Chapter 28

  With A Loud Boom

  Blazing light twisted through the air, the blood-soaked ground glistening briefly with the reflection of spinning flames. The thrown torches bounced off of half-broken chitin, vines, and stone as they each came to rest. Scattered ahead of the two groups of warriors, the burning stakes spread their light down the tunnel ahead of them.

  “Worik, set the cart down and get the party supplied with an extra spear each. I'll take the remaining ones, and try to give us a headstart,” Nik called out to his party member, as he worked out what strategies they could use against what sounded like a massive enemy.

  With his inventory stocked with a small cache of spears and a few other goblin-smithed weapons he'd never used, he ran ahead. Being careful of the plant spikes and the still dangerous stingers of fallen beasts that littered the area, he planted the poles through slots in the vines and corpses to point toward the matron.

  In the moments since their conversation had been interrupted by the sounds of the matron forcing her way down the tunnel, the echoes of her movements had only grown louder.

  Just after Nik had returned from laying his traps, he wrinkled his snout. The scent hit them before they could even get a glimpse of her. It was a noxious odor, like that of a crushed ant, intense and overwhelming. Fits of coughing broke through each of them as the smell reached their nostrils.

  Sir BlackDagger’s party seemed more affected than Nik’s goblins, but Pearl was most affected. She fell, tumbling, through the air, fighting against waves of nausea.

  Nik caught his former teacher before she could strike the ground and placed her gently on his shoulder.

  “Before we go into battle for our lives against some strange and massive beast, thank you for saving me, but what in the world is that stench? It's burning my nose,” said the dwarf female who traveled with Beatrice.

  Specks of light that glinted off of shapes moving in the darkness of the tunnel were the first glimpses of the monstrosity they were about to face.

  “Don't thank me just yet, I get the feeling that smell is only going to get stronger,” Nik replied, only remembering that she couldn't understand his response when she gave him a blank stare and an awkward smile. With no other way to directly communicate, he smiled and gave her a nod.

  Nik, ahead of the others, faced the direction of the matron once more. He had needed to make another hard choice when deciding on which positions the two groups would take for the fight ahead.

  Kindness and strength, huh? That feels so oversimplified right now, he thought.

  It had been a strange day, but it could always get worse, so Nik said, “Our two groups don't really trust each other, so we’re going to fight in a staggered formation. Every other position will be taken up by one of my Lowerguards. One side will have an extra from your group, but we'll have our eyes on you. I can see my party members’ HP now, so I’ll know if they’re wounded by anything unexpected.”

  He looked over his shoulder at the line of his warriors and the adventurers, ten fighters in total counting Doggy, and eleven counting himself.

  As Nik looked lastly at Beatrice and Doggy, he said, “I only trust my people and maybe you two. Mine have sworn an oath to follow me, but can yours follow my orders until you’re back up to the surface?”

  She looked past him at the looming threat that slowly dragged itself in their direction and replied, “I’ll make sure they do. We need to work with you, not against you, for my party to survive. I’m trusting you with our lives, Nik. Besides, I still owe you for freeing me from that cage. I don’t want to know where I’d be if I were still with them when we figured out that we can’t leave the game or respawn anymore.”

  “Good, now let’s do this so we can get you all out of here,” he said.

  Pearl took up a spot overhead to keep an eye on things, while Kath, Worik, and Stics each reluctantly moved into position, ready to guard the adventurers with their shields when needed.

  Taking up the last two positions to the right side of the groupings, Kath gestured at Sir BlackDagger with two fingers pointing at her own eyes before moving them to point at him. Even without words, letting him know that she was watching his every move.

  “Ready yourselves; it’s time to do battle!” Nik plucked his own spear out of thin air as he issued his command.

  Waiting for the skitterbug matron to arrive lasted even longer than they had expected. Unlike when he saw Sir BlackDagger again for the first time, facing down the imposing threat left Nik’s hands still. He had come a long way from the frightened kobold he’d been not all that long ago.

  He wasn’t just ready for a fight, he was excited for it.

  An epiphany hit Nik like an ambushing chimpanther. There weren’t any real enemies to face in Brekk, no enemies outside of my trials. I enjoy combat. Even after I have my own city built, I don’t know if I’ll be happy in a safe home.

  In a grotesque imitation of the sound of eggshells crunching underfoot, the field of chitin cracked and crumbled under the weight of the matron. The unpleasant sound was made significantly worse by the wet sound of the dead skitterbugs’ rupturing exoskeletons.

  Shooting forward with a sudden burst of speed, she crashed through the goblin-made spears that had been set to pierce her belly. Poles snapped and splinters launched outward in a quick series of explosions of wood.

  He'd hoped that once she was in position over the spears they could take out her legs, but she was even larger than he'd anticipated. The problem was that her body was practically dragging along the floor already, and the spears had barely even left scratches on her hard armor.

