Red Monster

Chapter 93: War Against the Kobolds (4)

Red saw the fire rose, swallowing the two kobolds. He didn’t stay, moving into a bigger space as he pulled out one of his throwing spears. He wanted to believe the fireball worked, but deep inside, he knew that was not enough to kill that thing.

Those two kobolds might be burned, but that was far from killing them. The blazing fire slowly calmed down, revealing the two black-armored kobolds.

The two kobolds were still standing, slowly stepping out of the fire. They looked toward the direction from which the fireball came, but Red was no longer there.

Black smoke escaped from the gap in the armor, proving the fire reached inside the armor. Yet they were standing on their feet, as if the fire did nothing. Both kobolds scanned the top of the tree. They knew where to look for their prey.

Red was already on the other side; he was looking at them from the side. He took a short run and threw the spear. That little run made the two kobolds notice him, and both turned toward his direction; they didn’t look up.

Whoosh!

The spear hit the kobold on the left. It hit the right chest area, surprisingly going through the black armor. A quarter of the spear went through the armor, meaning it didn’t pierce deep enough for a fatal wound. But that was good enough, meaning the spear was enough to pierce the armor.

Red was about to move away until he saw the second kobold charge toward him. That was when he saw the tall kobold take a leap. It reached the lowest branch with just a single jump.

He quickly turned and made his run. It seemed the kobold had a sharp hearing, and he could hear that one kobold was following him. He didn’t look back, still waiting for his Fireball cooldown.

He wished he could shoot the fireball repeatedly; that might be enough to kill them. But again, he reminded himself that his task was to delay as long as he could.

He did his best to move soundlessly, and it took a while to really shake his pursuer. He thought he was safe from the kobold because he could no longer hear the rustling noise behind him. The kobold’s body was too big for them to cover their movement.

Their armor certainly didn’t help because he could hear the clanking noise. When he no longer heard the noise, he stopped as well. He assessed the situation.

The fireball was no longer in cooldown after the chase. He did some tests before and discovered the skill had a thirty breath cooldown. Thirty breaths were up, so he could use the skill again.

Next, he needed to find where the two kobolds were. He ran for his life, trying his best to avoid a confrontation with the kobold.

Red took a deep breath, trying his best to calm down. He finally understood the feeling of a prey. He finally experienced himself where he was the prey, running from the predator.

It took him a while to calm down. He was so panicked that he didn’t feel the pain earlier. The pain in his chest and the back of his left arm returned. For some reason, the pain helped him calm down.

Then he looked toward where he came from. He lost the kobolds, but he needed to find them now, or he could return to the village, since he lost them in the jungle.

But the thought of killing the two kobolds got him. His greed, imagining what kind of loot for killing the two, helped him to decide to find them. He still believed that his fireball and his spear should be enough to kill the kobold.

One fireball might not be enough, but he could shoot more than ten of them. He still had three throwing spears left; one hit to the head should kill the kobold.

Red made his decision to fight with the intention of killing the kobold. It was no longer about delaying them. With that in mind, he tracked back from where he ran, trailing back in, hoping to find the two kobolds.

This was an insane idea, but he was for it. He believed that loot from much higher-level enemies would give him a better life. He held that belief and took the gamble.

It took him a while to find the two kobolds. He made his way back to the place where he shot his fireball. He didn’t find them there. What was left was the charred mark on the tree and his spear.

He checked the surroundings one more time. After ensuring the kobold was not around, he came down to retrieve his spear. The blood was still at the tip of the spear.

Thanks to it, he found their track, the trail of their blood, the bluish-purple blood. The dripping blood showed him where they were heading.

Red followed the trail, and he found them making their way back to the village. No, they were tracking their way back, and he was amazed that they remembered the direction. He lured them into the jungle to confuse them, delaying their return, yet they remembered the rough direction.

As for the trail of blood, it came from the kobold that got a chest wound from his spear. The blood dripped from that kobold, but to his surprise, the wound seemed not to be affecting it that much.

