Katarina was three steps from the large kobold when the field of invisibility dropped. She launched herself forward with a column of focused air, crossing the distance in less than a second as I released the stored instance of Radiant Winds and sending the dozen orbs of glowing light out to the five kobolds nearest the one Katarina engaged. I directed them with a part of my mind, while focusing on finishing the performance of Kinetic Overload.

  Fortunately, sending the spheres of glowing energy to attack a target required considerably less concentration, when compared to maintaining them. They wanted to be used. Two each slammed into the surprised faces of the five kobolds closest to the big one. I sent the remaining two orbs across the room to hit another kobold as I finished the performance. I ended it at 90% success. Encore crouched on the ground in front of me, providing a deep undertone to the melody. I sent the enhanced explosive charges to Katarina, who had punched the large kobold in the face several times and kicked his halberd across the room.

  “Fuck yes!” She screamed, jumping and twisting her hips, whip-kicking the large kobold in the side of the head. She detonated a charge of Kinetic Overload as her foot connected with the side of its head. She propelled herself with the explosion, spinning away as the remains of the kobold’s head rained across the room in the opposite direction. I cringed at the impact, faltering in my performance. I would have dislocated my hip and broken several bones, had I tried that move. I needed to learn how she did that. But not now. Now I needed to focus on the song. I redoubled my efforts, pouring some mana into Quicken Song as I performed Kinetic Overload again.

  My fingers danced across the frets. A thin stream of mana drifted down to Encore of its own accord, speeding up his beats in time with my own. I finished the song a few seconds later, as Katarina flipped over a pile of debris, launched herself off a platform of air, and drop kicked a Kobold into a bloody oblivion. She activated another explosive charge as her foot made contact. The combined force of her kick and the explosion obliterated the top half of the kobold.

  The six kobolds I had hit with Radiant Winds were beginning to recover, their faces charred black from the impacts. Katarina detonated another charge as she leapt, twisting her body around to catch a kobold from the back of the head between both of her legs. She carried her momentum, twisting and flipping the kobold through the air to slam into another of the injured monsters.

  I sent the magic into her as she detonated the fourth charge from the first spell, closing the distance between her and another kobold. She punched it in the face. It happened so fast that I couldn’t see exactly how she did it, but her fist was buried through the kobold’s face, nearly up to her elbow.

  She pivoted at the hips, yanking her hand free and leaping with an explosive detonation as three of the kobolds swung heavy cudgels at her.

  I began performing Kinetic Overload again as she did some mid-air breakdance flip with her legs and sent out arcs of condensed air that sliced through the already-injured kobolds, bringing them down. Four to go.

  The kobold she had thrown was just untangling itself from the other. I looked around and saw the other two kobolds running through a door on the far side of the room, screaming and howling. Katarina glanced over and saw them, cursed, and blasted herself across the room. I saw her feet flapping as she rocketed across the room, she must have broken both ankles from the force of the explosive jump. They stopped flapping almost immediately, I assumed she had consumed a strong healing potion of some kind from her quick slot.

  I poured mana into another Quicken Song, sure that she had just burned through her remaining charges of the explosive buff. She flew through the door and out of sight for just a moment. I finished performing the song as two kobolds came flying back into the room, followed shortly by Katarina. I sent the enchantment into her as she landed, killing the two kobolds with swift punches to their throats.

  The last two kobolds had untangled themselves and split to run in opposite directions, wailing in fear. Katarina looked at me and nodded one, turning to chase the other. I ran, storing my lute. Encore leapt into the air ahead of me, soared for a moment, and crashed into the back of the kobold. He flipped off of its back, jumping away as I approached.

  The kobold stood, snarling, its eyes moving from me to the door it had been running for. It’s health was red and flashing. I heard a muffled yelp from the other side of the room as Katarina made quick work of the other. The kobold facing me glanced that way, then lifted its head and howled.

  My ears shook with the force of the howl, sharp pain stabbing into my ears and deafening me. My vision shook, equilibrium momentarily shot. I threw a punch. I couldn’t really see, everything was shaking. I punched at where I remembered the kobold’s throat to be, remembering my lessons over the last few days. It felt right. I could do this, balance be damned.

  The expected impact never happened. The kobold stopped howling, the echoes reverberating through the fort. It ducked my punch and rammed a twisted dagger into my gut. Pain squeezed the breath out of me and I gasped, lurching backward. A loop of intestines fell out of the long gash in my stomach as the kobold yanked the dagger away. It launched at me as I fell backward, slamming a Moderate Healing Potion.

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  Encore hit the side of the kobold’s head, a flurry of claws and flashing teeth. The kobold reached around, adjusting its position to stab the kitsiho. Encore snapped down, tearing a large section of the kobold’s exposed throat before leaping back, floating gracefully to the ground.

  “You okay?” Katarina asked, running over. “Gods, what was that gross sucking sound?”

