“Look alive, my minions,” the Kobold King hissed. “Time to teach these humans a lesson in humility.”

“Attack!”

Kobolds rushed forward towards our front line, brandishing makeshift spears, daggers, and slings. They were equipped with ragged leather armor tied with bits of metal.

“Shield formation!” yelled Isaac.

Clunk, clunk.

The regiment’s heavy shield users formed a protective barrier in front, creating some space for the archers to fire. A few kobold archers armed with rickety bows began to return fire.

I equipped my oaktree longbow and notched an arrow, and Books did the same. We weren’t technically archers so we didn’t have any of the class benefits to ranged attacks and bows, but it was a way to deal damage from safety. Neither of us wanted to die in this high penalty death zone.

[2 damage]

[3 damage]

As expected, my arrows weren’t doing much.

Surprisingly, the eye patched commander was leading on the front line with his ornate rapier, parrying blows from kobolds while skewering them. He was a powerful grizzled veteran.

Several Kobold Commanders and the Kobold King crashed body first into our shield line, breaking the defensive formation. I briefly saw Aeric in the midst of the clash, holding up his dented steel square shield against two kobolds.

It was clear that the kobolds were trying to get to our backline. Shield bearing tanks were just not worth it for them to take down because they didn’t do much damage and were too tanky to bring down quickly. The real threats were the archers, mages, and warriors.

Kobolds that got past the tank line were immediately met by a wall of warriors, including myself. Although I would’ve liked to stand with the archers, I was considered a warrior class and so had to be positioned with them within the formation.

Two kobolds got close to me. Putting away my oaktree long longbow, I summoned love whip and lashed at them, dealing about a quarter of their health each hit when I connected directly with an unarmored part of their body, and only about one eighth when I hit the metal parts of their leather armor. Yeah, monsters in Jagged Dorsa were strong as hell. And if they took this little damage, I wouldn’t be surprised if they could chunk me for more than half my hp.

I fought while backing off and trying to let the other warriors take aggro. To my right, Books was also fighting carefully. He had permission to move between the formation because of his role as a support-front liner, almost like a field medic.

“Rally!”

One of the warriors, a farmer that looked rather emaciated, was struck down by a Kobold Commander.

There was a clear difference in combat strength between the officers and our regular soldiers. Each officer was at least level 90 and professionally trained, while the foot soldiers were fresh recruits of variable combat prowess.

Despite that, there were a few standouts among the foot soldiers. Donovan in particular fought like a massive bear, combining years of advanced judo training with a [Juggernaut] class that further enhanced his capabilities.

The kobolds were now within the warrior lines. Our archers now had to fire at the kobolds at the back to avoid friendly fire.

“INCOMING!!!”

“Get out of the way!”

Barak, the mage from the commander’s retinue, just finished his incantation for [Meteor].

We scrambled to get out of the way of the spell’s line of fire as we practiced during boot camp. The harsh training was starting to make a lot more sense now.

Molten rock coalesced into a compact orb in front of Barak’s hand, forming a far deadlier version of the basic [Fireball] spell. Then, with a resounding bang, it fired forwards into the line of soldiers that was still parting to the sides.

“GAHHHHHHHH!”

The meteor tore the arm off a human archer that couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, seared several kobolds in its path, and hit both a Kobold Commander and the warrior it had wrestled to the ground. The spell did more than seventy percent of the Kobold Commander’s health in one hit, and instantly killed the human warrior it was fighting with.

If that wasn’t a wake up call, I don’t know what was. I needed to stay the hell away from Barak’s line of sight, even while fighting. I took a look at him–Barak was downing a large mana potion and panting, showing that even for a level 100 mage, casting Meteor was not an easy feat.

“Summon cat.”

Meat Shield appeared and landed on my head.

“Try to farm some experience, but stay safe.”

“Okay~” she said, launching from my head at the nearest kobold that was fighting with a pickaxe.

I also wanted to get some kills under my belt and hit that elusive level 30. Brandishing love whip, I lashed a cheap shot at a kobold that was attacking another warrior. Most importantly, I made sure to keep clear of Barak and the Kobold Commanders.

Crack.

The kobold lifted its pickaxe and swung at the warrior it was fighting, giving me the chance to get in another hit in its back.

Thwack.

You have slain a kobold.

You have gained experience.

You have earned 27 silver.

The kobolds gave a very decent amount of experience, even after being shared with other combatants. The experience and loot rewards in Jagged Dorsa were higher than normal, encouraging players to risk their lives in a high death penalty zone.

I managed to take down a few more kobolds with the help of other warriors and backline support. The kobolds were tough enemies, but we weren’t facing them as a small party of adventurers–our sheer numbers were formidable, and we had high level officers as well.

We didn’t have enough healers to cover all the warriors, and the health bars on some soldiers fell rather low. Also, heals didn’t have infinite range, which meant that the healers had to sometimes stand dangerously close to the front line.

I managed to kill a few more kobolds without taking any damage myself. Currently I was able to avoid the Kobold Commanders, and fighting the kobolds at my pace was manageable.

You have slain a kobold.

