Chapter 17

  A Pool Of His Own Blood

  It’s a strange thought. Even being a kobold I’ve seen so much more goblin blood than that of any other. Pooling on the stone floors of the castle, sinking into the soil of the forest, and each in a failed effort to defend their home and clans. I’ve had a lot of my own blood spilled though, too. So, does that count as seeing more kobold blood? No, I’ve still seen too much blood from the dead…

  The three goblins that formed Nik’s entire force of guards stood at the center of the pit facing him. Each of them was equipped and ready to show their new leader what they had to offer in combat. Kath had a sword in each hand, Worik held a two-handed sword, and Stics had the head of a sledgehammer resting over his shoulder.

  “You weren’t joking when you said that you use different weapons with separate styles, and none of you use a shield. I guess that puts you as a more attack focused group. So I’ll have each of you spar with me one at a time, and see what there might be for me to teach you or to learn from you. We’ll go in order from my left to right. Kath, then Worik, and Stics last.”

  They each stood aside waiting their turns and watching as Nik tested the others. Kath and Nik traded a few simple blows, just getting a feel for facing one another. He kept it to simple combat with no abilities, which was made easier by the fact that the three of them had none.

  She swung at him with one sword followed swiftly by the other, with each attack after that being a fluid motion of twinned attacks. Never did one sword move without the other as he blocked each of the strikes with his shield or spear.

  Sparring with Worik and Stics went similarly, with both of them knowing how to wield their weapons, but not being able to land a blow against their Burrow Lord.

  The truth had hit him like a black brick from the tower had fallen on his little teal-feathered head. If this clan is going to survive then I am going to need to train them. These warriors have a little training, but much less combat experience than they will need.

  “Okay, so… I won’t lie, you all seem to know how to wield your weapons well, but I also thought you would all be more experienced than this. I don’t have the same weapon skills that you use, but I will need to find a way to teach you to fight more effectively.”

  A bell rang out in his head, and his spear nearly slipped from his hands. At least I didn’t scream or drop anything this time, he thought as he looked to what the system had for him.

  Mentor System Unlocked

  Congratulations!

  Maybe you can get some points across.

  Student Slots Assigned 0 of 5

  Students receive 35% increase to skill growth.

  You can teach your skills of level 3 or higher to your students.

  Student Slots cannot be unassigned once filled.

  Nik’s mind was racing from the new information. What in the tower? Does this mean I could pass on the wind, shield, and spear skills?

  Nik’s voice had an almost questioning upturned lilt as he called out, “Pearl? You’re gonna wanna know about this! I just got a new series of messages from the system and they might change everything for our little group of warriors.”

  Pearl fluttered over with haste.

  “What is the big thing that I need to know about?”

  “I just unlocked a Mentor system that allows me to teach some of my skills to students. Maybe in a way, like how you taught me, but I’ve never seen the system have an effect on others.”

  “This system always has another surprise waiting for us to discover. I am not one to use weapons, and I have not seen any lying around that are small enough for me to wield, regardless. I will not request one of your slots, but it is very interesting to see this new part of the system. We should make use of every advantage that it offers to you.”

  “Well, lowerguards, what do you say to becoming students of the spear and wind skills?”

  Kath spoke up first, as seemed to be usual. “Maybe the Stormclaws will be known for usin’ elemental skills someday. It would be fittin’ of our name, I’ll give you that. Count me in.”

  Worik’s fists tightened on the grip of his sword, and he looked Nik dead in the eyes. “There’s no way I’m passin’ up the chance to learn somethin’ that’ll give us an edge over our enemies. I am with you, Burrow Lord.”

  “Ain’t gonna let these two get stronger than me. I’m in,” said Stics.

  It was intuitive, like knowing how to breathe. He knew what to do next, and with his next words the system operated with his voiced input. “Alright, all that’s left is to make it official then. I invite each of you three to be my students.”

