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Tale of a Grey Kobold

Deep in a dense forest, various monsters, thieves, creatures and the like skulked about constantly. Whether it was for their next meal, their next pawning or even for the sake of the hunt, places like these were generally deemed unsafe for the public and thus, one would need several things to make it out alive and intact. Namely, a group of travelers willing to stick their neck out, either for coin, prestige or goodwill, or someone strong enough that the creatures and the ilk didn't bother them. For a group of travelers, they were luckily both.

"Are we there yet...?" one of them moaned. "My feet are killing me." A large polar bear walked behind the group of people, the five of them positioned in the shape of a triangle; three of them at each corner, and two at the center. The polar bear was dressed in slightly thick brown robes that hung around his slightly bulky body alongside a large wooden staff hitched behind him. His naked paws crunched against the grass, the blades whipping at his fur every now and again. With the sun beating down on them, he wiped another bead of sweat from his brow. Oh, how he missed the colder weather.

Sadly, some of the group was also incredibly impatient. After combing through the dense forest that was the Black Forks, the myriad of trees soon gave way into a vast, green field with no sign of anything for miles to come. The grass swayed in the flowing wind, the blades nipping at their possibly armored or naked feet or tails as they crossed through the veritable sea of green. Almas was but a few hours away, so they had little time to spare.

"Naught but half a day is left, Alex. We'll be taking a break shortly." The next one hissed, an annoyed tone heard quite clearly. The one leading the front of the group was quite possibly the only non-biped of them all. A large, purple hooded cobra snaked along, his tail grinding the grass under his scale. He stood slightly taller than anyone due to his thick coils, the rest of him just as big, if not just as bulky.

The naga was dressed rather scantily compared to his group, as he wore nothing but an open vest with a popped front displaying golden scales that mimicked his own along the fabric. A large, golden ankh hung around his neck, occasionally jostled by his constant movements or by the bouncing of his rather defined pectorals. By virtue of having no legs, he was hard pressed for any other clothing other than the golden belt around his waist and a small bag that hung around it as well. To complete the look, he had two gold armbands around each bicep.

Alex simply sighed again, attempting to bore a glare into the back of Yahnastiss' hood. Sadly, his snake friend was barely in view no thanks to the mount that walked between them. The mount itself was a giant, orange scorpion that took up a good chunk of the space that was set between the three walkers, the other two members of the group saddled upon it. Alex stared upward with a pleading look on his face.

"Come on Kar, mind if we take a break?" Alex pleaded once more. "I'm sure Gareth could probably use one too." The polar bear soon turned his gaze on his next teammate on the other side of the large scorpion mount.

Gareth merely snorted and rolled his eyes in response. "When you become a nobleman, then you can have all the breaks you'd like." The reptile quipped. Gareth was dressed in leather armor from top to bottom, a one handed sword at his side and a hilt for much smaller one hidden on his belt. The reptile was something akin to a dragon, to which Alex joked about him being nothing but a 'bigger kobold'. The comment was met with a plume of fire that erupted from Gar's mouth, providing his lineage right then and there. The dragon's face was rather thin right to the muzzle, bright yellow eyes and two horns sticking from his head like any dragon, including the thick tail the swished behind him. The key difference was the sort of carapace like crown sticking from the top of his head, which made the dragon stand out a lot more with his dark scaled color.

Alex's face glowered as a small snicker erupted from above on the mount. The apparent leader of the group sat on top of the saddle of the scorpion mount, a hand on his mouth in some attempt to hide his laugh.

"Fine. Hopefully we'll make it there on time." Alex mumbled, crossing his arms with a fake pout before he sighed and trekked on.

"See, that's the way to go. Soon, we can all rest at the tavern and stock up." Kardukk soothed the bear's ire. The small kobold sat the helm of the scorpion and the center of the group. Due to the nature of kobolds and their small sizes, Kardukk was the one effectively forced to ride so he didn't lose pace with the others. At close to about four or five feet, the grey scaled reptile was dressed in something akin to knight's armor for a child, but without the torso piece. Two large shoulder pads, thick armored legs and a sword stood at his side. Even despite his stature, Kardukk was a kobold known to many people and creatures. He could understand why the nobleman beside him decided to pick his group of friends for this task.

The nobleman himself was currently asleep, having not slept a wink the entire night while they were in the Black Forks. It was something about the sounds at night keeping him up. Kardukk had stayed up alongside him, but he was more used to doing night watch, so the lack of sleep didn't bother him. As a knight of the Order of the Dragon, and as someone who has no choice to be looked down upon, he had to work harder than anyone else. The team itself lent to his knighthood a lot more as well. Ignoring the polar bear's constant griping, he was an amazing healer, Yahnastiss an excellent mage and Gareth a great back up in the thick of battle.

Thankfully, their escort mission had resulted in little or no injuries. While Gareth thought of it as luck, it was part of the reason Kardukk suggested taking his scorpion with him. While they could easily ward off any threat, outside intimidation worked its wonders at times, too. The Carpenden Plains were the only thing between them, and their current destination, the city of Almas. Kardukk had never been there before, so the quest seemed to perfectly line up with their goal to catch a ferry. They got to help someone, add some coin into their reserves and visit a new place all in one.

As they continued walking, the endless plains, the sun continued weaving in and out of the clouds as it drifted by. The time didn't seem to pass by that quickly, their trek slowly coming to end more and more. Eventually, the plains began to make way for something in the distance. Kardukk could spy a tall cluster of buildings out in the horizon. Soon, so could everyone else. The city of Almas stood at the end of a river that led to the ocean, the smell of sea breeze carried through the meadow. If they kept going, they could most likely make it by nightfall, possibly early evening.

"Ugh, thank the Gods, we're in distance!" Alex cheered.

"Yes, at least we can have some silence." Yahnastiss hissed with a roll of his eyes. As the group pressed on, the grass continued to grow in slow increments. Before, the blades of grass would nip at their ankles, but now they began to reach toward their legs and dangerously to their knees. The city of Almas, along with the bright sun didn't deter them from their journey, but the sudden bit of cover in the wide and vast valley had the snake mage on edge.

Yahnastiss' eyes darted around slowly along the grass, searching for anything that could be perceived as a threat. Alex had finally ceased in his whining, so it allowed him to get a better sense of concentration. He'd elected to be at the front while Gareth covered the flank since the scorpion itself, Kardukk and Gareth were enough defenses for the nobleman. The snake could physically disable anything with his coils if they were close enough, and shoot them from afar with a spell or two.

The more they kept traveling, the more did the snake's caution grow until it finally reached a peak. Something else moved in the grass not that far off, possibly a few steps or so away. Everyone seemed to stop the instant Yahnastiss did. Everyone stared at one another, then the grass upfront to make sure they weren't hallucinating. Nothing but the sound of wind blowing greeted them for a few moments. A silence fell upon the group. Gareth had a hand toward his hip, Alex reached for his staff and Kardukk took a defensive stance in front of the sleeping nobleman.

"Maybe it's just nothing....?" Alex hesitantly suggested to the group. Everyone merely stayed quiet until something burst out of the grass. A robed creature erupted with a threatening hiss, charging at the group full speed from the front. Yahnastiss was the first to react with no time to prep a spell. The naga simply turned and swiped his tail at the creature in some attempt to bat it away. He was met with success as the thick coil knocked the mysterious being back into the grass, but not for long. It dove back into the green cover, emitting another hiss until it finally stopped, nothing but the wind in its wake.

"Guess you were wrong." Gareth chimed in.

As soon as the dragon's words left his mouth, the creature attacked again. The being leaped out of the grass once towards him with a frightening speed. Kardukk was the quickest to react out of the group. Gareth had nowhere to move that didn't compromise their position, and Kardukk could easily leave the protecting to his mount. The tiny kobold shot out against the robed beast, slamming his shoulder armor into it to knock it off course. The unexpected result was the sound of crunching and twisting from the powerful attack. Kardukk blinked in surprise while Alex flinched at the sound of what felt like bones cracking from the kobold's strike, the creature hitting the ground with a thud.

"Thank you, but did you kill it?" Gareth questioned with an expression matching Kardukk's own. The kobold was powerful, yes, but something as small as him with that type of force applied would have taken a lot more speed than he thought Kardukk could dish out in such a short distance. Whatever attacked them would have had to been made of glass or paper for him to hear such a collision.

"I don't know. Alex, can you-" Kardukk started, but the polar bear had already left his position to aid the creature.

