An Unwanted Following

John opened his eyes as he heard a Ding:

Level up!

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John groaned, “Again? How often am I going to be getting these?”

As often as I see fit, get over it. You have magic!

He sighed as he sat up, “Fair enough.” He tried to bring his character sheet up just to check and was met with a “Stand By” screen. He stood looking towards the two Dragonshield Kobolds who seemed to be having a quiet conversation. He turned his hands back to normal and dismissed his element attunement, making the room brighter and vibrant once more.

When he looked around he could hear murmurs amongst the kobolds that seemed to be growing louder before one kobold stepped forwards. “Cheat lie! Boss no use weapon, you lie, you no dragon, you human!”

Another pushed the first in anger. “Dragon no lie, Boss bad cheat!”

Soon several more joined the argument and fights began breaking out. John shook his head before walking towards the two standing off to the side.

“I won, now show me where you are keeping Ellie, then I’m going to free the girl up there, that your leader enslaved as your goddess.” John’s voice was firm and direct.

Both nodded before leading him towards a tunnel behind the throne. A small room with several metal gated cells opened up, and the first kobold motioned to John. “This is where prisoners are kept before being taken by slavers.”

John looked in the first few cells only to see a couple of gnarly green-skinned creatures; John wasn’t sure but he would describe them as maybe goblins? But he couldn’t say that without a doubt.

The next cell was a fairy-like creature: She was maybe seventy or so centimetres tall, her entire body was a brown-green colour and had wilted plant-like features. Her hair looked like it had resembled some kind of flower, her wings resembled browned leaves and glowed dimly, and her dress looked to be made of dying leaves. Unfortunately, she sat facing away from the cell door so John couldn’t get a better look at her.

Moving on, he saw what looked like some kind of man bear creature that was quite aggressive.

John had to look away from the next cell, which seemed to be some kind of **** chamber and currently had some extremely disfigured hobbit or gnome-like creature strapped into a chair. It was such a horrific scene that John almost threw up and had to move on quickly.

More humanoid creatures inhabited the other cells until he got to the last cell. Before reaching it a human arm reached out. “Please, get me out of here. I don’t know what happened. One minute I was exploring the tunnels, the next I woke up here!” The voice was male.

John walked over to see a scruffy-looking guy with a thick beard pressed up against the cell door. John turned to the kobold duo. “Where is the girl? Human, blonde, about this tall,” John motioned Ellie’s height, “extremely cute. I overheard some of the kobolds say that they had caught her earlier!”

One of the kobolds stepped forwards. “Sorry, sir, the only human we’ve brought in is the one behind you right now.”

“What? No, then where is she? She came into the tunnels with me,” John asked, confused and anxious.

Both kobolds thought for a moment. “There are a few traps in the tunnels, maybe she got caught in one of those, she could have also gotten lost, or she could have found her way out,” one of them suggested.

The other spoke up, “Sir, we can send a search party out to look for her if you wish?”

“Yeah…” John sighed, then his face turned dark. “But if any of you hurt her in any way, you’ll join your leader!”

The two nodded. “Do what you wish with the prisoners, we will go see to it that your wish is fulfilled.”

John was left alone in the room. “Hey, you, do you speak Common?” a voice from behind him asked.

“Huh?” John turned to see the man in the cell. “You mean English?”

“I don’t know what English is but you just answered me anyway. You have to get me out, you can speak to those animals,” the guy said.

“I don’t have to do anything, but sure,” John said before looking at the door. There was a bar across it, which was held in place by a latch out of reach of any of the prisoners. He unhooked the bar and lifted it allowing the door to open. As soon as it was, the guy barged out and ran.

John quickly looked over the other prisoners and couldn’t guarantee his own safety in freeing almost all of them, other than the fairy. He opened up the door and walked over, placing his hand on her shoulder. She aggressively pulled herself out of his grip. “Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you. My name's John. I’m not sure how long you have, but I think most of the kobolds are busy fighting right now so you can escape easily.”

Without a word her wings began beating and in a flash, she was out of the cell. John turned to see her at the door to the tunnels before she vanished.

“Well, at least she’s free I guess. Could have said thanks or something though,” John thought out loud.

He made his way back through the tunnels, and was not prepared for the sight he came out to. An all-out blood bath had ensued in the short time John had been away; where there were once hundreds of kobolds, now there was a group of maybe a few dozen still fighting.

John looked around to find the two larger kobolds in hopes of learning what happened and if they had managed to send kobolds in search of Ellie; unfortunately, they were nowhere in sight.

“I guess I’m limited to two options: I can either cross a battlefield of kobolds, which now that I can use my claws probably wouldn’t be all that hard to do. Or I could go and free the lava girl and maybe wait for the two stronger kobolds to come back.” John paced back and forth before stopping. “Yeah, I’ll free the lava girl, that was one of the main reasons I came to challenge their leader in the first place, so I might as well continue on with it.”

John made his way to where the throne was and used it to clamber onto the higher platform. As he closed in he couldn’t help but notice that she was really pretty, which wasn’t as evident from his other vantage points. Her eyes seemed to look in his direction but the vacant look on her face was still there. Now, however, he could hear her lightly panting and moaning.

