When I unstuck my blade from between the [cobold]’s severed head and body, I suddenly felt surprised and stumbled backward. As confident as I had been in my strategey, I hadn’t really thought about the aftermath, so the blood now soaking my stark-white robes was...well, the gore snapped me out of my frenzy, making me notice just how stressed I was. I could feel my heart pounding, and my body hardly wanted to stop shaking. It felt...thrilling.

After wiping off what blood I could, I immediately began to think a way out of my situation, fidgeting with one of my robe’s ‘feathers’ to focus(a strip of white cloth).

Now that the [cobold] was dead, I needed to run from its compatriots, who would surely follow.

The question was, how? I couldn’t walk past the still-flooding river, though I guessed it would fall to reasonable levels in something like twenty minutes. It might have been a good idea to cross it when I got the chance since the [cobold]s wouldn’t expect me not to attempt to escape, but that wouldn’t matter if I couldn’t survive until that point. The whole forest was marshy, and my footprints would be easily seen if I tried to run. The [cobold]s were probably faster than me, even when tracking, so there was no way I could outspeed their pursuit. Not that I’d even have a chance at escape, dragging Maladrain with me. I’d already committed to keeping him alive, too, so I didn’t even consider abandoning him.

While I thought, I decided to steal the [cobold]’s cloak and put it over my robes. Built of leaves and sewn together quite nicely, I was far from opposed to wearing it. Plus, I was about the same size as the small [cobold], so it fit me perfectly. The hood, unfortunately, was unusable since, y’know...decapitation.

I needed to hide, one way or another, so the camouflage was invaluable. I dragged Maladrain behind a nearby rock and ducked behind it. More than likely, the [cobold]s would be expecting some kind of signal. When it didn’t come, they would begin expecting a fight. Fighting them without a plan was impossible. If they were beasts, I could simply trap or fight them, but I knew they were too smart and careful to let me get away with that.

I didn’t have a clue if my worst fears could come true, but a master trapper may have made some sort of way to move quickly, like a tunnel system. The [cobold]s had been in this place for long enough to justify the fear, at least. Speaking of which, they would know the terrain, and I only sort of did, which was horrible for me.

I needed to carry Maladrain to safety, and the [cobold]s likely had classes for tracking, traps littered around the forest, while one of my escape routes was blocked, and I was outclassed in an uncomfortable number of ways.

Upon further review, I admitted. I may have been a goner.

So, I was far from calm by the time I’d reviewed the facts. I was excited! exhilarated! Everything was against me, but I was sure I had been given enough tools to get out alive.

I picked up the [cobold]’s slingshot and dagger. It wasn’t even possible to kill a [cobold] with those tools, not unless I aimed for the head and used my [decapitate], which could let me bypass a [cobold]’s natural scale armor if I hit its neck. My dex wasn’t very good though, so that would only be reliable if I could get a lot of attacks in...and if any one of them was a master class, I didn’t stand a chance in open combat.

Finally, I decided that turning their traps against them was my best chance. Turn those against them to buy time so that Maladrain could wake up. He was a [scout], the perfect class for escaping this situation. I made the guess he’d wake up in ten minutes, given how hard he’d been hit. There couldn’t have been more than ten [cobold]s from what I had heard about them, and they likely would be separated into groups for the best communication and mobility, especially since they were hunting us.

One ‘group’ was the scout(the one I killed), the next would be a smaller team of their mobile classes, built to easily back up the main team or scout, and the main team of trappers. Since the flood came from around...maybe a fourth of a mile away, if they hurried they could get here in six to eight minutes, and I could only assume they would.

I didn’t know their signals, but I could confuse them for just a moment, and hopefully slow them down. The scout had a torch on him, so I picked that up and rubbed a stick on it to generate friction, then use [flame manipulation tier 1] to easily burn it bright. I walked to the edge of the flood, where the water level had declined by five feet, and held the torch up, still cloaked in the dead [cobold]’s camouflage. Honestly, I had no idea if it would postpone their attack at all, but I had to take risks. I held it up for a half minute. They likely had some sort of code to use with the torch, and certainly noticed something was wrong not long after I held it up. I studied hunting tactics in my preparation to leave the village, so I just hoped my knowledge wouldn’t betray me.

I began to move up the stream, closer to where the [cobold]s probably were. I desperately searched the ground, trees, and obstacles for traps. A simple, rusty bear trap laid on the ground, with a chunk of meat to entice any foolhardy monsters into falling on the trap; a classic. I disarmed the trap with a stick. If the trap were to clamp on one of their feet, I could cripple them, and at least slow one of the suckers down. I guessed a team of three would be chasing us, so I just needed three traps like this to get away.

Finding three of those and trapping all of them was not going to happen, though, I was sure.

I ran back, dragged the dead [cobold]’s body(and head) about twenty feet away, then moved the bear trap in front of him, in a place where one of the [cobold]s would hopefully place their foot to investigate their comrade’s death. I covered it in leaves as well.

