Battle for Survival

"Damn those Kobold, it was all led by an orange-yellow Kobold. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses. Don't let me see him again."

Lin Lei cursed.

Beside him, Furell heard Lin Lei's words, and the image of the Kobold tribe near their Goblin camp instantly surfaced in his mind. Only there could there be a Kobold capable of surviving under a Granite Golem.

"Lord, are you saying the Kobold led it here?"

Lin Lei nodded gloomily.

After confirming, Furell spoke again.

"Lord, there is a Kobold tribe in our vicinity, and their leader happens to be at the same power level as me. Do you think this wasn't an accident, but rather..."

"You mean this was a premeditated attack planned by the Kobold? But I don't understand, why would they risk their lives to attack us?"

Lin Lei was very puzzled; he generally didn't hold much hostility toward sentient beings.

"They felt afraid, Lord. Our organized sweeping operations made them mistakenly believe we intended to clear out all creatures around Crouching Dragon Ravine, including them. After all, in their impression, humans do not harbor goodwill toward other races.

They wanted to lure this monster to make us suffer heavy losses, forcing us to stop the sweeping. If you hadn't brought strategic weapons like the heavy crossbows this time, we really would have suffered the heavy casualties they hoped for."

At this moment, Furell seemed to transform into a wise man. His speculation was spot on with the Kobold's actions, causing a subversive change to his usual clumsy, dim-witted image.

Lin Lei listened very carefully; Furell's words gave him a brand new perspective. As for Furell's current image, it was within his expectations; after all, no leader is not shrewd.

"Ready the troops, march toward the Kobold tribe. Furell, you should be very familiar with their location, you lead the way."

Lin Lei was not one to take a loss lying down. Once he understood the truth, he immediately decided to wipe out the Kobold tribe. If there had been a possibility of taking the Kobold tribe as vassals before, there was absolutely no chance now.

They caused the deaths of human soldiers and Goblin soldiers. If the Kobold were incorporated, although the army wouldn't mutiny, morale would certainly be unstable, and the Goblin tribe would definitely be very dissatisfied; they were already mortal enemies with the Kobold over hunting grounds.

In fact, after Lin Lei finished listening to Furell, he had already moved the Kobold from his initial blacklist to a death list. He prepared to conquer the entire Kobold tribe and make them slaves in his territory.

As a beneficiary of practical interests, he didn't care whether the slave system conformed to human nature, and he used slaves to work for him as a matter of course.

"Baron, absolutely not. Our soldiers have just experienced the monster's attack, everyone is exhausted, and they need time to rest and recover.

Moreover, our sweeping is nearing the second half; we cannot give up here and let two days of hard work go to waste. It would be better to rest while sweeping, and it won't be too late to attack once the soldiers have recovered."

Allen hurriedly stopped Lin Lei, dissuading him from acting on impulse. As a high-ranking officer in Crouching Dragon Ravine, Allen had long since grasped the essence of "benevolence does not command troops," capable of rational thinking to maximize benefits when encountering problems.

Lin Lei stopped in his tracks upon hearing Allen's words, and the hand he had intended to place on the horse's back was withdrawn.

He knew Allen was right; the soldiers were too tired now, and going to seek revenge on the Kobold would only increase their own casualties.

Lin Lei clenched his hands into fists, but eventually let them go.

"Let them live a little longer.

Have the soldiers clear the battlefield. When we sweep to the Kobold tribe this afternoon, we will fight them to the death."

"Yes."

Allen said respectfully.

However, a figure lurked in the dense forest, observing Lin Lei and the others with malice.

This person was none other than Bambu, who had used others to do his dirty work. After fleeing, he did not return directly to the tribe, but instead hid to spy on the human enemy.

"Sigh, even a Granite Golem with platinum-tier strength didn't cause them too many casualties. This time, the tribe is truly at risk of extinction."

Bambu sighed, watching the humans regrouping with morale as high as ever, then slowly moved backward, preparing to return to the tribe to make arrangements early.

"The Kobold tribe is right here."

Furell pointed to the huge valley in front of them.

Six hours had passed since the Granite Golem incident. After sending the dead and wounded back to Crouching Dragon Ravine, Lin Lei led the remaining six hundred men to the Kobold's location.

"Heavy crossbow team forward, spear team in the back, cavalry wait in the rear."

Allen, riding a black-maned horse, issued orders beside the military flag.

"Heavy crossbow team, fire! Blast the gate open."

Accompanied by the sonic booms of crossbow bolts in the air, the originally wooden gate collapsed with a roar under a series of attacks.

"Giddy up!"

The moment the Kobold tribe's gate opened, Lin Lei urged Red Hare to charge into the Kobold tribe.

