraghul didn't move an inch before flinging him high into the air.

He calmly picked up the knife that had fallen from his hand and aimed it at the still ascending goblin.

He proceeded to close one eye to aim before launching it the moment he began to descend.

"Shit, I was meant to take you in alive,"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.