Dawn- An age of Darkness

The amphitheater was maybe two or three floors down from where we stood. 

And judging by the growling and giggling goblins, it was clear, this was a sport. But by the sheer number of spectators (roughly two thousand) and the excitement, this was probably a rare sport. 

"All who dare challenge Ze Thell and beat him shall claim this prize!" The announcer was a lean tall goblin, almost like an abnormal. His accent was kind of Russian-ish. His speech however was quite fluent: obviously, he was speaking in goblin tongue.

This Ze Thell thing was a very round and large hobgoblin. 

There were plenty of challengers and they ranged from normal goblins to large ones. 

All were defeated. 

Clubs, knives, spears were on the sideline but this large goblin only used its bare hands. And it was good enough to stand tall with nothing just bare fists. 

"Is there no one else!? Then Ze Thell shall claim her himself!"

"So, basically if someone beats him- they claim the girl as their prize?" I said, aloud. I was maybe two-three floors above the actual place, but since the roof was kind of open, I could always just jump down there. 

All eyes darted my way. There were a lot of goblins here- at lot!

The goblins didn't quite create a scene as they noticed the other goblins with me. But I clearly wasn't welcome. 

The girl who was tied- noticed me and stared at me. "He-" Before she could say anything, they taped her mouth. She tried to struggle but it was of no use. 

Her clothes weren't even remotely covering her- the same went for her underwear. There were still patches of cloth hanging here and there, but anyone could clearly see everything. Through shame and despair, her eyes leaked and she just stared at the ground. 

I'd heard that voice before somewhere. Maybe yesterday? 

Oh yeah, that knight. So, she ended up getting caught. 

The goblin with me, the screeching one, kind of signaled something. 

"Yes, would you like to challenge Ze Thell? Though since Ze Thell would go weaponless," The goblin announcer grinned. 

I could see where this was going. 

I didn't want to make a scene and end up antagonizing them, so I went with their rules. 

"Sure, I won't use any weapons." I jumped straight to the ground. 

I didn't need Imbuition to make this much of a jump. 

The ground was fairly solid and there wasn't much dust. 

I took off my robe, my armor, and with just my shirt on, stood before the goblin, Ze Thell. 

The crowd cheered on- obviously, they were cheering the goblin. 

But oh well. 

Ze Thell seemed quite pleased. It was probably about twice as tall as me, but about ten times wider. 

It came swinging. No need for warnings, I guess.

A left punch- I dodged to my right. 

I grabbed its hand. "You know, just because you're bigger, doesn't mean you should just throw around your weight." With that said, I used its own weight and gently tipped it over. 

Thud!

It barely evaded falling by planting one of its hands firmly on the ground, and used one of its legs to kick me, almost like a horse. I backstepped, evaded, and then with a quick closeup- punched the back of its throat. 

The crowd stopped cheering. 

The poor goblin made choking sounds and got on its knees. 

"I will now be taking my prize." 

I axe kicked the goblin on its back and it dropped to the ground, unconscious. 

It was too quiet. 

But I walked towards the girl. 

"I can, take my prize now, right?" I looked at the announcer. 

That goblin was sweating quite hard. "B-but of course!"

Oh? How noble. And here I thought they'd start a fight over this. But they didn't. 

And the goblins in the stands just groaned, sighed, and started leaving. 

Odd. 

I picked up my armor, put it on, sliced the ropes of the girl, un-taped her mouth, and gave her my robe. 

She held her head low. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. I'll need that robe back so go find your clothes or something." 

I didn't see her armor around though. The few pieces that were here, were kind of broken. 

As for the girl herself, she was kind of injured and battered and not in the best of shapes. 

"They tore it-" Her voice was low. "They-" She shook. She let out a battle cry and was about to steal a nearby club. Even this injured, this girl had some fight left in her. 

I stopped her. "Now's not the time. Patience," I whispered. 

I'd been in this world for a long time. I knew how to manipulate people just like people manipulated me. I was too naïve to never try that. Now, however- not so much. 

The girl calmed down but I could tell, she wanted all the goblins dead. But though I hated these things, I needed answers from them. And though a good goblin was a dead goblin, they couldn't give me the answers I was looking for. 

Anyway- I picked the girl up in my arms, coated my body in mana, and jumped. My normal jump was enough to actually go about a whole floor now. But with Imbuition, I could easily climb back to where Gryole was. 

I gently let the girl off and healed her. 

But now what- I couldn't just leave her here. There was no saying what the goblins would do to her this time. And though I'd let go of her, she was still holding on to my armor with one hand, and the robe with the other. 

"You can understand them?" She whispered. 

I nodded. 

"Then you have a plan?"

I nodded again. 

Perhaps she thought I was going to destroy this place or something? In any case, I did have a plan- so it wasn't a lie. 

She exhaled. But stuck close to me. I guess I had to take her with me, now that I'd complicated all this myself. 

And with that, the tour continued. 

I was glad I didn't see any more amphitheaters. 

***

"Wat here Hooman." 

Before long we'd arrived before a much larger area and this place actually had a wooden door. 

The goblin knocked a few times. A small hole opened in the wall, an eye looked around through it, and they exchanged some words. 

A minute later, the door opened. 

Once we went in, it closed again. 

I was kind of speechless. This room was large- but that wasn't the reason. The real reason-

We went in and found ourselves, some good old fashion abnormals.

Not just one no, a whole counsel of them. And who was in charge of this counsel?

A frigging goblin king no less!

'Am I lucky or just unlucky?'

Well, I was going to get some answers, one way or the other.