NOVEL SIMPLE To Know Death – Chapter 199
It is unfortunate that Doctor’s disruption can only go so far. Good thing that after pointing out the effect he was having on the kobolds to Jim, things got a whole lot easier as arrows started to sprout out of the surprised mages. There weren’t any clean shots, what with the kobold mages hiding around the bend, but it did the job of easing up the pressure Zach was under.
This was especially true once a lucky shot managed to take out one of the fire mages. Sure, the patrol leader and the other kobold fire mage was still around, but every little bit counts when dealing with a direct counter to your party's mage.
More importantly though, along with one of the mages being taken out of the fight, Susan manages to get in and finish off all four of the kobold goatherds before they can get off of the floor. From there, cleaning up the rest of the goats is a lot easier as even with them on the floor, they had been keeping the herd organized through their sheer presence. Though even with the benefit of them being reduced to a normal herd of animals, it was still a grind to kill 90 something goats.
It is at this point that the main army of the kobold town makes itself known. With the boss near the back, but in front of the mages, all 40 of the remaining kobolds come out to face the intruders now that the alley isn’t jammed to the gills with animals. After all, this was only a relatively small alley. Though only relatively as it could just about fit three people across, while kobolds could fit a good four or five.
Right in front of the boss are the three remaining patrol leaders; the mace user, the spear wielder, and the healer. Each of the three astride their companions, the stone wolves.
First to attack is of course the mages. They had already been in the swing of things when the boss had shown up and so was ready to continue. Zach also hadn’t been slacking despite the distractions going on. He might not be able to take out all the enemy mages at once, but taking out the fire mage was more than worth it.
Now though, the trap is set and the fire mage fell right into it. Sure, the boss coming out had disrupted most things on both sides, but Zach’s spell had been creeping its way across the ground for quite a while now and was finally in place. Without a second though he sends a wicked set of spikes up through the ground and into the last fire mage.
This doesn’t kill the kobold instantly, but the fire mage’s attempt to burn out the spikes and cauterize the wounds failed and so soon enough he fell. This little interlude however didn’t interrupt the rest of the fight.
Three rows of kobolds five wide, all wielding shields and maces, slowly advances on the party. Right behind them is a collection of 12 spear kobolds, three of which are ensouled, following closely behind and using their spears to make sure any attempts at charging in will be a painful experience. A true display of the kobolds might.
On a wider field of battle where they could spread out and properly flank the party things might have gone differently. As it is though, the extra deep collection of shield kobolds isn’t doing them much good. In fact, the setup puts all the spear users a little too far back. Sure, the spear heads still manage to stick through, but only just.
At least by being packed this tight the kobolds are able to make a proper shield wall with Jim being unable to line up a shot. Zach tries to disrupt the formation, but had focused too much power into assuring the last fire mage died to do much of anything at this point. This could have gone quite badly.
Could have, but didn’t. Susan had been ready for an impressive shield wall. Over the weeks she had noticed the kobolds propensity towards turtling up like that and came prepared. From her backpack she pulls out five small satchels made of a very rough paper. Then with a quick warning to the rest of her party, she tosses them out towards the kobolds.
One of the packets is intercepted mid-air by a wind spell that stops it dead. Another one gets blocked by one of the shield kobolds at the front. The other three however make it through and land deep in the middle of the kobold’s formation. Upon impact with the ground or shield, all five satchels burst apart and released what looks like a very fine powder. This of course was not Susan attempting to go for a dust explosion, rather it was a decent mix of paralysis and sleep spores that had been alchemically treated to maintain their potency.
The air mage that hadn’t tried to intercept the packets was able to whip up a quick air shield that prevented the spores from touching him. On the other hand, the boss and three remaining squad leaders tanked through the poison. Sure, the patrol leaders were fazed by it for a moment, but overall they resisted things pretty well.
The shield and spear kobolds as well as all the other mages and healers did not. With the kobolds either paralyzed or forced into a deep sleep; Susan, Sammy, and Jay begin scything through them like wheat while Jim lets loose. Six arrows, one right after another, and every single one of them is a kill shot on healers and mages. Only the healer who was a squad leader and one air mage survived this rapid fire death.
By the time the front line kobolds and stone wolves had recovered, ten of the shield kobolds and eight of the spear kobolds had died. The kobolds, now with only the boss, squad leaders, five shield users, and four spear users are forced to back off and regroup. A task made all the more difficult as Jim’s party isn’t exactly going to let them just slink off.
