“...The Sword Saint killed the dragon and pleted his bargain with the three hags, dooming us all with his pact for past and future geions. The hags used the dragon's heart to create the expanding woods. The kingdom of Electria was the first to fall as they were the closest to the bh-elf city of Rafiki. My great-great-something grandmother was a refugee. Sword Saint, cursed be his he drunken guard rambled while ritualistically spitting oraw-strewn dirt floor.

  The guard sloshed ale from his mug as he reted his borious tale for the sed time today. He was a human male, seated alo an unsteady wooden table with an unfinished meal in front of him. Goblins of various colours lihe wall iacked cages, gazing at the greasy chi drumstick with undisguised hunger. All except o retreated into the shadows as it repressed the unpleasant memories.

  What was my name again? It’s been so long, I ’t even remember anymore. All that’s left is that title and the hatred of the masses, haunting me. I guess it doesn’t matter anyway, goblin’s don’t have hey never live long enough to need one. Aside from me, that is, I 't die.

  Those hags kept their promise and gave me my immortality. But there was a catch, there's always a catch. I should have better than to make a deal with hags. Not only did they curse me into being a goblin forever, vermin lower than rats.

  They also cursed the world with the expanding woods. Like its name implies, it just keeps growing, at a ridiculous pace. Chop oree down and two more take its pce ht. It was the result of the dragon's heart being the heart of the expanding wood.

  turies ter, I'm still being punished for my arrogahe great and mighty Sword Saint now only a lowly, nameless goblin fighting in numerous arenas for sport. Moved around as plump merts trade me like livestoo one knows who I once was, nor do they care. If they believed me, at best, I would be publicly executed for unleashing the camity upon the world.

  The gobli out a heavy sigh as he rolled to face the other dire inside his small cage. He was different from the oblins ihe cages. They were all of various earthen hues, ranging from green, yellow to brown. He was a dark blue colour, nearing bck, wearing only a loincloth for modesty.

  He was kept in a separate cage away from the stacked up cages. Across from him, inside another lonely cage, sat a brown goblin with a slight reddish tint. Its eyes were closed as it ighe ruckus caused by the goblins tained iher cages.

  The animalistic goblins gripped the rusted iron bars of their cages, hooting and h for the guard to feed them. Saliva drooled down their s to drip on the cages below them at the st of the uen roast chi. His stomach rumbled in protest, but he suppressed his hunger.

  Feeling something watg him, he looked up. Making eye tact with the most feared creature ihe stabling area of the arena. A phantom cat. It was on the back of a low wooden cart, inside a cage filled with straw.

  It was a feline, bigger than a mountain lion, with pitch-bck fur and spiked protrusions growing along its spine. Phantom cats were renowned for their stealth and ambushing abilities. Their prey rarely even had the ce to react before ending up iheir bellies. He had fought them before, of course, but not since he was the Sword Saint.

  The phantom cat hissed as its fur stood on end as it retreated deeper into its cage to escape his gaze. It could instinctively feel that he was dangerous, unlike any of the oblins caged with it. Even the quiet, reddish-brown goblin was regarded as its prey. The nameless goblin snorted in dry amusement at its as.

  "At least something still reizes me," the nameless goblin said self-depregly.

  After being a goblin, his mana had bee wild and untrolble. It felt like a dragon sleeping inside his mind, ready to awaken and unleash its wrath upon the world. He hadn't been able to tame it to this day, relying instead upon his supernatural talent in swordsmanship that had earned him his title in the first pce.

  Everyone khat goblins couldn't use magic or bee attuned, not under normal circumsta least. It was a side-effect of their unique irait that allowed them to breed with anything. Foblin to harness mana, they must suppress their desire to mate. The nameless goblin was disgusted to admit that he had been uo overe that lust himself.

  His witched as he smelled the st of sex from a rge holdi the opposite end of the stabling area. He had bee aced to the smell of filth as goblins were forced to defecate iheir cages, usually on top of an unfortunate peer below. The holding pen was filled with nude female goblins. Two were in the middle of servig a male goblin who had been victorious in his battle above. The remaining females igheir panion’s coupling as they pressed against the cage. They were watg the guard raise the chi to his mouth, ripping into the drumstick with his teeth.

  The nameless goblin tried to move his eyes away from the sight of their exposed breasts pressing against the iron bars. His body responded of its own accord, lifting his loincloth as his manhood bulged. He noticed the reddish-brown goblin watg him with bitterness, staring at his crot envy. The reddish-brown goblin was a mage, which meant that it was also celibate. Unwillingly.

  Arena owners had discovered that the easiest solution to the she of mages was to create some themselves. It involved removing the unfortunate didate’s genitals and turning them into a eunuch. The nameless goblin growled at the mage, exposing his fangs. The mage sneered in response before looking away.

  “Get back, you animals!” the guard shouted as two more meered the room.

  He banged a sword bde against the cage taining the females. They hissed as the let go of the iron bars. The guard opehe cage to allow the pair of men to ehe male had filled the first female with his seed, only for his mating to be interrupted with the sed female. The pair of men gripped the male goblin's arms, dragging him off the female and out of the rge holdihe guard smmed the gate closed while retrieving the keyring at his waist. There was a loud click as he ied a tarnished brass key into the lod turned.

  "You've had your turn, save the rest of the females for everyone else. There's more fights today, but sadly those two over there won't be ing back. They have to fight a journeyman mage from the Are Academy. It'll be sad to lose the master's most prized pets, but he's been more than pensated for their loss. No idea why a mage would willingly request to fight goblins, or that beast in the back. The master paid more for that phantom cat than one hundred of you vermin," the guard said.

  His words were drunkenly slurred as he walked past the stacked cages while twirling the heavy brass keyring on his finger.