(Zack)

"Are you ready for this?" Nik asks as I stretch.

"I'm slaughtering a bunch of kobolds," I snort, touching my tunic and sending it into my Inventory. We've already verified that I can move freely in Demon Form with the altered Primordial Dark Armor. "And then going to try my hand at killing the Kobold King."

We're mostly seeing how much damage I can actually deal to it. If I can take out even half of its Health without any buffs and just my own Skills and weapons, then we know we can handle two King Monsters in the upcoming horde. Three, even.

The trick will be the Dragon, and Nik and I both agree that if I can get to Level 25 of Demon before the horde and take on another Class and start raising it decently, then I can possibly distract the beast long enough for those below to change the tide down there.

That's my purpose for the battle. I'm not fighting on the ground with everyone else, I'm being me: an irritating distraction. My job will be, quite literally, to distract and annoy the Dragon, to keep it from attacking Maelnor.

But for now, we need to see how I can fare against the Kobold King. How I do in this fight, before going for more Levels, will determine the overall training strategy for everyone making true preparations for the upcoming battle.

It affect even low-Level Adventurers like my team.

So this is not a fight for Experience, but a fight for knowledge.

"If you're ready," Nik says. "Then let's move."

I nod, then we approach the end of the tunnel.

"Demon Form," I say, feeling my body shift, my wings and tail form as if they had always been there. I have horns, too, though I can't move them. I do feel if something touches them, though. "Ready to die, you insignificant little beasts?"

The kobolds stare at me in terror, and I charge forward, cutting through them with my sword. It only takes me a few minutes to slaughter every last one of them as a Demon, then Nik and I wait until my Mana returns to full as we begin heading down the tunnel leading to the Kobold King itself. We encounter several kobolds moving to reinforce the chamber, but kill them on our way.

When my Mana is full, we step into the chamber, Nik moving to the wall to watch and possibly act as an emergency rescue.

There are fifty kobolds of varying types. Club-wielders, sword-wielders, archers, and magicians. Then, there is the biggest, baddest one of them all, the Kobold King. Standing at a little more than twenty feet in height, the giant dogish person wields a large sword, its black eyes staring at me, its dark brown fur carefully brushed and cared for.

Because apparently, it cares for its appearance.

The chamber itself is around fifty feet in diameter, but I can see why they'd only want to put ten or fifteen Adventurers in here, total. Even with all this space, and the corpses that will soon arrive, it would be cramped to fight in.

"Smells like wet dog," I say as the Kobold King snarls. "You've got a lot of Health there, buddy. But I've felled bigger and badder than you before, do you really think you can stand a chance against death incarnate? Demon Form!"

I feel my form shift once more, then let out a cruel smile, thoroughly intimidating the small fry. Drawing my sword, I charge forward, my Agility allowing me to move faster than any of the beasts. Even the Kobold King has a hard time attacking me. It is powerful, though.

Kobold King Level Null Health: 18,974,093 Mana: 47,889

That's a lot of Health, and a strange Level. I guess the King Monsters lose their Levels at some point, and simply become bastions of badassary?

But guess what? I am the most badass monster in this room!

It takes me less than a minute to kill all of the kobolds as I avoid attacks by the Kobold King, which swings that heavy sword as if it's light. It must have a lot of Strength.

Once the weaker creatures are defeated, I focus on the Kobold King, just in time to have its sword slam into me from the side. I barely managed to block it with my own sword, but the impact alone did some damage to me.

-117 Health!

Bastard! I'll get you for that!

I soar straight up into the air, summoning my Shroud of Darkness around me as I use Strike of Darkness. Instead of piercing the enemy, however, I find my attack deflected.

"Ooh, you've got some skill, then!" I compliment it as I release my Shroud of Darkness to preserve Mana. "But in the end, you're still just an oversized dog-man!"

The Kobold King roars, swinging its sword up at me, and I fly to the side, before launching myself at it, my sword cutting into its arm. A lot of resistance, feels like the Nian once it was halfway dead. Maybe I should change swords?

No, not yet. Zack's Blood isn't that much more penetrating than the Primordial Dark Sword. That means this thing has a pretty high Endurance.

As I fly around to the side, I spot Luca and Travis in here. What the fuck are they doing here? Luca's not supposed to know about this!

He's watching me, and I can tell by his thoughts and gaze that he knows it's me. He figured it out on his own. Travis confirms that to Nik a minute later, and I continue avoiding swings of that sword. Hm. The Kobold King loses Mana every time it swings that sword. Is it using some sort of Skill, then? Without words?