Another two shield kobolds fall before they manage to sort themselves out and shake the last of the paralyzes out of their bodies with the help of the healer. All the while Jim continues to try and snipe said healer. Though the air mage is more than showing his worth. His wind barrier throws off Jim’s arrows randomly. A useful feature that makes certain Jim can’t just learn the displacement of the shield and adjust his aim.
What Jim can do and in fact, does, is switch targets to the annoying air mage. While it may be possible for the kobold mages to protect multiple things on a deeper floor, that is not an option here and so the air mage soon sports an arrow through the eye. Of course with that, it isn’t like the healer is instantly dead.
After all, compared to the mage, the healer was ensouled and had been learning how to fight over the past few months. While sure, the stone wolf he was riding wasn’t able to do the same, the healer had still managed to teach it a few tricks. One of which is how to protect the healer when they slide off and hide behind it.
This does prevent the healer from helping what is left of the front line. However he has given up on them anyway so this one flaw doesn’t seem all that important. And to be fair to him, there isn’t much a healer can do when their teammates are being one shot. At least the boss and fellow squad leaders have more experience in fighting.
The healer’s actions prove correct within moments of him sliding off the wolf’s back as an arrow flies over them in a trajectory that would have taken it right through the healer’s eye. He can only shake his head at how accurate the invader was. After having watched the squad leader with a bow practice, all those eye shots were simply like magic.
And that magic doesn’t stop as an arrow manages to find its way through the stone wolf’s hide and strikes the heart. An impressive feat since there isn’t even a direct path from the stone hide to the heart, at least not from the direction that Jim is shooting from. Jim of course doesn’t have much of a reaction to the shot and just moves onto trying to snipe the healer once more.
Though despite Jim’s impressive trick shots, he still can’t deal with the fact that the healer is behind a corpse of decent size. Sure, give it some time and the dungeon would reclaim the body, but that is quite a time away as far as the fight is concerned, especially since Jay just downed the last shield kobold while Susan had finished off the spear kobolds not two moments before.
With that all that remains is the boss, the three patrol leads, and two stone wolves. While still not a safe fight, the party feels more than capable of finishing things off. Though after such a long fight they’re all feeling tired and the enemies still haven’t really been in the fight.
So of course the first to fall is the healer. Despite successfully hiding behind the corpse of his mount, that doesn’t prevent the melee fighters from coming up on him and finishing things. A task that Jay took to easily enough. He didn’t even go around the dead wolf, instead choosing to do an overhead swing to bypass it. The blow is quite the heavy one and manages to split the healer’s head.
At this point the Boss can tell things aren’t going her way once again. It might have been quite a while since the last defeat, but she wasn’t willing to go quietly into the night. With both of her remaining companions on wolf back she feels there is a chance at making a comeback or at least killing one of the intruders.
Those hopes and dreams however are crushed. The mace kobold manages to block the blow with her shield, but the follow up attack proves they still have a lot to learn about fighting. Starting next time of course, as Susan’s poisoned daggers slip in under the mace kobold’s ribcage. Not instantly fatal, but the heavy dose of paralysis poison directly to the area near the heart isn’t exactly healthy for you.
Her wolf isn’t much luckier either. With its rider suddenly slumped over, the wolf decides to attack head on. A less than clever plan that vanishes as its head bashes into a block of wood. Wood that instantly expands outwards to try and capture the creature. It doesn’t quite manage this, but more because Sammy is there to run it through.
All the while Jim is single handedly holding off the boss and the spear kobold. Because, yes, they have trained in how to fight and dodge blows. What they haven’t trained in, is when to ignore a blow. Like one of those westerns, Jim is making the two dance.
This gives the rest of the team more than enough time to regroup and focus on the last enemies on the floor. A challenge that in theory should have been a lot tougher than last time. After all, they don’t have twice as many people anymore. Instead though the fight goes smoother.
The reason is twofold. First, they have of course gotten stronger in the interim. Sure, the boss had learned some new tactics to fight with, but that can only take you so far when the enemy is just stronger than you. Second however was the real killer. The boss had died once already. First time around she fought to her last dregs because even if she knew she would come back. It hadn’t felt real. Now though? Death was just a temporary condition.