At best, five minutes left before they got to me. At worst? Any time. I kept searching for another minute, and eventually saw a pitfall trap with wooden spikes on the bottom, covered with a tarp disguised with leaves and dirt. It wouldn’t kill a [cobold] due to their [natural armor], but it would certainly injure.

How would I get them to fall for their own trap though? I stood beside it, thinking for a moment. Would they know if I hid inside? No, they could track me easily to the trap, but what if...I made tracks to the pitfall, hid Maladrain’s body behind a tree some twenty feet away, then climbed on top of a tree’s branches, above the trap.

An intermediate, high level [cobold] may have been able to shake off my attacks normally, but with the help of [decapitator] and gravity, I might be able to decapitate one in a plunging attack, even if it’s a particularly bulky one. How reliable! Just as I started positioning myself for a kill, I heard some shouting, “Ku ja thlu! Rttkl'sam!” they sounded angry.

Good. Then, I heard a scream “THHHHHHHAAAAKKK!” I guessed that was a curse, and prayed to Seraph that it was one of them stepping on my trap!

A moment later, three [cobold]s walked into my view, scowling. One was stalky, and crouched a little, taking the lead and galloping forward while it read my tracks. Another was bulky, with a massive rusty broadsword as big as itself held in front of it, looking to the sides for signs of enemies. Another was almost twenty feet behind the others, hopping on one foot with a pissed expression. It was a [master trapper]’s trap, so it was probably well made, and dealt a good deal of damage, even to a high-level creature. I was hoping the [cobold] who stepped on it would be unable to move, but that was a vague hope. At least it was slow.

The lead cobold finally noticed where my tracks led, and began motioning towards the others silently. It stood on one side of the still-covered pit, and the one with the broadsword took the opposite end of the pit, silent. Both of them had not seen me through the camouflage,but instead tunnel-visioned, averting their attention to the pit, rather than the girl squatting above them. The other was trying to catch up, though it was limping on a staff it carried. It was time to strike.

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I fell from the trees, just as the stalky one had put his claws beneath the tarp’s edge. Falling and swinging at the same time, I brutally and efficiently decapitated the large one with my sword, flinging his body down into the pit, along with the tarp

You killed [cobold]!

You gained 67 Exp!

You leveled up!

Stat up: Str: +1 Dex: +0 Con: +0 Wiz: +0 Int: +1 Cha: +0

In combat. . .

Strength up! I couldn’t have asked for a better stat to increase. My assessment of the battlefield: There were trees, two [cobold]s, and a pitfall. One was a [ranger] general class and another, much farther away, could be literally any class.

I took a swipe at the head of the surprised [cobold] next to me as soon as I could, slowing my fall with my [life wing] so my sprained ankle didn’t act up. The draconid reacted quickly, though, and pulled a dagger out of its belt to quickly deflect my blade while ducking. It couldn’t properly defend in time, though and lost a finger in the process, my blade cleaving through it. Meanwhile, it pulled out another dagger with its other hand but was stunned by the pain as its finger was cleaved off, giving me one more opening. I took a step closer, ready to stab it.

I tripped. The pain of my sprained ankle seemingly randomly flared at the next step I took, causing me to trip. In desperation, I used my [life wing] to propel myself backward, back onto my feet. That gave both of us a moment to regain our composure. As I did, I looked to the [cobold] with the injured leg. It was performing some spell with its staff, speaking in draconic. Magic? I wasn’t prepared for that. Still, using my relatively small amount of arcane knowledge, I recognized some components of the spell.

Spell: [???]

Elements: [water], [life], [fire]

Channel: medium(15-40s)

Spell level: 3

Interesting, it was probably a utility spell. Well, I couldn’t afford to think too hard about that, I I turned my attention back to the matter at hand.

The [cobold] hissed at me, then leaped at me with its two daggers in hand, one put in a defensive location, another jabbed right at me. It left its chest protected, but didn’t properly protect its outstretched hand.

I guessed it had some skill to guard against that, but I wasn’t fast enough to fully react to that thought. I struck from below, hoping to catch and chop off its arm with my newly gained point of strength. Suddenly, Its hand seemed to teleport backward, as if it were always in a more guarded location, then it struck at me. I expected something like that, at least, so I could quickly retract my uncertain strike to protect my torso from harm. It worked, but the [cobold] still ended up grazing my arm, cutting deep into my muscle.

I’ll call that damned skill [illusory strikes].

The wound made my sprained ankle feel like a tiny scrape in comparison. It was partway to slicing my arm in half, but with my high wisdom and adrenaline, I endured the pain. The dagger ended above me, while the other, defensively placed dagger, was now close to my body, attempting to stab at me.

You’re open, you little bag of soulless flesh!

