Chapter 9: A tough fight
Deryn screamed in sheer agony. This was by far the most painful experience in his 19 years of life. The arrow went right through the leather breastplate he was wearing and pierced into his right shoulder. He was in so much pain he couldn't think straight, the world seemingly slowing and spinning before his eyes.
He stumbled forward from the sheer force behind the arrow and fell to his knees. As he was falling forward another arrow darted over his head. The sheer force of the air tore a few strands of his hair and covered his neck in goosebumps waking him up from his pain-filled madness.
He turned around and darted to the right before jumping forward landing in one of the three tents. An angry growl echoed and he could hear footsteps moving into the distance, he assumed to get a better vantage point to shoot him.
Deryn now having a moment to breathe felt a wave of pain shooting through his body. Reaching around with his left hand he snapped the arrow in half. The pain was agonising and he couldn't hold back another miserable shriek as his vision started to darken.
"NO! I can't pass out now" he roared and bit his tongue in an effort to keep himself awake. He summoned the spear out of his inventory and tried to hold it, whilst straining his ears to hear anything, but only the wind and fabric rustling entered his ears. He had to find out where the archer was.
An idea popped into his mind. He quickly pulled out the makeshift skinning knife before cutting a hole in the tent. Grabbing the fabric frantically, he wrapped it around the base of the spear, before poking it out of a hole in the top of the tent.
*Swoosh*
An arrow pierced the fabric coming from the direction he used when he was watching the encampment a while back. He pulled the arrow out of the fabric before cutting it off his spear. Sweat dripped down his body as his shoulder caused him to wince with pain at every movement.
He ducked out the back of the tent he was in before moving to the left suddenly and then leaping to the right straight after. An arrow pierced into the ground from the left and he could see the kobold about 15 metres away loading another arrow. This one was slightly bigger than the last archer and looked a lot more menacing.
Deryn took a stone from his inventory and tossed it to the right before dashing out the same way. As he did so an arrow was shot to the left, and inwardly cheering for tricking the creature he dashed forward a few metres trying to close the distance. The kobold loaded another arrow before firing it at Deryn.
This time it didn't miss, as it grazed his left arm, causing a long cut to appear which instantly started to ooze blood. He covered a few more metres and the kobold began to roar in a slight panic. Deryn saw it pull another arrow from its back so summoned another rock from his inventory which hit the now 7 ish metre away kobold in the leg.
Clearly not expecting this move the kobold swayed slightly from the hit and the arrow was shot several metres wide of Deryn's position. Still rushing forward Deryn was around three metres away before he was shot in the right shoulder again, this time from the front, slightly higher than the last one.
His face didn't even flinch however as he was in a trance like state and activated his phantom lunge as soon as he was less than a metre away. The rush of illusionary spears came flying towards the kobold who panicked and swung its bow forwards trying to hit all the spears. By sheer luck it hit Deryns actual lunge strike and caused it to go slightly awry, hitting the chest of the creature instead of its neck.
It roared in pain before dropping its bow and trying to claw at Deryn. Deryn didn't seem to notice this as he grabbed the spear and spun in a circle, using his momentum to slash the creature's muzzle clearly off its face, broken bone and flesh flying everywhere.
The kobolds eyes rolled to the back of its head as it hit the floor with a thud. Deryn at this point had clarity appear back in his eyes and upon seeing the downed foe thought of using the kobold slave contract on this worthy foe. Upon thinking yes to use it a notification appeared in his mind.
< DING >
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< KOBOLD SLAVE CONTRACT IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH LEVEL TO ENSLAVE UNCOMMON CLASS ARCHER KOBOLDS >
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"What the fu..." Deryn growled both in anger and frustration.
Angry he couldn't make this beast his slave, he stabbed the head of the creature instantly before just sitting on the ground, panting in overexertion and pain.
Opening the character sheet he could see his hp was 50/110 and with his hp regen of 1.1, it would take him 9 hours before he was full hp again.
He pulled both arrows fully out of his body as he once again cried out in pain, his body spasming.
Pulling out a water bottle he cleaned his hand before cleaning the wounds, but with nothing left to stop the bleeding, he could only tear the hem of his shirt to create a makeshift bandage. Hopefully, as he regenerated more hp the bleeding would stop and the wound would heal on its own as he had no medical supplies.
