After thinking about what I had learned, I breathed a sigh of relief. More than likely, only the enemy soldiers had been affected by the Bat Bane disease. I wasn’t sure whether I was lucky or unlucky. While a cleric probably did cast the spell on the food and water in the supply tent, I had released quite a lot of fecal matter throughout the enemy encampment.

While I hadn’t even realized I had caught a disease, I was glad that my enemy was sharing my pain. I only needed to cast the Remove Disease spell once. However, the enemy clerics would have to cast the Remove Disease or Lesser Restoration spell again and again.

Even though it was only a second level spell, over a hundred enemy soldiers had been affected. That meant that most of the clerics would be using a lot of spell points to heal the soldiers, which was a definite win for our side. In fact, the invaders might not even have enough clerics to remove the bat bane disease from every soldier.

Since I was planning on going to the side entrance tunnel again to check the progress of the invaders, I sent a mental command to Alsvartr to farm experience in the caves. She could also be on the lookout for anyone sneaking in while we are distracted.

“I’ll do that, Notty,” Alsvartr sent a mental response back.

I almost stumbled as I reached the door. I had to stop. Clearly, I must have misheard her. Just in case, I asked, “Did you just call me Notty?”

“That is what Hyggiandi calls you,” she said. “She calls you a naughty little kobold. She said that Notty is short for Nóttormr.”

Taking a deep breath, I sighed, silently vowing to melt down that stupid necklace. I really shot myself in the foot by giving the phylactery to my familiar. I was hoping that Hyggiandi would teach Alsvartr everything she needed to know. Apparently though, the necklace was instead teaching my familiar things that she really didn’t need to know. It was almost as if Hyggiandi resented me for some reason and was trying to get back at me.

Alsvartr then asked, “Do I have a nickname too? If not, can it be Boots? Hyggiandi says you have an abnormal affection for boots.”

Sighing once more, I didn’t answer immediately. Instead, I went to the stone wall and thumped my head against it. “Why? Why? Why? How…does…she…know?” I muttered with each thump. I only stopped because I was worried that one of the maids might come in and see me thumping my head against the wall and start to wonder about my mental stability as well as my physical smells.

Finally, I responded, “No. I’ll think of a better nickname for you. Don’t worry.” I was tempted to say more, such as warning her to be careful when listening to Hyggiandi but I really didn’t want to try to explain. I barely noticed the mental connection go silent as Alsvartr set off to start farming for experience.

“Yep, Dróttinn is definitely out to get me,” I muttered as I rubbed my forehead. “It looks like he succeeded too.” I really needed a moment to collect myself after that, so I flew up to the top of the table and ate away my worries. Once my belly started to bulge too much, I finally quit eating and decided to head out once again.

Since it was morning, I was tempted to attend the morning meditation services, but I really didn’t feel like it. Instead, I directly flew to the side tunnel I had been in yesterday. While it was a little awkward to fly through the tunnels, it was actually easier than trying to hurry through the tunnels on foot. It helped that I was still a tiny kobold, although that was certain to change soon. In the next day or two, I might just grow to be a small kobold. Yeah for me.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Once I reached the side tunnel, I saw that the invading soldiers had started blocking off the arrowslits again. Despite this, they still hadn’t been able to make up the ground they had lost the previous day. At one of the openings the soldiers were trying to block was a kobold that was pumping some type of gas into the main entrance tunnel. Although I was curious, I really didn’t care enough to ask.

Instead, I watched as the kobold defenders moved continuously through the side tunnel. Some brought more arrows. Others brought bags of spiders and scorpions. At one point I frowned, because it looked like one of my brethren who was waiting on new supplies started throwing his feces through the arrowslit. That was gross. Who would do such a thing? I mean, really?

Actually, that gave me an idea. While I knew there were side tunnels on each side of the main entrance, I wondered if there was a tunnel above it. I could sit down on one of the holes and let them know what I thought about them. Dismissing the thought for now, I went back to the exit of the escape tunnel.

I frowned when a thought hit me. I really shouldn’t have wasted my Shape Magic feature on the Remove Disease spell. I should have saved it for the Zone of Death so that I would be able to push back the soldiers again. Shaking my head, I consoled myself with the thought that I could always do it the next day. After all, while the soldiers might have made some progress, and would make some more throughout the day, I could spam the Zone of Death spell the next day. If worse came to worst, I could always go back to sleep or go ahead and level up.

Actually, there was something I could do that might help a little. I could use my twilight breath attack. While it might not make a huge difference, it would probably be more lethal than most of the other traps. Nodding at my good thinking, I went to an arrowslit that wasn’t currently occupied and waited for a victim to appear on the other side. As soon as they tried to shove a shield over the arrowslit, I breathed the twilight breath onto the shield.

While I would have preferred to attack the soldiers themselves, they were doing a good job of using shields to protect themselves. Once they had covered the arrowslits, they would then try to block off the openings with rocks, broken shield pieces, or wood. That might explain why the other kobolds were relying on less direct attacks, such as poisons and flammable oils. Unfortunately, it looked like there was a shortage of both of them.

I was disgusted with the results of my breath attack. The shield cracked some and started to show some aging, but nothing else seemed to have happened. Annoyed, I tried another time before giving up on that idea. The soldiers were going slow enough to prevent most accidents from happening. Although the defending kobolds would occasionally get lucky, the invaders were slowly but surely making progress.

Stepping back, I allowed another kobold to take my place while I thought about our situation. The enemy was low on supplies. However, that could change at any time. The enemy was low on cleric spells as well, although that would change after the clerics rested long enough to regain their spell points. At our current rate of expenditure, our side would run out of arrows, poisons, and flammable oils if the conflict was prolonged too long.

The arrowslits were being covered and the traps were being disabled. If nothing changed, we would need to stage some frontal attacks down the tunnel long enough to push back the invading soldiers and unblock the arrowslits. However, considering how heavily armed the soldiers were and how weak our attacks were, this would be difficult.

We also wouldn’t be able to overwhelm the invaders with superior numbers in the narrow tunnel, which might also cause a great deal of casualties. Since that was the case, it might be best to wait until the invaders reached a choke point. That way we could lay an ambush with minimal injuries.

I also wondered if our tribe was saving some of our more potent defensive abilities. For example, I knew that we had to have something that could cause an explosion and collapse the tunnel. In fact, I was kind of curious why it hadn’t already been used. Was Dróttinn waiting until the situation was more desperate? Did we have a limited number of explosives? After all, if we collapsed the tunnel entrance, it would stop the invasion, at least for a while. Clearing out the rubble would take a long time. In fact, it might just make the entrance tunnel impassable.

Was Dróttinn wanting the intruders to advance further? Did he plan on waiting until most of the soldiers were advancing through the tunnel and then planning on detonating the explosives? Maybe he was hoping to wipe them all out at the same time. Perhaps it was time for me to speak to him about the future.