After Brian let go of Jacob leaving Jacob with a more devastating injury than both the battles before combined, Jacob carried his burning face and groggy head and sat on the floor back to a wall. Jacob took the respite given to finally condense the swirling essence into his core to strengthen it even more. The core grew once again this time into the size of a mangosteen, Jacob channeled the essence around his body to speed up his already burgeoning healing speed. Jacob ran the battles before through his head giving it a quick review, he still had not gotten used to channeling essence when battling. It seems he did it unintentionally during the second fight hence his furious sweeping bore such astonishing results cutting the kobolds down, he would have to keep that in mind moving forward and learn to consciously use the essence if not while the world was moving forward he would be stagnant and stagnation means death in his new life Jacob started to check his status. However while his rumination was going on someone moved in front of him, and shook Jacob awake.
“Jacob you have to wake up we do not have anymore time to wait.” The feminine voice called out to Jacob along with the gentle shaking, Jacob opened his eyes to see a beautiful visage gracing his eyes however yet another look of fear could be found on her face. Causing Jacob to immediately question why.
“Whats going on?” Riley immediately answered
“There are more kobolds coming from inside the cave, where we are could only be considered as an outpost for them. Brian managed to take down one of the scouts and is waking up the other two from their meditation, we wanted to give you more time but more are coming on the way.”
“I understand lets meet up with the rest and get moving” Jacob gave the best smile he could however it was still as frightening as ever given that he had not rinsed off any of the crud and mud off of himself causing Riley to flinch a little. Jacob quickly stopped smiling and got up and asked Riley to guide him to the others. All five of them gathered near the pyrefire, a somber reminder for both Riley and Brian that they would have gotten roasted if Jacob, Alexander and Turner did not came to rescue him. Jacob asked Alexander and Turner with urgency.
“Were the both of you able to get a Job? No need to tell me anything specific we gotta run but if you guys did we have to carry the other two out of the caves or at least assist them as we need to get out of here now” Alexander and Turner nodded. Riley looked expectedly at Alexander most likely with various flowery images running through her mind, seeing that Jacob begrudgingly moved to Brian with Turner. And so with Riley in a princess carry by Alexander and Brian in an embarrassing position situated on their shoulders, the group set off speedily back in the direction of the cave entrance. With Alexander and Brian having their newfound momentum by reaching Grade 1, the group was able to give the kobold outpost a wide berth before numerous screams echoed somehow managing to reach them. Hearing the screams caused the group to gain a new sense of urgency the trio who was doing the carrying increased their strides, causing Brian to wobble dangerously and Riley to yelp.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The group reached the entrance of the cave with the trio tasked with carrying heaving heavily and let Riley and Brian down. This time however the moons have risen hanging right above with no indication of their rising and setting, painted the surrounding forest in shadows giving the forest a renewed sense of foreboding. However with what was most likely a horde of kobolds behind them even with no directions to follow in, the group could only run blindly off into the forest hoping that their remembered the direction they came from correctly. As they finished running through the clearing, the first group of kobolds emerged with that even more swarmed out to search for the culprits responsible in destroying their outpost. Some of the emerging kobolds could be seen casting spells of unknown magics, but right after the spells were finished bright lights shot forth from their fingers and lit up the night.
With the group illuminated in their run the kobolds started swarming to their now easily seen targets. Without the cover of darkness and a giant target on their back, the group could only keep running however the kobolds were fresh and the group had back to back ordeals with nary a rest. Even the best of them in terms of stats Jacob had dragging breaths not to the mentioned 2 Grade 1 and 2 Ungraded, sweat could be seen in large droplets across all their faces as they kept running. The first sign of kobold could be heard in their ear piercing screams as they got closer so do the screams.
Even with all his available strength Jacob could not outrun the kobolds the screams only getting closer, in that moment disaster struck for Jacob as he felt something pulling him back unable to resist the sudden pull. Jacob stumbled back unable to maintain his footing he fell and rolled. Causing him to only hear a shout as he rolled further back into the screaming of the kobolds.
“He stumbled we have no time to help him keep running!”
Jacob was not able to properly register the owner of the shout amidst the tumble and roll. He got up as fast as he could to retrieve Flowing Water that he dropped halfway during the tumble and made to run with no time to deal with the betrayal. Jacob made a choice he dropped down again to roll around the dirt and mud. He could not run faster than the group now and he could not outrun the kobolds too. So his only choice was up, however he had to climb up with Flowing Water this time as even a hilt would be an obvious hint for dull kobolds.