  The three warriors stumbled back in unison, falling over themselves and each other. Nik and Pearl winced as they crashed to the floor in a pile of bodies and weapons. Nik could see what Pearl could not, in front of each of the warriors’ faces was a box of text from the system.

  You Have Received A Student Invitation!

  Would You Like To Become A Student Of Nik Stormclaw?

  Accept?

  [Yes] Or [No]

  “Well, that’s new. They have system messages, like me,” he told his six-winged friend.

  “Absolutely intriguing. I wonder how long until they get used to it like you have?”

  “Yeah,” Nik said as he thought about almost dropping his weapon a few minutes prior. “It might take a bit for that. Anyways, I should probably offer them a hand.”

  By the time he had helped Worik to his feet, Kath and Stics had managed to get themselves up. The three of them stood before him now. Each of them was taller than him, and there was a time when he would have been intimidated by the sight of them standing over him like this.

  Before he could say or do anything else, the system popped back up with a display of increasing numbers. They rose from zero to three in the matter of a heartbeat.

  3 of 5 Student Slots Assigned

  “You all accepted that quick? No questions to ask of me?”

  “Only one,” Kath said.

  “Yeah, when do we get started?” Stics interjected.

  “This is the part where you get to find out just how bored I was learning the wind skill from Pearl. Trust us and trust that the process can work for you, like it did with me. It’s going to be boring, though, so you’ll have to try to stay focused. Pearl, would you mind helping us with your Gentle Breeze ability?”

  Pearl said, “Oh, this is going to be fun for me, too.”

  “We’re just going to need to borrow some leaves, or paper. Something light enough for your breeze to lift and move. We’ll have to talk to Elder Pliegs about getting something like that for us to use, but for now, we’ll start with the spear training. I’d like for you all to have something extra to work with. This way, you can be good with a spear as well as your other weapons, and it will give you something ranged that won’t use your mana. Any questions?”

  Worik held a hand up and asked, “What about your flame, we couldn’t learn that, too?”

  “I need to get my own skill higher before I can teach that to you. Right now I can only teach you these two skills, but I plan on teaching you more when we get the chance. I want our burrow to be able to defend itself well. Having options to turn to has helped me to survive. I’ve also been really lucky, but we’ll stick to just the things that I can teach. So are you guys ready to throw some spears?”

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  With only the smallest complaints at having to throw pointy objects at their leader, which was generally frowned upon, they lined up with the few spears Nik had withdrawn from his inventory. He stood at the far end from the rest of the clan so nothing would be thrown towards the children or elders.

  They launched spears at him and then came forward to get critiques before handing the spears off to the next goblin. Unfortunately, they took quite some time before any of them started hitting his shield.

  Progress was slow, but there was progress. Soon enough one spear landed its mark, followed by another. This increased over the next hours until about one in every three throws struck true. They went on training for one more hour before he got another notification from the system.

  Congratulations!

  Student Worik Has Gained A Skill

  Worik: Spear Skill Level 1

  They continued until he got the same notifications for Kath and Stics. Only then did he allow them to rest. By the end of it even he was tired from having held his shield in place for so long.

  Hopefully that helped get my shield skill closer to the next level, too. Maybe if we had some sort of target, then I could also practice my spear throwing while I teach, he thought while he searched for Pearl in the stands. She was just small enough to be difficult to find in the smallest of crowds. Just like the one they had now.

  He found her sitting with the tiniest little tornado of dirt in front of her, with Ryan trying to sneak up on the miniature whirlwind of dirt. The dragon wiggled its rear haunches, tail wagging side to side before he pounced and tumbled through it.

  “Any luck with finding anything for you to use your ability on while I try to teach them to harness the wind?” he asked.

  The look Pearl gave him was one that would make a genius feel as though they’d just asked the single least intelligent question possible, and then she gestured with both hands towards the small cyclone of dust.

  “Oh, right. Well, we use what’s on hand and we use whatever works. That might make a bit more sense than trying to find spare paper or leaves in an underground city, I suppose.”

