God Agent: All Hail The Great Kobold

Without arguing, Brox and Lucy turned their attention toward the thirty strong kobold force occupying the opposite end of the tunnel.

The narrow passage made it impossible to see the entire formation clearly, but they could make out the raised shields, the spears protruding between them, and the ranged fighters positioned safely behind the defensive line.

Lucy immediately understood that the kobolds were relying on the terrain to compensate for their inferior numbers and training. If the goblins allowed them to maintain that position indefinitely, advancing would become increasingly costly. She raised one hand and her eyes hardened as she gave the order.

"Archers... Loose!"

Immediately, roughly twenty goblin archers drew their bows to full tension and released as one. The snap of bowstrings echoed violently through the confined tunnel, followed by the sharp hiss of arrows cutting through the air.

The kobold shield wall reacted almost instantly.

"Shield!" Drak shouted from the second line, and the front two rows tightened their formation, bringing their shields together until only tiny gaps remained between them.

Peng!

Peng!

Peng!

Arrows hammered into the wooden shields, some burying themselves deeply enough to shake the arms of the kobolds holding them. A few, however, found the gaps between the shields.

One arrow punched into a kobold’s shoulder, forcing him to stagger backward with a grunt, while another flew dangerously close to Ka’z’s face. The arrowhead sliced his cheek open, leaving a thin wound from which several strings of blood immediately rolled down his scales. Ka’z did not even blink. His cold gaze remained fixed on the goblin frontline, his eyes glowing crimson as he calmly lifted one hand.

"Slingers!"

The command passed through the formation, and the ten slingers immediately reached for the rocks tied around their waists. They loaded their slings almost simultaneously, rotated them rapidly and released.

Swoosh!

The stones flew through the narrow corridor with enough force to crack bone, but this time it was the goblins who responded perfectly.

Lucy had already trained them to expect the counterattack, and the moment the rocks appeared, the goblin shield wall tightened. Stone after stone slammed into the shields, producing a rapid succession of heavy impacts, but almost none reached the soldiers behind them. The difference between the two formations became obvious in that exchange.

Ka’z’s kobolds had courage, physical strength and a few capable fighters, but they lacked the years of organized military training possessed by Grash’s forces. Their shield wall was holding because of Ka’z’s instructions and Drak’s discipline, whereas the goblins had already learned how to respond to ranged attacks as a single unit.

Ka’z understood the problem immediately.

If they continued exchanging arrows and stones, his force would eventually lose. Their position gave them an advantage, but advantages only mattered if they could exploit them. The goblins had more soldiers, better coordination and superior ranged discipline. They could keep their shields raised while their archers continued firing, slowly reducing the kobold numbers until the defensive line collapsed.

Ka’z’s eyes narrowed as another realization settled over him. He could not allow the battle to remain a battle between formations. He needed to break their formation himself.

"I guess I will be joining in." His frown deepened as he shifted his weight forward.

Lucy had reached the same conclusion from the opposite side. She had already seen the weakness in the kobold formation. Their soldiers could defend against the goblins, but they could not maintain that defense forever, especially with Ka’z standing among them. The longer they exchanged ranged attacks, the more casualties the kobolds would suffer. She had no reason to change tactics.

Her hand rose again. "Archers... Loose!"

Another volley of arrows flew through the tunnel. This time Ka’z moved before they could reach their targets. His foot slammed against the ground and his body surged towards the wall, sprinting directly past his own formation. As he accelerated through the narrow corridor, he ran along the uneven stone with heavy strides, closing the distance between himself and the incoming arrows before thrusting his hand forward.

"Vael Khar!"

Wind Magic: Wind Burst!

The air erupted around him. Intense wind exploded outward from Ka’z’s body, spreading across the tunnel with enough force to violently disturb the arrows’ trajectory.

The three arrows flying directly toward him abruptly lost their momentum, their shafts trembling in midair before the gust knocked them sideways and sent them clattering against the walls. The remaining arrows struck the shields behind him, but Ka’z was already moving. He had no intention of allowing the goblins another opportunity to fire.

Brox saw him coming and immediately understood what Ka’z intended. His eyes sharpened as he raised his arm.

"Spears forward!"

Several spears immediately thrust through the gaps between the goblin shields, their sharpened tips forming a bristling barrier in front of the formation. Any ordinary warrior attempting to charge through that wall would have been forced to slow down or risk impalement.

It was precisely the kind of defensive response the formation had been designed to produce. Unfortunately for the goblins, Ka’z was not an ordinary warrior.

His heavy strides carried him across the remaining distance in barely a second. The first spear shot toward his face, but Ka’z’s head shifted aside before the tip could reach him. Another came toward his stomach, and he twisted his torso just enough for it to pass across his scales. A third spear thrust toward his throat, but Ka’z lowered his head beneath it and continued forward without losing momentum.

His movements were not random. His eyes were constantly reading the combat aids holographic representations, allowing him to predict the direction of each thrust before the spears fully emerged. To the goblins watching him, it seemed as though he already knew where every weapon would appear.

"Break!"

Ka’z planted his foot and drove his palm forward. The earth beneath the goblin formation responded violently. A massive pillar of stone erupted from the ground, nearly two thirds the width of the tunnel, and smashed directly into the shield wall.

The impact was devastating.

Shields snapped backward against the bodies behind them, several goblins were lifted from their feet and thrown into the soldiers behind them, and the carefully maintained formation collapsed in an instant. Goblins crashed into one another, some stumbling over fallen comrades while others desperately tried to recover their shields.

The narrow tunnel, which had previously allowed the goblins to advance as a disciplined wall, suddenly became a chaotic mass of bodies.

Drak’s eyes widened as he stared at Ka’z standing where the shield wall had once been intact. For the briefest moment, however, the young kobold’s silhouette seemed to change before his eyes.

The shape of Ka’z’s body blurred with an older memory, and Drak suddenly saw Tud’or standing in his place.

Drak had served under Tud’or briefly during his time in the military before quitting, and he remembered a unique trait better than anything else about the warrior chief.

Tud’or had always believed that a commander should be the first person to face danger. Rather than ordering his warriors to grind their way through an enemy formation while suffering unnecessary casualties, he would tear open the path himself and force his soldiers through the opening. He had never asked his warriors to enter a place where he was unwilling to go first.

The memory struck Drak harder than he expected. His throat tightened, and before he could stop himself, a tear escaped from the corner of his eye. His vision blurred as memories of Tud’or came rushing back, memories of the warrior chief standing among them, training them, fighting beside them and throwing himself into danger as though death itself was nothing worth fearing. Tud’or was gone, but for that brief moment, watching Ka’z break through the enemy’s shield wall, Drak could almost feel as though the old chief had returned to them.

His grief transformed into something hotter.

Drak tightened his grip around his spear until his claws dug into the shaft, and then his entire face contorted with emotion.

"CHARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

His roar exploded through the tunnel with so much force that the nearest goblins visibly recoiled.

The kobolds answered him.

Their feet thundered against the earth as the entire formation surged forward. Shields slammed against bodies as the first line charged, spears thrusting between them while the fighters behind pushed forward with renewed fury.

The ranged fighters abandoned their previous positions and followed the advance, grabbing their weapons as the formation transformed from a defensive wall into a charging mass. Their voices merged into a single roar that shook the stone walls, carrying deep into the tunnels.