Master of the Hoard - Chapter 42 (Patreon)

The war council was in session, right next to the lair entrance. According to Arthor, an Urten had tried sneaking his way towards the entrance, but Arthor sent him packing with a broken arm. We had a scout keeping tabs on any movement, though I didn't expect anything to happen right away. Heh - full disclosure? Now that the Talpi had littered the entrance with traps and nasty surprises, I really, really wanted them to send a group out as a probe. They would regret the attempt.

"Our scouts are in place, Sire. One of our initial attempts hit a bad angle, but we have two decent slits, allowing us to look into the hallway just beyond. You were right, Sire. There are definitely traps in place. We have twelve Urten waiting, fully equipped, just beyond the doorway to the initial cavern. Also..." she scratched her neck. "They spotted something strange."

"Strange? We need a bit more than that to work on..."

The tiny Talpus frowned. "It is hard to define, Sire. Arthor, perhaps you could describe the nature of Urten for me?"

He waved off the request. "Why? Big, strong, dangerous and simple. That's all you need to know." When he saw the scout staring at him expectantly, he sighed. "You've seen them as often as I have, Aelis. But okay. From what we know, if you leave Urten alone to fend for themselves, they get restless fast. That's why we've surprised as many as we have over time. They get bored, then they get themselves into dangerous situations. That's not useful in this situation, though."

"I tend to disagree, Arthor. The groups inside are walking about, clearly prepared to move at short notice. However, they still circle around, eat, talk and growl, like Urtens tend to do. Except for three of them."

I perked up at that. "Oh?"

Aelis' frown was back. "I cannot seem to fathom what it is. One of them is looking through a slit, not unlike our own. He is keeping an eye on the entrance and us, obviously. The other two, however, just stand in place, waiting, twitching. They talk with the others, but they don't move from their spots at all." She looked up at me. "Sire. Why are you smiling like that?"

I could feel my lips stretching. "Oh, no reason in particular. Except for one thing. I think our green adversary just provided us with a perfect venue for attacking him." My grin only grew at the abject confusion on their faces. "I am not a professional when it comes to this. But I know enough about the subject that I can tell you that there are many ways to activate traps. Pressure plates, wire, thread or other methods depending on weight or touch. Then there's the magical ones, like our pit trap back in the lair or the Shadow Towers. Finally, there's manual ones that rely on somebody to throw a switch, hit a plate or... something. I believe you'll find, if you ask the scouts to look closely, that you'll find the reason why they're standing still is that they're needed to activate some traps."

Creziel's eyebrows rose higher as I spoke. "Onyx. If that's true, we can activate those traps, or whatever they are, from a distance!"

"Exactly. But that's just the start." My mind was awhirl with the possibilities, and we got down to business, planning out exactly how to surprise the living hell out of the green pest.

Hours flew by as we plotted. I spent my last two profession slots, granting both Erk and Ursam the Fighter profession. Finally, I stretched, looking at my clock. "That’s it. We’re ready. There's still about ten hours to go for the deadline I gave this Ravahk."

Aelis nodded. "That should leave us with plenty of time. Do you want us to rest up for the remainder of the time?"

I huffed. "Not a chance. We are not waiting until the time I told him. We're attacking as soon as we're ready. Honor is for honorable foes. This bastard is due for a nasty surprise."

Half an hour later, we were standing in front of the secret exit from the lair, watching Creziel slowly move the dirt aside. I was busy going over the final details with Roth. Behind us, was... everybody. Except for Arthor and a single scout stuck near the entrance, this was it. We were committed and ready to go through with our attack.

"Any questions? This is probably the last chance to go over any details."

Roth shook his head. "We’ve got this. When he's ready, Arthor activates those traps on the bastards, then pulls down the mountain on top of those who’re waiting to jump us."

I corrected him. "Tries to pull down the mountain. Arthor told me that the ceiling was too solid for him to collapse the whole thing. We should expect survivors - especially if he isn't allowed to continue attacking undeterred."

