A dark mass of kobolds burst out of the grass, baring bloody maws lined with razor-sharp, bloodstained fangs. They roared like beasts and charged forward with savage abandon.
From above, the barbarians and kobolds looked like two spears crashing into each other.
The frenzied Barbarian Chieftain, Yas, was the first to charge into the enemy ranks.
The instant a snarling kobold came into contact with Yas, it tried to slash his throat with its claws.
But in the next second, it was as if a bull had rammed into it.
Thud~
The tremendous force sent it flying several meters through the air before it crashed heavily to the ground, blood gushing from its mouth like a fountain.
A closer look revealed that all its ribs had been shattered. It was dead on the spot.
Bronze Grade kobolds were no match for this raging bull.
Yas didn't slow down after sending one foe flying. He charged deeper into the kobolds with an overpowering momentum.
Crack~
Crack~
His terrifying strength smashed through twelve kobolds in a row before finally coming to a sudden halt.
Blood streamed down his body, and the warm liquid gave off wisps of heat like rising mist.
The sight of him looked like a god of war reborn, dazzling all who saw it.
The power of a Gold-ranked barbarian was truly terrifying.
But the kobolds, despite taking a brutal blow head-on, didn't retreat an inch. The smell of blood only stirred their nerves.
They roared furiously and charged as one.
They would tear this damned barbarian to pieces!
Seeing this, Yas wore a ferocious grin.
Then the berserk Gold-ranked barbarian gripped his great axe and began a bloody, brutal slaughter of the kobolds around him.
A one-sided massacre.
Bronze Grade and Silver Grade kobolds were lambs beneath Yas's axe.
Wherever his brutal axe passed, kobolds were cut in half at the waist.
He was a pure killing machine.
He lived up to the name of barbarian.
Yas's combat prowess was terrifying, but the barbarians who charged alongside him were no less formidable.
"Brutal" was the best word to describe this herd of raging bulls.
Facing kobolds who averaged no more than 1.7 meters tall, the 1.9-meter-tall barbarian berserkers, clad in armor and wielding great axes, were like tanks rolling into a flock of sheep.
Splatter~
Blood sprayed everywhere, and chunks of flesh flew.
These frenzied berserkers didn't care about the kobolds' attacks. Their great axes swept in every direction with savage force.
How could kobolds of the same rank hope to match barbarians in strength?
And with their equipment disadvantage on top of that, dozens of kobolds were cut down in a single clash.
The barbarians paid a price of only seven or eight lightly wounded.
After the first clash, the barbarians' morale surged visibly!
"Such power! I've gotten stronger!"
"Kill!!"
After killing a kobold, the barbarians could clearly feel their strength increase.
That was right—just as their lord had said, killing enemies made them stronger!
The feeling was like a devil's temptation, driving them nearly mad.
With their morale soaring, the barbarians launched an even more ferocious assault.
For a time, blood splashed and bodies flew.
Loren, directing the battle, was also pleasantly surprised. The system notifications kept ringing as the barbarians slaughtered their foes.
"Ding~ Your subordinate killed a kobold (Bronze Grade). You gained 1 point of Soul Power."
"Ding~ Your subordinate killed a kobold (Bronze Grade). You gained 1 point of Soul Power."
"Ding~ Your subordinate killed a kobold (Silver Grade). You gained 10 points of Soul Power."
"Ding~ Your subordinate"
Every time an enemy died, the Soul Power entry on his status panel ticked upward.
He still didn't know what Soul Power was for, but that didn't stop him from feeling pleased.
His instincts told him the more of it, the better.
Thanks to their Numbers Advantage bond, the kobolds didn't break under such a horrifying assault. Instead, they continued to resist stubbornly.
But against the barbarian berserkers who had just changed classes, even the most stubborn resistance seemed feeble.
Just as the battle began to turn in the barbarians' favor, a dense surge of magical energy rose from the grass behind the kobolds.
The next instant, whoosh—a bright orange-red fireball the size of a human head streaked across the blue sky, trailing a long tail of flame as it shot into the battlefield like lightning.
Its scorching heat made everyone nearby feel their skin burning.
"A Spellcaster!"
At the barbarians' cries, the kobold Spellcaster who had been hiding all along finally made its move!!
The magic fireball was too fast. The fighters caught in battle had no time to dodge.
At the center of the battlefield, boom—the fireball erupted in a massive blaze.
A terrifying shockwave of heat swept outward with dirt and shattered stones.
Flames engulfed an area more than thirty meters across. The stench of singed fur mingled with the smell of blood and spread across the battlefield.
Seven or eight barbarians caught in the blast were hurled several meters away like stalks of straw, then slammed into the ground, instantly incapacitated.
More than twenty kobolds were caught in the flames as well. Lacking armor, they met an even worse fate than the barbarians and were burned to death on the spot.
The kobold Bloodline Mage's intervention changed the mood at once. The barbarians, who had been slaughtering their enemies, saw their morale falter.
They immediately grew cautious, stealing glances toward the grass behind them.
The fearless barbarians dared to charge at dragons, but Spellcasters, who commanded the elements, were the one thing they deeply feared.
That was power no human should possess.
Unlike the barbarians, the kobolds' morale soared in an instant.
The power of the gods!!
The great Chieftain Xim had made his move!!
They knew it! Victory would ultimately belong to the great kobolds!!
The kobolds at the rear threw open their bloody maws and roared excitedly at the sky. Awoooo~
Those at the front launched an even more frenzied counterattack against the barbarians.
With their overwhelming numbers and the shifting tides of morale, the one-sided battle quickly became a stalemate.
The fighting grew increasingly intense.
Seeing the damage caused by the fireball, Loren, watching the battle from the rear, narrowed his eyes.
