Some time had passed since Henry was put in the carriage and it set in motion. It travels through a large city expanse. The city was segregated into different classes, where the noble and rich lay near the centre and the poor on the outskirts. With each checkpoint the carriage passes, the visage around changes abruptly. The streets became dirtier until thick layers of grim covered the roads. Houses become more decrepit and run down. It was clear that the majority of people lived in squaller with large sections of the city being slums. Scantly dressed women fluttered their eyes at the coachman with promises for a good time. Slowing down, he leered with lecherous eyes at the woman, saying he would happy to accompany them later. As he is about to go on his way, two drunken men come out of a nearby alleyway.

“Get off the bloody road you drunkards, I have places to be,” shouted the coachman.

One of the men pointed at him, “Shove off, I’m in my right to stand where ever I bloody want.” The other shouts in agreement.

Time passed as they continued to argue back of forth, the patience of the coachman waning with each and every passing second. “Oh, for fuck sake, guards get them out of the way,” he shouts as the men on horseback engage the two drunkards. They resisted the guards, as one swung and knocked out one of the approaching men. It was a long and tedious task of getting them to budge, but they managed in the end. With a strike on the rears of the horses, the carriage took off at a trotter.

As he exited the city and entered into a thicket, the carriage jolted from time to time due to the ill-maintained roads. All Henry could do was clutch his stomach. The swaying and clashing of the carriage caused it to stir. As his bile began to creep up his throat, the carriage came to a sudden stop. By this time, the sun had long set leaving behind a bitter cold sky. The coachman grabbed the lantern that lay by his side and flashed it three times. He waited there before the light was returned in kind. With this, he returned in motion and continued on his way. As he approached the direction where the flash came from, a clearing came into view. In the middle sat a large building with dozens of carriages parked at the front.

 An armoured man on horseback approached the coachman, “Hurry your bloody arse. Your late.” The coachman nodded his head stiffly and followed the guard to the back of the building where a lone door stood. Many unknown hands grabbed at the cages within the carriage, pulling them out. In time, so was Henry. Faint cheering could be heard from within the building. Whatever the reason for such a reaction, Henry was soon to find out. The man holding him followed along a line of others holding cages similar to him.

<||> <||><||>

A few men had already entered with a cage, nodding each time to the burly figure standing in watch at the door. It was the same with me, descending the stairs to an underground area. The growing sound of boisterous cheering could be heard along with the familiar sound of goblins. The place was filled with many people, each going with a goal in mind. This seemed to be the backstage to something. Exactly what that is I wasn’t to sure. If I were to guess, it wasn’t going to be any good.

The man holding me clearly knows his way around the place. Before long he stopped in from of a desk. A man with a quill in handwriting in a leger of sorts looked up. From the aura around him, he clearly was in a sour mood. I think my holder noticed. He kept his sentences short and kurt. The keeper grunted before handing him a slip of paper. He pointed to a door where I was promptly taken to.

I was disgruntled when I entered this room. It looked exactly the same as the place that I was housed in before. At least the faint cheering gives me something different to listen to. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as the man kept on walking to a door on the other side of the room. Walking through the hallway the cheering increasingly got louder as we went on. He placed my cage in front of a door slot. Once secured, my cage creaked open. Before I could even register what or why this was happening, my body moved on its own. It was clearly eager to experience this newfound freedom. Bliss was the only way to describe my mood as I ran sluggishly around in circles in my new, larger cage.

My little moment was interrupted when something on one of the walls caught my attention. Breathing heavily from the pain in my head, I stopped to look at the text box, [Sturdy Door]. I crook my head to the side, confused. Turning around I saw the same text box. Why were there two doors? I knocked on it before giving it a push. It didn’t budge. While sitting down, contemplating my next course of action, the door creaked open. The new light entering the room blinded me as deafening cheering thundered against my eardrums. In time my eyes adjusted to the light and I found myself in a pit with people shouting and jeering on bleachers. There in front of me stood another goblin, a part of its left ear missing. Its murderous eyes bored holes into me. I stared at it, my body stiff and unwilling to move as it slowly approached me. I begin to back away before hearing the creaking of the door closing behind me. This is bad, really bad. My eyes scan around, looking for anything that can be used. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing.

In an instance, it dashed towards brandishing its arm to strike me. I braced myself to dodge, but my body didn’t respond. Weak and enfeebled from my poor diet, the other goblin easily struck me. A surge of pain goes through my body, as I am knocked to the floor. I lay there dazed, unsure of what is going on around me. In this moment of vulnerability, I feel something latch on to my leg. In the next moment, I am lifted and thrown against the cold hard floor again. Every joint in my body screams in pain. Yet I grit through it and try to get back on my feet to meet my assailant head-on. A harsh kick in the stomach quickly deters me from doing so. Hovelled over in pain. There stood before me over my body a goblin, a whole head taller than me. At this rate, I am going to die.

