Kassandra and Rieka kept a careful watch while I disposed of the bodies. Both fortunately and unfortunately, the little monsters were naked. So I didn’t have to search pockets for supplies or anything of value. But I did have to deal with kobold dicks flopping about as I dragged them into the brush. Thankfully, they had stumpy tails coming from their backs as well, and I found that those tended to be easier to use as a handle than a limb while dragging.

What I wouldn’t give for a looting power. Just ‘boop’ and you get loot. I thought to myself. Maybe if I’m lucky, the System will give me something like that. I can always hope, right?

The morbid thought made me shudder slightly as I dumped the last scaly body in the bushes about thirty yards into the trees. Returning to where the girls stood watch on the blood-stained soil of the road, I grimaced when the drying blood on my face flaked off and made my skin itch.

“Oh Liam…” Kassandra winced when she saw me brush at it and immediately started digging through her small pack. “Hang on a second. I wasn’t thinking and I’m sorry. I forgot you don’t have a bag of your own. Rieka, we need to put together another supply pack for him too if we are going to be doing this the right way.”

“Supply pack?” I questioned as Kassandra produced a small bundle of linen, either a bandage or a handkerchief I wasn’t sure, and soaked it with water from a skin that she pulled from the same pack.

“Squat down.” She ordered imperiously and I knelt on the side of the road to make it easier for her. Gently, Kassandra began to wash the blood from my face with the wet cloth while Rieka explained.

“A pack like ours. It has general supplies in it. Things like food, water, medical supplies, rope, emergency camping gear. Most people only bring them for longer missions, but Kass suggested that we bring them even for shorter trips like this. Never hurts to be prepared and it also helps us get used to moving and working with them.” Rieka turned around and bounced slightly, making the small pack on her back shift too. This also made her tail and bottom bounce distractingly, though her butt was harder to make out through the skirt than if she’d been wearing leggings.

“Makes sense.” I muttered dumbly.

“Keep your mouth shut, Liam. The last thing you want is kobold blood in there.” Kassandra chastised gently. I did as she asked and remained quiet while she wiped the worst of the blood from my face. I could still see the tear tracks on Kassandra’s cheeks, now darker because of the road dust stuck to them. When she finished cleaning up the worst of the blood, she tossed the stained rag away and got out a second one that she began to wet to get the rest. I took that from her hands before she started. Kassandra pouted at me for a moment, then froze when I dabbed the tear stains off her cheeks quickly.

“There, now you are back to your normal, pretty self.” I told her quietly before offering her the rag once more. “Didn’t want to use the bloody one on you, so I had to wait till you got a new one.”

Kassandra stared at me in surprise before a faint blush hid her freckles for a moment. She accepted the moist bit of cloth back tentatively and went back to work getting my face clean. Rieka watched over us the whole time, smirking slightly when I caught her glancing our way.

It was only a minute or two later that Kassandra declared I was as clean as I could get for now and that we could get moving. We continued down the road at a slower pace, remaining quiet and watchful the entire time. Both girls had their rods out, so I drew my sword again and gave it a quick once over for any damage. The edge looked fine to me, no nicks or divots in it, but I found a spot that appeared dulled from cleaving into the skull of the one kobold. The edge there wasn’t as bright as the rest, but it was only a small section.

Going to have to get a whetstone or something to sharpen this up. I’ll have to ask the girls later for it. I thought to myself, and added ‘how to sharpen a sword’ to the growing list of things I was going to have to learn in the coming future to help keep the girls safe. I glanced down at my scale-covered left arm and flexed my fingers, making the skin crinkle oddly. And figure out how I did this so much faster. Was it because I was focused on protection? Or because I researched it heavily before I came here? Whatever, YouTube can help with researching to test that, I guess.

Thankfully, there were no more surprises hiding from us as we followed the road. An overgrown side-path branched off the road after only fifteen or so minutes of walking. Rieka motioned for us to stop as soon as she spotted the offshoot.

