The elite team woke up early next morning. Breakfast was pretty much the same as the day before since nobody brought any other cooking utensils besides the salt that Rahz brought along. This time they had to portion the left over meat equally so that everyone ate enough for the hunting they were about to do.
This was a very important lesson for them. They all decided to keep learning new ways to cook food in the wild. Some porridge would have hit the spot but there was no way for them to bring a big pot to cook it.
The Elite Team was very happy with the area they chose for the camp and planned to comeback every night. After making sure the camp fire was extinguished, they prepared to hunt their first Kobold.
Rahz was very eager to share with his teammates some of the ideas, he had last night. Even though Bhirl and Blaire roll their eyes at him, they still decided to pay some attention to what he had to say.
" Last night, I realized that one of our problems is that we don't understand each others skills. It is very difficult to feel save if I don't know what is coming my way. In my case, I can't swing my Axe confidently if I am always fearing getting hit by Blaire's Icy winds."
" HEY! are you blaming me for your failure as a Warrior? You want me to beat you up like in training?"
Just when Blaire and Rahz were going to go at it Bhirl stepped in. "Wait!! Rahz has a point. We need to tie up our cooperation otherwise if something goes wrong we won't be able to respond."
"I'll go first" said Bhirl.
"I possessed 3 energy abilities from the warrior path and I have 2 skills that I learned due to my intermediate Shield proficiency. My abilities are Strengthen Defense, Devastating blow, and Weakening blow".
"Thanks to my proficiency, I have acquired Shield Bash this is a skill that takes some of my energy and when I strike with my shield, it knocks the opponent back and briefly disorient them. This applies to anything in front of the shield when I strikes. I have tried it and the size of the enemy does matter. Bigger and tougher enemies can withstand the disorientation effect and would only get knock back or only take damage".
"The second skill is a defensive one that increases the range of protection of my shield generating a bigger area of defense. this abilities are both going to be of great importance in a group fight thanks to their great area of effect".
Next to explain her skills was Blaire. She had 3 skills that used energy, one was a minor cure to wounds and the other 2 were her bread and butter so far, Icy winds and Weakness. Since Blaire opted to go the caster route, her proficiency with the 2 Handed staff was only at the beginning level and her only martial skill was Staff Strike which allowed her to strike with the staff twice in a row.
Finally, it was Rhaz turn to show his skills. He had 3 warrior skills just like Bhirl but since his weapon were different then he had 2 more martial skill per SE. He showed his double hit skill and proceeded to demonstrate his cyclone.
Blaire saw how far her teammates had gone in the realm of weapons and bowed to catch up with them. The second weapon skill was a lot more powerful than the first one and when Blaire thought about it, she realized that having an extra skill to rely on in case there was no more Mana available might be the difference between life and death.
Once they went over their skills, It was time to talk about their team fighting. The first fight on the menu had 6 opponents and the main problem they had to solve was how to manage the Range Kobolds that would stay at the back and hurl rocks towards him and his allies.
Subsequently, It was Blaire the first to propose a feasible solution to their problem.
" I think that we can use the decrease in movement speed from icy winds on the Rock Thrower to our advantage. I can start the fight by casting Icy winds on the Rock Throwers and then run all the way to a designated place. Bhirl can wait for the close combat Kobolds that have not been slowed down by my spell. We can use that time difference to take care of the close combat enemies before we need to deal with the range ones".
" It's not a bad strategy, I could probably cast Shield Bash on the 4 Close combat fighters and disorient them, Rahz can then sneak to their backs and use a full charge cyclone to kill them".
"The only thing we have to worry about is the Rock Throwers catching up before we can take care of the other enemies, Rahz could be in trouble if that happens".
" What if the Kobolds catch up to Blaire before she can reach you Bhirl?. If she had the elders speed buff it would not be a problem but this is not the case . How confident are you Blaire? "
" Well is hard to tell how fast they will be. If I cast the spell at max range, I should be OK to come back before they can catch up. "
With the plan more or less settled the only thing left was to decided on the spot for the ambush. They picked a spot not too far away from their camp. The spot was not too bad it had a fair amount of trees for Rahz to hide and made it pretty difficult for the Rock Thrower to have a clear line of sight to attack outside of Rahz's Axe range. The team iron out the details of how the encounter was going to go and proceeded to inspect their soon to be opponents.
The Elite Team stopped about 50 Feet away from the group of Kobolds and laid close to the ground to observe them. The six Kobolds were gather in a circle admiring a small piece of ore that was a little reddish in color and shone when the light hit it. They seemed to be very excited and looked to be discussing a very important matter.
When the Elite Team saw them and saw the ore they couldn't help but smiled.
JACK POT!!
"Looks like the Kobolds found something Nice"
"Lets get ready. Blaire is all up to you now. We'll wait for you to bring them over. Be careful!!"
Blaire waited for a little bit and got a good line of sight on the Kobolds. She needed to make sure that Bhirl and Rahz had enough time to set up and carry out the plan. As the minutes passed, Blaire started to sweat profusely. If something went wrong, it would be really lucky if the snow covered floor was her grave and not some creature's stomach.
When Blaire thought that enough time had passed, she started her spell. Blaire was so concentrated in landing the spell on the range Kobolds that she neglected to see a second group approaching.
Kobolds love shiny things and it was very common to fight for treasure among themselves.
According to the plan, Blaire had to wait a few seconds after landing the spells to ascertain the target was hit and that their friends were ready to charge at her. Blaire followed the plan and stood in plain sight waiting for the group to take a step towards her to guide them to their deaths.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an object approaching her. Blaire turned to look and her pupils shrunk.
OH SHIT!!
Blaire cover her head with both her hands as she duck down in a hurry. A rock the size of a fist passed by the space where her head had been just a second before.
The velocity of the rock was outside her expectations. As she duck down the projectile managed to grace the back of her hand and almost shattered it.
AHH!!! The pain was unbearable but Blaire knew she had to run.
Blaire turned around and supported her body with her good hand to start the run. She accelerated and started to run towards her team in a Zig Zag patterned while cursing.
OH SHIT!! OH SHIT!!
Blaire did not want to look back to avoid feeling scared and just ran as hard as possible. When she spot it Bhirl among the trees only one word came out of her mouth.
R-RU-RUN!!!!!!