"So this is magic?
Its power is probably no weaker than a cannon."
The barbarians who had just been hit by the spell survived only because of their strong bodies and because they hadn't been at the center of the blast.
If the enemy got the chance to cast four or five more spells, the outcome of the war would be uncertain.
The most terrifying thing about Spellcasters was their ability to change the course of a war.
He looked at Fiana, standing beside him with narrowed eyes as sharp as a hawk's.
"This kobold Bloodline Mage is no ordinary opponent.
The Fireball Spell is definitely a cut above ordinary second-circle spells. We can't let this drag on."
His eyes gleamed with a sharp killing intent.
"Fiana, take care of it for me.
Also, capture it alive if you can do so without endangering yourself. I want it alive!"
The system's quest reward was this Bloodline Mage. And its magic was more powerful than the second-circle spells in Loren's original memories, which made it even more valuable to him.
If Fiana killed it in a fit of anger, he'd be taking a huge loss.
Fiana, her manner cool and aloof, tightened her grip on the longsword with a crossguard and gave Loren a long look.
"Be careful."
As soon as she finished speaking, she shot forward like an arrow.
She raced toward the direction from which the fireball had just been cast, moving with a forceful yet impossibly light gait.
For the first time, the Platinum-grade swordswoman displayed her strength before Loren.
The instant Fiana reached the kobolds, a dazzling flash of swordlight streaked past.
Then blood gushed from the kobold's neck, adding a touch of tragedy to the blue sky.
A splendid flower of death bloomed.
On the girl, killing had somehow become an art.
Bloodstained, yet beautiful.
Not a single kobold could stop that cool, graceful figure.
One step, one kill.
She killed kobolds even faster than the battle-crazed Yas.
Snow Dance Swordsman. Technique was king.
Fiana and the Barbarian Chieftain Yas, a Storm Warrior, were complete opposites.
Whoosh~
After only a dozen breaths, the girl disappeared into the grass.
When they looked again, only a bloody trail strewn with kobold corpses remained behind her.
That sword was peerlessly sharp.
But the instant Fiana entered the grass, an even stronger surge of magical energy suddenly spread out.
A pale red magical energy, like mist, instantly enveloped the grass.
In the next moment, the kobolds near the grass began rapidly absorbing the pale red magical energy as soon as they touched it.
Their eyes gradually turned blood-red, and their muscles visibly swelled.
Once the kobolds had absorbed all the pale red magical energy, a group radiating savage, frenzied menace stood before them: Blood-Eyed Kobolds.
Terrifying and horrifying.
Seeing this, the Barbarian Chieftain, Yas, roared and rushed forward, swinging his long-handled great axe down at a Blood-Eyed Kobold ahead.
He didn't believe in magic. He believed only in the great axe in his hands!!
Barbarians feared nothing!!
Splatter~
The kobold had no time to react. The axe bit into its shoulder, nearly cleaving it in two!
But the Bloodline Kobold seemed to have lost all sense of pain. Even after such a grievous wound, it didn't fall. Instead, it turned around, clung tightly to the axe, and opened its maw of razor-sharp fangs to bite at Yas's wrist.
In that instant, seven or eight Bloodline Kobolds nearby surged forward and clung to him.
Their claws and teeth tore at his body in a frenzy.
The powerful Barbarian Chieftain roared. He wrenched his long-handled great axe free and, crack—cut down several of the kobolds around him!
Blood sprayed several meters into the air.
But the battle had already slipped out of control.
In the few breaths Yas was held back, even more Blood-Eyed Kobolds surged over like a tide and swallowed him up in the crowd.
A Gold-ranked warrior possessed tremendous strength and was truly an enemy of a hundred.
On an ordinary day, Yas could kill a hundred kobolds, a relatively weak race, without the slightest trouble.
But now, facing Blood-Eyed Kobolds who had been empowered by magic, feared neither death nor pain, and had grown vastly stronger, he was immediately locked in a fierce struggle.
If even Gold-ranked Yas was in trouble, the other barbarians felt the pressure even more.
The Blood-Eyed Kobolds knew neither pain nor fear. Even when grievously wounded, they would risk their lives to hold the barbarians in place.
On top of that, they still had a numerical advantage. The number of wounded barbarians began to climb rapidly.
Loren, watching from the rear, gripped the carriage to steady his weakened body. His brow furrowed tightly.
Third-circle spell—Bloodthirsty Wonder Technique.
The kobold Spellcaster had actually awakened a third-circle spell!
What the hell was this luck?
That was a third-circle spell!!
"All barbarians, hear my command! Form groups of ten and join up with the nearest fighters. Face the enemy together!"
The barbarians were certainly strong, but from the start of the battle, each had been fighting alone. They had no idea how to work together.
Overpowering the enemy with their physical strength had worked well enough at first, but once the battlefield shifted, they immediately fell onto the back foot.
The advantage of high loyalty was that Loren's orders were carried out quickly.
The barbarians immediately gathered with those beside them. With their allies' help, the situation stabilized at once.
Whoosh~
But right then,
a scorching fireball, even larger than the last, shot out of the grass and exploded beside a group of barbarians who had just gathered, felling more than ten in an instant.
Damn it, that bastard Spellcaster.
Loren couldn't help swearing.
The enemy's sudden sneak attack infuriated him. Its destructive power was one thing, but worse, it dealt a devastating blow to morale.
He hardened his resolve.
"All barbarians, go berserk!!!"
The barbarians would be weakened for a whole day after going berserk. He hadn't wanted to use it, but now he couldn't stand it anymore.
If he weren't too weak to even lift a blade right now, he swore he'd shove that Spellcaster's head up a kobold's ass!
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