Saki

  After a few minutes, I took a deep breath and stood back up. Time for tears was not now, but it did feel good to let go for even a second. I looked over to the guard nearest me guarding the gate. He was snoring, and I rolled my eyes. I walked over to the guard on the other side of the gate.

  She was not asleep; she was, however, picking her nose and eating it. I avoided gagging and instead walked up casually and asked a simple question. "Who is the current leader, and how do you become the new leader?" I knew the answer already, but it was better to double-check. Going off faulty, false, or old information was never a good plan.

  The goblin blew her nose and looked at me bored. "You gotta beat the old leader and his guard. The person in charge now is Grikhe is weak, but he has lots of goblins to defend him, and lots of them are strong. Like me!" she stated smugly.

  I nodded at that. Yep, savage goblin hierarchy. "Let's say that this person killed Grik and all his protectors. What happens then?" I asked with a curious and innocent look.

  "That's easy!" the guard said with a snort as she started once again to pick her nose. "The killers go to the arena and proclaim themselves leader. Anyone who disagrees has to go fight them. When no one is left who challenges their rule, they become the new leader."

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the pure idiocy of that system. "Thank you, and you mentioned you were one of Grik's guards?" I asked shyly. She nodded and stood proudly, a booger hanging from her nose. I glanced over at the still-sleeping guard. "And him?" I asked. She nodded again.

  I smiled at her and sliced her head off with my tail, now an earthen spike. It quickly shifted back as I turned and fired a void ball directly at the sleeping goblin's head. The head vanished and the void ball continued on, piercing through the wall probably off to erase its way through the goblin army.

  I turned and whistled to myself quietly, walking down the street towards another guard. As I reached him, he looked at me with boredom and said, "Killing guards in Surtank is a punishable offense five gold pieces per guard. If you do not pay, you will need to be fitted for a collar. Do not resist."

  "Of course!" I said in a defeated tone before adding, "Are you one of Grik's big strong men?"

  The guard actually narrowed his stupid little eyes and asked, "Why does that matter? Pay the fine or else."

  I'll be void, a smart goblin. I nodded and sliced his head off before casually walking down the road again. I gave up asking and just started slicing. Based on their stupid system, I now owed the city around 110 gold pieces. Once Tama was in power, we would wipe away that pesky debt.

  They actually started trying to fight back the guards did, at least. A few of the civilians too. But most just watched, uncaring. They were goblins, after all. It didn't affect them, and I was only attacking the ones with weapons. So many of them didn't even bother.

  I managed to find my way to this 'arena' they spoke of. It was actually the nicest building in the entire city. The guards there actually looked competent, and there was a line to get in. I could hear fighting on the other side faintly. It was a large coliseum-like building.

  I walked up to the guard on the right of the door. "Excuse me, what is the price for entering the arena to become ruler?"

  The guard looked at me and snorted before drawing his sword. I let him swing at me, caught the sword with a tail spike, and used it to lift him. He began to panic and let go, but I caught him with another tail spike directly in the heart. I threw his corpse at the other guard who was already rushing at me. His body hit the other guard hard, and they both went flying back.

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  Four guards surrounded me, and I cringed at their idiocy. Even Grok's men weren't this stupid. I grew three more tails and made an earthen wind blade by coating them in spikes and twirling them super fast in a circle. The goblins rushed into them and were turned to blood mist. I wasn't even expecting them to be that stupid, but it was amusing.

  I made my way into the arena and down into the stands. In the arena, a group of goblins were fighting another group of goblins. I jumped from the stands and walked towards them. They noticed me and rushed. I smiled as I shifted while walkingI shrank until I was a small white fox, then I began to grow. A moment later, I was a five-foot white-haired kitsune fox with red eyes and nine tails. All my tails expanded at once and went after a different goblin, each tail coated in sharp earthen spears. Most found their mark, but one goblin was smart enough to dodge my tail and jump onto it before launching herself at me. A foolish attempt. I opened my mouth and felt a burning sensation as I breathed fae fire, burning the goblin to a crisp and leaving nothing but a burnt husk, the fae fire still dancing on the corpse.