“There, that track should lead back to the ruins and the campsite near it. I don’t know if any of the little buggers are watching the track or not, but we should check and do so carefully. Give me a minute to sniff around. Liam, stay back and be ready to move if I yell. Kass, watch the trees.” Rieka ordered with a firm scowl on her face.

I was going to protest her heading off like that to scout, but Rieka had already ducked off the road and into the trees. Her platinum blonde hair did not make blending in easy, but she kept low to the ground and I only saw the occasional flash of the pale hair since her clothes helped her blend in. Stealth has to be hard with her fur and hair like that…I wonder if they have camouflage here? Maybe a cloak or something, a hood would be easy enough but I also wonder if it’d be too hot. My thoughts ran away on tangents as I worried while she was gone.

Kassandra and I waited with weapons ready. The dwarf lamia stayed close to my side, her long tail coiling around me in a half circle at my back while I focused on Rieka as she crept through the brush. It was an odd balance of Kassandra both guarding and hiding behind me. It tickled the primal part of my mind that had been floating closer to the surface since the initial clash with that first set of kobolds.

After a few minutes, Rieka’s head popped out of the brush and she motioned us forward. I alerted Kassandra with a pat on the hip and we hurried to meet with Rieka.

“No sign of guards, though I did find a spot in the brush that looks like someone was using it as a hide, it also stunk of kobold. So either there are less than I though; they are changing who is watching; or the watchers were moved up to that ambush spot they hit us at.” Rieka hissed when we got closer.

“What’s the plan then, boss?” I squatted down next to Rieka in the brush and Kassandra wound around both of us so that she was at our backs but still close enough to listen.

“Keep off the track and to the brush. We need to be quiet as we approach. If they were more dangerous or smarter monsters, and we had more time, I’d recommend we hang back and try to pick off a couple of guards to thin their numbers. But I’m sure we can handle this. Liam, can you lead the way forward? Kass and I can get through far narrower spots than you can, so you need to set the pace.”

“Makes sense, going off path like this means that we are going to be slowed by the brush. Assuming we aren’t going to just start hitting them as soon as we get there, right? Need to observe first?”

“Yes. Keep an eye out for traps as well. Kobolds are infamous for setting them.” Kassandra whispered and I nodded in agreement.

“Before I forget, it might be worth getting hoods or cloaks in the future.” I suggested, glancing between the two striking women. “You moved really well through the brush, but your hair color isn’t natural in this environment and it made it easy to spot you. Kass would have a similar issue, but not as badly as her red hair isn’t as sharp a contrast.” Rieka bit her lip as she considered what I’d said, clearly thinking it over before nodding once. The motion made her ears flop back and forth adorably and I had to bite back a smile.

“I’ll look into it. Even short capes with hoods would work well and help break up the outline of a person. They were discussing it in tactics class when describing scouts the other day and it is a cheap answer to the problem. Thank you for pointing it out, Liam. I just wish we’d thought of it sooner.” Rieka said a moment later, the disappointment in herself obvious on her expression.

“Hey now, none of that.” I said immediately. “You are still learning and this is our first mission after all. As long as we walk away from it and learn, we’re good. Just means we have to keep further back to avoid being seen for now.” My words lifted her spirits immediately and Rieka’s fluffy tail wagged several times before stilling once more.

“Told you he’d be good for us.” Kassandra giggled quietly, nudging her friend with one shoulder.

“I never doubted it.” Rieka shot back primly before falling into laughter herself. Once the girls had themselves under control once more, we set out.

Sneaking through underbrush is a lot harder than they make it look like in movies. The leather armor both helped and didn’t, as it would keep me from getting scratched by branches, but also lead to a few louder noises of whipping branches and scraping wood on leather. My boots cracked twigs occasionally, but I did my best to step on only rocks or soft grass to ensure I wasn’t hitting anything brittle enough to snap loudly. The girls were close behind me with Kassandra in the middle and Rieka at the rear and both of them were far quieter than I was.

If we’d walked on the actual path from the road, it probably would have only taken three to five minutes to get to the campsite by the ruins. Sneaking took twice that long, but ended up paying off as I spotted the bobbing of movement in the brush ahead of us. I gestured for the girls to back up and slipped behind a tree just as another kobold waddled up the track of the wagon trail with another of the crude spears over his shoulder. He paused partway up the road and peered around for a moment before carefully stepping over a section of leaf-strewn ground and continuing on.