Could it be a passive one like Sneak? That might explain its ability to wield that massive sword. Then again, this is the Boundary, the rules of reality don't necessarily exist. So it's probably using some Skill to improve the power of its attacks, similar to my arsenal of Skills.

"Strike of Darkness, Dark Slash!"

A wave of shadows erupts from my sword, a blade that soars at the Kobold King.

Target -1,142 Health!

Oh, right, I forgot that I'm empowering myself with Rage. I need to enrage myself even more, though I also need to-there it is, Demon Form's over.

I land on the ground and run around the big oaf, blocking its attacks with my own sword, jumping and flipping over the corpses of its fallen allies. Jeez, this thing hits hard! I really am taking damage just from the shock of it, and a few times, I'm even thrown back as I block it in midair. I'd like to use Counterstrike against this thing, but its reach is too far for me.

So I'm left with just physical attacks. Yeah, it's time to pull out Zack's Blood and duel-wield.

My second sword is withdrawn just in time to use both to block a strike from the Kobold King's, though I'm still pushed back. No damage from that. Take that, fucker!

"Your momma was a hamster!" I tell it as I jump over the next attack, spinning in the air and throwing the Primordial Dark Sword with all my Strength.

The Kobold King snarls and swats at the sword, but I threw it so that the blade was flat, not vertical, so when its ugly paw hits the sword, the blade cuts into it instead of flying to the side. I follow that up with the Zack's Blood sword.

Damn, I wish I could do Barriers, but this is no time to be trying to learn a new Skill!

I reach the peak of my jump, hitting the wall, and immediately jump off, aiming so that my peak will be over the Kobold King's head. In all, my movements only take a couple of seconds, and for a moment, I'm hovering in the air.

Then, I'm dropping down.

"Impact Drop!" I whip out the Zack's Blood spear and throw it down at the Kobold King, though I'm following close after.

The Kobold King, which had been trying to remove my swords from its paw and arm, attempts to block that. Like a moron, it simply holds up a paw, causing the spear to pierce into its hand.

My Skill isn't activated yet, even if I've triggered it. But I land on the spear a moment later, which triggers the requirement for the Skill, and in an explosion of blood and gore, the Kobold King's paw is destroyed by the amplified impact.

I grab my spear and aim at one of its eyes, throwing it as I land on its other arm and withdraw my swords, allowing my rage at the Shadow of Life to build up before I thrust them back in, flipping to the beast's head and pulling my blades out again. As aimed, I land on the spear, which had been speared into the Kobold King's left eye, and drive it in further.

The beast is wailing. It's lost its hand, and has a spear messing with its brain. How much more fucking damage can this thing take? Jeez, I didn't realize kobolds didn't really need their brains!

With a touch of my hand, I send my spear back into my Inventory, then jump off of the Kobold King. My swords can't go into its eyes, and it's already moving its wounded paw to swipe at me. I'll need to find another opportunity to send the spear back into its brain.

Or… I could do this!

"Tag, you're it!" I jump behind Nik and push on his back.

"What?" He looks at me.

"My spear to the eye and blowing up its hand," I gesture to the Kobold King. "Took out quite a lot of damage, and I'm having a hard time actually doing stuff to it other than those two. So your turn! You and Travis can kill it. I'll jump back in if you haven't finished by the time I've recovered my Mana."

He chuckles, and I sheathe the Primordial Dark Sword while cleaning blood off my hip so I can fix the sheath for the Zack's Blood sword there, then do that and sheathe that blade as well.

Nik and Travis move forward, walking towards the Kobold King without a word. No doubt their years of experience working together lets them know what to do, even without speaking. They draw their swords, and Luca tugs on my sleeve. I look at him, sensing his question.

"I've taken out around a quarter of its Health," I inform Luca. "The plan was to see how much I could manage before having to retreat, as it affects the battle plans and training of everyone who will participate in the battle. I don't need to retreat, and could probably do more damage, but I can only do a few thousand at a time at most, maybe five thousand, if I build up my Rage and let my Health drop pretty low over time. Nik and Travis both have a higher Strength than me, a lot more Experience, and Travis can buff the two of them pretty well, so they'll be able to probably do more damage, especially now that I've inflicted a pretty severe Bleed on the Kobold King and taken out one of its eyes. We don't actually expect to be able to kill it."

He frowns, wondering why we're fighting something we don't expect to be able to kill.

"A King Monster," I explain. "Is the most powerful of that type of monster. That means this is the most powerful Kobold in the entire Boundary. When the battle comes, there will be a Goblin King and a Wolf King there. If I can take out a ton of this thing's Health unbuffed and alone, then the combined might of the Boundary's strongest can definitely kill the Goblin King and the Wolf King when working together."

