Chapter 191 - Sound the drums of war (Patreon)

The sound of drums from the Wolves of the Night changed from a rhythmic marching tune to what sounded more like a drum solo from a rock show. The canine kobolds howled to the sky and started dashing towards the Dragon Kin camp. Some were running on all fours while others run like humans. On a closer inspection, Hera realized that the group of 50 or so running like dogs were made entirely of feral kobolds. They jumped over the barricades, stepping on the places where the hidden traps were, instantly falling to their deaths. Each hole was five meters deep and covered in sharp metal spikes.

When the first kobold died, a notification appeared in front of the group.

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Protect the general during the battle

The Dragon Kin and the Wolves of the Night began their battle

You must protect the general from any attacks during the fight

If the general is killed, the dungeon quest will fail

Attacks and spells are 324% more effective when you are within 10 meters of Zudra

Attacks and spells against you are 324% less effective

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"This is broken," Blue read the notification once more.

"I know. I wonder what our spells can do," Bonnie walked by the ramparts and created a fire fist launching it towards the Wolves' army. The spell was supposed to be just the basic version, with no changes, but the flaming hand was two times bigger than usual and moved several times faster. It flew through the sky, leaving an orange trail and even warping the surrounding area with the heat. When the spell hit the ground, an explosion covered a three-meter wide area around it.

"You gave boon to her. A strong one too," Zudra smiled at Hera.

Hera nodded and looked back at Bonnie, "How much mana did you put in that?"

"Just 40, the base cost of the spell."

"You are joking, right?" Blue asked.

"I'm dead serious."

"Actually, I think they are the ones seriously dead," Alex said, pointing towards the point of impact, where kobolds rested motionless in the ground.

Zudra laughed, "Dumb dogs serious dead," she did her best to repeat the joke while slapping her knee.

Blue turned to Alex, "Really? That's the best you got?"

"Think you can do better?"

Blue pulled out her mushroom sunglasses, "I guess they were too…" putting the glasses on, she finished, "fired up."

Zudra snorted, laughing even harder while the canine kobolds fell to more traps.

"Oh no, gimme that," Hera snatched the sunglasses, "You are on time out. Go stay in the corner."

"What corner?" Blue gasped.

"Find one!"

"Guys, focus!" Bonnie barked as she saw the archer battalion start to get in range.

The Dragon Kin didn't use any bows and arrows, their bodies were too small to use them properly, but they had crossbows. They had a range disadvantage, but when the canines got closer, it would be a slaughter. The wolves knew that and were keeping a safe distance. Yet, there were only two platoons of archers. If they died, the dog kobolds would have no option but to try to cross the minefield.

"Zudra, we need to find cover," Runir tried to push her towards a place where the arrows wouldn't hit her.

"Dumb dogs can't hit me. If they do I kill all!" Zudra roared.

"No, you won't. If they hit you, you will die. We need to find cover. Tell that to the others too," Hera said with a stern voice.

Zudra stopped, staring at Hera. After a moment, she nodded, "Dragon is wiser," she turned back to the troops, "Anyone who is up, stay hidden. Appear, shoot, hide!"

With her orders, the kobolds who were on the ramparts all ducked behind the camp's wooden walls. Zudra herself walked over to one of the higher columns to hide away from the arrows but was stopped by Hera.

"We should be on the ground. As much as you can help here, staying with the bulk of the troops will give them courage," that was only part of the reason. What she truly wanted was to keep Zudra in a safer place. If a mage or an explosion hit the wall, it could easily make her plummet to her death.

Zudra stopped for a moment but nodded and headed down the stairs with the group. On the ramparts, there were already four captains and one commander. There was no need for her to be there as well. As they all went down, Hera saw the catapults flinging flaming boulders over the walls. Loud crunching noises could be heard amid the screams of both kobold armies.

A large blast hit the side of the wall. Looking up, they could see the wood burnt and charred, almost as if it was struck by lightning. Yet the Dragon Kin near it were still moving. Whatever the attack was, it wasn't enough to kill them. The lizards got right back up and started shooting with their crossbows. The ballista, however, didn't survive the attack. It was splintered into thousands of pieces, rendering the weapon completely unusable.

The group reached the ground floor as the battalions started to cross the first layer of traps. The alchemist rushed towards the side and tossed a torch into a small brick chimney. Three seconds later, a plume of smoke came out of the construction, followed by a fire line crossing the field in front of the camp, cutting the Wolves' army in two. Many canines fell victim to the unexpected flames, being burnt to a crisp in just less than three seconds. The wildfire seemed to have benefited from the morale boost.

A few feral kobolds jumped over the barricades and rushed towards the gates after coming out of the traps on the ground. They ran towards a small group of a dozen smaller kobolds, but when they were about to reach the lizard creatures, they pulled shields and spears, creating a shield wall, killing two of the feral instantly.

"Those are my boys!" Hera shouted.

"You train them?" Zudra asked.

Hera cleared her throat, "Yes, I did. Unfortunately, only one group participated in the training."

Zudra stared at the kobolds forming the shield wall, "Next time. Call Zudra."

Hera nodded and turned back towards the incoming army. Next time Zudra wouldn't remember her. The Wolves of the Night seemed endless. For each one that fell to the traps or arrows, another two would take its place. To make things worse, the barrage of arrows wouldn't stop. Most of the Dragon Kin army by the gate had to take cover. Only the squad using the shield wall held their ground. The wildfire barrier took care of a large number of enemies, but soon their bodies started to be used as bridges, protecting their allies from being struck by the deadly flames.

