Dashing Back And Forth - Chapter 181_Dungeon's Path

Both sides square off but despite the numbers advantage, Ace’s side is tired out from the protracted fight. The remaining kobolds had been fulfilling leadership roles for the most part with only the archer kobold having suffered any serious injuries out of the bunch. Of course, now that the kobolds are surrounded and out of casters the delvers don’t have to rush.

The boss realizes this as well and so dashes forward to attack Jack as the rest of the kobolds hunker down to protect the healer. It is unfortunate for the boss that Jack was the expected target because of his lack of a shield and generally unwieldy weapon. On the other hand, it is also unfortunate for Jack as while he expected it; the boss was a lot stronger than him and a magnitude more agile despite the metal armor.

As if dancing, the boss gets right in close with her mace and slams it home for a kidney shot. Then, as the others try to respond she is already back with the other kobolds, just in time to use her shield to fend off a fire spell from Ruby. After that she jukes to the side and sprints back out, slamming her shield into Og as he pelts the healer with rocks, knocking him over.

The rest of the kobolds take this last action as a signal and as one, moves towards the small gap left by Og. Their boss isn’t there anymore, though. Susan had tried to come in behind for some payback but the sheer difference in stats between the two allows the boss to out speed her and knock aside the trio of thrown daggers, though one sticks in the boss’ shield.

As the other kobolds reach the side of the encirclement Og has stood back up. This is unfortunate for him as the kobold archer is able to get a shot off, which sinks into his shoulder up to the fletching with a meaty thunk. At least since he managed to get to his feet, Og is able to retreat to safety.

Back with the boss both the Barrais are now trying to take her on but with little luck. The boss is simply too agile for even both of the highly trained fighters to deal with and the rest of the party notices this. For the first time, they are experiencing the suppression that most of the other delvers have faced in the dungeon. The fact that the monsters are stronger and that they are not the top dogs around.

Intellectually, Ace and the others had known this. But as time had gone on and the only challenge for them coming from the sheer numbers being thrown at them it hadn’t really sunk in. Now though? As they watch a pair of people that even the other founders admitted were probably the strongest in combat, being handled through a simple difference in stats is shocking. The worst part, though, is they can see the boss is learning.

While they wouldn’t claim that the other monsters followed some kind of set pattern when attacking. Once you saw what they had to offer, it wasn’t going to change during the same run. Sure, maybe next time you come through a new trick might have been thrown in but that tends to involve them not using some other trick. The boss was showing none of those limitations, clearly picking up new ways to attack as she fought the Barrais.

Still, the Barrais aren’t helpless against the boss or anything and so are able to keep her attention. So while the other five kobolds are tougher than the normal troops, they aren’t able to stand up to twice their numbers in adventurers quite like their boss can. Of them, the first to fall is the healer.

This isn’t because they focused down the healer, though. The three melee kobolds did a good job in keeping him safe. No, it was simply because the healer did such a good job of keeping the others up. So with his excellent healing out of the way the others no longer stand even a ghost of a chance and fall to spells and weapons soon after, leaving their boss alone to face Ace and his team as even Og has rejoined the fight despite his one arm no longer being usable.

She hasn’t given up, though. Outnumbered and alone she stops holding back. Before, she had been sparing with her one attack skill so as to save stamina and mana for the long haul. That no longer is an option. With a burst of speed, she retreats from the Barrais and slams her mace into Kellinger who had been behind her. A small flash of light goes off and he is thrown back.

The others see this and go defensive but it isn’t quick enough. No longer martialing her stamina the boss is able to rush across the encirclement faster than Sammy can bring up her shield. With a loud crack, the boss slams her shield right into Sammy’s sternum and releases another Heavy Bash while swinging her Mace to the side and clipping Jack’s mace, forcing it out of his hands.

Three spells come down at this point. Kelly and Ruby both fire off ribbons of fire while Kellinger releases a deluge of grease targeting the area right around the boss. She ignores it all, her armor tanking the spells while her three digit agility score easily allows her to keep her balance. In fact, she uses the grease, allowing her to slide back after landing another blow on Sammy with her shield. Though this time Sammy has her shield up saving her cracked bones from shattering.

Ace steps into the bosses path and blocks with his vine shield, hoping to pin her down and it almost works. The boss, seeing him blocking her path shifts around and meets him with her own shield and tries to bash him away. His vine shield however is able to do its job just fine and wraps around the bosses shield to hold her in place. It was so close to getting a proper hold on her too, except then she released her shield and spun around to bash her mace into Jeremy as he tried to sneak up on her.

Without her shield, however, the boss is now beginning a quick slide down to defeat. Before she had been managing to use the shield to block or deflect all of the parties’ ranged attacks. Now, though, Og, Ruby, Jim, Kellinger, and Kelly are able to get in attacks as the melee types take a beating. This isn’t fast as the boss’s bronze armor still blunts most blows but no longer does it seem like she might pull victory from defeat.

Of course, that wasn’t ever in the cards by this point. She only hoped to maybe kill one of them, but now having used her strength and agility to burst around the battlefield so much she slows down and not just by a little. Stamina spent, shield gone, and even her mace has been shattered, leaving only the wooden handle she finally falls. Jim delivers the final blow, an arrow to the back of the head for a quick death.

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The founders are left standing there in the middle of a rough town as kobolds fade away around them. It was a hard fought victory that felt like it could have slipped through their hands at any moment and none of them are happy with it. They had cheated and knew it but had felt this was the only way to break through the bottleneck they had all felt. Now most of them weren’t so sure about this.

Still, the fight was more than rewarding. All around them loot portals can be seen as the only reminder that a being once stood there, fighting back. But the party wasn’t quite up for it yet. Most covered in bruises, some with cracked bones. About the only person in any state that could be considered healthy being Doctor himself, and only because he stayed out of the fighting for the most part. Even with that, though, he had a few bruises and a strained mana pool.

So they rested until they felt at least able to move around. During that time, the Doctor did a quick check of the portals so at least they knew about who needed to loot what and so was the first to claim a prize. Though soon enough most of them had gotten around to pulling out one thing or another. This included a large number of potions, herbs, and coins of course but what everyone was really interested in was the gear.

Doctor claimed loot from two portals receiving a wand and leather boots. Sammy and Jack both passed as they already had loot. Susan pulled from another two portals to get a pair of matching daggers while her husband Jeremy got a pair of leather gloves. Og was forced into taking a leather cloak while Jim got lucky as the only archer actually dropped their bow.

Bill couldn’t find any clubs so settled for a leather tunic, though his girlfriend Tess happily claimed a bronze tipped spear. After a quick round of rock, paper, scissors, Ruby happily claimed the other wand that dropped. On the other hand, Kellinger and Kelly both had to settle for leather boots. Finally, at everyone’s insistence Ace pulled out A bronze helm, bronze shield, and a leather tunic. Of note, the bronze helm that Ace got was actually dropped by the boss.

{Wooden Wand

Description: A delicately carved wand spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The length of it is engraved with a repeating pattern of crystals. The grip of the wand has been perfectly sized for the one who claimed it and is enchantable.

Material: normal Heartwood