Mizuki watched his Goblins captors with horror.
It wasn't that his own unit had suffered the disgrace of being overrun. They had been small already, judged adquet enough to defend the village, which itself had only been garrisoned to guard a road network. A few troops and a palisade were all that could be spared for this flank. Any of the larger goblin forces would have swarmed by weight of numbers alone, no matter what his masters said.
It wasn't because of what they might do to him. Mizuki was fearless of his own health, and had the battle and training scars to prove it. Any delights these goblins might take with him before they stripped the flesh off his bones was a proper punishment for the shame of being captured in the first place.
No, it was the orc that led this intrepid band of cowards. He wasn't that much larger than most other orcs Mizuki had slain. But he was unquestionably brighter, stronger, and more motivated. When their idiot fool of a profane had come out to try and help, the orc had jumped straight into the battlements, removing his head with a cudgel more aken to a tree than a club in a single swing before causing rampant panic on their battlement. He had seen the Profane for the threat he was, eliminated him first, and then gone to cause the distraction that let his goblin followers break inside the battlements. Whether they needed to was a question Mizuki didn't care to dwell on: that Orc fought as viciously as any serpant.
Breaking away from the fireplace where goblins were eating captured Yokaido animals (and maybe a few dead bodies: they hadn't bothered to clean up the torn bodies that now served as stools), the monster orc came and crouched infront of Mizuki.
"You talk, you live longer," it stated simply. "You don't, Thumb-Screw gets to convince you to." He gestured to a clever-looking goblin sitting on what had been his brother's head. Hearing his name, the goblin turned and gave a cheeky wave.
"You think you can torture what you want out of me? I'd rather die first," Mizuki exclaimed.
The orc laughed. "Him not called Thumb-Screw because he screw your thumb. Him like to use thumb to screw. He like people like you."
At first Mizuki didn't understand. Then he saw how most of the other goblins carefully kept their distance just as they did the Orc who commanded them, didn't dare look at him even as his gaze took in all of them...
"That's foul," he whispered, face white. That sort of shame couldn't be repaired even in the afterlife...
The Orc laughed, but was serious. "Then talk, weak god child. Why there a profane" what was next was undoubtably an unprintable epitaph, "here?"
"He was supposed to help us stop you. He and his kind are supposed to give us the power to stop you mongrels while our forces continue to smash the Grigori."
The Orc laughed again. "You out of date," he said. "They know how to make your metal weapons too now. You no longer cut through our weapons like wood now."
Mizuki's eyes widened. "You are Gr-" He was cut off as a small knife slit his throat from behind.
"You said too much," Thumb-Screw said, sheathing his knife. "Leave it to me to cover your big mouth."
"Did I?" asked the Orc. "I knew you keep him from blabbing."
Thumb-Screw snorted. "Well at least we know the rumors are true now. The Yokaido are embracing the Ashen Veil. It won't be too long before they send them to the front, and not relegated to guard duty here. Thank the gods for Yokaido pride, insisting on killing us themselves."
Before the Orc could reply, a goblin approached as fast as his tiny legs would carry him, yelling for his leader.
"Leader! Leader! Leader!" he chimed, and other goblins began to echo it as almost a chant.
"I am here," the orc said, standing up. "What you see, Long-Nose?"
"Snake warriors approach! Tons and tons of them! With shiny weapons and everything!"
"There must have been a unit that a survivor ran into nearby," Thumb-Screw whispered.
"Any mage men?" asked the orc chief.
The goblin nodded frantically. "And shambling men too!"
"Man the palisade!" Groo thundered. "This time we shoot arrows down on them, and they die and run away!" The goblins cheered and skuttled to their posts, but the orc kept Thumb-Screw behind.
"Can you kill the profane before he can direct the corpses at us?" he asked quietly. "If the two of us need to go back and get another Goblin clan..."
'Thumb-Screw' snorted. "Those fools at Aeron's Bounty are fools, amateurs. They put more show into it than needs to be done. You tell me who you want dead, he ends up dead." And with that, Needles disappeared into the woods that the Yokaido would be approaching through.
The Orc shook his head with a smile and made his way to the battlements, where the Goblins would fall without him to keep them their.
"Time for Groo to do what Groo does best."