Ashley
Not long after I wake up and have my disgusting breakfast of more burnt drake at the cost of another annoying comment from Chaos, I find myself blankly staring at my inbox. Something I only noticed when I checked out the hub menu to go spectate Blake again.
And it's... uh... full.
Hundreds of thousands of messages full.
Why is it full? Why are people messaging me so much out of nowhere?
No idea.
Not many people are really stating the reason in the few messages I check.
Other than them profusely apologizing for something that I didn't even know about.
With some of them even begging me to spare their lives.
I just kinda stare at it for several seconds before eventually closing out of it, deciding to act like I didn't see it.
Then I get up and stretch a little bit, having rested up a bit and restored some of my health. And after that, proceed to open up the way out of my little cavern.
To find myself staring at a few dozen kobolds, each with bows trained on me. Not to mention standing just outside of the range of my Enhanced Perception skill.
I blink. They fire.
I duck down behind my barriers, only for a good number of arrows to slam into my barrier as a bunch of vines and other types of spells similar to them, like tentacles of shadow and chains of light, all try to wrap around me and stop me. Without any success thanks to Unchained. Letting me stay safely under my cover as I cover up the hole again with another barrier.
What. The. Fuck?
Why were they just standing there? Was it an attempt to ambush me?
Actually, how do they even know the span of my Enhanced Perception skill anyways?
And why are there so many just sitting out there?
I move to peek through one of the other holes, finding them still hammering away at the wall, with a particular focus on the place I sealed off. But it doesn't take long for them to see me peeking through, at which point they start focusing on the hole.
Then a thought comes to mind.
Huh. That could work...
After all, I know the general structure of the fortresses thanks to Blake's livestream. Assuming they're designed similarly.
And if he can try taking over a fortress, so can I.
Ignoring the fact that he's been pulling back and taking days to do his assault rather than taking it over in a single day.
Probably because of mana problems. The same as me.
Wait a second...
The corners of my lips twitch downwards before I activate Assimilate and go ahead and look outside of the cavern again. Then I go ahead and fire off two destruction mana arrows to kill one of the kobolds.
{You have been granted 3 Skill Points for killing a monster within a Unique Domain.}
{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold}
Thankfully this place only has one gate. Probably because of the dracoraptors that I've seen charging at that one gate from time to time. So that they only have to defend one gate.
The guardsman lets go of the gate lever, making the thing begin closing the gate on its own, before it turns to me and draws its blades from its sheaths.
It lets out a hiss at me, startling me for a moment as it's the first time I've heard a kobold make a sound. Then it rushes at me with the blades raised, proving itself to not actually be that fast.
Although when I dodge the blades and they slam into one of the stacked barriers behind me, leaving large dents in them, I realize he is quite strong. And he's not alone either, as I hear more slamming sounds of metal hitting metal on the other side of the barriers, where the other kobold guardsmen are no doubt attacking.
And it's at this point that I'm starting to question my decision to come here.
Because these guardsmen are even more dangerous than the kobolds outside.
Even if a good chunk of their forces are, in fact, outside. Not in the fortress.
Wait... why should I even bother with this guy if he's slow?
I ignore the guardsman as I flap my wings, flying straight towards the lever.
The guardsman lets out an angry sounding hiss, but I ignore him as I swipe both of my blades straight at the large, wooden level. Making them both heavier in the process.
Then my blades pierce straight through the lever at the very bottom of the contraption. Making it pretty much impossible for anyone to lift that gate anymore.
And without pausing, I quickly run to the window of the room before jumping out while spinning around. Just barely avoiding one of those blades flying straight at me that now goes over me instead, mere millimeters from piercing my head.
I feel a cold sweat form as I flap my wings to stop myself from falling. Because that was close.
Way too close.
I spin around before flying up towards the top of the wall again, leaving the kobold guardsman sticking his head out from the window and throwing his other blade at me.
Which doesn't really work out well for him since gravity kind of makes it go back down to almost split his face in two.
Actually, I take advantage of that to send multiple destruction arrows at him along with some feathers. And since he's sticking his body half out a window while frantically moving to avoid being scalped by his own blade, he doesn't dodge my attacks.
Not that my attacks actually do that much alone.
But with Chaotic Surge activated throughout this whole fiasco? And him still leaning out over the window?
Even with my attacks only doing some minor damage to his armor and the skin beneath, he ends up slipping and falling while choking because of one of the effects that were placed on him. All the way till he slams hard into the ground below. Somehow still alive.
I stop flying away, feeling more than a little surprised at that.
Wow. That kobold just survived falling several stories while feathers were stuck about an inch into his skin while mutating the surface of his flesh, parts of his armor were disintegrated with some of his skin along with it, and several effects including some poisons were ravaging him.
Talk about sturdy.
I purse my lips a little, my eyes lingering on the glowing crimson cracks across his body as a thought comes to mind. The thought that this fella may have an improved version of the other kobolds' minor destruction resistance.
And that thought makes me want to capitalize on this.
I glance at the other kobolds, finding them still probably a minute and a half or so away. Then I look at the ones now sticking their heads out the window from that room, clearly not happy despite also clearly having broken my barriers.
Hmm.
Well, if I'm gonna survive here, I'm going to have to take risks.
Time to kill that guardsman.