29 Strange Ore part 2
A Kobold finding a shining object out of the blue was cuter than a panda bear eating bamboo. The Kobold's eyes grew bigger than stars and he had a smiled on his face like it was his first time eating ice cream.
The Kobold looked left and look right to see if anybody else had spotted the treasure but nobody seem to be interested in anything but mining the walls.
Jackpot!!
The look of excitement never left him even when the piece of ore was already in his hands. Further down the hall there was yet another ore ready to be pick up. He put the one in his hands inside a very rustic pouch made out of leather and move forward to pick up the second one. It was Christmas eve as far as the Kobold was concerned and ore kept appearing out of nowhere.
By this point in time, the Kobold had lost all caution and the only thing in his mind was to pick the shiny ore up before it magically disappeared.
The third piece of ore was 10 feet away from him and was resting on the floor to the right side of a left hand turn. When the Kobold bend over to pick up the treasure ... Whoosh! The echo of an object moving rapidly through the air resonated in the tunnels.
Thud... Thud
The Kobold's head rolled a couple of times on the floor and right before the body fell to the floor Rahz move in an was able to catch it.
The body and the head of the Kobold were moved by Rahz towards the outside and the trap was set once more.
The disappearance of the Kobold did not cause any alarm to the other miners but it didn't go unnoticed by the one responsible for their work.
"Screech...Screech"
The Rock Thrower asked the miner that was suppose to be working beside the one missing but it only shrug his shoulders and kept on working.
There was no other option for the supervisor but to look for the Kobold himself. The rock thrower sighed and went down the tunnel.
There was no need to leave a trail of bread crumbs for the second creature. If Everything went as predicted, the one coming to check on his friend should be the Rock Thrower. Rahz decided to leave one piece of ore on the right side of the curve as before and set himself to the other side of the curve ready to strike.
Seeing a piece of ore on the floor made the Rock Thrower extremely happy. With nobody around, the ore on the floor was his. With a smile on his face and thinking it was the luckiest day in his life, the Kobold bent over to pick up the precious treasure.
Swoosh!
Thud... Thud
A second head rolled on the floor and the strategy proof successful once more. With a successful plan concocted, Rahz kept luring Kobolds to their deaths until there were none left in the hall.
"Yahoooo!"
Laying in the middle of the hall inside a made up sack were the gains for the day. Rahz smile went from ear to ear when he counted how many pieces there were.
"80 pieces! Whoa! This whole room gave me more ore than what I got just killing the groups outside. WHO KNEW!!"
The gains of the first room caused Rahz to go for broke and move further down the tunnels. If he could get two more juicy rooms like the one before, he wouldn't need to worry about not having enough to buy something nice during his trip.
Rahz went down the tunnel with a big smile on his face and although he wanted to hum a tune he stopped himself in time. The sound of pickaxes hitting walls quickly reached Rahz's ears and his eyes lit up, this time the sound came in faster waves.
Rahz moved forward very carefully and managed to arrived by the entrance of another room. This time, the room seemed to open to the left side of the tunnel and there were Rock Thrower along the main road looking for intruders.
Rahz laid Mr. Choppy against one of the walls and pulled out the knife his dad had given him before.
Rahz waited patiently for one of the patrolling Kobolds to move away and then approach the other very...very silently from behind. Rahz was not an expert in the knife arts so he grabbed the handle like an ice pick.
When he was three feet away from the Rock Thrower, Rahz burst with speed and with his left hand kept the muzzle of the Kobold shut while his right hand went to town.
Stab.. Stab... Stab
The Kobold stop struggling and Rahz dragged him back to the upper parts of the tunnel where it was out of sight. The actual entrance to the mining room was a little farther away from the main tunnel so Rahz did not have to worry about the miners hearing what was going on.
After disposing of the patrolling Kobolds Rahz grabbed his Axe and made his way to the room while observing the miners from a distance. Inside the room, there were about 15 miners and in the middle of the room there laid yet another sack full of copper ore.
Rahz used the bread crumbs strategy once more and after an hour of work only 8 of the 15 Kobolds were left.
There were 4 on each side and at a perfect range of a cyclone. Rahz fed enough energy for two spins and then lower his center of gravity.
Woosh!
The bodies of the remaining miners fell to the ground and Rahz proceeded to make his way towards the center of the room where a big pile of ore was waiting for him. Rahz tidy up the room and was about to grab the sack of copper when he heard some noise coming from the door.
