In a vast cavern lit by glowing moss on the ceiling, tall red mushrooms filled the space from end to end, their caps releasing poisonous spores into the air. Beneath them, a kobold encampment stretched for miles, now in ruins. Tents lay shredded, blood pooled across the ground, and the cavern echoed with the screams of panicking, dying kobolds.
At the very center stood a prominent tent, several times larger and grander than the rest. Inside, Skarrix, the Rank 3 kobold sorcerer, rushed to prepare his ultimate spell, his own creation combining his innate talent for manipulating plants with his knowledge of magic from old tomes.
The spell was dangerous and demanded more than just his mana and skill. It drew on the life force of everyone in the village, or at least those who died for it. This was his final contingency against an attack beyond his capability, like the storm of metal now crushing his army.
With a final wisp of mana, the spell activated. Pools of blood, flesh, and bone seeped into the ground, gathering into a dense orb of essence between the storm of metal and the village. It then burst upward as green vines that dragged in stone and earth, while the mushrooms covering it bloomed.
What emerged was a 10-meter monstrosity that lumbered toward their enemies, fueled by the fear, hate, rage, and vengeance of the recently deceased. It was still no match for the storm of metal, but drawing on the accumulated essence beneath it, it continued to push forward. Slowly and relentlessly, it advanced, inspiring courage among the kobold ranks who followed behind it.
The storm of metal seemed to ease as the construct pushed forward. Their enemies were clearly wary, buying time to retreat.
"Victory is within reach," Skarrix celebrated.
Then a world-shattering explosion tore through the cavern.
BOOM!
The lumbering giant's chest erupted, sending shards of stone flying through the air and shredding the vines that held it together. With its supports destroyed, the construct collapsed, unmoving, terrifying the kobold army just as they were about to begin their counterattack.
Moments later, the storm of metal resumed, cutting through their ranks like a sharp blade through thin leather. More of Skarrix's forces fell as the survivors scattered in panic.
"No! Not yet!" Skarrix hissed.
Beneath the ground, he felt the pooled essence stir, struggling to reform the construct. He poured more of his mana into it, shaping its form and forcing more energy into its growth. That was when he felt a shadow flicker inside his tent.
He turned, spotting a demihuman emerging from the shadows. He raised his staff and pointed it forward, casting a spell and launching a devastating earth spike that nailed the demihuman in the head, but all it did was tear through shadows. It was a decoy.
Another presence erupted behind him. He turned to confront it, mana gathering at the focus of his staff, but it fizzled out as a pair of daggers dug into the scales of his neck. Something behind him was disrupting the flow of mana.
He tried to swing his staff behind him to knock his attacker away when a sudden shock jolted him. A dagger had been driven into his back, deep enough to run him through.
"Im…possible!" he gasped, watching the blade emerge from his stomach.
He was a Rank 3 kobold sorcerer. No ordinary blade could pierce his scales, certainly not the Rank 2 dagger protruding from his stomach, nor the Rank 2 demihuman behind him.
Before he could regain control of his body, shadows coiled around him, locking him in place and preventing even the slightest movement. From behind, something forced its way into his stomach, something dangerous.
Then the shadows rose, his vision cutting out as darkness closed in completely. In that total absence, the end came as an explosion tore through him from within.
Boom!
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Elyra watched as her assassination succeeded against the Rank 3 kobold sorcerer. She was lucky he wasn't the physical type, otherwise her Rank 2 dagger enchanted with pure penetration wouldn't have been enough.
As for the combo she had used, she started with Shadow Strike, enhancing Garrote as she sliced at his neck to cut off the flow of mana. Due to the gap in rank, however, the most she could manage was a short disruption. She followed with Backstab to stun, then Shadow Bind to lock him in place. Finally, she used one of her more powerful dishes produced with Destructive Meal, feeding it directly into his stomach before covering him with Shadow Rampart.
The result was a pile of flesh and shattered bone on the floor.
"Seraphina comes up with the best assassination combos," Elyra said with a satisfied nod.