Lightning bolts started to hit the ramparts. It was a sign that the mage platoon had arrived. The Dragon Kin didn't have any magic to help the fight, but they had siege weapons, unlike the Wolves of the Night. When the last boulder flew from a catapult, they swapped strategies and started using wildfire bombs as ammo. Bonnie saw what they were doing and quickly rushed towards the firing teams. If the bombs collided in the air, they could burn up the entire camp. The only safe way to do that was using one of the flasks at a time and not the four or five they started shooting.

Runir was using his heals and buffs on the kobolds by the gate. Right now, a single heal could close up a wound completely. He felt as if a battle heal could make someone regrow an arm. He turned to Hera and used a heal on the cut she had in her neck, but the effect was just the same as it would be without the buffs. Seeing his frustrated expression, Alex asked what happened.

"When I healed a Kobold, it was much stronger, but when used on us, the spell still has the same effect," he explained.

"That's a shame. Maybe it's because of the morale effect. You know, that makes spells less effective against us," Hera replied. After seeing Bonnie's spell, she considered the idea of bringing Helena here to remove the parasites, but if healing spells didn't have the buff, it would be useless. To make sure, she tried to cast her mend spell, but the result was just as Runir said. It only had the same effect as it would without any buff. When stepping away from Zudra, the spell became even worse. She barely could feel the mana trying the close up the wound.

Hera prepared a poison needle and flung it towards the incoming army. The impact hit a kobold holding a shield. It fell to the ground, immediately coughing and wheezing. In less than five seconds, it stopped moving, with some blood coming out of its mouth.

"Damn, that is really strong!" Alex gasped and drew her daggers. Taking advantage of their slightly higher position, she aimed a wind cutter at the kobold line crossing the flames. Instead of sending the wind blade in a vertical orientation as she usually did, she made it on a horizontal to catch more enemies and avoid the Dragon Kin kobold in front of her. Unlike Hera and Bonnie, she put a lot of mana into the spell.

Usually, Alex's wind cutter was close to an invisible blade of air. The only one who would feel its effects was the target. It would be as if being hit by a concentrated gust of high-speed wind. Because of that, she was always cautious not to aim the spell when a party member could get hit. This time, the spell was completely different. A massive five-meter wide blade of green mana shot out of her dagger. The wind swirled around the magic, creating small pocket hurricanes, pulling everything towards its path. The spell hit part of the camp's wooden wall, making part of it tumble forward and kept traveling towards the wildfire wall. When it impacted, dust, dirt, and blood went flying everywhere, as well as the corpses of a dozen canine kobold who were in the way of the blade. At first, it seemed like a good result, but the spell covered up some of the wildfire, creating a large gap in the fire barrier right in front of the gate.

"Shit!" Alex cursed, throwing another wind blade with less mana towards the incoming kobold horde.

Hera only had the grease fire or the poison spray as spells that could hit multiple targets. Both would be terrible right now since they would hit whoever was in front of her as well. She wanted to help thin out the enemies, but now the only option she had would be using her poison needle or her fire arrow. Since she had the poison mana stone, it was better to use the mana inside it first. After a couple of attacks, it became clear that killing a single monster at a time would do little to help. She tried to create multiple needles at once to toss them all together to have a more significant effect on the fight. That didn't work. Looking up, she saw Alex sending more spells towards the incoming monsters. Hera knew that Alex couldn't keep that up for long. Her mana pool wasn't large enough to keep using that spell for long.

Hera focused on her attempt once more. Instead of creating several needles at once, she focused on making one at a time. Only then would she send them all out together. Blue and Tom were just watching. They had no long-range spells, which meant that there was very little they could do at the moment. When Hera got 5 needles, she tried to send them all flying, but she only could throw them one at a time. She tried again, creating more needles. To her luck, after making the projectile, she didn't have to spend any more mana to keep the spell active, and she could send them at any moment after it. Again, she wasn't able to send all the needles together. On her third attempt, instead of aiming at specific monsters, she just targeted an area and tried to send all the poison needles towards it.

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Spell Acquired

Poison Shower
Rank: Novice

Creates a series of piercing projectiles of poisonous mana. Creatures struck by the projectiles can become poisoned. The spell causes little damage with the impact, and the poison will be diluted when comparing with a single target spell.

Range: 30 meters
Base area of effect: 5 meters
Base mana cost: 50 mana
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Hera tried her spell right away, and it was exactly what she was looking for. Now she and Alex could take turns clearing the incoming kobolds. When Bonnie came back, they would have even more options to deal with those things. Using just the 50 mana, an area about 50 meters wide was covered in what looked like bright orange rain, but in reality, it was hundreds of small poison needles falling from the sky. Hera and Alex started their rotation, with Bonnie joining in after just a minute. They kept doing that for about ten minutes and were starting to feel very comfortable with the situation. Blue and Tom were even bored, having nothing to contribute during this last part of the quest.

Alex threw another wind cutter towards that spot, but a massive hand grabbed the air blade in the air and shattered it. A creature with thick blond fur and a golden mane crossed the wildfire barrier. It would be easy to call it a lion if it wasn't for the wolf-like face. It howled, making the rest of the army frenzy and push even harder towards the camp. The massive creature took another step with its eyes locked on Zudra.

The canine chieftain was heading their way.