Parallel World

As a special thank you for getting over 100 Collections yesterday, I have a few things planned which should allow you to engage more with the story and i'll also be trying to make the chapters a bit longer from now on. Thank you for reading thus far! ~ Godblade.

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Velt and Lilith decided to go along the safer path as the Guard Captain had said, after all, whilst they both could be said to possess decent strength for the amount of time they've actually spent here, it still simply wasn't enough to even contend with some of your standard people here in the Empire.

After swiftly making their way towards the nearby forest, they realized it was exactly along the same route in which they used to 'teleport' here in the first place. All they were doing this time was heading in the opposite direction through a slightly rougher yet seemingly calmer route, they both decided to be a bit more cautious anyway due to the likelihood of an ambush.

Having walked around another 30 minutes, they made it to a split-off in the original one tracked path. Well, I say a split-off but it was hardly a true one in the sense that one path seemed to be the real one whilst the other was a very small jagged path which seemingly led through the forest they were warned about.

Velt assumed that it would be quicker to go along the forest route but also slightly worried about the potential dangers they could face and thus decided against it for now. After all, they could always return when they were a bit stronger and explore that path properly.

It truly was a rather peaceful route, along the way, Velt and Lilith had only made contact with a few carriages being pulled by a horse or two and some even just a person pushing it along. They simply gave a curt nod in which the peddlers would return a smile and be on their way.

Finally, after around another hour or so they had made it to their destination. It was another split-off except one seemed to lead further away perhaps to another settlement whilst the route they wanted was heading exactly towards the mines which were encompassed by some rather large hilly mountains. If you looked from afar and high, you'd notice that one of the mountains in particular whilst being quite far towards the back was actually still overpowering the others in sheer size whilst also producing quite a bit of steam seemingly from the tip.

We made our way towards the entrance of the mines.

Just the entrance alone made Velt and Lilith surprised, after all, it wasn't like a small cave entrance but rather more akin to a smaller version of Dromanov Empire's Gates. They proceeded with caution whilst keeping their weapons holstered at the ready, it seemed slightly off but they wasn't quite sure where the feeling was coming from.

It was at the moment that they entered that they began to hear what appeared to be talking in another language, the voices appeared to be getting slightly closer as the seconds ticked by.

Velt signaled Lilith to be quiet and silently peered around a mounded rock capable of hiding their bodies. He noticed that there was infact some kind of monsters there and from what he could see, there was 3 of them.

Something clicked inside Velt's brain once he had seen these monsters almost like they were slightly familiar to him.

Ah! of course! they must be the Kobolds we were told about ~ Velt thought.

He began checking their scaly like skin and noticed it was indeed very similar to the picture and information they were given back at the guild.

'Umu, if I remember correctly... it should be the white patches of skin on their stomachs leading up to their necks which we can pierce through?'

Velt checked once more and confirmed that they certainly did have a full portion of white skin leading from their abdomen all the way of to their chins which looked a lot softer than those jagged scales which even had lines engraved across them almost as if they're made up of even smaller scales.

Velt called Lilith over once more and allowed her to take a look for herself and compare it to what she had seen previously in the guild too.

Lilith examined them for a few seconds and also came to notice they were Kobolds as previously shown by Kyra, she looked towards Velt and noticed him nodding at her.

The Kobolds were slowly walking up and down almost as though they were doing Patrols.

Velt and Lilith decided to split up to either side of the path they were slowly heading down.

Luckily for Velt and Lilith, they had the advantage of not being seen due to the rather large rocks at the entrance, they decided it was a perfect chance to ambush the Kobolds and waited for the moment they relaxed and came to a stand-still at the entrance.

A few seconds later... the tension was building up as the Kobolds seemingly came to a complete stop just at the cut off point between either rocks coincidentally just to the point they couldn't spot Velt and Lilith on either side of them.

Velt gave Lilith a slight nod and used the terrain to his advantage to push off the stone with his left foot whilst simultaneously doing a roundhouse swing of his leg and successfully making contact with the forefront Kobolds face pushing it a several meters back before it came to a stop resting concussion-ed against the stone wall.

Whilst the 2 other Kobolds were in the middle of being surprised by this sudden ambush, Lilith boosted out similar to how Velt did and made a stab with a short dagger towards the abdomen of the Kobold closer to her whilst Velt intercepted the one closest to him taking a low stance whilst thrusting his spear forward with all the force in his body.

Lilith's attack connected successfully as her dagger sunk into the Kobolds flesh whilst simultaneously twisting the dagger forcing it upwards leaving a deep gash across the Kobolds body, splitting its c.h.e.s.t open in the process. The Kobold lost all resemblance of resistance and immediately fell to the ground bleeding out profusely.

The Kobold Velt was fighting, finally came back to it's senses and released a croaky shrill loud enough to leave your ears tingling for a short while whilst also turning it's body away from the Spear that was currently intending to pierce through it's stomach.

Velt realized he had missed his window of opportunity as the Spear grinded against the deep red scales leaving a slight scratch along the right side of said Kobolds scales.

The Kobold used it's short sword in a slashing motion with one hand.

Velt reacted fast enough to escape the immediate range of the sword but still ended up getting hit across his left hip with the tip of the sword leaving a small gash wound which began to bleed profusely.

Velt squinted at the pain as his eyes glazed over slightly, he grinded his teeth and bit down on his tongue causing him to move once more. Velt did a slight run up and pushed as hard as he could with his legs jumping across the short distance between himself and the Kobold whilst using both hands to force his spear down onto the Kobold with all the strength he could muster.

The Kobold startled by the sudden instant attack couldn't properly intercept it in time like it intended to and instead ended up getting pierced through the heart area luckily causing it to instantly bleed out and die.

Velt knelt on the ground as the sheer pain began to hit him in waves.

Suddenly, Velt felt imminent danger and realized that the last Kobold had shot an arrow towards him, he tried to roll to the side but couldn't successfully evade the attack due to being in too much pain. The arrow pierced through his right shoulder causing him to almost drop the spear.

Lilith ran as quick as she could to intercept the remaining Kobold before it could lodge it's next arrow.