BlaiseCorvin
patreon
Reincarnator RB Dragons, ch 15
🕑 Added 2024-05-15 11:33:01 +0000 UTCKevin's skin began to crawl. It wasn’t through fear, either. He was familiar with this sensation. Something evil, supernatural, and powerful was afoot.
He was saddened, and anxious now that his premonition had something to it. There was also a bit of frustration mixed in there.
Kevin had spent a great deal of time studying this world and discussing the various races with the dragons he’d met. This included stereotypes. He was a goblin in this life. Unfortunately, goblins and orks were among the civilizations that seemed to have the worst reputations, and it didn't make him feel good that, in this case, a stereotype might be correct.
Although he was in chipmunk form, it was still slow going through the tunnel. At least it probably continued all the way down into whatever the orks were doing. He had some time to think as he made his way closer.
If he hadn't found a way to enter the mines from a different direction like he had, would he have gambled on entering the main entrance of the mine? With only himself to talk to in the dark, he had to admit that yes, he probably would have investigated. He hadn't always trusted his gut in his past life all the time, so he wondered what had changed. It was an interesting question to ask himself. Maybe it had something to do with being taught by his parents or receiving their counsel.
In this life, it felt like he’d grown closer to nature, or at least closer to something larger than himself. It wasn't really religion; most dragons were not religious. If anything, it felt like maybe now, the part of him that mattered—his core, his thoughts, even maybe his soul—was a bit stronger, a bit more refined than it had been in the past. The downside of this was that the creepy feeling the deeper he got in the cave was actually hitting him harder than he suspected it might have in a previous life. There's always a price to pay for anything decent, he thought.
The tunnel began to open up again but also curve to one side as he descended. Finally, it was about large enough for a dog to crawl through, but still too small for a human. His tunnel remained this diameter as he followed one last twist and suddenly found himself facing a relatively large cave that was being lit by magic gems. Judging by the tents and other living and cooking paraphernalia to one side, this was the base camp for the orks. He stayed back in the shadows, watching the area to better understand what the orks were doing and where they were.
After deciding to be more cautious and to hunt monsters smarter, that decision had translated to everything else he did, too. If he had to be exploring some weird, evil cave full of digging orks, the least he could do was get the lay of the land before rushing out.
His surveillance paid off when he realized that the cavern he was watching was actually a dead end. To the right, he could hear and eventually see the orks moving back and forth when he poked his head out. It looked like the main tunnel actually curved right after abutting the entrance to this cavern where the orks were living. Carefully, Kevin hopped out of his hiding hole and scampered across the cavern to a better vantage point. There was a discarded old pair of pants against the wall that was unfortunately a bit too close to the sheltered place he watched from.
There was no way in hell he was going to move it away with his mouth, and doing something unnecessary like that might result in the orks spotting him. It felt like the smell was sinking into his fur. At least it would disappear after he polymorphed back into his original form.
He didn't have to wait long to see another ork traversing the main tunnel. The worker was bringing an empty cart back with him, being followed by another ork. Neither of them spoke. After they passed by Kevin's view, he moved out into the hallway to follow them. Luckily, although the magic lights down the tunnel cast fairly decent illumination, the rocky nature of the tunnel walls also created plenty of dark shadows underneath. Kevin took advantage of those to hide inside every time he advanced.
Kevin highly doubted that the orks were keeping an eye out for scampering little animals, and he knew that their night vision wasn't as good as his own currently was, but they could still see in the dark better than a human. There was no sense in taking chances by brazenly walking down the hallway.
He continued moving in this manner until he watched the orks go past a side hallway, a split in the tunnel. They moved forward without hesitation, but as Kevin got closer, he heard sounds—noises that literally made his hackles rise. He eyed where the two orks had gone but decided to investigate what was behind the wooden door set in the short side hallway.
The door was thick and very solid but also somewhat crudely made. It didn't actually reach the bottom of the tunnel and gave plenty of clearance for Kevin to scoot underneath.
What lay beyond was, unfortunately, what he'd expected. It was a crude but effective dungeon, and based on what he could tell, this blood-soaked room chamber of despair and darkness had been here a very long time. One mystery had possibly been solved: maybe the orks had moved into the mining network, or series of tunnels because they knew of the dungeon. The idea was reinforced by what Kevin was currently seeing.
There were several cages with bodies in them, some living, some dead. The cells on the left side of the room had been turned into some sort of ritualistic murder or feeding site. His enhanced night vision allowed him to clearly see the bite marks on the bodies. Living prisoners were in the cages on the right.
At the end of the hallway was another doorway, and somewhat brighter light that the couple muted magic candles in the main room was shining underneath. The sounds that Kevin had heard before were coming from there. He got deeper into the room to take a better look and was shocked to realize there were two large cells on the right, one with goblins and one with a couple of humans. However, the more distant humans, as he narrowed his eyes to peer through the gloom, seemed like they weren't very long for this world. One of them was badly wounded and the other didn't seem to be conscious. When he took another look, he realized they were both wounded.
Kevin didn't spend much time trying to understand the extent of the wounded woman’s injuries when he realized what must have been done to her. The last human was on the opposite side of the cell from the bleeding woman, and he truly didn't seem like he was long for this world either. One eye was missing, and he'd been abused at some point, maybe even ritually tortured.