  The sizable beast took up so much of the tunnel with her size that only her front four legs could be squeezed out ahead of her body to dig into the walls and pull her forward. Whatever gave the matron her ability to charge forward as she had was still a mystery.

  So much for leaving a trap, he thought.

  Calling back over his shoulder, he said, “I'm gonna test a spear with the force of a throw.”

  Hefting a goblin spear, Nik took two steps forward and let it fly at his enemy. It sped through the air and past her seven-eyed face to strike her massive body.

  Thud.

  The spearhead bit into chitin and lodged itself only inches deep before being knocked loose by her next movements.

  “Well, that makes things more difficult,” Nik said as his mind raced to come up with a new plan on the spot.

  “Hold positions and target her eyes with Wind Slices. I'm going in!” he shouted.

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  It might not have been all too necessary, but Nik ducked low under the blades of air as he ran. Sharp, bladed legs lifted away to block her face after the first of the slices landed. He rushed in to attack one of the two legs that remained dug into the ground.

  Pulling a sword from his inventory, he slashed harmlessly against the matron's natural armor.

  His blade bounced hard off of the chitin, and he swung it back around off of that momentum to strike overhead at the lowest joint. The tip of the blade barely reached, even with his arms fully extended for the attack.

  Nik felt the tug of his weapon biting through flesh, but he held it on its course. Ichor sprayed behind him as he moved past the wounded limb.

  A moment of excitement at having inflicted an injury of any kind on the creature died immediately as he found himself below her head. With two arms raised to block the Wind Slices, her eyes had been lowered to face the ground, right where he’d placed himself.

  Mandibles came down on either side of him, and he jumped back, narrowly avoiding their crushing bite when they slammed together a dagger’s length away from his snout.

  The near-miss had him looking up, directly into her face. Not wasting a heartbeat of opportunity, he shot a Wind Slice of his own into the mess of eyes that were leering down at him.

  Nik retreated as the creature reared its head, her harsh voice screaming with rage.

  As he rushed back toward the others, Doggy raced at an angle to intercept him. The capybeara flew past him to knock one of the large skitterbug’s legs off of its path to strike at Nik.

  The beast-companion was flung into the tunnel wall with a heavy bang and a pained grunt.

  Nik looked over his shoulder to see a spiked leg angled at Doggy, and called the target out to his team. He threw out a blade of air as he shouted, “Aim for the joints!”

  His own strike and several others struck along the leg, moving it off mark, even if none had found the joint as they landed. It dug into the wall beside the armored beast. Doggy was on his feet striking repeatedly at the limb with his paws.

  Battling against an enemy that was so hard to even wound was something Nik would likely have to face again, assuming they survived this encounter.

  He needed to be smart about this. They were in a confined space, so they couldn’t just dodge and wear their enemy down. Traps and all-out assault would’ve been the best plan, but that hadn’t worked out for them.

  The adventurers don’t look like they have a lot left, so, unless they have a clean opportunity to strike, a lot is going to be left up to us. I need to make an opening, he thought.

  “This is not going to be easy, but we need to take out her legs. I’ll do my best to keep her busy, and the rest of you take whatever shots you can. Just try not to hit me,” said Nik.

  “We’ve got your back,” Kath called out in reply, and her fellow warriors nodded their heads, faces determined.

  Nik set Ryan on the ground beside Kath, and said, “Stay where it’s safer for this part, I might be in danger for a while. Beatrice, tell that to your team, too. Take what shots you can. I’m going to win this fight, even if it takes everything I’ve got, but if we can’t take this thing down fast, then people will die. Time to get to work.”

  Nik rolled his shoulders, crouched, and then shot for the matron.

  Doggy had done his best, but left nothing more than scratches on her carapace before being knocked back. She ignored the beast as Nik moved in closer.

  Legs punched through the earth to his sides as he sidestepped and spun away.

  Blood that carried her foul odor splashed across Nik's armor, the first leg he’d wounded with his sword sprayed out as it slammed into the ground in a missed attack against him, only to be chipped away further by a barrage of his team's only wind ability.

  When the limb was yanked away, everything below that hinge remained; a pillar of chitin rising from stone.

  Nik grinned. One down, and three to go.

  With a dodged leg swinging past him, he jumped to strike at another. This time he was the one that was too slow. His target lifted, and the bladed tip banged against his side.

  Rolling mid-air, Nik placed his shield between himself and the ground. Vibrations jarred the bones of his arm with each crashing bounce as he was skipped along the ground like a flat stone over water. Allies leapt to the sides as he sped past their line.

  The movement only stopped when he pumped five mana through his feet in what was by far the smallest Flame Burst he'd managed so far.

  That gave him an idea.

  She shot forward again, and was already on top of the group after the second burst of speed.

  Nik raced to intercept her attacks. All who had shields, had them raised in defense and those without had either ducked low or stumbled back.

