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Goblin Chapter 279: Sun Rises
🕑 Added 2025-10-24 09:16:17 +0000 UTCThe point of light appeared so abruptly that every kobold who saw it froze in confusion. A prickle of dread told them they ought to do somethingâbut they hesitated.
In that heartbeat, the fingertip-sized spark began gulping mana from the air.
Vmm!
Wind rolled as the air was drawn in; mana siphoned into the core like kindling crammed into a furnace. The spark brightened, brighter still. Heat climbed fast, almost unnoticedâuntil a few kobolds, sensing wrongness, turned to run.
Too late.
Once gorged on mana, the fireball showed its teeth. It swelled exponentiallyâin a blink from a few times larger to hundreds, then thousands.
BOOM!!!
A blazing miniature sun, bright enough to sear eyes blind, rose in the dark, enclosed hollow. Fire devoured everything it touched. A shockwave hammered outward, wrapped in a scalding wind.
The nearest kobolds were first. The irresistible force slammed them into the packed earth; their scales burst, exposing raw, red meat; flesh, unable to stand the kinetic blow, peeled from bone like tofu. Flames roasted meat and blood as white smoke curled up, the smell of burned protein spreading.
In the time of a single breath, bounding kobolds became rows of hard, blackened sticks.
Fire rolled on.
WHUMP!!!
It hit the heaps of fuel stacked by the forges. The tsunami of flame surged higher. The blast rattled the cavern itself.
Thunkâthunkâthunk!
High overhead, massive stalactites cracked and fell with a grinding roar. Roaring flame, brutal shock, falling stoneâlayered disaster turned an orderly precinct into hell in an instant.
From a godâs-eye view, it was as if an invisible mallet had swept the ground clean. Kobolds powdered, those farther out were hurled into walls; stone huts and sheds tore like paper; debris caught in the shockwave became deadly shrapnel, multiplying the kill.
At least two hundred common kobolds died in the first instant. Even elite warriors couldnât bear that tier of strikeâflung like rags, hearts ruptured mid-flight. Only a few above Level 3 clung to life, charred and twitching. Many were wounded or unconscious. Those unscathed by the wave went blind with panicâbolting like headless flies.
âŚ
Deep in the nest, atop the earthen mound, the red-blooded drake cradled its new fire crystal with delight. Not a true dragon, but instinct loved shiny treasures. Beside it, the kobold shaman knelt abjectly.
The ground lurched. The blast thundered in its ears.
BOOM!!!
Peace shattered. The pile of âtreasuresââtrinkets and real valuables mixedâslid and clattered down the slope. The drake steadied, eyes flashing from lazy to enraged.
ROAR!!!!
Dragonfear slammed down; kobolds dropped to their knees, trembling like sieves.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Wings beat; the drake floated up. It stared toward the tumultânothing but a sea of fire. Its golden pupils pinched to slits. Cosseted for too long in this narrow underworld, it had come to regard everything here as its own. For an enemy to ruin its property so brazenly wasnât mere harassmentâit was a declaration of war.
A few wingbeats took it over the inferno. It roared again, anger almost tangible, like flame ready to spill from its throat.
Who did this?!
Its eyes raked the blast zone, hunting a hint of the foe. Find them, and it would drop and pulp them in the cruelest way.
Butâno one. Only kobolds screaming.
Its mood soured. The gaze went cold. The jaw opened. Heat gathered deep. A cone of fire vomited forth. Vmmmâ In a sweep of its head, the writhing kobolds below fell still and silent.
A brief vent. Calm returned. It circled, searching. It would drag the intruder into the light.
After it moved off, the shamans arrived, barking ordersâscour everything. Their first duty was to find the enemy, soothe the âkingâsâ rage.
As for the woundedâirrelevant. Even though the âdragonâ had just burnt many of them, the sight of its shadow overhead traded fear for savage fervor. Worship woven into blood didnât waver. Weapons rose; squads fanned out like an angry swarm. The quiet nest became a volcano.
âŚ
A shadow skimmed the ground and stopped hard at Aliaâs feet. It rose, condensing into two formsâShadow and Gauss.
âHahââ
Gauss let out a breath. Heâd poured everything into that Fireball, and Sword Soul had laced it with extra bite. The cost had been heavyâmana and stamina bothâbut Shadow had been ready; the moment it flashed, she pulled him out.
Now his [Special Stomach] was feeding the second bar back into him, and he downed a prepared powder. Between them, mana would rebound fastâand the crystal powder would refill the âsecond bar.â
He exhaled, heart steadying as energy filled. Time to check the harvest.
âKobolds Slain Ă265.â
The counter kept tickingâmany had only just stopped breathing. He guessed it would crest past three hundred. More than heâd hoped. In a sealed space, Fireball was obsceneânot just the spell, but the chain of collapses it triggered.
âTotal Monster Kills: 6,271.â
He closed that window. The job had only begun.
âWhat now?â Alia asked. Sheâd heard the blastâshe didnât need to see it.
âWatch and wait,â Gauss said softly. Shadow needed a moment to recover; she ate the magic berries Alia had set aside. Inside, the kobolds would be at peak alertâand with the drake stirred, he wasnât eager to meet it yet.
They held in the tunnel. Before long, a small kobold patrol edged into viewâheads jutting past a bendâthen stepped into a trip point. A line flashed; heads hit dirt.
âWonât a missing squad tell them weâre here?â Alia murmured.