Trap there, I bet. I thought to myself as he continued past. He was a good ten feet away with his back turned now and I glanced back at the girls. Rieka caught my eyes and pointed at the wandering one and made a gesture across her throat, then pointed at herself and quirked an eyebrow. I shook my head. Sure, she could use magic to deal with the monster, but none of her spells had been silent. Kassandra’s were far quieter, but less likely to kill immediately. A cry for help would be just as bad as a crack of lightning on a cloud-free day.

I cast around and found several rocks wedged into the dry ground at the base of a tree. Prying them loose, I glanced at the retreating monster and then the trees around us.

In a video game, I could just hit a button to whistle and patrolling idiots would walk over to just stand there and wait to be knifed. But I doubted it would be that easy with something like this. While the little monsters hadn’t been super intelligent, they knew how to build traps from what Rieka said, so they weren’t all dumb.

My mind hit on a different idea that was far more likely to work. I had to act fast though before the kobold got too far away.

I tossed the rock across the path and into the bushes off to his left and just behind him. That made him freeze and whirl about to stare into the bushes, spear at the ready. He prodded at the bushes lightly with his spear and continued to peer into it for several seconds before turning back and starting back up the road with a sort of shrug to his shoulders. That was when I tossed the second stone just a little further back down the path from the first.

The kobold whirled and threw his spear with surprising ferocity before charging into the bushes where the sound had come from. There was some crashing about before he emerged with a sulk and a spear with a broken tip in his hand.

I’d been using the time that he was distracted to creep closer to the side of the narrow wagon trail, so when he started back down the path with his spear on his shoulder again, I was ready and slightly ahead of him now.

Stepping out from behind a tree, I jammed the sword into his chest and twisted firmly to stir the blade around. The scaled monster let out a squeak of surprise and pain, flailing about to try and bring his spear around to stab me. I yanked the sword out and kicked him to one side. I got a smack on the shoulder from the haft of his spear rather than a stab when I followed after him as his flailing continued.

The sword blow had taken him in the lungs and all he could do was let out a wheezing squeal that I silenced quickly with a stomp and another stab. This kill had been a lot cleaner than my first few, I only had a few small drops of blood on my armor and hand rather than liberally painting my face. My stomach rolled at the fact that I’d just murdered this creature, but I stuffed it down. The girls. I reminded myself. You are doing this to protect them. They said these creatures were a threat and you trust them. I forced that thought deep into my subconscious, pointedly ignoring the pessimistic voice that reminded me that they could just be manipulating me and I’d only known them for a handful of days at this point.

It only took a moment to roll the body off the road and into the trees. On an impulse, I took the splintery spear with me and used the sword to put a better tip on it.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Liam!” Rieka hissed as I crept back down the wagon-track to the section covered in leaves and stirred them with the spear lightly. Hidden under the leaves were a collection of small twigs, shattered glass from what looked like wine bottles, and little animal bones that would make a heck of a racket if someone stepped on them.

Noise trap. Okay. I thought to myself and hurried back to the girls.

“Noise trap in the middle of the road. Wanted to see if they’d put anything more dangerous there.” I explained at the questioning looks that the girls both gave me. Kassandra nodded in understanding, her inquisitive, brown eyes darting back to the road then to me again. I could see…pride in them? Was she proud of me? The thought was so surprising that I had to put it aside to process later.

“Okay, that’s good then. We can deal with it later.” Rieka nodded and gestured for us to get moving.

We continued to parallel the wagon-trail for another several minutes before the trees began to thin out. Ahead, I could make out the outline of a square building covered in forest detritus, lichen, moss, and worn with time. We continued to approach until the undergrowth began to fall away even more and stopped to observe.

