Band of Troubles

Chapter 24: Grand Finale

"Kheok! W-What..." The goblin leader immediately coughed up blood after receiving my surprise attack. With it, the cloudiness within its eyes finally disappeared.

"Hey, buddy. Did you have a good dream?" I asked cheerfully.

The goblin leader's eyes immediately turned red in anger. Memories began flooding into his head after the spell had been broken by my attack. "Y-You bastard! What did you... Cough!" It tried to obtain some answers, only to be rewarded by a mouthful of blood.

"Tsk, why are you in such a hurry to die? What kind of idiot would try to talk with a hole in their chest? Ah, let me take that off of you. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself by doing something stupid," I grumbled while wrestling away the goblin leader's sword from its hand. It tried to resist as best as it could, but the deep injury prevented it from putting up any real resistance.

Clang!

I threw the sword aside, away from its reach. The ringing sound of the sword returned the goblin tamer to its senses as it began to cower.

"Z-Zeke! What are you doing?! W-W-What's going on? Stop that!" The goblin tamer blurted out in confusion.

Woof!

The remaining wolf charged toward me, determining that I was an enemy to them. However, it was already too late.

Ffft!

An arrow immediately embedded itself into the wolf's head, its death halted its charge immediately. The goblin tamer stood in horror at what had happened. Its mind couldn't fully comprehend what was going on, but it could tell that something had gone terribly wrong.

"Ahh... AAAAAAHH!! NOOOOO!!!" The goblin tamer screamed before fleeing in fear. Its entire body ran unsteadily, only wishing to get out of this place as soon as possible.

"I'll leave the clean-up to you, Leoric. Have fun." I stated my decision.

Whoosh! Thud!

The sound of an arrow and a body falling to the ground answered my statement. With all the supporting actors out of the way, I could finally focus on the important matters.

"Shit... Crazy bastard..." The goblin leader cursed weakly.

"You're hurting my feelings, man. Aren't we supposed to be good friends? Come on, we even shook hands and everything!" I patted its back gleefully to show how close we were before.

"Fuck off...!" The goblin leader continued to curse at me with labored breaths. It attempted to wrestle itself free from my grasp but found itself unable to do so. The injury it sustained from the bugbear had brought it one step away from death's door, and my surprise attack was the last push it needed.

Finding it impossible to get away, the goblin leader tried to obtain some answers instead. "You... What was that spell..."

I replied, "Oh, so you remembered that part. With that spell, I can make it feel like we've been friends for a loooooong time. As your trusted friend, wouldn't you naturally trust my suggestions?"

"Who the fuck is your friend...!"

I continued, "Well, you should've believed my words without it, though. After all, didn't you get what you wanted with my help? You even became their leader for a bit! The freedom you felt earlier must've felt really nice. You even thanked me nicely before. What did you say again? 'When I think about it, you basically saved us-"

"Shut... up! That's because... you tricked me!" The goblin leader muttered those words with a thick hatred in its voice.

"So what?" I responded to it nonchalantly.