Two men with their backs behind each other were waiting for the incoming ambush. Hakeem couldn’t contain his nervousness as his eyes darted around. Six pairs of eyes were staring at them who were in the center of the silent road. Jason looked at each pair of eyes as his skill ‘Scan’ did its job.

Most are scouts at level thirty-one but these two at the front, they’re a bit different.

Kobold (Vanguard)

Humanoid creatures resembling a wolf said to be descendants of Beast of Gévaudan. Strong and agile yet their biggest strength was their ferocious teamwork. It also boasted a high sense of smell even stronger than a common wolf. Specialize in close combat, basic mastery over blunt type weapons.

Species: Demi-human

Level : 33

Elemental Weakness : Poison

S.Ability : Howl, Call of the Wild

This isn’t going to be easy.

Two other kobolds dubbed as Vanguard Kobold are both stronger and higher level than the Scout Kobolds. Jason's hand slowly grabbed the arrow, but the moment he did so those six patient predators charged out from the darkness of the forest. The low grumbling tone of their growls echoed in the air.

Jason maintained his cool and within a second he launched an arrow into the air. He won’t let these mangy mutts get the upper hand. It hit and one of them went down with a yelp. This time he didn’t miss the head, yet the other fives didn’t even flinch as they assaulted Jason and Hakeem simultaneously.

“Brace yourself!” Jason shouted. He grabbed Hakeem by the arm and swung him across the road. Hakeem’s eyes bulged out of surprise as he didn’t expect Jason to throw him. Hakeem thought Jason was throwing him at the kobolds as bait but contrary to his assumption, Jason saved him from the five-prong attack. Hakeem rolled on the asphalt road as pain riddled his entire body. He got up and glanced at Jason. His eyes were trembling to saw his friend being attacked by five towering kobolds.

E.Guard down to a critical level.

E.Guard : 40/470

Jason felt the intense force pummeling him from five directions. Before these five kobolds went for another attack, Jason healed himself multiple times. “Minor Heal+!” he shouted while pumping himself up. Adrenaline was coursing in his veins as he won’t let these kobolds pushed him around.

Minor Heal+ level up to level 6

His energy guard was filled up to the brim. Jason prepared to attack but a hammer and a spiked mace smashed him right at the chest flinging him across the air. The other three leaped in the air and clawed at Jason sending him hurling down on the road. Again, glowing green light engulfed Jason’s entire body. The moment he got up those five kobolds were already a few feet away, they were relentless like rabid dogs with eyes gunning for Jason’s head.

The targeted man held up his bow and shot an arrow. It missed the head of the kobold but it went down anyway as the kobold struggled with an arrow piercing through its neck. Jason’s accuracy was at top form and he wasn’t done yet. He broke into a run fleeing away from those four kobolds making sure there was a distance between them. Jason looked back and drew the bow, one more arrow ripped apart the air flying straight at the Vanguard Kobold.

Damn.

His accuracy was spot on but the kobold was experienced in battles, it blocked the arrow using the head of its iron mace. It howled at Jason as the sound itself carried something within it. Jason suddenly stopped in his track as he was baffled.

You have been stun for 1 second

A stun effect? You've got to be kidding me!

One second was all it took for the Vanguard Kobold to reached Jason. The ferocious glint in its eye showed it had no mercy for its enemy. The head of the iron mace struck right at the side of Jason’s head. Jason saw it coming but it was too late. His head turned to the side by sheer force of that strike, then came the spike head of the morning star bludgeoning it right on Jason’s face.

Jason felt light-headed with his vision blurry and being hit at the head was far different from being hit at the body. If it wasn’t for the energy guard his head would probably be smashed by now. Five razor-sharp claws came slashing at him continuing the combo attack, but Jason leaped up pushing every strength that he had on those two legs of his. He used Shadow Hide as he leaped into the air while vanishing as if it was a magic trick.

The four kobolds were stunned seeing the human disappearing into thin air. Their noses started sniffing the air as they searched for the missing human. Their sense of smell shouldn’t be underestimated, these canine humanoids were known as a perfect tracker. Nothing could escape their heightened sense of smell. The four of them glanced at a particular spot in unison, but it was too late.

An arrow emerged from thin air and struck down one of the kobolds, Jason appeared with his brows arching like a drawn bow, his frown was as a signal that he had enough of this charade.

“Shadow Hide,” once again he vanished into thin air. The Vanguard Kobold charged and slammed its mace at the spot where Jason just vanished, but it was just futile. Once more, they raised their noses up in the air searching for Jason.

This time, Jason didn’t wait. The last Scout Kobold fell to its knees with an arrow went straight into its eyeball, Jason shot at point-blank range dealing an immediate death. The Vanguard Kobold that held the morning star lunged at Jason while swinging the morning star right at him. The silhouette of the human vanished once more as the cowardice tactic of this human started to infuriated the furry humanoid. It swung the morning star randomly in every direction as it howled into the sky.

Jason who thought about ending this pitiful raging creature stopped in his track as even when he was in hiding mode, the howl still did affect him. Thankfully, his cover wasn’t blown as his presence was still undetected by these two kobolds. While he was immovable, he saw the other Vanguard Kobold rushing at its madden brethren. At first, Jason thought it would join in with the random attacks but he was wrong.

