Master of the Hoard - Chapter 41 (Patreon)

“Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.” - Markus Zusak,

"It's like they've just pulled back and gone completely defensive. There is not a single Urten to be found. It's bloody annoying."

I couldn't remember the name of the wiry scout, but I remembered her sour disposition. This time around, however, I tended to agree with her. "How far out have you been?"

Aelis answered. "About half an hour's walk in every direction. If anybody is hiding beyond our perimeter, they are too far out to react to our presence in time, even if we decide to attack."

Arthor barked. "If we attack? There is no discussion here. We're going to punish them." He eyed me, challenge clear in his glare.

I nodded. "We will. They will pay and they will pay in blood. We are, however, not going to just charge in blindly. We are going to do this in a way that minimizes the danger to us all... agreed?" His grudging nod was enough answer for me, and I continued. "Aelis. Did you manage to enter the Lair?"

She shook her head. "No. I did, however, come close enough to see everything within the first cavern. It looks like it did the last time. A few Urten are staying inside, but the majority of them must be further in."

I tilted my head. "That has got to be wrong. Or it's a trap. How many are there?"

"Five or six. A few switched places while I watched. They were working, it seemed."

"And the lair itself? What can you tell us about that?"

"It is a cluttered mess, Milord. Rocks, bones and trashed items litter the place. The Urten have to be very careful about walking around or they bump into all sorts of trash. One corner of the place is dedicated to them using their powers to manipulate metals. The process produces a lot of smoke and results in bad visibility on top of everything else."

"Thanks, Aelis. So the place is cluttered, visibility is low and most of the enemies are out of sight. Good. That's actually not the worst news. I realize now, I never asked. Do the Urten have any sort of ranged weapons?"

She shook her head. "Not that we know of. They are simple creatures."

"Promising. So, by your judgment, would we be able to attack them at a distance from the entrance to the cavern?"

"Yes. Without a doubt. They are far enough away, that both you and our shamans would be able to get a few attacks in." She raised a paw. "One final piece of information. I spotted the enemy dragon. He is a green. It was a brief glance from inside the next cave, but the scales were definitely green."

"Oh. That is great. Give me a second." I tried to recall the details from back when I was deciding what kind of dragon I wanted to evolve into. I really missed some kind of game encyclopedia here. So, green was poison, obviously - but what else? Erm... oh yeah,  kind of reminiscent of shadow dragons in that one aspect, they preferred ambushes, traps and indirect damage. "Dammit," I growled. "It's definitely a trap."

The Talpi looked expectantly at me. "So, regardless of the green definitely being a monstrous bastard, there's no way he's stupid, and greens love traps. And the entrance cavern here? It's definitely designed to lure us in with the promise of a handful of easy targets. The how of it doesn't really matter. We need an alternative plan."

"This had better not be you trying to back down from our vengeance," Arthor growled.

“Enough! Stop acting like a pup, Arthor. We are getting our revenge, but we're not throwing away half your lives because you can't keep your temper." I continued, less harsh. "So think of your family and help us come up with an alternative plan."

Arthor gave a grim nod, but it was Roth who came to the rescue. "Come on. What’s the matter with you? We do what we always do. We dig."

Turns out, the Talpi were not just good at peepholes. They excelled at them. Generations of having to flee from the vast majority of their enemies, sometimes having to hide out for long periods of time, had taught them exactly how to create the most optimal version of a peephole in order to scout a place without being spotted in the process.

Aelis elaborated, "Even so, it's not foolproof. The digging itself does take the regular time too. This means we will not be able to scout a dozen different areas. We could take the time to scout the place extensively, obviously, but we do not know whether that will be a waste of time. We probably should do a rough circuit of the place to estimate the size of the domain regardless. However, as for scouting inside the place, our best bet is to start a handful of tunnels from a bit further down the corridor. Tiny tunnels, just large enough for a crawlspace, aimed to land just beyond the initial cavern. Then, when we're close to the end, we can allow the tunnels to veer off, select what we want to investigate and stick to those. Besides, we are limited by the amount of food we have brought, which is...not overwhelming."

I nodded. "Of course, we could go out and hunt from here, expand on our resources. I'd rather not. Let's keep this short and sweet. We are in hostile territory and we are definitely in danger of the dragon getting tired of waiting for us and doing an excursion at an unfortunate time to see what's happening. So, what can we do within the next, say, eight hours?"

The answer was "not a lot." Our known maps around here were limited, as were the locations we could use for starting the tunnels for scouting. Adding in a couple of extra hours to the deadline hit a sweet spot, and our diggers got to work. They were trying to hit a handful of locations placed beyond the first cavern. The shamans had a good chat before starting our diggers off, and I combined their sensations with the directions I could intimate from my mini map. When that was done, Creziel and Arthor started to fortify the entrance to the dragon's lair and I got to work on a speech. Minutes later, we were standing before the entrance, and I was staring into the beckoning opening.

Creziel looked towards the Urten within the cavern. "They've definitely spotted us. Do you really think this will work?"

"Yeah. I do. It's classic misdirection. Besides, worst case scenario, I hold them back while you run and we lose them in the tunnels. They don't know where our domain is. Now get to work."