Yahnastiss shrugged his shoulders. "I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but it's probably dead. No sense in trying to heal it. I'm just as curious as the rest of you, though."

Alex had already ignored the snake mage's suggestion. Kneeling over the possibly dead creature, the polar bear was able to get a much better look at whatever had attacked them so suddenly. After pushing the grass out of the way, he was greeted to a mess of badly tied robes and garments, a pool of blood already forming. He shuddered at the sight of it, but quickly steeled himself to pull away the mess of bandages around the creature's face and torso to assess what he was exactly dealing with before he got to work.

When he pulled back everything, Alex was dumbfounded. The creature was apparently feline in nature judging from the muzzle, but everything about it was so...wrong. For starters, the entire body was decrepit to the point that he could smell the rigor mortis from a mile away. He wondered what the blood was doing there if this thing was already dead. That also didn't explain the deformities going on with its face. From the top of the head to the muzzle, everything looked relatively normal with standard feline anatomy. The only difference was the....thing sprouting from its chin. Several thick, tentacles lashed out weakly in every direction, almost as if it were alive. In short, he had a semi-dead or alive cat with something sticking from the chin.

His instincts kicking in, Alex tried to work as fast as he could. He raised his hands over the creature's limp body, his staff clutched in it. The tip of the staff began to glow, his hands doing the same as he attempted to cast a 'heal all wounds' spell. Normally, the aura that surrounded his hands would also surround the body the polar bear tried to fix, but to no avail. He tried time and time again, but no success, leaving him more confused than before. The only time that didn't happen is if someone was already healthy or they were dead.

"Eww, what in the Order is that?" Kardukk exclaimed at the tentacles sticking out from the cat's chin, holding his nose shut at the putrid smell.

"Looks like some sort of parasite. But I don't know of anything that can do that." Gareth commented, turning his nose upward to not catch another whiff of the smell of death.

"I...don't know what it is." Alex sighed, standing upright. Yahnastiss finally slid over to check the commotion, the scorpion mount trailing behind. Once the naga finally got a look at what the commotion was all about, his eyes narrowed at the spectacle. He focused on the flailing tentacles until a loud hiss was heard, tugging everyone's attention back to the body.

The tentacles lashed about until they finally stopped and fell dead like the body itself. Everyone stayed silent for a moment until Alex spoke up again.

"So...guys...that thing was dead." He started.

"What do you mean? Of course it's dead, Kardukk killed it." Gareth rolled his eyes.

"Still don't know how of course. Maybe I'm getting stronger?" The kobold shrugged his shoulders.

Alex shook his head. "No, I mean, it was already dead, way before we got a hold of it. Looks like for about some time, too. Thing is, I don't know of any spell that can reanimate the dead without some sort of crazy cost. Any ideas, Yahnastiss?" Alex turned towards the snake for any answers. While the polar bear was the de facto healer and had a decent knowledge of spells, Yahnastiss was the smarter one about other ways of magic.

The snake stayed silent, almost glaring at the corpse laid in front of them before he turned his gaze to Alex. "Are you sure that it was already dead? Absolutely so?" he questioned.

Alex nodded firmly. "I complain about a lot of things, but I know when dead is dead. And trust me, that thing has been dead for a long while, even the smell should tell you that, oof." He winced, waving a hand in front of his nose.

Yahnastiss crossed his arms with a scowl. He racked his brain for any possible links to what sort of magic could bring back the dead without so much as a peep around the area. Dark magic like that required a lot of energy. A lot that the snake himself would have needed a lot more time than he had to spare to bring something back, and he definitely would not have wasted it on something so small. His brain began to tick onward, his tail shifting along the thick grass until a groan was head. The sound shook everyone from their train of thought as the body on top of their scorpion mount began to stir. The nobleman, having been asleep during everything, finally began to wake up.

"Are we there yet...? And...what's that smell?" The man yawned loudly, covering his mouth whilst his stretched his limbs. "Did someone's food expire on the way here?"

The group stared at one another until Kardukk jumped back onto the scorpion and assured him that everything was okay and they were almost there. Using the grass as cover, the body was effectively hidden from the eyes of their charge and they continued along as fast as they could They didn't need to worry them about what was going on and cause anything to go wrong before they even got to the city.

As the group continued on their journey, Yahnastiss couldn't help but glance back in the direction they'd abandoned the body. He didn't feel right leaving it there. He wished he could have burned it before anything, but that probably would have caused natural problems and be hard to put out in a space like that. The snake had little idea of what could cause reanimation in such a way, but something about the tentacles nagged at his mind. He didn't have any source of information to back up his assumptions, so the best he could do was let it lie for now until they got to Almas. Maybe he could check out any books or ask around at the tavern.

Hopefully this wasn't the start of something bad.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip was uneventful as the group finally reached the gates of Almas. A large brick wall surrounded the circumference of the city's entrance, each gate stationed with armed security. The city itself was concentrated, each building brushing up against the next in close vicinity. As the group arrived closer and closer towards the wall leading into the city, something caught Yahnastiss' eye. Several people were perched at the roof of the walls, an insurmountable amount of mana flowing through the air. Alex sniffed the air and took notice of the people above. They were mages. The question was, what were they doing? The group soon got their question as the gleam of a large barrier in the evening moonlight.

"Any idea what that's for?" Yahnastiss asked the nobleman. The snake was met with a shoulder shrug.

"It looks relatively new. Hopefully it's not anything serious." Their charge mentioned. It didn't take long for the group to hear someone screaming.

Everyone's attention became glued to the source, a lady in the back of the miniature lined they'd formed to gain entrance into the city. Something was charging at the barrier and the wall leading into the city. Several things, more like. A small cluster of hooded figures banged and threw themselves against the barrier, each creature wrapped in cloth and robes just like the one Kardukk and the others encountered deeper into the plains. They seemed to just throw themselves mindlessly at the wall, each impact causing a loud hissing sound until it finally stopped. The group of bodies now laid there until a group of guards accompanied by a mage surrounded the body, keeping it out of sight

A flood of whispers overcame the newcomers, but Kardukk's group stayed silent in thought. That was not a coincidence. Finding one of those things was weird enough, but a whole bunch of them at the place they were going to? More of them existing already had Yahnastiss on edge. The tip of his tail fluttered about until the group had reached the gate. Two guards stood at each side of the wall and the double doors that granted access. The barrier rose and fell upon each new entry, almost like an invisible doorway. Once the five of them had reached the gate, the guards bowed in the direction of the nobleman.

After assuring that everything was okay, the guards let the group inside with a stipulation that they leave the giant scorpion mount in a stable near the entrance. Kardukk agreed with no problems to that, but before they left, Yahnastiss had more pressing matters to ask about.

"Do you happen to how long those things have been attacking here? We ran into one on our way." The snake questioned.

"About a week or two. I don't think it's anything to worry about, they can't get past the barrier or they're too stupid to try." One of the guards shrugged his shoulders, jabbing a thumb towards the crowd over the pile of corpses not too far away. "Do you mind hurrying it up, you're holding the line."

Yahnastiss nodded with a hiss. The naga would have bothered to ask more questions, but he figured he would be able to find out more if he did some digging himself. After walking past the walls and dropping off Kardukk's scorpion -he always had some odd mental link with it, so he never worried about it- to the nearest stable and assuring the caretaker that it wouldn't attack anyone, their next goal was to leave the nobleman off to the center of the city.

Almas in of itself was a large city with buildings stacked near other buildings almost uncomfortably so. The air always smelled of the sea mixed in with other scents due to the port not too far off on one side of it. For such a concentrated space, there didn't seem to be any broken or trashy locations that stood off once they got inside. The one thing that caught the group's attention was the large tower located in the middle of the city. Even from afar, one could spot a balcony in which several figures stood on it almost daily. The nobleman mentioned that it was a tower built for the government of the city, but he didn't say much else. Once their charge was dropped off to the tower since he apparently lived near there, the group was finally paid for their work.

Their next stop was the nearest tavern to get some food and sleep. It didn't take long for the group to find one, as the district they'd gone down was full of them. They eventually settled on a nice looking building with a sign that read "Discounts for travelers!". As Kardukk and the others stepped inside, they noticed that the bar was rather populated with people. It took them a bit to find some space to sit and order their food and drinks, once that was done, everyone seemed to sit back and let out a long sigh.

"So...What do we do now?" Alex was the first to speak. "I know we were going to take the next boat, but..." his sentence died off. Everyone was thinking the same thing.

