FIGHT!

John travelled down the secret tunnel; his vision was becoming more cloudy as rage bubbled and boiled causing him to stop and take a breath. ’I won’t be any help if I just run in there swinging at anyone and anything. I need to challenge the big guy so I have a chance…’

John continued; the sound of chanting and drums was drawing closer and the heat of the tunnels continued to rise. It was becoming more like a sauna with how dry and hot it had become.

These tunnels were nothing like the ones he’d travelled before, they looked more like tunnels that were built rather than burrowed. Then he was taken off guard when he came to a set of spiral stairs.

As he climbed down, he noticed the stone begin to change, the colour darkened and it became more porous.

The tunnel at the bottom was short and opened up to the cavern he had seen before. From the same level, it looked like there were many more kobolds than when he was looking down at them.

John’s gaze turned to the Kobold sitting on the throne and anger bubbled within him again; he stalked towards him over a lava bridge to the main platform.

It didn’t take long for the kobolds to notice John’s presence and a large group of them turned their spears towards him while grouping together tightly. ’I don’t have time for these’ John grit his teeth.

“MOVE!” His voice boomed and echoed through the cavern, a shockwave of air blowing against the kobolds in front of him.

They all took a few steps back. “Allow him to approach,” a voice from behind them called; it was much deeper than the voices of the kobolds he’d encountered before but retained the raspiness.

John looked up to see Darôs now standing and staring him down. The sea of kobolds parted as John approached; he could hear them muttering amongst themselves and several hissed at him. As he walked he noticed that twenty MP had drained from his mana bar but John just shrugged it off as he focused on his target.

There was a twenty-foot space between the legion of kobolds and the steps up to the throne.

Darôs and his two bodyguards stood imposingly. As John looked at them, he noticed the leader’s colouring was grey and a deep blue, while the two bodyguards seemed to mostly have the same colouration as the rest of the kobolds. The only differences were the patches of lighter colour on the ridges of their snouts and the lack of colour in their eyes, and although they were looking in his direction, they seemed to be looking through him.

“You seem to know at least one word in our tongue, human, so I will allow you to speak, what is your purpose?” Darôs questioned.

John stood silent for a moment while he wondered how he should do this, then opened his inventory and dropped one of the Luminite spears. Darôs brow raised, it seemed to be a moderate shock but John could tell he wasn’t impressed.

He then pulled the rest of the stack allowing them to clatter to the ground; this seemed to unnerve the large kobold, even if only a small amount.

“I challenge you!” John seethed.

The crowd behind John erupted in confusion, and before Darôs could respond, the two by his side stepped forwards. “SILENCE! A challenge has been issued, clear the area so that the fight may commence,” the two commanded in unison.

John put his foot on the stack of spears storing them into his inventory once more before being led over another bridge to a smaller platform roughly four metres across.

John stared at the large kobold as the two bodyguards spoke, “The winner is declared either by forfeit, being knocked off the platform, knockout or ****. Weapons and outside help are all not permitted and will result in immediate disqualification and forfeit. Understood?”

Both John and his opponent nodded

Quest complete: Secret Weapon

Reward added to inventory.
Good luck!

John smiled. “Ready, set… FIGHT!” the two began.

John cast Aspect Attunement focusing on the Vox element he had gained from Lani. He then willed his eyes and claws to change. John felt his vision change, but unlike usual, the world didn’t grow brighter; instead, as he looked at his stunned and frozen opponent, they seemed to glow with an orange aura. He looked to the Dragonshield Kobolds and noticed not only did they have an aura that was slightly weaker than Darôs’ but they also had a white glow covering their eyes. Next, he turned to look at the crowd of kobolds and noticed they all had an extremely small aura though some seemed to have larger than others and they all varied in colour.

The thing that caught his eyes most about the kobolds, though, were the spears they all held; where before the light was stationary like a lightbulb, now they seemed to dance and sway like fire. He also noticed similar lights that almost outlined the tunnels above.

