The carriage of Rex and Light's Oak, on their way towards the village.

The carriage was covered by a slightly akward silence, once the party of six had boarded. Either Samanta and Ria had spoken to Alurial about what Rex said of her, or simply because of the circumstances, but no one wanted, or could come up with a proper topic during their travel, thus maintaining the glaring silence. Rex on the contrary, did not care enough to break said silence, enjoying the moment he could spend on meditaion and rest. Sure, he had countless things he could be working on right now, but sometimes it was the best choice to simply relax and enjoy the moments of quiet one could get. The coming hours, maybee even days, will be anything but.

Aproximately halfway through, a voice interrupted the silence, a question dirrected towards Rex, if his eyes had been open to see the dirrection the asker was looking towards.

"Why?" a single word, the meaning not quite clear, nor the recipient for that matter. At least untill the speaker gathered all the courage that they could, to make it obvious and clear.

"What have I done to earn your animosity?"

Recognizing the voice, or so he thought, Rex opened his eyes, the small frame of the petite half elf leaned forward, her eyes, slight tears at the corner of them, locked on him. Her hands trembled, clearly distraught by the whole disasterous situation her party has found themselves into.

"Its not animosity. Its annoyance and strong dislike. You are not important, or capable enough to earn my animosity, nor have you done anything that warrants such. Yet. But you are on a path there. Congratulations."

That was all he said, returning to his relaxed position and closed his eyes once again.

Sniff. "Its because of my body." sniff. She stuttered out through sniffs as she descended into full tears, clearly considering her petite body to be the only reason for the attitude she had been recieving.

"Then why dont you do something to change that? This world is filled with mana, a resourse that can make ones dreams a reality. Besides, have you even finished growing?" Rex spoke, his eyes still closed. "And while at it, fix that attitude and way of conduct as well. There are few men of skill and character who want anything to do with tsunderes or the like. True men prefer mature beauties like Ria. With the right mentality first and foremost. Thought the combination with a mature and gracefull body is the golden ratio. Or a kind and reliable woman like Samanta, with lithe and agile body. There are as many tastes as there are types of women, but only the controll freaks, agressive scum and weirdos would like a loud girl that does not know what she wants and acts like a spoiled princess or something. From the moment we met, you have acted as some sort of a spoiled prodigy, with the world spinning around you. No doubt the reson for the predicament your whole party is in right now."

Rex's no nonsense, straight to the deal words, cut deep, causing the half elf to only cry harder, shortly after being embraced by Ria, as Samanta sighed and adressed Rex.

"Thats enough Rex, she had been taking this hard as is, there is no need to push her further."

"She has to hear it from someone." Rex replied, his eyes still closed as he relaxed in his seat "Since we are of the same team for the raid, I am not going to risk a liability standing at my back. She either performs her task as the mage of the party, or she stays in the village and does not become a dead weight. I might risk my hide to save Ria or you, but if she is as unstable as she is now, that would be too cumbersome to deal with, especially in the middle of a monster city. And there is no better way in the short term to shake her awake."

The remaining path towards the village was mostly spent in quiet. Alurial stoped crying a few minutes after Rex finished his point, only a few whispers from either Ria or Samanta to calm the half elf. Rex did notice a slight change in the demeanor of the loli mage as they exited the carriage, once at their derstination. Alurial seemed different somehow, her eyes, red from tears, displayed a different sheen. One of determination and self reflection. His observation turned out to be correct, as Samanta confirmed that Alurial will be joining their group after all.

"'I cant let my friends risk their lives for something that was mostly my fault!" were the exact words used, then parroted by Samanta to Rex. In response Rex just shrugged, but did not object much to the decision.

With that sorted out in a timely manner, they had lead the entire raid group towards the burrow entrance they had used, then alongside the guildmaster, Lightning Sparrow and a partial retinue of the city army descended into the burrow, leading the group towards the final chambers.

Present time.

With their path now open and cleared, as well as the remaining raid parties having reached the newly expanded tunnel, with guild master, commander Wulf and his soldiers at the forefront, the entire group started to descend into the unknown. A few minutes later, the soldiers at the front exited into a rather dark and remote corner of a large cavern, dimly iluminated by all kinds of fluorescent fungi and moss. What they could clearly see in the distance, in the very center of the large caverns ceiling was a rather large sized crystal, illuminating a rather sizable, few meter high wall, multiple sentries patrolling on said walls.

