Vennoa the Half-Elf Sorcerer

Chapter 17

"Spread out!" Pua yelled, darting in one direction. The rest of them followed suit in other directions.

Vennoa shot a firebolt at one of the flying kobolds, but it went too far to the side and hit nothing. Fender had quickly loaded her crossbow and fired, and gave a whoop as she hit the other flying kobold. However, even with the bolt sticking out of its leg, it continued flying towards them.

Vennoa steadied her aim to fire again, but was pushed to the side by Agate. She harshly turned to him to yell at him, but saw another kobold, a regular one, slash a dagger where she was standing. It must have ambushed her while her attention was focused at the sky.

Vennoa gave a nod of thanks to Agate, and drew her own dagger to engage the kobold. Agate turned and headed off towards other kobolds that had appeared around them. Vennoa did a quick scan and found around ten kobolds, excluding the two in the air. This time, she didn't see any armored kobold or goblin leading them.

Something was different about this fight compared to the other ones. For one, the kobolds were noisy. They constantly chattered at each other in a harsh-sounding language, and Vennoa could somehow almost understand what they were saying. Perhaps it was their body language and gestures, but it was clear to her that they were discussing tactics to overwhelm the party.

No such luck today for you! Vennoa smirked, and slashed the dagger across the chest of the kobold attacking her. The kobold tried to dodge, but was still hit on its side. It was wearing a leather tunic of some kind, and Vennoa's slash cut it loose. Vennoa could make out some scaly and black on the shoulder of the kobold.

The kobold counterattacked, but Vennoa was ready this time. She was not a stranger to dagger fights, not after surviving on the streets as long as she had. She easily stepped to the side, and pulled the kobold in the direction of its swing. At the same time, she swung her dagger down and stabbed the kobold from behind, right where its heart should be. The kobold choked on its blood and fell to the ground, blood pooling out of its mouth.

Vennoa looked around again. The party seemed to be holding its own. She could make out a number of kobold bodies around them, and everyone seemed unscathed. She checked the air, and saw a flying kobold retreating. Fender fired her crossbow at it but it missed. Vennoa took aim and shot her firebolt. This time, the firebolt hit the kobold on its back. It must have been already previously injured, since even though the firebolt didn't appear to do too much damage, the kobold fell straight from the sky like the rock it had been carrying before.

"Looks like that's the last of them," Pua said as he spit on one of the kobold corpses. "Where did they come from, anyway?"

"The man did mention that this area had kobolds and goblins. Perhaps this was a patrol of some sort," Agate said, holding his arm. One of the kobolds must have slashed him.

"Hey, look what I found!" Fender called out.

They gathered around her, and Fender had torn open one of the kobold's tunics. On its right shoulder was an armor of some sort. It looked like a single large scale. It was shiny and black, and even seemed to shimmer with the light. Fender took out her dagger and tried to score the scale, but her dagger didn't leave a scratch.

"That looks like a dragon's scale," Pua remarked.

Fender looked up and saw the blood dripping from Agate's arm. "Oh no, you're bleeding. Here, let me help."

Fender closed her eyes and mumbled some words. A warm glow surrounded her, which then transferred over to Agate. Agate's wound closed itself and soon, there was not even a scar remaining.

"You have healing magic?" Vennoa exclaimed.

"Well, yes," Fender started. "Just the basics."

"How could you let Tempest die?" Vennoa yelled.

"I was out of spells!" Fender shouted back, tears welling up in her eyes too. "Do you think I wanted it to happen?"

"Keep it down, you two," Pua said. "If there were any other kobolds around, surely they know where we are now. We need to move."

"Fine," Vennoa huffed and crossed her arms, refusing to look at Fender. She turned and followed Pua's lead.

Agate gave a look of sympathy to Fender, and both of them walked together at the back of the party.

The party walked on, and soon they saw a gravel trail leading up the mountain. At this point, there were almost no more trees around them, so there was no more cover for them. But at the same time, there was no cover for would-be ambushers either. Everyone remained alert as they walked up the trail.

"What's that?" Fender said and pointed up the trail.

There was a humanoid body laying on the ground, with a spear sticking out of its body. Pieces of paper were scattered around the body.

"Could it be?" Fender asked as she ran over.

"Wait, it could be a trap," Agate yelled as he joined her.

It wasn't a trap. Or if it was, the trap had already been sprung. The body belonged to an Elf man, so it wasn't Veldran, the wife of the man they had met. Vennoa looked impatient and wanted to move on, but Fender stopped to gather the pieces of paper. Agate and Pua kept watch of the surroundings.

"Looks like he was also searching for the Dwarven Fort," Fender explained. "His notes talk about the Dwarven Fort, but it doesn't sound like he found it. At least not from these notes."

"Then he's useless," Vennoa said. "Let's go."

Fender put the pile of papers into her pack quickly, not wanting to get into another argument with Vennoa. The party continued on their journey up the mountain.