John slowly approached, and moved behind her to see where the chains were connected. Pulling the key from his inventory, he cautiously moved closer, not wanting to get burned by the girl made of literal lava. He managed to unlock the first set of chains. He moved around so that he was in front of her again. “Hey, uhm… I’m John. I know you’re under some kind of **** or something but we should get out of here.”

The girl looked at him and it seemed to John that she couldn’t understand a word he said, then she lunged forwards, wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head into his stomach. John let out a painful yell.

A couple of seconds later, his yelling stopped as he realised she wasn’t burning him like he thought. Yes, she was uncomfortably warm especially in the current location, but it wasn’t anything that caused pain. Kind of like standing by a fire on a hot day, very uncomfortable but not painful.

John gently pushed the girl away, then pulled her to her feet. When she stood she leaned into him again, wrapping her arms around him. She wasn’t extremely tall; standing at her full height, her head rested against his chest.

Gently pushing her away once more, giving John a little room, he moved to her side and then picked her up in a bridal carry, which she seemed happy enough with, gently resting her head on John’s shoulders as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Looking back to the kobolds, the fight still continued but the numbers were still dwindling; it seemed to John that one side was outnumbering the other and that the battle would come to a close sooner or later.

He found a small staircase that led back down to where the throne sat. After making his way over a lava bridge, he tried to give the kobolds a wide berth, but he soon found out which side was the majority. “GODDESS THEFT! KILL, SAVE GODDESS!” The larger group of kobolds began to disengage and run towards John.

John was about to place the lava girl down to fight off the incoming Kobolds when the two larger ones intercepted, brandishing shortswords made from luminite. The larger group now flanked was cut down by the Dragonshield Kobolds as well as the much smaller group that had been losing.

The battle finished, the remaining thirty or so kobolds all turned to John before dropping to one knee. John took a confused step back before the two larger kobolds stood up.

“Because of the fight we couldn’t send a search party, but the two of us scoured the tunnels and found no evidence of the one you seek. We suspect they found their way out of the tunnels,” the kobold on the left explained.

“This battle should have never broken out, and though mournful of the loss of many members, as our new master, we shall serve you to the best of our abilities,” the other vowed.

John looked, slightly stunned. “Uh, what? No, I don’t plan on becoming your king or master or whatever. I only came here to find the girls, and they aren’t here, so you guys do what you want, I’m going to go look for them.” John began walking towards one of the tunnels. “... Actually I need some help finding my way out of here.”

“Of course, master,” the two Dragonshield Kobolds said in unison.

John groaned, and dropped his head, prompting Agni to happily nuzzle against him.

Fortunately for John, finding the exit of the volcano was extremely quick. He managed to make good time walking back towards the Cullis Gate, and on the way, he couldn’t help but notice how light the girl made from lava and stone seemed to be. He’d also managed to recover a very good chunk of MP while Meditating the entire way.

Unfortunately, he was being followed. The remainder of the kobolds wouldn’t leave him and had followed him the entire way back, despite his instruction to go back to their volcano and do whatever kobolds do.

At one point he’d gotten frustrated and told them that the two larger kobolds were now their leader. The two kobolds explained, “I’m sorry, master, unfortunately, that’s not how it works, either an heir or someone who wins in a challenge may take that title and neither of us would dare challenge you, master.”

John’s frustration only grew at that and he gave up trying to argue, opting to ignore them and hope they’d just go away.

Arriving at the stone circle of the Cullis Gate, John placed the lava girl against one of the pillars. He looked around trying to see if he could see Ellie, or the girls or… Sprout. They were nowhere in sight.

“Fuck me… where could they have gone?” John thought out loud.

Seeing as he’d gained enough MP to cast Healing Touch again, he hoped that it would be enough to help Agni overcome the effects of the **** or poison she was under.

He knelt in front of her, and she in turn quickly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, causing him to groan. Rather than pushing her away, John put his arms around her and cast Healing Touch. A couple of seconds passed before he pulled away from her.

Looking at her eyes, they seemed to slowly focus, and the quiet gasps and moans subsided. The lava girl seemed to be making an attempt at saying something, but only managed to mumble before passing out.

“Ah shit, what am I going to do with her now? I can’t just leave her here, what if she doesn’t have a place to live? And I can’t take her with me, and I definitely can’t just ask Lani if she can look after her… it’s too bad I don’t have anything like that key thing I gave to Ellie. Oh, or like those magic tents in Harry Potter,” John quietly complained.

“Tent?” a voice called out. “Master want tent!”

John looked up to see one of the kobolds scrambling. Once one had started, the others seemed to get riled up too.

“No, I don’t need a tent,” John tried.

It was too late; several of them had run off all calling and shouting things like “Tent!” or “Master want tent!”

“If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” John grumbled.

He sat next to Agni, rubbing his face trying to get the stress out some way. “John!” a familiar voice called out.

He shot up and looked around to see Ellie walking across the grassland waving at him. A wave of calm travelled up John’s body just knowing she was okay. John smiled as he ran towards her.

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