Just like with the ones Rex's group had slain in the burrow above, all they could see were kobolds, but the ones on the walls were seen with some crude metal helmets adorning their heads, much better equiped, or at all, when compared to the ones Rex and his group had dispatched a few days prior. Most likely some exiles or whatever counted as the scum of the monster societies. With enough earh mages in employ, creating breaches in said walls would not be too difficult, all the defenders had to worry about were the occasional hail of arrows launched in their way, once the aproach would be noticed, but since their opponents were kobolds, the general danger of said volleys was not too much of a danger.

Keeping as much to the shadows as possible, the raid group emerged from the new tunnel and slowly got into formation, orienting themselves and spreading out in the apropriate interwals. The front line was formed from the better armored soldiers, shields covering their bodies from the possible hails of arrows, shortly aafter followed by the adventurer parties, their own shield users standing in front of thei heavy firepower.

Once in position the raid advanced, soon after being discovered by the more alert and sharp sentries. Just moments after, howls and shrieks resounded throughout the cavern, alarming monster city of their unwanted guests. The first warnings of the coming bloodbath. And while it would seem as quite the savage act, raiding and killing most, if not all of the places inhabitants, kobolds in this case, the same fate, if not worse, was in store for any human village in the near vicinity. The city was fresh, no more than a few years old, judging by the lack of wiped out human settlements on the surface, but the completed state of the wall meants that kobolds were almost ready to start their own excursions to the surface, causing heavy casualities and damage to the local area, both nature and humans included.

The lines of armored soldiers, their shields held high, walked forward, their armor and shields deflecting nearly all of the arrows launched their way, a rare few making contact with flesh of said soldiers. That too did little, as the few that pierced a soldiers flesh were quickly removed, the healers behind them chanting and mending said wounds moments later. And in less than a few minutes, the aproaching raid group had reached the walls, where shields were raised, protecting the earth mages while they performed their duty.

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With a loud crash, the ewall split open a short while later, creating a few breaches in the wall, revealing the other side of the conflict.Through the breaches in walls, soldiers pressed through, their shields used as battering rams, their fellow soldiers assisting with the sheer mass to gain space for others to come through. Kobolds, armed and armored with notably worse quality armor, if any at all, as well as weapons in a similar manner, could not hold back the incoming enemies, getting pushed back and creating a small space for the invading force within walls.

With the soldiers gaining ground, adventurers quickly followed, flowing inside as well, some of them already having scaled the wall and tearing through the archers on it, clearing the segment behind the raid group, allowing the people on the ground to not worry about any arrows coming from their rear. No matter how low the probability was, noone was willing to risk it after all. Rex too, had scaled the wall moments before, using his blood chain to reach the top, and was now shredding through the poor bastards on the wall. Their crude bows helped little to slow him down, on the contrary, due to the akwardness of the kobold archers, he could easily slip pass them all, using the minumum amount of strenght and stamina to end their lives.

"Wow, thats some scary skill." comented Meru from his party, as the girls watched his speed and prey limp on the wall.

"Derek did say that Rex is a monster in his own right, but that is just ridiculuos." added Samanta. "Nevermind. We have a job at hand. Lets go!" She exclaimed at the end, their party having reached one of the breaches.

As more and more space was aquired around the breaches, the soldiers moved in a rather specific manner, creating a few coridors in their shield wall, allowing the kobolds to get deeper in, where they where intercepted by adventurers. The shields were large enough to ensure the wall holder security and the healers behind did the same regarding the shield bearer stamina and health.

With the wall behind the raid group cleared, and his party inside the walls, Rex looked into the city, sending out a rather sophisticated mana sonar, earning a much more detailed information regarding the place. The gathering spots of kobolds, wall thickness of the buildings, possible excavated metal deposit locations and similar information. It did cause a slight headache in his mind, but it was an acceptable trade in Rex opinion at the given moment. Kobolds were not the strongest of opponents he could face, and having aquired a decent amount of experience and understanding of the monster species capabilities, he was more than sure of his own ability of tackling quite the large numbers. Not to mention that he had help in the form of Lights Oak as well.

Sounds of metal weapons clashing against shields, wooden cubs shattering and howls of pain permeated the air, as more and more of hkobolds fell, the difference in skill between both sides clearly apparent. A few minutes of heavy bloodsheding later, every adventurer and the entirety of soldiers were inside. Dozens of fallen kobolds littered the ground, their blood seeping out of the slowly cooling bodies.

"Split up and spread out! In case of encountering overwhelming opposition use the flare your party had been given!" Exclaimed commander Wulf, guildmaster Ross grunting in approval. It was time to try their luck, since the parties of adventurers worked better on their own, with the people they had been working already. Rex had joined Light Oak already, using whatever chance he had to collect the blood of the fallen kobolds and compressing it more and more. He was slowly assembling a sword of blood. With each strike that would cut into any flesh of his targets, it would grow slightly more powerfull, even more so every time he could absorb the entirety of his preys blood. Sure, it would take time, but that was something he had plently off.