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< DING >
< HOST HAS EVOLVED THROUGH COMBAT, SYSTEM RECOMMENDS HOST CHECK CHARACTER SHEET >
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< CHARACTER SHEET >
Name: Deryn Adams
Race: Human
Health: 80/140 (0.14 Regen per minute)
Mana points: 30 (0.15 Regen per minute)
Strength: 1.3 < SYSTEM REMARK: STRENGTH INFLUENCES ATTACK STRENGTH AND WEIGHT CARRYING ABILITY >
Vitality: 1.4 < SYSTEM REMARK : VITALITY INFLUENCES HEALTH (100X0.1.1) AND RECOVERY OF HEALTH (1.1/10) >
Agility: 1.3 < SYSTEM REMARK : INFLUENCES SPEED, NIMBLENESS AND REACTION SPEED >
Intelligence: 1.5 < SYSTEM REMARK: INTELLIGENCE INFLUENCES MANA (1.2x20), MANA REGEN (1.4/10), THOUGHT SPEED, AND PROBLEM-SOLVING >
< CLASS >
Spearman (Trainee)
< COMABAT SKILLS >
Spearman skill: Phantom Lunge
< OCCUPATIONAL SKILLS >
< NONE >
< SYSTEM REMARK, HOST HAS GAINED: 0.1 STR / 0.3 VIT / 0.1 AGI / .1 INT
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Deryn's wounds began to itch for a few moments before they stopped bleeding. Although they still pained him a great deal and would slightly bleed if he moved too much, the one on his front shoulder appeared to be scabbing, so he assumed as much with the one on his back.
He got up and took the makeshift skinning knife out of his inventory before using it on the uncommon archer kobold.
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< DING >
< RECEIVED: 4x Hide / 25x Raw meat / 4 Kobold souls / 1 Iron treasure chest
< 2x SYSTEM REWARD ACTIVATED >
< RECEIVED: 8x Hide / 50x Raw meat / 8 Kobold souls / 2 Iron treasure chest
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"System, just show me the end results of my rewards from now on, the double notification is getting old". Deryn muttered.
< YES, HOST. SYSTEM SUGGESTS THAT THE HOST LOOKS AROUND THE CAMP >
Deryn put everything away and stood up, wondering why the system gave this suggestion. He couldn't see the camp holding anything valuable from its appearance. Still, this didn't stop him from looking around. He started in the tent he was hiding in earlier, but besides rags on the ground didn't find anything of note and the same went to the other tent which held the melee kobolds.
Shaking his head he walked into the archer tent and began looking around. This tent was even messier and had bones on the ground. Upon a half bothered search, he couldn't find anything and was about to give up before he realised he hadn't checked under the dirty rags. Pulling the rags up and tossing them outside the tent Deryn found the dirt was turned over here.
Pulling his shovel out he started to dig, hoping his efforts and the pain he was going through to dig weren't in vain.
*THUD*
His wish paid off as he hit something with his shovel. Putting the shovel in his inventory he scooped the dirt with his hands before eyeing a little chest on the ground. Pulling it up he noticed that it had a poorly sculpted face on it which looked like a kobold if he squinted his eyes.
< DING >
< RECEIVED 2x KOBOLD CHEST >
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< KOBOLD CHEST >
RARITY: Rare (Light blue)
DESCRIPTION: A chest that is gathered upon wiping out a kobold encampment. It contains the materials the kobolds have gathered, while also giving the normal silver chest rewards. Detected there are still 2 kobolds remaining. The chest will remain locked until all kobolds are defeated.
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Deryn checked the time. It was only 11:50 am right now, he could afford to wait for the other two Kobolds to come back. It had only been around half an hour since he killed the first two kobolds so he was unsure of how long it would be until the other two returned.
Whilst he was waiting his hp would recover which would be good for the upcoming fight, hopefully, it would also take the pain away whilst he used his shoulder.
By chance, he glanced up to see two silhouettes in the distance. It would seem that luck wasn't on his side and the two kobolds were back already, one of them seemed to be carrying something so it appeared that they were successful on their hunt.
