Rick had left to go on his journey deeper in the dark land of Mir long before the GES forces had gathered in the camp. Long before they had formed ranks and stormed into the forest for the first time to begin their attack against the Goblins, Rick was fighting Tier Seven creatures.

  Long before the first of his 14 Chiefs had to pay a price with his life, Rick was working on getting stronger. Long before Chief Hugala had to fight with her soul on the line, Rick was doing what a King needed to do.

  So it was no surprise that only a couple days, and likewise a couple battles, after Chief Hugala fought with her literal soul on the line, something shifted within the mana around them. It was subtle at first, not noticeable unless you were present next to the source, but eventually it grew and grew and grew.

  So much that even if they wanted to ignore what they were sensing, the Tier 7s on both the sides of the Goblins and the sides of the GES force could feel the weight of mana that clung and gripped the air around them, pulling it towards a singular point.

  Of course, this point was located on the borders of Goblin lands, just beyond the front.

  This was the location where a very special Goblin was going through a very special evolution.

  Now, while Tier Seven and below couldn’t quite compare with Tier Eight and above, Tier Six and below still couldn’t quite compare with Tier Seven, especially not the Tier Seven of a Goblin King. Not just a Royal Goblin, but the actual King of all Goblins. A being who is naturally supposed to be above others. To have lessers. To look at his people and know that not a single one of them was his better. To look down upon those who will kneel before him.

  Their Tier Seven evolution could not and would not be the same as others. So when the world sensed that an evolution had been triggered for the Goblin King to reach the Seventh Tier, a Tier that was once known as the peak of all Tiers, well…the world responded.

  Regardless of who you were, regardless of what you were, the mana that you were so casually commanding would feel just a slight pull on it. You wouldn’t lose control of your mana, especially not when it sprang forth from your own body, but the mana that usually responded from outside in the environment now had a different call. One it naturally wanted to follow. One it was inclined to follow.

  It was within the nature of wild mana to follow the call of the Goblin King. The King needed to evolve, and the world obliged. Mana poured in from all directions and roared to life as it took Rick’s body apart limb by limb, organ by organ, cell by cell, all the way down to his very soul, which was remodeled, reorganized, and rebuilt anew again.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  The Tier Seven evolution cannot compare to the ones that sat so highly above it. But the Tier Seven evolution of a Goblin King could not compare to anything on or below the same level as itself.

  And all of them could feel it. They could feel the gravity of the situation.

  The Goblins had experienced something similar on two previous occasions. First, when Rick went from being just a Royal Goblin to instead the King of Goblins. Secondly, when Rick evolved from Tier Five to the Sixth.

  So although they were currently on the battlefield and hadn’t had an inkling as to the fact that Rick had returned, that their King had returned, the moment they felt the familiar feeling, they knew. Deep down inside, they knew. That what they were feeling, and the direction they were feeling it from, could only mean one thing.

  The King was back, and he would soon join them in battle.

  The humans, on the other hand, did not understand what they were feeling. For humans evolved a bit differently than that of Goblins or those like them. Humans didn’t go through such vastly different physical changes when they evolved. All of their evolutions, per se, had far more to do with what was inside of them than their outward appearances. Proven by the fact that they still aged, albeit at a much slower rate the higher Tiers they went up, and also by the fact that they all still looked like humans.

  So this evolutionary feeling that they were experiencing was just a little out of the norm for their senses. Not to say they weren’t aware of how Goblins and Orcs evolved, but most of them had never been around a Goblin evolving, let alone one evolving to the Seventh Tier. To compound on that further, one that was not only evolving to the Seventh Tier, but a Goblin King evolving to the Seventh Tier.

  So it took them more than a few moments to understand what they were experiencing.

  Of course, it was the Spear of Touval who recognized the situation first and uncharacteristically yelled out to her people.

  "Push! Push! Push! We need to move now! Their King is evolving! That is why he hasn’t been on the battlefield, he is evolving! We need to push now! Push! Push! Push!"

  She barked out as her voice boomed over the cacophony of noises that made up all that was war.

  "There is no time to waste, push now!"

  She continued to push and just as she was about to finally unleash the abilities she had kept in check since she found no tactical need to expend herself prior to this, an explosion of mana rushed out of a location in the distance and everyone on the battlefield had to take a pause as the wave on mana hit them.

  Then before anyone could react to the sudden wave of mana, a loud boom was heard in the distance.

  In the same place the mana exploded from.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had just happened.

  The Goblin King was now awake and he was coming here.

  Filled with Wrath and a taste for Vengeance.