She then turned her attention to the red, pulsing magic circle at the center of the tent and broke its lines, interrupting the spell. It fizzled, its ominous red glow fading as the tent returned to darkness.
Finally, she stored every item in the tent that held mana, including Skarrix's remains, then slipped back into Bastion's shadow using Shadow Recall and reported the success of her hunt.
"Well done, Ely," Bastion said through telepathy.
"Thank you, Master," she replied with joy.
"The Rank 3 kobold sorcerer is gone," Bastion announced. "We'd better hurry up and start running them down. We haven't even managed to cut into half their numbers."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Lilia replied. "Something is bubbling beneath that golem. It feels like mana, but I'm pretty sure it's something more."
"Is it active?"
"No, but it's not stable either. It could explode if we get too close."
"What kind of mana is it?" Seraphina asked.
"I can't tell, but my professional opinion is that it's either Earth or Dark."
"Dark or Death?"
"I'm not an expert on either, so I can't say for sure, but it feels more ominous than Elyra's Shadow magic."
"Then it's definitely Death mana," Seraphina replied with confidence. "Don't worry, Death mana won't suddenly explode out of nowhere. It's Light, Fire, and Wind mana you have to be careful with when it collects and pools."
"Then we'd better hurry up and run them down, otherwise our tax exemption will scatter into the tunnels," Bastion said as he stored the autocannon and mounted his diamond steed.
Bastion and the girls proceeded to run down the entire kobold village despite their sheer numbers. Whenever the kobolds tried to gather their courage and group together, Bastion would simply bring out the autocannon and lay waste to them. This all but ensured that they fled in fear, never daring to look back or fight.
In the end, the group only managed to take down roughly a third of the entire horde. The majority of the hundred thousand hadn't made it out of the village before the start of the battle. This gave the survivors plenty of time to escape deeper into the cavern and scatter at every fork in the tunnels they encountered.
Elyra then began the tedious process of cleaning up, swallowing everything of value into her shadow before spitting it all out for Bastion and the others to assess. There wasn't much apart from scrap metal, certain collections of plants, and the loot she found in the leader's tent. The only other things they kept were the kobolds' heads as proof of their kills and the mysterious mass of essence Seraphina collected into an empty neutral crystal.
"Apart from the death essence, our total income for this raid isn't even worth 2 magic crystals," Seraphina complained. "How are we going to pay off 30 magic crystals' worth of taxes?"
"I don't think we can," Ariel answered. "There are plenty of hordes scattered deeper below, but it gets more dangerous. I don't think we even have enough ammunition for five more encampments."
"We can switch to Apprentice Rank bullets," Bastion replied. "The majority of our enemies are just apprentices anyway. No point wasting Rank 2 or Rank 1 rounds on them. The only reason we used them this time was to test them in combat, and they performed well. Now I have plenty of scrap metal to work with. The only problem is the lack of explosives."
"Don't look at me," Seraphina said. "Crystals of all kinds are popular in this kingdom. They act as fertilizer for certain plants. Fire crystals, for example, are used to grow stove mushrooms—Hearthcaps, I think they're called."
"Then we only have enough ammunition for three more hordes," Bastion said. "We could push further, but it would be pointless to waste the good bullets on them. On the bright side, we gained plenty of experience."
Bastion and Elyra finally leveled up, reaching level 202 thanks to Elyra taking down the Rank 3 kobold on her own. Lilia and Ariel reached level 201, while Seraphina remained in the lead at level 209.
"Let's just go with the three hordes before we rake in our tax exemption," Seraphina said with a sigh. "I'm never going to sell my skill scrolls in Rank 2 kingdoms again."
"And I'm never going to use good bullets in kingdoms that don't have the resources to produce them," Bastion added.
With that, Bastion and the girls wrapped up their raid and headed for the next horde on Ariel's list.
Meanwhile, trouble began brewing back in the fortified cities. Reports of a scattered horde just outside the kingdom's borders had started to alarm those in charge. If nothing was done and the trend continued, they might be witnessing the end of the war, and with it, the end of their peace and prosperity.
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