Deryn hid in one of the tents quickly, peering out of one of the holes as he watched the two kobolds getting closer. A minute went by seeming like a lot longer for him as his wound still caused pain to wreck through his body should he move his shoulder slightly. The kobolds got closer.
The kobold on the left, the one with the short knife, yipped as it ran towards the camp, starting to bark with excitement. Seemingly saying "look at what we caught, we can feast tonight!".
As it was rushing towards the tent, the kobold saw the blood on the ground. It stopped in place before starting to back up.
Deryn not expecting this decided to summon his spear and just rushed forward, stabbing the kobold as soon as he got in range. The spear pierced the kobold who had just turned around to look at its packmate. The pack mate saw Deryn coming and growled in warning to the other one, and as it turned around a spear was implanted in its face. It fell to the ground, dead before it hit the floor.
The wounds on his body opened up once more and a spasm overtook his body causing him to drop the spear.
Upon noticing this the hesitating spear-wielding kobold dropped the boar on the floor before rushing towards Deryn, swinging its blade.
Deryn dashed to the side, leaving his dropped spear on the ground. Slightly panicking, he summoned the regular stone spear out of his inventory from one of the first two kobolds he killed before using phantom lunge. This kobold didn't block and instead jumped backwards, staying outside the range of the spear.
It didn't stop and continued moving backwards as Deryn chased, pushing the kobold on the backfoot. With another lunge, he thrust forwards only to get blocked by the opponent's spear. A battle of strength ensued in which Deryn triumphed over his opponent, knocking its weapon to the ground.
Deryn spun the spear around before holding it near the spearhead before thrusting the butt of the spear into the kobolds head, disorientating it. It started to stagger and Deryn followed up by punching it on the side of the head knocking it to the floor. Putting away his spear and taking out the kobold slave contract, he used it.
5 mp flew out of his body and into the contract before flowing into the kobold on the ground. The kobold twitched and seemed to be fighting the contract before Deryn slapped its face with his hand. Shocked at the sudden pain the beast lost control of the mental battle for a split second. This split second was all that was needed before a transparent little kobold floated from its body, flying on top of the contract.
Upon nearing it, a transparent chain shot out of the contract before wrapping around the little kobold. Upon being chained the glow started to disappear from the book and the little kobold flew back into the body of the kobold.
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< DING >
< KOBOLD SLAVE CONTRACT HAS TAKEN EFFECT >
< KOBOLD SLAVES 1/1 >
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Deryn had captured the kobold. It opened its eyes and looked at Deryn with fear before getting on its knees with its head touching the floor looking like a loyal subject worshipping its god.
"Get up" Deryn ordered, not used to the sight of a creature worshipping him like this.
The kobold merely whimpered and started to shiver, laying its body closer to the floor thinking it had displeased its new master.
< HOST. TO CONTROL THE KOBOLD YOU MUST SEND YOUR ORDERS THROUGH THOUGHT AND AS LONG AS YOU ARE WITHIN A CERTAIN DISTANCE THE CONTRACT WILL TRANSLATE IT AND IT WILL UNDERSTAND AND CARRY OUT THOSE ORDERS >
"So the contract is like a translator... neat" he muttered.
Mentally telling the kobold to stand, it did so with trembling feet. "I will not harm you as long as you follow my orders. I will feed you as long as you do the work I set for you. Nod if you understand". The kobold nodded then its tail began to wag as it realised it didn't displease its new master.
"It really is like a dog haha".
Picking up his spear on the way, Deryn walked over to one of the tents and a blue box asking him if he wanted to dismantle them appeared. Walking around he dismantled the three tents and harvested the corpses of the two dead kobolds (first archer and knife-wielding kobold.
< RECEIVED: 42x Canvas / 26x Wood / 32x Raw meat / 12x Hide / 6 Kobold souls / 4 wooden chests >
He had a lot of chests from today's conquest totalling:
< Wooden chests x8 / Iron chests x2 / Kobold chests x2 >
Deryn decided he will open up everything at the shelter and started to place everything back into his inventory. Ordering the kobold to follow him Deryn had a thought.
"Maybe I should give it a name... but what should I call it hmm...".
Once again he decided to sort this issue at the shelter and started walking back home. This time a kobold joined him on his journey.