Everything was still and silent. A Kobold stepped up beside Silver— not one of the war ready, armored Kobolds, but a Kobold with glowing eyes of white and black, which peered ponderously over the battlefield. Mark and Alverost. They squinted, staring down.

“How long do you think until they retaliate?” The Kobold Mark and Alverost occupied spoke, pausing before speaking again. “With how far away that city is? Minutes, at least. They should already be coming.”

Silver returned his gaze forward. The entire wall sat in eerie, tense silence as minutes passed. It felt like hours. The air shivered a second time before something lurched from within the confines of a wooden building at the edge of their site. It didn’t walk so much as it dragged itself forward, raising and dropping its body as it slid itself along the ground. It was bigger than the centipedes, at least four Kobolds long back to back, and walked on four legs.

“Looks kind of like a bearded dragon. Are you sure it will be effective?”

“Even if they’re related to dragons, they wont be fireproof.”

“Dragons are fireproof?”

“Sometimes I forget how backwards your education is. Its coming.”

Spear men headed to the walls, though no one else would be stabbing downward, not after the lessons learned from the Clan Bighorn attack. The gigantic lizard eyed the castle wall, taller than a Kobold even while quadrupedal. Its face wasn’t that different from any other Kobolds, save the degenerative skin disease that still plagued it and the huge, boar like tusks on either side of its mouth. Behind it, three more of the gigantic monsters slithered from the city, though they were both smaller.

It began a slow charge, jogging. Even from the walls, a horrible rasping pant could be heard.

“Bowmen.” Alverost shouted. “Start shooting!”

“Thats it? No nock or draw or loose?” Mark asked, even as arrows began to whistle over the wall.

Alverost didn’t reply. Silver watched as the miraculous ranged weapons shot projectiles down onto the enemies. Most missed as the arrows flew, but some of them found purchase in its scales. The closest monster screamed as one lucky shot landed in its eye. Its mouth never once closed as it redoubled its charge, throwing itself towards the wall.

By the time it arrived, arrows stuck out of it like a pin cushion.

It slammed its head against the wall below Silver. Mark and Alverost staggered backwards as the stone barricade shook.

“Jesus… does that thing get a stronger push on our domain just because its bigger?” The possessed Kobold asked, before shouting a string of obscenities. The other three sprawling lizards arrived only a little after, slamming into their respective walls, two on the left and one to the right, trying to set loose the stone that held it up with their bodies.

The archers on the wall leaned over the edge, peppering it with arrows. Other Kobolds offered their support, restocking the shared barrels of arrows. They were well prepared.

The beast slammed again, then, finding it futile, dug its claws into the wall. The huge Kobold stood, Silver jumping backwards as spear bearing Kobolds at either side stabbed into its head.

Its full face was the size of any of the Kobolds standing there, and it exhaled a wet breath that wafted a putrid scent of rot, its mouth just hanging open lazily. It sighed. Spit poured onto the wall. Blood splattered from its pierced eye. Finally, it threw its arms to the top of the wall, wiggling as it attempted to pull itself over, its mouth snapping at and failing to find purchase in the Kobolds atop it.

“Alverost? Alvey? Any time now?”

“Not yet.”

The gigantic monster turned, looking at the Kobold Mark and Alverost possessed even while Kobolds tried to stab into its skin, cutting open gashes and tears that spurted blood. Then it roared.

“Now.”

All three little castles erupted, silver sigillum depressed into the outer stone flooding with mana, and then, flooding the air with fire. All four of the gigantic, monsterish Kobolds screamed, toppling over each other even as they continued to burn.

For a moment, the Hallow was bright. Brighter than the light that could be provided by the veins in the ceiling or the glowing mushrooms that Mark splattered everywhere. Three gigantic bonfires of flesh glowed in the dim of the Hallow.

“Easy.”

“You love throwing flags, don’t you?”

“What?”

The two Kobolds beside Silver continued to argue. The rest of the fort sat in silence, staring down at the still twitching, burnt corpses of the monsters. Bright pink lights flashed above them, coalescing. Two of them turned into gigantic chunks of meat, so large they actually crushed the corpses they fell on.

One pink flash turned into a gigantic mushroom, completely different from the ones found underground.

The final one, the one in front of Mark and Alverost, turned into a tiny, finger sized pink crystal, that bounced with a tinking noise down the corpse and onto the ground.

“Is that a truffle—”

The Kobold that Mark and Alverost possessed asked, before flinging itself towards the edge of the castle. The wall was slanted downwards, and they slid along the edge of the wall, one half of the body dragging the other forward to the crystal, plucking it from the ground. Silver felt the shiver and push of the domain moving forward.

They moved with total disregard for a second wave of enemies.

“—hold this—”

“—warn me when you do that, you know—”

Silver only caught vague whispers of the conversation below before they turned and began walking back up. One arm held the crystal, the Kobold staring down at it. The other arm was out stretched, and dungeon roots flicked at the surface, raising stairs from the earth as they casually walked up the wall.

“Okay, what is it?” The possessed Kobold asked as it neared.

One hand snatched the crystal from the other, holding it upwards triumphantly. “Arcana!” The Kobold nearly screamed. “We finally have one.”

“I heard you mention this before… this worlds ‘magic system’ right? But you have ritual magic, don’t you? What do you need this for?”

“Most rituals are reversed engineered from these Arcana. More than that, though, these imbue a creature with the ability to use the magic, unrestrained by the amount of silver we have.”

“Oh, that is awesome! What does it do?”

Half of the Kobolds face turned into a frown, while the other still smiled. Silver found it unsettling. All around them, Kobolds shifted nervously, waiting for another attack, or a new order. Instead they still were focused on the tiny pink crystal.

“I don’t know.” Alverost said.

“Oh I see. I guess we don’t have like an appraisal ritual or something? We should test it, then?”

“Its not so simple. Arcana tend to have horribly drawbacks on par with the power they give.”

“Like what?”

“Like an Arcana of fire might give control over fire, but the wielders body might constantly drop to freezing temperatures. Or in extreme cases, freeze entire rooms, needing roaring fires to keep their users alive.”

“So they have to heat themselves up with their fire? Like the Human Torch.”

“Like a human torch, yes, except when you don’t light it they die.”

Silver stepped forward to interrupt them. “Are we going to advance?” He asked on behalf of the Kobolds around them.

Mark and Alverost turned down, staring towards the Wartskin city in the distance.