Fractured God

The sounds of howling could be heard from the various passages that were connected to the space they were in. The sound of the howls coming out of each individual tunnel and path was quite eerie. It was like being in a surround sound theatre in the middle of a horror movie.

Through some openings, only various gazes of the beasts' eyes were visible. In others, large numbers of kobolds were lightly bathed by the flames of their torches. While their faces weren't clearly visible, their numbers certainly were.

Tibaut tried counting how many he saw in one tunnel but stopped at 20. And there was no shortage of tunnels that looked like they held more. It was as if every kobold in existence was here, in this relic of the past.

A cold sweat broke out on Tibaut. Individually these guys were no problem. But this? He felt as though he'd be drowned by their blood before they'd be able to kill them all. However, they couldn't run away. Every possible path they could take was flooded with them.

Nervously Tibaut asked "Ezekiel, if you have any surefire ways to kill kobolds, I'd be happy to know. Maybe they're afraid of a certain metal, maybe they can't stand the smell of piss or maybe they like being licked. I don't care what it is, as long as it gets us out of here without fighting through these things I'll take it."

Ezekiel had a small chuckle at this and said his piece "I'll admit it, there's a lot more here than I thought. Sorry to break this to you but we're gonna have to get out of this the old-fashioned way. If such a convenient way of getting through them existed…"

He then paused as if thinking over his next words "I probably wouldn't have brought it anyway. Don't be fooled, these little bastards are at the bottom food chain when it comes to monsters. Little bastards are so dumb, they don't even know how to use or even make bows. The only thing you have to worry about is them getting close. And even then it probably won't take more than a second to kill one."

He said with a somewhat unnerving smile while forcefully gripping his sword.

"Based on what you said, we might be stuck here killing these things for half an hour straight."

"Well isn't great, I've been meaning to do some training lately."

The woman with them looked dumbfounded at the sight before them. Ezekiel noticed this and tried to cheer her up.

"Don't worry, just close your eyes and wait till it's all over."

Ezekiel then slowly whispered to Tibaut.

"Make you keep 'em off her."

"Tch, you don't have to tell me that."

Ezekiel then rubbed Tibaut's head while saying "She's really found herself someone decent."

Although their size was diminutive, the footsteps of the hundreds of kobolds hid their size very well. It sounded like an army marching towards their battlefield.

The marching slowly got louder and they were inching closer and closer towards the trio. Eventually, they surrounded them with not a single point that looked devoid of kobolds.

Tibaut soon summoned some fireballs and quickly picked the woman up in his arms.

He had never held a woman within his arms before but this wasn't the time for him to be glad about this occasion.

Then within an instance, it started. It was not the kobolds who took the initiative but Ezekiel. He ran into them like a bulldozer and got to work with his blade.

Within a moment he took out eight. However compared to how many there were present, calling it a drop in the bucket would be a gross exaggeration.

"A signal would have been nice!" Tibaut shouted at him while jumping into the air blasting fireballs into the swarm.

"Well consider this the starting whistle."

The men now commenced their offensive.

Ezekiel was absolutely ploughing through them like a landowner through grass. With each swing, he killed at least five of the little shits.

Even though he had the ability to move them away, the numbers present made getting through the whole ordeal without being hit incredibly wishful thinking to put it kindly. They'd get hits very often but their power was quite lacking.

It left a bruise sure, however at this point the only thing these attacks would do was damage his skin. In terms of strength, they were weaker than the average human.

With each swing of his blade swung around in his usual wild manner he would paint the ground in their blood. He couldn't stay in one spot as the bodies piled so much they'd get in the way of his attacks.

On Tibaut's side, he would launch various fireballs and land in the dirt at the points they cleared.

Unlike Ezekiel, he took his time doing this and only launched fireballs when the kobolds were close enough to possibly grab him. They were almost childlike in their attempts and were not particularly quick either (compared to the adventurers anyway).

This way of doing things was slow in terms of clearing them out however it ensured the safety of the woman in his hands.

At this rate, they felt as if it was possible to get through this.

Then five minutes passed. The kobolds on Ezekiel's side were getting desperate and tried to restrict his movements by giving up on attacking and throwing themselves at him to at least slow him.

They were able to grab him a few times and get a few hits in. He was bleeding now.

However he welcomed the challenge, he could now finally get serious.

Through his magic, for brief instances, he would increase his speed to the point of it being absurd for a few metres.

Each burst would litter more and more corpses and body parts on the floor. His mobility was now too much for them as, as soon as one would grab him, they would be flung off when he used his magic to move away.