Something weird was going on in Almas. Security was one thing, but a barrier enveloping the city was something else entirely. "But where would we even start?" Gareth pointed out. "It's not like we know anyone in this place."

"We do it the old-fashioned way. Ask around; maybe see what we can get." Kardukk suggested.

"But can we do that tomorrow? Or at least after we eat?" The polar bear mentioned, resting his head on the empty table. Gareth rolled his eyes at him.

"While I rarely agree with Alex, he has a point. I don't feel comfortable leaving this alone, but eating and sleeping is probably our best course of action." Yahnastiss hissed, leaning back on his coils a bit. The naga didn't have much of a need for seats, plus he tended to break them at times.

"Fair. Tomorrow then." Kardukk nodded. It didn't feel right, but after a long time in the plains, the forest and everything else, sleep and food sounded like the best thing. It didn't take long for their food to arrive as well. All four of them dug into their separate meals and drinks, the heavy conversation laden in confusion giving way to a bit of joy at their bellies being full for another night. The evening soon dwindled by and the four of them soon went to the second floor of the tavern. A large, spacious area was filled with at least ten rooms each with its own bed and other things for the weary traveler. Everyone took to one room for the night to get a good rest. It didn't take long for the night to pass and the sounds of snoring to fill the second floor of the tavern.

However, something tore the peacefulness of the night as everyone was sound asleep. A loud, sharp screech traveled through the city with a frightening speed. The sound slammed into Kardukk's ear drums, making him burst awake in a flurry of limbs and blankets. The small kobold panted, clutching his ears as the screech continued to pound his ears for a few seconds longer before it stopped without a warning.

"The heck was that...?" he whispered to himself. The grey reptile looked outside the window of his room to see if he could spy anything that could have made such a sound. The streets were void of any life at this hour. Nothing in the sky except the gleaming barrier greeted him. Was he imagining it? He had to go check. Kardukk, dressed in nothing but his briefs stepped out of his room and headed towards Yahnastiss next. When he stepped inside, he found the naga sprawled out on his bed, still sound asleep.

It was the same with Alex, Gareth and anyone else on the floor.

It sounded way too real for everyone else to be asleep. Kardukk slithered back into his room with a yawn. The kobold took one more stare out of his window to see if he could spot anything that would have helped him in finding out the source. The sound wasn't anything that seemed human. After seeing nothing once again, he plopped himself onto the bed and fell back asleep. Whatever it was, he would have to worry about it tomorrow when they started searching for clues.

When morning broke, everyone was awake and took to the streets to ask around. Yahnastiss was headed towards the closet thing he could get to a library, Alex tagged along with Gareth to ask people if they'd seen anything weird going on in the city in the last week or so. Kardukk was left to find out the mystery of the scream he'd heard last night. The kobold asked his teammates about it once the group had woken up, but he got a resounding shake of the head when he brought it up. Alex thought he was imagining things, Yahnastiss pressed him more about what the scream sounded like and Gareth seemed indifferent about it.

Regardless, they didn't write him off about it, which was a good thing. Now Kardukk just needed something to support what he heard for the sake of proof while also finding out what exactly was going on in this place. The barely armored kobold took to different resident buildings and taverns located in the district. Some didn't give him the time of day and immediately ignored him due to his sizes, others simply shook their head upon mention of the sound or if anything odd had happened in the last week.

As the morning turned into the afternoon, Kardukk's search turned up blank. It seemed he was completely alone in what had happened. The kobold sat down near a building, his armor gently clanking as he stared up at the sky. "Am I going crazy?" he said to himself. "I'm talking to myself, I must be." The kobold finished with a small chuckle.

Maybe he could see how the others were doing? They were probably going to continue their search until nightfall, so that left Kardukk with enough time to get back on his feet and explore more of the city. He'd only gone through one district; he had a lot more to comb through before he could call this a failure. He stood back up, nodding and flexing his arms a bit. The kobold didn't have much muscle to speak of, but it was more for himself than showing off. There had to be someone out there, he just knew it.

As soon as Kardukk motivated himself to take to the streets once again, a sound cut through the air. A sharp, piercing screech that made the air wobble alongside the magical barrier erected over the city. It lasted about a minute, maybe even more, but it left a ring in Kardukk's ears as he clutched his head to drown out the sound in any possible way. Soon, it started to fade away, leaving only a ringing sound in the kobold's head. Not even a minute after that, the ground began to shake. Kardukk's footing, already disturbed by the mysterious screeching sound was now thrown completely off balance by the quakes. They seemed to come and go, one after the other leaving Kardukk to fall right on his rear.

Soon, the tremors began to dwindle away into nothing but a dull shake. It wasn't enough to throw anyone off, but it felt like the ground was simply unstable. It took the kobold a few moments to regain his composure as he got up and stared around. People began to emerge from their buildings, looking around to take assessment of any damage and asking neighbors if they were okay.

"I'm gonna guess everyone heard that..." Kardukk mumbled to himself.

As the flood of people began to grow more and more, the city's security began to respond. A well dressed, armored group carrying poles, swords and any other weapon imaginable emerged from a corner, presumably from the center of the city itself. The cluster of men carried some sort of crest -one of Almas, Kardukk thought- on their chest pieces. They slowly assured that everything was okay and they could return to their homes and businesses without a problem. Kardukk crouched in an alleyway between two buildings as the group of armed men directed everyone back, making sure no one was hurt as well. Neither of them seemed to take notice of the kobold, which came out to Kardukk's favor.

"The barrier is next, right?" One of the guards mentioned.

"Yes, sir. We've been told that after securing civilians to report there for further defense."

All of the guards soon left in another direction. While Kardukk didn't understand what was exactly going on, large groups of fighters going to one specific place to handle something meant one thing; trouble. Where there was trouble, there was everyone else, usually. Even if the others weren't there, he couldn't leave this alone. Regardless of his size, he was still a knight.

Soon as the guards took their leave, Kardukk followed them closely behind about a block away. By the time he arrived at the entrance of the city where they'd first arrived, the kobold entered a nearby building and he found several things; A a lot of Almas guards bunched up against the double door entrance along with different squads taking up the wide entrance and something outside the barrier. It was those undead creatures again, a lot more of them this time.Unlike before, a large hole was located a few feet away from the entrance itself, and they were pouring out of it like several at a time. They flung themselves at the barrier, instantly catching fire whenever they touched it. The guards stood at the ready in case the barrier was unable to withstand the amount they kept coming. Kardukk stared at the scene in confusion, scratching his chin.

"Hey, Kar!" A voice called out, snapping the kobold out of his thoughts. Kardukk looked around for a few seconds until he found the source of the voice. Looking down near the entrance, the kobold's theory was right. Where there was trouble, there was everyone else. Alex waved down at him, Gareth's attention turned to the crowd of Almas guards and Yahnastiss seemed to be conversing with someone. They were mostly obscured with a brown hoodie, but with the way they were talking and taking into account the naga's no nonsense attitude, it had to be important. When the kobold arrived at the ground floor, Yahnastiss and the hooded person ceased speaking to turn their attention to the kobold. The mysterious being was as tall and broad as the muscled naga, even under those clothes.

"You're Kardukk? I've been meaning to meet you for some time!" the hooded person let out a squee-like sound. Kardukk stared up at them with a surprised expression. They soon removed their hood, revealing themselves as a starry-eyed tiger, bright green eyes looking down on the kobold with amazement.

"I'm Ignatius, I'm so happy to meet you! I'm a big fan of the things you've done, word gets around quickly within some circles and-"

Kardukk looked up at the tiger, seemingly dazed and embarrassed by his reputation. Before it could go on any longer, Ignatius was cut out of his moment of meeting one of his idols.

"Get to the point, Ignatius." Yahnastiss interrupted with a hiss.

Ignatius reeled back, staring at the naga with a bit of a pout. The tiger crossed his arms and rolled up his sleeves, burly striped arms and thick hands showing off the bit of size he had despite being a mage. "Okay, so I met up with your snake friend after he started asking around the tower if anyone had any idea of what the things outside the city are. Considering we don't exactly get out much and the guards never bothered investigating, we didn't have much to go on until today. We have an idea of what's going on, but we need one thing before we can move on." He finished, holding up one broad digit.

"First, going by what Yahnastiss said, has anyone heard some weird cry in the middle of the night, maybe before you got here? If what I'm thinking is right, that person is the one who's able to stop all this." Ignatius finished once again. The group of travelers looked at each other curiously. Ignatius was met with four shrugs until Kardukk raised his hand.