Looking around he took note of several more lights all surrounding him at various intensities, until he turned to the lava girl. Her aura was three or four times the size of Darôs’ and burned with intensity; it was alluring to look at but John had to focus.

He turned back to Darôs, which is when he realised that every kobold around was silently staring at him, wide-eyed.

Darôs’ gaze was locked onto John’s arms, and seeing that John’s eyes followed to find that his hands were different.

His arms were lightly covered with fur, the same colour as his hair, but when twisting his arms back and forth to look, he could see that they shimmered with purple and greenish-yellow. The fur thinned and stopped at his wrist, and unlike before, he didn’t have razor-sharp claws tipping his fingers but he had a couple of small patches of scales that shimmered in a similar way to the fur on his arms.

’Fuck, I really needed my claws right about now, I thought using the element alongside my mutations would make them more powerful… Shit, should I drop the element so I can use my claws?’ As his train of thought progressed, purple energy moved around his hand and arm before spectral claws extended from his fingers creating a semi-transparent gauntlet.

John smiled as he flexed and relaxed his fingers watching as the claws reacted in kind.

He looked back up at his opponent with a little extra smugness. He was about to lurch forward at his opponent but froze as he heard, “STOP!” come from one of the two dragonshield kobolds.

John looked over to see both kobolds kneeling and bowing their heads towards him. “We did not realise you were one of the great ones, we issue a thousand apologies,” they both said in unison before standing and speaking to the legion of kobolds, “This fight is over-”

“No, it isn’t! He challenged me, now he must fight!” Darôs spat.

“My lord, this is a great dragon, if you take this challenge and fight, you will be insulting not only him but your entire people,” one of them informed.

Darôs ignored the Dragonshield Kobolds and stood in a fighting stance against John. “A challenge was issued, and I accepted. If you interfere, he loses, and when I win, you will be sacrificed to our goddess.” He then walked proudly towards a large drum to strike it and cause several kobolds to begin chanting.

Both Dragonshield Kobolds looked at him with disdain, letting out crocodile-like growls. Darôs looked at John and began slowly circling. John, not wanting to allow Darôs the chance to get in the first blow, lunged towards the kobold swinging one arm after another at the kobold’s chest, which seemed to catch his opponent off guard.

DMG 40

DMG 36

The kobold's eyes widened as the two claws cut into his armour but he quickly reacted by striking towards John as he backed away, grazing his shoulder.

-15HP

John smiled a little, seeing the difference in damage they dealt. It seemed strange to John that his opponent was two levels higher. Not wanting to be distracted from the fight too much, he pushed the thought back and prepared for another attack. As he lunged towards his opponent, he had to take a step back as the kobold unfurled his wings and took to the air.

John could almost see the smug grin forming on Darôs’ face. John let out a frustrated huff. ’FUCK, I doubt I’d get away with using Move and hurling rocks at the bastard! This was the entire reason I even continued to train with Move in the first place, to give me a ranged attack. FUUUUUUCK!’ John complained internally.

John changed into a more defensive stance, reasoning that if the kobold wanted to attack he would also have to get close in; John looked up and noticed something strange, Darôs’ aura changed slightly, and the aura around his wings changed to a light green as it grew and grew before the kobold dove faster than naturally possible. Darôs swung his arm to slash at John’s neck; luckily, John was able to move a little and the attack missed a vital part of his neck.

-34HP

“FUCK!” John yelled. His opponent laughed, making John that much more frustrated. He looked up and saw the light green aura building up again before the kobold came diving down again slashing into John’s shoulder as he tried to move out of the way.

-30HP

With his HP now down to 96, John decided to change tactics, focusing his attention on Daros’ wings. The aura flowing through them grew larger before the direction of swirling energy changed. John prepared himself and dove out of the way as the Kobold neared and missed him. John’s opponent let out a low growl and a huff before his aura grew again, and again John managed to get out of range as he flew by.

