New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1017: Persistent Humans

Alex's senses told him where the attack came from, or rather, from whom, and he grinned.

It may not have been as lethal as it should have been, or as lethal as he would have liked it to be, but it had an added effect that he wouldn't let pass by.

Every kobold suddenly hit out of the blue, fell in immediate disarray.

Pouncing on this opening, he flashed forward with a Wind Step and finished the job on those Jin-Sil's strike hadn't killed.

"Don't let them regain their footing!" he shouted, as he flashed through a row of kobolds, lopping their heads clean off.

His command didn't fall on deaf ears, and Killian charged forward behind him, albeit much slower, but in a whirlwind of precise slashes that Alexander couldn't hope to match without years of practice.

Winston roared at the larger lizard monster, using mana to force-taunt the beast. His roar, although much weaker than the monster's, immediately made it snap its head toward the boy.

"You die first!" it growled at Winston.

"Bring it, fugly!" Winston replied, smacking his mace on the flat side of his shield with a loud clang.

Jonathan immediately burst out of the cavern, veering to the right, as he started taking down wounded kobolds one after another, trying to thin their ranks as quickly as possible. He didn't want to risk being caught behind their ranks once they regained their composure.

Their disarray was short-lived, and Jonathan quickly had to retreat when enemies suddenly started lashing out at him furiously. Although he was much faster than they were, a single mistake could cost him dearly in a crowded environment like this.

Darting around and flying back into the cave, he saw that the monstrous lizard had already been dealt with, fur burned, body pierced and slashed, and pieces of it frozen and broken off.

Whatever the situation had been here in those fifteen seconds, it had perished in extreme pain; that much was certain.

"How is it in the tunnel?" Kary asked him as he flew back in.

"I didn't look far on the left; Alexander was down there. But the right side is clearly where they are coming from. I couldn't see their end when I stopped advancing," he replied, landing at her side.

Alex reappeared at the cavern entrance, holding Killian by the collar as he said that.

"Heal this idiot. He decided to follow me too far and got surrounded," Alex said, putting him to his feet.

His right arm was deeply gashed, and blood was quickly flowing from the wound.

Killian was gritting his teeth in anger and pain as he walked toward Cory, who was already dashing toward him.

"Hey, how could I have known you would disappear on me? I thought you had my back..." Killian growled.

"That's why I told you to stay at the cave entrance, you dolt. I was moving way too fast to notice you were following behind. Next time, listen to me, will you?"

Killian groaned a bit, but kept his mouth shut.

Cory hurriedly started treating his wound, the golden light coming from his hands closing it shut in seconds as the blood dried up around the closed gash.

"I can't help with your lost blood, so you might feel weak for a while. Don't push yourself too hard," Cory said, smiling at Killian.

"Thanks, kid," Killian replied, moving his arm to test his motricity.

"Anyway, the left tunnel is cleared. There were only a few dozen kobolds that way, and Jin- Sil's ability killed a handful of them. I dealt with the rest. Our backs are covered," Alex said, focusing back on their predicament.

David was already raising as many dead kobolds as possible, sending them down the right path in hopes of buying themselves some time. But his undead were never quite as strong as their living selves, so they were being pushed back, regardless.

"From what I can tell, there are a little under a hundred left on the right path, too. We should be able to plow through them if we advance all together," David commented as he stopped at the cavern entrance.

Aapo was taking a moment to massage his shoulder. His rifle might not have the meanest kickback among guns of its calibre, but it was still an older model with a decent recoil.

His shoulder was starting to get sore.

"Do we know if there will be reinforcements after those?" he asked, wondering when they'd be able to catch a break.

"No idea," Alex replied.

"We can't start looking at the end of this fight just yet," Kary cut in.

"There are still too many uncertainties and hidden variables in these tunnels for that," she added, her face gloomy.

"Kary's right," David chimed in, watching the tunnel.

Alex and Kary both looked at him with a mocking expression.

"Wow. You just said I was right. How out of character for you," Kary teased.

"Yeah. Who'd have thought this day would come?" Alex added.

"Oh, fuck off, both of you!" David replied, rolling his eyes.

"In any case, we need to stay cautious until we are sure we are safe," Kary said after pulling her tongue at David, who replied with a grimace of his own.

Everyone nodded, understanding they weren't out of the woods yet. Danger was still looming at every bend as long as they were inside these tunnels.

Kary gave them a short rundown on how they would proceed down the tunnel, now that Jin- Sil was back on her feet, and the group got ready to face down the second small army of

kobolds today.

It wasn't long before they were clashing against the monsters again, and spells started flying everywhere, accompanied by pained cries and bodies littering the tunnels.

Their tribulations were far from over, and the group would soon realize that. But in the immediate, their attention was set on making it through the seemingly never-ending horde of kobolds that wanted to gnaw on their carcasses.

From the end of this dungeon, a single kobold kept track of their actions through a scrying spell, his anger rising with every passing second that the intruders survived.

It was his head on the chopping block if the humans made it this far, and he couldn't risk it.

"If I have to sacrifice this entire volcano to make sure you never make it here, gods be

darned," he spat, looking at the humans with unabated rage.

"My brethren and I will not be sacrificed to the great one's rage just because you cockroaches refuse to die. I swear it!"

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