Chapter 502: Oh Shoot, I Disrupted The Balance, Let Me Fix It.

The students charged, but all of a sudden, they found themselves surrounded by numerous Kobolts.

"L-leader! What do we do?" one man asked as he halted his charge and stepped back.

The Shaman suddenly fired a fireball at the nearest students, who narrowly dodged it by ducking to the side, but it still struck the student behind them.

He was instantly engulfed in flames from the torso up, his head and hair catching fire as well.

"AHHHH!!"

The student’s blood-curdling scream sent a shiver down the other 9 remaining students, and the next moment, a flare of golden light covered his burning body.

The flames around him suddenly calmed as the blisters stopped spreading. Then, in the next moment, the student disappeared from where he stood. Leo caught a fleeting glimpse of a person wearing a Drakensoul Academy staff uniform taking the student away while the activated talisman used some sort of healing magic.

But the other students naturally couldn’t see what had happened and immediately panicked. Only the leader understood what was going on and used the opportunity to boost the morale of the others.

"See! The Academy will not let you die! Urid just got taken away to safety because he was hurt very badly! Now he’s lost the opportunity to score big, but you still have the chance! Fight with everything you’ve got and let’s secure a fortune from the spoils!"

The leader’s words seemed to work as the others got hyped up. People usually got scared because of the chance of death, but if there was none, what was there to be afraid of?

But the Kobolts had the exact opposite reaction. Seeing the dying man disappear, the Shaman’s expression hardened.

Chik-chik-chik!

It immediately communicated with the others, and many looked as if they wanted to retreat.

Leo immediately understood that the Kobolt Shaman seemed familiar with the phenomenon of a dying man disappearing and had realized that trying to kill them was useless. On the verge of death, the person would simply vanish, and all their effort would be wasted.

Seeing the Kobolts’ behavior, the leader’s eyes lit up as he immediately urged his boar to charge.

But before the charge could happen, two fireballs shot from the back, forcing the boar to back away as it tried to dodge them.

Reinforcements had arrived, and it seemed there were two new fire shamans. One of the Kobolts behind them was even holding a Blazebloom flower.

Leo was amazed by the sight.

"They are smart enough to bring natural treasures into battle to assist them? Wow!" he exclaimed.

Since the Blazebloom flower increased control over fire magic, it was highly beneficial for the fire shamans, and having it in the middle of a fight could change the outcome of battles.

Leo had unexpectedly learned warfare tactics from the Kobolts, and he couldn’t complain much, as it would help him in future territory-building.

The tide of battle shifted once again. The Kobolts had decided to fight after all. Even if the battle yielded no reward, they would still gain valuable battle experience.

But the Shamans seemed focused solely on attacking the boar while the other Kobolts engaged the humans. The leader was trying his best to reach his beast, but the other Kobolts were holding him back.

Wait, Leo suddenly realized.

"The beasts don’t have a life-saving talisman!"

And the shamans seemed to know that. They were trying to kill the boar because at least they could get something to eat out of it.

And naturally, the Kobolts saw Nyxa as food too, charging toward her.

"You! What are you even doing? I won’t even give you 1 silver if you just stand there like that! Tsk! Are you from Aurelius Academy in name only? DO SOMETHING!"

Leo’s lips curled into a smile.

"Do something? Sure."

He looked around and saw nearly 5 to 6 Kobolts sprinting toward him while holding sulphur-coated daggers.

"Since my presence has disrupted the balance between your group and the Kobolts, let me fix it."

Saying that, Leo waved his hand as vines erupted from the ground and wrapped around the Kobolts’ bodies, after which the vines tossed them into the center of the supporting 9-man formation. The throw was so gentle that the Kobolts landed on their feet and were immediately ready to attack—and that was exactly what they did.

"Wha—!"

The leader didn’t even have time to register what had happened before the Kobolts charged at their nearest targets.

SKREEEEE! Slash!

"AHHHH!"

The first victim was slashed across the back as blood spurted into the air.

As the formation collapsed, it didn’t even take 5 seconds before every individual had been cut by a sulphur dagger. Be it from the sudden Kobolt that appeared inside their formation all of a sudden or the one attacking from the outside.

"W-what did you do?!" the leader shouted, his mind shaken by his companions’ wails and sudden turn of events.

He was the only one left unwounded, staggering backwards.

"L-leader!" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

A man came running toward him, clutching the side of his chest.

"Leader! Give me one healing potion ple—!"

The man didn’t even get to finish before the leader grabbed him by the arm and threw him toward the three Kobolts charging at him.

"NOOO!"

The Kobolts immediately attacked, and the talisman activated. The next moment, the man was taken away.

Swoosh!

Suddenly, a Shaman cast a [Flame Orb] right into the middle of the group. Many barely dodged, but they didn’t even have time to relax before the slashed wounds across their bodies ignited.

"AAAHHHHH!!!"

"IT BURNS SO BAD!"

The leader was completely horrified and snapped his head toward Leo, his eyes filled with utter shock at what this man had done.

Leo looked back at him with a sly smile.

"I did something, didn’t I? Where’s my payment?"

"MOTHERFUCKER!!!!"

The leader was suddenly filled with rage, but the rage didn’t blind him.

Instead of charging at Leo, he turned and ran.

"Snout, run!"

The boar immediately spun on its trotters and sprinted madly toward its master.

"Heh, for being such a waste, you do have a strong bond with your beast," Leo said with an amused smile.

"Bastard! Where will you go?! I’ll find you and teach you a lesson someday!" the leader shouted as he ran away from the oasis at full speed.

"Altab! Remember it! Altab is the name of the man who will make your life miserable!"

Saying that, the leader turned around to climb onto the boar, which was just about to reach him.

"Yeah, sure!" Leo shouted back, raising his middle finger as the ground in front of the boar suddenly rose.

The boar stumbled as its legs hit the raised, uneven ground, smashing its snout straight into Altab’s chest.