âItâs fine,â Gauss said. âIf we let them pass, theyâd find the other missing sentries anyway.â Better to bank the numbersâand draw them out. He wanted kobolds to come to him.
Soon another, heavier unit appearedâironclad captain up front with two slightly curved shortswords, eyes narrowed at the scent of blood. It kicked a warrior ahead and let a shaman in back hum through a buffâghostly power clinging to each kobold.
The point-man held a candle and blade, peering into the black. The familiar tunnel looked haunted; a cold wind licked him. He hunched, wanting to stopâuntil the captainâs glare burned his back. Shaking, he took one step, two⌠dozens more. At the blood-stained patchânothing. He relaxed. Safe?
He glanced down; in the candleâs warm light, the splash of red was a stab. Not good.
He wasnât the only one to see it. Heads liftedâjust in time to watch a tall shadow flow out of the dark. Reflex screamed; blades twitched upâtoo late. Blood-soaked soil erupted vinesâEntangle snared limbs. The shadow loomedâ
Sssk!
Clean, wet sounds split the air. Thought ceased.
Gauss stood, flicked blood from his hand. One eliteâabout CR 2. One shamanâCR 1. Six commonâand tough for âtrash.â In a tunnel, this group would gut many low-tier teams. Here, they hadnât survived a heartbeat.
Too weakâan appetizer.
Alia and the others rifled bodies for valuables and parts. Corpses they leftâtheir presence was no longer a secret. Gauss doubted any âbrainsâ in the nest had expected a patrol like this to win. Cannon fodderâsent to test the route, confirm the enemy remained.
Sure enough, no more squads came down that tunnel. Without fresh intel, they wouldnât feed more meat into a grinder.
Inside the nest, robed shamans gathered around a scrying point. One tapped the floor with a staffâfootprints ghosted up. Moments later, two hazy figures bloomed in the airâmatched Gauss and Shadow.
âHuman mageâcast Fireball.â
âThen withdrew.â
âThey hunt our kin in the tunnels!â
Faces darkened. With the âkingâ above them, the tribe had swelled; new elites spawned; the mines had been clearedâenemies turned vassals or trophies; even human teams had been fooled.
Keep rolling the snowball until the kingâs power grew, then stride onto the surface, sweep Gold & Silver, and vanish into the wilds.
But these twoâwhere had they come from? And dared to hunt the nest with so few?
The missing patrol soured their guts. It felt like a cold snake coiling down the tunnel to squeeze the nest tight.
âThe king cannot enter the tunnels,â an elder rasped. The Fireball still rang in memoryâless than the kingâs breath, but death to common kobolds. Thankfully, the king feared no fireâreducing the threat. The trouble was size: the foe holed up in passages where the king could not follow. Throwing kobolds at them was useless.
Decision made:
âSend a few pups out other passagesâsee whatâs there.â
âAnd wake the Red Hound.â
âThese foes are dangerous.â
âThe Red Hound? You would loose that one?â
This nest had birthed a strong anomalyâthe strongest of their bloodâwho, in an âaccident,â had devoured the kingâs meat and survived a baptism of flame, becoming a dragonborn kobold. The kingâs blood had eaten its mind, leaving a creature drowning in the urge to kill. It had devoured enough of their own that the shamans had to force it into sleep.
Faces grim, they chose. The king was free; they had to prove their worth as kinâthat was reason enough to wake the mad one.
They gathered an elite team, hauled a coffin from a deep cellar, and marched it toward a wider exit.
âŚ
Gauss led the party up and out. Sunlight felt good. Echo lifted into the blue.
âThey wonât stopâtheyâll come up to find us,â Gauss said. Let them. He would do as with the goblinsâharry the nest, bleed it down. Other than the drake, there shouldnât be anything that threatened them⌠right?
âEither wayâready up.â
He had no desire to fight undergroundâtoo risky. They began laying the ground.
âCaw! Caw!â Dry calls overhead.
âOutgoingâsmall group,â Alia translated. Gauss squinted into the heat-haze as kobold shapes resolved.
âSo fast?â he murmuredâand frowned. What an odd pairing: kobolds carrying a coffin.
A handful of big, brawny kobolds shouldered a huge black casket. Shamans and a few casters trailed.
A ritual?
He couldnât place itâbut he measured range and waited to fire when they came into reach. They stopped far short, perhaps warned by the earlier blast. The coffin went upright; the others spread out. A shaman waved its wand and chanted.
Thumpâ
The lid fell. Inside lay a massive koboldânearly 2.5 meters tallâscales blood-red as if flame ran beneath, cords of muscle hugging the frame. Its head was a miniature of the drakeâsâfierce, brutal, beautifulâwith a pair of small sharp horns.
Dragonborn?
The eyes snapped openâan eerie red gleam flashed. It didnât look at its kin; its crimson slit-pupils locked, as if magnetized, on the human radiating strong magic far off.
Across the distance, Gauss met its gazeâand felt pure annihilation.
ROAAAARâ
A bellow no kobold should make tore from its chest. It stepped from the coffin; heavy feet punched holes in the earth. A nearby kobold warrior bolted; a heartbeat later the dragonbornâs clawed hand seized the koboldâs head and lifted it. Crunch. Saw-toothed jaws sank into its heart. Blood painted its muzzle; its eyes stayed on Gaussâtongue flicking to lick the palate.
âTchâ Prepare for battle!â Gauss snapped, a wave of instinctive revulsion rising under that naked, hungry stare.
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IdolTrust
Time to collect souls for some clay monsters.