"Um, yes, I have. I asked around if anyone else had, but no response. It wasn't until the second one today that everyone seemed to have heard it." The kobold responded.

Ignatius' eyes lit up again in wonder. He leaned down a bit, taking Kardukk's hand and shook it rapidly, Kardukk's body flailing about a bit. "That's great! I knew you'd be the one, not just cause you're awesome and everything, but that's just we need!"

"What exactly do we need here?" Gareth interjected. "You're telling us that you maybe have an idea of what's going on and you just ­_might_need one of us until you can make whatever it is work? I don't buy it."

Alex shared a glance between the large tiger still clasping at Kardukk's tiny arm with a burly hand. "I'm usually the one for optimism, but I'm kind of lost on this too."

Ignatius soon stopped shaking Kardukk's hand and stood upright again. The feline took in a deep breath and nodded. "I understand that, but if what I'm thinking of is right, we may have more on our hands than just some undead things." Ignatius pointed towards the crowd of creatures bashing into the barrier. They constantly poured out from the hole not far from the gate, running with limb flailing about.

"Whether I know anything or not, I'm treating it like my last chance. If you don't believe me and want to leave, I can't exactly stop you."

"Hold on just a second, we never said we were leaving." Kardukk said sternly. "You just haven't given us much to work with. Heck, if Yahnastiss trusts you-"

"Trust being the operative word." The naga cut in.

"Then no reason for me not to." Kardukk smiled. He turned towards Alex and Gareth, the polar bear and dragon looking apprehensive.

"Well, not like we can leave-ow!" Gareth yelped, clutching his side as Alex jabbed him.

"Count us in then." Alex smiled, giving Ignatius a wave to ignore the dragon's sudden outburst.

Ignatius grinned from ear to ear. He took turns shaking everyone's hand -taking as much time as he could with Kardukk- before he resumed. With everyone on board for now, he just had to get them to the tower and go from there. The tiger convinced them that the barrier would hold, if only not to worry them. It had been erected for a long while and while the mages around the city that kept it up took it in shifts, Ignatius wasn't entirely sure if the structure would hold when presented with stress.

He just had to hope he had enough time to start researching and figure out a plan from there. It took close to twenty minutes to reach the tower at the center of the city. The tower itself was the tallest structure in the entirety of Almas, housing decades worth of information and history, as well as a home for several other mages. The outside of the tower made it look like any old tower; only a few windows here and there, one large entrance at the front. When the group stepped inside, the tower itself was incredibly spacious. The ground floor served as a public library of sorts, shelves upon shelves of books with a large, spiral staircase going up and down into the next floor.

Ignatius led them past the library, explaining that he'd run into Yahnastiss here while he was searching the shelves for something and everything else had happened. Shortly after, each of them went up the spiral staircase; they were shown each room that occupied the building; archival rooms, the occasional den and so on until they arrived at one of the uppermost floors.

"Welcome to home base." Ignatius waved a hand over the entirety of the floor. This part of the tower was built only for the mages of the city and served as a vast well of information for each and every one of them. Spells, lore, history, they had it all. While Gareth didn't seem terribly enthused by it all, Alex, Yahnastiss and Kardukk were. The three of them stared at the rows upon rows of books that were laid out upon the shelves, the size of the floor itself twice as much as the library downstairs.

"This is..." Yahnastiss stared wide eyed at the sheer size of the area. If he had his way and a lot more time to spend in the city, the naga would have assured himself a lot more time would have been spent up here to do a lot of reading.

"Great, right?" Ignatius smiled. "I get kind of lost in here sometimes myself." The tiger chuckled. As the group soon filled into the center of the library, everyone took a seat on a thick, wooden finished chair, two tables laid out for reading with candle lights illuminating the entire area.

"Alright, so how about you guys get comfy for a bit? Yahnastiss, I need you and Kardukk to come with me." Ignatius said, beckoning the naga and kobold over deeper into the depths of the library. Yahnastiss slithered on ahead without much complaint while Kardukk looked confused for a moment.

"I'm not exactly book smart or anything, why do you need me?" The kobold asked.

Ignatius shrugged his shoulders. "You tell me. I want to double check what you said and run some things while your friend and I hit the books. Hopefully that's not a problem?"

Kardukk shook his head.

"What about us?" Gareth chimed in. "We're not just extras here, you know." he snorted.

"Yeah, as much as I like sitting around, I wouldn't want to feel useless or anything like that." Alex agreed. Sitting around in a library didn't seem like the most exciting thing as well. The polar bear wondered about what was going back outside as well. Would the city need help? While he wasn't one for putting himself in the spotlight, he was still a medic.

"Unless the barrier breaks, we really don't have a problem. You're free to roam around and read what you want so long as you're quiet about it. I won't lie, this might take a while. As you can see, we've got a lot of ground to cover, even with me, your friend and the other mages here." Ignatius suggested.

Gareth merely scowled and kicked his feet up onto the table to relax. Alex sighed and started to take to the shelves to find something to read to pass the time. Once the two were out of the way, Kardukk, Yahnastiss and Ignatius got to work. The three of them traveled off deeper into the library, several other hooded mages following behind them. Yahnastiss and Ignatius paired off into a group, leaving the kobold with the others who had decided to help the tiger for the city's hour of need.

Each of them preformed different magical tests and experiments on the kobold as the time passed by. One of the mages, a doberman conducted physical exams of endurance and strength using conjured weights, increasing or decreasing the intensity as he saw fit. The next one was on a magical scale, done by a rather peppy otter who tested Kardukk's magical prowess with nothing but a leaf and a chalice full of water. Depending on how the water, the leaf or the chalice reacted would indicate what sort of magical abilities the kobold possessed. Kardukk always hated this one. He'd taken it back while on his way to become a knight, but was quickly shown how little magic kobolds held as a species.

The tests kept the kobold occupied while Yahnastiss and Ignatius got to studying about what they were up against. As the minutes began to meld into hours, their search was proving far less fruitful than they had thought originally. The current shelves they scanned through were strewn with books every which way on the floor, some closed or some open to make sure they didn't forget any minor details.

Finally, it all seemed to gain some sort of profit. During their search, Yahnastiss came across a small, leather bound book at the end of the shelf they had last been searching, tucked in between a book and the end of the shelf, which shared the same brown color as the book itself. It wasn't labeled, but it looked old enough to consider looking through. The naga brought it to the tiger's attention, and they slowly began to sift through the scribbled text for any details.

The writing was slightly worn, but incredibly detailed in the contents. Most of it spoke of religions and deities of old either lost to history or changed in names in the current day, but one description stuck out. The book spoke of an old creature, older than anything in the book. It spawned within large gaps of time, but it was nothing that the occasional sacrifice didn't fix. Ignatius scowled at that detail, but continued perusing.

One of the biggest indicators of the sacrifice was that the people were hooded or wrapped in thick clothing except their head and tossed somewhere where the eventual city of Almas would be formed. The note about the clothing had the naga and tiger glancing at each other.

"You don't think?" Ignatius started.

"Coincidences don't exist, so I have to go with yes. Keep reading." The naga hissed.

The details on the creature itself were very scarce. It noted that that it bore some resemblance to an ocean entity sleeping underneath the sea, held back from the combined weight of the ocean itself. Almas did lead into the ocean from its port, but it didn't seem to be alluding to that. As the two continued reading, Yahnastiss and Ignatius found a lot more details that had them looking at one another in slight panic.

"This is a much bigger problem than I foresaw." Yahnastiss mumbled. "I'll go get everyone else and tell them there's been a development."

"Tell me about it...I'm gonna keep reading, see if this thing has anything we can do to stop...whatever this thing is." Ignatius said as he waved the naga off. He brushed through the pages as quickly as possible, eyes darting through the worn text. There had to be something to save the city in this tiny book. Why bother chronicling all this information if they didn't have a way for there to be an Almas to save? It didn't take the tiger long for the breath he had been holding to release as he found something that might have a been a clue towards their salvation. As the tiger thumbed through it with a broad digit, he blinked a bit. It mentioned something about a 'silent scream only heard by one'.

"Silent scream..." Ignatius turned his head up in thought, only to see Kardukk and the others coming up in a mad frenzy.

"What's all this about a giant creature destroying the city!?" Alex spouted out, looking at the tiger wide-eyed. The polar bear was met with a resounding 'shush' that echoed through the library from the other mages.

Ignatius frowned at Yahnastiss. "Couldn't let me break the news?" The naga shrugged his shoulders. They had a right to know just as much as he did about the situation, it seemed right.