He furrows his eyebrows, and I smile.

"I'll be doing something else," I pat him on the head. "Oops, just got blood there."

He shrugs, so I ruffle his hair.

"I'm needed for something else," I tell him. "It's a secret, though."

Don't want to scare him by telling him I'm going to be annoying the hell out of a Dragon.

"Anyway," I say. "Even though the Kobold King is probably weaker than either of those two, it's still a good gauge. And once Normar returns from his own training and several key people are a few Levels higher, we're going to test ourselves against the Demon Kobold King, a stronger, demonic variant of the Kobold King."

This time, with the Fallen Hunters working with us. And me, the only current Demon. But we agree it's best that I'm Level 25 and have another Class, first.

Once I've recovered my Mana, I trigger Demon Form, drawing my swords and charging forward, joining the battle once more. Travis continues to hack at the beast's legs as Nik deals with its sword, which the Kobold King had picked up with its wounded arm. It's bleeding all over, and is nearing half-Health, now.

"Shroud of Darkness!" I call out as I jump into the air. "Aura of Darkness! Strike of Darkness!"

I reach the Kobold King's neck, exposed by is efforts to stop the others, and my attack slices into it… its arm. The damn thing moved its arm with the missing hand into the path, but that still did a lot of damage, anyway, since it wasn't just a strike, but a cut through, and even if Strike of Darkness only worked on the initial piercing, there was still plenty of damage as I cut through it.

Leveraging myself with my sword, I land on its arm, then jump onto the Kobold King's head, my two aura Skills still active as I allow my Rage to reach its peak. With a roar that shakes the cavern, I plunge both swords down as far as they will go. Its skull hinders me, and I snarl as I pull my blades back out, then jump backwards.

"Good job!" Nik hollers.

"Blessing of Might!" Travis calls out, aiming a hand at me.

Travis Solvar has granted you the Blessing of Might! +100% to all Physical Stats Duration: 5 minutes

"Switch with me!" Nik calls, and I run over to him, my Strength, Endurance, Vitality, and Speed bolstered even further with that Blessing.

Nik's boosted by it, too, which I know because I heard Travis boost him.

I attack at the Kobold King's paw as Nik run behind the beast, and as I work on cutting off the flailing limb, the thing just keep flailing. I guess my attack did some pretty bad damage to it, causing it to lose its ability to continue the fight.

King Monsters are tough fuckers, aren't they? It's had its brain pierced by three weapons, and it's still able to battle on. Is it going to heal from that, too? Just another difference between them and normal monsters?

In a flash between the Kobold King's legs, I see Nik's Health, and frown. It's a lot lower than it should be, considering he's not taking any-

He's hurting himself. He's about to use a Dark Vengeance, isn't he?

The Kobold King lifts its arm up, and I realize possibly too late that it's about to attack me with its bleeding stump.

"Your momma wasn't just a hamster, she was a hamster who smelt of elderberries!"

Its annoyed pause gives me enough time to sidestep the bloody stump and stab into it, and Travis jumps over to me, bringing his gold-and-white sword down into the arm, causing the Kobold King to roar.

"Looks like it's recovering from brain damage," I tell him, then we jump to the side as it brings that sword down towards us. "That was aimed at me! Kill him! He's had more experience fighting than me!"

Oooh! The handle! I just realized something that can help us! I Dash forward and strike with both of my swords, successfully cutting through both the finger thingies on its paws and the very wooden handle of the sword.

The Kobold King howls, stumbling back, and I catch sight of Nik jumping backwards to avoid being stepped on. His Health is almost empty.

"Nik!" I holler, throwing Zack's Blood at him.

He looks over, spotting the flying sword, and allows it to cut through his left shoulder. That takes out almost all of what Health he has remaining, and he grits through the pain, jumping at the back of the Kobold King's neck.

"Dark Vengeance!" He strikes into the back of the beast's neck, and for a moment, all goes still.

Then, the beast's body goes limp, the last of its life removed with the powerful attack combed with the sheer Strength Nik has before Travis's buffing and the critical strike. Nik pulls his sword out and pushes off the beast with his legs to jump out of its path as it falls backwards, my mentor's injuries healed from the successful Dark Vengeance. As the beast falls, a notification appears in my vision, and no doubt theirs, too.

Kobold King Slain! Subclass King Slayer now Available! Title Kingslayer Awarded! You will now permanently take 10% less damage from all Kobolds! +1 King's Bounty +1 King's Blessing +1 Zack Norvua Kingslayer Sword

At the same time that appears in my vision, a sleepy, violet-sounding voice exclaims in my head.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?"