There was a very festive atmosphere inside the main hall of Helgahvall village. Not only was there a huge deposit of Iron Ore inside the Kobold mine, it was extremely easy to extract.
According to Aya, the sheer size of the tunnel network inside the mine was massive. There was no way the village had the man power to control the Kobolds and protect the mine from their attacks if they decided to remove them from the equation.
The solution to their problem was to section off a part of the mine for themselves and extract the Iron Ore they need it to create weapons for their warriors in case another clan wanted to invade their territory.
Iron Ore was truly a double edge sword, it could help the village grow and expand but at the same time it could caused its destruction. Iron Ore was the hottest commodity inside any town that operated close to areas with level 20 to level 30 ancient ruins or to towns that were close to forest that harbored beast in between this level range.
If anybody wanted to make a living in those areas, they need a weapon forged out of Iron Ore. There was always an incredible demand for the commodity but supply was limited. Helgahvall was sitting on a golden ticket, the only problem was that they did not have the strength to keep it. The Realm of Elysian operated on the law of the jungle, and if you didn't have the strength necessary to protect what was yours, you could even lose your knickers.
The amount of Iron Ore in that Kobold mine was simple outrageous. It was the kind of deposit that would attract powerhouses that could devastated Helgahvall in the blink of an eye. So the main problem the village face now was how to make use of the ore without attracting unwanted attention.
In all the years that they had been trading goods in Willowdale Village, they had never carried that commodity. Even if they carried just a couple of pieces, there would be plenty of adventurers willing to take a shot to earn a quick buck. A piece of ore the size of a baseball was enough to buy the food and drinks of an adventurer for a month and in some peoples eyes nobody important will miss a dead Barbarian.
Barbarians always had the stigma of being country bumpkins that could be easily con, and the only reason why nobody try to steal their goods was because they were not worth stealing. All the goods the Barbarians usually brought were low level Ore, Low level pelts, low level spirit flowers and all of it was traded for grain for their families. The risk never equal the reward in those cases.
Having somebody disguised themselves to sell the ore was also out of the question. The Body of a Barbarian was Iconic and they were spotted a mile away. Fortunately, the village had Rahz's dad that was able to work with Iron so they didn't need to outsource the construction of their weapons.
While celebrating their good luck, the leaders of the village discussed the way to acquire part of the mine. It was very easy to send their elites to wipe out the Kobolds but that could be a red flag in the eyes of the surrounding villages. Nothing said, I found something special like the mobilization of forces to defend it.
Bhirl had been paying attention to the discussion among the Elders and in his mind it was the perfect opportunity to get some fresh air.
"I have a solution if the elders would like to listen to it"
As soon as Bhirl said he had a solution, the whole room turned to look his way and quite down. Cerdic smiled proudly and said " Go ahead son what do you have in mind".
Bhirl stepped forward and said, " Since we are not trying to take over the whole mine it would be pretty easy to send a large group of trainees to take over the zone that we want. I would be willing to lead the group and if we called it a training exercise it would be pretty easy to fool those unwanted gazes. For those high level elite we can leave it to scout leader Aya to take care of".
"How many people would you need?"
"Since the tunnels are pretty narrow and only the mining rooms are big enough to fight in, a group of 10 people should be enough"
Chief Cerdic look towards Aya and asked " do you think it is feasible for them to clear the part of the mine that we want"
Aya looked at Bhirl with playful eyes and said " It should not be a problem for them to clear all the rooms except for some of the leaders but when the time comes I could take care of those, so it should work"
"It is settle then, Bhirl you are responsible for picking the team and be ready to start in two days at the latest. Make sure to take Rahz with you, he has been terrorizing everyone in the training grounds".
Bhirl nodded and left the hall with a big grin on his face.
Before heading to the training grounds, Bhirl went towards Blaire's house to inform her of the task they needed to perform during the next few days. Blaire quickly put the Spirit Herbs she had been studying away and followed Bhirl to the training grounds.
The atmosphere in the sparring ring was pretty lively, the day before Rahz had gotten his ass whooped by 4 people and today was the rematch. With the help of his mother, all of Rahz's wounds from the day before had recovered and he was ready to challenge himself once more.
The team that beat Rahz the day before was a pretty decent team, It had 2 scouts, a warrior, and a healer. They were beaten by Rahz in many occasions and their victory the day before felt like 1000 bucks. In their eyes there was no shame in beaten Rahz in a 4 on 1 situation, since the person that suffered the beating was the one to request the challenge.
When Bhirl and Blaire got to the ring the fight was just starting. The crowd was cheering for a repeat of the day before, and was waiting for the chance to make fun of Rahz on his way out of the ring.
Rahz stood in from of the four opponents and said " Lets see if you can take me down today while I am actually using a weapon...come come, I an going to beat you so bad your whole family is going to feel it".
HA HA HA!!
"Better get ready to have your mother heal you again Rahz".
Without further ado, the Referee gave the signal and the battle started. Rahz activated Strengthen Defense and rush towards the healer very swiftly.
The healer didn't panic at all, he had 3 friends that would certainly intercept Rahz before he could even reach him. The warrior jumped in front of his healer and used his two 1h weapons to parry Rahz attack.
The coordination of the 4 people was surprisingly in sync. The warrior posture himself to parry Rahz's attack while the 2 scouts move in from the sides in a pincer assault. It almost looked like the scene from the day before when Rhaz was beaten into a pulp.
"Is all over" said Bhirl shaking his head.
Blaire looked at the ring and smirked " It serves him right for being so cocky, who told him to take on 4 people by himself"
" I meant to say is all over for the group of 4. With that strategy I wonder how they were able to beat him before"
Even though his voice was not loud, the people around him turned and looked at him like he was full shit. However, the next moment left everyone with their jaws wide open.
The attack was all a ruse by Rahz to get everyone within range of his favorite move Cyclone. There was a similar sequence of events the day before but the only difference was the fact that there was no weapon in Rahz's hands. When Rahz launched his attack using just his bared hands, he had minimal range so when the 3 opponents close in on him he was trap and couldn't retaliate.
Cyclone was also a move acquired through the mastery of the 2 handed Axe, it was impossible to use it without it.
Rahz used the activation of his skill to canceled his attack on the warrior. After absorbing the energy for two spins, Rahz lower his center of gravity and the skill went off. The first spin hit the warrior's weapons and left him without balance while the second spin hit all three damage dealers.
BOOM!!
The momentum of the second spin knock every body off their feet and sent them flying back a couple of feet.
After cyclone finished, Rahz activated leaping strike and flew towards one of the opponents. That scout saw a giant shadow falling from the sky before he almost passed out from the pain coming from his abdomen. In order to not injured his opponent too badly, Rahz fell from the sky and stump on the scout instead of using his weapon.
Rahz activated Leaping strike once more and flew towards the next scout but before he could stump on his next target a shadow jumped into the ring and bumped him off his target.
" What are you doing Bhirl, I had him"
"We have a task to do and we need them on the team, it will take too long for them to heal if I let you finish the match"
Rahz stopped fighting and walk off the ring with a grin on his face.
"Finally, the Elite Team is back. YESSSS SIIIIRR!!!"