"But yes. Those things down there are just a precursor. Some old creature that's been sleeping near the city is waking up. All those things down there were sacrifices to keep it happy. I guess when the city formed, it never became a thing and this book was the only thing left." Ignatius explained. "However, I think there's one way to actually stop it. And again, that's going to involve Kardukk."

Ignatius started to flip through a few more pages before he stopped on a specific one. The page itself was littered with various instructions, an incantation of some sort and the requirements for the process. "It says that the one who heard the 'silent scream' is the one who's eligible for this for process. It doesn't say what it'll do to you or if it stops the creature permanently, but I think it's the only chance that we have at this rate."

"Do you think we can just not beat this thing off?" Gareth suggested. He was met with a shake of Ignatius' head.

"Nope, and I'm not exactly keen on sacrifices, especially at this late stage. Any ideas, anyone?"

The tiger was met with a resounding silence.

"We can do the book says. If it's our only option and I'm the only one that can do it, I see no reason not to try." Kardukk announced.

"Are you sure?" Ignatius pressed on. "I think you standing up to the odds are rather inspiring and all, but I'm still worried that something could go wrong. We also need a lot of magic for this. We have some mages here who aren't handling the barrier along with myself, but..."

Kardukk nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. What sort of knight would I be if I weren't for the citizens of any city?"

Yahnastiss gave the kobold a firm, supportive pat on the back. Gareth merely nodded in agreement while Alex gave a smile. "And you have us for back up should anything go wrong."

"Alright, that's great!" Ignatius grinned. Everything seemed to be looking up so far. "All we need is to get the other mages and get the spell workings ready at the top of the tower and-"

Before Ignatius could finish his sentence, a loud thoom-like sound shook the floor of the room. Not just the floor of the room, but the entire tower. This was not like the quakes from last time, however. The quakes continued to get larger and stronger, almost knocking several shelves over in the library.

"To the roof!" Yahnastiss called out. "Where do we go?"

"This way! Guys, I need you up here, stat!" Ignatius yelled to the other mages on the floor. He bit his lip in anger as his hooded companions and the heroes followed suit. It looked like they weren't going to have the luxury of time with this. Once the group finally arrived to the top of the tower, the wide, circular shape let them see the entire expanse of the city, along with an almost three-four story drop to the ground. From there, everyone could see past the looming walls of the city and what was causing the quakes. They were definitely out of time.

At the edge of the city, the hole that emerged near the gate began to spread, the land sinking into itself just for that. A loud roar sliced though the air, forcing everyone to cover their ears from the ringing. Then, it emerged. It was nothing like Kardukk or the others had seen before. It was like someone grasping the edge of a mountain, clawing their way up for their survival or nothing but death would greet them if they fell. A large mass of tentacles slithered along the circumference of the hole, each thump and thud of the creature shaking the city to the core. Soon, everyone was able to take a look at the beast that would threaten the city of Almas.

A large, naked creature, almost feline in appearance roared to the skies. The evening light hit its decayed tusks and whiskers, tongue slithering about its maw in hungry delight. Just like the other undead creatures before, it was covered in pale tentacles that jutted from one of its arms. Or rather, the tentacles were its arm. It had a few on its chin, but it looked more like a beard than anything. The torso of it was clearly humanoid right down to the legs as it continued crawling up the hole, its shadow growing bigger and bigger the closer it got. Finally, when its paws were the last to come out from it, they slammed down with such a force that everyone atop of the tower was thrown to their feet. Muscles bulged and flexed from the grotesque creature as it scanned its surroundings, taking in the new environment with a glee that could only be understood as freedom. For something that had been trapped under the earth for who knows how long, a change in scenery was incredibly welcome.

To everyone else, however, this was a massive problem. Waves of foul magic erupted from that beast like a dry heat, suffocating everything in its vicinity. The grass at the foot of it quickly began to die and wither, anything else in the area suffering the same fate. The barrier began to wobble and undulate like hard rubber under just the force of this thing's presence. If it even began to exert force against it, no one knew what would happen to the city itself. Finally, after what felt like too long, Ignatius spoke up with a stammer.

"A-alright, we need to get started right now, everyone, form a circle around Kardukk, anyone not involved, out of the way!" Ignatius barked. The tiger's heart was close to leaping out of his chest. No one seemed to question his commands, they all probably felt the same way too. That thing was huge, it towered over the city and the barrier, so it had to be at least 30 meters, maybe even more to get that high. The spell they were using would make something to combat the threat, but Ignatius wasn't sure if it would be enough. No, it had to work. It just had to, or they were screwed. Ignatius gave the beast another look and got everyone to take their positions. They had a spell to do.

With the leather notebook in hand, Ignatius explained to everyone details of the spell once more. To help with the process, several other of his companions began to draw large magical circles, one wrapped within the other as fast as they could with chalk. Every second they had couldn't be wasted. Kardukk stood at the center of the circles, Alex and Gareth keeping an eye for any new developments with the creature. They could see Almas warriors and other men charging at the monster, but the results weren't pretty to report back. It was better that they didn't say anything unless it was going to break the barrier, which looked like it could have been any second now.

Yahnastiss studied over every circle to make sure not a piece was mis-drawn or scrubbed out by accident from the outer area of the rings. Once everything seemed in order, the naga, Ignatius and the other mages took their positions, each one next to each other until they made a circle of their own around the ring.

And soon, they started. Alex and Gareth didn't break their eyes away from the monster, but they could feel magic warping through the air, almost like a thick fog that clouded their eyes as it began to build up and center all towards Kardukk. Each mage had their own pool of magic from which their body manifested, but bigger spells like this needed filters and something to bring the magic from laden from the area together. Almas itself wasn't much of a place where magic was as thick as soup, but any mage worth their salt could pull the magic here from the air and make do with it. When one multiplied that by several, the results would be that much better.

"Focus." Ignatius needlessly reminded everyone. They couldn't screw this up. At the center of the circles, Kardukk was feeling less than well. The magic that kept building up was like a pressure that stacked on every bit of his body. Even a single motion like waving his arms felt like he had weights attached to them since his body wasn't that good of conduit for the stuff. He couldn't manifest it or absorb it unless he had something like an in-animate object to help him with. Except for his armor, he had his sword stashed away, and his slight metal wasn't going to help him now.

Though as soon as the weight was there, it began to vanish completely. A bright light illuminated the magical circles, the mages pouring more and more power into it until they couldn't anymore. Kardukk felt a lot better now as the magic was no longer a nuisance, but rather...invigorating. It was like he'd just dove into a warm bath, the water soothing his little muscles to the brim. Kardukk couldn't help but smile gently as the flood of magic continued. Unknown to him, the kobold would be in for a rude awakening.

"I hate to break it to you guys, but we have company barging in!" Alex cried out as he pointed towards the gate.

The massive tentacle armed creature let out another deafening roar. It slowly raised its arm, almost like it was winding up for a throw. Alex turned back towards the group, the magic flowing in at an almost constant rate. Why wasn't anything happening? They were doing everything the book said, Alex thought. Why hadn't there been any change? When he turned back to see the creature, the writhing mass the monster called an arm slammed down along the barrier with immense force. The ground shook and the barrier began to wobble in place. It didn't stop there, the creature let loose another powerful slam of his paw onto the barrier once again. The ground continued quaking, the barrier beginning to strain.

"I think we're out of time!" Gareth announced, readying his blade. Alex already had his staff at the ready. "What's taking so long?!"

"I don't know!" Ignatius cried. "I figured this spell would have had enough magic by now!" The tiger panicked. Did the spell need -that much-, more than several mages could apply in a city of dense magic? It didn't help that the barrier was also up, but Ignatius didn't think the barrier's existence would have hampered the idea. Before he had any time to think about it, Alex was next to yell.

"Everyone take cover!"

Clasping both arms, the creature swung his arms together at the barrier after winding up once again. Just like last time, the barrier wobbled, but not before it shattered into pieces like glass. The barrier, no sooner after it fell, did the let out a cry of victory. All of the magic that had gone into making the barrier soon returned into the land itself...or so it was supposed to. As the apparent pieces of the barrier would soon evaporate, all of it had been transferred elsewhere.

Kardukk, in his temporary bliss, hadn't noticed the cry about the barrier going down. Instead, he was mentally swimming in joy in the pool of power provided by his mage friends and Yahnastiss. However, that mental comfort soon took a turn. The kobold's eyes opened in shock as he lurched to the ground with grunts of pain. No one seemed to notice the kobold rolling around in pain until Kardukk started yelling and the sudden influx caught the attention of the mages and Yahnastiss.