Arthor had already started. Visibly, from the enemies' perspective, nothing was happening. Unless, of course, you discounted the sudden arrival of an enemy dragon. In practice, however, the terrain in front of the entrance was slowly caving in, hidden by a slight incline. Within that newly created depression, the shamans would soon be fixing shards of rock to the ground and altering them to become razor sharp. According to Creziel, they had other things to put in play too. Fake surfaces with short spikes, sharp enough to impale Urten feet. Carved out platforms over the entrance for Crawls to jump down in ambush. My task was something entirely different. I needed to make sure that the enemy dragon stayed away from charging us. In fact, everything was riding on my part. I wasn't sure we'd be able to handle things if he decided to charge out and confront us. No pressure, right? Anyway, I hoped that the system was right this time around and the green actually acted like the description said, avoiding direct confrontation. In fact, I was betting everything on it.

The two shamans were starting to stare at me. Right. I'd better get to it. I stepped forward and sent out a mental shout, as loud as I possibly could. From the grimace on Creziel and Arthor's faces, it was pretty damn loud. "Cretin. Murderer. Assassin. Come out here and face me, you filthy beast."

I didn't expect any reaction from the green to be honest and at first, there was none. The Urten had definitely heard me as they were glancing at each other, frozen, like deer ready to sprint at the first sign of movement from me. I merely continued my speech. "A coward? It doesn't surprise me. Greens always are."

That got a reaction. A voice rang inside my mind, powerful and insinuative, even charismatic. "Why act like this? Is this a way of introducing yourself, brother?"

"I am not your brother. I am Onyx, the leader of the one you’ve slain."

"Pfah. A Talpus. She came here and spoke to me like she was an equal. What an insult. I even returned her sorry carcass to you instead of gobbling it down as a midday snack. Still, you're here now. Why don't you come inside and we talk, like equals. I am Ravahk and I would love to chat, with an equal."

I didn't have to simulate the rage that was building inside me. My roar rang toward the enemy. "You're not my equal. And I'm not here to talk. I am giving you an ultimatum. This time tomorrow, I will be facing you, whether you want to or not. I will tear your lair apart stone by stone, slice up your sorry underlings and feast on your flesh. Or you can surrender now, and I will consider letting you live."

A mental chuckle rang out. "That's not the most enticing offer I've ever had. I think I will have to pass. Why wait, friend? You can come in right now, and we will see how our chat goes? Or I suppose you can continue this foolishness, and I see you tomorrow."

I stepped away, fuming, and left Arthor to his work. One of the scouts would stay nearby too, ensuring that we weren't surprised. "Creziel, I need you." The tiny shaman joined me, while we went to find Aelis. Creziel was silent for a moment, before venturing, "That was... unfriendly. But he acted exactly like you said he would."

I growled. "I know. But his behavior made me anxious. He sounded too confident for somebody trapped inside his own lair. I have a hunch. Look, there she is. Aelis - I have a task for you."

"Anything, Milord."

"I think this Ravahk is acting. Nobody would be this confident if they were trapped inside their own lair, regardless of how many traps they have."

"What would you have us do, Sire?"

"I think he has a backdoor. I want you to locate it. Creziel and I will help. We'll circle the domain, check my map for the most likely spots. Creziel will have his feelers out."

"Yes, Sire. Would you like some of the builders along to assist us?"

"Not at this time. We're running on a schedule, and we can't afford to take them with us until we know if this is more than a hunch."

With that, we left, just the three of us, with Ursam plodding along in an annoyingly good mood. We informed everybody else where we'd be, and we started off, in a hurry. I didn't feel good about leaving the entrance unguarded, but this was the only real use of my time I could come up with, and we already had the contingency plans down, simple as they were. "If they attack, run and don't stop running before you're back home."

The lair seemed larger than I had expected. At the very least, our path took us on a long trip to circle the domain and check all paths, tunnels and caverns ranging up to the place. Now and again, Creziel was able to sense empty space far behind the earth and rock surrounding us, and I'd make a mental mark of the location. At the least, the pathways around here were pretty level. No stair paths going up or down to take into account right next to the place. Four hours later, we had circled the place and were busy sketching a comprehensive map. I'd spent a few minutes making an appearance, pacing back and forth in front of the entrance, growling and looking furious before returning to the two others.

"Well, that was a waste of time." I'd been so convinced too.

Aelis shook her head, looking down at the dirt map. "I disagree, Sire. Now, if you don't mind confirming that this looks accurate?"

I brought up my minimap and nodded. "It's pretty damn good."

"Thank you. In that case, I agree with your earlier assessment, Sire. The way I see it, there are two options. Either there is no rear exit or it comes out on an entirely different level and will not be found here, and subsequently will not be an ambush risk."

"Or..."

"Or it is one of these four spots and we missed it the first time."

I glanced at the map, noting that they were all adjacent to places leading right up to empty spaces beyond. Spaces where we assumed the domain wouldn't be too far away. "Why here, though?”

“Urten, with their fire skills, would be relatively decent at carving through earth, but their bodies are not built for digging and they are too stupid to create something truly well-built. I would not trust a long tunnel built by Urten. And neither would Ravahk, unless he is more ignorant than we believe. Now, if we move on again, we should be able to find the place before the green decides to charge out at us."

Aelis was right. The secret exit was in the last of the four spots, because of course it was. Creziel contained a tiny squeal as he made the discovery. "Here. Right here. I see why we didn't discover it in the first place. They must have done something like when we ambushed the Dweelers. Carved the tunnel and then filled it in with a layer of earth later on, ready for collapsing."

I could feel a vicious grin growing on my face. "Oh, this is going to be amazing. Now, how about collapsing the exit from the outside?"

Creziel shrugged. "That should not be an issue. An hour’s work, I believe."

"Thank you. Let's return to the others, see what they have found. I'll make my presence known near the entrance again too."