I leaped up with [life wing] as my arm recoiled, taking into account that my new injury gave me have a less powerful jump. As I level up, the improved jump increases in strength, so the strength of [life wing] was hopefully the same as if I were about level 3, balancing out. I used my wing to soar just high enough to evade the strike, my feet almost at the [cobold]s eye level. It redirected its strike to catch me in the crotch, but I shoved it down with my feet. Its constitution and strength appeared particularly low, so it fell easily to my weight. It didn’t give up on the strike I evaded, and redirected towards me again, despite falling to the ground. Was the attack affected by the [illusionary strikes] attack or not?

No, I refused to take that bet. I leaped off it as it fell, back into the air, and above its prone body and attack. I plunged my sword towards its neck. It was a feint, just like my last killing strike, though. I expected it to move, wherever it may have gone.

It leaped up, towards me, and attempted to dodge my sword’s arc towards its neck, while it stabbed straight at me. Realizing I hadn’t accounted for all its possibly movements, I only hit its shoulder to stop the [cobold]’s deadly momentum. It...worked? Its right hand flew to the ground under the pressure of my strike, while the damage almost cut its arm right off.

Pain erupted in my thigh. I glanced at it in panic and saw what had happened. I didn’t even see the [cobold] ready for an attack due to [illusory strikes], but it had managed to plunge its knife straight into my leg. It tried to pull it out, but before it could, I pulled my sword out as fast as I could, and struck down one more time, slicing through its scaled neck. Two dead.

You killed [cobold]!

You gained 43 Exp!

In combat. . .

I could barely stand. I had a sprained ankle, a deeply cut arm, and a dagger stuck in my leg. Still, I could just barely stand with the terrifying, and peaking feeling of adrenaline thrusting blood through my body. There were two more [cobold]s...wait, was there always two?

One looked familiar...It was the one I killed, shambling towards me, ten feet away. The spell cast was something like necromancy. The caster was behind it, readying another spell.

The dead body had ivy growing around it, moving in an unsettling way, stuttering in place every so often, and puppeteering the headless corpse. Another spell was cast as I regained my bearings. Suddenly, the ivy on the corpse began to writhe around, and as stood still, more and more greenery surrounded it.

Then, it charged. Quicker than I could react, it ferally ran towards me on all fours, covering half the distance between us in no time. In desperation, I used my life wing to fly backward but only got an extra three feet between it and me. Thankfully, it wasn’t armed.

It suddenly skittered into the pitfall, anchored to the top with vines, growing from the ground. Then, it pulled out the greatsword of its ‘fallen’ comrade and dragged itself back up with the ivy. In my desperation, I had given it a chance to arm itself better. Damn, guess that’s more pain and suffering for me. Behind it, the [druid necromancer](?) had its eyes closed, concentrating on the spell. It must have been a concentration spell. In that case, killing the caster or disrupting the caster’s chain of thought to a large degree could possibly stop the spell. It was about fifteen feet from me, though.

I sheathed my sword, ready to dodge any incoming attacks, then pulled out the slingshot I’d looted and loaded it.

And...the thing stood in the way of my attack instead of attacking. It didn’t know if I could damage its caster if I hit slingshot, and it didn’t want to find out.

I smiled painedly. I wouldn’t want to either, after seeing both of my comrades fall to one person.

I could see the zombie’s stats clear as day on my menu, for some reason.

[Ivy Corpse]: Str: 16 Dex: 20 Con: 30

Inherent skills: [regrowth]

I suppose the stats are were in relation to the original [cobold]? If so, that meant it was twice as fast as the real deal. What was the downside to the spell? Surely it wasn’t fully autonomous? I purposefully moved the sights of my slingshot about 15 degrees, acting as if I needed to shoot at that spot, using my charisma. It started to walk to block my shot, then realized that nothing was over there, and quickly walked back to guarding its master. If it was affected by my Cha, it couldn’t be an inanimate object. I was taking a small stretch of logic(as if I hadn’t done that enough already), but it may have been directly controlled and puppeteered by the [druid necromancer]. That made it deadly but also meant that it was fallible. I started to circle around the [cobold] as menacingly as I could. The [Ivy Corpse] sidestepped the pitfall easily.

My frantic thoughts began slowing down and my injured limbs grew lethargic. I was injured, and bleeding out. I may not have even survived the fight, even if I ‘won’. I needed Maladrain, or I’d bleed out and die of some painful method.

Wait...the creature was being overly passive. It seemed to be avoiding combat. Was it...stalling? Or maybe it could only move so far away from its caster?

Two minutes. That’s all I needed for Maladrain to wake up. If I could hold out through the pain and stall the fight for that long, it probably would have no idea what I had planned...though I didn’t know what it had either...I could already feel the nausea interrupting my thoughts.

Only one good choice. If it wanted to waste time, I was glad for their grace.

Time to put that charisma to work and act aggressive and full of vitality...