Chapter 19- Kobold Chief

Scarlett looked at Acht who was standing there calmly as if nothing happened. She felt her emotions go chaotic. 

"You…Sigh…" She tapped her forehead as if she was suffering from a painful headache. She then walked to him and looked him in the eyes with an extremely serious look.

"Listen, Acht. From the moment I decided to help you as a part of our deal, I tried to build some kind of trust between us, and to be honest, I have some things I can't wrap my head around when it comes to you. You are just full of mysteries…" 

She then took a deep breath to collect herself and continued, " I get that you want to have your secrets and that's totally fine…But, let me tell you this…Your talent and skills are amazing to the point where it scares me sometimes. You don't seem to understand that what you're doing is by no means average or even something that geniuses of this world could pull off."

Acht widened his eyes slightly in surprise and looked at Scarlett who seemed to be having a conflict inside of her. She was never someone to lose composure no matter what situation it was but she somehow seemed to lose that trait of hers whenever Acht was involved.

"I…see."

"So please, I want you to understand that this lack of common sense of yours could be your ticket to the afterlife."

Acht nodded his head with some remorse in his eyes. In both of his lives, he sought perfection in everything he does and his skills made it easier for him to live up to those standards he set for himself. But, he was in the end a human being who was bound to make mistakes and this was one of those cases. So, he didn't know how to deal with this fault of his except for doing one thing.

"I apologize for the inconvenience. I indeed have some secrets that I don't want anyone to know and I still can't tell you these things since we knew each other for only a few days. I will take your words to heart, Miss Scarlett." He said without looking at her directly.

Even with his prideful attitude, he felt the need to apologize in that situation or guilt would linger in his heart. It was indeed a very weird situation.

What he didn't know is that the old him would've never apologised in this situation. But, Acht was going through a change, a change that was so minuscule that he didn't perceive.

"Good. I hope you don't act carelessly like this again." She tapped on his shoulder lightly before turning around to look at the chamber.

There were no sounds coming from inside even though the door was fully open. However, the atmosphere inside was even more suffocating than the outside so both of them were pretty sure the chief was inside.

"Are you ready? I won't be helping unless the situation becomes dangerous."

"I'm ready."

Then, they both walked inside slowly, Acht's sword was already in his hand and his eyes kept wandering around endlessly.

At first, nothing happened. The dark room was quiet and not even the presence of the chief could be felt. But, before Acht could get suspicious, a loud scream that shook the whole chamber reached his ears and made him close his eye in pain. The scream was so loud that it threatened to break his ears.

Then, a big silhouette walked out of the shadows clad in a veil of darkness. The monster was humongous, almost 4 times the size of an average human with huge muscles that threatened to burst from their sheer density. Its face was similar to that of a normal kobold but somehow even more ferocious.

Its teeth were razor-sharp and its massive mouth could swallow Acht in one gulp. It was indeed a creature that walked out of a person's worst nightmares.

Acht however, didn't feel intimidated at all by this monster. He was aware that it was stronger than normal kobolds but that was it. It was in the end a brainless monster.

The monster didn't wait for the humans and charged toward them like a raging bull ready to squash them like ants. The duo didn't wait either and jumped in different directions, leaving the charging chief to pass and smash into the wall roughly.

"Woaaarr!!!" The monster was angry that its initial attack didn't work so it shook itself and looked at the smaller prey out of the two which was Acht. The kobold wanted to get rid of the smaller human since it looked weaker and then deal with Scarlett, who it saw as the real threat.

Acht didn't wait for it and used all of his soul force in activating gravity. He applied all of it on the monster and pushed it away making it stumble to the ground.

Then, he charged at it and jumped on top of its body. The monster tried to grab Acht with his left hand but Acht jumped over it and ran on his arm until he reached his face. 

He wanted to stab one of his eyes since they were one of the few obvious weak points of this behemoth of a creature.

The sword moved swiftly toward his left eye but the monster was quick enough to stand on his feet and shake off Acht.

The boy fell down from the monster's shoulder and tried to adjust his posture in the middle of the air. The monster saw this opening and tried to slap Acht with his hand.

"Damn it." Acht clicked his tongue as he pointed his sword in the direction of the upcoming hand. He could evade it if he pushed himself with his gift but he didn't have time to do so, so the only choice left was what he was doing.

The hand clashed with the sword making the blade pierce the flesh of the monster's hand.

The Kobold felt the pain from the hit but it didn't stop. Acht then grabbed the sword tightly and supported his feet on the hand before pushing the sword inside as hard as he could.

The momentum of the hit could've sent him flying but he used the sword to stay stuck to his hand, evading imminent death.

"Wraaaa!!!" The kobold understood what happened and tried to pull Acht away.

The latter was faster in his reaction as he hurriedly pulled his sword out and jumped away to make distance between them.

'That was a close call. This fucker is quite tricky.' He thought as he cracked his fingers lightly. He felt his arms almost break from the impact and his fingers felt sore from his hard grip on the handle.

The monster was no better than Acht, its hand was bleeding a lot and it was outraged because of the tenacious human in front of it.

Both of them looked at each other for a brief moment before they both ran at each other at the same time.

The difference in size made the confrontation outrageous. A Monster over 7 meters tall was fighting a small, weak looking kid.

The creature stopped abruptly and smashed down with its hand. Acht had to jump to the side to avoid it.

The hand hit the ground and created a hole in the hard stone. If Acht was late by even a mere millisecond, he could've turned into a flat piece of paper.

"Wraaaa!!!" 

"Shut up. You are noisy." Acht muttered with a cold look and activated his gift again. He had an idea in mind but he wasn't sure if it would work or not. But, he was ready to take on that gamble since he could make a distance between them if things came to the worst.

He then pointed his hand to the ceiling while running around the monster. He had a slightly hard time evading his attacks while also doing what he was intending to do. 

The fight kept on going for a few more minutes where Acht only evaded the chief while the latter kept on chasing him around the place frantically. It was akin to a game of cat and mouse albeit more dangerous.

"Come on. I'm close." He muttered with beads of sweat trickling down his small face.

Then, when he saw that he did it, he changed his direction and ran toward one of the walls on the side. 

He halted his steps and turned around with an emotionless gaze and stared directly at the charging monster as if he was provoking it.

The chief didn't think much of it and kept on running towards him madly.

"Checkmate." Acht muttered before making a gesture with his finger pointing down to the ground.

Suddenly, a massive and pointy stone stuck to the ceiling shook violently before falling down. The monster was directly under the massive boulder so it couldn't evade it.

*Boom*

The impact made the place shake as if it was hit by an earthquake. A huge cloud of dust covered the place of the impact.

Acht stood in his place not moving an inch. He wasn't sure of its death and he couldn't afford to make a mishap at such a critical moment.

Then, after the dust dissipated, he saw what happened clearly. The monster was on the ground, bathing in his own blood with a massive rock piercing its head. Its brain got obliterated.

The monster got killed instantly without even being able to scream.

"Fewh. That was unexpectedly tiresome." Acht thought with a tired look. It was indeed a close fight.

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