That made him look at his wound on the chest. It was painful; he was running around, which made the wound worse. But it was not the time for him to rest. He needed to kill these two kobolds. He wanted the loot! His reddish eyes filled with greed.

Red didn’t immediately attack them, following them while trying to find a spot to attack them. He found it, the spot with the biggest and tallest tree. The root was protruding on the surface like a small wall as well.

That spot was three trees ahead of the kobolds, where they were heading. He quickly made the decision, going ahead of them.

He looked at his right palm and was thinking. Five times mana or one hundred and fifty mana was too much for a fireball. It made the skill hard to control and unstable. It could explode in his hand and kill him, but he didn’t doubt how destructive his fireball was.

He needed that destructive power if he wanted to kill the two kobolds. Then another crazy idea popped into his head. The thought of using six times mana or one hundred and eighty mana to cast fireball crossed his head.

That was crazy, as it might truly explode on his face, but he would reduce the risk if he immediately shot the fireball. The fire usually stayed in his palm for a few breaths. That helped him with targeting, but he didn’t need that when he knew where the target would step into.

The two kobolds were closing quickly, and he quickly made up his mind. He would use one hundred and eighty mana, six more times the skill required.

Red left hand held his right wrist, trying to make his hand stable in case he would miss his shot. He aimed at the spot where the kobolds would walk in.

When the two kobolds were two steps away from the spot, Red activated his skill. It required precision to channel an additional one hundred and fifty mana. He directed the additional mana with his Mana Authority toward his hand.

A small fireball was formed with the initial thirty mana. Then the injection of a hundred and fifty mana fused into the fireball. That was when the fire went wild, raging in madness.

Red was glad he held his right wrist, or else he would lose his balance. He didn’t think twice, releasing the unstable fireball down.

Whoosh!

They didn’t notice it at first, but the two kobolds looked up when the fireball was halfway.

’Hit!’

He thought the fireball would surely hit the two kobolds. He thought that the fireball should kill two of them; his ambush was flawless. That was what he thought until one of the kobolds pushed the other.

He could not see whether the wounded kobold pushed or got pushed. He just saw a black-armored kobold being sent flying forward.

KABOOOM!

The fireball hit the remaining kobold, sending a massive shockwave in all directions.

Red thought he was safe, but he truly underestimated the impact. The shock wave sent him flying upward. His head hit the branch above, and then he was sent flying to the side. His head was spinning, dizzy. He was flailing, trying to grab anything he could grab.

He tried to reach the branch, trying to stay up there. However, his grip was not strong enough, and the branch was slippery. His body bounced between branches before falling on his back, hitting the protruding root.

Arghhhh!

Red groaned in pain; his head was still dizzy from what had happened. However, he was glad that he was sent away from the fire by the shock wave. Or else he might die by his own skill.

He grabbed his head, groaning as his back was hurt so badly from the fall. Getting bounced off between the branches also did the numbers on him. The first thing he did was check his health.

Health: 598 Stamina: 421 Mana: 786

He was surprised the fall took nearly a hundred of his health. That was another mistake that he didn’t consider. But again, whatever he did, he could not escape from that powerful shock wave. If he was too far up from the ambush spot, the two kobolds might entirely dodge his fireball.

The dizziness eased up as he finally got back on his feet. He saw the aftermath; his fire was burning the root and tree. But it seemed his fire was still not strong enough to burn the whole tree. The fire slowly subsided as if the tree had a mechanism to put out the fire.

"Loot! Where’s my loot?"

He needed to exchange that for loot before the fire burned the body into dust. Just as he was about to take one step forward, a figure landed in front of him with a loud thud.

His eyes widened in shock, not expecting the surviving kobold to recover this quickly.

’Run! I must run!’

However, he had not recovered yet. His legs didn’t have the strength yet. Let alone climbing a tree, he could barely take his first step. His mind screamed at his body to run, but his body was still too weak to listen to the order.

That was when the kobold swung his arm, sending a punch to his chest. His mind went blank for a moment as his body flew backward.