8.2 ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

By this point most of the group was rolling around belly laughing.

Rain took this as his opportunity and slunk from the wall, padding across the sand as silent as a shadow. Three seconds, four seconds, five, he saw Opal eye him from around the standing Kobold's thighs that she was holding tightly in place.

Suddenly one of the Kobolds happened to glance his way and the Kobold froze. Rain Moved.

He shot across the remaining sand like a thunder bolt. Half the spears were collected on one side of the fire and he managed to kick them into the fire before twisting his momentum and falling on the nearest Kobold. A flickering sight of a terrified Kobold face passed his vision and then his jaws closed around his throat and he ripped out the unfortunate lizard person's windpipe. Blood sprayed from the wound arcing with his jaws. It sprayed across the nearest Kobold from head to toe, paralysing the monster with the abrupt and unexpected violence.

The Kobolds started yelling and screaming, pure panic making them mindless. Opal took the opportunity to push the Kobold she had been harassing into the fire, the Kobold screamed as the flame licked over him. She managed to grab two of the spears and throw them in with him.

Rain launched himself from his first victim. He ignored the one who had been splattered with blood, better to focus on those who were trying to fight back than those frozen in fear. He landed on a Kobold attempting to drag one of the spears from the fire, burning his claws in the process. He hit its back hard and slammed it into the sand where he was able to get at the back of his neck unrestricted. He crunched down and crushed the Kobold's spine instantly stilling its desperate attempts to escape.

"Behind!" screamed Opal. Rain turned just in time to dodge a Kobold carrying a smoking spear that he had managed to drag from the fire. The Kobold roared in frustration as the blade tip missed Rain's head by inches and he tried to pivot to hit Rain with its shaft. Unfortunately for the Kobold a paw landed on said shaft and the Kobold was taken completely by surprise by Rain's strength as Rain ripped it from his claws and smashed him around the head with it so hard it broke his neck. The Kobold corpse flopped bonelessly to the ground.

A burning Kobold ran screaming from the fire before collapsing on the sand.

Only two left standing. Opal was handling the blood-spattered one, or at least was trying to. The best she could do was fend it off as it tried to snap and bite at her. The other Kobold had the only spear that had not fallen into the fire.

"You bastard! I'll kill you!"

It charged at Rain and he dove out of the way. The Kobold was far more prepared than its brethren however and pivoted to track Rain with the spear tip. Rain could only watch in frustration as the metal point punctured his shoulder, unable to escape its reach. He howled in agony as the Kobold pinned him to the sand.

"What new kind of monster are you!? What dark abyss did you crawl from?!" snarled the Kobold.

Rain struggled but just moving caused lances of agony to grind through his body. He was pinned like a fish and unable to escape or reach anything that might help.

"Kiln! You need to tell the tribe! Tell them that- oof"

Opal who had been backing away from the other Kobold bumped into the spear Kobold's back, he stumbled forward and quick as lightning Rain's paw whipped out and caught him by the ankle and pulled him over. The Kobold fell prone with a whoosh of breath, winding and stunning him. Not for long though as the Kobold felt teeth come down on his foot, and then he could no longer feel his foot, there was only pain. The Kobold looked down in horror to see the wolf creature shoving his leg into his mouth, already he had devoured up to his shin. He howled and tried to kick at the wolf monster's head but it grabbed his free leg and its sheer strength held him as sure as iron manacles.

He could only watch and scream as the rest of his leg disappeared down the monster's throat. Nothing could stop the sheer strength of those jaws and they scissored up from his hips and began dividing his torso in two. He blacked out as the black wolf's nose reached his sternum.

"Hey, stupid dog! Stop eating and help me!" yelped Opal.

Rain shook himself free from the bloody gorge he had instinctively made of the Kobold's torso and stumbled to his feet. His savage attack on the Kobold had worked the spear free but he still had to hold a paw across the agonizing wound as blood sheeted down his arm to drip from his claws onto the sand.

He caught himself and blinked a few times. Opal. Right. He glanced around and found the Goblin wrapped around a Kobold desperately trying to crawl away, using her own body to weigh him down and trip him. Rain stumbled over to him.

"I- I got him, you can let go."

He dropped a paw on the Kobolds shoulder but his blood slicked paw and the Kobold's smooth scales caused him to slip. He blundered into the pair and the Kobold, seeing its chance, twisted and squirmed until Opal's hands slipped off him.

"No! Get him!"

Rain lunged and his teeth came down on the Kobold's tail, closing like a steel trap. The Kobold ran out the length, slammed to a halt, then kept going as his tail detached itself from his butt.

Rain stared in confusion, detached tail hanging from mouth, as the tail-less Kobold vanished into a nearby tunnel.

"Gods dammit!" scowled Opal kicking the sand.

Rain dropped the tail into his paws. "What."

The Goblin sighed. "They do that when their tails get caught sometimes, it's an escape trick, like a lizard. It's my fault, I should have told you they can do that."

She crouched on the sand and looked glum.

"Will this be a problem? That he escaped?"

"Kinda. Not really. The nearest Kobold tribe is aways away, it'll take days for him to get back and organise a raid, that is if their top Kobolds even want to... I just wanted to feed him to you and make you bigger."

She made a circle in the sand with her fingertip dejectedly.