บท 19: Chapter Eighteen: That's a lot of Monsters
Drake got up and patted off the dirt from his face, not bothering with his ripped and tattered clothes.
"I'm going to have to find some new digs soon, or I might have to go running around naked." He mumbled sarcastically, pulling at the tattered edges.
When he looked up he saw a flash of gray pass through the trees. Drake immediately followed it, hoping it was a monster.
He quickly caught up due to his new stats, and what was waiting for him was an angry dog faced bipedal monster standing up to about as high as his chest; wearing some type of old fashion leather equipment and a pickaxe in its hands. It looked at Drake and snarled, baring its dog like teeth.
But instead of fighting, the monster turned again and ran, shouting in a way that reminded Drake of the hyenas he heard on a tv show he had seen before.
Drake with his new speed dashed forward to catch up with the beast, not wanting to let it get away. Once he was running close enough behind it he chanted his Mana Bolt and caught it in the leg.
The monster tumbled in a heap, dropping its pickaxe in the process. Drake picked up the pickaxe and placed it into his inventory. And moved over to the fallen and limping beast.
"Don't move. I don't want to get too much blood on my new wardrobe." He said, driving his sword into the head of the dog beast.
Drake looted the armor of the monster into his inventory right off its corpse not wanting to get it any dirtier. He brought the chest piece out again, holding it with both hands to look at it.
[Leather Chest [F Grade ][Common]
[A passable Leather chest piece that offers a small amount of protection. +6% defense proficiency.]
"Ohhh! F Grade equipment, and it's leather so I think I can use this without too much trouble, I am a warrior now after all, right? And that should also mean…" Drake said, opening his notification.
[You have defeated Miner Kobold [Rank F] Level 10] [1,500 Experience Points and 150 TP awarded]
[New Quest! Subjugate 30 Miner Kobolds[Rank F]]
[Reward: Experience. 1 Random [F Grade] piece of equipment]
[1 out of 30 Miner Kobolds [F Rank ] Subjugated]
So there are Kobolds huh. Finally getting a little more fantasy like with the monsters. Drake said looking at the gray furred monster. He wondered what other kinds of creatures were going to show up now that the system was basically pumping steroids into the monsters to bring them to F Rank.
Drake pulled the Leather chest and then the pants he had looted from the Kobold. They fit snuggly overtop his ragged clothes, and he could move with a comfortable range of motion. But if he had to complain about one thing it was.
"God, these pants are kinda tight around the family jewels. Got to stretch these bad boys out a bit." He complained as he began doing stretches and squats to do just that.
Drake was quickly interrupted though by a similar howl that the Kobold had shouted earlier. He moved up into a nearby tree to get a better vantage and possibly get a drop on whatever was coming.
What eventually came into Drake's line of sight was something he wasn't expecting. A group of Kobolds moved through the forest in his direction, some were holding familiar pickaxes and others were holding swords and shields and even a pair holding a crossbow. But what caught Drake's attention was the hooded one in a cloak sitting safely behind the others.
That was a Mage, he was sure of it. No monster or man wore stuff like that without being one, he thought. Drake counted 11 Kobolds in this group as he saw them grow closer. And he wasn't sure if he would be able to take on a group that large, but he didn't get to make that decision as an arrow embedded itself into the tree he was in, forcing him to turn. A second arrow hitting him in his right shoulder.
Drake fell from the tree, gripping the arrow now lodged in his shoulder. A moment later he landed on his back with a grunt, but quickly got to his feet to take cover. New arrows sinking into the ground he had just been.
Ah! What the hell was that? How did they see me! Do they have some kind of long sight, or detection skill?! Drake thought grimacing from the pain of the arrow. But he didn't get very long to think as he heard footsteps quickly surround him.
Drake tried to peek out from behind his tree to see where the Kobolds were. Only getting a momentary glimpse of the two crossbowmen, seeing them sniffing at the trail of blood that was left from the hit Drake had taken. The pair quickly looked up in his direction and fired at him.
He gasped in surprise and rolled out of the way to the side, right into a waiting Miner Kobold. The Miner brought its pickaxe down, aiming right for Drake's head. But he was much faster than he used to be, and brought his hand up to catch the shaft of the falling pick; driving the sword in his other hand deep into its abdomen covering Drake in its blood.
"Man, I just got these." He whined.
Drake managed to hear a whizzing cutting through the air, and turned the monster he had skewered in their direction. Two more arrows burrowed themselves into its corpse.
Drake looked past the body he was holding to see seven more Kobolds bearing down on him. Pickaxes and Swords raised at the ready.
Drake pushed forward with the pincushioned corpse into the mass of Kobolds. He quickly collided with another Miner and pushed it to a tree, and pinned it through the corpse. Stabbing it through its stomach as well.