“You will have to come down here and face me head-on if you want this fight to ever end!” John yelled as he dodged yet another attack.

“Think so? You think you have fooled everyone, don’t you?!” the kobold boomed. “Don’t think for a second that I believe you are a dragon.” As he spoke the crowd of kobolds began murmuring, some seeming to believe what was being said and others doubting it. Darôs held his hand up to the crowd as he continued, “I don’t know how you’ve done it but this is all a trick and sooner or later you will tire of dodging and jumping out of the way, and when that happens I will become the victor!”

“I never claimed to be a dragon, I am here for my own reason and that is to take back what is MINE!” John’s voice boomed at his last word as his anger began to bubble up again.

TOP TIP:

Before you lose your temper, why not try casting Move on your claws? You might be surprised how Vox interacts with it.

John flinched at the sudden pop-up. Unfortunately, being distracted gave Darôs an opening to slash across John’s chest, knocking the wind out of him temporarily.

-40HP (Critical Hit)

John coughed, before glaring up at his attacker who snickered. Clenching his jaw John swung his arm casting Move on his claw, and as he did the spectral claw disconnected from his hand and sailed through the air towards his opponent; caught off guard the kobold took the claw directly on the chest.

50 DMG (Critical Hit)

“Not so fucking high and mighty now, are you!?” John laughed.

The claw snapped back to John’s hand almost like an elastic band and he noticed ten MP had been taken from his mana pool. Darôs scowled and rushed towards John who dove out of the way.

“I’m tired of this now,” John bellowed, and swung both arms casting Move twice and sending the spectral claws towards the kobold who smiled and flew up and out of the trajectory of the claws. Unfortunately for John’s opponent, the claws followed him, and once close, John clenched his hands causing both claws to wrap around one of the wings keeping Darôs in the air. A loud crunch rang out as the wing became misshapen.

45 DMG (Crippled)

The Kobold dropped twenty feet to the stone platform.

15 DMG

Darôs whimpered and painfully folded both wings out of more harm’s way before he lunged towards John. At the last second, John noticed the kobold pulling something sharp and silver from his armour, then he felt a pain as it stabbed into his stomach.

-15HP (Poisoned)(Bleeding)

John let out a cry, “You fucking cheater, they said no weapons, you can’t just stab me with whatever you have hidden on you!”

A murmur swept around them as kobolds debated John’s claims.

“How dare you accuse me of being dishonourable!” the kobold argued. “You think anyone here will-”

John’s claws shot across the platform as his anger got the best of him; red began to creep into his vision. One impaled the kobold’s chest digging its claws deep and causing him to drop to his knees breathing heavily

50 DMG

Both looking almost as bad as the other, John took several steps towards the downed kobold but stopped as he felt a burning in his chest.

-10HP (poison)

Then as he coughed and sputtered, blood trickled down his chin. The kobold’s lips curled into a triumphant smile.

-8HP (Bleeding)

“There is only one problem with your plan of poisoning me, I can do this while you have to regain your breath,” John said as he channelled Healing Touch into the other claw and held it against his chest. Five seconds passed as he looked down at the kobold, and he noticed that the colour of his claw healing him had changed to glow a warm golden white. Darôs’ face dropped in horror.

+45HP (Cured Poison)

John coughed once more before tightening his grip with the claw embedded in his opponent’s chest and ripping it back towards himself, kobold and all. His other hand rose and came crashing down into the kobold.

26 DMG (bleeding)

45 DMG (Critical Hit)

The kobold fell limply and John heaved as he dropped to his knees. After a moment he leaned over the body of his opponent and pulled the small knife which still had his blood staining it and tossed it towards the two Dragonshield Kobolds.

“There’s your leader's honour!” John scoffed. He looked at his health and used the last of his MP to bring himself back to 74HP, then laid on the scorching rock, “Fuck, I’m still pretty low.”

John closed his eyes for a moment and took in deep ragged breaths as the adrenalin wore off.

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