Most of the goblins looked pale and healthy, other than being malnourished. However, the mutilated bodies in the cells on the left-hand side of the dungeon were actually all goblins, now that Kevin was looking in that direction again. In fact, one of them was still barely alive, chained to the ground by his remaining two limbs, with signs of being eaten all over the other side of his body. The goblin's breath was shallow, and his eyes were open but didn't seem to be seeing much. In other places among the bodies, there were bowls placed to catch whatever blood might still leak out of the mangled corpses.
Kevin usually had a strong stomach, and while he was polymorphed, it was even stronger. But despite all the horrible things he'd seen in his previous lives, he still felt his gorge rising. He jerked his eyes away from the grisly scene and only realized his mistake after he had done so.
He’d moved too quickly.
Like predators in the wild, most people of any species could easily spot movement. He had caught the notice of one of the surviving goblins. The goblin poked a sleeper in the side and began whispering something. From his eyes and his ravenous expression, it wasn't hard to figure out what the captives might have in mind. Who knows how long they've gone without food, Kevin thought. Meanwhile, as they were starving, they had to watch the orks eat their fellows alive, or worse.
The first goblin succeeded in waking up the second goblin, who also spotted Kevin. Then the two of them both began whispering. Another goblins that was awake didn't seem to know what was going on but tried to get closer to hear the two that were whispering. She asked the original goblin a question. None of this was very loud, but apparently, it was enough to cause trouble.
Suddenly a shadow darkened the space under the doorway at the end of the hall, and the crude wooden door opened. An ork dressed very differently than the miners strode forward, his leather armor creaking. There was a sword at his side and a whip on the other side of his belt. The whip was short and seemed to be specifically designed to inflict maximum damage through the bars of the cells.
Kevin narrowed his eyes. All the surviving goblins immediately stopped whispering and backed away as far as they could from the front of their cages. The ork didn't say anything until he stood closer, hands planted on his hips. He actually seemed to be pretty small for an ork. By Kevin's reckoning, the average ork was over six feet tall. This one was maybe five and a half feet tall. But he was still corded with muscle and as mean as yearly taxes.
The ork had a large prominent scar down one cheek, and his hair was done up in a ponytail. Even from where Kevin was hiding, he could smell the ork's breath as he barked, "I thought I told you to be silent! There's nowhere to go. There's nothing to do. Just live out your last few miserable hours or days in peace. Or kill yourselves! I don't care. If you die, we'll use your bodies just as well. You'll just be used faster."
Kevin had heard just about everything he needed to hear. He scooched around, staying low to the rocky cave floor and moving completely silently. Two of the goblins noticed him and actually tore their gazes from the ork jailkeeper to watch his progress. It took a while for the ork to notice, but by the time he had, it was too late. Kevin was already behind him, and with a leap, he easily jumped on the ork's shoulder.
He bit the ork’s neck using [Lion Iguana Neurotoxin Venom].
Before the ork even had time to scream, Kevin polymorphed into his goblin form. His longsword was in his hand so fast, it was like it’d teleported there. Fighting with swords in the tunnels might be a problem, but the dungeon had enough room.
He immediately cast [weapon strengthening,] [weapon sharpening], and [weapon swiftness]. The cleric buffs rolled through his body and manifested into the world like old friends.
Then using every bit of his honed muscles, Kevin slashed in one smooth motion. Under the immediate effect of the venom, the ork could barely turn around in time to silently gape in horror before his head fell to the ground and bounced. The jailer's body remained upright for a second more before collapsing.
None of the goblins that had spotted him in the darkness said anything at first. They seemed to be in shock. Maybe they were wondering if what they’d just seen was real. Finally, the oldest cleared his throat. He looked like he was about thirty years old, so middle-aged for a goblin. "Hey stranger, I don't know what you saw or heard earlier, when you were still a tree rat, but I just want to tell you, if you thought that I was thinking about eating you a minute ago, that was a joke, okay?"
Kevin flicked blood off of his sword before sheathing it somewhat awkwardly behind his back. His custom sheath made it easy for him to draw his sword, but putting it back sometimes could be a little tricky. He responded, "How about before we start talking about what you may or may not have been whispering about, I let you all free, and you tell me what the hell is going on here?"
The same goblin replied, "Oh, yeah. I like that idea. Let's do that." The other goblins nodded. By now, they were all awake. The humans in the other cell still seemed dead to the world.
Kevin shook his head and was about to do the unenviable task of rifling through the jailkeeper's pockets and clothing before he realized something else was still higher priority. With a heavy heart, he went to finish off the tortured goblin that was still somehow alive in the cells to the left, and probably do the same in the room the jailer had come from.
Comments
Blaise Corvin
Oops! Too much "ork" typing!
Robert Rosenthal
He is a goblin not an ork small change. Goblins rescued by dashing prince kevin 😎. I wonder if delay will allow the dragon to catch up and join the party
Tetsu-nii
Ooh. The plot is thickening nicely! I wonder how the evil-worshipping orks factor into the unrest that the dark elves came to Kevin's parents about. 🤔
