It all happened in a blink of an eye. As Krieg violently tackled the short kobold near him, Leona stood up with a fireball erupting from her palms while Luka, Percival, Gregor, Cecile and Charlotte charged in fanning out. The previous group of three kobolds were about to run towards the entrance where they came from before a kobold came flying towards them from up the stairs, knocking all of them down just in time as Leona finished casting her spell.

“-Fireball!”

At first the seemingly harmless baseball sized azure flame was hurled from her hand in an arc that would, if it was a rock, do nothing more than bruise someone. However the moment the sphere touched the ground it violently erupted in a sea of blue flames, igniting fur, leather and other flammable items in the possession of the four kobolds that were caught in the blast.

“Damn-” Gregor recoiled his face in a natural reaction from the sudden heat he felt coming from the spell. “Lady Leona knows how to make a show.”

“Pay attention to your surroundings lieutenant!” Percival shouted as he shot a kobold that was trying to sneak around their flanks. “We got work cut out for us!”

“Hahahaha! It wouldn’t do well for the pride of our city to slack on the job!”

Despite his big size, Gregor was swift with his rifle as kobolds attempted to swarm them but the burly man kept shooting them down one by one. It was like a dance, the gunshots were the music and the soldiers were the actors. Percival and Luka were paying attention to the rear while Gregor used his considerable height to pick off stragglers that he could see in the darkness. Charlotte and Cecile kept in the front as they approached Leona.

Krieg on the other hand, had his longsword unsheathed as he cleaved through kobolds that charged at him. Thanks to Leona’s blue flames igniting cloth, fur and other flammable possessions, a bonfire of corpses was created which illuminated half of the place.

A myriad of growling, howling and whimpering sounds echoed in the dig site. Leona knew it was a matter of time before they regrouped to attack and the shock effect from the ambush would only last so long.

“Krieg!” She shouted. “Come with me!”

He turned his head towards his liege while kicking a kobold in the chest which sent it flying towards the center of the dig site, he wasted no time dashing towards her even grabbing a halberd on the way as he rushed to her side. Leona was taking a big gamble as she unsheathed her own frostburnt silver sword.

Killing the leader would often make other kobolds give up, run away or at the very least scare them enough to give them time to get the prisoners out of there. Though at that point there was no guarantee that their leader would be there.

‘Dammit I can’t see much-’

She was about to cast a fire spell in order to create light but a whistling sound came from somewhere above her before an almost blinding red light suddenly illuminated the whole dig site. Many of the kobolds that were around them had to cover their eyes from it, while it allowed Leona to see the full picture of the place, men of almost all ages and sizes were shackled through their ankles while wielding pickaxes near the farthest wall of stone.

The concave dig site meant there was a deeper portion of it in the middle which would make short work to find at least the one leading the digging effort.

“There!”

Leona shouted as she noticed one well armored kobold by the center of it all, it wielded a large bardiche.

“Leona what should we do?!”

The moment Krieg questioned her something felt off. True, it seemed to be the best outfitted kobold they had seen so far but it wasn’t anything special as Hahzi made it sound like.

“Wait, something’s not right, that is no leader, that one is-”

She was suddenly yanked sideways as Krieg pulled her towards him just in time to parry a greataxe coming towards her. As the weapon was redirected towards a nearby mound of human bones, the sheer strength of the strike made fragments of osseous matter fly in every direction.

A towering kobold stood beside the stalagmite that was big enough for it to hide behind.

“This one certainly looks like the leader.”

Krieg brought his left hand to the handle in order to wield the weapon with both of his hands. Leona instinctively took a step back while her right hand trembled in fear. It was considerably taller than her knight, its bulging muscles hidden by a thick coat of black fur which was even more eerie under the red light. Its snout was covered in scars of previous battles fought with fang and claw, the sharp blood red eyes glaring at them as if they were the next snack of the evening.

‘What… what is that?!’

A cold chill went down her spine, it was a fact that she had fazed far deadlier enemies, but she was never this close to one before.

“Aw… I wanted to eat some crushed female meat.” The kobold was drooling from the side of its maw full of sharp teeth. It was surprisingly capable of human speech, albeit barely comprehensible from the growling. “No matter. Foolish humans that invaded my home, you’ll all serve as fodder for my family!”

It raised the greataxe once again, it was a weapon supposed to be held with both hands but the looming kobold was holding it with only one with sheer strength. That however didn’t intimidate Krieg, as a former Eleonorian knight, he had already fought far more frightening creatures than that one.

He dashed towards the towering foe with a fierce display of swordplay, despite his considerable size for a human, he was quick on his feet and even quicker with his blade as the steel carved through the legs of the monster in front of him.

“Argh!” It grunted in pain as it swung the greataxe down towards Krieg, it barely missed as he rotated around his prey. “Damn you human!”

It took Leona almost half a minute to come to her senses as the fear subsided just enough for her to begin casting another spell.

"Northern winds hearken to me, pierce through my foe, Ice Spear!"

A burst of ice erupted from her hand and an ice lance of about half a meter was launched at a high speed towards the kobold’s back.

“Ugh!” He even took a step forward from the impact, but the wound that would normally kill or at least badly hurt any foe she had fought seemingly didn’t have much of an effect on it. “ENOUGH!”

It let out a deafening roar in anger, the sheer pressure made the dig site tremble.

“Argh! My ears!”

“Ugh!”

Both Leona and Krieg had to cover their ears and during that brief second is when it happened.

"Spirits of earth, engulf mine foe, Stone Blast!"

When she noticed the kobold pointing his left claw at her, her whole body instinctively knew what was about to happen. An orb the size of a marble emitted a faint yellow glow with its color changing slightly to orange around the edges thanks to the red light from the flare.

She recognized from the countless books she read through, summoning magic, another branch of elemental magic that utilized the power of the environment in order to cast spells, by using one’s mana to evoke spirits of the according element it is possible to use elemental magic through them.

‘-this isn’t good!’ She raised her left hand in front of her face while the other curved around her body in an arc as she yelled. “Frost Rampart!”

However despite her shortening the chant, it still was too late as the earth spirit had already created pebbles the size of eggs and began pelting her with it. The first few hit the ice that was forming midway but with one that managed to nick her on the left side of her forehead stopped her spell which allowed the rest of the barrage to violently hit her body. She didn’t even have time to react after being knocked down on her back from the impacts.

“Leona!”

“You’re going nowhere!”

Krieg shouted as he tried to rush past the kobold but to no avail, it blocked his way by slamming the greataxe in front of him.

“Get out of my way!” He swung his blade horizontally in order to hit its fingers but against what Krieg expected, the kobold rushed towards the attack and caught the blade with the wooden axe handle before it could have enough momentum to cut through it, in that brief opening it used its massive weight to kick Krieg down the dig site. “Ngh!”

“Eat dirt, puny human!”

It then turned around to go after Leona who shot it in the back, Krieg stood up and readied his longsword again but other kobolds surrounded him, blocking the path up.

On the upper level, Leona’s vision was still blurry from the attack she had just received.

“A kobold able to use magic…” She turned on her right side and she felt a sharp pain come from her right ribs. “Dammit, you must be kidding me… did I break one?” She reached with her left hand to check herself only to realize her ring and pinky finger were crooked sideways, dislocated from the impact of stones. “Ah… AAHHHHHHHH!”