Chapter 13

The sounds of barking and howling could be clearly heard as Lucian and I made our way down into the valley. The foliage was dense and the various branches that kept smacking me across the face more than a little annoying.

After cursing mother nature a few more times and Lucian telling me to keep silent and suck it up, we arrived on the lowest level.

“From here we'll take it slow. Prioritise not being seen.” He told me as the distant sounds of kobold activity became more and more clearer.

I nodded and kept my eyes peeled. Honestly, I had no idea how to sneak around. I was not some kind of spy or infiltrator extraordinaire. From the way I kept stepping on fallen breaches and rustling leaves I would probably suck at hide and seek too.

Lucian, for his part, did better than me, but not by enough to give me confidence in this operation. The fact that everything was wet made everything harder than it had to be, but thankfully it was still the middle of summer. The temperature was high enough that my simple shirt managed to keep me warm even with all the rain from earlier.

Now if only these goddamn branches would stop hitting me in the face !

Lucian suddenly squatted and I followed his example. With a few uncomfortable steps in that position we peeked out from a couple of bushes.

What we saw made me gulp in anxiety. This was no small group, there were at least two hundred of them roaming around. On one side there was a literal mountain of corpses, both kobold and what remained of the giant bees.

I wondered why they would bother getting their dead compatriots back. Why struggle to get all those bodies all the way here? Maybe kobolds have burial rites?

Unfortunately, I was proven wrong.

They were making soup.

The less said about that the better, but I thought the kobolds weren’t smart enough for something like this. I glanced at Lucian to see him just as fascinated by the concept as I was.

We watched for a few minutes until something took both our attention away from the dogmen’s, uh, practical eating habits. A group of them came out of the forest with their hands full of what I now recognized as Rock Root.

They stockpiled it at the entrance of a cave and left. We waited silently to see what else these creatures were doing, but, surprisingly, it wasn’t a kobold that took our attention next.

From out of the cave came out something right out of a horror show. It was easily two meters tall with brown, dirty fur covering its entire body. It’s torso had actual, leather armor protecting it. It’s red, beady eyes landed on the pile of Rock Root.

Without so much as a glance at the rest of the camp, the ratman walked on its two legs and grabbed the plants before returning to the interior of the cave.

“Holy shit…” I heard Lucian whisper. I was pretty much feeling the same. Were the creatures in this world all just a bunch of radioactive abominations?

“That was a rodentia! What the hell are those rat men doing with kobolds?”

“I take it that this is a pretty bad thing to happen?”

“We’ll talk later. For now we have to get inside that cave and find out what that thing is doing here.”

Of course we had. This simple plant gathering expedition was getting more intense by the second.

“There are hundreds of kobolds moving around here. We’ll be found in no time!” I tried to plead.

The doctor didn’t give up on his idea and kept looking around for a solution. I wanted to tell him that we had plenty of information already and we shouldn’t get greedy. Especially since it would mean risking our necks, more than we already were in any case.

“I have an idea.” He said while looking at the mound of corpses. It was on the other side of the kobold’s camp, right opposite to the cave.

I tried to ask him, but before I could open my mouth he was moving. I bit back a curse and followed after him. Thankfully, the mound was big enough for us to hide behind it without being discovered.

“I’m going to set this thing on fire, watch my back!” He whispered.

I looked at him shocked. I got what he was trying to do. Bodies burned surprisingly well with all the fat they had in them, but we had nothing to lit the pile up. Not only that, but because of the rain, all of them were soaked.

Lucian threw my doubts to the wind when he closed his eyes and brought up his palm. He started chanting some unintelligible words and a soft amber glow began forming around him.

The display of magic was almost enough to make me forget we were deep in enemy territory and that glowing like a christmas tree was a really bad idea.

As if looking to confirm my thoughts, one of the kobolds that was carrying the corpses saw the light and curiously made its way towards us. Nervously, I glanced at Lucian only to see him deep into whatever magical trance he was in.

I ignored the sweat going down my back and pulled out my sword. With a few silent movements I positioned myself right around the corner. I ignored the fact that my back was pressing against a literal pile of corpses and got ready.

The kobold made its way to the glow and, after jumping over some of his fallen brothers, he’s eyes landed on Lucian. For a second it seemed confused at the sight of a shiny human. That ended when it realised something was wrong and opened its mouth to howl.

Fortunately, by that time, my sword was already flying through the air. With a single slash, the dogman fell down, dead. Whatever sound it had managed to make as it was falling was easily covered by the camp’s activity.

I peeked around and saw we were still safe for the moment. I turned to the doctor just in time to see his incantation reach its peak. He opened his eyes, the glow that surrounded his body previously concentrated on his hand. He backed up and let loose a stream of scorching hot flames.

Whatever moisture was on the bodies quickly evaporated as the spell landed on the pile. It didn’t take long for it to spread.

I watched in awe at the fiery display until I felt the doctor grab my arm and pull me away.

“We don’t have time to waste, let's go before the fire reaches the bee corpses.”

As we made our way hurriedly through the vegetation and towards the cave, I couldn’t help but ask. “Why is that important?”

I heard a fizzle and a wave of heat passed through me. “That’s why. Giant man-slaying bees secrete easily combustible fluids. That thing should be hot enough to burn anything near it by now. The magic flames aren’t ordinary either.”

His explanation finished right as we passed our previous spot. One glance at the kobold camp and I could see them running scared everywhere. They were, after all, just a step above their four legged cousins .

Lucian and I could afford to move a little faster now since all the chaos was doing a great job of masking us. We stopped by the cave, still hidden in case the rodentia figured to come outside.

We waited a bit and saw no trace of movement. Understandable, since the fire was happening right in the opposite direction. If you were not directly aware of it, all that changed would have been a higher number of barks and howling.

Something our target was completely uninterested in, hopefully.

Lucian took out his sword and gave me a nod. I gave one back and moved ahead of him. The doctor was good, but my weapon had longer reach and could intercept things before they came face to face with us.

Slowly we made our way inside.