Under the shade of the great pine trees along the northern treeline of the beastmen settlement, a strange chorus filled the cold air.
*Click. Click-click. Krrk. Krrk-tik.*
Hundreds of sharp, rhythmic beak-clicks echoed in layered sequence. It was not chaos. It was language. A coded cadence used by the Frost Kobold clans, precise and efficient.
Within that maelstrom of sound, one pattern dominated the rest. Slower, heavier and more authoritative.
"They are preparing for negotiation" the towering white-scaled humanoid lizard clicked in a deep, resonant cadence.
Frakul the Frostbreath stood taller than any kobold around him, his ornate iron armor polished to a pale gleam beneath the filtered sunlight. Frost gathered faintly along the ridges of his pauldrons. His breath steamed in slow, controlled exhales.
His eyes, vertical pupils narrowing, remained fixed upon the settlement ahead. He could see the those snow leopard beastmen gathering valuables into a single pile of treasure.
"They remember what they have done to us" he continued. "Good"
Behind him stood a smaller kobold clad in blue robes stitched with draconic runes. The mage leaned upon a wooden quarterstaff crowned with a shard of clear ice.
"I believe so, Your Highness," the mage clicked respectfully. "They have suffered much since last winter. Their hunters died in their southern raid against humans"
Frakul's jaw flexed.
"They chose tactic poorly when they attacks" he replied. "Now they pay tribute to those who remain strong."
He stepped forward.
"I'll go with you."
The kobold mage bowed his head, around them, the clicking noise of the clans quieted into disciplined stillness.
They moved toward the settlement.
From the southern treeline, Elena and two other randomly selected soldiers stepped cautiously into view at nearly the same moment.
Pure random chance.
While the forest seemed to inhale a deep breath in anticipation.
The snow leopard chieftess, standing before the gathered remnants of her tribe, felt her blood run cold as she saw both forces emerging from opposite ends of the clearing.
Humans and Kobolds, at the same time.
Her mind raced to think of plan.
If they fought each other… her tribe might survive.
She raised her hands quickly in a gesture of submission and moved toward the center before either side could have done anything.
Frakul halted as he saw the humans. His nostrils flared with frost.
Humans armed with weird looking spear.
Elena narrowed her ruby eyes observing a kind of foes she've never faced before.
Kobold, a significantly pathetic race of Dragon-kin.
The chieftess stepped between them before either leader could speak.
"I can translate" she said quickly in the human tongue, lowering her head slightly toward Elena. "They speak in clicks. I understand them. Please, so there won't be any bloodshed"
Elena gave a brief nod as she's doesn't understand language of the Kobold, but she know that the chieftess are more than ready to just bribed them away. Yet, she kept both her rapier and rifle lowered but ready.
Frakul began clicking, his voice steady.
"We come to collect tribute. Kneel and surrender goods, and your tribe will remain under Frost Kobold protection." He said
The chieftess turned to Elena.
"He says," she translated smoothly, "that humans have trespassed upon sacred kobold land. He demands that you kneel and surrender your weapons." Chieftess translate.
Elena's expression hardened.
"Tell him," she said coolly, "that this forest now falls under human authority. If he wants tribute, he may negotiate properly." Elena said
The chieftess turned back to Frakul.
"She says you are but a pathetic scavenger pretending to be dragon" she translated in kobold clicks. "She claims your tribe is weak." Chieftess translate.
The air shifted.
Frakul's pupils narrowed into slits.
His armored hand tightened around the haft of his weapon.
"What did she say?" Elena asked quietly.
The chieftess did not hesitate.
"He says he will take your head and mount it on a spear to prove his strength." she translate.
One of Elena's bodyguards inhaled sharply.
Frakul stepped forward, frost crackling faintly across his armor.
The mage beside him whispered, "Your Highness, perhaps—
"Silence."
Frakul raised his head and drew in a deep breath, preparing frost within his lungs.
Elena saw the posture change.
The expansion of chest.
The slight backward lean.
To her, it looked like preparation for an obvious breath based attack.
She lifted her rifle.
Frakul noticed the long metal instrument pointed at him.
"A spear? What a strange design." He thought as he opened his mouth ready to unleash the frost.
Elena pulled the trigger.
The crack split the clearing like thunder.
Frakul's head snapped backward as the 7.92×55 mm. of death tore cleanly through his skull.
For a heartbeat, nothing moved.
Then the he just collapsed.
The kobold mage stared in disbelief at the ruin of his leader's head.
The chieftess staggered back, her heart hammering.
Elena did not hesitate.
"Protect the those damn leopards!" she shouted. "Lizard are hostile! Fire!!!"
Rifle's fires erupted in disciplined succession.
The sound was unlike anything the kobolds had heard.
Thunder without clouds with arrows that struck faster than sight.
Kobolds fell in sprays of blood and shattered bone.
Meanwhile, the mage recovered fast as his staff slammed into the earth.
Ice erupted from the ground in jagged spikes.
One of Elena's bodyguards took a shard through the skull. He dropped without a sound.
The second raised his rifle, firing twice, killing a charging kobold.
Another ice spike burst upward, piercing his face and tearing through the back of his head.
He fell beside his comrade.
Elena's vision tunneled, rage flared in her eyes.
Several soldiers concentrated fire on the mage, but he moved with desperation, conjuring walls of ice that shattered under repeated shots, as kobolds retaliated with slings and javelins.
Some beastmen, caught in crossfire, screamed as stray bullets struck them. A snow leopard woman fell. A child collapsed beside her.
The clearing devolved into smoke, blood, and screaming.
The kobold formation broke under sustained rifle fires.
They had never faced weapons that killed from such distance, such speed.
The mage, breathing heavily, summoned one final barrage of ice shards and turned to flee.
Elena charged forward despite shouts from her men.
An ice spike burst from the ground and drove through her ankle.
White-hot agony exploded up her leg.
She did not fall.
She limped forward and reached for him.
Her rifle was empty so she drop it, meanwhile her rapier was still usable so she hold it tightly.
With a roar that tore from her chest like something feral, she seized the mage by the collar and slammed him to the ground, her battle's rapier tip then hovering above the mage's head like a sword of damocles.
It then pierce down in a rhythmic clang with kobold's skull.
Again.
and Again.
and Again...
Silence slowly reclaimed the scene as bodies lay scattered and the remaining kobolds fled north in disarray.
Elena stood over the corpse, breathing hard, her ankle pierced through by ice, blood soaking into her boot. Behind her, soldiers regrouped along with the reinforcement from John's company.
Two human lay dead.
The snow leopard settlement was nearly gone. Only around thirty remained, mostly women and children, as the most were caught by a stray bullet and kobold throwing weapons.
Frakul the Frostbreath, lay face down in the dirt, slain by a weapon he had not understood.
The Frost Kobold clans had lost their leader and most of their warriors in minutes.
The snow leopard chieftess watched from a distance, trembling.
Her gamble had worked. The leopard tribe was no longer the primary target, but the cost is too high, so there's only one option left after witnessing those level of firepower.
Without thinking about honor, she immediately prostrated herself before Elena, who was currently being treated with alcohol and bandaged wounds, and reacted to the gesture with a somewhat confused expression.
"Please, save us!" the chieftess pleaded, her forehead pressing deeper into the ground.
"Um, that's not really within my authority to decide. Would you like to speak with our boss instead?" Elena replied with a smile, as she might practice "Auftragstaktik" for too much, and doesn't want to get scold afterward.