Sensing the dire peril he was in, Jinya hastily opened his mouth.
*Fireball!*
Jinya was no slouch in the Kingdom of Cinders. As a kobold sorcerer of many years, he could tap into the magic of his bloodline to its fullest extent, even casting third-level spells like Fireball with ease.
A searing sphere of flame erupted from Jinya's jaws, slamming straight into the face of the caught-off-guard frost giant.
Accompanied by the sizzling sound of burning flesh and skin, half of the frost giant's face was charred black, leaving gruesome wounds. The agonizing pain forced him to release his grip, allowing Jinya—whose wing had been snagged by the bone pick—to wrench himself free.
"So hot..."
Baya clutched his face before throwing his head back and roaring at the sky, his scorched visage blazing with battle lust.
To a frost giant, scars on their bodies and trophies stripped from enemies were badges of strength and worth. Far from intimidating him, Jinya's attack only ignited Baya's desire for battle.
"Dragon, I will kill you!"
"Come down and fight me!"
He hurled rocks wildly into the sky, hoping to swat Jinya down.
Dodging through the air, Jinya could not help but mutter, "What a goddamn lunatic."
He spat another fireball toward the ground, but this time, the prepared frost giant blocked it with his bone shield.
"Reptile, your flames are pathetic!"
"Come! Fight me up close!"
The frost giant leaped high into the air again, attempting to repeat the same trick—hooking Jinya out of the sky to drag him into a melee on the ground.
Yet Jinya was prepared this time. With an agile beat of his wings, he slipped past the bone pick and darted behind the frost giant.
*Burning Hands!*
The winged kobold thrust out a claw, and a cone of fire erupted from his palm, blasting the frost giant's back and leaving a wide swath of charred flesh across his undefended rear.
Baya crashed to the earth in pain, tumbling across the ground several times to bleed off the momentum, but he quickly scrambled back to his feet.
"Your attacks don't even tickle!"
The tenacious and ferocious frost giant roared from the ground, already gathering himself for the next strike.
Combat was second nature to their kind; frost giants routinely wrestled barehanded with the behemoths of the ice plains, and wounds like these barely registered.
Seizing this precious breathing room, Jinya glanced across the chaotic battlefield. The freezing wind was growing harsher by the minute. The frost giants were effortlessly crushing the kobolds, even capturing several of the cowering cowards alive.
Before the giants' absolute size and physical might, this was not even a contest—it was a one-sided massacre, little more than a game to them.
*Once the rest of those frost giants surround me, I won't be able to get away either.*
*There are only a thousand-odd runts here. Under the circumstances, I have to abandon them. Reporting the frost giants' southward advance to Master is far more important.*
Jinya had been leading the kobolds in the mines for months, during which time he had had little contact with the Kingdom of Cinders. He knew nothing of the changes in the outside world, but he did know how terrifying frost giants were.
These brutes stood an average of six meters tall and were born fierce, stubborn warriors. Their clashes could trigger avalanches on white-peaked mountains. The mere few dozen giants gathered here were enough to raze an entire city, far beyond anything these kobolds could ever withstand.
With that thought, Jinya let out a roar, beat his wings, and climbed higher into the sky—he had no desire to keep tangling with Baya.
"Stupid giant! I am no true dragon, merely a kobold servant of the great Red Dragon!"
"The strength you pride yourselves on isn't worth a damn before my master!"
"Remember this: when my master arrives, every last one of you frost giants will be burned to ash!"
Having delivered his parting threat, Jinya spread his wings and fled the battlefield, skimming over the rolling hills—such were the advantages of flight.
Even if he couldn't win, could they really stop him from running?
The frost giants below could only rage in futility, hurling boulder after boulder, but Jinya had already flown too high; even the mighty arms of frost giants could not reach him.
Baya touched the wounds on his face, his expression twisted in fury.
"He... he isn't even a dragon?"
"A mere kobold!"
The frost giant warrior gritted his teeth. Not even when he was burned had he lost his composure to such rage.
If the scar had been inflicted by a red dragon, it would have been a mark of glorious renown. But to be scarred by a frail kobold would make Baya the laughingstock of his entire tribe.
"*Huff... huff...*"
"I will kill it."
"And that dragon behind it, too."
Baya glared fixedly at the distant kobold as it dwindled into a tiny black speck, eyes brimming with hatred, the scars on his face standing out starkly.
As he spoke, he brought his foot down carelessly, crushing another kobold fleeing in blind panic into meat paste before it even had a chance to shriek.
The wilderness was already strewn with corpses, mangled kobold bodies littering the ground everywhere. As the freezing wind howled, a thin layer of frost formed over them.
Yet the frost giants had suffered not a single casualty. They moved swiftly to clear the field. They only bothered to loot large chunks of gold, disdaining the small gear and trinkets the kobolds carried.
Similar scenes were unfolding across Storm Heights—goblin strongholds were trampled flat, kobold mines were stomped into ruins, and half-orc hunting grounds were laid waste.
Divided into several squads, the frost giants marched at high speed, plundering and obliterating everything in their path.
Because the Kingdom of Cinders had shifted its defensive focus southward, there were hardly any regular troops stationed on the northern Storm Heights. There were only the neglected monster vassals, who possessed zero fighting chance against the formidable frost giant forces, allowing the invaders to sweep across Storm Heights like an unstoppable gale.
In truth, Cassius had intentionally left this gap open, using the frost giants to cull these fast-breeding monsters and thereby regulate their population on Storm Heights.
Left unchecked without human suppression, the kobolds and goblins of Storm Heights had multiplied beyond measure. If allowed to breed freely, they would have eventually devoured the heights down to bare rock.
Hobgoblin Commander Duoluo had once put it bluntly: "Creatures that breed unchecked like wild beasts—I don't consider them kin at all."
The leadership of the Kingdom of Cinders was already formulating a plan: based on the density of dragon blood, kobolds and goblins would be split into two distinct tiers—those of the dragon bloodline, and ordinary specimens.
Those blessed with the dragon bloodline would become citizens of Cinders, while the ordinary ones would remain monsters. Furthermore, the kingdom planned systematic culls and controls on the more prolific common monsters, turning most of them into disposable resources for the kingdom's expansion—such as miners, porters, and frontline cannon fodder.
Meanwhile, the elite forces formerly of Cinder Nest—such as the wyverns and chimeras—were mostly concentrated around Bedrock Fortress, wholly untouched by the frost giants' raid.
And by this time, they had long since received word from the kingdom, standing fully arrayed and ready for battle before Bedrock Fortress.
Chapter 171