Chapter 96: Tu’ka’s Love Life
Amidst the loud celebration, Ka’z and Tu’ka quietly slipped away from the living area. The cheers of their peers continued behind them, echoing through the winding tunnels and mixing with the occasional laughter and cries of relief. For the first time since the battle began, the sanctuary felt alive again. Yet neither of them could bring themselves to simply sit around and celebrate. They needed to know what remained outside.
Grash’s army had suffered devastating losses, but neither Ka’z nor Tu’ka was willing to assume that every enemy had been eliminated. If even a small group of goblins remained outside the colony, the celebrations could quickly turn into another massacre.
They walked deeper through the familiar corridors, their footsteps becoming the loudest sounds around them as they moved away from the living quarters. The evidence of the battle was impossible to miss.
Goblin corpses lay scattered across the tunnels, some still clutching weapons while others had been crushed beneath fallen rocks or impaled by the traps prepared before the battle.
Blood had dried across portions of the stone floor, and the smell of iron still lingered heavily in the air. Ka’z stepped over a fallen goblin without slowing down, while Tu’ka did the same. Neither said anything about the bodies. They had seen enough death for one day, and stopping to acknowledge every corpse would only remind them of how close they had all come to becoming part of that pile.
For several minutes, they continued walking in silence until Tu’ka finally spoke.
"You are not tired?"
The question caught Ka’z by surprise. He glanced sideways at his brother, almost expecting him to say something else. Tu’ka was rarely the one to start conversations, especially conversations that had nothing to do with hunting or training. There was something different about his voice tonight, though. It was still quiet and restrained, but there was a strange need behind it, as if he simply wanted someone beside him to talk to.
"My joints feel sore and my eyes hurt, but I guess I’m alright."
Ka’z shrugged before looking back toward the tunnel ahead. The adrenaline that had carried him through the battle was finally fading, leaving behind aches he had ignored earlier.
"You?"
Tu’ka nodded before answering.
"I’m mostly good. With my element, I can pick off enemies, but it drains quite a bit of mana, so I’m a little light headed."
Ka’z raised a brow at that. He had almost forgotten how different their experiences with mana were. His own reserves had always seemed almost excessive, enough that he rarely needed to worry about exhausting himself unless he deliberately pushed his body beyond its limits. Tu’ka, however, had to carefully manage every spell he used. His shadow magic was powerful, but its consumption placed a natural limit on how long he could remain effective.
Ka’z became quiet as he thought about it, and Tu’ka noticed. After everything that had happened, the silence between them was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Tu’ka had spent most of his life keeping his thoughts to himself, but tonight had been different.
"Your blood element," Tu’ka eventually said, bringing Ka’z’s attention back to him. "I never knew you had that."
"I only awakened it recently, and it has been messing with my head a lot." Ka’z glanced down at his palm as he flexed his fingers.
Even now, remembering the feeling of blood flowing into his body made something uncomfortable stir inside him.
"It’s like I’m being controlled by my magic." He lowered his hand and looked at Tu’ka. "Did you have to deal with this with your shadow element?"
Tu’ka’s lips curved into a small, almost invisible smile as he nodded.
"I can’t express myself much. No matter how much I want to be with someone, I can’t seem to express myself." He rubbed his chest slowly, his eyes lowering toward the ground. "Sometimes I know what I want to say, but when the moment comes, the words just don’t come out."
Ka’z’s expression slowly changed.
He stopped walking.
Tu’ka took another step before realizing Ka’z was no longer beside him. He turned around just as Ka’z suddenly rushed ahead and planted himself directly in his path, both hands raised to block him. Tu’ka flinched and stopped, staring at his brother with an expression that suggested he had absolutely no idea what had just happened.
"Don’t tell me you have a crush on someone and you didn’t say a thing all this while?"
Tu’ka’s face immediately flushed red. His eyes shifted away, refusing to meet Ka’z’s gaze, and that tiny movement was enough to confirm everything.
Ka’z’s eyes widened.
