Chapter 60: Half the Final Encounter – Chapter 60

The group gathers on the wood platform right at the room’s entrance and they take a better look around. A couple stories below them is the room's floor and directly in front of them is a number of small trees which peak just under the platform. To their left is an overgrown forest with trees that touch the ceiling and are close enough that you could touch two at once without stretching too far.

As the others take this all in Jeremy only has eyes for the back of the room. Now with a better view he can catch a glimpse of more herbs besides the one sprig of lavender in plain view. Then Ace smacks him in the back of the head.

“Don’t get distracted by the plants. I bet there are a good number of kobolds and goats in the heavy forest and there are ranged weapons in play. You try to climb that cliff without first taking care of that and you’re just target practice. Plus who knows what monsters might be up there. We are much better off hitting that place last right before we leave.”

Jeremy sighs, “I know you’re right, but still. Look at it! There are even more olive trees up there.”

Ace shakes his head, “well the faster we clear the dungeon the faster you can get to harvesting. We won’t stop you because leveling any type of skill will let you travel farther.” He turns to the others, “Now there are a couple of spiral staircases here, but I think we should stick to the one in the room’s corner. That keeps us a distance away from the denser trees.”

“Jeremy, you get to lead us down on this one. In fact, you can go all the way down before the rest of us get started. The staircase looks solid enough but I don’t want it dropping out from under us because we all tried to go down it at once. You at least have the training to land safely if it can’t even take one person.”

Jeremy shrugs and heads down the stairs. The rest of the group wait at the top with bated breath, but nothing happens to him. There aren’t even any monsters at the bottom waiting for them. Relieved at this they proceed down the staircase one at a time, still cautious of any weight triggered traps.

Gather once again at the bottom of the stairs, the group can’t see much that they didn’t already know. About the only new thing is they can more clearly see that the trees in the heavy forest are spaced to prevent vision. That happens anyway in a thick enough wood, but with how soon vision is blocked this appears purposeful.

Ruby finishes her observation of the area and gestures to the wall behind them. “I think we should follow the wall to the left. My guess is that the cliff area is an optional reward area of sorts. The core might even be in the corner over there. I know we want to full clear the area just to see what all there is but at least this way we know what is up.”

The others don’t really have a better plan, so Ace shrugs. “I guess that’s the plan then. Even better is we will get to keep a wall to our side. Fewer directions to be ambushed from is always nice.”

Now with a plan, Tess and Bill lead the way into the dense forest area. Not far into the area though the plan falls apart. Right in front of them is an area of raised stone about a story tall and right on top sits a single kobold. Once it sees them it chitters and hisses loudly before using a sling to pelt them with stones.

Ruby fires off a couple ribbons, but the kobold ducks out of the way and doesn’t come back. One last spell still in hand, Ruby sighs. “Well, I guess we just lost any possible element of surprise. The kobolds are probably gathered on the other side of this hill and I don’t feel like climbing it when a kobold could just pop out and push me off.”

Jack shrugs, “we only need one melee type up there first and the rest of us can follow. Even you mage types tend to be stronger than the average person from before. This small climb should be easy enough for all of us.”

Ruby shakes her head, “I worry that there might be a lot of kobolds up there waiting. We’ve already seen that they can command the goats, so ordering around other kobolds shouldn’t be out of the question.”

Ace nods, “that is a reasonable worry. For now, let’s just follow the hill around.”

Cautious of any kobolds that might attack them from up top, the group continues along the mound. When it turns they easily spot more kobolds as no trees are placed right up on the edge of the hill. Just across from the group are a couple well equipped kobolds. The two laden down with full sets of leather armor, a wooden club, and shield. Both groups pause for a moment, neither side truly surprised by the other.

Jack breaks the stillness with a whistle, “well I guess this is the last encounter then.”

From around the hill more melee kobolds swarm out at them and the hilltop kobold also makes an appearance. More worrying is a trio of wand wielding kobolds at the back. Ruby shakes her head at the sight, “I don’t think we can keep the mages countered in this fight.”

Then the sides clash. Three melee kobolds lead the charge with wooden clubs raised high and shields readied as another three wielding daggers scamper around the group to flank them. Ruby sends out a stream of fiery sparks, less to damage and more to keep them away.

