novelraw Chapter 140
Chapter 140
"To the surface! Move!"
"GRAHHH!"
The goblins roared in response, morale high.
They were simple creatures. Their minds rarely strayed beyond eating and breeding. But they knew one thing: Snaggle had changed everything. He and the Elders had transformed them from cowering rats into apex predators. With the weapons designed by the Awakened Ones, the tribe never went hungry. The beasts of the forest fell easily before their muskets.
Four goblins approached Snaggle. Unlike the rank-and-file, they wore necklaces of strung predator teeth—the mark of an Elder.
Like Snaggle, these four had awakened fragments of the ancient Gnomish bloodline.
The Curse of the Drow Goddess had weakened over the millennia, but it still held sway. Their memories were fragmented, their knowledge incomplete. Snaggle was the most lucid among them, the one whose awakening was most profound.
Gnomes had always valued wisdom above all else. Recognizing his superior intellect, the four Elders had unanimously bowed to Snaggle as Chieftain.
"Snaggle," one Elder rasped, adjusting his tooth necklace. "Do you know the nature of the enemy?"
Snaggle’s jaundiced eyes flickered. The image of the white dragon from earlier that day flashed in his mind.
Was she alone?
Four pairs of expectant eyes bored into him.
"Likely just magical beasts," Snaggle lied smoothly.
"Let us hope so," said the Elder on the far right, his voice trembling slightly. "The tribe needs stability. If we can maintain our current growth, we will reclaim our lost glory soon enough."
"May the Wise Ones protect us."
"May the Wise Ones protect us."
Snaggle looked at the four cowards with internal disdain, but he kept his face neutral and intoned the ritual phrase. "May the Wise Ones protect us."
He straightened up. "Enough. I will lead the warriors to see who dares offend the wisdom of the Gnome race!"
"Yes, Chieftain."
The four Elders nodded. Snaggle didn't spare them a second glance, turning on his heel and marching away.
Cowards. 'Stability'? 'Peaceful development'? Without conquest, without expansion, where will we get the resources to fuel your factories?
Pathetic.
A glint of malice shone in his yellow eyes. If not for the fact that their awakened knowledge is useful to me...
The Elders watched his retreating back until he disappeared into the gloom.
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"He is lying," one whispered.
"Your intuition is correct. He is hiding something."
"It matters not. He is the Chieftain."
Boom!
A dull explosion echoed from the left tunnel.
"That came from Tunnel One. My factory," the first Elder muttered.
He didn't say another word, turning and shuffling quickly toward the left tunnel. Stupid kin. Leave them alone for five minutes and they blow something up.
The other three exchanged glances and dispersed to their own sectors. Production could not stop, and without supervision, the low-intelligence workers would surely find a way to destroy everything.
Cough! Cough!
Acrid smoke billowed down the tunnel, stinging Snaggle’s eyes. Through the haze, he could see the orange glow of a raging fire blocking the exit.
Tunnel One is impassable. Tunnel Two has collapsed.
Snaggle barked orders to the milling soldiers. "Use the auxiliary shafts! Regroup at the surface near Tunnel One!"
Grahhh!
The goblins scattered, rushing toward the various hidden exits that dotted the underground complex.
Snaggle moved to a private auxiliary shaft. He threw open the hatch.
Clank.
An iron ladder extended upward. Snaggle scrambled up the rungs, his movements agile and quick.
Whoosh!
Just as his head cleared the surface, a gust of wind roared overhead.
Snaggle looked up through the dense shrubbery.
Nothing?
Just as the thought formed, a flash of crimson scales cut through a gap in the canopy above.
It was brief, but Snaggle saw it clearly.
Dragon. A Red Dragon.
Judging by the size... a wyrmling. Not yet an adult.
Three thoughts fired in Snaggle’s brain in rapid succession:
Defeat it.
Capture it.
Tame it.
Then, a fourth thought overrode them all: Self-preservation.
Snaggle gripped the ladder rails and slid back down into the darkness as fast as gravity allowed.
Dragons are dangerous, even the young ones. Let the tribe handle the initial contact.
Crash!
Rocks tumbled down the slope. Aiden hovered, his vertical pupils fixed on the collapsed tunnel mouth.
That’s sealed.
He looked up at the night sky. Better check on the girls. Hope they haven't burned down the entire forest.
With a powerful beat of his wings, he shot upward, breaking through the canopy into the cool night air.
From his vantage point, he scanned the forest floor.
Damn it.
Wisps of smoke were rising from over a dozen different locations in the woods.
Those rats didn't just dig two exits. They have ventilation shafts everywhere.
Overtime. I hate overtime.
He spotted a column of smoke nearby and banked sharply, diving toward it.
Two red magical rings materialized in front of his snout as he descended.
Crack! Snap!
His body smashed through tree limbs as he plummeted.
Below, three elite goblins were dragging themselves out of a hole in the ground, muskets in hand.
[Burst!]
Boom!
A small mushroom cloud bloomed over the hole. The heat was intense, instantly carbonizing the three goblins before they could even draw a breath.
Rumble...
The earth groaned and the shaft collapsed in on itself.
Aiden hovered over the ruin, ensuring the job was done.
[Burst!]
Boom!
He fired a second shot just to be sure.
Done. Next.
He launched himself back into the air, shredding more bushes as he ascended.
The next shaft was close. He barely had to flap his wings.
He crashed through the undergrowth, staring down at the exit. Seven or eight Gnomes were scrambling out like ants from a disturbed hill.
[Burst!]
[Burst!]
Twin explosions rocked the clearing. The earth swallowed the hole.
Clatter.
A broken musket spun through the air and landed near Aiden’s feet. The barrel was bent at a ninety-degree angle, snapped in half by the blast.
Aiden eyed it. Good. They can't bring the heavy artillery up through these narrow shafts.
Small arms fire won't hurt us.
He took to the sky again.
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions rhythmically punctuated the night. The forest was in chaos; birds and beasts fled in terror as the red dragon conducted his systematic demolition.
Sigh.
He flew higher, heading toward the main entrance where he had left his sisters.
As he approached, he glanced down.
The main cave mouth was a roaring inferno. Thick black smoke billowed into the sky.