Chapter 24: 23- The Lost Prince (1)

It's Oscars' third time running from a monster with his metaphorical tail tucked between legs, The first was a stoney-snake, then the mutant Rat King, and now its two dozen kobolds. But the difference between then and now is that it's a 'tactical retreat'. 

Right now, he isn't afraid of confronting those alligators having a tail for reddish. While also checking if they have a magic core or not, since they didn't use any against those adventurers, or at least not in front of him. 

But the problem is, he's but one while his enemies were many…too many. Even his bigger-cousin almost got cornered before, and his smaller-cousins would be wiped clean if he hadn't caused that disruption in his dashing (accidental) entrance, not that it would hinder his plan of befriending his bigger-cousin but still.

Rushing through the caverns with more than 20 goblins and two dozen kobolds in tow, Oscar desperately thinks of a way to outrun their pursuers. 

'Which way should we go…eh?!' 

Only to hit with the obvious realization of, he's not the guide but that hob-goblin was. 

'That fucker!' He cursed, for slacking on his only job. Moving closer to that big-brute with a greatsword, he thought he should kindly remind him of his job. In case he forgets.

"Which… way?" Gathering his breath, he shouted. Only to receive a frown and a stare; one would give a foreigner, and a look of wariness toward strangers but with a bit of appreciation for trying to help them. 

'Urghh! Of course! He wouldn't understand my language, nor will he trust me that easily. He isn't a mindless goblin right' 

Frustrated. The tag-along goblin then pointed to each and every cavern they could see in sight, followed by a hand gesture of asking where? Hoping for that dunce to understand.

Unsurprisingly, the big-goblin understood what he was asking. After all, sign language is multi-versal and multi-species. To prove that point, the hob-goblin immediately replied. 

"Home… safe"  Pointing down at the ground, said the unfriendly-cousin with a gruff voice-...'wait! He spoke?' 

Taking a double take at him, Oscar astoundingly thought he had heard someones' voice straight in his head; like a buzzing noise that magically turned to words, he could understand, but couldn't put the claw on which language was that. As for the culprit, he had little doubt it was this failure of a baby-sitter. 

After all, as a pro-baby-sitter he must have gained a skill or two to understand and communicate with the babies/goblins. Which wasn't that far from the truth, a Hob-goblin couldn't be a natural leader of goblins if it couldn't understand and give orders to them.

Hence, every Hob-goblin came equipped with [Ancestors-psyche], skill that creates a thought-chain between higher order of goblins to lower -without mana- putting a leash on lesser order of goblins with lower INT stat than them, making them submit with a look. Which, understandably, the big-goblin also applied to Oscar. But his otherworldly matured mind with high specs, unknowingly shrugged off such attempts and didn't even register it; therefore making his presence more questionable than it already is. But still, if the skill got activated, it meant that the green skinned runt was still a lesser goblin… which is all the Hob-Goblin needed to know, for now. 

Oblivious of the big-brutes suspicion and the countless attempts to invade his mind, Oscar asked again with his mouth. As any normal goblin would, he clearly didn't know how to speak with his mind, yet.

"Home…where?" Came his own eldritch words, capable of casting debuffs on hearings. 

"Down…Gate-!" Their two-word, mind to mouth, communication was cut short by a whizzing arrow, bolting past between them and striking the skull of a little goblin, running in front- taking its life in one hit.

Kicking the dead goblin out of the way, Oscar saw the impatient kobolds have started knocking their freshly-recycled-bows at them. After underestimating the burst of power little goblins could muster when their life is on the line, they have decided to end this chase fast, lest they get too far away from their territory.

*fiizzz!*

"Ack!" Ducking down with a roll. Oscar avoids another arrow to his head, before picking himself back near that two-word goblin, which wasn't that difficult as he hadn't applied the [Elusive-DashLv6] even once.

"Lead the way!" He shouted, hoping that Hob-goblin would understand just like the previous time and wouldn't try to play illiterate like the first-time, making him look like a fool.

Turning to him, the Hob-Goblin, scrutinized him for a moment. Contemplating on whether to take this unknown mysterious goblin, whose mind he can't invade, to its home or not…But considering that supreme elder, he had little doubt this lesser goblin would do anything funny, mysterious or not, so he decided to give it a go. Furthermore, he and his tribe had taken the risk of sending him, even in this perilous time of dungeon overflow was mainly because they're in search of someone his tribe may have missed before, someone they have been waiting mindlessly for countless years in this dungeon, in the hope for the said prophecy to come true…this time, for sure. And taking a slightly stronger goblin would do more good than coming back empty handed with just stupid newborns.

