Pov - Celestia

“Wait, what do you mean,” I ask out, barely being dragged behind Arthur, who is already starting to jog forward.

“I’ll explain while we run, Let's just get going,” Arthur replies with kindness in his voice, yet there is a sense of urgency also tinged in it as well.

While briefly contemplating stopping and asking more questions, I just shake my head and follow him. Fear tingling at the edges of my consciousness like lightning, I start running, following behind Arthur. Noel had also grabbed Simmons, after hearing Tavarious warning the first time. Simmons, not asking questions, unlike me, just starts following behind her silently. Though we already began running I’m still confused about this situation, so I try to think through everything Tavarious said, but with all the running I’m not able to split my focus and think about it.

My mind soon grows numb with all the running, so I begin to focus on only running, I’m soon not even able to recognize that we are turning at some point. I’m just following the person dragging me, and my sight firmly stuck on my moving legs is also just showing I don’t have the energy to look up. After what seems like a year of running we stop, and once we stop my mind narrows in on the idea of a break. Looking up for the first time in a while, my eyes meet with the concerned eyes of Arthur.

Through my rough breathing I’m barely able to ask out, “Can, I, sit? Down for a moment.”

Not even listening to the reply, I sit down on the nearest rock and place my head into the palms of my hands. Breathing heavily, I just stay like that till I’m able to gather the energy to look back up. Then looking up once more, my eyes land on the other in my group. Noel and Arthur seem fine, actually, Noel looks like she's just gone on a light jog while Arthur looks as if he has been standing in the same spot for the entire time. Simmons like me is sitting down on a rock completely exhausted, but I think he is doing slightly better them me. I think?

Though that is all simple conjecture and with my mind processes firing back on, I finally realized that I still don’t know why we are running. “So Arthur.” I take a breath-stopping myself not even halfway in, “So why did we run away… you seem like that huge kobold.” I stop, realizing my words are not coherent yet. So starting with another breath, I say, “you took down the huge kobold fairly easy, right?”

Arthur looks at me confused for a second before he starts talking, “I told you while we were running, didn’t I?” He pauses for a few moments, thinking back if he just thought up the whole explanation. Though, he seems to banish his thoughts as he looks back up and says, “I did take it down pretty easily, but that was one on one. Though if more are coming, then it is going to be far more difficult, these things are not only smart and strong, but they also hold classes, so they're able to make groups that complement each other.”

Taking a deeper breath than usual, I let it sink in how dangerous they can truly be. They're not just a monster you see every day and take down, they are sapient beings with classes of their own. So they're going to be much more powerful than just a monster with higher stats. They are going to have weapon techniques, and are going to be able to chain together more complex skills, and worst of all they are going to have far different abilities than each other in the same race. Sure, the same can be said of every monster, but it's not that simple. I remember one of the tutors the church hired for me said, “our fellow Sapient races are still more of a problem than the monster and such, because of a few simple reasons. The first point is the fact that we are able to work together chaining are skills with the others in a group, and due to this, we can take out monsters that are far beyond what we usually can do alone. The next which can be said to be just as important is how we can compose are groups, a goblin might just throw together a hobble of troops with no real organization to just swarm people, but we can compose groups that are adaptable and can fight most foes with minimal casualties…” the rest does not really apply to this situation though. It was terrifying, I shivered just thinking about how the monsters are like us, but just more prepared, they always knew their enemy is going to be thinking creatures like them, but we had no clue though. They're the type of monster that the guild put to extinction, the type that can not only evolve but also gains classes, they're the type that builds kingdoms… that's why it is called Kobold king, it's not signifying a tier of monster, it tells us that these kobolds have built their own kingdom. Sure we might just be in the mines but that still does tell us that they have progressed enough to work on their own gear instead of just stealing it. This is a truly terrifying train of thought…

I’m brought out of it though as Arthur, who had grabbed both of my shoulders, begins to shake me. Looking back at Arthur, I tap his arms, signaling for him to stop this shaking. Then I realize an important thing, where is Tavarious, and how is he doing? I remember that I was only able to stabilize him for the time being. So I begin looking around for him, but I just can’t seem to find him anywhere, then I notice I can feel some faint tapping on my leg, so I look down just to find Tavarious laying down near my feet head propped up by some extra clothes that one of us have been holding onto. If you asked me who held it, I would not be able to answer you, but that is all beside the point for now. Seeing how I only regained 5 Mana I would say that we have been running for a little over half an hour, though it may not be much, I channel my healing magic into the nearly dead Rogue.

“Have you gathered enough energy to continue onward?” Arthur says, causing me to look back up at him.

Taking a few deeper breaths I then gather my strength into my legs and stand, though I almost fall over in the process I’m able to stand and say, “Yeah, let’s get a move on.” though I meant for it to come out cheerful it just comes out with a tired undertone.

I can hear Simmons sigh from off to the side, standing up at roughly the same time I did. “We should at least make our way up to the surface, we have no idea who or what is coming,” Simmons says eyes filled with exhaustion, well that's probably how mine look as well… I let out a sigh, thinking about what my eyes now look like, even if they are being covered by these wraps.

Before I’m able to get sucked into that train of thought, Arthur knocks me out of it by saying “Alright, let's get a move on,” as cheerful as possible, trying to lift our spirits and get a move on. Reaching down at nearly the same time he is saying this, he picks up Tavarious who fell back asleep to save some energy.

So like that, I follow Arthur and Noel on our climb upwards with Simmons trailing beside me just as exhausted as I am. We do stop a few more times, but we are without incident till we make our way back out of the mines. As soon as we reach the forest with the sun nearly about to set, I and Simmons collapse onto the grass, breathing out heavily. I only come back to focus as Arthur grabs me with force and flings me back, Noel almost mirroring him with Simmons. Landing upside down, my eye falls upon another kobold, but this one is just different from the others. His scales are brown, with each of them fitting together like a perfectly done art piece. The scales themselves are like impenetrable walls of a great fortress. A sword is held in one of his hands, easily matching up to Arthur himself, who is holding his sword in both hands. The sword itself is simple but with it being so simple it has its own simplistic beauty that is unlike most magic blades I have seen and that is clearly what this is. Even without my Mana sight, I can tell this, I don’t know how, but it's just this feeling I’m getting.

“It’s a Dragonkin?” I hear a voice beside me whisper in udder shock. Looking over, I see Tavarious awake and sitting up, both of his legs spread out under him. His eyes are focused on the ‘dragon kin’ and his mouth is being held open by shock.