Chương 20: Grelgo Axe Face

"They said they came under peace!" Stick shouted. Patch dug his crossbow deeper into Stick's back until he yelped. I looked around, trying to keep my cool. I had left my sword next to the throne, a decision I'd either live to appreciate or regret. Something told me that if it were in my hands, the blade would lash out on its own, and I'd make quick work of these intruders. Karen's zombie rats ran out from behind me, rearing up on their hind legs ready to pounce, but I raised my hands to stop them.

They huddled behind me, hissing and growling and coughing up clots of blood. Diplomacy, Travis. Diplomacy. They haven't killed anyone. Yet. We can talk this out.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Grelgo," I said. I stood up on my toes, looking out at the bonfire up ahead. My skeletons and the remaining villagers had been corralled against the rubble, more goblins with bows keeping them quiet.

"See! Peaceful!" Grelgo said.

"No blood has been shed, and so long as none of you try any funny business, it will stay that way. But, say, this is the Carrion King! Alive and in the flesh. I've heard quite a lot about you, though you're not quite what I expected." How dare someone not expect a man in bloody jeans and a torn t-shirt to be some ancient villain of legend? I cleared my throat.

"You're a lot uglier than I thought you'd be, Grelgo. I'm glad the rumors were true in that regard." Grelgo's eyebrow twitched.

"I take great pride in my ugliness."

"Which is exactly why I mentioned it!" I laughed.

"Though, if you want to keep this peaceful, lower your weapons. There is no reason we can't talk this out." Grelgo stepped right up to my chest—well, my belly button—and cocked his head back so he was staring directly up at me.

"I run shit out here, you got that? I've spent the last twenty years of my life building up the goblin tribes in this region, preparing for the day that the humans would return and try and take everything away from us again. So when I wake up and there is a brand new black tower jutting out in the skyline, I get a little prickly." The rats hissed, but I held my hand out. [Please! Let me rip his throat out with them. It'll be glorious.] No. We need him. I looked down on Grelgo.

"And what reason do you have to think we are enemies? I simply want to spend time in my tower and build up this little village in peace." [One quick snap of jaws and he'd be nothing more than a bloody pulp…] No! I signalled. I spread my arms around me, pointing out to the piles of lumber and stone we had collected.

"All of this is going to be used to rebuild what we have lost. None of it is going toward weapons. None of it is going to challenge your rule over your own people. Now, you are welcome to help us climb the tower if you'd like, but otherwise, I have no interest in taking your goblin tribe away from you."

"Is that so?" Grelgo rubbed his scarred chin.

"Then where are the men I sent to you?" I looked up at Patch, and nodded.

"Dead. Unfortunately. Patch can tell you more." Patch paled.

"Well, Knee-buster ambushed them to start, Big Boss. We lost a few when they fought back. Then the others kept pulling these levers that killed them. Boss, you'd have to see those things to believe them. The levers really make your mouth water with the possibilities." Grelgo narrowed his eyes.

"So you sent my men into the dungeon to die?"

"And you sent your people to kill me. Seems like a fair trade."

"Patch, you speak for this man. Do you trust him?"

"With my life, Big Boss." Greglo narrowed his eyes and sighed.

"Then let us see this here tower, Carrion King. If you wish to discuss things peacefully, then surely you would let us gaze upon your home?" This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I stepped back, and smiled.

"Be my guest." The goblin leader entered, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. Karen's rats growled at him, refusing to let him in any further until I signalled to let him pass. Patch, Stick, and a few others followed behind, eyes wide.

"Wow. It has changed an awful lot while you were in here," Patch said.

"Really like what you did with the place." Grelgo turned left to inspect the stone slabs of the barracks, running his hand across the smooth white stone. While not comfortable, I figured the goblins would have access to some fluffier materials to spice it up a bit. He moved to the living area and scoffed.

"What the hell is this place?" I sat down on one of the couches.