  I looked around to make sure I was alone in the arena, then I walked to the center and shifted back to my F oxkin form.

  I looked out at the crowd of thousands of goblins, all cheering me on. I didn't actually realize how big Surtank actually was until this moment. I froze for a moment before steeling myself. After all, I was still fulfilling Tama's decree; the urge was actually insane. Either being her royal advisor made it stronger, or Tama's royal lineage was just that insanely strong. None of this went against what I wanted; I was perfectly fine killing all these goblins. I was a little miffed that I was more or less being subliminally controlled. I understood how Tera felt now, though it was truly a wonderful experience. I would have done all this anyway for Tama, but the compulsion to carry out her will was one void of a drug, intoxicating in all the right ways and then some.

  I shook my head and tried to clear it, the compulsion helping me find the right words. They came almost naturally. Technically, the compulsion was to free the slaves. But it seems royal compulsion worked with a person, not against them. It uses your own feelings and mind to find the optimal path to complete the compulsion, using the target's mind as its own form. For me, the optimal path was simply putting Tama in power over the city of Surtank, and thus the surrounding goblin towns. By doing this, I would be allowing her to force them to become her citizens, and she could make a royal decree banning slavery. The route was very indirect, but the compulsion did not care as long as I did as I was told.

  I took a deep breath and yelled loudly, "I, Autumnal Sakilera, hereby declare new leadership of Surtank to her royal highness, Empress Fuyuki Tamaneko! Any who dare challenge her rule shall face me in combat!"

  The cheers grew louder and louder until they were deafening. Then they came, in the hundreds. I felt fear, but the compulsion hardened my resolve, and I began to shift. I didn't want to do this part, but I knew it was the only way I was going to win against this many goblins. I stood tall in my kitsune form, and with my will steeled and my desires aligned with the compulsory decree, I activated an ability I learned I could do one I didn't like using due to its catastrophic effects, but one I needed to use, that the compulsion pushed me to activate. I closed my red eyes in sadness as my void circle activated.

  I didn't care for the goblins, but what was about to happen didn't deserve to happen to anyone. The first goblin reached the suddenly formed large purple circle around me. They stepped onto it and were erased entirely. Each goblin who stepped onto the circle was simply gone. Ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, one hundred. All gone in an instant. I winced as I watched more goblins vanish. I didn't keep count; I simply watched as hundreds simply ceased to exist. Then it was over, and none were left. A few had tried to jump, only for a tail spike to stab them or knock them down into the void circle.

  There were still thousands of goblins like the hundreds hadn't even made a dent. They continued to cheer at the massacre. I always thought goblins loved bloodshed, but apparently my erasure had the same effect for them. It wasn't really relevant, I supposed. Instead, I shifted back to my F oxkin form and called out, "If this is all, then by your own admission, you are all citizens under her majesty as of this moment!"

  The cheering crowd got even louder somehow, and I took that as consent. I wasn't sure what to do next when it happened. There was a blue circular wave that spread out from me and covered the entire building and kept going. I watched as all the goblins of them suddenly had blue outlines that vanished after a moment. Was... was that it? Had I really just conquered a goblin city in the name of my best friend by myself? I shakily stood to my feet; I hadn't even realized I had sat down.

  I shakily walked to the exit of the arena, catching myself on the wall in the long hallway. The goblins cheering outside was painful to my ears, and tears streamed down my cheeks. I pushed forward, desperate to finish this. The compulsion had not stopped when the city was conquered, only moved to the next step. I left the arena and made my way down the street when I realized I didn't actually know what to do next. Slowly, I looked around for a guard, only to remember I had killed most of them in the hostile takeover. I considered for a long moment how I was supposed to do this when a female goblin rushed up to me.