"Goblin Slayer" - Person Talking

"Goblin Slayer" - Person thinking

"Goblin Slayer" - Monster Talking

"Goblin Slayer" - Spell

Prologue

It had been three days since his older sister had ceased to exist. That was when he decided to move. His sister had told him absolutely not to move from where he was, but she was no longer his sister, not more than a hunk of steak was a living cow.

The boy, only just turned ten, crawled carefully out from between the floorboards where he had been hiding. His pants were wet with his own excrement and unpleasantly itchy, but it was nothing he couldn't endure. More pressing was the pain of his stiff joints, and the agonizing effort of trying to keep the floorboards from squeaking. The clamor of the invaders was more distant now, thankfully, but still, there was no substitute for caution. After three days it would be excepted to be hungry, but he didn't felt any. Perhaps it was the mud he had stuffed in his mouth. His throat was as prickly and dry as the days in high summer when he had played until noon; He walked slowly toward the kitchen and saw the destruction on the room. A soup pot had been overturned, and a kitchen knife was missing. The water jug was shattered, but the bottom of it was still intact. He leaned over it like a dog, slurping down all he could before he had to come up for breath. If he had known that simple water could be so delicious, he would never have begged his sister to add sugar to his drinks. Then, finally, he sat down on the floor, not even taking the time to wipe his mouth; he felt a stinging pain in his eyes as he closed them abruptly and rubbed them with his hands. He gritted his teeth trying to control his urge to scream. After a few seconds, the pain subsided and he finally opened his eyes. He looked around and he felt his vision was off, all the colors of his surroundings have disappeared. Not only that he felt like he could see sounds and hear shapes, like using every sense at once. Feeling a bit dizzy, he decided to walk around the inside of the house.

He walked, carefully watching the destruction what was once his home. The dresser was in splinters, a violent mess, his sister's clothes pulled out and scattered everywhere. Among the debris, he spotted something glowing gold, he was surprised in seeing something with color after not seeing anything with it. Instinctively, he walked towards that shiny object. It was his father chest. He tried to remember what their mother and father had looked like, but as usual, he could summon only hazy images. They died when he was too young to remember and after that it was his older sister who raised him. His mother, a medicine woman, had (so he was told) died in an epidemic before he was old enough to really remember them. But his father… nobody exactly knew what exactly what he was… an adventure? A ranger? There were so many rumors about his father profession. There were many scratches over the chest but they weren't able to open. He tilted his head thinking how could he open? He didn't have a key… He remembered some stories about his sister knowing how to pick a lock, too bad she wasn't around anymore.

When he went to leave the house, he felt something through the bottom of his shoe. It was his sister's purse. Like the chest it was glowing gold, he picked her purse and started to examine. It was just a plain leather pouch, but it was sewn with a flower pattern. He heard the faint jangling of coins. He decided to opened it and like he thought there were a few gold coins in it, but there was also something else. An insignia with a shape of a triangle or a shape and style of an eagle's head. He couldn't understand why would she carry something like that? He tugged on the string and then hung the purse around his neck, tucking it inside his shirt. He made sure to close the purse tightly so that it would make no sound.

Slowly, he peeked out the door, making certain that they weren't around, and then went outside. As he imagined, all things outside lost their colors but were still bright enough so that he could see all things. The strangest thing was that he could see those creatures even some that were far away but they weren't on their normal green color, but they were all in bright red. He could hear excited voices in the distance. The crackling of a campfire. The sounds of cooking. Being able to see them and able to hear them, he formulated a plan, with these new abilities he could reach the main road and then proceed to the city. There he could ask help.

He had never been to town. He had no idea how far it might be or whether it was even possible to walk there. But it felt like his only choice. Then, suddenly, his knees buckled, and he stumbled. It seemed he didn't have the strength to stand.

"But I must…go forward…"

He began to crawl along the ground, forcing his body to move toward the road. His elbows and knees got scraped raw, but he ignored them and kept moving. For now he could see that none of them was going into his direction. He crawled single-mindedly down pathways, through bushes, past places he had been running happily around until just days earlier. He ignored the useless thoughts that bubbled unbidden into his mind; he focused on keeping his arms and legs moving.

After some time, he reached the fence that marked the border of the village. He looked to the sky and saw the stars and the twin moons. He slowly got up and started to walk on the town road, It would be the first time he had ever left his village, and it would be because his village had been destroyed by goblins.

"GROBB…!"

"GOOBRRB! GRO!"

But it seemed things would not be so simple, apparently they saw him getting up… Those creatures… Those goblins. They weren't that much taller than he was, as if they were just some brats from a neighboring village. But they were far, far more terrible. He knew because he had seen every minute of what they'd done. He knew why these creatures, normally reputed to dress in rags, had fresh, new outfits this evening.

He turned and saw two pairs of those little burning pupils turned in his direction.

'They can see me.'

The boy learned then that goblins could see in the dark, although the knowledge came too late to help him. He grabbed a stone in his right hand and stood. He threw the stone.

"GOBORR?!"

The goblin screamed, accompanied by a wet crunching sound. He tumbled to the ground, writhing, blood streaming from his nose. He clutched his hands to his face and made a sort of panicked whine.

Forcing his shaking legs to move, the boy picked up another rock and started running.

"GOOBRBRRB!"

The remaining goblin gibbering with rage started to chase after the boy. The boy run as fast as he could but knew that he couldn't run faster than that goblin in his current state. There was only one option. One option to survive and be free. He needed to fight. He stopped and turned to it.

'Die, you filthy monster,' the boy thought. He gripped the stone as hard as he could. At that moment of rage, the boy felt his eyes burning but it didn't hurt. He saw the vile monster with a rusty spear coming in his direction in slow motion. When it tried to thrust him with its spear, the boy easily dodged and hit with everything he got its head with the stone. Blood flew from its head as his corpse fell flat on ground. The boy saw the glowing emanating from its body turning to colorless. The boy sighed and felt his legs turning to jelly, he didn't have any more strength to keep standing. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and when he opened he saw that his vision was normal again.

But he was not safe yet, he saw the goblin that he hit the nose and many others running in his direction. It was clear to him that this would be the end. The only real question was whether the end would come here, immediately, or over the next several days…

"I see now."

At that moment, there was a gust of cold wind from the west, such as the kind that blows at night. He didn't understand what had happened; he only registered a whistling, like a flute. Then the heads of the goblins in front of him went flying, and the sound changed to spurting blood. Suddenly, a person was standing in front of him, wearing a white hood.

"You got guts, kid," He before turning to the boy.

The boy looked at the his belt and saw the same in insignia that his sister had. The man knelt in front of him and started to analyze the kid. He saw that the boy had something special after seeing how he moved to kill that goblin.

"Are you hurt?" He asked the boy.

"N-n-no, sir!" He answered with a shaky voice.

"Good, let's leave this place. There is nothing more that we can do," he said as he helped the boy get into his feet.

"Where are we going?"

"To a new home, where you will be able to train your gifts and help people like you, do you want to come?"

"Yes, sir!" The kid answered without a single trace of doubt.

"Then welcome to brotherhood!" The man said with a smile appearing in his face.