The last dragon war began in the shadows, when fel dragons in service to Faust unified the forsaken races against the surface.

  Cedric Bospian. In The Last Dragon War, 1st ed.

  ---

  Zale’s sword caught the first Kobold, running it through the chest and Rakin met the next shortly after, running straight at it and bringing his knee up into the small feralkin’s face.

  Kole and Doug each took their own targets, Kole sent a blast of his rod at one, and Doug loosing an arrow at his.

  They took the four down quickly, but not before drawing attention from the horde within. Now inside, Kole could see over the edge of the terrace, and saw that a pile of junk sat in the center of the ziggurat. Junk was the only word he could think to describe it. Eating utensils, pots, scraps of armor, shiny stones and countless other objects formed a massive pile ten feet tall and twice that across. There were the occasional coin and gem thrown in as well, but the only commonality Kole could determine between the items in the pile was that each had the potential to be shiny.

  The kobolds encircled the mound, preparing to lay their lives down to protect the mound of mostly-garbage.

  At the very top of the pile, sitting at the peak like the greatest prize of all, was a perfectly spherical orb. Without any light, it was impossible to tell what it was made of, but even in the darkness with his colorless sight, Kole could see the room reflected in its surface.

  “The orb on top is magical,” Zale said, confirming Kole’s hunch that that was the prize.

  After noticing that, he saw that there were similar orbs around the chamber, both in the pile and on the floor beneath it, but none matched the shimmer of the one on top.

  Unfortunately for them, however, they’d been noticed, and some of the kobolds that were all fighting to get to the front door broke off and began climbing over each other to get to the new intruders.

  “I’ll mist down to the orb and bring it back!” Zale said, already running to the edge. “Keep this door free.”

  Before anyone could give a counter argument, Zale leapt over the edge, disappearing into black mist after dropping a dozen feet.

  Kole stowed his rod, pulled out his quarterstaff and turned to his friends.

  “I’ll try to defend until there's enough to Thunderwave,” Kole told Doug. “Try to keep me from being overrun.”

  “I got this side,” Rakin said.

  They split up at the door, Rakin running at the kobolds charging at them from that end.

  Kole cast Mirror Image, and then did the ran to block the kobolds on his own end.

  Before he got there, two arrows flew over his shoulder, striking two kobolds, the second and third that were coming. Kole swung his quarterstaff around at the first kobold. The small feralkin tried to block with its pitted sword, but Kole’s swing pushed the creature to the side where it fell. Kole, used to training against Rakin and Zale, was surprised by the ease with which he could knock the kobolds aside. Both had supernatural sources of strength and a lifetime of training for proper footing.

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  Kobolds lacked both and were tiny to boot.

  Another Kobold came at Kole, and he blocked its first attack, pushing it back with a kick. He continued like this, fighting to keep the kobolds from surrounding him, and not trying to land any decisive blows. While he fought, Doug kept up a steady stream of arrows, taking out any kobold that threatened to overwhelm Kole.

  The swarm gathered quickly, and after only a few swings of his staff, Kole had to resort to using his shield bracer to keep the creatures at bay.

  When he counted eight kobolds battering at his shield, with no more immediately on the way, he judged it was time. Tracing the template stored in his spellbook—accessed through his Bond, Kole sent the spell through his bridge as he brought his palm up before him.

  A crack of thunder erupted from his hand, and the eight living kobolds and equal number of corpses in front of Kole flew back across the ziggurat and down the stairs they’d just climbed. The bodies struck more kobolds that were climbing and threw those back down as well. It had only been a minute, but Kole was already exhausted. Thankfully the adrenaline of battle was masking that for now. The fact that this was all real, constantly in the back of Kole’s mind, adding an extra edge he never experienced in the dungeons. The realization that he could die pushed his focus to another level as he’d learned in their journeys into that strange other realm.

  While he was safe, protected by the hardball league’s magics, this was all very much real, and as Underbrook had mentioned, the league’s magic wasn’t foolproof.

  Kole risked a glance to take in his surroundings and saw Zale standing over the sphere at the center of the room, swinging at any kobolds that managed to climb the shifting pile of garbage.

  On his end, Rakin kept the kobolds at bay with little if any aid from Doug. He stood at the top of the stairs and had raised a small wall from the stone floor, punching any kobold that tried to climb back over the edge.

  Doug began to support Zale with arrows, and Kole kept his attention split on both her and his own stairs. He drew his blasting rod, holding it in his left hand, and sent a blast of force at a kobold on the pile, and then immediately after sent a Radiant Bolt at the next kobold he saw climb the stairs.

  The results of the second attack were much better than anticipated.

  The blast seared the scales of the kobold, knocking it over, killing it in a single blow. When the golden radiance of the spell’s secondary effect took over, Kole was able to see he’d been wrong, and that the kobold’s scales had been a deep blue.

  But that wasn’t the surprising part. The surprising part was the fervor at which the surrounding kobolds attacked and dug into their glowing brood mate. The glow only lasted a few seconds, but in that time, three kobolds tore into their fallen comrade, not eating it, but digging into him as if searching for the source of the glow.

  With the support of Kole and Doug, Zale was able to bend over to lift the sphere, slightly smaller than a head. As soon as she touched it, everything got much, much worse.

  The dark chamber suddenly lit up as the orb exploded with an opalescent glow. The pile of junk reflected the light, amplifying the effect further. Kole had to shield his eyes, looking away from the glow lest he go blind, and he was once again thankful for learning Darkvision.

  The kobolds went berserk. Kole had thought the feralkin to have been acting well—feral—before, but their clicking sound ended, replaced with shrill hissing and screeches as they clawed over each other to be the first to reach Zale at the top of the pile, Kole and Rakin and even the invaders at the front door completely forgotten.

  Kole expected the light to vanish any moment as Zale misted away, but it never happened.

  Over the chaos of the kobolds, Kole heard Zale shout, “I can’t mist with this! Catch.”

  The light soared towards them, shadows shifting as it flew, and all the kobolds halted and reversed course to follow the path of the flight, right into their secret tunnel entrance.

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