  It would be so much easier to teach them if I could use Gentle Breeze.

  “Ok, Pearl. If you’re ready we can get started. Their bodies can rest from spear training while we put their minds to work on understanding the basics of the wind skill.”

  * * *

  Sir BlackDagger has led us on a multiple day and night long freakin’ wild goose-chase, and for what? To kill a specific monster? If this is the same kobold that freed me and Doggy, then I’m not sure how I’ll be able to do anything to help them kill it. Enslaving fellow players is technically against the rules of the game, but there are rumors that a couple of guilds know how to bend those rules slightly. ‘Slightly’ is enough to where I’m not sure what would have happened to me if he hadn’t helped me, though.

  Travelling with another group for the first time since they’d been backstabbed, they’d taken to waking everyone as soon as someone from the other party awoke. The sun was up a decent amount of time after them, often as not.

  Now, the pair of adventuring parties had been wandering the area where one of the groups had been ambushed by a green-scaled enemy mob. Bodies of dead goblins still lay on the ground.

  Odd, they should have despawned by now. The bodies of beasts might remain, but the less animalistic creatures have always vanished after a time, Beatrice thought. She snapped back to the present when her username was called out. He’d noticed it, too. Even with the little light that the stars and moon provided, they could see that the goblin footprints had been muddled, mixed in with something more dangerous.

  “GreenWarden, I think there were orcs here. Maybe a hunting party judging from the small number of prints they left behind. Not a full war party, but we should still be careful. If they are hunting the same prey as we are, then we’re probably going to run into them at some point,” said BlackDagger.

  Her brother and their other two party members were looking at the goblins now, as well. There was definitely something strange going on here. Her shoulders and spine were stiff with unease.

  At least I’m not the only one noticing how strange some of this is.

  A shout in the distance brought everyone present to full alertness. Every player from both adventuring groups shifted to face the same direction, drawing weapons in preparation for whatever came for them.

  More shouts. “What is going on, is there another party out here fighting the orcs already?” she asked.

  Screams echoed to their ears replacing the shouts that had been getting closer.

  “Tighten up!” Mark shouted at the same time Sir BlackDagger had yelled, “Form positions!”

  They stood with their parties side by side, heavier defenders in the front with dps in the back. Ahead of them there was movement, branches were being knocked aside and twigs snapped on the ground.

  Stumbling backwards at them was a bow wielding orc covered in blood. They were talking to themselves as they kept their heavy longbow aimed in the direction of the canopy they’d come from. Beatrice was reminded that she had a linguistics skill when she picked up on some curses and two small words. The orc had said, in the middle of her mostly indiscernible mumbling, the words all and dead.

  “Black Tower, something bad is coming. Hold your attacks!” she called out to the others. The orc looked back at them just having noticed their presence, but her head snapped back to face the treeline.

  Whatever is coming scares the orc more than we do.

  She felt a tingle run down her spine and goosebumps formed on her arms as the temperature of the air around them plummeted several degrees.

  The orc slowly crept back into line with the players who looked sideways at her, while she stared straight ahead.

  It was an unexpected scent, the odor of decay that slithered on the breeze. The deep shadows below the tree shifted with movement, but whatever caused the shadows to blur made no sound as it gently slipped into the clearing.

  A tall humanoid figure hunched forward, lifting its one arm up to reveal a series of inky black claws. The void of the shadow’s face split open, and fangs glinted in the starlight.

  “Drutha?” said the orc by their side.

  Like the energy unloading from a coiled spring, the creature and the players launched themselves forward at the same time. Weapons were aimed at the grinning shadow and the night was lit with the boom of lightning from both the other group’s leader, Mark, and Beatrice’s brother, their own elementalist.

  The abilities soaked into the shadow, illuminating the writhing darkness from within, and it spun towards them like a dark stormcloud. The shadow sparked as daggers cut through its edges to thud into the trees behind it.