"Alright. Tries to. Meanwhile, we enter here. You go first, take the worst hits, find any traps they've got waiting for us on this end - and then we split up." He bared his teeth.

I nodded. "I know. It's not perfect, but it's the best we can do right now. If we can take out the five Urten in the first cavern and most of the ten in the second..."

The squat beast nodded with a satisfied grin. "We’re more than enough to take on any others in the lair. I'll beat our people so they stay in their squads and get the Crawls to take the lead. You..." his voice trailed off.

"I'll take on the dragon."

"Yeah! Just go straight for his throat. He’ll never expect it. You shadow dragons are supposed to be..." his paw fluttered in the air, searching for the right word.

"Weak? Horrible at direct attacks? Amazing? All three of those are correct. I'm still going, though. That green bastard in there got his chance, and he decided to screw up horribly. Now it's my turn to make him pay. Besides..." I patted the massive form right next to me. "It's not like I'm alone. Ursam here's going to go with me and help me tear the bastard limb from limb." I pointed at the dirt wall before us. "One other detail: Finding our way. From what we've mapped, the lair is slightly larger than ours. That means it should be pretty simple to find our way in there, but there's a pretty good chance of side tunnels and rooms. Those are your responsibility. If I linger too long in getting to the dragon, we'll be in trouble."

Roth nodded his understanding and walked off to talk with some of the others, leaving me alone with my thoughts for a moment. It was the first time I'd had that happen in a while, and the questions came tumbling in automatically. Was I doing the right thing? Would this cost even more in the long run? I never had the chance to even start considering the responses, as a rumbling sound in the distance was suddenly accompanied by cries.

Creziel cried out. "That was Arthor. Something must have happened."

I looked at the dirt wall still in front of him and grunted. "How much is still left in front of us?"

"Onyx, it's-"

"How much?"

"A foot. Maybe more. I cannot see beyond it, though."

"MOVE." My mental cry rose into a shout as I dug my claws into the dirt beneath me and bounded towards the wall in long leaps. "Ursam, come." At the last moment, I ducked my head down, while the obligatory "this is going to hurt" thought made itself known. With a growl and a loud plod, I slammed head first into the earthen obstacle in front of me. At this exact point, I would've loved to be a red dragon. It's heavy form and huge muscles would've allowed it to power through the flimsy barricade with impunity and not even slow down. Meanwhile, I was stuck in the entrance, with my head and neck having plowed straight through the earth while the rest of the body was stuck. Exactly at that point, I noticed the contraption coming to life in front of me in a series of whirling green colors.

I knew instantly what it was. My claws scrabbled for purchase, tearing into the mounds of earth on all sides of me, as I watched the chest-high construction slowly gain in color intensity. I'd never seen a Poison Tower before, but it could be nothing else. I was moments from wrenching myself free, but it wouldn’t be enough to make it before the first whirling ball released from the tower. Flying straight at me the ball of whatever it was hit me in the chest with a massive splotch. I tore free and loped forwards, tearing into the tower with both claws. Within seconds, it toppled to the ground, lights dying, even as I ripped the upper part to bits.

Then, I allowed myself to focus on the damage. Goddamn, but that hurt... quite a lot less than I'd expected, actually. I craned my neck to look down to where the nasty green substance impacted on my chest and could practically see the filthy crap sizzling as it tried to eat its way through my scales. My wonderful, hardened scales. I scraped my paw over the semi-liquid substance, removing as much as possible before wiping it off on the floor. And then my paw started to hurt. Even the brief contact with the caustic substance was enough for it to start doing damage to my paw. No time for this. "Avoid getting shot by those towers, they're full of poison. Otherwise, we stick to the plan. Move it!"