The clearing was maybe a hundred yards across and barely a third of that was taken up by the ruined building. It had been square at one time, maybe two or three stories tall and made of a dull, red stone. The rest of the clearing was a meadow of grasses with a large bramble slowly taking over the open space from the tree line. The campsite was snuggled up against one side of the ruin, clearly taking advantage of the ancient building as a shelter from the elements. A large, central fire-pit sat between the end of the wagon trail and a section of earth pounded flat from what I guessed were the milling pack-beasts of whatever merchants or traders traveled the road and used the place to camp.

There were several additions after the fact that were all the kobold’s doing, since I doubted that most traveling merchants would hang a corpse up by its feet on one wall like it was a trophy. I saw maybe a dozen of the scaled monsters milling around or lazing in the shade of the ruined structure. As I watched, two wandered over to the hanging corpse and began gnawing on it, just ripping off a few mouthfuls of meat before walking back to flop in the shade.

“Oh gods…they must have caught a traveler or a peddler.” The disgust in Kassandra’s tone combined with the sight of the body was all I needed to lose whatever remained of my hesitation about dealing with these creatures. I could feel the disgust at seeing a body hung up like that boiling in the back of my mind, right next to the quiescent horror from killing the first kobold and the others. But thankfully, it was content to lurk in the back of my mind for now.

“Kass.” Rieka hissed, drawing the dwarf lamia’s gaze back to her. “Focus! We need to eliminate these things so they don’t hurt anyone else.” Kassandra’s expression hardened and she nodded. Something told me that the shorter woman had a quietly simmering pot of horror in her mind too, though she seemed to be coping with it better than I was. Probably due to being used to this kind of thing. I wonder how Rieka is holding up so well. I glanced at the friendly wolf-kin woman and bit back a sigh. I could see the stress in her eyes and the way her whole body trembled while her ears folded back on her skull. She was just as angry and stressed as I was, but holding onto it better. This wasn’t something even college-aged people should be exposed to without help, and while I was only older than them by a few years, I wasn’t really any better equipped to handle it than they were. But I had to do my best.

“Okay, how do you girls want to do this? I don’t know what all you are capable of, but I’m happy to play distraction or a lure to get them somewhere you can strike them. We can do this, we just need to work together.” I pushed the conversation back on topic and the girls both shot me grateful looks. I just had to hope I looked composed.

“If you are willing, Liam. I can summon up a rather efficient spell that will stun them in a small area. Lightning is good at that. It’s making the bolts strong enough to kill that drains extra mana. Kass, if you can stand by to get any that we miss or try to run?” Rieka shook herself as she spoke, a motion that sent her fluffy ears flopping cutely, and then turned to the dwarf lamia. Kassandra nodded resolutely and gripped her rod firmly. Any hesitation or concern on Kassandra’s face was gone now, replaced with a quiet fury and resolution.

“I’ll happily stand between you two and danger. It’s what I’m here for. Do I need to leave the sword behind? Metal attracts electricity after all.” The first part of my statement got a softening look from Kassandra and a smile from Rieka, before the wolf-kin shook her head in denial at the second part.

“No, keep your sword with you, just keep it out to the side and down at first. Do not keep it close to your body. I’ll send the spell up and over you. We need them to clump up as much as possible so go in loud then start to back up to draw them together. I’m going to have to rely on you to finish them off while they are stunned. I doubt you have any hesitation in doing so, given what you did a moment ago.” Rieka explained, clearly meaning the moment back on the wagon trail when I’d ambushed the last kobold. I felt a brief shiver of worry run through me, but the steady confidence in Rieka’s gaze told me that she did not judge me for my actions, and that allowed me to stuff that worry down into a hole again.

“No. Not when they kill and eat people like that.” I gestured towards the hanging corpse but did my best not to look at it. “Say when you are ready.”

<><><>

Our plan actually went off without a hitch. Which was a relief after being ambushed on the road earlier.

I came bursting out of the bushes, throwing first the captured spear and then rocks at the more distant kobolds to make sure they saw me. The group reacted in different ways, some of them screeching in surprise, others howling, and a few snatching up weapons and throwing them at me. Their camp was only in disarray for a handful of seconds before the bulk of the group charged me en-mass. I started to backpedal and drew my sword, keeping it away from my body and down as I’d been instructed.

