Chapter 15 - "Come at me!"

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Chapter 15 - "Come at me!"

   The rhythmic rumbling feels disturbing, but it's currently the only thing that can be heard through the dark tunnels. The soldiers outside seem to have noticed, that the gate is about to give in and tackle it now with even more force. I watch them on my map, waiting at the end of the dark, heavily trapped hallway. They would probably not notice me even if I watched them directly, but the thought to face them upfront gives me a shiver.

After the Ashrani retreated behind the barricades, I activated all of the traps and instructed Orsha that no one should enter the hallway until I tell them it's safe. There was no time to instruct everyone on the position of all the traps yet, so they have to trust me for now.

Everything is ready for the big show. I was never so nervous before, not even during the fight with the Harpas. Just sitting here, hearing the crushing sound from above, over and over again ... I feel almost relieved, when the echo of the final heavy crumbling resonates in the hall and loud shouts pierce through the darkness. [The gate has fallen ...]

Commanding voice: "You two: secure the upper floor! Ramus, Sally, watch the entrance! Everyone else: get down the stairs! ... Report back when you find them!"

Yes, come down here, I'll be happy to welcome you! ...

Scarred soldier: "Sir, shouldn't we wait for captain Brokewing, and his men?"

What? There are more of them out there?

Commander: "Brokewing has his own problems right now, who knows when they will arrive. And who knows what the Lizards are preparing for us, while we wait. No, we will have to deal with them by ourselves. Now go!

Three armed man are hasting down the stairs. They are wet, dirty and tired. I can her them breathing heavily. Their advance becomes slower, the deeper they go ... Meanwhile I process what that guy just said:

What does he mean by "they have their own problems", didn't they attack the Camp together? If they planned to meet up at this tower, then something probably didn't go according to plan. I hope, this means that there are still Ashranie survivors out there, giving them hell. This allows me to hope, that Sari is still alive.

The soldiers draw my attention back at them, by raising their voices:

Young soldier: "Dammit, It's pitch dark here!"

Female Soldier: "We would need some torch- ..."

Too late! The first guy that reaches the bottom of the stairway trips over the wire of the first trap. Instantly, two arrows hush through the darkness. One hits him directly in the chest, piercing his armor and burying itself deep into his lung. the other projectile misses completely ... I would need to adjust it's line of fire later ...

The soldier was so caught in surprise, that he forgot to scream. And after he realized what happened, he couldn't bring out a tone because of the pain it caused.

Bold soldier: "What was that?!"

Young Soldier: "Hahh- ..."

Bold soldier: "Are we being attacked?

Young soldier: "Ghah- ... ar- ..."

Female soldier: "Crap, it's to dark to see anything. We need torches!"

They try to grab the injured guy, but the stairway is to narrow for complicated movements, and they just dropped him and run off.

Bold soldier: "Sorry Garry, we'll come back for 'ya!"

Young soldier (Garry): "Whaahhh? ..."

He clearly didn't expect that to happen.

My first thought is, to recharge the trap immediately, but poor Garry fell right on top of the trip-wire, so it's out of question. I follow my map to see what's happening upstairs: The two people that checked the upper floor of the tower are coming down again.

Muscular soldier: "No one's up there, sir. But there's a strange object you may want to see!"

Strange Object? Does he mean the engraved cannonball?

Commander: "Later! The lizards come first."

The two from below are coming back up.

Bold soldier: "We found them in the cave downstairs!"

Commander: "A cave?"

Female soldier: "Yes sir, but it's totally dark down there!"

Commander: "... Where's that boy?"

Bold Soldier: "They ... shot him down, sir ..."

The commander clicks his tongue.

Commander: "... Is he still alive?"

Female Soldier: "He was when we left, sir."

Commander: "Linda will kill me if her spoiled brat dies under my command ... Get out the torches! ... You two ..."

He points at the soldiers guarding the entrance.

Commander: "... see if some of our guys are still alive. And scout that shag near the tower, I don't wont any surprises biting us in the back!"

The Two soldiers confirm the command with a "Yes sir!" and move outside, disappearing in to the rain. The wind is slowly calming down, but the rain just seems to be increasing instead. A few moments later, the others lit their torches.

