The dragonoid in its death throes turned back towards the duo, the force wrenched Flowing Water away from Jacob while it was still stuck in the dragonoid. Aurelius smoothly extracted his hand along with the turn of the dragonoid, and ducked under the two large tree trunks arms. Jacob was far less fortunate as he was struck by the large arm coming while he was still reacting to the lost of his weapon and staggering towards the dragonoid.

Jacob got flung to his left by the swing, flying a distance away right into the kobold knights and mages who are now leaping into action. He quickly rolled with the force as he landed onto the rocky ground to disperse as much of it as he could, he got himself to a kneeling position when he could force some strength under his legs to hold his position as he skid across the ground, he quickly looked up to survey the surrounding. He winced a little as the pain from the dragonoid flailing caught up to him along with the rolling. He took a quick look at his right arm to see it slightly punched in and already an angry black and blue. He looked back at his surroundings to find the immediate threats.

There was one knight running at him and another 2 moving to help the dragonoid who still had his sword stuck in the chest, Jacob bemoaned his own shortcomings. He should had plunged Flowing Water with all the essence it could handle, he would be in a much better situation if he did. But the mages did not leave him on his ass for long, Jacob heard the mages casting their magic and he avoided the use of his right arm as it was still in pain, only use his left hand as he got up on his feet before they could start waving their now dinghy looking staffs at him.

The knights also lost their shiny looking full body armour, while they still held the same size. They just looked like regular kobold warriors but bigger still easily towering over Jacob but he was much more confident now even without his sword, he could very well just outrun them. Both he and Aurelius had gotten the dragonoid half way to its coffin, so he needed to give Aurelius the best chance possible to finish the job and send it to the afterlife fully.

Jacob took a breath as he decided to give his crystalised core a proper trial run now, he willed essence to power his entire body. The essence came out roaring from the crystalised core with the image of a wooden staff floating in the middle and filled his entire body, from his limbs to the tiniest pores. Jacob felt sublime even the pain in his right arm was dulling in real time, he smirked as he made a beeline for the mages.

‘Aurelius had this going for him all this time? His been holding back on the goodies, I wonder what else the Suzerian did not mention and what other things I can achieve. Bet that golden giant did not even need my help with that giant marble statue.’ Jacob thought as he effortlessly ran in between the kobold warrior before it could slice at him with its sword, the shield still kept close to its body was brought down to stop his advance way too late.

As Jacob was already a few meters behind it and making a mad dash for the mages, the kobold knight roared in impotent rage as it turned back to run after Jacob. Jacob had more obstacles to face before he got to his objective, mainly the attention of all four kobold mages now. A black wave came blasting out from one, 4 black bolts out of another, 4 blue bolts for the third kobold mages and the final kobold mage was still waving its staff while chanting at Jacob. He sure hoped he did not have to wave around the staff whispering weird chants when he starts learning the forms of power.

He gave a defiant roar as he leapt over the incoming wave, suddenly rows of text came up to his eyes as 8 bolts of black and blue was still coming for him. He finally unlocked a skill and it was with the worst timing possible.

[ Progress for Squire’s determination has been Completed]

[ To fight in the face of danger is the duty of a Squire]

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

[ You and your surrounding allies will have an increase in strength and endurance]

[ +15 to Strength and +10 to Endurance for a period of time when activated]

Jacob felt his body gain an additional strength as he was caught in the chest and stomach by a bolt of black and than blue respectively. Throwing him to the floor once again, hit by both pain and excitement as he ran a hand across the injured spots for a quick check. He felt slight wetness from both wounds, confirming that he was bleeding from both. He left the wounds alone as he got himself up, before the noises from behind him got any louder only to see a giant ball of ice twice the size of Jacob forming in real time.

He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could and decided to run straight at the giant ball of ice, if his insane thoughts worked out. Jacob would have one less enemy to deal with, believing in his new found powers Jacob continued running headlong into the ball of ice that was now flying towards him at speed.