  One breath in and the orc huntress released her knocked arrow. The heavy string twanged as the thick-shafted arrow sped from the orc, disappearing into the shadow and returning to bury itself into the shoulder of the orc who had fired it.

  Sir BlackDagger timed a shield bash to crash against a swipe of the creature’s claws. The resulting thunderous boom of lightning that smashed against his shield flung him to his back between the others. Someone from the other party stepped into his place to stab a dagger into the creature’s side.

  Without showing any sign of pain, the shadow pressed its long cold claws through the hooded player’s abdomen, lifted him into the air, and threw him aside with ease.

  His body banged with an unceremonious crunch into a tree and dropped, dead, to the ground.

  “J.D. use Judgment, now!” Eric shouted while getting back to his feet. In the next heartbeat LootLad drew a hand downward and bright light dropped from above. The area was flooded with a blinding radiance that was peeling the shadows back from the creature like fingers digging into an orange.

  The stench of death filled the air as Stabitha’s axe dug into the flesh of the orc beneath the shadows, and a backhand sent her back into her cousin. The lingering light of Divine Judgment let Neal’s double-bladed katar sink into the opposite side, before a slash of claws cut across his left eye. He screamed as he fell away from the creature, hands pressed to the ice covered patch the claws had made of his face.

  Another beam shot like lightning from the sky as LootLad activated Divine Judgment for the second time. The shadows pulled back like smoke curling from a burning log, as the players continued their assault.

  They traded blows with the monstrously strong orc as the shadows continued being ripped away by divine light.

  The orc laughed as it was wounded by a slice from Sir BlackDagger’s blade, like it had no care about being brought closer to death.

  Color began to slowly pool across the sky, precursor to the morning sun, and the shadow-clad orc stepped back from the adventurers and the wounded orc huntress. The great devourer of shadows had arrived to grant them all a reprieve.

  For the first time the orc spoke, “Congratulations, you have managed to fend off one little shadow. I’ve decided to change some of the rules, though. Pass the message along of what happened here to anyone who knows the pathetic little kobold who dares to threaten me. The King sends his regards and an army of shadows is coming.”

  The shadow leapt from the one-armed orc and snaked back into the treeline, leaving the orc to crumble to the forest floor, already dead.

  “What the bloody-hell was that?” asked the guy called Raj.

  LootLad ran over to Neal to heal his wounded face. It was too late for their dead ally; he would have to respawn back in town.

  “Wait,” said J.D. with his hand still on Neal’s ice-covered and bloodied eye. “Something feels wrong.”

  Neal jerked away from the healer, and grabbing at his own face, he shouted, “My eye, it burns. What did you do to me?”

  When J.D. had finally lowered his hands from Neal’s face, the morning sun had finally peeked over the faraway mountains. The silence around them was swallowed by the gasps of those he’d travelled here with. Divine Healing had indeed healed him… His eye socket was a mess of scar tissue. “What did you do to me?” he screamed again as he grabbed at the healer.

  “I don’t understand, that should have restored your eye. This is wrong, I don’t know what happened. You shouldn’t have a single scar.”

  “Neal, chill out. We’ll visit a healer NPC in Graywater. Jason isn’t responding to messages. I’m gonna log out and call him,” said Mark. His eyes glazed over as he pulled up his menu.

  His unfocused eyes went wide a moment later, “Crap. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. I think we have a seriously big problem, guys.”

  “What’s going on Mark?” asked Sir BlackDagger.

  “I can’t log out, man!”

  “What?” Raj’s eyes stared into nothing as he pulled up his menu. “The button’s ruddy gone, innit. My family is gonna sue every pound out of this game studio.”

  Eric’s face turned dead serious. “Hold on. If we can’t log out, then why isn’t Jason responding to your chats?”

  Their gazes all turned to lock onto the still, slumped body of Jason, lying in a pool of his own blood as it seeped into the dirt.