yeah yeah

Kei watched as golden arrows poured from the trees at a fast pace pushing back the kobolds as more and more of them fell to the floor every second. Her mouth was hanging wide open as the kobolds attempted to rush towards them to only be struck down by the arrows.

Unlike the black-haired person's arrows, which were accurate and precise the golden arrows were shot out like a Gatling gun. Kei watched as the kobolds stopped for a moment again looking at the pile of bodies on the ground. But a low growl from behind them snapped them from their stupor. They continued on under the arrows of the two archers.

The source of the low growl that commanded the kobolds slowly emerged from the forest. Towering over the rest of its brethren a giant kobold emerged its entire body seemed to be covered with muscles and it wore only a loincloth. It held a huge club and it gave a loud roar as it menacingly stomped towards the group.

Arjuna released another arrow and then turned to the guards who stood in fear and terror as the kobold leader revealed itself.

"go and form up if you want to survive!"

The guards reacted quickly hearing Arjuna's words running in front of him and raising their shields at the incoming group of kobolds which broke through the assault of arrows.

The kobold leader stamped through the group of kobolds rushing straight towards them with its club raised high.

The horde of kobolds and the guards crashed together with the sound of metal crunching and blood being spilled everywhere in loud cries.

A hooded figure appeared from the trees fell to the floor next to Arjuna. Kei stood a few meters away from Arjuna, she backed up in surprise and let out a small yelp as she noticed the person suddenly appear next to Arjuna.

The hooded figure looked at Arjuna and then said in a low voice

"you remember what we did with the leader-ranked snake monsters?"

A grin passed Arjuna's face as he raised his bow again. In his left hand, he picked up a small vial filled with a clear liquid that had mixes of red and brown in it. He tossed another one to the hooded figure and they both chugged it downing it in one go.

[you have consumed a strength potion]

[+20% attack damage for 5 minutes]

[+5 strength for 10 minutes]

The two dropped the vials letting them crash to the forest floor. They picked up their bows each of them loading them up with a single arrow.

The hooded figure raised up an elven green bow, it seemed to be made out of nature itself, green leaves and branches seemed to be intertwined on the bow. And the black-haired boy held up a black bow which seemed to be plated with some sort of black metal which shone in the sun in a dangerous light.

The arrows they loaded into their bows were black and gold-tipped respectively and they were coated with poison that Arjuna had made specifically for these sorts of situations.

They closed their eyes pushing mana into their hands, then into the bow, and finally the arrow.

It was the season of fall where they were, and brown and dry leaves were slowly falling to the forest floor constantly even as they were fighting.

Alanis's bow glowed with a green and black mix a gust of wind picked up blowing the leaves up into the air around her and Arjuna. Her arrow started to fill up with mana also, its shaft turning black and its feathers giving off a light green color.

Arjuna's mana was the default blue, though tints of black could be seen in it as it flowed towards the bow and arrow.

The leaves all around the two started to fly around them in a small whirlwind as two glows of green and blue each with tints of black in them slowly charged up.

The kobold leader raised its club and with a grunt slammed it down on the group of guards. A shockwave ripped from the ground and the guards fell to the ground defenseless as their shields and swords fell to the ground.

Most of them managed to dodge the first attack only getting confused and stunned by it, but one got his leg caught in the slam and he let out a cry of agony as he lay on the ground clutching his leg.

The kobold leader lifted its club again ready to land another devastating blow onto the group of guards.

Arjuna and Alanis stood a bit back aiming their bows towards the head of the kobold leader.

Mana was pouring straight to their bows that were given by Sninkkaakac himself. But they were starting to quickly run out of mana. Arjuna turned his head slightly to look at Alanis. Two green eyes looked back. They had done this sort of thing so many times, they could almost communicate without saying a single word.

And so they looked back at the kobold leader and simultaneously let go of their strings.

The arrows burst from the taunt bows letting out a loud whistling sound as they flew towards the kobold leader at dangerous speeds. The mana in the arrows flashed in beautiful colors as they flew.

The kobold leader raised its club again ready to take out the fallen guard who was on the floor unable to move.

And then an arrow coated in blue collided into the kobold's chest with a loud thump. It buried itself deep into where its heart was.

The kobold leader let out a loud gasp it dropped its club and slowly fell forward It almost seemed like it was about to fall on top of the guard in front of it. But another arrow golden and emanating a light green color hit the head of the kobold leader, the force was great enough to make the kobold fall back and hit the forest floor on its back.

[you have defeated a kobold leader]

[level up]

[level up]

[you are now level 76]

[the seed of darkness has responded to your growth]

[seed of darkness growth rate: 5%]

[you have been gained the skill (dark fire)]

[dark fire (level 1)]

[description: a skill that allows you to harness dark fire at the cost of mana, uses can vary, deals 150% of users attack damage]

[cost: 20 mana per minute of skill use]

Arjuna looked at his hands in confusion. How the heck did he get a (dark fire) skill? Was it because of the seed of darkness?

Arjuna shook his head and looked around, the kobolds were fleeing now that their leader had fallen and the guards were celebrating their victory though cautious about the kobolds coming one more time.

Alanis went to go and collect the loot from the bodies, Arjuna went to help but was called over by Hisoka the butler that he had just briefly met a few minutes ago. A girl stood behind him, her hair was white with a lavender color at the ends, she had a red flower pinned on her hair and blue eyes. She looked at Arjuna with cheeks bright red as she hid behind Hisoka.

Hisoka made a 90-degree bow, the girl behind him, panicked and followed what Hisoka did bowing. Hisoka started to speak as he bowed

"thank you kind sir Arjuna, we are truly thankful for your rescue, who knows what fate our miss would have if it weren't for you"

Arjuna let out a light laugh and responded as courteously as possible.

"please raise, your heads, it was simply what we should have done"

Hisoka continued bowing.

"yes! you are truly kind Mr. Arjuna, but please listen to us, we have one request for you"

Arjuna looked at Hisoka with eyebrows raised

"go on," he said putting his bow onto his back.

Hisoka continued

"we journeyed here with a caravan of merchants, but as you can see, they were overtaken by the hoard of kobolds, the greedy mercenaries that were there to protect them abandoned them the moment they saw the size of the kobold group. It was only thanks to the many sacrifices of the guards that we are still here, but we cannot journey through this forest with our numbers, this forest is known to be extremely dangerous a night."

Arjuna quickly interrupted Hisoka

"so you want me and my companion to journey with you for protection.

Hisoka nodded

"We will reward you handsomely once we reach the city of Twilight"

Arjuna thought for a moment, Hisoka looked up peeking slightly, perhaps there was a glimmer of hope for his young lady. Perhaps this black-haired boy and his companion would be able to help them from their predicament, after all, they had nowhere else to go.

Hisoka turned his gaze to Kei who stood in awe at Arjuna who paced around and let out a sad smile.

If only he could protect her from what was to come, then perhaps his deceased master would rest in peace.