He flooded his legs with as much essence as he could as he made the leap onwards and upwards. The giant ball of ice flew underneath him, tickling his leg and non-existent leg hair with the cold. He quickly brought his legs upward in a forward roll before his skin got scrapped away from existence by the cold, he landed with his knees due to his inexperience. He continued his roll so that he could reduce the impact even if his landing started scrapping against his skin, Jacob believed that the normal rock would have a much lesser impact than the magical giant ball of ice he just avoided.

His belief was well founded as he heard an explosion of sounds behind him as he got to his feet from the rolling, the pained screams of the kobold warrior along with the ice being blasted apart mixed together to form a pleasing symphony to Jacob. He was that much closer to the kobold mages now and the kobold warrior’s dark blue essence was seen flying to the 4th kobold mage confirming its death.

With only a few meters separating Jacob from the kobold mages, he let loose a savage roar as he channeled all the pain and excitement into his essence enhanced movement. Covering the few meters dodging the panicked bolts of black and blue that all four kobold mages were throwing at him in a few breaths. He went at the first kobold mage positioning it between Jacob and the remaining kobold mages, given how much they looked like regular kobold mages with robes and slightly less shabby staffs. Jacob grabbed hold onto the mage in front of him while the rest were still hesitating to continue casting.

He ripped the staff out of the hands of the kobold mage, he readied himself and lifted the kobold mage with his left arm and hurled the mage at the nearest kobold mage and as soon as he the kobold mage left his grasp. Jacob ran towards a second kobold mage, staff in hand. His grip tightened on the staff as he swung it towards the head of the unprepared kobold mage, the staff shattered on impact with the thick kobold skull. But that was all Jacob needed as he confirmed that the kobold mage was starting to slump down to the ground. A vicious smile could be seen on his face as he went for the last kobold mage. Two loud screeches echoed on his left ear as the previously thrown kobold mage met its intended target.

Not knowing how long the other two mages would take to recover, Jacob decided to quickly finish up the last kobold mage before he went back for the two. His body still felt superb as his essenced infused hand met the last kobold mage right in the middle of its face still in the middle of casting another bolt at him filling his ears with more high pitched screeches. He let the kobold mage have a barrage of fists aiming for its heart, skull and joints. Before he even landed his 7th punch, a trail dark blue essence left the body of the kobold mage entering Aurelius.

Without even realising it, Aurelius started refining the essence as it entered his body replenishing and enriching his crystalised core. Jacob quickly ended his barrage on the 11th punch as he noticed no more screams of pain came out from the kobold mage. He grabbed the staff the kobold mage dropped, this time he used the pointy end of the stick, he ran to the two kobold mages still busy untangling themselves from each other.

He plunged the pointy end through each of their eyeballs feeling the soft squirm of resistance and the screams of pain that the action brought, before fully pushing it in and through any other resistance, one dark blue essence after another entered him as he held onto the stick and went for the kobold mage that he knocked out. This time he ended the life of the unconscious mage quickly. Bleeding but victorious, Jacob looked around for his next fight.

While Jacob was inflicting the kobold mages with as much pain as he could, Riley still stuck under the kobold warrior with the armour disappearing in real time. Riley gave a small smile as the kobold warrior remained distracted, she did a small roll, got up and levied Aura of the Wild against the kobold warrior’s now defenseless face. Sending it reeling and landing on its sides due to the element of surprise.

Riley not letting her chance slip away, blood pumping and adrenaline running Riley jumped up to the sides of the kobold warrior before it could recover and she threw punch after punch at the face of the kobold warrior. She did not know how many punches but as she got down from the battle-high the kobold warrior was not breathing from what she could tell. She quickly got off the kobold warrior and looked towards Aurelius and Jacob just in time to see Aurelius holding Flowing Water in his hand facing off against two kobold knight and the surprisingly still breathing dragonoid.