Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage-Chapter 527: Kobold Mountain II

CH527 Kobold Mountain II

***

Materialising from the shadow realm at the mountain’s peak, Udara stared at the natural shaft with a curious expression.

She considered how best to seal the opening.

A moment later, her eyes lit up.

[Amazonian Might]!

The newest ability born from her rank advancement and bloodline improvement surged to life.

Internal energy flooded her muscles, making them swell ever so slightly. Outside her body, thick, almost-corporeal darkness mana wrapped around her arm.

Then she punched.

BOOM!!!

There was nothing subtle about it.

The seemingly slender limb unleashed a catastrophic strike that forced the mountaintop opening to fracture inward.

[Shadow Dash]!

Udara vanished without waiting to admire her work.

She reappeared at the base of the mountain just as the summit gave way, the upper structure collapsing in on itself with a thunderous roar.

When she arrived, Alex had just impaled the two kobolds guarding the main entrance with hardened [Mana Lance] spells.

He glanced at her as she materialised beside him.

’They’ll definitely know something’s wrong by now,’ he thought. ’We need to finish this fast.’

Alex rolled his shoulders and gave a subtle wave of his hand.

Now, he prompted OmniRune.

In response, two spell circles silently manifested deep within the cave’s main passage.

[Delayed Spell: Double Fireball]!

OmniRune hadn’t merely restored the basic [Fireball]. It had also successfully reconstructed its delayed variants as Rune-Tech cast spells.

"Bring down the entrance," Alex ordered.

He didn’t even need to. Udara had already moved.

Boom!

Her fist smashed into the stone once more, triggering another collapse.

At that moment, Havel and Silver returned to join them—Havel, unmistakably, having taken his time.

Boom!!

The twin delayed spells detonated within the cave.

Hidden behind the rubble of the collapsed entrance, the explosions sounded muted.

But the heat—

The heat it released was merciless.

Rock walls softened, melted, and burned, releasing choking fumes that raced through the labyrinthine tunnels.

Inside, panic erupted.

Kobolds surged toward the exits in a desperate stampede, trampling one another in terror.

Many died beneath claw and foot before the smoke could claim them.

And those that survived long enough to reach the exits found only ruin.

The entrance had collapsed.

Hard, heavy stones they couldn’t budge stood in their way.

And so, one by one, the weaker kobolds suffocated as the poisonous haze devoured the air.

At first, the thunder of kobolds scrambling to escape echoed through the mountain, even through the collapsed stone.

But gradually, the noise weakened.

Then it faded... Until nothing remained.

Alex still had the group wait another hour before attempting to clear the rubble at the cave’s entrances to allow fresh air in.

He wanted confirmation.

Absolute confirmation.

By then, the rest of the party had regrouped with them, making the clean-up far easier.

Yes, the process took time. But it guaranteed safety.

And it allowed everyone a chance to recover their stamina.

The orcs proved the greatest asset in the labour. Their raw, natural strength let them move boulders that would have stalled others, carving a path into the cave with impressive speed.

As always, Silver took point once the entrance was accessible.

Fen wanted to follow at her heels, but the thick, choking scent of smoke rendered his nose almost useless. In truth, Alex would have ordered him to remain outside if the moon wolf hadn’t been so stubborn about accompanying them.

[Search]!

Silver knelt and pressed her palm to the ground.

A pulse of energy rippled outward through stone and soil. Moments later it returned, information streaming into her mind much like a bat reading echoes in the dark.

Alex almost told her not to bother.

With Spirit Sight from his Truth-Seeker eyes, he could already determine whether any kobolds remained alive.

But he stopped himself.

Silver’s [Search] could reveal far more than life signs.

As expected, she mapped the intricate network of tunnels carved throughout the mountain. Unlike Alex, she could also distinguish which passages were commonly used and which served as little more than decoys.

Before long, the party began encountering bodies.

Dozens.

Then scores.

Eventually, there were too many.

To save time, they split into smaller groups that remained behind to harvest useful materials from the corpses while others continued inward until more splits were necessary.

The deeper they went, the closer they drew to the core of the kobold settlement.

Then Alex’s eyes twitched.

Something had entered his perception through Spirit Sight.

By now, only the core members remained together—Alex, his wives, and his four principal combat followers.

They arrived at a fork in the tunnels.

There were two directions, either of which could lead forward.

But this deep in the network, Silver could no longer judge importance by traffic.

Both paths had been used frequently. Seemingly, both mattered.

Alex stepped forward.

"We’ll go this way. You guys go that way," he ordered.

He pointed his followers to the right, seemingly at random, while he led his wives down the left tunnel.

Eleanore and Udara did not question it.

But Zora paused for a moment, her eyes lingering on Alex’s back before she turned her attention forward.

As expected, the tunnel opened into a cavern.

A very large one.

Large enough to hold every kobold in the mountain at once— in hundreds or, perhaps even, thousands.

And from the look of things, this was their place of worship.

Bones hung from crude frames. Paint marked the stone in savage symbols. Totems made of skulls and twisted wood surrounded the clearing.

Yet the greatest indicator stood at the centre.

A three-metre-tall kobold statue.

It overflowed with faith energy.

So much so that not only Alex, but all three of his wives felt the pressure immediately.

At the statue’s feet, surprisingly, one figure still lived.

The kobold shaman.

"@#$%^&*!" the creature screeched hoarsely, raising a trembling claw toward them.

They did not understand the language.

They didn’t need to.

It was clearly a curse.

"Kill him," Alex said calmly.

Udara vanished.

In the next instant she appeared within the shaman’s shadow, dagger thrusting forward to end it.

Cling!

A barrier of mana erupted around the kobold.

Udara’s blade struck it and rebounded violently, forcing her back toward the entrance where Alex and her sisters stood.

"Are you alright?" Eleanore and Zora asked at once.

"I’m fine," Udara replied, steadying herself. "It was just a rebound effect."

"Get ready," Alex suddenly warned. "It’s coming."

The women focused on the shaman.

But the creature hadn’t moved.

"Not the shaman," Alex clarified.

He pointed.

"That."

Their gazes followed his finger.

To the statue.

At some point—no one could say when—it had ceased being stone.

Muscle rippled where rock had been. Veins pulsed with molten light. Claws flexed.

The idol now breathed.

A living, three-metre-tall kobold towered before them.

"Argh!"

A scream rang out.

They turned.

The shaman’s body shrivelled where it lay, life drained in an instant.

Dead.

Alex almost rolled his eyes in a very Zora-like manner.

’Why protect him if you were just going to kill him anyway?’

There was no explanation was required for the phenomenon before them.

The answer stood, clear as day.

Divine Descent.

The entity worshipped by the kobolds, enraged by the slaughter of its believers, had come personally to exact retribution.

***