Rahz turned around and saw 3 Kobolds standing by the entrance looking dumbfounded. The 3 Kobolds looked at Rahz, and Rahz looked at the Kobolds.
Very slowly Rahz put the sack on the ground and said, "Howdy Fellas".
"Rrrrrrr-ghghghghgh"
The two smaller Kobolds attacked very swiftly with their claws. Instead of blocking with his 2 handed Axe, Rahz roll to the right side to avoid the hit and then swung Mr. choppy upwards cutting the nearest Kobold in two. The second Kobold was quickly dispatched with a horizontal swing that managed to cut his belly very deeply.
Seeing his subordinates died in front of him infuriated the Boss to no end. This particular Kobold was a lot bigger than the others and his fur seem to have a metallic sheen to it that made him shine a little. This was definitely the Elite creature responsible for the rooms Rahz had been stealing from.
The Elite Kobold and the others were doing their daily rounds and came to pick up the production of ore for the day. However, they never thought that they would find all their workers death and a strange looking creature trying to steal their treasure.
Rahz could feel the pressure coming from his opponent and it made his blood boil. He had been looking for a thrill and he was sure the creature in front of him would provided it.
The Elite Kobold main weapons were his pair of claws that had a metallic shine to them. It was clearly a close combat attacker with amazing attack and defense.
Rahz was the first one to make a move. He dash towards the Kobold and did a 1 handed horizontal swing with his Axe trying to make his opponent jump back in order to follow with a 2 handed devastating blow.
The swing came but the reaction of the Kobold was not what Rahz expected. Instead of jumping backwards, It covered his arm with energy and block the Axe in the most natural way. The Kobold counter attack with a swipe to the abdomen that was now unprotected and force Rahz to jump backwards.
The claws of the the Kobold missed the target but the hair on the back of its hand managed to rub against Rahz leather vest and scratch it. Rahz looked down and saw a few white marks on his armor that made him sweat a little bit.
Rahz bobbed and weaved in between the attacks and block when he had to. Sometimes, patches of fur rubbed against parts of his body and whatever was not protected was shaved of.
The Kobold was relentless, after seeing the wounds his fur was leaving on his opponent, it knew that he had the advantage in very close quarters.
Rahz was being suppressed every step of the way. The distance between his opponent and him was not enough to swing his 2 handed Axe, and the fur on the Kobold also eliminated his hand to hand combat. It was not good, the probing swing had cost him dearly.
Rahz kept getting scraps of skin shave off by the Kobold but his body secreted endorphins reducing his pain perception. Despite everything that was happening Rahz never lost his calm, He kept looking at his opponent trying to find a flaw that he could exploit.
" It is very difficult to strike any part of its body to gain some distance, every part is cover in fur except for...."
A smile appeared in Rahz's face as he grasped the way to achieved victory. Rahz left an opening close to his right rib cage on purpose trying to fish for an opportunity to decide the fight.
The opportunity came pretty quickly, the Kobold launched a left swipe to Rahz's rib cage but instead of jumping back Rahz move forward and to the right avoiding the fatal attack. With the speed of lightning Rahz took out his knife and stab the Kobold on his left eye.
Arghhhh!
Rahz used this opportunity to get some distance and activated a full Cyclone. Compare to other occasions the first spin did nothing to the belly of the creature, there was barely a white mark on the skin. When the second cut pass through, it was finally able to draw blood.
Argghhh!
The beast couldn' t do much to stop the third spin which sent it tumbling backwards. Instinctively Rahz flew through the air and swung his Axe downwards at the weakest part of the Kobold, Its neck.
Splash!!
Blood spray like a fountain and Rahz could finally take a breather, it was his first time activating Leaping Strike and he already loved it. That feeling of leaping through the air was indescribable.
Rahz quickly clean off the battlefield of anything mildly valuable a prepare to leave before more Kobolds were alerted or came to check on the Elite. Before leaving, Rahz bow to his worthy opponent and in doing so he spotted a necklace hanging around what was left of the severed neck.
Rahz picked it up and took a look. It was a rock the size of a baby's fist that shone different colors depending on how a light source hit it.
"Cool"
Rahz kept the necklace as a memento and hanged it around his own neck before leaving the mine. He had collected a ton of ore and he was sure his parents would be impressed.