The leader of the kobold stood there and let out a deep rumble from the back of its throat. While angered, its tiny brain pointed out the fact that its underlings weren't fighting the strange human, the whole group of them seemed to be running away from something else. Being the self-proclaimed smartest kobold in existence, it quickly did some thinking. Thinking that would give headaches to lesser member of its kind.
Kobolds kill everything non-kobold. This human is alive. Both are running side to side. The only reason to do something like that would be if a stronger monster were chasing them. And it was right, a large slime entered the room that clearly had a kobold still melting inside of it. This angered the kobold leader, as it reached deep within its soul and to the surrounding crystals. With a sharp bark, a singular crystal rose from the ground like a spear, piercing the slime. While that would have killed any unruly kobolds, the slime only suffered minimal injuries.
The two greater monsters ignored the group as they sized each other up for just a moment before bursting into movement. The slime, in normal circumstance, would be considered a higher threat than a kobold. But this kobold knew how to utilize magic, giving it an edge. As it ran forward, the ground ahead of it and to its sides spat out needles of crystal that haltered the slimes advance. As it got close enough, it did the one move that every kobold seemed to favor.
A leap.
But adding in the power of its own magical abilities, it shot forward like with just enough force to pierce the slime by covering itself with the crystals. But the slime managed to react quickly enough to grab onto the kobolds left leg, quickly melting through the protective layers it had made for itself. With a great yowl, the kobold shook itself free, yet the damage to its body was still there. The slime itself was rather damaged itself due to the magical attacks it had to suffer from, despite how hard it might be to notice.
Another sudden spike of crystal attempted to pierce through the slime, which managed to react in time and dodge out of the attack. The kobold circled around the slime, but its non-geometrical body didn't help it in any meaningful way. Neither did it care for the growling and various intimidation tactics the kobold tried to use.
Once more the kobold leapt forwards, but with its powerful brain the size of a large grape, it jumped out of the way by causing a small wall to stop its momentum. The slime, not knowing any better, also leapt forward, only to get a mouthful of painful spikes. The kobold knew itself that victory was at proto-hand, but it knew better than to rush into the maw of something dying. Despite that, the slime was still moving steadily forwards toward it. Then it stopped.
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It seemed to smell the air before turning around, towards where a group of kobolds were standing, as well as Benjamin. Due to its shape, it took the kobold leader a few seconds to understand where it was moving. With a snarl and yip, it apparently ordered the lesser kobolds to flee away from it, but the alphas seemed unsure of what to do. Their love of the leap competing with the need to listen to their superior.
Their hesitation was unfortunately rewarded with death, as the slime got close enough to swallow one of the alphas. This angered their leader as it threw a ball of crystals that exploded once it entered the slimes body. This caused its form to melt ever so slightly, its slime leaking out of its form. Taking advantage of the weakness shown, the kobold leader performed one last crystallized leap straight into and through its enemy. It landed on all fours and dragged lines to the ground before coming to a stop. The slime, on the other hand, shivered for seconds before finally and slowly collapsing in on itself with a wet squish.
In its entirety, the battle only lasted for half a minute. Yet to the other kobolds it was a fight that lasted for an eternity, for without their leader there would be a big fight to find the next leader.
Regardless, they no longer had to worry about the slime killing them all. There was only the worry of their leader being able to recover properly before anything or anyone else walks in to take advantage of their leader's temporary weakness. They slowly crawled on their bellies towards their leader, showing that they are still submissive towards it. Licking its wounds, the crystal kobold allows them to get closer and reaffirm that everything is alright, almost like dogs or cats would.
After cleaning its wounds, it stood up properly and started rumbling. It sounded somewhere between the hiss of a crocodile and a motor starting up. Other kobolds, both nearby and further in the tunnels, started to follow their leader a moment later.
With their victory properly celebrated and its control over its hoard strong, the crystal kobold took a moment to inspect its defeated foe. It did the 3 steps that any good monster or beast uses to properly inspect the dead or strange.
First step, it inspected the goop with its small black eyes. It was completely flat to the ground and stretched out without showing any signs of movements. Meaning that it looked dead and was therefore also dead.
The second test is a smelling test, and nothing much needs to be said here. It smells like a slime and, well, there is no difference in smell.
Finally, a taste test to determine if it is edible. After a quick chomp and spit, it tastes horrible and is inedible.
It shook its head and neck before going back to its previous hobby of digging up crystals, commanding the kobolds and alpha kobolds to walk back to whatever they were doing before. Other than the sounds of its own existence, there were little else to listen to, and it almost went back to being absent-minded again.
…
Wait, wasn't there a human?