“Storm Net!” I heard Rieka call from behind me as the kobolds closed at a scamper. A glittering orb of crackling lightning arced over my head like a lazily thrown beach-ball. The kobolds tried to skid to a stop when they saw it, but Kassandra had apparently decided to chip in.

“Ice Slick.” A moment later, the grass under them froze and they slipped on the remnants of dew that had been on the ground. It was only a moment of unsteady footing, but it caused the group to bunch up a bit more and Rieka’s spell slammed into them with a rather anticlimactic zot sound. Most of the group fell to the ground, trembling and thrashing as their muscles locked up.

“Now Liam!” Rieka called and I rushed forward with a growl. There wasn’t much finesse to what I was doing. I stabbed and hacked at the twitching monsters, doing my best to kill or mortally injure them before they got to their feet while doing my best to not chop off my own foot at the same time. It wasn’t honorable or fair, given that they were disabled, but I didn’t care. My entire focus was protecting the girls and I’d shoulder this burden for them. The fact that the monsters had been eating someone like a side of ham helped quash my concerns about fairness and honor.

The sword was getting heavy after only a minute or so of swinging, it was a sort of exertion that I wasn’t really used to. My muscles protested, but I kept at it as best I could while resolving to find some way to practice so I was better at this the next time the girls called on me. The kobolds were slowly getting their muscles under control but I moved as quickly as I could to ensure that they were not a threat.

At least this is better than just mindlessly playing video games. Or doing overtime…fuck, I’d much rather fight monsters than load trucks. The thought crossed my mind and I strangled a laugh, as this was not the time to be laughing.

Two of the kobolds were far enough from the pack that the shock didn’t put them down and they tried to run, but Kassandra’s icy lances caught them in the back and brought them down.

It took less than a minute to finish the grim work, but over a dozen kobolds lay dead in a pile at our feet as a result. Even then, the girls approached warily and we scouted out the ruins to make sure there weren’t more in hiding.

The ruins themselves were just ancient stone. The main floor showed signs of being used as a campsite for a long time, with old fire pits and refuse piled around. All of the fire pits were cold and full of ashes, even the larger one outside. The basement walls were collapsed in places, showing that there had likely been a pantry down there at some point, but it was also much smaller than the main floor. The stairs that lead up to the second floor were carved out of the same type of stone that was used in the wall. The entire building was open to the environment, since one corner had collapsed some time in the past. The rest of the building was mostly undamaged other than the ravages of time leaving bare stone studded with lichen.

And the blood of course.

The hanging corpse was the first thing I tended to. Since this was a regular campsite, there was a supply of firewood stacked in the corner that the kobolds had apparently been ignoring. I tried not to look closely at it, given the large bite marks taken from the corpse had disfigured the body heavily. At the girl's suggestion, we wrapped the body in a scrap of tarp we found and took it up to the roof of the building, which was clear save for some piles of dead leaves. Using the firewood from below, we built a funeral pyre for the unfortunate, which Rieka started with a quick strike of flint and steel into the dry tinder. None of us said anything, but we left the pyre to burn up on the roof of the all-stone building. Isolated like that, I was fairly sure it wouldn’t have a chance of spreading.

The kobolds were tossed into the trees unceremoniously and I got another face-washing from Kassandra while Rieka dug through the accumulated things the kobolds had brought with them. It turned out that the traveler they had waylaid was likely a peddler, since she found a large pack that had jewelry and trinkets made of bone and shells, as well as a collection of polished stones. A small sack of coins was tucked into the bottom of the pack. The kobolds had shredded the backpack, scattering the loose objects around while likely looking for food in it. None of the other camping supplies had survived their claws and teeth.

“What do we do about all this?” I gestured to the jewelry and oddments sitting around on the ground, as well as the sack of simple copper and silver coins that Rieka was tossing up and down in one hand.

“We could leave it, or take it with us. Monster attacks happen, and people die in the wild all the time. Generally, anything found in a monster den is considered fair game or reward for those that come to eliminate them.” Kassandra said quietly. The dwarf lamia had stuck close to me the entire time we were here. I could see she was shivering slightly in the shade so I stepped closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her against my hip, being careful to not get blood on her clothes. She gave me a small smile and leaned into the one armed hug.

