Harsh yellow light flickered over the street, provided by a dozen tall lamps, all lined on the side of the road. It was a new moon tonight, so the street lamps were all he had as he patrolled the streets. He held an FN P90 personal defense weapon tightly, with a mounted flashlight attached to the barrel of the firearm. While such a gun may seem like overkill for a simple night patrolman, he was not watching for a normal threat. No, this man, and the rest of the city, for that matter, were faced with an infestation of Kobolds. These creatures were roughly four and half feet tall, supernaturally strong and fast, and utterly brutal in their actions.
He thoroughly searched the dark spots between the pools of yellow light before stepping into and through them. Kobolds were not very smart, and while they were mostly driven by instinct, they were expert hunters in many different methods. Hence the patrolman's cautious and slow pace. After repeating his actions for several minutes, stopping and aiming into the dark at anything that dared make a sound, he finally came to a bar parking lot. There were a few cars in the lot, and several large pools of darkness in the lot, due to the poor condition of the street lamps. The patrolman decided to stop for a drink. He'd worked hard, and his shift would be over soon anyway. However, the patrolman was not entirely foolish. He kept his gun up, safety off and flashlight on, inspecting his surroundings with every step he took.
He was especially careful around cars, as a Kobold was more than small and nimble enough to kill him from underneath a car. As he passed a car underneath a street lamp, he heard a sound. One that sounded like small feet skittering at high speeds. And it was coming towards him! Whirling around, he trained his gun onto the one responsible for the sounds. It was a Kobold. In appearance, these creatures could best be compared to a mixture of a lizard and a dog. It's forearms and shins and parts of its torso and head had thick hair. The rest of the beast's body was covered in thick scales of varying colors. It's face was ugly, consisting of a long and scaly snout, with fangs so long that they spilled out of the monster's jowls and gleamed in the lamp light. The creature's eyes were yellow and beady, with black, bar shaped pupils that lengthened and shortened as it regarded the patrolman. It stopped at the opposite end of the car, and slowly, a smile began to form on its face. The patrolman quickly lowered his hand to about thigh level and muttered something. Instantly, his skin began to glow with bright red light. He chanted more and his skin grew brighter and brighter. The kobold realized that the air was becoming warmer and warmer, and after a quick scan of the area, his gaze focused on the patrolman once again. The heat was coming from his hand, meaning he was obviously preparing to attack with fire in some capacity. It drew it's sword from it's waistband. The man didn't hesitate for a second, and fired a burst of bullets from his firearm. Much to the beast's surprise, and to the man's horror, the kobold swung its arm up and smacked the bullets away, shattering the car's back window as they spun away.
What followed next was a comedy of errors. The patrolman panicked and forgot the last word in his incantation, causing his spell to fizzle out. The kobold leapt at the man, and despite the light, he failed to see the creature until he felt it's stubby fingers closing around his throat. Kobolds, despite their small size, are hundreds of times stronger than the average man. And so, when he tried to scream, to struggle, to fight back in any way, all of those efforts failed. The monster's eyes flashed as it decided to stop playing around, and tightened its grip. The man's trachea burst immediately, and his neck shattered into thousands of pieces less than a second later. He was dead before he even hit the ground.
The patrolman's corpse spasmed a little, and the kobold began to loot the man's corpse. Unfortunately for the beast, there was very little of value to him. Some pieces of paper, a plastic slate and a long plastic container that had small, rounded, objects inside it.
On the man's hand, was a golden band. Having kept the keys for smelting, due to a metal shortage in the camp, it carefully closed the other fingers into a fist, and held the man's ring finger out. He raised his sword, and hacked the finger off with one fell swing, also leaving a gash in the concrete beneath the felled finger. Blood poured from the wound and filled in and pooled around the gash. It pulled the ring from the severed finger and then returned the man's appendage to him.