"Follow" Decided, he conveys his thoughts with difficulty. And so, he ran ahead, Letting his larger legs carry his weight faster, passing all the other slower green critters within a blink. At the front, the Hob-Goblin, finally took his job seriously and led the entire green party of kids to dive into the dark unknown cavern they saw at first sight on the left.

Running in the middle of the Kindergarteners, Oscar, with his slightly bigger build than his lowly peers, saw their surroundings suddenly dimmed a lot before brightening again with a bright flash of blue light with such intensity he had to shut his eyes close for a moment. As he felt an extremely thin, invisible barrier move past him.

Opening his eyes, the trained green hunter, discovered the change of this cavern and that wasn't just limited to the sudden brightness. Unlike the caverns, Oscar was familiar with and using for hunting and living in the last couple of weeks, the usually thin Mana veins concentrated at the ceiling were spread throughout the cavern; like a tree root. Magical blue sparkly particles can be seen swirling around some junctions of these ethereal thick veins with occasional cracks, from which the monsters' curious eyes could be seen peeking through the other side of it. As they wait for enough Mana to gather and let their bodies into the dungeon. And currently, there were many of these curious eyes looking at the green and red party entering through the dense barrier at the end.

'Hmmm… Mana is dense here' His mind instantly felt the increase in volume around him. And seeing such drastic changes within a single turn of a random cavern, which he was sure would have avoided if that Hob-goblin didn't dive at first, he questioned why he never encountered it anywhere before, 

'Surely, there would be more of these right' Turning back, he got the answer- a red and black mass of energy covered the entire entrance/exit, obscuring the view ahead while making him feel repulsive just by its sight, but having crossed it once the effect wasn't that strong now. 

The kobolds hesitated at first but followed the goblins nonetheless; as ordered by the two green kobolds, glaring at the departing Hob-goblin with unknown hatred. Having much stronger builds, they must be the leader of-sort much like his distant cousin. Thought the curious Oscar before Turning back and finding his party had continued their marathon, leaving him behind… 

"Who's the backstabber here dammit!" Cursed the frustrated goblin, glancing at his only lv1 skill, [Backstab] 'I swear, I won't hesitate to increase its level next time' He thought while bolting ahead using the [Elusive-DashLv6], considering the kobolds are ready behind knocking their arrows straight to his lonely ass.

                                                            

The chase continued with twin dark green kobolds barking orders at their minions, to aim properly. While the true-green Goblin leader was motivating his own minions to run faster, by whipping their green ass till they turned a dark shade of red.

"Ghaaa!"

Cried the little Crooked-Ear, as it got caught trying to hitchhike by climbing over its peer- already learning the art of laziness and establishing his position in hierarchy. 

They haven't even traveled far but the situation in the dungeon was taking sharp turns at every corner, the peeking eyes of the monsters were no more, the newly spawned monsters were numerous, the Mana density was high; the danger of death was imminent. But still, being the creatures who hunt and survive through sneak attacks, the kobolds and goblins have no difficulty in bypassing them undetected. Albeit at a speed they might as well be crawling… in fact, they're doing exactly that right now.

An enormous 20m snake was sleeping, coiled in such a way it was effectively occupying the whole caverns' passage, which wasn't even large to begin with. Skeletal white body adorned with large bone scales, Its head hidden within its coils, save for Its 1m long tail made of hollow rickety bones; shaking constantly without stopping, producing a hypnotic, sleep-inducing sound and waiting for anyone to fall for it before attacking and taking over their mind.

But so far, no one falls for it. Courtesy of the two goblins, with high INT, that protects their psyche without sweating, who in turn forced anyone to keep awake and keep crawling forward through the narrow gap this fat disco-snake had left. 

The twin kobolds and their lackeys were peacefully waiting-in-line behind the said passage. While helpless goblins' squeaky clean asses laid out in front of them without any defense, if they wanted they could poke and kill them with ease. But they didn't. 

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'Such cooperation…' thought the goblin with the biggest squeaky clean ass, wiping his tear of fake gratitude. Already knowing they didn't want to cause a ruckus right under the big boss humming nose, they too wanted to live more than they wanted to kill some goblins. 

