《Blade of Crom》Dangers of the deep
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The sudden appearance of reinforcements made her somewhat unfocused, as knife and bone tried to get past her reach, spear had taken a somewhat sideways position and stabbed at her with its weapon. The strike didn't hit any of her vital parts or even her non-vital parts put it left a nasty gash on her forearm. Looking at the weapon the wound would definitely need to be cured of any lingering diseases the weapon might have inflicted.
Matthew joined her at the front line. He positioned himself between knife and bone so Nalia could focus on the one on one with spear. His shield could block it but his sword reach would make it a stalemate. So the best option was to have the two long weapon wielders duke it out while he held the two short ranged ones at bay.
No sooner had he positioned himself or the heavy bone weapon came sailing through the air aimed at his head. He raised his shield to block the attack and was promptly pushed back. His arm felt numb from the far heavier blow than he was expecting the creature would have. Knife went in for a strike on his other flank while he was still recovering from the blow. He easily deflected this far cruder attack with his sword.
It let out a defying roar followed by a scream of pain. A red glowing rock had ht the creature right in the side of its head while it was taunting. With all the fighters focussed on the melee, Jared had set down the torch and was using his sling to chuck rocks at the kobolds. He first placed the rock inside the with steel reinforced pocket of the sling. By channeling a small amount of his fire magic into the rock it would heat up rapidly, so in addition to the blunt force impact from the rock it would also deal minor fire damage to his targets. It's his own special attack he dubbed, Magma Bullets.
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With the creature bent over holding his now seared scalp Matthew went in with a horizontal slash at the creature. It twisted its body to avoid the blade cutting his head clean of its shoulders, but this exposed it's back and the blade hit true. Leaving a long gash on the creatures back it slunk away behind its bone wielding companion.
Seeing his fellow kobold get smacked around like that it went into a fit of rage. It slammed the bone on the ground a few times screaming at Matthew pumping itself up with rage.
Jared threw another bullet to the creature but that got deflected by the bone club, and the creature lunged itself forward. He braced himself for the impact of the heavy weapon and took a shield stance to try and absorb as much of the impact into the ground and not his joints. He dropped his sword and gripped the second strap on his shield and dropped to one knee. "Shield Wall" he quietly whispered as if to empower his defense. The heavy strike impacted his shield head on and the impact send a shock through all of his bones. The hyped up swing had a lot more impact than the first one unleashed by the creature.
All he could do was wither the storm of heavy blows the creature was landing on his shield. Jared threw two more bullets but the creature shrugged them of since they didn't hit any important part of it's body. It raised the bone high above its head coming in for a long arced hit. Matthew needed to move and avoid this hit, even if his shield could probably take the attack, his body surely wouldn't.
Seeing his bullets have no impact Jared resorted to conjuring an actual flame with his magic. The damage would be minimal, but he hoped it would at least let up the relentless assault the creature was unleashing on his friend. He never finished the spell. At the apex of the creatures swing a silver reflecting shot through the air.
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Nalia's spear punctured the creature in its very exposed armpit. The spear tip met minimal resistance and punctured the creatures' heart. The bone fell from it limp hands and onto the ground with a heavy thud. It tried to scream out in pain but only managed the spit out blood as it leaked from its heart into his lungs. It took a staggering step forward and then collapsed on its knees. Only the angle and impalement of the spear keeping it from falling over.
The spear wielding goblin was slumped again the cave wall. Each hand clutching one half of its weapon with a long vertical gash across its chest and belly. Nalia had launched an overhead attack more akin to a club strike than a swipe or stab from a spear. The creature tried to block it with the shaft of his own spear which proved far too flimsy to block her strike. Both shafts collided and the creatures shaft broke into two and the spear blade cut deep into its flesh.
The knife kobold had tried to crawl away from his attackers after hiding behind bone but it only got few feet far. Shallow breaths were gasping for air as the strike on it's back had hit an artery and it was bleeding out on the cave floor. It took a deep long breath its eyes twitching in its skull. It tried to inhale again in short huffs and stopped moving as the lack of blood couldn't sustain its body anymore.
The band sighed in unison. This battle was more taxing than they had expected. Instead of only one creature they ran into a group of them instead. Jared picked up the torch and walked over to his companions. Matthew dropped his shield and sat down, rubbing his aching muscles.
Nalia put her foot again the creatures should and pulled out her spear. Her hands trembled as she did so. They had killed animals before but nothing compared to actually killing a creature in an actual fight for life and death. She tried to steady her hands and sat down next to Matthew.
Jared pulled out a vial with a purple colored liquid and a rag from his backpack. He applied the liquid to the rag and grabbed Nalia's arm. She winched as he rubbed the cloth across the gash on her arm. Normally she'd use her healing magic to clean the wound but that wasn't possible with her shaking hands. So he applied some of his lesser potion of clear disease instead. This potion was one of his own creations. He had mixed in parts of the ingredients for the lesser healing potion as well. The wound already looked better as the healing components slowly mended her flesh as well as clear any diseases left behind by the filth on the crude spear that had hit her.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes overlooking the battlefield in front of them. It was a hard fought battle, but they cleared their own quest in the end. The creature living here was dead, even if it turned out to be three creatures instead.
Nalia cast a fortitude spell on Matthew to help out with his arching muscles. He instantly felts some swelling and soreness being removed as the warm light and touch of Nalia washed over him. They picked up their gear ready to leave this place behind. They had done enough adventuring for the next couple of months at least having survived this ordeal. Jared grabbed the torch and turned around to face the tunnel they entered from. Instead of facing the darkness on the tunnel he faced a pair of eyes in the darkness instead.
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