Behind him followed the spear team holding long spears, as well as the cavalry team, almost all of whom had silver-tier strength.

Furell was also by his side, and the Goblins' Boar Rider charged at everything visible in front of them like medieval tanks.

"%＃@¥&#%&..."

Suddenly, an ancient and obscure language appeared in the air of the Kobold tribe. Lin Lei looked around, searching for the source of the sound.

Finally, he saw more than a dozen Kobold elders kneeling on a huge altar.

"This is Dragon Tongue, Lord."

Furell, who was beside him, leaned in to explain to Lin Lei.

"We Goblins have fought them before and encountered this situation. They are preparing to forcibly stimulate their bloodline to transform into a real dragon."

This ritual overdraws one's potential and vitality. Even if a normal Kobold reaches the Diamond rank, they will never become a true adult dragon because their low-born nature prevents them from possessing the life force of a dragon.

However, this ritual is different. It compresses decades of life force into a single day—or, to be precise, two hours. It amplifies their meager bloodline tens of thousands of times, granting them the vitality of a dragon in an instant. Naturally, the success rate of such a terrifying ritual is exceptionally low.

Kobolds do not use this ritual lightly. Once they initiate it, they will crumble into dust and scatter within a few hours.

As Lin Lei and Furell spoke, the sounds in the air grew increasingly low and heavy, and the altar, once deathly still, began to shift.

"Ah... boom!"

The bodies of several elderly Kobolds began to swell, dragon horns and dragon heads gradually emerging. Yet, suddenly, they exploded, much like an overinflated balloon pricked by a needle.

Severed limbs were scattered all around, none larger than a palm. Their blood formed a bright red mist in the air, radiating an enchanting and eerie hue.

The explosion of the elder Kobolds triggered a chain reaction, and the surrounding elders began their own fireworks display of carnage, until only the Kobold chieftain Bambu remained on the altar.

"My Lord Baron, the Kobold armed forces have all been captured. We have brought the entire tribe under our control."

While Lin Lei was observing the altar, an adjutant approached to report their success. With the enemy outnumbered, they had quickly seized the entire Kobold tribe, save for the figure sitting on the altar.

"Understood. Dismissed."

Lin Lei waved him away, then gripped his weapon and prepared to approach the Kobold Bambu with caution.

Seeing the state of this Kobold, a grim premonition struck Lin Lei.

"Damn it."

The moment Lin Lei stepped forward, dozens of Silver-rank Kobold warriors erupted from the ground, blocking his path and preventing him from stopping the ritual.

The dozens of Silver-rank Kobolds did not pose much of a challenge to Lin Lei. With the help of the surrounding soldiers, he wiped them all out in less than twenty minutes.

"Roar!"

Yet, Lin Lei's worst fear came to pass. The body of the Kobold Bambu underwent a drastic transformation, shifting from a creature over a meter tall into a Red Dragon, twenty meters in length and covered in dragon scales.

This is a young dragon.

That was Lin Lei's first reaction. He immediately dodged a sudden burst of dragon breath; the scorching flames ignited his fluttering hair, filling the air with the stench of singed locks.

The moment the Kobold Bambu completed the ancient ritual, his consciousness was seized by the tyrannical genes of the dragon kind, and the once-clear pupils in his eyes turned murky.

The Red Dragon form of Bambu had lost all reason. The most vivid memory remaining in his mind was of Lin Lei—the murderer who had slaughtered so many of his kin, the culprit behind this entire tragedy.

He immediately unleashed a relentless torrent of dragon breath upon Lin Lei, assaulting him with various spells cast in the Dragon Tongue.

This guy is at least at the Platinum rank, and a top-tier one at that. The only thing I can do now is hold out until his time runs out. According to Furell, he should have less than two hours of life left.

As he fled, Lin Lei's mind raced. Under the threat of death, he formulated the only viable plan within seconds.

He vaulted onto Red Hare and spurred the steed toward the dense Gloomy Forest.

With Red Hare's incredible speed, every blast of dragon breath struck just behind Lin Lei, allowing him to brush past death time and time again.

The Red Dragon Bambu pursued relentlessly, his massive frame casting a giant shadow over the ground as he chased them into the forest thick with trees.

Unable to catch the little insect before him, the dragon charged into the forest without fear, smashing through trees that had taken decades to grow.

The impact of these trees was negligible against the Red Dragon's defenses. Even though this was not an adult dragon, the obstruction of the forest inevitably slowed his pace.

To prevent the Red Dragon from losing track of him and turning back to slaughter his subordinates, Lin Lei consciously maintained a distance, ensuring the beast remained within his line of sight.