《Kobold Expansion》Chapter 39: Almost the end
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Edmund punches his father in the chest. “You have damned us!” he screams at his father. “I only wanted to see my son safe, you can’t discredit a father for that.”
“I fucking can. I was safe in his prison. I would have happily sat there for life if it meant that Anon would forgive me for my betrayal. Now look!“ Edmund pointed to the two distant mountains. Smoke rose from them and from the forests around them like a volcanic eruption. “We are dead. Every human in this city is a dead man walking.”
“Which is why we are teleporting to the king’s throne room immediately. There is a small town on the other side of the country he needs me to rule.”
Edmund lowers his hands. This was his dad’s plan from all along. He looks at his dad with disgust. “Go then.”
Edmund turns to leave. Grabbing Kan off the ground.
“Take me away from here.” Kan, too exhausted for this shit just agrees and flies him away.
I landed in the same spot where we held the peace meeting before. The sloth human, leader of the tree dwellers was already in one of the now rotten meeting seats. “The tree dwellers had nothing to do with it. Look elsewhere.” I looked at him, he knew about it. Even if what he said is true….
Should I say that he should have stopped it?
No, if I speak then I will let my anger out. I need that anger. I need to well it up inside me and never let it out. I breath out black fire onto him, spraying it to the forest around me. The fire jumps through the thick jungle, it spreads quickly. I watch it get out of control. When It starts to burn the houses I leave. The fire will spread forever. Until it is put out with water magic or contain it with a fire ditch. Either way. I’ll fly over later and spray the not burning areas with more fire.
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I make circles flying greater distances to lay down paths of fire. I take into account natural fire lines and rivers and pay extra attention to getting the other side of them to burn. I’ve been doing this for a few hours. I started at my first home. It is in the center between the two people who I want to die first. The humans and the demihumans.
[Levelup! You have reached the maximum level for this evolution. Choose an evolution path.]
Odd. I had been ignoring the constant level ups that keep coming to me as the fire burns people and animals alive. I didn’t think that I’d reach evolution this quickly.
I pull up my options. It’s almost a nostalgic feeling.
[Dracolich- A dragon who has forsaken the living. Flesh slowly rots away leaving only a skeleton. They live forever because they are undead. Allows the resurrection of godlike amounts of undead soldiers.]
Oh, I could resurrect my kobolds. They’d be skeletons, but if they keep their minds then - The undead are hollow husks. Oh well thanks Eris. That won’t do then. I haven't snapped. I’m not going to parade the corpses of my friends around like they are still alive.
[Astral dragon- Are dragons who have taken the first steps to becoming gods. They gain access to the astral plane, but the gods in that plane also gain access to them.]
The hell does that mean? It means the gods can fuck with you directly. The rules are that the gods can not directly influence the world. They can only do half way fucky things like summon heroes or bless paladins. That is the first step to becoming a god? You’ll be stomped at your current level. Helios would see you and slap you down easily. You should train your resistances first. Thanks Eris. I say for the first time without a hint of sarcasm.
[King black dragon- Ruler of the black dragons. With black dragons being physically the strongest and the king being the strongest of the black dragons the king black dragon is second in strength only to the dragon gods.]
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I obviously take King black dragon. The egg forms around me and when I emerge I’m larger. Like, I can fit two school busses in my mouth, large. It only takes a few flaps of my wings before I’m in the clouds. My fire breath is the same. The heat from it is hotter. It reaches the walls of the Baron’s city. There are many wizards on the ramparts spamming water magic down at the black flames. I shrug. Perhaps I should say hi to the baron before I burn his town to ashe.
I land on the stage he set up for me. Now it is too small. My massive weight crashes it down. I don’t announce my presence. I wait for someone to greet me but no one comes. “Baron.” I call out. My voice scares me. It’s deeper than it was before. I now sound like an actually evil dragon. It’s deep and vibrates in strange ways that make my ear drums rattle. The baron doesn’t show. I place a claw through a window and lift the roof of his mansion away. I drop the rubble and look at the second floor. He isn’t in any of the rooms. I smash it and check the ground floor. It’s empty too.
“He fled.” Someone shouts. I look around. Edmund stands there. He looks like he has been crying. “You should have fled with him.”
He nods. “I wanted to calm you, to beg you to save this city from your wraith.”
I looked at the defeated man. “You’re a good human. I forgive you for your assassination attempt. It doesn’t seem like something you wanted to do.”
He nods. “Can you please save this city? For my sake, please!”
I look at the sky. “Edmund. You are a fine example of a human. Probably one of the best. You stay rational, you are empathetic, you put your country before yourself almost exclusively, not until your whole world was about to end did I see your stony face break.” I sigh. “You are the highest that humanity can offer and even you betrayed me.” Edmund recoils like he was just shot. His betrayal was what set this all in motion. “I’d like to spare this city, but Edmund. I’m not even sparing you, how can I spare a city of people who are less than you?” He begins to cry. I dry his tears with my fire breath. The intensity of the close heat instantly turning him to ash. I let my breath go wild. I place my fire upon all parts of the city that I can. When the screams get too loud I fly upwards and rain fire down from there. For the mages who are creating water. I prepare an air cutter spell in my hand. I chuck it down at the ramparts. The sheer size of my magic surprises me. It cuts through the ramparts and leaves a deep scar in the ground. The sudden rush of compacted oxygen in the air blade explodes, the fire catches the source of oxygen and blows back up towards me in a spectacular explosion like pillar. I take out the rest of the mages and return to my first home. The black flames do not burn my scales as I enter. I lay down in them. Then flames jump to my scales staying lit upon my magic. This cave barely holds me anymore, but today has been long and I am tired.
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