At the front of the group Tess sweeps low with her staff and knocks one of the kobolds over while the other two try to double team Bill. He keeps one of them off with his own clubs while Jack roars and smashes the ground with his mace, throwing the other kobold off balance.

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Rebuffed the three club wielding kobolds back up while the three dagger wielders shriek as they try and avoid the fire. From behind them, one of the kobold mages casts a healing spell and commands them with a series of hisses.

Chastened, the dagger kobolds retreat behind an impromptu shield wall. Just in time too as ribbons of fire join in on the fun and the last one to retreat just barely avoids getting scorched. Now organized the three kobolds in front advance as one while two shards of ice scream over their heads.

Ruby counters the one while Ace steps forward and deflects it with his buckler. Though this action sends a crack running down the shield's center. He tries to channel more mana into it, but the spell that conjured it has run out of steam.

Ace clicks his tongue and throws the buckler at some motion he had just seen to the group's right. After the thunk of his shield hitting something, the group hears a furious bleat as an entire herd of goats steps out of the trees. Ace gestures at Ruby, “you keep the goats occupied and just let us handle the ice. I don’t think we can manage that many goats charging at once.”

Ruby nods and goes back to dishing out fiery sparks. Less powerful than her fire ribbons, but so much easier on her mental power. She hasn’t tested it, but Ruby has suspected for a while that she could keep a stream of sparks going for over an hour.

The herd is frightened by this display of firepower but behind them stands their goatherd, the tenth and final kobold in the room. She hisses at them and whacks the goat farthest back over the head with her shillelagh. This gets the group moving as they try to flank around the fire.

Back with the primary kobold force, things are going a lot better. With the suppression of the two ice mages, no one in the party has yet killed a kobold. The healer in back just makes it all the tougher as under its command they retreat whenever hurt to be healed.

Now without a shield Ace has to focus entirely on the enemy's attack spells and even then he can’t block them all. Luckily Bill has been taking up the slack. Focusing on knocking any shards that get near him out of the air. This is easier said than done, but with two clubs he has a backup in case his first attack misses. Though it doesn’t leave him much time to react, leaving with a number of bleeding scratches.

Tess continues to try and trip up the kobold front line but now organized they easily defeat her attempts by bracing against one another. Then they would separate and allow their dagger using friends to slide through and slash at the team.

The situation can’t go on forever though and Jack provides the breakthrough. Even braced for it when he slams a full force attack home they all stumble. Being so focused on the attack however leaves Jack open and one of the dagger kobolds gets in close to him and slices up his legs. Though his greaves and boots are able to protect him somewhat and prevent the kobold from hamstringing him.

As the kobolds are thrown off balance Bill darts in and with a precise strike knocks the middle one’s shield out of its hand. Then with a blow from the club in his offhand Bill is able to push the kobold back into the dagger kobolds behind it.

More shards of ice come in while Bill is distracted and Tess has to sweep her staff over to block them. In turn the kobold she was facing pounces forward and slams its club down on Tess’ shoulder.

Off to the side Ruby isn’t doing much better. While she has held off the goats, with the kobolds orders she has started to mix in some flame ribbons. If things go on like this not only will she have a massive headache from overusing her magic, but she will start to lose control of the spells. A nasty proposition when that control is an enormous part of why the forest isn’t burning around them.

It also doesn’t help her that the kobold up on the mound has decided she is the one to target. With the goats on one side and a sling sniper on the other, Ruby has definitely gotten her workout in for the day.

Though that brings us to someone who has been keeping their head down. Behind the melee fighters, Ace is sitting on the ground muttering under his breath. He ignores the decaying situation with Ruby. He pays no attention to the minor success or failure of his frontline fighters. Those situations continue, but he stays focused. Then it all comes together for him and he shouts, “from the earth to the heavens, pierce and strangle those who oppose me like a world tree reaves a mountain range!”

From the ground under all the enemies a dense, vibrant green glow erupts as a swarm of roots dash upward through the soil. Most of the kobolds are decked out in basic armor and so the vines can only grapple them. The unfortunate goatherd and their flock, not so much.

While the blow isn’t enough to kill all the goats, none of them are in any condition to continue the fight. Even their goatherd is brought down by this attack. In fact, it hurts her much worse as she lacks the thick hide and boosted toughness. Though once she dies the goats all bleat out in pain as that boost vanishes and wounds once bearable become much less so. Ruby smirks at this and goes about finishing them off. No reason to leave them in pain.