"Kardukk! What's going on, are you okay!?" The snake yelled. He didn't get any response other than grunts and yells of pain.

The pleasure was still there for Kardukk, but the overwhelming power was something entirely different. Wave upon wave of pure strength overflowed into him and he felt like he was going to burst if he didn't do anything with it. His claws feebly dug into the brick of the tower, tiny muscles flared and flexed to their limit. Soon, those limits were surpassed in an instant. Kardukk, despite his pain, craned his head up to focus on the deity-like creature invading the city limits. As if rising to the challenge of fending off the beast for the pure sake of putting this power and then some to use, Kardukk began to lurch and swell. His muscles, previously small and athletic for the sake of movement, now began to inflate and flex themselves larger.

Every bit of Kardukk that hadn't been covered now burst and exploded with sheer size, the strength making him roll his now broadening shoulders. Bones popped and cracked, the sound making Ignatius cover their ears, as between the roaring and the sound of Kardukk changing, someone was bound to go deaf. Kardukk's size began to change as well, the now not-so-little kobold reaching from his miniscule height of barely five feet to ten feet. Then twenty. The scale continued to climb, his skimpy armor and any other modicum of clothing now gone or torn from the growth of his monolithic body. The kobold now looked like an absolute tank of muscle. His immense quads forced him to spread his legs apart, the equipment in between not helping with that matter, his arms and torso so filled with bulk that if it weren't for the weight he carried, one would have thought of him as a balloon, and rightfully so.

It didn't take even a few seconds before Kardukk climbed up in size again, taking up the entire space of the top of the tower in no time, forcing everyone to huddle together as his feet stomped around to get some sort of bearing on the already small tower. It didn't take long for the beast known as Kardukk to get the hint and simply jump off towards the ground. While most of the mages let out a sigh of relief at the space, Yahnastiss was confused. Once the ground shook with Kardukk's collision, he saw the lumbering beast propelling in size yet again and again.

"Why is he still growing? I'm still confused as to how this happened, but..." The snake murmured. He turned back towards what remained of the top of the tower. In Kardukk's wake, most of the circle had been obliterated and bits of the ceiling looked slightly caved in. The spell had worked to some extent, but something was wrong.

"What do you mean?" Ignatius replied.

"Well, Kardukk said it before. He was never attuned to magic, but now, he's sucking it up faster than he probably knows what to do with, and that's what I mean. I do not have a good feeling about this." He hissed. Once he finished his explanation, Ignatius saw what he was talking about. The thick, fog like magic that surrounded the area was moving yet again. The mages weren't the cause of this. It all seemed to be converging towards Kardukk. That indeed was not a good sign.

As Kardukk began bounding through the streets, every step was met with another propelling of growth. He'd long passed fifty feet and was now on his way to seventy and then some. His broad, overly bulked up and padded shoulders brushed against the buildings he passed by, the streets beginning to get too small. But then he simply got bigger again, any building now coming past his waist and overly packed quads, like a child running through a miniature city. He honestly didn't even know why he was running. After the sudden influx of power, he was on a one track mind. That one track was to beat the thing coming into the city and to get stronger. He loved how he felt right now. For someone who stayed most of his life forced to look up at people, being the opposite was the main driving force.

The kobold's face contorted into a grin. His face had changed as well, giving the kobold more draconian look to his face alongside two tusks that stuck upward from the bottom of his muzzle. His hands and toes now bore razor sharp claws, the ham-sized digits themselves able to tear through anything before his claws would be able to. As he soon approached the undead beast, Kardukk felt yet another surge of magic flowing into his body. His scaled frame began to rumble, his chest tensed as he suddenly blew up again in size. The tentacle armed creature stared at the growing kobold in mild curiosity.

At his size, the kobold was barely at his chest. However, in the time it took for him to actually get here, the kobold was now glaring at him face to face. Normally, any living creature would have its energy withered away at the mere presence of him, but he stayed, thrived even.

Before the monster had any time to think on it, Kardukk attacked. The now hundred foot kobold lunged at the beast with all the strength he'd amassed. The tentacle armed beast was thrown back a good distance, but not enough to lose ground. They dragged their feet along the ground, leaving huge canyons of dirt and destroyed debris from the wall they'd come tumbling through until they arrived back at the hole from whence the creature had appeared from.

"Back!" Kardukk snarled.

The creature hissed back in retaliation. It didn't take long for the tentacles that amassed its body to be put to work. They ensnared and surrounded Kardukk's face, forcing him to stop to try and pry them off, but to no avail. With substantial contact, the monster grinned in joy as it began to suck the magic Kardukk had amassed within seconds. It didn't get very far, though. Once kobold began to shrink, another flood of magic returned from somewhere, inflating him back to his current size. At the surprise and assuming it was a counter attack, the beast landed a solid punch to the kobold's stomach and sent him flying with a throw of his arm back into the city.

Kardukk crashed back into city limits, buildings near the now destroyed wall crumbled underneath his impending bulk as well. The kobold didn't seem to pay it any attention and merely stood up and charged at the beast again with a shoulder tackle. The two exchanged blow after blow, the ground shaking and trembling with each hit. With the two monsters just barely out of the city and most of the citizens evacuated towards the other side of the city, things were safe for now. The only thing that mattered was when would things go south?

"This is definitely not good..." Alex muttered. He, Gareth, Yahnastiss and Ignatius had all hitched a ride on Kardukk's personal mount. The massive scorpion, while normally sharing a mental link with Kardukk, obeyed Yahnastiss as second in command when the kobold was out of commission. And considering he was a hundred foot tall monster battling it out with another monster and not responding, he was definitely out. The scorpion flew through the air, two ethereal wings carrying it as they surveyed the streets of Almas for any signs of stragglers and the damage. So far, Kardukk accidentally taking the fight outside was a good fluke on their part, but the location had a very big chance of shifting if something went wrong.

"You think he'll be okay?" Ignatius asked. He'd been insisted and outright told to stay back by Gareth and Yahnastiss, but the tiger insisted himself that he come with. While the other mages listened, he felt horrible. He couldn't leave without seeing if Kardukk was okay. This was primarily his fault and he needed to see this through whether it was good or bad. Right now, it was boarding just in between. Every blow and attack from the two giants forced the scorpion mount to keep its distance just in case something happened. So far, the situation was tame. They kept bashing the hell out of each other, but something soon turned for the worse.

After making distance between themselves and the two beasts, the fight soon escalated. The feline monster opened its mouth and it began to shoot out black flames in the kobold's direction. While everyone on the mount feared for the safety of the city, something of Kardukk's beastly mind forced the kobold to keep his position. The flames rolled off of him and onto the ground, their constant dance of fists making the ground uninhabitable for any grass to catch fire. The flames pained him, but it was nothing that he couldn't bear through. A single punch to the gut solved the fire problem, prompting a 'woot' from Alex as the group watched from above.

The fight resumed from there, Kardukk landing yet another punch square in the creature's jaw. It seemed to do the job as the monster buckled back from the consecutive hits, giving the titan sized kobold another chance to strike once more with a swipe of his tail. The attack sent gusts of wind blowing in every direction, forcing the group on the scorpion mount to fly back against their own will. The tail blow made contact with a sickening crunch heard through the city. Kardukk soon let out a deafening roar. That crack meant that he was doing damage and this wouldn't last for long.

The beast attempted to fight back, not willing to let his one chance of freedom go to waste. After all the time it had spent underground, being fed barely anything and even that stopping to a halt was unforgivable. This overgrown lizard was not standing in his way. Before Kardukk attacked, tentacles from every orifice fired out towards Kardukk. The kobold, being of such immense size, didn't have any chance of dodging the onslaught of appendages. Each one wrapped around everywhere; neck, limbs, torso, anywhere the tentacles could get their grubby mitts on. Each one began to constrict and tighten, limiting the kobold's breath, the intnt to choke out whatever life Kardukk had left.

"No!" Ignatius yelled. "We gotta help him, he's gonna die!"

Everyone looked at each other closely. They couldn't do anything at this size. They'd be like mosquitoes up against a giant. As the chokes and grunts of Kardukk resounded through the the battlefield, everyone nodded towards Ignatius. They couldn't just idly stand by and let their friend do all the work. The ethereal winged scorpion took towards the two dueling giants as fast as they could.

