Nate asked his questions, which Colt was happy to oblige as he went to the door. Yes, Sarah was now safe. No, he wasn’t sure if they planned to kill Nate—but Sarah had been the target. It was easy to explain, yet Nate seemed to have some reservations about grasping just how far Bill had gone. The disbelief was like a root in his head; one of those dark strings of magic Bill wormed into every one, but he began to accept it.

Colt inspected the door and tried it.

Locked, now.

The kobolds had been keeping this door locked… That was why when he went around trying whatever entrance he could, he had no indication this door was off.

That, and out of all the ‘entries’ leading off from the countless alleys, all of them had been locked. The couple he’d broken into led to shells of rooms.

Why would he suspect this door to be any different?

Colt jangled the door, and it didn’t budge. He took out his knife and aimed for the hinges. Then, he sliced delicately, letting that edge of his edict wrought tear through the metal. It resisted just as hard as Logan, making it more difficult to bite through. It took time to tear through the metal even condensed down as a smaller slice.

Some things, he suspected, were just more dense and harder to cut.

Still, after a few seconds, he tore through.

All that was left was to do the same to the top hinge…

Then, after a small push, the door collapsed inward, revealing a dark tunnel that went downward. All of the alleys stayed fairly level, now that Colt thought about it; sure, they might wind around and twist. But very rarely did you walk on a slope. This, though, undeniably, went below.

Colt worked his jaw.

“Bill knows about this. I fought him here when he ran off. I’m… Going to take a look. You can head back to the kitchen. I’ll show you the code to get in, too. Make sure Sarah and Jimmy are okay.”

Nate shook his head. “Naw, I’m headed with you. If you say Bill can get in our heads, I don’t want to run into him alone. Besides, it never hurts to have backup.”

They shared a look, then Colt gave an appreciative nod.

He had a lot of levels of Nate, but the man had helped with Logan, and he trusted him to have his back. With one last look at the pile of kobold corpses and Logan’s not far by, he dove into the tunnel.

It wound down like a little spiral descending under the earth. Parts of it were difficult to walk upright—often needing the two of them to duck their heads to avoid places where the tunnel narrowed. It wasn’t hard to imagine the little creatures scurrying through here since it was just the right level to make it easy for them.

After about five minutes of walking, the pathway split. Colt caught sight of a kobold, and a quick toss of his knife killed it before it could shout and cause more trouble.

The deeper the dove, the thicker the air felt; it was oppressive, like a massive giant of earth breathing down their necks. Down here, they ran into more and more kobolds, always surprised, though the creatures were almost too easy to kill now. They just didn't have the strength to compete with a bat to the head, a knife to the throat. That’s all it took.

Then, they started to come in thicker numbers.

Colt broke out his Edict, slicing through waves of them. The tunnel funneled them forward, making it child’s play to conquer.

As they moved forward, cutting down the waves, thicker, bigger kobolds began to spill in—armed with more equipment than just claws. At this point, though, they weren’t all that much more likely to kill. It took a bit longer for the wave his edict made to slice through them, but if any Kobolds slipped past while he sent out the killing line, Nate was there with his bat to end them. The soldier was just playing a much more bloody game of whack-a-mole.

They dove deeper, killing through waves of kobolds.

The more Edict slashes Colt threw around, the more winded he became, the strain on his soul deepening.

———

You have leveled up!

You have 3 Stat points to spend. You have gained 1 point of Dexterity and 1 point of Soul!

———

After the latest level-up, Colt brought them to a halt. He’d managed to hold on to nine stat points; now was the time to spend them.

Five went into the soul, and Colt felt immediate relief; the strain on his core vanished as the points were dispersed.

Two went into strength, and the last two went into endurance.

It was enough to give him a second wind when combined with around three minutes of rest. Nate stood quietly by, rubbing at his eyes. The big guy was coated with kobold blood, but he hadn’t had much to say other than warnings and directions.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Part of Colt wasn’t even sure he was still with him—his mind had gone somewhere else. Only grunting affirmations.

It was another grunt when Colt told him it was time to go.

They sunk into a rhythm as they moved deeper. Nate fell into the role of the face, able to tank hit better and respond to a sudden influx of kobolds. Colt darted in and dealt damage when needed.

It was simple. But effective.

Soon, they worked their way down the tunnels—just simple dirt tunnels, as if these kobolds dug them by hand, nearly like an ant colony.

Until the tunnels opened wide into a deep chamber.

“That’s gotta be boss room,” Colt said, and it was obvious it was. Kobolds milled about, hundreds of them. If he had to guess, that made for the rest of the kobolds in the entire dungeon; that and the fact there was a pile of stolen crap down that there made it look close to a hoarder’s house.

When he focused and looked—he could see a kobold, about a foot taller than the rest, with a large round body and a crown of junk on its head.

They’d finally found it.

Nate let out a low whistle.

“We go back for Sarah and Jimmy?” he asked.