"You can’t be serious." His voice rose as disbelief spread across his face.
He grabbed Tu’ka by the shoulders and shook him lightly. "Are you crazy? What if you died here today? Were you just going to go without this person ever knowing what you feel?"
The words came out far more emotionally than Ka’z intended. His hands trembled slightly against Tu’ka’s shoulders, and beneath the anger was something much deeper. He knew exactly what it meant to remain silent until the opportunity disappeared. In his previous life, fear of rejection had made him hesitate until love became nothing more than another regret he carried. It had taken Za’r entering his life to make him understand how foolish that had been. He could not allow Tu’ka to repeat the same mistake.
Tu’ka stared at him with the same dull expression he always wore, although the redness on his face remained. His lack of reaction somehow made Ka’z even more frustrated.
"Who is she?" Ka’z demanded.
Tu’ka slowly removed Ka’z’s hands from his shoulders and stepped backward. He looked toward the ground for several seconds before finally sighing. "Okay, okay. It’s Kora."
Ka’z blinked.
"Kora?"
It took him a moment to place the name. Then the memory came back. Kora was the green scaled female who had been part of their class more than a year ago. She had always been energetic and outgoing, the complete opposite of Tu’ka. She was the kind of kobold who could walk into a room and immediately fill it with laughter, jokes and pointless stories that somehow made everyone smile. Ka’z remembered how often she had tried to drag Tu’ka into conversations despite his obvious attempts to escape them.
Unfortunately, her core had never developed beyond the Ash Core, which meant she could not become part of the hunter teams. Ka’z had not seen much of her since then.
"You are talking to her tonight." Ka’z declared.
Tu’ka immediately shook his head. "Too soon. Next month."
"What?" Ka’z stared at him as though he had just suggested waiting until the next century. "Are you crazy?"
"Next week, then."
"TU’KA!" Ka’z grabbed him by the shoulder again and shook him. "Tomorrow!"
Tu’ka turned his face away, clearly embarrassed. "Next week."
"Tomorrow!"
"Okay, okay." Tu’ka finally surrendered, his voice barely above a mutter. "Tomorrow."
Only then did Ka’z release him with a satisfied sigh. "Good."
Tu’ka rubbed his shoulder and gave him an annoyed look, but Ka’z simply resumed walking. After a moment, Tu’ka followed, and the two continued toward the cave entrance with the tension between them strangely lighter than before. For the first time since the battle, Ka’z could see something resembling normal life returning to his brother’s face.
Eventually, they reached the entrance.
The moment they stepped outside, the cool evening breeze swept across their scales. The sun was already sinking beyond the horizon, painting the distant sky with fading shades of orange and red. The forest that had been transformed into a battlefield only hours earlier was strangely peaceful now.
Ka’z and Tu’ka both closed their eyes and inhaled deeply.
The fresh air felt incredible.
After spending hours surrounded by blood, smoke, sweat and the suffocating atmosphere of the cave, the open air seemed almost unreal. Ka’z remained still for several seconds, allowing the breeze to pass over his face and through his hair. Tu’ka did the same, his shoulders gradually relaxing.
Neither spoke for a while.
They simply stood there and looked at the forest they had fought so desperately to protect.
Eventually Ka’z smiled faintly.
"We really did it."
Tu’ka nodded.
"So what now?"
The smile slowly disappeared from Ka’z’s face.
He stared toward the distant forest, his expression becoming thoughtful. That was the question they had been avoiding since the battle ended. Winning had only secured their survival. It had not solved the problems that brought Grash to their doorstep in the first place.
But the Ashmork Clan still existed, and they now knew exactly where Vaal’kor lived.
Ka’z folded his arms and narrowed his eyes.
"That’s what we need to figure out."
Tu’ka glanced toward him.
"The next move?"
Ka’z nodded slowly.
"Exactly. We need to talk to Lan’ka, Tong’a and the others before we decide anything. We can’t afford to make another mistake just because we’re celebrating a victory."