With a mighty kick of my leg I knocked down the doors of the creature's hideout. Wood splintered beneath my feet as the surprisingly soft wood gave way in the wake of my kick.
Seriously, it was laughably easy, just a simple kick to the hinges and the door was broken and open enough for me to walk through it easily.
There was a downside to this whole method of approach though and that was the attention of the guards. Well, for anyone else as for me, I was expecting this same reaction really. It was the easiest way to distract them so I took it.
However before I could even engage in combat I needed to reinforce myself with that same power that I had used in the last battle.
It was almost instantaneous in its application. I felt power flood through my veins.
However the process was not as simple as I had thought it to be. The way that it worked, at least from my memory, was that it filled in the gaps of the conceptual weaknesses of my muscles and skin. Which would essentially strengthen my limbs.
In order to do that though I needed a thorough understanding of what those weaknesses were which was what the headache was.
'Really should have tested this before' I thought to myself while grimacing, the sheer amount of information felt like it would melt my brain yet I couldn't let myself be bogged down by that pain.
If I did I would die, no doubt about it. The nearest reinforcements would take a couple minutes to get here.
Minutes in which, if I gave into my pain, would be the end of me.
Despite this pain and the knowledge that this very well could be my end, I still smiled. It was weird yet I didn't question it. Not now at least.
Finally after what felt like minutes to me yet only a couple of moments from an outside point of view I found myself stronger, more durable, faster.
It was with a smile that my sword, unsheathed as it was, found its way into the throat of the creature.
It gurgled in its own blood. Dead.
Mere moments afterwards more came flooding from deeper within. There must have been dozens of them.
…
A slash upwards, a duck to the ground, a lunge. More and more movements happened as I made my way towards the next enemy.
I had been having an easy time with them but that had only lasted for a minute.
It was after a significant chunk of them had died, when I was thinking that I could have done this on my own, that it happened.
A mystic red glow engulfed the living and the dead.
The living were faster and stronger. Their movements cause craters in the ground and their lunges reach me despite my speed.
Yet that was not the worst part. If it was only them then I could have handled it but no, whatever damned being had done this though that that was too easy.
The undead were the worst part. No matter how many times I cut their heads off, stabbed them in the heart, or even just good ol' stabbing them. They didn't die. A glow of red and they were back to new.
I couldn't even afford to kill the other creatures as the moment they died they turned into those undying zombies.
I grit my teeth, unconsciously grinding them as I thought for anything.
For any solution that I could take. A retreat? Maybe but I couldn't just leave my Kibolds to die in a failed ambush.
'Ah… shit' I thought, noticing the time. It had already been three minutes since I had entered and any time now they would come crossing through the back.
I couldn't let them do that, they would be massacred. As even just dealing with the regular creatures was a struggle not to mention these abominations.
"Fuck!" I yelled out loud, not caring for my volume.
It drew their attention but it was not like they weren't already on me.
I watched as they charged again, the ones that I had ducked by coming closer with a ferocious display of speed.
I didn't meet them head in, instead I turned around and ran.
I felt the wind impacting my body, the sound whipping past my ears and turning me deaf temporarily by the intensity but with the speed that I had shown they should be far behind me.
I ducked past buildings, trying to find any other entrances. Any place that my Kobolds could have decided to come from.
Yet I found none, even though the village wasn't large it still was big enough to have so many crooks and corners.
I cursed under my breath, feeling the hostility in the air.
It wasn't like the warriors were the only creatures, there were many others. Others that had differing jobs.
Now wasn't the time to go into details though. Just know that they were giving directions to the passing soldiers.
It was an annoyance but I couldn't bring myself to kill a non combatant and even if I could it would take too much time.
'Finally' I thought, gazing upon an exit. It was a gate that upon first look was not what I expected.
When I saw it first my eyes went wide, numerous corpses littering the ground. Their skulls were cracked open and their brains scattered around the floor.
It was a horrific sight, made worse by the personal attachment I had to the corpses. They were my Kobolds, the one that had ever so faithfully served me.
I felt a wet feeling roll down my cheeks as I gazed upon the being that had done this. It wasn't one of the creatures though I could see one in the background.
No… it was a fellow human, one of my own kind who so brutally murdered my troops. I felt my tears dry up, replaced by blazing fury.