The mace Vanguard Kobold ran past its kin heading straight down the road to another direction. Jason glanced further down the road and saw Hakeem standing there like a scarecrow staring at the incoming kobold. Hakeem didn’t hesitate as he turned and fled, but he could barely run with that meager agility that he had. He was sweating buckets as he didn’t dare turn around and look. Tears trailed down his cheek as this wasn’t how he pictured himself to die.

“Momma,” he called out his mother. Then out of nowhere, he felt pain over his shoulder. His eyes glanced to the side and saw the head of the kobold biting over his left shoulder. He knew that death had called him but then he heard something, like something flying around. He heard it just for a second but that didn’t matter to him. What could be more important than death itself?

Then he felt a heavy mass toppling down on him from behind. Hakeem couldn’t move and before he knew it, his face was already facing the asphalt road. The heavy body of the Vanguard Kobold pressed down on him as he thought that he was about to be maul by a rabid beast. It got him thinking that his death might not be that different from being mauled by a cougar.

Hakeem closed his eyes and accepted his death. Seconds passed by yet the pain of death didn’t greet him. He questioned himself on why wasn’t he feeling any more pain? Seconds turned into minutes and soon he heard a howl resounding in the air far from where he was. The howl was terrifying but it didn’t matter to him, in his mind Jason was probably dealing with the other Vanguard Kobold. Then he felt weird about this situation of his, he opened his eyes out of curiosity and as he glanced to the left, he saw the head of the kobold. It was still there yet he felt something was odd. The jaw didn’t move and its eyes felt lifeless.

Is it dead? Thought Hakeem.

Then the thought of being alive made him smiled from ear to ear. The problem right now was he was stuck there with a dead corpse pinning him down.

“Jason!” he shouted the name of his friend. He shouted a few more times before he heard a voice from his back.

“Be patient,” said Jason.

“Get this thing off of me,” said Hakeem.

Jason turned the corpse of the Vanguard Kobold around and not without inflicting some pain at the trapped Hakeem. The tall black man winced in pain as the moving jaw of the kobold only made the dull pain to be more excruciating. His shoulder was still stuck within the jaw of the kobold. Hakeem turned upside down as his body faced the sky. He saw Jason looking at him from above.

“Can’t you see I’m in pain here?” said Hakeem.

Jason opened up the jaw of the dead kobold with his two hands and Hakeem rolled to the side escaping from the jaw of a kobold.

“Ugh,” he looked at his mutilated shoulder and it was bad. Blood was dripping over as the kobold’s fang probably pierced a large artery. He glanced at the dead kobold and saw the tail of an arrow at the back of its head. A realization struck him and he knew why he survived. Jason's accurate shot saved the day, he timed it well as it managed to stopped the kobold from ripping Hakeem apart.

Hakeem glanced at Jason who was walking towards him, Jason’s hair was a bit ruffled but other than that there was nothing wrong with him. It only amazed Hakeem even further seeing how capable this friend of his.

“Let me take a look,” said Jason as he knelt beside Hakeem.

“I need to go to a hospital man, the bite wound looks bad,” said Hakeem as he was worried at his condition.

Jason didn’t say a word as he reached out his hand at the bite wound.

“What are you doing? Don’t-” Hakeem turned speechless seeing the event in front of him. He was about to reprimanded Jason but now his eyes were fixed at his wound which was glowing in green. A few seconds later, the glow vanished and he saw his left shoulder.

“It healed,” said Hakeem as his left shoulder was in a pristine state as if it was never been bitten. He looked at Jason in amazement as the respect he had for him only intensified.

“Get up. I’ve got something for you,” said Jason.

Hakeem got up and followed Jason. It was just a few meters away and under the moonlight, he saw at a distant a squirming body on the road.

“It’s still alive!” Hakeem shouted.

“Relax. I immobilized it,” said Jason.

Hakeem took a closer look and saw the kobold in a gruesome state. His whole face reacted in disgust with a big ‘O’ forming on his lips. He glanced once more at Jason as he had never thought this man was capable of doing such a vile act.

The Vanguard Kobold was hanging by a thread as its breath was becoming shallower by the second. It couldn’t move as all of its limbs were cut off by this monstrous human that stood a few feet from it. Its eyes were still alive as it glared at Jason.

“Hey, it still glaring at you,” said Hakeem.

“Ignore it. Go and kick it,” said Jason.

Hakeem was still a bit wary about the kobold yet he knew he had to do it. He kicked the immobile kobold and retreated a few steps back. Jason didn’t wait around and hacked the Vanguard Kobold’s neck with the hatchet in his hand. Blood spurted out with each hack on the furry neck. Hakeem watched Jason as he couldn’t help but compared Jason with a butcher. After three swings, the Vanguard Kobold was decapitated. The blue window greeted Hakeem once more.

“I leveled up,” said Hakeem.

“Distribute one point to energy and another to e.resist,” said Jason.

Hakeem was about to ask how to do it but with a whisk of his mind, he managed to do it on his own. Several blue windows bombarded his vision as he tried to read it through.

“What do you get?” asked Jason.

“It says here, Iron Body and the other one-”

“Stop! Let’s move on,” said Jason as hearing those two words soured his mood.

“You don’t want to know about the other ability?” Hakeem said.

Jason ignored him and went further down the road. Inside of him, he was constantly cursing everything around him, especially at Hakeem’s luck. Hearing Iron Body made him remembered the ability that slipped away from his grasp.

Freaking dumb luck.