[D'sP] Razor Leaf - Chapter 196 (Patreon)

To Susan’s left Sammy and Jay crash into the shield kobolds, Sammy using her shield and Jay the haft of his poleaxe. Through their combined bulk, the two of them are able to rebuff the shield wall. Not by much as the kobolds had been ready for them. It was, however, enough.

Susan spun out of the hole left by the downed shield kobold and ducks low, shoving a dagger up under a shield. With a splash of blood, the middle shield kobold loses all ability to stand on one of her legs, a dagger now jammed into the hip joint. Jay, in turn brings his poleaxe up and then while holding onto the end brings it back down.

The momentum behind the blow is more than enough to knock aside the bronze shield and nearly cuts the kobold in half. Still, almost in half is just as dead. The only problem being if the blade gets stuck. It didn’t.

A good thing that as Jay has to step back right quick as an ice spear tries to skewer him. Zach wasn’t quite able to keep the kobold ice mage in check, but this gave him a chance to follow up with his own attack. A spell he had been channeling on the side since the fight started.

From below the ice, air, and healing casters, a number of spear-like roots shoot up. Without notice, Zach had dropped a tree seed and had grown the roots to cover the floor under the mage trio. Of course, the healer had his fair share of experience fighting other casters so was able to respond with a simple shield.

The other two weren’t as lucky. Since the kobold ice mage had just finished casting a spell, it was unable to even react, being killed right then and there. The air mage, on the other hand, was able to redirect the spell he had been casting into a burst of air. This pushed him mostly out of the way, only mostly though as one of the roots still managed to lock him down by spearing through his leg. Jim wasn’t shy about helping either and another arrow soon finds a more fleshy home.

With the back line in chaos, the kobolds in front step up their efforts and take back some ground. The three shield kobolds that still live form up again and with a combined shove manage to get some room to breathe. All the while the spear kobolds huddle right up to them and keep the melee delvers from counter shoving.

Then the kobold leader joins the fray. On her stone wolf, she barrels through Sammy and Zach’s best attempts to hold the line. Jim however is having none of this and tries to pepper her with a barrage of arrows. She takes this in stride, guiding her wolf to zig and zag with the only arrows landing a hit bouncing off her mount’s stone hide.

When Zach notices this, he half panics. It is only half a panic though as he had planned for something like this to happen. So with only the slightest of fumbling he pulls seed coated in dried blood out of his pocket and tosses it in front of the kobold leader.

As the seed hits the ground, it shatters and a visible plume of nature magic billows out and a tree pops into existence, summoned from some strange corner of reality. Strange because this isn’t a normal tree, no. This tree has bone white leaves and bark that looks like dried blood that started to crack.

Not exactly what Zach had been looking for when he figured out how to summon it. Still, it worked fine for blocking a charging stone wolf. In fact, with how last second it was, the wolf doesn’t even get a chance to react before slamming face first into the trunk. A trunk that sprouts insidious looking hollow spikes. Not a drop of blood falls from the stone wolf’s wounds and the tree’s bark seems to become just a bit closer to the color of fresh blood.

The kobold leader isn’t caught by this. She had noticed Zach doing something and so was able to throw herself free of her mount and land in a roll. Back on her feet the kobold leader swings her bronze axe. Not at the back line, but at the backs of the front line.

Jim yelled a warning, and Sammy responded. Unlike the others, she had some proper iron gear, the Iron Gauntlets of the Defender she had received as a reward from the system. With one smooth action, she brought her arm up over her shoulder and protected her neck while jumping backwards.

The axe hit the gauntlet with neither winning out, but then Sammy’s back slams into the kobold leader and knocks them both over. Of course, for a kobold to be landed on by a well built human is going to hurt. Though Sammy doesn’t come out completely fine either.

With her arm up over her back, the landing manages to pop it out of the socket. That and the kobold leader is fully decked out in mostly bronze gear while she is still wearing what might charitably be called leather armor. Doctor is there for her though, just like Susan is there for the kobold leader but in reverse. So while Doctor focuses a spell on resetting her arm, Susan slips a thin dagger in between the kobold leader’s helmet and tunic.

While this was going on, Jay was holding the line. Though now that their leader is dead, the kobolds take a moment to gather themselves. Good thing they have the ensouled healer and spear kobold. Between the two of them, the kobolds manage to fall back and regroup.

The ensouled spear kobold knows that if they could have pushed at the same time, they could have done some damage. However, she also understands that not only is she paralyzed, the other kobolds aren’t really under her command like they were with their leader. She can already feel the weakness sweeping over her as the last of the leader’s presence leaves them.