Kardukk scrambled, his claws reaching for one of the tentacles around his neck to try and pry it off. Every time it began to give, it would just clamp on tighter and tighter, his breaths slowing down in pace as he tried to breath and snort through his nose. His mind was racing, he wasn't letting go, and the kobold was put far enough that he couldn't punch or thrash his way through this. It wouldn't stop him from trying anyways. The mad, titanic kobold continued his attempts at freedom, his breathing beginning to slow down more and more.

Before the beast had his chance to claim at victory, something attacked him in the eye! It was small and bright, but something had struck him right in the eye. It merely stung, but another assault on his face made his attention break for a few seconds to find out where the attack was coming from. The instant he started to look around, another object collided into his eye. This one was hot to the touch. He screeched, this time in actual pain as the fireball from the bright thing zipped about, his free arm attempting to catch it. Try as he might, the scorpion mount stayed out of reach, only going in when launching an attack.

Yahnastiss grinned as several of his fireballs had made direct contact along with Gareth's knives. The big guy was too distracted with Kardukk that any sort of outside force was essentially invisible to him. But it was just what the kobold needed to gain ground. As soon as he felt the tentacles loosen for one reason or another, he struck like cobra. The kobold used his claws, tearing off the tentacle around his neck right down one side and tackled over the beast. The land quaked from the sudden tumble, the two of them sliding right near the hole where it had emerged. Kardukk had his hands wrapped around the creature's neck, a screech erupting from it as his claws dug into the slightly squishy flesh it bore.

This had to end now, Kardukk thought. Amidst the adrenaline and magic fueling him, it was the one thought that kept aching at him. He needed to end this now; he didn't have all this power for nothing. For the first time, he was at the forefront of something and was damn well going to make sure that didn't go to any waste. The kobold, taking in a deep breath of air, felt the magic around and inside him build up in his stomach, rising up to his chest. It felt like another surge of power, but this one was quite different. He could feel it lurching at the back of his throat, ready to burst at a moment's notice. And that's all he needed.

With one mighty shove, his muscles pumping and flexing, Kardukk slowly began to shove the screeching creature back into the hole it came from. With the beast still marred and its vision torn by its injured eye, the kobold suffered no problems in getting him back in there. With one last push, the tentacle creature fell inside. Kardukk didn't wait to hear a thud, because whatever was building up in his throat wasn't going to wait for him, either. The kobold's maw opened, and without warning, a white hot stream of fire erupted from his maw. It erupted like someone had finally let the faucet open of whatever depths of magic that Kardukk had been storing this entire time.

The fire was hot enough, strong enough that it made Ignatius and everyone cover their eyes. It was like the sun had just risen in front of them and threatened to burn their eyes off if they stared any longer at it. Kardukk's maw was open wide, the flames pouring out of him and into the hole, wisps of fire igniting the grass around him within seconds. If anyone were strong enough to bare the light, one could have imagined pure lava pouring out of his mouth instead of drool. A loud, hissing screech was heard from the depths of the hole that only Kardukk could hear. To everyone else, they could only hear the rushing of wind and trying to avoid the excess flames that rolled off from the titanic kobold's lips.

The flames finally seemed to stop alongside the screeching, the light that emanated from the kobold finally dying out as the flames rolled away. Everything remained silent for a few moments. The only sound was of crackling fire until Kardukk's head craned over inside the scorched and now melting hole that he was in front of. Nothing was there. He couldn't feel any magic other than the absurd amounts of his flowing through his veins now. With no other sign of what used to be there, Kardukk raised his head.

And he roared.

It was a roar all too familiar to Yahnastiss and his group. Kardukk wasn't one for being loud, his victory cries were anything but that. Everyone seemed to humor it and the kobold took it in stride since it helped the team become that much closer. Now, the naga wasn't so sure what it meant. The howling sound that he now heard was monstrous, distorted as Kardukk poured his lungs out in the biggest, loudest victory cry that anyone in or around Almas' vicinity had heard in their lives.

Right after Kardukk had finished proclaiming his victory to the lands, he turned towards Almas. With all the power flowing through his veins, the fact that he'd taken down a servant or pseudo-deity, a thought crossed through his warped, magic infested mind; he could take this place for his own. And so he would. Kardukk let out another roar as he turned his heel and set his sights for Almas, slowly trudging towards the remains of the gate. On his way, the kobold quickly began to demolish anything and everything in his path. The fires he spewed from before had already turned into their own, spreading through the grass land and some of the debris around the front side of the city.

"What's he doing, we won!" Gareth spewed. Everyone had stayed silent, trying to process what was exactly going on. This wasn't the Kardukk they knew. There was no point in thrashing and demolishing, which meant that he wasn't all that there right now.

"He's probably drunk on power." Yahnastiss hissed, crossing his arms. He patted the side of the scorpion, prompting it to fly over towards Kardukk. "The magic he'd absorbed was clearly enough to wipe out that beast, but now that he's just flowing with the stuff, he probably doesn't know what to do with all of it."

"So what do we do?" Alex asked. Yahnastiss turned towards Ignatius. The tiger nodded back, then directed his gaze to Alex.

"Well, filter it back out, it's the only way. We can't take him head on, but depriving him of his source should do the trick. All we need is a way to get to him without him noticing or swatting us." Ignatius mumbled. Before he had a chance to assess an idea, someone had jumped off the flying scorpion.

"Gareth, what are you doing!?" Yahnastiss cried, watching the dragon land, then tuck and roll on the roof of a building before heading off in Kardukk's direction by hopping over every building. The dragon shot off as fast as he could, faster than the naga thought he could run.

"Providing a distraction, I guess." Alex groaned. "That idiot, he's usually the level headed one."

"Well, no matter what, he's helping. I just hope he doesn't die for it." Yahnastiss said. "Let's get in position."

The scorpion flew off, trailing behind the rampaging Kardukk while Gareth struggled to keep pace with all the jumping and running he was doing. Jumping off was a stupid idea, but he couldn't sit idly by while everyone had something in mind to do. Most of the city had been evacuated, and anything serving as a distraction was currently under molten earth and fire, so it was up to him. He just hoped he was up for the job. As he ran and sprinted, the gray dragon finally got close enough to jump onto one of Kardukk's fingers and make his way up the only way he knew how.

Gareth pulled two knives out from secret compartments and quickly lodged them into Kardukk's hide. At his current size, it would have been nothing more than a mosquito bite. It was more like several quick bites as he used each one and continued stabbing into him, climbing up and up as fast as he could. Thankfully, it seemed the act of climbing and stabbing did enough to spare Kardukk's attention from razing the city and onto the bug that had climbed up on him. Gareth, with no other option than to keep climbing, finally gained enough momentum to dodge what was coming next. It was an inherent reaction to anything walking upon your body. Everyone did it at one point or another. No matter what size, swatting your hand onto you was the quickest way to silence any threat. In Gareth's case, the large, grey, bulky hand that went towards his way could not have been fast enough. He counted his miracles as he was just out of range of Kardukk's hand, the sudden wind propelling him upwards until he'd reached near his elbow. Using another knife like climbing gear, he stabbed Kardukk once again and resumed his trek upwards.

With Kardukk sufficiently focused on something else, Yahnastiss, Ignatius and Alex were left to perch themselves on the base of Kardukk's tail, the scorpion mount flying off somewhere.

"So, what do we do, actually? I'm not as good of a mage as you are, remember that." Alex huffed, staring up at the imposing wall that was his kobold friend. It was still a little unbelievable that he was this tall and threatening. The little guy wouldn't even hurt a fly. The same one grazing a city just didn't seem right.

"Well," Ignatius started. "This whole thing is because we pumped magic into him, more or less. The only thing we can do is take it out of him. I don't know how long it'll take, but if we make a big enough hole, metaphorically speaking, the magic should just leave him like normal. You guys said that he had no affinity for magic, right? Once he regains consciousness, we should be good."

"Operative word being 'should'." Yahnastiss scowled. "But we don't have much of a choice in the matter. Just think of it as stealing instead of giving when you do your healing spells."

Alex gulped and stared back at Kardukk. He made it look a lot easier than it sounded, especially when their source could literally stomp on them without so much as a thought. In the back of his mind, he hoped that Gareth was doing okay. By some feat, he was successfully taking their attention from the massive kobold. All they needed was some time. Without a word else, everyone got to focusing.

Stealing magic required constant physical contact for whomever you were taking it from. Considering Kardukk was mobile, large and very quick on his feet, they needed to be fast about it as well. With a good grip, the three of them pulled and pulled on the invisible tether kept the over abundance of magic that Kardukk stored. All three faces tensed as the veritable tug of war dragged on. Every so often, Kardukk would tug back like it never happened. Though right as they felt like they were making progress, things began to shift out of their favor.

