Chapter 22 Tower Defence

They came again, in the same numbers as before and from the same direction. Our traps immediately earned their cost in crafting materials as both the vandals became ensnared. Miggy fired the bone arrows with pinpoint precision, landing the arrowheads at centre mass, killing both. The sabretooth was either too nimble or had passed the perception check because he was unaffected.

As I knew he would, the sabretooth tiger made a beeline for the cocoon. I stepped in front, spear readied and thrust. It was clumsy work. Even with my proficiency I was bow first, but my bone armour held well against the sabretooth’s claw strikes, so I took minimal damage. I ignored his attacks, trusting in my armour, and thrust hard, felling the sabretooth in three strikes.

Wave one was complete.

The second wave appeared, this one again comprising three vandals. I quickly applied a poultice as this time only one vandal was caught by a primitive trap, two of them breaking through. They both rushed me, and I shouted, banging my spear against the ground savagely. The RNG gods were not with me however, as March of the Marrow did not proc. With twice the number of spears to contend with, I focused hard. I parried their blows and waited for an opening, a gap in their defences. Miggy was high up, but he wasn’t firing. We didn’t know if there was friendly fire in the trials or not. Now did not seem like a good time to find out.

I was able to fight off one, but the other vandal pressed ahead. Shit. He could trigger the pit trap, and this was only the second wave. Thankfully Miggy was on it, blasting the vandal off his feet with a bone arrow, and finishing him off with several primitive ones.

Good. He wasn’t wasting the bone arrows, and instead was conserving resources. I finished off the vandal I was fighting as the third wave of sabretooths appeared. These had finished us off last time, their speed aiding them. Sweat beaded my brow. I couldn’t let them attack the cocoon. Whether I liked it or not, I was going to need to tank this.

Two thankfully were caught in traps, and I left Miggy to deal with them as the remaining two sabretooth tigers charged me. They were even more mindless than they were normally, and I was able to skewer one immediately, but with the momentum of both of them crashing into me, I was winded, and knocked to the ground. Even with my bone armour, I felt that. What was worse was my spear was knocked from my hand.

I readied myself for the sabretooth to chomp down on my head, but he ignored me. Miggy fired off several arrows, but missed. The sabretooth triggered the pit trap, and I heard his yelp and tried not to feel too hard done that we had lost our best defence at wave three as I readied myself for wave four.

Three more waves followed. The fourth comprised six vandals. The fifth a mix of vandals and sabretooth tigers. Miggy and I were fighting as a unit thankfully, even if we weren’t actively communicating. Definitely needed to investigate the party function, to find some kind of chat, a way to communicate our tactics that wasn’t shouting out across the battlefield.

We were surviving. Barely. The primitive traps were pretty much gone at this point, as were the two pit traps. The cocoon was down from 500 to 156. We were fighting hard, fighting well, but it just wasn’t possible to stop them all.

I could tell something was happening with Larry. The cocoon had originally formed from some kind of enormous leaves. They had been a verdant green, pulsing with light. The cocoon had begun to crystallise, forming into a hard shell, changing from a green colour to a translucent yellow. I caught glimpses of the sabretooth king within. His eyes were closed, and his legs would kick out every now and then, as though he were fighting his own battle. Maybe he was.

Now the cocoon’s translucency had faded, and the bright yellow had dulled. The pulsing had persisted, but now it had become far slower.

A notification appeared in my HUD. I looked to Miggy. He had long been forced out of his perch from the tree, and taken a few hits of his own. I had to hand it to him. He was more used to fleeing than fighting, but he was standing his ground. Me, Larry and Miggy. Whatever happened next we would rise together.

Or fall together.

[Final Wave.]

I threw a health potion to Miggy and drank one myself. This would be the last chance we had. Each wave had had greater numbers, always threatening to overwhelm us. Traps were gone, and the cocoon was down to less than half health. We readied ourselves for the onslaught.

Nothing happened…or at least it didn’t seem like anything was happening. No roars from sabretooths, no footfalls from approaching vandal forces. But my ears pricked. Jungle underbrush was being squashed underfoot.

Two vandals appeared. They both looked calmly at me and then to Miggy. One carried a bow, the other a bone spear, as I did. They spoke to one another in their guttural tones, and though normally I could understand them, a feature of the Doomsday system I had presumed, this time their words were foreign. No doubt a feature of this place.

I didn’t have to know what they were saying to guess what would happen next, though. I looked to Miggy, who fired a primitive arrow directly at the spear-wielder. He’d long used up his bone arrows. I watched the arrow sail true, a direct strike against the vandal’s head…and watched as the vandal caught the arrow. Mid-air.

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Shit.

The bow-wielding vandal moved quickly, not for me but for Miggy. He’d have to deal with his alone, as I moved calmly forward for the spear-wielding vandal. Our eyes met, and I realised I knew this vandal. Yukon tribe. He had defeated me in combat.

I saw recognition bloom in his eyes as well. ‘You,’ he said. His tone was curious, not aggressive. ‘You came to this place?’

‘We don’t want to fight,’ I said. Now I’d find out exactly what those three extra charisma points could do. ‘Let us go, we’re almost done.’

His eyes moved far past me to the cocoon. His eyes darkened. ‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ he said, in his guttural vandal tone. ‘Do you know what you’re unleashing?’ He gave a mirthless laugh, hammering his spear head into the ground. ‘No. You sky people know nothing but to destroy this world.’

‘He’s no threat. Larry…I mean the sabretooth king.’

‘Lies,’ said the vandal, gesturing to the king’s mantle still draped against my shoulders. ‘How many times has he tried to kill you? The sabretooth king is a plague. He is the great enemy of my people.’ The vandal thrust his spear out. ‘Step aside human. Or I will break you a second time. There is nowhere for you to run. Not here.’

A way out. An offer of peace. I didn’t know who this vandal was, but he was no ordinary foot soldier. He had beaten me soundly once before, and his words…Larry had tried to kill me. Many times. I still had no idea what this place was, or even what was happening to Larry.

Would he come out of there, a monstrous thing, and immediately trample me.

An arrow flew. A scramble. Blows exchanged. Miggy was fighting like hell. Larry could’ve killed us twice over. I had to place my trust in them. As they had done in me.