"Your orders Samanta?" Rex asked the leader of the group, catching his temporary companions off guard?

"You want me to lead? Even after that display of yours on the wall?" Samanta asked, clearly slightly flustered.

"Of course. You know your team best, and they surely trust your decision making. If neccessary, I will provide my opinion or insight, or yell loudly in case of an emergency that I myself cannot contain, but otherwise I will trust in your lead. Experience matters quite a bit after all. So, you good with that?" Rex asked, recieving a few sighs of reliefe in return. "See, your friends agree too."

"Alright then." Samanta agreed, pumping her fist to psyche herself up.

"Thought I would like to suggest that we go in this direction." Rex added in a much quieter voice, heard only by his party. The manner in which he spoke, as well as the well hidden gesture, once again only seen by his party, was quite telling, removing any need for questions, and as the remaining groups were still in the last stages of their own preperations, Samanta gestured towards the same direction Rex had pointed to, and ordered her party to depart, loud enough for others to hear and notice. Some snickers and jokes about overeager fools who are risking their own hides did reach their ears, but was promptly ignored.

Now that Rex was inside a walled city of sorts, with wide enough streets that they will be walking through, he switched over to his spear, taking the front alongside the fighter girl with sword and shield, Meru.

"Allow me to take point." Rex spoke to the gray haired fighter. "My reach and skill requires quite a bit of space to work with and it is going to much easier to controll our attackers in such a manner."

"Alright." She agreed rather easily "But dont hesitate to ask for help, or wsitch if it gets too hard and you need a breather." she added.

"Noted." Rex agreed, making a few hops forward to place himself at the very front.

Just around the next corner they encountered a group of kobolds, charging their way the moment they were noticed. Rex too, charged forward, his spear to the side in one of his hands, quickly changing its position as he came into range with the attacking group. he used both his own, and the inertia of the attacking kobolds to leverage kobold bodies and fling them over himself, causing heavy thuds to resound in the vicinity as the kobolds landed painfully and akwardly in front of Meru, where either she herself stabbed the lightly stunned creatures, or their vital areas were introduced to a rather sharp arrow.

A decently aimed, even if not of the greatest potency, fireball was shot past Rex, connecting with the ground and delaying yet another groupd of kobolds from joining in, giving Rex a few extra seconds to finish his flinging exercise , freeing him up for the next batch. Unfortunately, said next batch experienced a similar situation, being flung, landing painfully, and tyhen being skewered by either arrows or the pointy end of a sword.

"Holy shit!" Exclaimed Meru once they had finished the second group. "What kind of style is that? I would have a hard time controlling them all, especially with the second group arriving then they did. Sure the girls would have helped and we would win in the end, but some wounds would have been inevitable." Her sentiment was echoed by the rest of the girls, their heads bobbing along with the question.

"Stupid, human sized monsters are easy. All you need is to use a proper leverage and their already high momentum. Rest comes with practice. I would focus on deflecting attacks with the shield and using the oppenings to deliver deadly stabs with a set like yours." Rex explained.

"But you have a set similar to mine, why dont you use it then?" Meru asked in turn.

"Because there is a lot of space here, giving me an extra advantage with the reach of the spear." Rex explained, gesturing for the group to move on. The slower they were, the larger the chance of another party to find the treasure they were hoping to find. It was first come first serve in such scenarios, with guild earning a percentage of the loot from every group. And while some, greedier individuals, would complain about guild taking an undue cut, mots were reasonable enough to know that without the guilds raid they would never have had the opportunity to aquire any loot in the first place.

Since the monster bounties on kobolds had been revoked for the forseeable future due to the raid on the kobold city, there was nothing of value to collect, allowing for the party to move forward. Samanta let Rex lead their group forward- a tacit understanding among the group since Rex had shown to have some sort of sense for loot. In a manner similar to the one displayed at the beggining, they mowed past a couple more groups of kobolds, reaching a rather modest looking building, as much at it could be called such, earning a few raised eyebrows from the girls.

"Trust me girls, there is something seriously good in there." Rex reassured, switching over to his sword and shield setup, since they would have to fight in confined spaces once again.

"Brace yourselves ladies. A bit tougher fight awaits us before the promissed loot." He added, as he rised his shield up, his sword slightly glistening with the blood crystal coating adorning it.