The roaring flares pushed forward, incinerating hordes and hordes of kobolds, melting flesh and bones, rendering even the spikemadillos’ shells useless and boiling their owners inside them. The lion’s head disappeared, but the flames burning enemies to death didn’t.

Which reminded me. Boiled spikemadillo was supposed to be a feast, wasn’t it? Normally, they’d either run away (killing one was rather hard, despite its low level of dangerousness) or, when killed, their husk would erode and crack, turning into dust and making impossible to cook them that way. That’s why burning one to death with stable heat is the only method to taste the glorious dish.

Oh, I was drooling already.

“You… You’re only thinking about food, aren’t you? Think of how amazing it is to see a real miracle! This is a chance you can’t let go just like that. And you’re thinking about it?”

I turned to Anne. It all came very rich from her, being that she was drooling worse than I was.

“Wipe your mouth, I can’t get you right with all that saliva” I said.

“Hmph.” Oh, man, I love it when she’s so shy. I can’t help but wanting to tease her a little further… That would have to wait, though.

“Helen!”

“Got it!” Like a draft of wind, she held it to her Explorer title, rushing forward and striking every enemy on her way with her twin daggers, leaving a trail of blood and corpses behind her.

Shoots, everyone here’s so… strong.

I wonder if having a rookie on their party slows them down…

I shook my head. It wasn’t the time for that.

“Wrrraaaaahhh!!!” I bellowed a warcry, stepping hard on the ground and dashing to the nearest surviving kobold. It raised its claws in an attempt to stop my sword, but I planted my feet just before him, used my inertia to rotate and put myself behind it, and slashed its back in a single move.

To be honest, I had been working on that technique for some time. It was the first time it played out fine.

I didn’t let it go to my head, though. That was one, and we had over twenty more to go. It was an honest-to-God miracle that the sheer numbers of the crowd hadn’t overwhelmed us. Although I suspect our party leader’s leading skills, pardon the redundancy, played a big part on that. Thumbs up for Norton, people.

Anyways.

I reached a pocket inside my leather pants, taking out a little vial. I munched the cork out of its lid, gulping the whole content through my throat in a single shot.

“Blergh…”

Stamina potions always tasted bitter. Like a combination of wasted beans and cold coffee. And don’t ask me how I knew how that tasted, because you’re probably not going to like the answer.

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It worked well enough, though. Soon as it reached my stomach, whatever chemical or magical reactions were supposed to happen happened, and I felt a jolt running through my spine. All energy replenished. And I was good to go.

I threw the vial to the floor and crushed it with my feet. More than once I had been warned about empty vials rolling around and making people slip at a critical part of the battle. Better learn from their mistakes, huh?

“What’s got you so distracted?” Helen retreated after poisoning a one of the spikemadillos still rolling the streets, dungeon streets, that’s to say.

“Nothing. Still getting used to the potion’s taste.”

“Right? Why does it taste like someone added cold coffee to a bunch of wasted beans?”

“You too?” I asked, working hard not the laugh.

“Hey, it’s the closest it can get. Come on, let’s go. Anne’s already healing Norton. It’s our time to shine our lights, babe!” She patted my shoulder, lowered her stance and threw an unsheathing crossed slash at a couple of kobolds trying to surround her. I think there was a southern term for that type of move? Ay? Hay? No… Iai. Yeah, they called it that. Maybe she came from the south?

Would have to ask her later.

“Sure thing” I said. To be honest, that technique attracted me quite a lot. It was… how to say… elegant. Although a one-bladed weapon like hers would be better to use it, I think I could do it with my sword…

Not something to try out in the middle of a battle. Not without some proper training, anyways.

I gripped the handle of my shield. This time I was going to try something I saw a paladin do some time ago, when our party joined a large group to hunt an intelligent beast. This move I had already practiced it for some time. It should be safe to try.

I spotted a kobold getting too far of the herd, if you could call that to a massive swarm of blood-thirsty malformed pigs. And it was close enough to the wall. Perfect.

“Hey, you! Yeah, the little one!” Technically they were all small, but the subject in question understood that it was with him, and stared at me with his two little, round, porcine eyes. It tilted its head.

Like I said. Kobolds weren’t the smartest creatures around the block.

I put my shield in front of me, tilting it in a slightly upward angle. Then I ran with all my might, trying to build up as much speed, and consequently, inertia, as I could. I hit shield-face, then pushed all that inertia onto its little body, throwing it off balance and sending it to fly towards a wall. It worked perfectly. The monster hit the stone so hard it got momentarily stunned.

Of course, I wouldn’t miss the chance to kill it, now would I?

“Here you go” I said, neatly beheading the thing. Kobolds’ cores were somewhere inside their bellies, presumably (not that I knew much of kobold anatomy), so as long as I avoided that zone, I should be safe from any other surprise nasty explosions.

“I’m done here!” Helen cried out from behind. “That was neat! Isn’t that a paladin’s Shield Bash?”

“Yeah” I walked towards her, the spawn room now clear and no other imminent dangers nearby. “I saw it and thought it was neat, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Worked out fine enough.”

“I thought I knew it.” She let herself fall in the rough stone floor. “It’s true that a Footman and a Paladin are pretty similar in fighting style, power difference aside… Still, it’s pretty awesome.”

“What is?”

“You are. You’ve been playing adventurer… what? Month and a half now? And here you are, already copying other people’s styles. It’s important to always keep improving, Keith. That’s what adventures are all about. Well, that’s one fourth of it. The rest is fame, money, and adrenaline. But you look like you don’t care much about the rest.”

“It’d be a lie if I said I would mind some of the rest, so yeah. But I think you’re overestimating me. Wanting to improve is normal for a rookie, isn’t it?”

Helen snorted. “You’d be surprised. A kobold could win a chess game against a lot of adventurers out there”

That was a lot of kobold joking in one day, but I agreed nevertheless.

“Come on, people” Norton’s voice caught us up from behind. “Let’s mount a camp here. I’m dying to get some rest for my poor back. Carrying around that broadsword is no joke. Plus, I want to chow down that boiled spikemadillo already. I heard it’s a king’s meal.”

I couldn’t agree any more.