Kardukk was looking down at them. The overly muscled kobold possessed a thick neck with mounds of scaled muscle, his traps overflowing to the point the Kardukk had lost any semblance of a neck. Even so, the attempt to look behind him even past that mountain of muscle and the now forceful tugging of his magic meant that Gareth wasn't doing a very good job right about now. Kardukk's tail slowly churned and shifted, the mere casual action more like bulls attempting to throw them off in a fit of madness. The two mages and healer clung their fingers and tails into the scaled surface with all the strength they had once the kobold's enormous tail began to whip around.

"Shit!" Gareth yelled. On the other side of the kobold mountain, he could see that his attention was on something else. He wasn't looking at him, which meant that it was the others. The dragon was currently past Kardukk's biceps and making way to his shoulders and attempting to make a faster pace. The kobold twitched every so often, meaning that his knives were doing something at least, but it wasn't enough. He needed more. Finally, an idea came to him. He stared back up at the distracted kobold with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me for this," Gareth mumbled to himself as if it were like a prayer.

Without much time to spare, Gareth climbed as fast as his limbs and lungs would let him. In a mad dash of speed, he arrived at Kardukk's shoulder and jumped as high as he could until he reach the kobold's face. Kardukk's eyes soon turned back to the dragon who clung to him like a fly. Kardukk's face turned into a scowl, then a snarl as he tried to snort a blast of air in the dragon's direction. Gareth hung on with every inch of his life until the winds stopped and took the one chance had left.

Before Kardukk wound up for another burst of wind, or worse, an arm, Gareth launched up with another leap to the kobold's forehead, shoving a knife right through the scale to keep himself up. In the seconds that followed, Gareth let out a deep roar and shoved one knife, then his blade into the kobold's eyelid. It was the only bit that wasn't covered by any sort of scales, so it was the only part Gareth could hurt. Spurts of blood rushed forth from the two small injuries, Kardukk howling in pain.

The titanic beast covered his injured eye with a hand, much too focused on stopping the bleeding and removing the offending object to do anything else. The haphazard movement quickly sent Gareth flying with no other bearing for him to grab on. The dragon flailed around for something nonexistent to grab as he descended towards the ground at a frightening speed. He wouldn't be able to land without some sort of major injury the way he was going. At best, he'd still be alive, at worst, he'd be dead. And he was more willing to take the option that left him alive.

Thankfully, before the dragon's body got any closer to hitting the ground, something collided into him. Something incredibly bright and flowing with color. The flowing winds now weren't coming from under him, but from the sides. When Gareth looked around, he saw the familiar top of the flying scorpion he'd jumped off of. Gareth started to chuckle slowly, his voice turning into a full blown laugh. He could still feel his heart beating like mad.

"Thank you, truly! Now, with that out of the way, let's hope the others got the job done." Gareth said, patting his flying savior. The scorpion let out what sounded like a chirp or clack of its mandibles as a sign of agreement. While Gareth wasn't skilled in the way of magic, the dragon could obviously tell when success was made. After he'd injured the massive, towering kobold that was their comrade, something else happened. A large burst of white erupted from the kobold, but it wasn't an attack or anything of the sort. If Gareth had any way to describe it, it probably would have been something akin a balloon being let go of air. The way Kardukk stopped lurching in pain and how he attempted to claw at whatever was being released back into the planet was the only way he could make such a comparison.

With the increasing loss of power and pain, Kardukk's body finally began to shrink. "Good...." Gareth mumbled. He splayed back on the scorpion, patting its side. "Let's go pick up the others." Without hesitation, the ethereal winged scorpion jetted off in the direction it had left the other three. As Kardukk's body continued to shrink, so did his muscle mass. Just as he climbed the scales previously, it was like someone had deflated him until he arrived back at his normal size. Due to the pain and shock of all the magic leaving his body, the kobold was now passed out on a heap of rubble.

After regrouping, everyone rushed over to the knocked out and naked kobold, their chattering filling up the now quiet and destroyed section of the city. When they finally arrived to pick up Kardukk, a loud yell came from Alex.

"you stabbed him in the eye!?" The polar bear cried.

Gareth, normally never flinching at Alex's tone, did so for the first time. "I didn't have a choice. And it w as only his eye-lid, I was careful." The dragon protested. "At least he is okay, right?"

Alex carried the unconscious kobold in his hands and took a quick check of him. He nodded. He was out of it, but still fine save for the dribbling blood coming from his closed eye-lid. Alex took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. He leaned into Kardukk's sleeping face, foreheads meeting as small tears began to flow from his eyes onto the kobold. Gareth watched and rolled his eyes. He always had to be so dramatic with fixing people up. Alex's tears were a specialty in the way of healing. It usually healed any mild or major wounds within a few seconds and only used when needed. Once the tears made contact with Kardukk's eye lid, the blood soon stopped flowing, the two insertion wounds that Gareth had made now slowly disappearing.

"Why isn't he waking up?" Gareth said.

Alex shrugged his shoulders. "No idea. I guess after everything, he's gonna have to wake up himself."

Gareth nodded, then pointed towards the next unconscious person of their group. "What about him?" he asked. He was currently pointing towards Yahnastiss, who was just as knocked out as Kardukk, with Ignatius carrying him around the shoulder. "What even happened back there?"

Alex turned towards Ignatius who seemed to be too busy trying to keep himself balanced and not trip over the unconscious snake. "Well, after trying to get all that magic out of you friend, this one here took on way too much for him to handle and blacked out in the process. It worked, but don't know how long it'll take for him to wake up either. They should be fine, nothing is technically wrong with them. Your friend did the healing tears thing, same thing, didn't wake up." The tiger finished explaining.

Gareth scratched his head in confusion. They probably just needed to rest up the old fashioned way. "This is why I don't understand magic," he grumbled. "We'll just let them rest and get on out of here."

Alex looked at him like he was mad. "Why? We can't just leave after making a mess!" The polar bear motioned towards everything. Even while part of the city had been destroyed, it was still damage. He couldn't just up and leave, especially when they needed to stay so their friends could sleep.

Gareth also turned towards the mess. "And if you didn't realize it, we're also the cause. If anyone was watching, they would have seen Kardukk rampaging around like a manic. Staying is not a good option."

Alex furred his brows and glared at him.

The staring contest continued for what felt like forever, something caught everyone's attention. They could hear voices approaching, a big cluster of them amidst the debris from the fight. Ignatius, in a spur of the moment tactic, began to load up the knocked out Yahnastiss onto the scorpion mount. "Go."

"Wait, wha-"

"Go. I'll handle the guards, they could be here any second, and I doubt you want to explain all this. Just head off back into the plains and the forest, then come back when the coast is clear." The tiger pressed on.

"But-" Alex started once again before Gareth cut him off.

"We'll be back in a few days to the port, we were going there anyways. Thank you." Gareth stressed.

Once seeing that he was outnumbered, Alex folded. He settled up Kardukk and Yahnastiss together along with what gear they had on them onto the scorpion, Gareth jumping on and taking the reins while Alex kept them secure. It was stupid to leave, in Alex's opinion. Nothing was going to come of hiding because it was their fault. If anything, it was going to make them look worse. Hopefully Ignatius had a plan to help them out. He had to. Once the scorpion took off into the darkness of the night, the ethereal wings glowing brightly, Ignatius turned towards the debris and started walking towards the sound of the guards in fake pain and groaning for them to find him.

As the scorpion went through the grassy fields at a low altitude, passing by the destroyed lands, the massive hole and much more, Alex analyzed his two passed out comrades with a scowl, the wind flowing behind him. They were going to be okay, he reassured himself, Kardukk especially. While the wound from Gareth was mostly patched up, the polar bear couldn't help but take another look at Kardukk up close. It was probably the random flashing lights of the scorpion's wings playing tricks on him, but Kardukk looked different.

He looked...bigger. Normally, the kobold looked rather lanky and thin to the point of undernourishment, but it was a trait normally known to that species. Right now, Kardukk looked like he'd worked out for years with some extra muscle to show from it. Even as he slept, Kardukk was not only bulkier, but a tad bit taller since he took up a great deal more space on the mount as well. It was probably nothing, but he couldn't shake his mind off of it. As the city of Almas began to disappear, Alex sat back with a sigh, staring at Gareth's back. Hopefully nothing else went wrong.