“Yea. The fate of that poor soul is unfortunate, but that is the way of the world. The wilds between towns are not safe, and should only be traveled by the prepared.” Rieka agreed, tossing the sack of coins again before tucking it into one of her own pouches. “Let’s collect what we can. At this point, anything would be helpful. I am sorry again, Liam. We should have equipped you better.”

“Hey, I didn’t even get stabbed that time, so I’m good.” I tried to be jovial, but Rieka just shook her head.

“I would have preferred if you didn’t get stabbed the first time. I’d meant to ask before, your left hand?” She indicated the hand still covered in crocodile hide, which was draped over Kassandra’s shoulders while the dwarf lamia leaned into my warm side.

“Yea, just kinda happened before while we were fighting the first time. I haven’t bothered trying to reverse it yet, since we needed to fight. Figure it’ll be something to deal with when we are safe.”

“Fair enough. But why only that arm? Why not both?”

“Size constraints. The ability needs to be trained up and it takes a lot of mental focus to do even small changes.” I shrugged and Kassandra wiggled against my side, drawing my attention back down to her.

“Focus can take time to develop. You should exercise your mind with puzzles or mind games. That can build your mental acuity and increase your focus.” She suggested with a small smile.

I paused for a moment and then closed my eyes to check the System interface, specifically my ‘Stats’ page.

Name - Liam Cosgrave

Strength - 13

Agility - 11

Fortitude - 16

Willpower - 15

Mental Acuity - 13

Wisdom - 11

Powers Acquired - Shape-Shifting (Minor)

There it is, mental acuity. I wonder... I thought to myself, remembering the ability that had opened up recently. If I spent some points and boosted my mental acuity, would that increase the speed I could focus and make changes? Worth a try at least, but later. I put the thought back on the shelf for now and gave Kassandra another quick squeeze. She let out a little ‘eep’ of surprise and turned a grin up at me.

“What was that for?”

“You gave me an idea that might help me train this skill up to something useful. I need to practice the Shape-Shifting power if I am going to master it, and my contacts told me that mastering it is how I unlock the next step in its progression. Now I need to come up with ideas of how to train it on the sly while doing other things.” I explained, and Kassandra’s smile blossomed into a grin.

“Do you have to be looking at something to change it?” Rieka suggested, looking up from where she’d been inspecting the thick hide on my arm. “If you are trying to be subtle about it, you could wear gloves and do a similar change to this, or even a long-sleeve shirt?”

“That’s perfect, Rieka!” She blushed at my praise and her ears flicked to either side. The motion was so reminiscent of my friend’s dog that I reacted automatically and shifted my hand up to pat her head, right between her ears.

Rieka’s blush deepened at the motion and I remembered her embarrassed reaction from the last time I did this. I was about to apologize and stop, but she pushed her head up into my hand in a clear request for more attention, so I kept at it. I wonder if it's a species thing?

Kassandra glanced between us with a small smile on her lips, shooting me a wink and a little thumbs up. Having the girls this close and the quiet moment of connection actually helped settle the boiling cauldron of anxiety in the back of my mind, and I had a feeling it did the same for the girls too.

We stayed like that for another few minutes before Kassandra sighed and gestured towards the bits of simple jewelry on the ground.

“We should collect this and be on our way. Rieka, did we need to bring evidence of the kobold extermination back with us?”

Kassandra’s words snapped the distracted wolf-kin out of her daze and she growled under her breath.

“Yes…damn it. I forgot about that. They want tail tips for each kill. That is going to be gross…”

“I got it. I’ve got the sword after all. Gonna need to be sharpened later though.” I took my hand back from Rieka’s head, getting a little whine of disappointment from the wolf girl, which made her blush again.

“Don’t worry about that, Liam. We’ll make sure it’s taken care of. Let’s get started on this, I’m getting cold being in the shade.” Kassandra urged, and we set about our tasks.