With a shit-eating grin on its face, it begins stomping on my head. It snickered and babbles in what I assume is its attempt to mock me. He seems to be in pure bliss, fully confident in its victory. And that is where it messed up. Even though in my weakened state the likely hood of winning is slim, I am going to make you regret taking me lightly. If I am going to die, I’ll make sure you remember me. As it lifts up his foot to bring it down once more on my head, I muster up my energy and grab its other leg. Yanking on it, it loses balance and falls to the floor. Not wanting to waste this opening, I lunge at his right leg and latch my teeth onto his inner shin.

It screeched in agony as my teeth sunk in. Frantically trying to kick me off. It hurts, it hurts bad. I wanted nothing more than to let go and close my eyes to sleep. I held strong though, using every ounce of willpower to hold on tight. But something unexpected happens. I felt my hold on his flesh loosen as it began to tear off. I frantically began trying to part it. With a final kick to my head, the chunk finally tore off as I rolled away from the impact. The other goblin held its leg and wailed and cried in pain as I sluggishly got up. I looked at him with scorn as blood trickled from my mouth. I spat out the chunk and tried to ease my rugged breathing.

The other goblin recovered from the pain and tried to stand back up. However, his right leg was no longer able to support his weight. It fell down as it tried to use it. This didn’t stop from it glaring at me with hate-filled eyes. It seemed to be seething with rage as anger consumed its thoughts. It wouldn’t leave things as is as it began to limp towards the other goblin. Thankfully, anger clouded its judgement and it didn’t notice me grab a handful of sand off the floor. Although, even if it did it probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it. I am not even sure if this will work.

Once it got close enough, I threw the sand at its face. It lurched over to cover it as it rubbed its eyes frantically. It worked! I tackled it to the floor and lunged to its neck. Before I could reach my target, I was struck hard on the side of the head. I looked up to see two bloodshot eyes staring back at me. The other goblin got the upper hand and had me pinned to the floor. It began mercilessly striking my head, even grabbing it and bashing it on the floor. The swelling around my eyes obscured my vision as my mind slowly drifted to unconsciousness. The shouting of the crowd grew dimmer as the barrage of strikes suddenly stopped and a weight collapsed on my chest.

Shaking my head, I collected my thoughts. When my vision finally recovered I see the other goblin lying on top of me with a pool of blood around its leg. I try to push it off me, but I can’t. Every part of my body feels like lead and I quickly succumb to exhaustion.

<||> <||><||>

A majority of the crowd cheered while a few others shouted in desperation. “Why is it just standing there? do something!” “Look at it, it's scared.” “Rip its throat out.” Were just some of the jeers sent towards the two goblins. The situation before them was quite unusual. Most of the time, the two goblins would be at each other’s throats by now. Yet one was just standing there like a stunned mullet. When the other goblin got close enough to Henry, he ran and swung his arm like a club. With Henry’s attention elsewhere, he was easily struck on the head. Fallen on the ground with no sign of moving, people began to move from their seats. Others just watched on enthralled for the apparent upcoming carnage.

Among the crowd, in a section reserved for those with lots of coins to spare, sat a rather rotund man with extravagant looking clothes. “What the hell is this, do they take me for a fool. I was told I was against another goblin welp not an adult one,” Shouted Julius turning to look at his right-hand man. “Get me the organiser, I have some words he needs to hear” With a quick nod, John left the theatre box to quickly return with a man behind him.

The new visitor brought before him was dressed as a butler and bowed in greeting, “How may I be of service most esteemed customer?”

“I presume you are the one in charge here tonight, care to explain why is there a goblin adult down there.”

“Why of course,” – the butler pulls out a small book and a pocket watch in a fluid motion as he shifts through the pages before stopping at one – “Ah I see, you are quite indeed correct. The programme does show you to be set up with another goblin welp.”

“Then why the -“ before Julius could finish, the butler cut him off. Julius glared at him in kind.

“That would have been the case if your stock came in time. However, it was reported to be more than half an hour late. We had to make alterations to the programme to accommodate this delay. I apologise if this is not to your liking.”

At this point Julius was as red as a tomato, veins bulging out of his forehead. Just as he was about to succumb to his inner rage, shouts from the lower bleachers court his attention. What he saw down shocked him, but pleased him dearly. He saw his goblin latched onto the other. His emotions rose and fell as the fight went on until the very end. A roar of jubilation could be heard from Julius’s theatre box. The butler had excused himself a while ago, but he didn’t care. He won, after so many consecutive losses he won. And the pay this time is going to be big. With a huge grin, Julius looks towards John. “What are you standing there for, go get my winnings. Oh, and bring back the finest bottle of spirits they have.”

John nodded and made his way out of the room. On the way to the bookkeeper, a figure emerged from the shadows. “It seems that you have had an issue, I hope the mission still is going according to plan?”

“Yes, the pieces are falling into place. We might need to make some adjustments, but I think the current events will work nicely for what I have in plan. Just leave everything to me.”

“Very well,” the shadow replies as it melts back into the darkness. “I expect good things from you.”