It pocketed the ring and the keys, and also took the strange metal objects with it. Perhaps they could be melted down. Little did the beast know that it's attack hadn't gone unseen. A man watched from the shadows. He was of average height and had an average build. His hair was as black as a raven's wing. It was cut short, and was currently hidden under a hood. The man's face was obscured, as he wore a dull black and golden mask. It had no eye holes. Rather, the mask was translucent, meaning that the man could see out of it, but no one could see into it. He wore a heavy gray long coat, and underneath it was a tight and thick black shirt. The man also wore cargo pants and combat boots. He sighed as he watched the kobold leaving. The patrolman's death could have been avoided, had he kept up with the kobold better. On the other hand, he had a decent gauge of the kobold's strength as a result of the man's death. This one appeared to be of average strength and speed, meaning it was of little threat to him. The creature began to scurry away, and the man followed, hoping it would return to camp soon.
The man's name was Knox. He'd long since forgotten his first name, and didn't see any point in trying to remember it.
The creature skittered across the ground on all fours, blurring past it's surroundings at alarming speeds. Knox followed, keeping several meters behind it and also keeping an eye out for more.
Kobolds are not extremely smart, but they are not stupid either. What they lacked in brain power, they made up for in mastery of hunting tactics and excellent team work. Experienced hunters and warriors were little match for a squad of kobolds, assuming they were on their own and were unprepared for them. With this knowledge in mind, Knox began to allow a little more distance to form between him and the monster.
Unsurprisingly, five more kobolds appeared out of nowhere and began to run alongside the original. Each carried a different weapon, and they all had a different color scheme to each of them. Knox continued to follow them, despite a growing gut feeling that it was a bad idea. His steps were nearly silent, and he moved quick enough that even the most trained human eye would have a difficult time keeping track of him, in shadows or in light.
After a few more seconds of running, The kobolds stopped in the middle of a parking lot and split off in numerous different directions. Knox stayed hidden and lay in wait, theorizing about the significance of this lot. Perhaps it was a meeting place, like a hub of sorts? More importantly, which of the monsters should he follow? Given that he was more familiar with the first kobold, following that one made the most sense. He strayed out of the shadows, and as he crossed into the various pools of yellow light given by the street lamps, a blood curdling shriek came from the darkness just outside of the light he was standing in.
A kobold, this one with red scales and blue fur, attacked him with a crude battle ax, swinging the heavy blade in an overhanded arc. Knox effortlessly dodged, despite being caught by surprise. The ax crashed into the ground where he'd been standing a few milliseconds before, smashing a meter wide crater in the concrete. Dust and small particles of concrete blasted in all directions, and Knox quickly realized that these creatures were stronger than he'd assumed. The kobold darted back into the darkness after seeing that its attack had failed. It was likely going to try and repeat the same move, so Knox quickly decided that a ground battle was not advantageous at this very moment. He jumped straight up and landed on top of the lamp post, which shook slightly under his weight.
An arrow whizzed out of the darkness, and Knox grabbed the projectile out of the air and hurled it back in the direction it had come from. He heard it strike the earth, but the kobold had seemingly avoided the attack. It was at around this point that Knox noticed how hard he was breathing. He was frustrated, obviously with the kobolds, but more so with himself, for falling for a trap such as this one, and for underestimating the kobolds.
However, as Knox was soon to learn, an active battlefield was a horrible place for self reflection, as the ax kobold struck again, hacking the lamp post out from under Knox with one fell swing. He grunted and flipped off of the falling lamp, landing on his hands and knees just over the crater, which upon a quick inspection was at least twenty centimeters long as well as deep. Before he had time to even consider just how strong that made this creature, it was upon him, swinging again and screaming as it attacked. At that very moment, the sword kobold, the one that had killed the patrolman, slashing at Knox from his left. With a monster on both sides, each with a weapon in motion, Knox decided that now was a good time to use magic.
Unlike the poor patrolman, Knox didn't have to recite any incantations. With a mere thought, the action was completed. Thinking fast, Knox activated his magic. Two flashes of amber sparks later, a buckler redirected the ax kobold's attack, and a long and hefty combat cleaver parried the sword kobold's slash. Both monsters grunted in surprise, as they were used to the slower magic of the patrolmen, and they had also never seen metal creation magic before.
