CH 25. Kaz?

Relaying the information to the rest of the group, Bell determines that one Kobold on his own, even if bigger than the rest, would be easy considering they killed the others with no problem.

Sarah wanted to say something, but before she could voice her concern, Bell opened the door, and Roland and her charged in. Wishing they were not so reckless, Sarah followed after along with Peter.

"What the?" Kaz said in proper English, which startled Bell as she continued her charge. Kaz quickly jumped from his chair and went to face the intruders. He noticed Peter and Sarah were there slowly following after the little girl and armless man. He was not sure if they were here to attack him or greet him, but from the looks of it, the little girl meant to kill him. She had knives drawn and was coming right for him.

Pulling his sword, Kaz parried the incoming attacks but noticed this girl was just about as skilled as the militia leader from before. He would have had more trouble keeping up with her, but he had increased his Dexterity and Strength since that fight, so he was able to keep up with her swings easier.

She was skillful with her attacks. He could tell she had been training hard for years to get to this point. Unfortunately, he had a system in place to build up his skills. He was keeping pace with her, but things changed once the one-armed man came into contact with him. He was swinging wildly as if he was still not used to being unbalanced. Kaz was able to fend off his attacks easily, but when Bell attacked from behind, he found that he was quickly outmatched. Peter and Sarah watched from the back. Crying out for them to stop attacking the Kobold, but Bell and Roland would not listen.

They did not want to see their new companions fall, but they also did not want to see Kaz get hurt. If he was going to survive this encounter, he knew he was going to have to take out one of these humans. He decided to go for the one-armed man since he was an easy target. He focused his attention on him and quickly outmuscled the poor man. He almost felt bad for what he was about to do.

Using the full force of his blade, Kaz swung at Roland cutting the man down swiftly. Crying out in anger, Bell charged Kaz, trying to get to him before he could land the finishing blow. She was quick and managed to get a good stab in on Kaz's back. He let out a scream, and Bell felt like she was victorious. She made the large kobold cry like that, which mean she weakened it. She also saved her friend. She knew this fight was hers!

All of a sudden, Bell found her self flying in the air, looking above everyone. What was this feeling? It was strange. She did not feel entirely there. As if she were floating. Time seemed to slow down as she continued to fly in the air, scanning the battle. She noticed her two companions in the back crying for her; their eyes were of horror as they watched her. What were they worried about? She saw her friend Roland. The man who she had been friends with for so many years. A buffoon most days but a gentleman none the less. Tears in his eyes as he looked at something. But what was he looking at? It was not the Kobold. He was looking at something behind the monster. She finally saw what it was that made him so worried.

It was her. He was crying for her. But how could that be she was up in the air. It finally dawned on her. She was looking at her body, slowly falling to the ground. But where was her head? Of course, she thought. It was flying high in the sky. But how did that happen? Her head rolled in the air a little more, and she could make out the beast that did it—a beautiful white-haired wolf woman. For a moment, Bell thought she was jealous of the woman, but all of the jealousy left as her vision began to fade.

"Oh, this is the end." Bell thought as her head hit the ground.

Panicked screams erupted from the room as Roland grabbed his mace, and viciously swung at Kaz. No skill or reason was in those swings—just anger and revenge. Kaz quickly blocked the attacks and waited for him to tire, but the man did not. He continued to swing as tears stung his eyes. He was not going to die today, and he was going to bring Bell back. If it cost him the rest of his life, he would bring her back.

Kaz felt terrible for the man. He did not want to kill more people. Especially the people who seemed to be friends of Peter and Sarah, but the man would not stop attacking him. Perish turned to face the last attacker but stayed her ground. She knew it was futile for him to keep going. He was only prolonging the inevitable.

Kaz looked at the berserk man and decided to end it now. With a few swift moves, he cut the man down and took a breath. He rubbed the wound on his shoulder and looked to his worried friends.

"What are you doing here?"

They walked up to him and looked at their dead companions. it took him a minute to regain his composure, but Peter replied. "We were teleported here to slay the kobold den for the adventurer mission, but we weren't expecting there to be kobold here."

Sarah finally chimed in with confusion in her voice. "Where did they come from, and why were you leading them?"

Peter walked up to Kaz and began healing his wounds. Kaz thanked him and sat back down on his meager throne. Resting his head on his hand, he looked to his two friends. "It's a long story. It turns out the main city has a few tricks up their sleeves."

-TWO WEEKS AGO-

Waving them goodbye, Kaz and Perish headed back into the hut to prepare for the day. It was going to be quiet without Sarah and Peter around. Perish decided to head to her garden and begin her daily ritual of trimming weeds and nurturing the herbs and other plants. Entering the hut, Kaz chose to look over his spellbook, which he hadn't touched since the two were here. Looking over, he noticed that he could now understand the spells inside. Some were similar to the ones he had already, but there were a few that were new to him.

"Interesting some of these might come in handy!"

Closing the book, Kaz looked around. With no sudden fighting or conflict, he found himself bored. He never realized just how much peace bored him. Perhaps it was his kobold nature kicking in, but he felt he needed to do something destructive. Leaving the hut, Kaz wandered around the forest, looking for something to hunt. "Might as well get some food for lunch." He thought to himself as he felt almost a twinge of irritation. What was this feeling? He did not understand it; something was off.

It took him a few moments, but he realized the birds were not chirping like they usually did. Instead, it was dead silent. Kaz smiled; that meant something was up. Getting low to the ground to make his presence less noticeable, he continued walking around, looking for whatever was the cause of the silence.

It did not take long since the cause was a vast army of humans flooding the forest. It was more than Kaz had ever seen, and they looked well-armed and dangerous. They seemed to be carrying with the cages full of Kobold. That was surprising to Kaz. What were they doing here with so many monsters?

As Kaz continued to follow them, someone looked in his direction. Kaz ducked down and did his best to blend into the bushes. It was about time he upgraded his Stealth. Lv 1 was not going to cut it. Opening up his character sheet, he hovered over Stealth, and it required 2 points to increase to Lv 2. He placed the points in it, and he could already feel the knowledge of Stealth flowing into his mind. Slowing his breath and silencing his movements more, he continued to follow the group.

It was becoming more apparent where they were heading. The stench was overwhelming, and Kaz could barely continue following them. The cave Kaz started from was now in front of him. The Kobolds stuck in the cages were forced out and back into the cave. Some tried to run away and were killed on the spot.

The head of this army spoke in broken Draconic to the Kobolds. "Your lives reside here now. Leave, and you will be killed. Live in filth or clean the cave. I don't care."

The soldiers leave the cave with haste as Kaz can tell most of them cannot stand the stench. Watching the cave, Kaz decides to wait it out to see how they react to their new surroundings.