Drake pulled the sword from the bodies as quickly as he could and tried to dodge behind another tree only to have a Mana Bolt briskly pass in front of his face, cutting off his escape.
He glanced in the direction of the bolt, and there was the hooded Kobold that he had seen earlier. It quickly raised its hands at him and a bolt flying from its hands again directly at Drake.
Drake's eyes widened at what he just saw. It can cast without chanting or delay?! He screamed inwardly, dropping to the ground to dodge the Bolt.
Drake lunged again for the cover of a tree, barely evading a sword coming down on him from above.
6 more close fighters and 3 ranged. I have to take out the squishies in the back, then I can kite the- Fuck! Ah, that stings! Drake screamed inward and grimaced, touching the arrow still stuck in his shoulder gingerly. His mind worked overtime to think of a way of getting out of this situation alive.
Drake continued to move from tree to tree for cover, throwing Bolts back at the Miners and the Kobolds holding the shields. But the delay in his casts showed their weakness.
The delay was allowing the Kobolds time to dodge and use the trees like he had for cover whenever they saw his hands light up with magic. But he had managed to at least land a bolt on another Miner Kobold that had been too late to get behind a tree.
His pursuers were down to eight, three of the five melee holding shields. The two remaining Miners behind them as they charged forward towards Drake, slowly catching up.
He fired two more Bolts behind him, but they were easily blocked by the shields the Kobolds held up. Drake clicked his tongue as he saw that. His Bolts were only doing negligible damage to the shields. If only he had a fire spell so he could just burn right through the things.
The Kobolds were catching up to him now that they knew his Mana Bolts couldn't penetrate their shields, forcing Drake to make a decision of whether he was going to fight the five on one. Or try to get to the two Crossbowmen and Mage that had been keeping their distance and pepering at him with arrows and Mana Bolts.
He still wasn't confident that he could win in a melee, he had just changed into a melee cross class after all. But he didn't have a choice here. So he resolved himself and gritted his teeth as he made a mad dash at the crossbowmen, his stance as low to the ground as he could manage without falling forward.
As he ran at a new breakneck speed, he chanted his spell. It was released as he got halfway to the group of three. An arrow landing in front of him and one clipping his cheek as he ran. He then zagged to his right, a Mana Bolt passing right over his shoulder.
Drake moved as quickly as his new stats would take him to the group, his Mana Bolt finally reaching one of the Crossbowmen as it was reloading its weapon. The remaining one managed to reload before Drake had made it to them. Another Mana Bolt entered his vision forcing him to jump the remaining distance.
He leapt and began to fly towards the crossbowman, mage pair. His sword raised over his head. "Power through force! Heavy Blow!!" He shouted through a pained expression. Another cross bolt clipping his Leather Armor in the side. Drake collided on top of the Crossbowman plunging his sword into its skull with his skill infused swing.
The Mage wasn't perturbed in the slightest and its hand glowed with power as a Mana Bolt flew out and caught Drake in the shoulder the arrow was in. Pushing Drake back and off the body but knocking the arrow free into the air in front of him. Time slowed down for a moment, and Drake grabbed the arrow out of the air with swiftness and agility he didn't know he had, throwing it back at the Mage in recompense.
Drake slammed back to the ground, his thrown arrow finding the Mage's throat as it sunk to the ground and flailed in a death throe as it bled out.
Drake painfully gripped his shoulder for a moment now that it had a sizable portion missing from it, and got up, seeing the remaining two Miners and Sword n Boardsmen rushing his way.
He began chanting Bolts as he pelted them with his spell to no avail as the only target he hit were the raised shields, dealing no damage.
The group of five were getting uncomfortably close now. Drake pointed downward in front of the group as he chanted three bolts in succession, kicking up dirt in front of him.
Drake jumped backwards and fumbled to pick up the dead bowman's crossbow. Plucking the arrow from the dead Mage's throat and loading it. As the dust was quickly dissipating, Drake kneeled and took aim at the small cloud. The next moment a Sword n Boarder pushed through the cloud, confused only long enough to take an arrow to the face.
It fell backwards as the rest of the Kobolds came stumbling out of the dissipating cloud of dust. Drake was already in the air from jumping at the cloud, landing on top of a Sword n Boarder, knocking them both to the ground.
The Kobold managed to hold on to its weapons and struggled to find Drake with its weapon while he was on top of it. Drake pulled at the monster's shield, peeling it away from the monster's chest enough for him to slip his sword in over it and into the Kobolds neck, killing it.
The two Kobolds next to Drake didn't miss a beat and brought their weapons down on him in an attempt to skewer him. But Drake rolled backwards just in time to dodge the pickaxe and sword, resulting in them being sunk into their comrade's corpse.