During this scene, I wasn't just waiting; The disturbing thought that this whole plan could fail badly shook me up inside and I began thinking about a "plan B". I have still something over 400 DP left ... not much to work with. So while carefully watching the soldiers movement, I quickly advanced my terrain on the surface towards the fallen people. Maybe it's not to late to get some additional DP out of them, it could save our lives later. If even one of them gets absorbed, the spendings for the terrain will be covered. It's true that this is a gamble, but on the other hand, the whole plan is a huge gamble.

Commander: "... Everyone ready? Alright, now get down there! Shields to the front!"

The soldiers began their second advance into my dungeon, but this time they're far better organized. It means a lot if they have a commander after all. If I could manage to dispose of him, the others surly wouldn't be such a huge threat. But since he's always staying behind his subordinates they will probably die first. ... Coward ...

As soon as they reach the bottom, three of them quickly form a shield wall around the staircase and the fourth soldier -the female one- readies her bow behind them. The commander throws his torch through the room, and it lights up all the dark corners. He takes a long, careful look at the empty hallway and then bows over his dead subordinate. After closing the eyes of the boy, he pulls out the arrow from his chest.

Commander: "... Be careful, there's someone else here ..."

Female soldier: "Sir? ..."

Commander: "The Lizards don't use bows. They never did ... Forward!"

At his command, his people begin to move, but it just takes them a few steps until the first boulder-trap is triggered. With a rustling sound, the big stone descends upon a bold guy, crushing his bones beneath it. The others instantly jump back in shock.

Muscular soldier: "Wh- ... What the hell?!"

Female soldier: "What is this?"

Commander: "STOP RIGHT THERE! DON'T MOVE!"

His loud voice resonates through the room and leaves an echo.

Commander: "We stepped into a dungeon!"

Female soldier: "A dungeon? Here? But there are no reports about a dungeon in this region ..."

Commander: "Must be a young one ..."

He figured that out pretty quick. I wonder, what more he may know about dungeons. The thought to capture this guy alive crosses my mind, but that would be definitely to dangerous. I don't have a prison or something, and I can't think of a way to question him either ... But the fact, that they don't know about other dungeons in the are is a useful information. Of course, there could be still one hiding himself.

Commander: "... It doesn't matter! It sided with the lizards, so it's a treat! We'll see what's in the next room, and retreat back to the camp. The guilds would love to hear about that."

And then, they began to move forward, slowly and carefully while triggering one of my traps after another from distance. [Damn!] At least, I got one of them. While retreating to the back of the room, I also keep track of the two guys outside:

Right after they moved out of the tower one of them went to the building, that once was my core-room. The other -another female soldier- began to check on her fallen comrades. It appears that the two in front of the entrance are already dead, so she went for the other two, who where the first ones to be struck down by spears at the back of the tower. Seeing their chance to get her alone, some of the Ashrani that hid outside began to follow her, while staying behind cover.

At about the same time, the other guy readies his sword and pulls the door open, prepared to face what ever may be inside. But seeing the empty room, he relaxes and decides to step in. My heart jumps in joy when the boulder crushes him down. He didn't even have the time to scream.

Right when the women reacts to the loud noise of the trap and looks in the direction, three Ashrani hunters jump out of their cover and impale her from behind. She didn't even see them coming. [YES! that's another two down!]

The soldiers in the hall didn't notice any of that.

Me: [Orsha, there are just four of them left. When they open the door, provoke them to enter.]

Orsha: [Yes!]

She whispers a few phrases, and the other hunters hid themselves behind the barricade. She herself went to the small gap I left. Meanwhile, the remaining intruders disarmed all the remaining traps in the hallway, and I'm pretty mad at them because of that! But there's still one left ... the spikes! They can't disarm them, because the trigger is on the other side of the door. And that's what I'm counting on ...

After disarming the last boulder-trap at the door, they are ready to advance.

Commander: "Jonas, open the door. Everyone else, be ready!"

Me: [They are coming!]

Orsha: [Yes! Orsha is ready!]

The muscular guy looks at the faces of his comrades to confirm that everyone is prepared and kicks the door open. What greets him, is a surprised looking, unarmed Orsha. [Nice act ...]

Orsha: "CRREEEEEEE ...."

Muscular soldier (Jonas): "DIE, YOU BASTARD!"

With this he storms in to the room. [He fell for it!]

Commander: "Jonas, STOP!"

He stops, but it's to late! He is already standing on the pressure-plate. In a blink of an eye, dozens of thin spikes spring from the floor, impaling the two soldiers behind him. The Commander escaped it, because he (again) was staying behind. Screams of pain echo through the underground tunnels, adding to the overall confusion. Everything goes according to my plan!

