It was no wonder these kobolds looked so starved - even the worst hunter in her village could outperform all of them. Two weeks had passed since she cleared the cave of wolves and the six kobolds that awoke first were starting to form a bond with the wolf-pups - they were the only ones allowed to feed them after all.

Exploring the magic of all the kobolds proved quite fun, and she had been relieved to note they had an earth-mage, that made most of her plans easier. Non magical defenses were vital - as the free cities had shown - so she had him create walls in the entrance of their cave, and excavate chambers for the different bands - as well as one each for both Tes’va and herself.

Now that she had fire-mages at her beck and call - a whopping six of the awakened mages! She had them imbue stones with fire every morning, which she used to keep the eggs warm. It still boggled her mind - how could they have eggs that wouldn't hatch right after summer? The sheer irresponsibility was maddening!

Now was not the time to think about that though - a hunt had no place for feelings like that. It had taken a lot longer than she thought, before Arvog managed to find whatever monster claimed this territory as its own - not surprising, for he did find a drake, a huge, nomadic lizard with four legs.

It was undoubtedly the most dangerous being she had ever hunted, and she looked forwards to eating it. Still, fighting such a being in the open was best left to stupid kobolds or humans - for some reason all adventurers seemed to fight their prey openly, without stacking the odds in their favor.

The drake was massive - its shoulders stood at four meters height, were three meters broad and it was nearly six meters long without tail. While it was capable of running through trees she’d be fast enough not to be caught - having a flying familiar was way too convenient! Everything was prepared, and she had to strike before it left the area again.

The drake had yet to detect her, she was far enough after all, so she’d try to kill it with her first attack - doubtful but worth a shot. She didn't even try lightning - the sky had been clean of clouds for days and natural lightning was the only lightning powerful enough to really hurt something this massive.

Her ice was better anyway - it could pierce right through everything she had seen so far, and there were so many interesting ideas that had to be tested on a powerful target.

She now had the perfect target to test her magic on, and intended to use it! The base of the attack was formed in moments - a simple spike of water which would harden upon being impacted. At first she thought of using Arvog’s venom, but it decayed once extracted and she’d need truly staggering amounts to even faze a drake.

Venom was a good idea though - she was sure she could create a magical venom. Now was the time to test that. Creating the spike of water and altering it took about half of her energy, and propelling it fast enough to to be sure it’d punch through its scales another fifth, so she was uncomfortably low before the fight bagan.

The bolt of water left with a loud bang, startling even herself - the attack surpassed the speed of sound! Still, Ves'ra had plans for this hunt, and staying around right now wasn't one of them, so she legged it the moment the attack left her control, giving herself boosts with wind whenever necessary.

She didn't need to watch the drake anyways - she had eyes in the sky after all. The attack didn't even take a second to fly the two hundred meters between them, so the drake had no way to react before the attack hit.

The drake roared - more in anger than pain - and birds flew up kilometers around them. It had certainly heard where her attack came from, and started running towards her fleeing form. The attack pierced its chest, near the heart, yet Arvog didn't see as much as a speck of blood. Ves'ra allowed herself a small smile - her spell worked.

Her prey was slowly catching up, occasionally letting out furious roars. It didn't take them long to come upon a large clearing and Ves'ra charged straight through, the drake hot on her heels.

She jumped, was hit by a powerful gust of wind and catapulted past the clearing just as the ground gave way to her prey's mass. It roared in defiance as it fell, and Ves'ra allowed herself a satisfied smirk. There was no getting out there.

Through Arvog's eyes she could see the drake fall five meters down, and being impaled upon dozens of spikes, each two meters long and being forced through its scales by the sheer weight behind the fall. As the drake slowly died - there was a suspicious lack of blood still - she cast another of her new spells.

Her spell had had four components - one was to deliver the water into her prey, another to freeze the wound that the attack created, stopping any water and blood from flowing out. The third to take in all heat it could and using said heat to power the fourth - freezing as much blood as possible. It seemed to work perfectly, so she cast a wind spell that took her voice and transported it to another.

"All set, you can come Tes'va." She commanded. Right now about half of the village would leave, on their way towards her. Tonight they would feast!

Her people took half an hour to arrive. The body enhancers started pulling the corpse back towards the village with the help of a wooden sled. The earth-mage, Tis've had already created a ramp, so they arrived about an hour before sunset.

"Alright, you know the deal." Ves'ra yelled. "You can eat as much of this drake as you can after you processed all of its meat."

That rule didn't apply to herself, she was both the chief and did most of the hunting and planning after. Furthermore she suspected most kobolds would evolve after eating, and really didn't want to process all that meat herself.

Yet one thing had to be checked before anyone, even herself could eat - her spell had performed perfectly, freezing the drakes blood and using its body-heat as fuel - but she wouldn't want that spell in herself.

Perfect. The spell that fed the magical venom - using heat to power it - ran out of energy like planned, making the other spells run out too.

"Dig in." She said to Arvog, before carving herself some of the food too. The meat tasted fantastic, leagues above anything she ate before. She could practically feel her energy-reserves growing.

Something felt strange. Ves'ra looked around, alarmed, and spied as Arvog ambled towards their cave. But he was a glutton, why would he stop eating? She concentrated on their bond and knew - her familiar was finally ready to evolve.

Could she influence his evolution like she did her own?

No. Her familiar may have enough excess energy for that, but meddling would be harmful regardless - he had yet to awaken and her energy would bleed over if she did.

Ves'ra returned to her own meal, eating to her heart's desire as she watched her village work to process the huge creature taking up most of their main cave. She was finished eating long before her people were finished, and after watching them work for another hour she decided to have mercy upon her subjects.

"Form up!" She yelled, and all kobolds practically ran towards her. "I'm going to freeze the corpse now, after you ate a good meal. All of you may have noticed already, I'm no normal kobold. That's because my energy-veins burst, and I used the energy to change me." She could see excitement spread through her village. "You are right, this being was powerful, powerful enough for even me to attempt evolution again. I won't do that, because I don't have to, but you will, because your bodies are not powerful enough to hold that much energy regardless of what you do." She explained.

She could see they were weary - at least until the first of the meat entered their mouths. The best they ate until now was a dire-wolf - a far cry from this wonder of taste.

Ves'ra could see how the overabundance of energy - unchecked, as her people didn't bind their energy in ropes, they would feel more exhausted than ever.

Once kobolds left to evolve Ves'ra froze the drake - about two-thirds were left - and started transporting some food to each of the bands. They'd be hungry when they woke up.

After casting a spell to alert her should one of the eggs hatch - and another should someone approach the cave - she returned towards her own cave, arms full of food for her sleeping familiar.

Once everything was ready Ves'ra sank into meditation herself and bound her energy into another layer of rope - she didn't want an uncontrolled evolution, and while she didn't want it for her people they needed to evolve - the drake’s energy was simply too powerful for a simple kobold to contain. Well, she’d see what they would become soon enough.