You have slain a kobold.

You have slain a kobold.

You have slain a kobold.

You have slain a kobold.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

Nice, level 27. Just a few more levels till 30. I noticed that my soul count was also going up. If I kept this up for a few months I’d be able to purchase something from the dimension shop.

The Kobold King was now engaged by several officers and the commander himself. It wasn’t alone, though, as two of its Kobold Commanders and numerous regular kobolds were by its side.

Felix happened to be fighting near them. He dashed behind a kobold and activated [Backstab], dealing a third of its health, but got clipped on the shoulder by a spear thrust. Another warrior swung at the kobold that attacked him.

This fight was so absurd. Usually monsters like kobolds had the numbers advantage, but somehow we were managing to outnumber the kobolds two to one in every single small skirmish. This was the power of a real army.

Even late game guilds would have trouble putting together hundreds of players at once, but the Imperial Court just snapped its fingers and sent over a thousand soldiers halfway across the known world into a death zone without a second thought.

I swung my whip at another kobold, lashing it right in the face.

“Cone of Cold!” shouted a voice from behind me.

I felt a chill spread across my body as I began to have trouble moving. My arm froze in a cocked back position, right when I was about to kill that kobold right in front of me.

I looked back. It was a young boy mage, about fourteen years old. He probably didn’t know any better, but hell did he almost get me killed. Luckily the kobold I was fighting was also frozen, and I defrosted a second later, killing the still frozen kobold.

You have leveled up.

“Nnngh,” commander Isaac grunted as he was struck in the stomach by the butt of the Kobold King’s cleaver.

The messy fight between the commander, the Kobold King, and their respective personal guards was coming towards me.

---------------

“Oooooh, another one bites the dust!” Harden the lead scientist cheered, much to the dismay of some others in the room. “That’s fifteen points you owe me Scott!”

The Eclipse headquarters office workers had reached a whole new level of sports betting around the fourth regiment’s survival rates. They were now doing live bets on players they thought would live or die in the next ten minutes.

Scott, the head of engineering, shook his head in disappointment. “Can’t believe it. I thought that Felix guy would die first.”

“Jesus, would you look at the size of that thing!” Tim said excitedly, looking at the massive Kobold King. “How many soldiers do you reckon that one’s gonna kill?”

“At least ten soldiers,” Harden said confidently. “Ten in the next ten minutes.”

“I say five in the next ten minutes,” another office worker answered.

“Oh? Twenty points and I’ll take your bet,” Harden replied.

“Deal.”

--------------

[-39 health]

Health: 157/332

My 107 physical defense and 108 vitality gave me just enough bulk to be relatively tanky, and the iron platebody armor set with its +90 physical defense and vitality was doing its job.

However, I was getting hit more often because of the inherent weakness of heavy armor. Luckily it didn’t matter too much because I had comrades to my left and right drawing aggro as well.

What did bother me was how hard it was to get a heal from the damn healers. Since we were engaged near the frontline, most of the healers didn’t dare come close enough to actually heal us.

Clank.

“You fight well, human…” the Kobold King said with its deep voice to the commander.

Sparks flew between them as metal clashed with metal. Remarkably, the commander’s rapier’s thin blade remained unbent while the Kobold King’s cleaver was getting dented. It must have been made from a rare metal to be able to stand up to that kind of punishment.

Another meteor soared past the battlefield and sank into a Kobold Commander’s torso, bringing it down to red health. It really did take a while to set up high level magic, including both the cooldown of the spell and the cast time.

Dust filled the cavern from the impact of the meteor, and I took advantage of the lack of visibility as a way to conceal the mage spell I was about to use. I ran towards the Kobold Commander and grabbed it by the arm as it reeled from the meteor shock. Thankfully, I remembered to turn off my stream before the fight, anticipating that I might need to do this.

“Thunderbolt.”

[-38 health]

[671 damage]

Health: 119/332

For fucks sake, I needed a heal now.

You have slain a Kobold Commander.

You have gained silver.

Kobold Commander has dropped a Grieved Warhammer.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

I finally hit level 30.

[Due to advancement to level 30, you have gained a new class ability.]

[You have learned Theft.]

[You have learned Pickpocket.]

From reading the description of the two abilities, they seemed like regular thief skills. Pretty good, but not for right now. I needed to concentrate on the fight at hand.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Books downing a grey colored potion. It was a Potion of Giant, his best possible potion drop in the [Potioneering] loot table.

Books swelled to several meters tall, and grabbed a kobold with his bare hands, crushing it in his fist. He now had a health bar of [Health: 2042/2174] and dramatically increased physical defense and vitality. Rose and Donovan’s eyes were wide with shock seeing the Merchant of Avarice’s true combat potential unleashed. They were so used to seeing him perform medic duties as a relatively squishy front liner, that seeing him now as a golem of destruction was awe inspiring.

The new giant Books also gained the attention of the Kobold King and commander Isaac’s officers. Books didn’t care though, as he lumbered his way towards the Kobold King.

This was an opportunity. I ran alongside Books, heading straight for the Kobold King, my left hand pulsating with energy.