Liquidation: From Big Boss to Bloody Demon Sauce Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Old Stories

Read chapter 28 of Liquidation: From Big Boss to Bloody Demon Sauce by Magic on NovelPedia.

The self-assured smirk on Grimora's face widened. Everything happened in a literal blur. She moved with explosive speed, closing the ten-foot gap before the troll's sluggish brain even registered the threat. Her right arm darted out, the Ether instantly forming her hand into a rigid, shimmering pink blade that slashed horizontally through the toxic air. There was the wet, sickening sound of parting flesh, followed immediately by something incredibly heavy thudding onto the dirt. A strangled, bubbling gasp escaped the stump of the troll's neck. When I fully processed the visual data, the massive lead troll was collapsing onto his knees, geysers of black blood shooting into the air, while his decapitated, ugly head rolled off into the thorny brush. There was a moment of absolute, paralyzed silence from the four remaining trolls as they watched their supposedly untouchable boss die in less than a second. Grimora calmly pulled a silk cloth from a pocket on her thigh and meticulously wiped the black blood from her fingers, a look of utter, bored nonchalance on her face. "I sincerely apologize for the sudden violence in the workplace," she said, looking at the trembling trolls with a bright, customer-service smile. "But please understand that we are actively looking to expand our network, and we want to be friends. As long as you are not disrespectful to the CEO, there shouldn't be any further disciplinary actions." The massive trolls exchanged terrified, wide-eyed glances. The absolute skepticism and bloodlust radiating from them moments ago had been entirely replaced by paralyzing, instinctual fear. Finally, the second tallest among them—a brute missing half of his left ear—took a trembling step forward, his club lowering to the dirt. "We... we will join ya for breakfast," he grunted nervously, shooting a terrified glance at the rapidly cooling corpse of his former boss. "Friends. Good friends." Thus, through a perfectly executed targeted termination, we successfully acquired a gang of hungry, violent trolls, turning them into hesitant but highly cooperative subsidiaries. Everything was going exactly as my business model predicted. "Excellent," I vibrated from atop the hound. "Now let's get those corporate introductions out of the way, shall we?" And just like that, our aggressive campaign to source capital for a dragon finally started in earnest. Rather than actually attempting to eat a meal in the middle of a blood-soaked clearing, Grimora instructed our new acquisitions to escort us directly to their base of operations. Along the way, the three most vocal trolls introduced themselves as Gnash, Rumble, and Snarl. They were all equally gruesome, reeking of old sweat and rotting meat, but I quickly identified a rigid corporate hierarchy among them. They moved around us with extreme caution, giving Grimjaw a wide berth and showing absolute, subservient respect to Grimora—born entirely out of the fear of sudden decapitation rather than genuine loyalty. But fear was a highly effective motivator in the short term. As we progressed deeper into the dense brush towards their hideout, I noted that the Blackrock Trolls lived in absolute squalor. Their settlement was a collection of crude, leaning wooden huts, scattered haphazardly in a clearing hidden from obvious aerial view by the thick canopy. It was a bare-minimum, unoptimized existence, with the remains of rusted metal scraps and massive, cracked bones scattered around the dirt—remnants of previous, poorly managed raids. They were sitting on potential raw materials and doing absolutely nothing with them. Despite the grim, highly unsanitary scene, the trolls unexpectedly offered us a seat on a relatively clean log and brought over some dried, unidentifiable meat—what they likely considered fine dining. Grimora politely but firmly declined the highly questionable assets, claiming that our specific dietary restrictions required a different kind of currency. While Grimora flawlessly led m