Me: [NOW, FINISH THEM!]

Orsha: "ASHRANI! AGÓR-SERMÉSH ZOR ANÁCK!"

At once two spears flew through the gaps in the barricade. Orsha grabs her spear too and storms at the invader, followed by two other female hunters. The muscular soldier manages to evade one of the spears, but the other pierces through his leg, preventing him from running away. Orsha attempts to impale him, but he blocks her spear. In this time, the other two jump at him. One clings to his shield, forcing him to drop it, the other tries to slash on his other leg, but he parries that with his sword. While Orsha strikes her spear at his head, not giving him any time to counterattack, the second attacker throws the shield out of the soldiers reach and jumps at him again. With the bone-claws on her arms, she aims at his neck. The Soldier dodges the spear and sends the claw-women flying by punching her with his bare fist. What he didn't dodge, was the bone-sword to his stomach from the third attacker. Orsha takes the chance, and strikes her spear into his massive chest. Due to the thick leather armor, the wound is not fatal, but it gives the young Ashrani-girl with the claws another chance to get at his neck. And this time, she dyes her weapon in his blood.

In the meantime, their Commander quickly understood that there's nothing he can do anymore, and retreats to the stairway. But at the top of it, the remaining hunters are already waiting. After picking up their thrown spears, they are now all armed with mid-range weapons.  They don't even give him the chance to emerge from the staircase.

At the bottom, I deactivated and reloaded the spike-traps, simply to get them out of the way. The two impaled soldiers where not killed by the traps, as the spikes only jumped out to about one meter in high, but it surly immobilized them, making it easy for the Lizard-Man to finish them off.

The commander proved to be very skillful, as he managed to survive quite long at his disadvantageous position, and he even managed to injure one of his attackers, which made me worry for a short moment. But even he couldn't protect himself forever against around 10 spears, that where trusted at him from almost all directions without any rest. Bit-by-bit his live was leaking out of him through countless small wounds. In the end he collapsed down the stairs, and a bone sword ripped his throat open.

...

Some long moments pass in silence.

Me: [We did it, They are all dead!]

Orsha: "... Ges-anáck mesheg gor-gzóa!

An exhausted but happy cheer is raised by the survivors. Some of them are injured, others simply tired. There are 7 people who would still be able to fight. If the injured ones pushed themselves, we could arrange around 15 warriors.

Orsha: "Dsekés, kog-mar agash zo-remár ..."

With this words, the group move up to the tower, and the healthy hunters begin to check on the condition of the fallen. in fact, two of the Ashrani that were shot down by arrows are still alive, and brought inside to treat their injuries. Others weren't so lucky. One of the soldiers who got struck down by a spear was still breathing to, but that got fixed in an instant.

I am just observing the scene ...

One after another, the corpses disappear in the already familiar yellow light particles. I'm still not used to that. Neither are the Lizard-Man. Some of the hunters got themselves some kind of trophy, be it an ear, or a piece of the clothing. An overall of four Ashrani where killed today ... at least that's for the ones, I know about ... [Could be worse ...]

Orsha: [... Yes ... The Ashranie are thankful to the spirit of this place!]

Ah, I forgot about the link again ...

Me: [Nah, today we protected each other. Let's hope they stay away from now on.]

They probably won't ...

Orsha: [Yes, Humans have hunted too many Ashrani already!]

Me: [Hmm ... Say Orsha, why do the Humans and the Ashrani fight each other so desperately?]

She takes a moment to take a deep breath before answering.

Orsha: [... Sometimes, humans capture Ashrani and other tribes, to do heavy work for the humans. But sometimes humans come in bug groups to hunt, because they are afraid of the Ashrani.]

People fear what they don't understand, I guess. But capturing them for slavery ... This is not something I can agree with. Come to think of it - on my firs day, the soldiers back then said something about slaves. But I was to exited about their appearance, so I didn't really pay attention ...

[Phuh ...] I'm tired ... now that the tension dropped, I can feel the exhaustion draining on my conscientiousness. If someone decides to send a search party for this guys, then it would hopefully take a while. After confirming, that everything is fine for the time being, I should get some sleep as soon as possible to be ready for another encounter ...

System: [Warning! Hostile entities are close to the dungeon entrance.]

... Or not ...

Me: [Orsha, alert your people, more Enemies are coming!]

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