Not that Jim was going to let them do what they want. Arrow after arrow rains down on the regrouped kobolds. A serious threat to their lives, though the kobold healer being uncontested means any hits are just temporary for now.

Then Doctor suffers a trio of daggers stabs from the side. At the last moment, Susan notices and manages to kill two of the attackers, but the last dagger wielding kobold manages to retreat to their group. A rookie mistake for Jim and his party over all.

They should have realized that three kobolds were missing. Instead, after not seeing them while they waited, the group had assumed the dagger kobolds weren’t with this group. Good thing self heals not only are just as effective, but because you don’t have to fight your own body, the spells use less power. Otherwise Doctor would have bled out quite quickly, nevermind the dagger to the kidney.

The remaining dagger kobold then falls over as it reaches the rest of his group, a quivering arrow stuck into the back of his neck. Jim turns back to the last eight kobolds and readies an arrow for the next opening. An opening that Jay is more than happy to provide.

One wide swing of Jay’s poleaxe later and Jim is able to thread the needle through the shields and pin the ensouled spear kobold in the heart. The healer does his best to heal her, but there just isn’t anything he can do as the ensouled spear kobold’s life slips away. One shot later and he too slips away. The rest of the kobolds do their best, but at this point none of them have actual combat experience and so soon fall to the parties might.

After that it takes Doctor a while to get back to full health, but he manages. While that is happening, though, Sammy gets lucky. The kobold leader ended up dropping some proper loot and she came away with a bronze helmet. Quite the upgrade from nothing.

Though with that settled and the miscellaneous drops such as potions and leaf wrapped goat meat gathered, Jim can’t help but frown. Even if most of the kobolds aren’t learning from experience, at least not by much, those that do have an inordinate effect on the others. This fight was a lot tougher than when they first started delving into this floor.

Worse yet, Jim knows this shouldn’t be happening. Bosses? Sure, they can learn just fine. Normal monsters in a dungeon? Not a chance! Not that he can do anything. Except, of course, hope they cap out somewhere. Still, with nothing to do all that is left is to move on.

Not wanting to run into the next group too quickly they decided to move in the direction that the dead patrol had been going. A decent plan, except the next patrol was trying out something new that no one had reported yet, mostly because they would beat the first patrol and leave. Anyway, this patrol was going counterclockwise around the tunnels.

Both sides were quite shocked when they ran into each other as neither expected the other. Jim and company just thought they were moving away from the next patrol, while the patrol thought it was the other patrol coming up on them. The surprise doesn’t stop the fight of course.

This time Zach releases the first attack, having been low key channeling a spell since they started moving. With a flash of green, a cloud of leaves pop up in front of the group and fly right into the kobolds. A normal cast of the spell would have at most put up maybe 20 leaves, but because of the continuous input of more mana Zach had overcharged the spell. This led to a much quicker fight this time around.

The front line of shield kobolds don’t even get a chance to raise their shields as they take the brunt of the spell. Behind them, the kobold healer does his honest best but the razor leaves simply cut too deep and over too much of an area. Even two of the spear kobolds manage to catch a bad slice on the neck and die as well.

That is where it stops, though. One of the kobold mages in this group uses fire magic and a quick screen of fire stops the rest of the leaves cold. And speaking of cold, the other mage deals with ice and sends a flurry of icicles. Much less effective than the leaves, but it had nowhere near enough time to channel the spell.

Susan, a bit ticked over missing the dagger kobolds in the last group, now makes her presence known with her own flurry of attacks. A burst of needles fly out of both hands and peppers the dagger kobolds and like the last, they were all poisoned with the myconid spore extract. From there, Jim makes short work of them.

Then a loud clang rings out, and he looks up. Sammy had just used her iron gauntlet to block an arrow. This patrol’s leader was the bow user and they made another mistake, leaving it alone at the back of the patrol. Worse yet, unlike the last leader, this one wasn’t going to charge at them.

Good thing there isn’t all that many kobolds between the group and the leader. Jay leads the charge, using his poleaxe to snap the spears of the last two spear kobolds while Sammy comes in behind him to finish them with her sword. All the while the leader tries to get a shot in as her stone wolf mount slowly edges backwards to keep their distance.

No luck with that as all that remains is the leader and the mages. While it isn’t a rule that mages are bad at melee, these kobolds wouldn’t be the exception if it was. Sammy and Jay make short work of them as Susan runs ahead, throwing needle after needle at the wolf until she hits a gap in its stone plates.

Before the kobold leader can realize what has happened, the stone wolf’s body locks up and she is pitched up over its head, landing in a jumble. The perfect place for Zach to finish her as he once again completes his root spell and pincushions the kobold.