Chapter 49: Kobold Priest

Ed’s wind cannon spell had not struck the kobold priest directly. 

It had only destroyed the wooden house where it stood.

The collapsed timber clearly lacked the power to crush the kobold to death. 

Pushed by the force of the suddenly appearing water current, a figure slowly rose from the ruins.

It was the kobold priest.

It had used water magic to shove aside the wood pressing down on its body.

Compared to the ordinary kobolds around it, the kobold priest was dressed far more luxuriously. 

Although it was merely a satin robe pulled from some unfortunate merchant, among the regular kobolds who only covered their private parts with coarse cloth or wore ill-fitting leather armor, it still stood out.

However, the moment it opened its mouth, that imposing presence vanished instantly.

“Wa xia xia!” It pointed the “wooden staff” in its hand at Ed and the others and let out the all-too-familiar kobold speech.

By now, under the coordinated assault of Ed, Bailis, and Sylvia, most of the kobolds in the camp had been killed or wounded. 

The remaining thirty or so kobolds stopped launching blind attacks. 

Instead, they slowly retreated and gathered protectively around the kobold priest atop the ruins.

“Ed, what’s that thing saying?” 

Bailis moved close to Ed again and asked the youth in a low voice.

“I’m no language expert. I don’t understand kobold speech. But… it sounds like it’s cursing us.”

Ed replied. He watched as the kobold priest raised its “wooden staff,” his muscles tensing.

“Careful. It’s about to attack,” the youth warned quietly.

Before he could finish speaking, the tip of the wooden staff suddenly condensed a clear water orb. In the blink of an eye, it split into four.

The kobold priest aimed the staff at the group, a cruel smile appearing on its dog-like face.

“Kelta, take Sylvia and hide!” 

Ed shouted. With an upward slash, a large wind blade formed along his sword. 

“Bailis, help me shatter those water orbs!”

“Got it!” Kelta and Bailis answered at the same time.

The young adventurer pulled the apothecary girl behind a tree. 

Before leaving, he still remembered to hurl a paralysis potion at the clustered kobolds.

Lightning flashed once more. 

This time the kobolds were standing too densely to dodge. 

Even the two strong kobold warriors were momentarily paralyzed where they stood, unable to move.

Seeing its subordinates frozen, the priest let out an angry, frustrated roar. 

The four water orbs in front of its staff shot forward instantly, each targeting one of the four humans present!

But Bailis looked at the four slow, thin water orbs and curled her lip.

“They’re not even as good as the magic those demons cast back in the city.”

Remembering that there were still two people behind her who didn’t know her true identity, she mumbled some nonsense and formed small wind blades within the rising currents of wind. 

With a wave of her hand, they shot forward.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four successive cracking sounds rang out in mid-air.

“Hit two,” the girl said proudly, lifting her chin.

“I got two here as well,” Ed exhaled.

“Wa ka!”

The priest stomped its foot in fury, making the wooden planks in the ruins creak loudly.

It waved its staff again. 

This time it wasn’t water orbs, but several blue water arrows resembling feathered shafts.

“A clumsy imitation of human magic,” Ed shook his head slightly.

That wooden staff, however, looked somewhat special.

Ed pondered to himself.

Maybe after defeating it, he could give the staff to Bailis. 

Holding a proper staff might make her look more like a real mage.

Bailis looked at the water arrows with eager eyes and raised her hand. “Shall we do it again?”

“No need,” Ed stopped her. 

“The water arrows are faster. I’ll handle the kobold priest directly. Bailis, you just clean up the surrounding kobolds.”

The girl hesitated briefly but still nodded.

Just as Ed trusted her strength, Bailis believed that Ed could not be hurt by such low-level magic.

“Here I go,” Ed said in a low voice, watching the water arrows that were already fully charged.

He stomped the ground and burst forward with power. In the next instant, he vanished from his original position.

“Wa ka ka!” The kobold priest watched the human figure charging straight toward it and screamed in terror while wildly waving its staff. 

The floating water arrows all changed direction and shot toward the golden-haired youth!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

After a series of crisp metallic clashes, Ed continued weaving through the kobolds completely unharmed. 

He even had the leisure to casually lop off one or two kobold heads from time to time.

By now the paralysis effect had completely worn off. 

Following the priest’s furious roar, the remaining kobolds, led by the two kobold warriors, all lunged at the youth!

But in an instant, several of the leading kobolds were pierced by wind blades flying in from afar and collapsed unwillingly to the ground.

“I’m here too!” the girl shouted loudly.

The kobold priest’s fearful eyes darted back and forth between the two humans.

With its intelligence only slightly higher than that of ordinary kobolds, it couldn’t figure out which one it should deal with first to escape the current crisis.

It was during this moment of hesitation that the two strongest and best-equipped kobold warriors among them finally engaged Ed.

One charged forward with heavy steps, swinging its large blade at the youth’s neck.

The other lagged slightly behind, crouching low and swinging its iron sword at Ed’s lower body from a tricky angle.

Their coordination was far more threatening than that of ordinary kobolds.

However, the weapons they wielded were ultimately ordinary, and their strength was nothing remarkable.

Before Ed’s pre-chanted second-tier spell—Wind Shield—they were destined to be stopped cold.

Watching their weapons strike the air and unable to advance even an inch, the two kobold warriors froze for a split second.

In that brief moment of hesitation, Ed’s sword had already slid smoothly through the gaps in their iron armor and withdrawn.

Blood sprayed wildly as the kobold warriors fell with agonized howls.

The kobold priest finally made its decision—to deal with the closer, more dangerous-looking target first.

It raised the wooden staff high overhead.

Several water arrows formed and arranged themselves in a circular pattern above Ed.

From afar, it looked almost like a massive, azure crown of thorns.

Beautiful, dazzling, and lethally sharp.

The girl was stunned for a moment, but she quickly snapped back to the ongoing battle. 

She hurriedly channeled her mana and fired several wind blades to help Ed.

However, the crown in the sky only lost a small section before the kobold priest quickly replenished it. 

It had clearly gone berserk, pouring out its mana without restraint, forming sharp water arrow after sharp water arrow to add more deadly decorations to the enormous crown floating overhead.

By this point, under the rapid harvesting of Ed and Bailis, almost no kobolds were left standing around them.

The kobold priest turned its head, scanning the area.

Everywhere it looked were the still-warm corpses of its kin.

Its gaze finally settled back on Ed.

The youth stood amid the pile of kobold bodies, sword held upright before his chest, mouth slightly open as a faint voice emerged.

“Wa ka ka!”

The kobold priest took this as naked provocation. In extreme fury, it swung its staff down heavily.

The crown plummeted.

“Ed!” the girl cried out in alarm, her feet instinctively moving toward the ground where the youth stood.

But before the crown could truly reach the ground, a familiar voice rang out first.

“(Incantation) Hurricane Spell.” 

He chanted calmly.

The world seemed to fall silent for an instant.

Then the massive blue crown suddenly stopped in mid-air.

Whoosh!

In response, a deafening wind erupted from the ground, violently lifting the azure crown upward with thunderous force. 

The water arrows within it burst apart one by one under the hurricane’s assault, reduced to droplets that were swept by the wind straight toward their master—the kobold priest.

“Wa—”

The miserable cry had barely begun when the ugly canine head was already severed from its body.