Knox's magic was something known as 'Hexcraft'. A prototype version of the modern magic used by most people used today. Regardless of what kind of magic he used, Knox still had the upper hand at this very second, and he capitalized on it. He shoved the ax kobold back and tossed the buckler away, or at least what remained of it, as all but the straps and outer rim at the far end of the shield had been shattered. The sword kobold, had taken advantage of Knox's action to try and attack him. It's attack could have been deadly, had it even been able to use it. For just as the creature began to decide to attack, Knox attacked, slashing its head off with his cleaver. Sword kobold finally saw and registered that it had been killed a fraction of a millisecond after Knox had turned back to the ax kobold, and killed it in a similar fashion.
"One, two. Four more." Knox muttered as the monster's corpses hit the ground behind him. Bow kobold made the mistake of shooting again. Just like before, Knox caught the arrow and hurled it back. However, this time, he nearly hit the beast, which squealed as the arrow passed between its toes. This sound gave away it's location, and by the time it had started running, Knox was upon it. He slashed it clean in half with a single strike from his cleaver.
"Three down, three to go." Knox echoed, leaping on top of another street lamp and looking around carefully, hoping to see a disturbance of some kind, until he remembered something that made angrier than before. His reached into his coat pocket and pulled out three flares. He ignited the first one, and hurled it into the darkness behind him. Nothing. The next one, he threw to his left, just outside the light. This time, there was a quick skittering as soon light left his hand. Knox couldn't help but smile as he hurled his cleaver with all his might in the direction of that movement. The cleaver struck flesh, and its victim shrieked once, and then fell silent. The flare landed, revealing another kobold, this one holding a long knife.
Making note of his fourth kill, Knox went to light the last flare, but grunted and yelped as a spear thudded into his shoulder at subsonic speeds, as well as knocking him off of the lamp. The point shattered upon impact, but failed to break through his coat, which was made of enhanced microfibers that would stop most knives, spears and arrows. Thanks God for preparation, Knox thought as he tried to catch his breath and get his legs back under him. However, fortune was not on his side as the spear kobold rushed him and leapt on him, punching, kicking and slashing with its claws.
A glancing blow struck Knox in the face, and his frustration boiled over into rage. Ignoring his disorientation and pain, Knox grabbed the kobold by the face and jammed his thumbs into it's eyes. It squealed as he mashed them deep into it's skull, and he took this time to get up and generate a new weapon.
A long knife appeared in his right hand, a kukri, to be exact, and swung the blade in a downwards arc, right into the spear kobold's skull, hacking right through the scales, bone and grey matter all in one strike.
"Five." He growled as he turned to search for the last one, which stepped into the light just as he turned. This one was slightly larger, and held a hefty hammer in his hands. It's ears were long and floppy, and it's scales were red and it's fur was indigo. While it was certainly the most unique color combination of kobold's he'd fought up until now, Knox simply didn't care. He did not want a long fight, and so when the hammer kobold rushed him, roaring and hefting the huge hammer over its head to strike him, Knox hurled his kukri into the kobold's chest, but this didn't even slow it down in the slightest. So, he snapped his fingers and created over a dozen new weapons, not really caring what he'd created, and then blasting all of them at the monster with an exhausted wave of his hand.
It powered through the first few with ease, but slowed down as the final blades struck it. By the time it reached Knox, it was hardly standing. A swift kick from the masked man killed the beast, snapping it's neck with an awful-
CRACK!
"Six." With that, Knox was safe. At least, to the best of his knowledge. With a deep breath, he considered his battle. He may have won, but he saw how easily he could have lost, making note of the exhaustion he felt after using all that magic.
Knox took a deep breath, and pulled a small packet from his coat pocket. He ripped it open and tipped the contents into his mouth, green powder spilled onto his tongue, and he only cringed slightly at the absurd bitterness of the powder. His fatigue lessened, and he felt less exhausted in the mana department as well.
Now, he headed for a return to his current hideout. The kobold nest had to be found, and he was no closer to finding it than he had been earlier that night. He grumbled and cursed his inexperience, but quickly and quietly began to slink home, keeping in the dark to avoid the possibility of any more kobold battles.
Just as he rounded the corner and headed back to his hideout, which was located on top of an old skyscraper, he heard another scream. He immediately assumed the sound had come from a kobold, but when he heard them scream again, he knew it was a human scream. He sighed again.
This was going to be a long night, wasn't it? With that, he ran off in the direction of the scream.