In mere moments, the kobold chieftain cut down every last cultist. The aura covering his body had grown so thick that his body was nearly hidden beneath it.
“Uhh, you sure that was a good idea?” Nedror asked.
“GROAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!” the kobold chieftain roared, then the dirt beneath his feet exploded.
Suddenly, part of the dirt wall I’d raised was instantly annihilated, putting an end to the siege I’d held.
With [Appraisal], I took another look at what we were facing.
[Kobold Lv. 59 (23) – Cannibal Chieftain Lv. 74 (24)]
HP: 3,263,178/3,263,178 (121,732)
MP: 576,529/576,529 (72,529)
SP: 728,816/728,816 (83,478)
Vitality: 39,878 (7,347)
Strength: 47,924 (9,561)
Dexterity: 41,632 (8,256)
Intelligence: 28,425 (5,518)
Wisdom: 25,314 (4,695)
Racial Traits:
[Claw Strike]
[Bite]
Skills:
N/A
Titles:
N/A
Condition: [Blood Frenzy x173]
Instantly recognizing the imminent danger the chieftain posed, I immediately rushed towards him as he roared, activating [Ensnaring Domain Field] instantaneously to finish him off before he started.
The domain field expanded, trapping the chieftain and I in the empty void, surrounded by six titanic spheres of false mana. Despite his massively strengthened stats, no number in the strength stat would move you an inch if you had nothing to push against, as exemplified by his disgustingly powerful yet ultimately pointless flailing.
That said, due to my heavy use of mana raising the wall and taking pot shots from atop it, I had to make every second count in this domain. I drew on titanic torrents from the flame and earth spheres and quickly channeled them to activate [Create Magma].
What this did was create magma, obviously. A giant river of magma that flew at break-neck pace to keep up with the massive input of false mana. And, as expected, the chieftain’s health began tanking along with it.
I had fifteen seconds at most within the domain, and by the eleventh second mark, the chieftain’s health finally reached zero.
“Ha, take tha-” I jeered, only for the blood red mist aura to flare from within the magma river.
Alarmingly, the chieftain was back, and at full health.
[Kobold Lv. 59 (23) – Cannibal Chieftain Lv. 74 (24)]
…
Condition: [Blood Frenzy x172]
My brow twitched, and I made the split-second decision to dispel the domain field.
***
“…So, what now?” I asked.
The mad monster of a cannibal chieftain was floating in mid-air thanks to [Force Lord], with all air molecules pushed away from the chieftain’s body using [Mana Commandeering]. This created a pseudo-vacuum around the chieftain, which recreated the restraining effects of space. It was how I restrained both Nedror and Lyra in the first place.
“Can’t we just let him choke to death?” Lyra asked with distaste.
“No, we can’t. It would take literal months to exhaust the ridiculously inflated health pool he has 172 times over.” Medru shook his head.
“We can’t strike him with anything physical either, since he’s strong and fast enough to escape confinement with even the tiniest bit of leverage. It’s a small mercy he lost his mind with the blood frenzy – I shudder to imagine the damage he could do with his faculties intact.” Phlora said.
We all sat down on the ground as we pondered this mystery – how do we kill something with this much health, and to do it without letting him escape?
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“What about setting him on fire? We can also feed the flames with mana.” Nedror suggested.
“Rejected. I am just about breaking even on mana expenditure and mana regeneration – I don’t have the mana to create and continuously feed flames that’ll damage him faster than choking him to death would.” I objected.
“What about poison? Poison gas could do wonders, and we can get some from Akaross and come back.” Phlora suggested.
“Nope. With a strength stat nearing 50,000, even pushing against a gas would be enough to propel the chieftain out of containment. We can’t let him come into contact with anything physical, period.” I said.
“Forget fire, how about freezing him solid? Even ignoring the damage caused by frostbite, the chieftain can’t move if he has no energy. And if he can’t move, then we’ve contained him permanently, no? Even if it’ll take months for him to choke and freeze to death, it should be permanent.” Nedror suggested.
I shook my head again.
“Then I’ll just be fighting against his stamina points instead of his health points. And when stamina points need to be consumed beyond your stamina points, such as to keep your body warm, your health points are used instead, which brings us back to square one.”
Frustration was slowly brewing as we realized that killing the chieftain was looking to be a lot less viable than initially conceived.
Just as we continued racking our heads, Medru raised his hand.
“I think I have an idea…”
***
“You know, Medru, you’re a lot scarier than I gave you credit for. Remind me not to needlessly antagonize you.” I said.
“…Duly noted.” He answered.
Already, Medru’s idea was paying dividends, and we’d already brought down nearly twenty of the chieftain’s spare lives.