The remaining three Kobolds roared in anger. But Drake did the same as he charged the last Kobold holding a shield. "Power through force! Heavy Blow!!" He screamed, charging at the beast, his sword coming down on the monster's raised shield only getting a small way into the side of it, stuck.
Drake yanked and pulled at his stuck weapon, struggling against the Kobold. The two Mining Kobolds were hesitant to interfere, apparently afraid they may hit the other Kobold in the scuffle.
Eventually Drake managed to pull his sword away from the Kobold, the shield coming off with it. The extra weight threw Drake off balance forcing him to lose his grip on his weapon, it flying over his shoulder.
Desperately Drake rammed his body into the monster and wrestled it to the ground, placing it in a choke hold on top of himself. He gazed wild eyed at the other two Kobolds to see if they would intervene and thankfully they were too indecisive to move. Drake chanted his Mana Bolt in his hand held against the Kobolds head, never looking away from the eyes of the Miner Kobolds as it channeled. The Swordsman Kobold flailed and bucked when it saw the magic circle appear next to its face but was unable to break away from Drake's grip.
After two seconds the Bolt manifested, taking the Kobold's head clean off.
Drake hurriedly threw the body at the Miners. Casting another Bolt as he got to his feet, while picking up the Kobold's dropped sword.
The Kobolds panicked as one caught the body, falling to the ground with it on top. The other caught a Mana bolt to the chest and coughed blood as it fell to the side. Drake got on top of the last Kobold, his foot pushing down on the body it had caught, preventing it from moving. And brought his sword down through it to kill the struggling monster.
Drake fell to his knees, then his back in exhaustion, looking at his status bars. His health was just over 50%, where his mana was comfortably at 70%, and his stamina was drained sitting at a duff 10%.
"I can't believe I made it through that." He panted "I swear if another monster finds me right now, they can just have me. Please, just take me now." He guffawed.
Drake managed to sit upright and look around. There was far too much blood on and around him. He only waited long enough to scoop up the equipment and stones that spawned in modes of light then made a dash in the direction of the river.
He wasn't able to move at top speed but he made excellent headway, as he looked through the plethora of notifications with a grin.
[You have defeated Miner Kobold [Rank F] Level 11] [2,000 Experience Points and 150 TP awarded]
[You have defeated Miner Kobold [Rank F] Level 11] [2,000 Experience Points and 150 TP awarded]
[Congratulations, you have increased to Mage x Warrior level 4] [28 Free Points have been awarded]
[You have defeated Miner Kobold [Rank F] Level 10] [1,500 Experience Points and 150 TP awarded]
[You have defeated Kobold Ranger [Rank F] Level 13] [3,500 Experience Points and 350 TP awarded]
[New Quest! Subjugate 20 Kobold Rangers [Rank F]]
[Reward: Experience. 1 Random [F Grade] piece of equipment]
[You have defeated Kobold Ranger [Rank F] Level 13] [3,500 Experience Points and 350 TP awarded]
[You have defeated Kobold Mage [Rank F] Level 15] [7,500 Experience Points and 750 TP awarded]
[Congratulations, you have increased to Mage x Warrior level 5] [28 Free Points have been awarded]
[New Quest! Subjugate 20 Kobold Mages[Rank F]]
[Reward: Experience. 1 Random [F Grade] piece of equipment]
[You have defeated Kobold Warrior [Rank F] Level 13] [6,000 Experience Points and 650 TP awarded]
[New Quest! Subjugate 20 Kobold Warriors [Rank F]]
[Reward: Experience. 1 Random [F Grade] piece of equipment]
[You have defeated Kobold Warrior [Rank F] Level 13] [6,000 Experience Points and 650 TP awarded]
[You have defeated Kobold Warrior [Rank F] Level 13] [6,000 Experience Points and 650 TP awarded]
[You have defeated Miner Kobold [Rank F] Level 10] [1,500 Experience Points and 150 TP awarded]
[You have defeated Miner Kobold [Rank F] Level 10] [1,500 Experience Points and 150 TP awarded]
[6 out of 30 Miner Kobolds [Rank F] Subjugated]
[2 out of 20 Kobolds Rangers [Rank F] Subjugated]
[1 out of 20 Kobolds Mages [Rank F] Subjugated]
[3 out of 20 Kobolds Warriors [Rank F] Subjugated]
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Arthur_Inverse
Arthur_Inverse That was a lot of monsters... I hope you've enjoyed Drake's journey so far, and continue to enjoy the story. Writing this has been a crazy ride, and it's beyond me how many people have taken a look at it, I just want to thank everyone again and hope you consider following the story and take a moment to give a review of the story if you have time. Good or bad all feedback is welcomed! Thank you all as always for reading! And I hope you will come back tomorrow for the next chapter!
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