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Going straight towards the mountain peaks where Talmir found the first kobold, the small company marched forwards.

They divided the leadership in to three groups ,main attack force which was led by Brahm, the defense force which was led by Stolc and lastly the scouts and rear was led by Greggor the chief of Poa.

Right now all the chiefs were old men just toiling away at the fields as farmers. But in the past each chief saw their fair share of battles, and through the years gained experience. All starting out as hunters and later two even joined the kingdom knights.

Brahm for instance had a unassuming face and average hight, but if you looked at his forearms or if you saw him toiling in the fields shirtless, you could see alot of scars from past battles. Stolc wasn't much different except that he was a tall man.

Offcourse even tho he wasn't a former knight, Greggor could hold his own with the bow and short sword aswell.

About one kilometre away from the village, one of the scouts noticed something about 300 metres away from him. Immediately stopping he signaled the party of scouts he was in, to stop aswell.

Tense they waited behind the trees for his signal either to retreat or to kill, it never came tho as a bone spear penetrated his skull. Both of the members from this scouting team instantly vanished ,one lucky who flew away back towards the main force and one unlucky who fell in to a pit full of bone spikes, which were smeared with feces ...clearly this kobold leader wasn't just a semi smart beast like the poison fox, which is often used to describe the kobolds intelligence.

Flying away as fast as possible he heard the disspair filled scream of his comrade. Turns out that stoping to listen and probe the surroundings when there was an enemy with wastly superior senses,was stupid to say the least .

Back at the main force things were proceeding smoothly.

"Oi keep the line steady and don't walk past the earth walls, remember the most they can muster from range are bone spears and the shamans spells, those will be dealt with by the water mages but for the spears just raise your shields even when you don't see the enemy ."

As Brahm was shouting happily, he remembered the old days when he was still a knight ,the camping,camaraderie,marching,battles,war and death....the more he remembered the more his mood fell, suddenly he wasn't happy anymore.

An earth mage who was at the front noticed a black dot flying towards them,first he tensed up thinking it was the enemy and almost shouted to alert his comrades.

Thankfully it was just a scout, tho it was strange seeing him alone, it was still better than seeing a kobold.

After a moment once he got closer Brahm also noticed him and his expression immediately turned grim...well even grimmer than before.

"Brace for battle! Shields up! Stop at once and create an earth barrier around us!"

While hunters were no true army, every one atleast had experience in following orders. The reason for that is the kingdom appointed guards, they trained citizens from a young age, even here in the outskirts the guards were generally stronger than the hunters with a few exceptions.

The guards duty was to make the villages almost self sufficient, protect the villages, raise hunters and maybe later soldiers offcourse there was also a more sinnister duty aswell, like reporting orphans which were generally enslaved then, reporting unique magic holders and the more corrupt guards even reported dirrectly to the local lord for his self interests. Offcourse most citizens don't know that and are generaly friendly towards them, except for a few drunkards.

Soon the scout arrived at the camp and shouted "Kobolds ahead!", nothing happened tho .

Stolc addresed the scout and the rest of the hunters.

"Where are they? Can anyone sense them?"

There was only silence after those words ,meaning nobody could sense anything.

"Where is the rest of your team?" Asked Brahm.

"They are dead ,one was pierced with a spear through the skull and the other was dealt with by a trap with spikes."

Instantly Father Pella steped forward after hearing those words.

"Trap!? What trap? A kobold built a trap you say? ...Immposible!"

After hearing this the scout complained that he wasn't lying but for Brahm a bigger problem presented itself, so he voiced his concerns.

"It's the shaman! Not only the trap but if the scouting team besides him was killed, that means they aren't aggresive like usual...if they were we would already have seen some comming after him."

Stolc chimed in on that thought.

"That would explain why we can't seem to sense them ,they are just out of our range but we are well within theirs"

Suddenly dread befell the company as every one realised that this wasn't just an ordinary shaman.

Greggor, Poas chief asked concearned

"So what now? We can't exactly go back as they already know the dirrection we came from. If we go back we would put our children and wives at risk!

Silence....a dreadfull silence again. The danger was now closer to home than one would like.

"We aren't turning around, and we will continue. I'll take point, its time i dust off some of my senses. Anyways call back all of the scouting teams now! Otherwise they are dead."

Pella came forward,and altho Brahm and Stolc were former knights, it was nothing compared to a church paladin. Usually Pella would always sit in the back and let the younglings take point, that way they could gain more experience in battles and had to think for themselves. Only in a case like now where the whole village was at stake, would he take action personally besides just healing.

Both Brahm and Stolc replying in unison with a "yes sir" they sent out a return signal for the scouts up in to the air.

"Sir won't we attract the wyverns with this?"

Greggor voiced his concerns about the flashy signal.

"Don't worry ,thats exactly why i did it, because It isn't just us who find them annoying haha ,now MOVE! Earth mages secure our flanks again, scouts with the best senses forward , adventurer make a pocket void infront of the troops and send the spears back at them but let our spells through. Fire ,lightning and magma mages burn the forest infront of us, to obscure their vision aswell while also removing obstacles and traps. Water, nature,metal and ice douse the heat around us and reinforce the walls of the earth mages.

With Pella in charge the small company transformed in to a siege engine of war, destroying everything in its path. The scouting teams also returned, some of them quite heavily wounded.

While returning they were attacked, so it seemed that the signal came just in time before they were surrounded.

The signal also had the intended effect of waking up the mountains, as a huge blob of wyverns was on the horizon flying towards them. And because of all that the first kobolds showed themselves ,trying to throw some spears at the enemy but got skewerd by them instead as they returned.