'Sigh… we could have conquered the world if we keep this cooperation. But alas, they just have to out for only goblins blood' 

Oscar had failed to notice before, but the kobolds could have left them right when they entered this 'restricted zone', as it would be more trouble than a beast would like for its one-time snack. Given, they killed their brothers before but if these kobolds started pursuing each and every killer of their brothers from god knows how many mothers, they might as well declare war against the whole dungeon. Hence, the two possibilities: they have something they want or they have someone they want, of which Oscar was sure the latter was likely to be true. And then came the obvious points, Oscar hadn't met any kobolds, dead or alive. While the newborns being the newborns, they couldn't meet kobolds behind the mother walls, could they? This leaves the most suspicious suspect, that Hob-goblin, who in turn had shown equal hatred against them before… 

'Sssssss They know each other!'

Connecting the dots, the detective took a sharp breath. 

But, so what? Oscar isn't a long-time dungeon resident, nor had he met someone he could talk to for the last couple of weeks. And no, his pets and hanging heads doesn't count. How could he know there is politics ongoing even in a dungeon and more so within monsters. 

-If a being with even an ounce of sentience lives in the same place for a period of time, they will start developing their own factions. 

'Indeed, it shouldn't be a surprise if tomorrow my 'big-brother' suddenly told me he's a soldier of the Glorious Green Goblins Faction and these Kobolds are the Dirty Red factions army…' thought the naive goblin in amusement, crawling frontmost just reaching the exit. 

'Sigh… first let's get this outta hoe-?!' Feeling six red eyes glaring above his head and the disgusting dripping saliva of a hungry monster overhead, Oscar choked on the words within his mind. He crawls backward as fast as his hands could push his body behind, before abruptly bumping against the Hob-goblins spikey horns, causing a sharp pain coursing through his spike. 

"Hmmp!" Stifling a sudden yelp of pain. Oscar glared hatefuly at his big-brother. Who tilted his head, completely clueless about what that idiot lesser goblin at front meant. 

"We're stuck," Oscar said, uncomfortably shifting his head, to look behind at his supposed brother from god knows which mother, or more like which side of the mother.

"I…Knows" Came the understandable look with a reassuring smile, and a gesture to continue crawl forward so they can be unstuck. 

"Monsters ahead!" Came the frustrated shout. 

"What… ahead?" Blinkingly, he asked again. 

"Our death"

Hence, the end of two-word conversation. 

The Hob-goblin on a mission becomes silent, trying to run his non-existent mind. But try as he might, he could think of nothing. He was just a soldier, a muscle, not the brain in his tribe. And even then, he didn't think he could fight that. Heck, he would be killed by whoever this Rhythm puppeteer was controlling ahead. The only saving grace in this situation was that the Rhythm Puppeteer, in his tiny knowledge, is weak itself. In the sense, it doesn't specialize in attack more than it's in defense and manipulation, which was still more than enough to wipe his ass out of this world.

Hearing his groan, Oscar understood- They're fucked… 

At front, he saw three 3-4m long centipedes, standing through balancing on countless backside legs, already waiting to welcome them with their hungry maws. Most probably controlled by the Disco-Snake, who they had first assumed to be sleeping. Instead, it had let them not because it failed to detect them with its echolocation noises, but because they were too small for its appetite and it had to keep feeding its puppets with something it doesn't need, they fit the criteria. 

At back, stood the red and much stronger twin green kobolds with their spears straight to their ass. They would be sitting ducks if they tried to crawl back to inform them of the Disco-Snakes trap, and the hunter doubted they would even listen to someone they have been long pursuing to kill. 

*Zeze~ Zze~*

*Zeze~ Zze~*

While at their side and above rests the Disco-Snake who's still busy vibing with its oddly melodious rattling tail; like a Dj celebrating their death. 

*Zeze~ Zze~*

But to the goblin it only boils his rising anger with each rhythm, it was always these snakes who checkmates him thoroughly…

'I 

Hate

Every

Fucking 

Snake!'

"Now dance to dis shit song! Fucka!"

Throwing a ball of violent, thunderous electric vortex, charged to the very brim of it, Oscar gives a shit-eating grin.

His hands were stiff and charred black just by holding it for two seconds while charging it.

'Khe! Khe! Khe! It's big bang time!' But this was nothing compared to what's coming to that disco-snake, thought the Mad-Goblin who had labeled this specific orb [Thunder Snake] as- Do not use. No Matter What. 

*Booom!!!" 

Just before, a bright flash of violet light blinded everyones' eyes, and a thunderous noise of a lightning bolt hitting the unsuspecting snake ruptured their ears apart in this small cavern.

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