The Worst Kobold Chapter 5: Chapter 3 - The Prince and the Beast

Read chapter 5 of The Worst Kobold by Thalaas on NovelPedia.

What was once a logging camp was now a blur of constant noise and terror. Screams of soldiers. Howling winds. Crashing trees. Bursts of thunder. And the roar of an enraged beast carried over it all. It was utter chaos. Captain Reynard and two of his men ran terrified through the forest. Reynard had no idea where the rest of the squad was but he was too panic-stricken to care. His own small group was mobile, but barely. His foot was broken but he didn’t even feel it as he tried to keep up to the others. He could hear the crashing behind him as he tried to run faster. He didn’t even realize he was screaming as he could hear his death rapidly approaching. He leapt over a fallen log, only to discover there was a small but steep ravine that he was ill prepared for. He tumbled down hard the embankment, removing a layer of skin on his face and landed in a crumpled heap. Right into his men who had suffered the same fate. A tangled mass of limbs tried to unravel themselves. Reynard somehow got to his knees after several seconds of desperate flailing. An angry growl drew his gaze upwards unwillingly. At the top of the small cliff he could see the pair of rage filled electric eyes, and below it a giant maw of fangs opening. A large ball of angry blue sphere energy began to form inside the gaping mouth. It let out another unholy screech and fired the beam of electric death down at the doomed soldiers. There was another blur of white speed off from the old goat trail to the west. There was a heavy thump and Prince Alexander fearlessly landed right in front of the group. He held his shield out and let out a warcry. A flash of white light expanded in front of him to form a translucent wall of pure mana that separated the shadow beast from his people. A chaotic form of lightning splashed against it. “Guh!” The prince grunted in shock as it drove him back. He could... feel that. He had mages attack him with fire, ice, and every magic in between to practice this defensive spell. But this? This was far more intense. He grunted and poured more magic to reinforce the ethereal shield. It began to glow with an almost blinding light as he drove back the storm. “Captain! On your feet!” “Sir!” Reynard coughed as he got up fast but unsteadily. “I....” No time to hear his excuses. “My horse Soot is behind me! Get Private Jenson on her and get out of here now!’ Alexander didn’t even look back. He had no time. “I’ll handle this creature!’ he said through gritted teeth. Whatever it was it kept pouring lightning at him with no sign of stopping. It seemed to have an endless well of mana to draw from to be this relentless in its assault. He couldn’t really get a view through the light show so he cast a quick spell to his eyes to enhance his vision. He could see the beast more clearly now, but he was still having trouble focusing on just who or what his opponent was. Had it cast some sort of obscuring spell? Prince Alexander was well read and could identify all fifteen subspecies of manticore just by the variations in their scorpion tails. But this… he couldn’t recognize what it was. No matter. He didn’t need to know what this monster was. Only that he needed to stop it. He could hear the others were gone now, so he didn’t need to worry about them getting in the line of fire. He thrust his magical shield forward once to disperse the continuous attack before darting to the side. The lightning blazed by him and tore the land asunder. There were explosions of wooden shrapnel as the monster’s attack forked wildly and took out a dozen sturdy hickories. The scent of charred wood added to the already smoked filled air. Prince Alexander was already dashing forward. His white magic propelled him at an inhuman speed, his sword ready in his practiced grip. With well developed skill he slashed a long line down the left side of the creature to spill its guts. He could feel the resistance of the beast's flesh as it pushed back against his blade. He landed twenty feet behind