The idea itself was simple; find a sword or spear-tip from one of the plethora of weapons left by the feral kobolds, break of the tip of the weapon to create a piece of metal with plenty of jagged edges. Then, when the chieftain tried to roar into empty space in vain like he was prone to do every few minutes, sneak in the piece of shrapnel into his mouth and down his throat.
Unlike the chieftain’s innards themselves, the jagged metal was not immune to the manipulation of my force mana. Essentially, I had a low-maintenance, improvised organ blender on my hands.
“Phlora, blood!” Lyra said as she moved a piece in her game of dwarfsieg with Nedror.
Phlora then wordlessly beat her wings, pushing away the stream of flesh and blood flowing out of the chieftain’s mouth.
“This is going to take a few more hours at least. Any bright ideas to make this go faster?” I asked.
Unfortunately for me, no one had any to offer.
***
You have killed a [Kobold Lv. 23 – Cannibal Chieftain Lv. 24]!
72,982,847 EXP awarded!
39,625,718 bonus EXP awarded due to the effects of [Giant Slayer]!
12,953,625,718 bonus EXP awarded due to the [Blood Frenzy x173] condition!
Experience gain divided between [Sorcery Dragon] (18%) and [The Crusher] (82%)!
“Wha-?!” My jaw dropped straight to the ground.
Somehow, someway, this one fight earned me more experience than I got throughout my entire (admittedly short) life.
Lyra and Medru stood up at once, fully alert.
“What’s wrong?!” Lyra asked.
“N-nothing’s wrong. The chieftain’s dead, that’s all.” I said.
I finally allowed the chieftain’s corpse to fall down in what was probably the second goriest scene in my life, right after the Siege of Erdu.
“Finally.” Nedror sighed.
“Can we get moving now?”
“We have to burn all the corpses first, including the chieftain’s regenerated flesh. Otherwise, there’s no telling what could come out of such cursed blood down the line.”
“A waste of good crafting materials if you ask me.” Nedror said as he plopped back down to take a nap.
“Good thing I didn’t.” Medru said, earning a snort from Lyra and a glare from Nedror.
“Kiara, would you mind helping me with gathering the bodies?”
***
Ten minutes and a generous helping of force magic later, a large pile of bodies lay atop each other, with any and all nearby grass and greenery uprooted and tossed away. With a flick of my wrist, a spark ignited a flame that quickly consumed the whole pyre.
“Sooooo, do we get any rewards from the adventurer’s guild for this? This is clearly a big and important job we just pulled off, no?” I asked.
“Well, yes and no.” Phlora said.
“It’ll take some time for the guild to verify everything, and there’s no telling how much they’ll pay us for this feral camp’s extermination, but it’ll probably be good money – even when split five ways.”
Huh. I guess I’ll be back at the lizardman’s shop soon enough.
“Wiping out a feral settlement this large was way beyond the scope of our mission here anyway, so it’s good we managed it anyway.” I said before turning to Lyra.
“Speaking of which, did you manage to kill the three kobolds you were after before the chieftain got to them?” I asked.
Lyra nodded absentmindedly.
“Yeah, I got them alright. My first three shots were aimed at them. I didn’t need to shoot more.”
As I started to feed the flame with mana to raise its heat and ensure it broke down the kobolds’ corpses, I reflected on my real prize – the massive number of levels I got with my experience points.
Name: Kiara Azoth
[Sorcery Dragon]
[Level 50]
EXP: 94,793,564/MAX
Divine Shards: 14/?
HP: 27,325/27,325
SP: 7,512/7,512
MP: 23,795/81,282
Vitality: 3,536
Strength: 3,278
Dexterity: 3,082
Intelligence: 5,156
Wisdom: 4,527
Racial Traits:
[Sapient Creature]
[Dragon Combat]
[Dragon Breath]
[Draconic Vision]
[Draconic Scales]
[Kin of Mana]
[Shapeshift: Base Humanoid Form]
[Greater Appraisal Obfuscation]
[True Elemental Body]
[Evolutionary Inheritance]
Class: [The Crusher]
[Level 200]
EXP: 146,719,964/MAX
Class Skill Points: 132
Class Skills:
[Mana Commandeering Lv. 25]
[Force Lord Lv. 20]
[Ensnaring Domain Field Lv. 20]
[Orb of Devouring Lv. 20]
[Celestial Descent Lv. 20]
[Destined Collision Lv. 20]
[Almighty Push Lv. 20]
Skills:
[Appraisal Lv. 10]
[Sneak Lv. 9]
[Ambush Lv. 9]
[Fate’s Jester]
[Pain Immunity]
[Fist of Justice]
[Trauma Conqueror]
Titles:
[Ferocious Underdog]
[Abyssal Cockroach]
[Avenger]
[Indomitable Will]
[Progenitor]
[Giant Slayer]
[Trailblazer]
[Protector of the Meek]
[Mad Dog]
[Defier of Fate]