"It's a staging area. The floors are going to get more and more difficult the further up we climb. It made sense to set this up as somewhere nice so we could relax." Grelgo walked past me, at last finding the black doors leading to the Dungeon Core. The moment of truth. The goblin chewed on his thoughts for a moment and scratched his head.

"This is…a riddle." I nodded.

"Yep. And we're just trying to solve it. I think it means—""I shall summon my most qualified scholars to investigate the meaning of this.

'Speak friend and enter'? This is absurd! What could this ever mean?"

"It means it wants us to go to the top floor—""To go down you must go up…blasphemy! The theory of gravity implies that—Ah! I see. This is brilliant. Truly brilliant." Grelgo stepped back and looked at the black doors, eyes wide.

"You seek what is on the other side of this door as well, then, Carrion King?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess so."

"Then I shall join you. This is quite unexpected. The mystery of a lifetime awaits us, and we are among the first to discover it. We must act now before the humans arrive."

"Humans? Are they coming? Here?"

"Aye. We have found the first of many scouting parties heading this direction. The Guild is on the way, and with them, they bring death, fire, and greed." Grelgo raised a hand and pointed at Patch.

"Let the villagers go and send a message back to camp. I must know what lies at this Crimson Peak."

"Aye aye, Big Boss." With the crossbow no longer pressed to his back, Stick hobbled forward and clutched my leg.

"My lord! I am so sorry! They came in a few hours after you went back inside, and while I tried to warn you, the doors were closed and…and…" Hours? Had this work taken that long? I patted him on the head.

"Don't worry about it. It's okay."

"Where is Hollow? Has she not come down yet?" I paled. I forgot she'd stayed behind.

"Still upstairs, I imagine. Someone should go up there and let her know—" The tower rumbled. Stick and I locked eyes, and decided that we needed to be those people.

"What the hell was that?" Grelgo barked. I rushed to grab the Carrion Blade, pulling it from the ground next to me. Brushing the goblin leader aside, we sprinted past him, taking the stairs of the tower two at a time.

"Are you sure she's up there?" Stick asked, out of breath and lagging behind.

"I never saw her come down!" I shouted, and mentally signaled to Karen. Do you have any eyes on her? [Eyes? No. I thought you knew. She went up to floor six right before you started rearranging everything.] Stick ran out of steam midway through floor three, but I kept moving on without him, heart hammering in my chest. All I wanted was a night of taking things easy. I hadn't expected to have to crawl back up this tower for another day or two at least.

How far could she have gotten in the few hours we had been away? My calves ached midway through the fifth floor, and my lungs started to shake. I glided over all the disarmed traps, my pace only increasing as I remembered the shadowy figure that had disappeared up that very same stairway. I paused. The man in the mask. There had been something so otherworldly and wrong about him. If anything—because his existence meant that there was another presence in the tower. I wasn't alone here.

Karen spoke of the dungeon being unfamiliar to her. Of the traps and designs of some of the rooms being foreign. Was the masked man why? Did he rule these upper floors? I squeezed the hilt of my sword. Hollow was competent, no doubt about that, but to go up by herself was a death wish. One misstep and she would never have seen what killed her. I swallowed my fear. This was to be my tower. If there was someone else competing for it, then I would have to do everything in my power to stop them.

I took the stairs again, summoning up one last burst of courage. From floor five to six, the biggest change was the weight of the darkness. Even with my sword's brighter glow, the shadows seemed to fight back. Slivers of darkness flickered at the border of my red light, gnarled, shadowy fingers clawing at it as if to fight back. I raised my sword higher, and willed the light to brighten further. The sword obeyed, each rune slapping back against the shadows with renewed vigor.

"Hollow!" I shouted, but my voice only echoed through the now-empty halls. All that remained here were scattered bones and decapitated zombies.

"Did she clear an entire floor herself?" [She must have.] At least the trail was clear. I followed Hollow's path of destruction forward, paying no attention to any of the other surroundings.