  “Apparently what happens when you take a Moderate Healing Potion while disemboweled.” I groaned.

  “Disemb… Chanter. For godsakes, they are like fighting puppies.”

  “Puppies with sharp knives,” I argued, standing. The potion had worked like a charm, melting the pain away as it healed the injury.

  “Alright, training is moving up to two hours a day. That’s just sad, lute boy.”

  I groaned again as Katarina ran around the room, looting corpses.

  “Do you think they heard that howl throughout the fort?” She asked.

  I reached up and felt at my ears. My fingers came back with blood. I could hear perfectly fine now. Those potions were a godsend. I was about to reply when snarling, growling yips sounded from the door across the room. I shut my mouth and began playing Kinetic Overload, angling myself to be in direct line of sight to the door as Katarina hurried around to a blind spot.

  I completed the performance and sent an enhanced enchantment to Katarina, immediately performing the song again as the door crashed open and kobolds flooded into the room.

  A dozen heavily armed kobolds, three archers, and two mages poured into the room. All eyes were on me as I finished my second performance, sending the explosive energy into myself.

  Katarina leapt, soaring twenty feet to land amongst the archers as I dismissed my lute and charged the group. I heard the archers howling in pain and the cracking of bones from the back lines, but my focus was on the front kobolds. The group had paused when I ran at them. Their confusion had compounded when Katarina leapt in their midst, a maelstrom of bone-breaking punches, kicks, and elbows.

  The closest kobold was turning its head to look at me, after glancing backwards at Katarina, its eyes wide with shock and fear. It sucked in a deep breath of air, raising its head to howl. I lashed out with a punch. This time, it connected. I expended a blast of force and the kobold’s neck exploded, sending the head flying up and away.

  I set my stand, pivoted my hips, and threw another punch at the second closest monster. It was swinging one of the large cudgels at me, but it hadn’t started swinging until I was halfway through with my punch. My fist connected with its shoulder. I detonated another blast and felt something in my shoulder tear from the angle of the punch.

  It hurt like hell, but the kobold fared much worse. Blood spurted from its mouth and nose as its collarbone broke and collapsed from the force of the impact.

  I consumed a Minor Healing Potion from my quickslot and pivoted, throwing a punch with my other hand at a kobold in the other direction. It was looking back at Katarina, who was mowing through the back lines with ease. I almost felt bad as my fist connected with the side of its head and I broke its neck with a charge of Kinetic Overload, but the memory of that large kobold chewing on a hand eliminated and trace of empathy.

  Two charges left, I turned to face the next kobold, and saw Katarina’s wide smile. She had taken down more than a dozen in the time it had taken me to fight three of them. She winked at me.

  “Puppies.” She said, looting them. I snorted, moving my left arm around and testing my shoulder. It felt fine after that potion, but I didn’t like going through so many potions so quickly.

  “Encore, can you back me up? I want to reload the Songcache with Radiant Winds.”

  “Of course,” Encore replied, stretching and adding a thrumming bass undertone to the song. I completed it at 100%, got a notification that the song had boosted strength due to a perfect performance, and stored it in my lute.

  “If you learn to fight half as well as you play that lute, you won’t have such a hard time taking down monsters.” Katarina gently nudged the last kobold with her foot, sending it to her inventory.

  “That’s why I have you!” I gave her an exaggerated smile, which she returned. We both laughed. Encore cocked his head to the side.

  “You should pause your courtship rituals for the moment. Something is coming. It sounds different. It smells different.”

  “Courtship… what did you—” Katarina went quiet as a large figure squeezed itself through the large door at the far end of the room.

  I reacted immediately, beginning to perform Kinetic Overload as we both took in the creature.

  It stood three times the height of a regular kobold, wearing strips of leather made from a pale, fleshy material. Its arms bulged with layers of muscles, its fur was white that had gone gray at the edges of its ears and muzzle. A vertical scar ran down one side of its face.

  The kobold held a beautiful two handed sword in one hand. The blade was two handspans across, straight with a shimmering black core down the middle of the blade. The nameplate over its head read Andes Silvermane, Alpha Arctic Kobold.

  “Shit,” Katarina breathed, her voice laced with excitement.

  Andes let out a low growl that reverberated through the room. “You… trespassers. Good.”

  He flexed his arm, holding the massive blade out, pointing it at me. The blade had to be more than six feet long. The gesture sent a shiver down my spine and interrupted my performance.

  “My new blade… thirsts for more blood.” He spoke in a low, growling voice, biting off a few words at a time.

  I started performing Kinetic Overload again, pouring mana into Quicken Song. Andes crouched, his leg muscles bulging for a moment before he shifted to the side, moving too quickly for my eyes to track. Katarina did the same thing, vanishing from sight as she moved to meet him.

  Patreon, which is 20 chapters ahead! (Thats a whole month! Wowzers!). Then I will be digging back into book 2 for some edits and reworks before sending it to the editors.