“No. They’re looking out for one another since Bill’s running loose—I don’t think Bill will be in any state to mess with them for a while since I took his arm off. I think… This is the best shot we have at this, even down two people. I think we can handle it.” Colt cracked his knuckles and squinted at the king.

From here, it wasn’t possible to Inspect it. Distance was a factor he hadn’t considered, so for now, the level of the boss was a mystery. It just… It didn’t seem intimidating. Not in the same way Jack did. Appearances could be deceptive, and Colt kept that in mind.

Jack had been overwhelming, but he’d made the boss retreat. Later, Bill managed to kill it.

Now, with Nate? They could trust in themselves.

They pulled back, deeper into the tunnel leading to the cavern, and talked about their approach. Walking out into the large crowd of kobolds was dangerous, and they didn’t want to sustain too many injuries before tackling the main boss. Being in such a large and open environment just left too many risks, so they adapted their tactics.

Nate would remain the shield. He was slow yet study and could fend off the tunnel at an appropriate distance inside.

Colt would pull the kobolds into the tunnel, where they could better handle the numbers with his cut.

He felt that he had about five good ones left. After the second wind and through practice, it was easier to grasp how many he could throw out before needing time to recover.

Enough to handle this was careful planning and approach.

After their discussion, Nate saluted him and hunkered down in position, leaving the main risk and pulling the trigger on Colt.

Colt slowly went back out into the tunnel and took one last look into the cavern.

The King Kobold was busy slapping another kobold—while a crowd of them mocked and jeered. A very civilized society, and oddly, familiar to the kitchen he’d originally come from.

Seeing all he needed, he stepped forward and threw his knife a good thirty feet into the nearest kobold—the hit wasn’t precise, and grazed it instead of sinking in for a death blow. But it was enough to catch the monster’s attention and alert it to the fact that their cavern now had an intruder.

It screamed out bloody murder, pointing at him. The King stopped taunting his victim and met eyes with Colt. He had a viscous grin, banged a fist on its chest, and began to scream, pointing at the human who dared to enter their territory.

Like that, the war began.

Colt kept his position as the first couple of kobolds came up; his knife easily outsped them on its return.

When the first one arrived, he slammed it into their neck and shoved them into the second—which he ended by throwing his knife again and landing it directly into their eye. Two dead in two seconds. The third went to a couple of chest stabs; then, the group truly began to hit. Four at a time.

Now, Colt played defensive, killing a kobold as he retreated further, pulling back quickly and leaving no openings. Whittling down whatever he could.

Each foot he retreated was another kobold corpse.

By the time he reached the tunnel and Nate, there was a trail of dead bodies, and they were a bit more hesitant to fight.

Colt fell into the flow once more, working the kobolds as they came in the same dispassionate way he felt about cutting chicken; whenever the swarm surged, he would lash out with a cut, sending a line of invisible death through their ranks and clearing the tunnel for more to spill in.

Four waves passed, and the strain on his soul deepened. Two more uses of his Edict, which he could not afford to spare on the chaff.

Nate was starting to pant, too, but the kobolds kept coming. Crawling over the bodies of their allies to attack, no matter how many hearts he stabbed into, there was always another kobold or two ready to jump into its spot to kill it.

Without his Edict, it was a matter of physics. He could only move so fast, and that was fast—beyond what a human should be capable of, killing these things. But he had only one knife. One body.

They were a tsunami and an overwhelming wall of flesh and blood that kept surging forward, trying to drown them and bring them to the brink of exhaustion.

Sloppy. Nate started to get sloppy first—receiving a gash to his head from a kobold that tried to bite into his skull. Then another whacked a little wrench against his shin. Not enough to break the dense bone beneath, but Colt saw how Nate was moving that the injury hurt and slowed him. To his credit, Nate didn’t complain. He was facing the majority of them down, wearing the kobold tide.

But it was a losing battle.

Colt swore—the Kobolds were dense. Their laughter and war cries drown out all reason in the tunnel. This had to be more than he saw in the cavern.

“I’m going ahead,” Colt called as he saw an ebb in the flow. Soon, there would be another tide of kobolds to slay. But he was fast. Could move faster than these monsters could track. Paired with Phantom Step, they wouldn’t be able to stop him. “I’ll see how many are left.”

Nate grunted as he smashed a straggler kobold in the skull.

Colt took that to mean ‘understood,’ then dashed forward, spinning past a couple of grasping kobolds as he moved ahead.

Some of them chased him. But weaving, ducking, and phasing out of existence past the tide of enemies was easy enough with his advanced dexterity and sheer levels he had over these things. They seemed to him to move almost in slow motion when he focused on moving.

It wasn’t long before Colt poked his head out and saw the cavern again.

Three seconds after that, as he watched King Kobold bash another kobold in the head and four more kobolds popped out of his scepter, did he realize their plan was fucked—this boss was spawning more enemies. An endless amount of them.