  He jumped into the air, lifted a foot like there was a wall to press off of, and with a small blast of fire, jumped off of the empty space to fly clear over the line of defenders. With the added force from the blast, he swung for one of the monstrosity's legs.

  One clean slice had the appendage falling away.

  Lashing out, she wildly flailed her remaining limbs. Failing to react in time, Nik was caught by one of the arms and pushed along on a collision course for the wall.

  Voices calling out his name followed the hard, crushing bang of his body being slammed against rock. The dark room went white for a heartbeat and the sensation of falling hollowed his stomach.

  The crash of a solid object striking him in the head and shoulder ceased the movement. Visions of a man in armor, backlit by the flickering torchlight, filled his returning sight.

  A loud boom and the armor clad boots slid closer to Nik's prone body.

  “Come on, kobold, get up!” shouted the voice of Sir BlackDagger.

  Fighting off a dizziness that made getting to his feet a legitimate challenge, Nik stumbled back into the wall that he'd been slammed against. The flailing limbs of the matron had been putting out substantial damage to the group.

  Nik, whose health had taken a dive from 100 to 60 in one hit, wasn't the only one who'd been knocked aside by the force of her mighty blows.

  As Sir BlackDagger took another strike to his shield, and was slid to within an arm’s length of him, Nik caught sight of the rest of the two parties being broken apart by the onslaught of the skitterbug’s constant assault.

  Most of the attacks against the monstrous insectoid were ineffective, and melee attacks often resulted in being battered by the hive queen’s retaliations.

  His guards were doing all they could to block the strikes, but they were being battered around with ease. Their HP was dipping lower with each passing moment that the fight continued.

  The only member of the party who hadn’t been in much danger was Pearl, whose speedy movements had kept her clear. That changed when a small orange shape ran forward to bite at one of their enemy’s legs. Ryan was flung through the air above their heads.

  Pearl’s wings had her blazing a line to intercept the fae-dragon before he made contact with the ceiling, but that move only softened the impact of both of them smacking into it instead. They fell to the ground behind the rest of the warriors, the second impact tearing away at even more of their health pools.

  A bolt of blinding light moved through the space directly in front of Nik and the adventurer. Someone had regained enough MP for an ability.

  Blinking against the impossible brightness that had flashed past his eyes, instinct or luck told him to move. He ducked low and rolled to the side, just in time to hear Sir BlackDagger’s armor bounce off of the wall where Nik had been standing.

  Images faded in and out of a barely attached spike of chitin being swung about wildly. Whipping around the tunnel, it slammed against his temporary ally again before being ripped from its host by the jaws of a large furred beast. Doggy was still doing his part.

  The matron lurched at them in an attempt to crush them all.

  A shield bash forced her progress to stutter just long enough for everyone to make rushed movements back.

  “That was all I’ve got,” Sir BlackDagger shouted.

  Down to one limb, the attacks were much more predictable, but they hadn’t managed to do any real damage to the bulk of her body.

  The unarmored adventurer in robes called out, “Her chest, I did it! Target her chest!”

  Tower, he’s right, Nik realized. There was the tiniest crack where the lightning bolt must have struck.

  His sword vanished and the spear gifted to him by the flutter-fox appeared in his hand.

  One footstep, followed by the next until it became a mad dash toward the matron. A series of Wind Slices knocked the last arm away from Nik, granting him the freedom to make his move.

  A last-second blade of air hit the crack from overhead as he neared his target; Pearl was back in the air. The crack widened ever so slightly, and Nik sent another small Flame Burst from his back foot as he plunged his spear into the literal crack in the skitterbug’s armor.

  It sank into her flesh, and stopped only inches past the head of the spear.

  He pressed forward and failed to budge it any deeper.

  It isn’t enough.

  The piercing scream of the Monster rang through the tunnel, and he knew, after all they had done to fight her, she was going to end them all.

  He stopped those thoughts before tremors could take hold, and he shook his head.

  “No. No! I’m not done with you yet!” Nik screamed back at the matron.

  Pulling back his arm and lowering his shoulder, he twisted his torso and shot his hand upward with every ounce of strength he could put behind his punch.

  His knuckles slammed into the base of his spear, and he activated Flame Burst behind the weapon.

  With a loud boom, a blast of blue fire washed over the area around his fist.

  Launched by way of fiery explosive force, the spear carved a blazing path through the massive creature’s flesh.

  A shudder ran through the bulbous pile of muscle and chitin, and her furious screaming ceased. The creature’s head came falling down. With a crash, mandibles hit the ground between Nik and the others.

  Nik was unsurprised by the bell that tolled from the system, announcing their victory. He'd hardly even noticed it. Laid over the top of the notification boxes, was a message.

  There is life in my tower. Something has forced a shift, and that change is linked to you, little one. I have slumbered within the stone, but no longer.

  My heart beats, and I am waking.