I followed the sound of the Kobold that had cried at me.
Although I could not see very well, it was courteous enough to let out a cry every few seconds that helped lead me towards it.
When I was finally close enough to it I saw what it wanted to show me.
My hand reached up, the crystal in it shining its slight glow upon the wall.
I looked all around, running my hand over it again and again but nothing stood out to me.
My brows furrowed as I tried to find whatever it was that the Kobold had wanted me to see. Though despite my intense efforts to search I found nothing.
"Kiak"
It was at that point that the Kobold got impatient at waiting for me to find it. I watched as he slightly pushed me to the side and took the crystal from my hand.
It was slightly rude but I would let it off, I wasn't one to hold grudges over such a small thing.
"What" I inadvertently thought out loud. The wall that I had just been touching had crumbled out of existence.
It was as if the very thing was never there. I reached out, to touch it again but I felt nothing but air.
The feeling of rough stone, the cold sensation. I felt none of that, it was all just air.
"How..?"
All I got as answers was the chitting of the Kobolds, their mouths clicking as they made weird noises.
It seemed like they were trying to answer but could not.
'What was I expecting anyway?'
They clearly couldn't communicate with me despite their apparent intelligence.
"Just… let's go" I finally said, having given up on understanding what they had done.
Idly I noted that while we were crossing the pathway that had been revealed that the crystal had made its way back into my hand.
The small light aiding my eyes as I looked around.
For once it seemed that we found something, the whole place looked lived in. There was dirt and carcasses everywhere.
The further in we went, though the cleaner it got, as if the outside was where they ate and the inside where they slept.
Eventually we reached the cleanest place of the whole cave that they seemed to live in. Well when I say clean I mean that it wasn't littered with blood and dirt.
Compared to the outside anything would be clean but this at least showed me something.
They were intelligent, whatever they were, I couldn't rely on outsmarting them or relying on them being dumb.
I looked further into the cave that they should be in and finally found them.
They were large creatures, easily twice my height with a vaguely humanoid body. Though that was where the similarities ended.
For starters their skin was pale gray, their leg and arm muscles were disproportionately large and they had one eye.
An eye that was looking straight at me.
"Shit!" I yelled, the crystal dropped from my hand as I grabbed the sword at my side.
Beside me the two Kobolds charge in, the spears in their hands piercing the flesh of the creature.
They retreated soon after though not before grabbing at me and taking me with them.
Soon after we retreated the creature had followed us, the wounds from the spear already healing.
I was knocked behind the Kobolds, their slight odors not obscuring me at all.
I took a deep breath. 'Fear can come later'
It was like a mantra, over and over it repeated in my head until it became true.
My head cleared, and instantly I was able to see better. It was not that it had done anything mystical or magical just that my head was in a better place. It allowed me to be more rational.
In the back of my mind I couldn't help but wonder how I was able to do this but that line of questioning was quickly shot as I turned my attention to the battle unfolding before me.
I watched as the kobolds made stab after stab into the creature. Every time that they stabbed him though, he regenerated.
It wasn't slow, no, it was almost instantaneous.
I couldn't find a way out of this, the only options I could think of was to retreat, the regeneration of this thing was something that we couldn't overcome.
Not with the tools we had now. Maybe if I had time we could have learned some magic or something that may have negated it or at least lessened it but as we were now it was hopeless.
However if I retreated now I wouldn't be able to save the kobolds. The ones that had bravely gone forth to protect me and even now were fighting with all of their might.
…
It was stupid, I knew that but still I couldn't just abandon them. Their loyalty towards me, the way that they blindly followed and believed in me. I couldn't just let them die.
As much as I wanted to run, to live another day my consciousness wouldn't allow for that.
It was for that reason that I dashed forwards, the sword in my hand held perpendicular to the ground as I slashed to the side.
A gash of blood spurt from the creature, enough that it had covered my entire face and body.
However the wound was still healed, almost instantly. Though there was something that I noticed.
The wound didn't heal as fast as the others. It seemed as if the bigger the wound the more time it took to heal.
In hindsight it was obvious but nevermind that. This discovery was big. It meant that if we could overwhelm his regeneration with wounds then we may just be able to kill him.
I dodged back, the hand of the creature reaching down to crush me, only to meet air as I had already seen and backsteoped the attack.
I glanced over to the Kobolds who both glanced over to me.
Silently I tried to communicate with them, to have them retreat back towards me.
I sighed in relief when I saw that they had understood my directions. The Kobolds had fallen back from where they were poking the creature to my side.
"I need you two to do as much damage as possible. It doesn't matter where, just keep the damage up."
With that said I charged back into the fray, the creature had been kind enough to let us talk while it slowly lumbered over to us.
It was now or never, if this plan was to work then I would need to be fast, I would need to do as much if not more damage than the Kobolds themselves.