Chapter 60: Vaal’kor Massacre Begins
Swoosh!
A single arrow screamed through the air from atop the wooden watch platform, its iron tip aimed directly between Grash’s eyes.
The goblin Chieftain didn’t even bother moving his mount. At the very last instant, his hand rose lazily.
Clack!
His fingers closed around the arrowhead less than an inch from his forehead. The shaft trembled violently from the force behind the shot before becoming completely still inside his grasp.
Silence spread across the battlefield. The kobold warriors manning the southern defenses stared with widening eyes. Several instinctively tightened their grips around their spears.
Behind Grash, the elite goblins simply laughed. Some shook their heads up hole others smiled mockingly at the pathetic attempt.
Grash lowered the captured arrow and casually tossed it onto the ground as though it were nothing more than a twig.
"Show them."
His voice remained calm.
The riders immediately pulled on the reins and their striped boars turned sideways in perfect unison, exposing the ropes tied to their powerful tails.
Only then did the kobolds finally see what had been dragging behind them. Gasps spread across the defensive line.
"Murg..."
Someone whispered.
Another kobold covered his mouth.
"Trek..."
"No..."
"They’re alive..."
Every mount dragged another broken body. Scales had been torn away and blood covered the earth wherever they had been dragged.
Their limbs twitched weakly with every movement of the boars. Some had already stopped responding entirely while others barely managed pitiful groans.
Several warriors recognized brothers and grief instantly became rage.
Grash slowly swept his cold gaze across the defenders.
"I will drown this colony in blood and fire for the crimes it committed against my people."
His voice carried effortlessly across the battlefield as he slowly snapped his fingers.
A pulse of mana rippled outward.
"Fire Magic: Ignite."
Brrrrreeee!
Every kobold tied behind the boars suddenly arched violently and their bodies convulsed. Their mouths opened in agonizing screams that echoed across the valley.
The strange runes carved into their foreheads burst into a fiery crimson glow before flames erupted beneath their skin, spreading rapidly through their bodies like burning veins.
The ropes securing them snapped apart and one after another, the tortured kobolds stumbled to their feet. They weren’t running because they wanted to, they were running because the unbearable pain drove them into blind panic.
Some clawed desperately at their own skin while thers crashed into trees. One rolled across the ground screaming while flames danced beneath cracked scales.
Every cry tore through the hearts of those watching until the warriors atop the barricades could no longer remain still.
"Bastards!"
One kobold roared.
Another slammed his spear against the earth. Every face twisted with murderous hatred.
The fear they had felt moments earlier disappeared completely beneath overwhelming fury.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
One warrior exploded forward. He abandoned the safety of the barricade entirely.
Broken sword raised overhead, he charged straight toward Grash with reckless desperation.
His roar echoed through the entire valley as he leaped high into the air, intending to bring the blade down upon the goblin Chieftain’s skull.
Bam!
Something flashed and the kobold’s head exploded.
Bone fragments, blood and shattered brain matter burst outward like a crushed melon before the headless body continued flying forward for another heartbeat.
Only then did it collapse.
Grash’s striped boar casually slammed into the falling corpse with one powerful shoulder and the lifeless body spun violently through the air before crashing several meters away.
Bam!
Blood rapidly pooled beneath what remained of the warrior.
Silence followed.
Slowly, every kobold’s gaze shifted toward Lucy. She remained seated comfortably atop her mount and her bow was already drawn once again.
Two arrows rested between her fingers and another was already nocked. The string remained fully drawn while smoke drifted lazily from the enchanted arrowhead she had just released.
"You filthy rats dare attack the Chief?"
Disgust twisted her beautiful features and Grash slowly reached over his shoulder.
His fingers wrapped around the handle of an enormous battle axe. The weapon was unlike anything the kobolds had ever seen.
Its polished black blade reflected the afternoon sunlight while intricate runes covered both sides in perfectly carved patterns. Nestled at the center of the twin blades rested a brilliant azure mana crystal whose light pulsed rhythmically like a living heart.
Grash slowly lifted the axe above his head and one rune suddenly ignited.
Crack!
Azure lightning burst across the weapon. Bolts danced wildly around the blade, crackling loudly as arcs of electricity crawled along the haft before leaping back toward the glowing crystal.
Several kobold warriors instinctively stepped backward. Those carrying shields hurriedly raised them. Even the veterans felt cold sweat trickling beneath their scales.
The pressure radiating from that weapon alone dwarfed anything they had faced before.
Grash lowered the axe.
"Kill them."
The order had barely left his mouth.
Swoosh!
Every rider exploded forward simultaneously.
The striped boars accelerated with terrifying speed, tearing across the open ground while throwing dirt and shattered stone behind them.
Only Lucy remained behind. She calmly drew another arrow and unleashed terror. Every arrow found a head. One kobold fell before he even realized he had been targeted and another dropped while trying to raise his shield. A third collapsed backward from the watch platform with an arrow buried through his eye.
She fired with frightening precision.
Meanwhile, Grash became the spearhead of the assault. The remaining kobold archers desperately loosed volley after volley toward him.
He simply swung the axe and shattered the arrow
Clang!
A third never even reached him as lightning erupted from the blade, vaporizing it in midair. He reached the first defensive line and his axe descended.
Swoosh!
A brilliant streak of blue lightning carved through the battlefield.
The front rank simply disappeared.
Several kobolds were cleaved completely in half before they even understood what had happened. Others were hurled backward by the sheer force of the strike, their broken bodies crashing into those behind them.
The barricade exploded into splinters.
Lightning surged through shattered shields before leaping from one warrior to the next, leaving smoking corpses collapsing across the earth.
Blood sprayed high into the air while screams echoed everywhere.
Brox crashed into the left flank like a charging beast, his massive fists smashing warriors aside while his striped boar trampled the wounded beneath iron hard hooves meanwhile, Tal laughed as though this were merely a game, his sword flashing through the air with terrifying precision while Rudor advanced silently behind them, his crimson cloak billowing despite the absence of wind, those blood red eyes observing everything without emotion.
The southern entrance descended into absolute chaos within moments. Vaal’kor had prepared itself to withstand an invasion by more than a hundred goblins.
Instead only six had arrived and those six were tearing straight through the colony’s first line of defense as though the kobolds standing before them were nothing more than dry leaves before a wildfire.