A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

It pointed its huge bludgeon – more of a log, really – towards Oliver, as though it were a knight declaring a challenge. Oliver smiled to himself. Any other monster, and he might have shown a shred of respect at that gesture. But, Hobgoblins, of all creatures, would forever keep a special place of hatred in his heart.

Spurred on by the pressing time crunch that he was on, Oliver gave no mind to its antics. As though he was a goblin himself, he ran straight forward, not bothering to feint, not bothering to set up the attack for an opening as he normally would, he simply did as the Moonbear did, trusting that his strength would be enough to overwhelm any foe that came his way.

For a creature like a Hobgoblin, that direct challenge was infuriating. It stood its ground and swung its bludgeon in time with the incoming attack. This, Oliver ducked, merely because it was faster to duck it than it would have been to cut through it. There was a huge opening, should he have needed it. With Oliver's superior speed, he could have killed it then in any number of ways.

Instead, he simply thrust his sword through the side of its neck, killing it as swiftly, cleanly and anticlimactically as possible.

Certainly, from the expression on the Hobgoblin's face, it had likely never expected to be defeated so casually, as though he was nothing more than a low-tier common monster himself.

Whatever complaining he tried to do was reduced to a torrent of blood coming out through the chunky fangs of its mouth, and down onto his chest. Oliver twisted his sword in the wound, severing the front half of the neck completely, and finishing the job all at once.

Before the life had even fully left the Hobgoblin's eyes, Oliver was already dragging it back to where he knew the others to be, his hands under its arms, and its blood leaving a long trail through the snow behind them.

"Already…" were the words that Blackthorn met him with, as he met them back on the main thoroughfare. He could see from the additional harvested organs that they'd already finished processing the Moonbear, as he would have expected.

"You were certainly far faster today than we could have expected, my Lord," Verdant echoed that sentiment. "You've even done much of our work for us. I think we're all increasingly aware of the catching up that we need to do."

"We could have gone faster, if not for…" Karesh grumbled, eyeing Blackthorn's retainers. Amelia glared at him in turn.

"From the looks of it, everyone got involved," Oliver said, seeing that the monster blood on Pauline and Amelia's clothing had increased.

"I hate it…" Amelia bemoaned. Pauline nodded resolutely, evidently sharing that sentiment. "But if that's what it takes to follow our Lady, we'll get used to it."

"Good," Oliver said, dropping the Hobgoblin down in front of them. "There's work to be done. Let us see these elite Blackthorn processing-girls-intraining."

Such a joke certainly wasn't earning him any points with Amelia, who looked like she would have wrung his neck had she had the strength to, but the two girls still sighed, and began to do what they were told to do. The way they handled their blades seemed far more like that of a cook than that of a butcher.

There was a certain delicateness to their actions that Nila didn't waste time on when she was doing her own butchering.

"It's warm…" Pauline said, looking like she was going to be sick, as Hobgoblin blood ran out over her hands.

"Better warm than cold in this weather, I should think," Jorah said. "You'd have an easier time too if you cut more of the skin away, see? With your tiny hole, you can hardly see what you're doing. You don't need to worry about damaging the corpse, not when we already know what ingredients we want from it."

The straight-laced retainer bent to show them an easier way to cut the corpses, using his own knife. He didn't even flinch as the blood washed over his hands. Oliver watched in approval. 'Good,' he thought. It was a step closer to where he needed them to be. That battle-ready state that wouldn't slow, even when it caught sight of human blood.

The girls watched him work, seeing the merit in his way of doing things. "I too only began doing this a few weeks ago. I'm sure you'll be better than me at it in no time at all."@@novelbin@@

"Our clothes, though," Amelia said unhappily.

"You could afford to dress differently, now that you know your role," Kaya put in.

"No one asked you, curly," Amelia said with an excessive amount of venom.

"Hey! Don't you talk to my cousin like that," Karesh said hotly. "Not when you've been so useless. Act big when you can do big, or keep your mouth shut, woman!"

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"Karesh," Verdant said, his voice as cold as ice, immediately warning the retainer of the line that he'd crossed.

"But she…" Karesh said meekly.

"I know," Verdant said, his tone cool enough that even Amelia was freezing from it, though she wasn't its direct target. "But it would be foolish for retainers to start wars amongst allies, would it not? A retainer that is unable to hold his tongue, despite what is said to him, will be of no use to our Lord."

"Sorry…" Karesh said.

Somehow, Verdant had managed to chastise both of them, making Amelia appear even worse than Karesh, as he seemed to deem her beneath the standard that he'd set for them. Of course, Oliver knew that wasn't exactly the case – Verdant seemed a far more magnanimous man than that.

"Well, you certainly seem to have this lot under control," Oliver said. "That's good."

"Measures need to be put in place and understandings need to be had," Verdant said. "I understand well and good that they're all tired, but it is no excuse to say the unsayable. If we are to join you on your missions next month, my Lord, we ought to be able to function far more cohesively than this."