I set the pace, disentangling myself from the ruins of the poison tower and trotting down the tunnel. Any faster, and I would leave my people behind. I dared not consider why Arthor had triggered the trap early, and shortly, I was too distracted to spend time on it. The dirt tunnel we'd delved into was short and rapidly ended in a natural cave. One that had clearly been converted into something else. Garbage, bones and a couple of bed rolls littered the floor in a haphazard scheme that got even more messed up as I barreled through the cavern. The place was dirty and had an underlying smell to it, rot and...fear. Ahead, the cavern turned into a tunnel that split both left and right. I heard the group of Urten stomping towards us from the right corridor before I saw them, yelling "Incoming." I stuck my neck around the corner and instantly released my Weakening Fog at the incoming trio before taking off at a run down the leftmost tunnel.

Behind me, bloodthirsty roars confirmed that the Urten were too tough to take down with a single breath attack and momentarily, shrieks and the sound of struggles ensued as the Talpi tore into them from the side. I ignored them and paced further down the tunnel, towards the entrance and, hopefully, my target. I wanted to go back and take the time to help the others, I really did, but time was of the essence. Every second I wasted was one Ravahk could use to prepare his forces and traps, maybe dig out Urten from within the collapsed area.

I entered a large cavern now, tall ceiling, wide walls. Also, filled with crude weaponry, large poles  and... were those carcasses? Whatever they were, they had been chopped up into oblivion. I couldn’t be certain, but I would wager that this was a Training Chamber. The very moment I made that connection, a poison tower spun into activation and four Urten emerged in the opening leading towards us.

"Ursam, attack," I said, pointing a claw at the Urten and releasing a Weakening Fog down the cavern. I built up to a sprint and charged straight at the Poison tower, hoping to take it out before it was fully activated. I was this close to making it. Two large strides, and I would've been right in position to striking down the tower, but unfortunately, the tower shot first. The light from the tower increased and I frantically threw myself to the right to avoid the shot that emerged. A shadow raced past me on my left, even as my frantic dodge took me straight into a large pile of weaponry. I was too busy to think straight, scrambling against the weapons to get back on my feet, and with a clatter of displaced arms, I launched myself straight at the glinting tower.

Thank God they were so flimsy. I didn't even have to strike it, just threw my not inconsiderate mass at the upper half of the thing and it snapped as I bore it to the ground, lights dying out immediately. In front of me, sparks were flying from where Ursam was clinching with the four Urten. Well, three now. One of them was bleeding out on the floor, bereft of an arm. Two of the others were facing off against my favorite Clencher, while the third was in the background. Well, facing off was saying a bit much. One of them was flailing a rough mace against Ursam's hide to little effect, while the other had gotten his leg caught against Ursam's flank and was now beating ineffectively on the big bear's body, even as he was dragged around. In the background, however, I focused on the final Urten, who was now dragging his hand over his weapon, focusing intently on the act, even as he cut open his own hand. Where I was expecting blood to burst forth, tongues of flame licked out from his hand, enveloping the blade and lighting up the entire cavern.

Oh crap. I risked a glance behind me, and watched figures moving in the distance. Good. The others were coming. I disentangled myself from the remnants of the Poison Tower and increased my speed in large, loping bounds. Seconds later, I sent a mental shout to Ursam, with all of my authority behind it, "Ursam. DOWN!" and leapt. It would have been a smooth move too. I sailed through the air, aimed directly at the figure on the other side who was descending, completely oblivious, on Ursam with his flaming axe. Except, Ursam didn't duck like he was supposed to do. Instead he turned towards me, pulling the trapped Urten completely off balance and sending me a look like, "What did you mean again?"

Which meant that instead of leaping over the tall bear-like monster to crunch down on the flaming Urten with impunity, my front claw snagged on Ursam and I was dragged off course, sailing sideways through the air to impact the ground left flank first. Part of my plan still worked. The Urten hadn't moved, and the sudden appearance of half a ton of flying dragon must have been a nasty surprise, even as he disappeared below my bulk. Him raising the axe in time to carve into my body was not planned for, though. I'm not sure what hit me first - the impact of the ground or the slicing sensation along my flank. I was soon stumbling to my feet, ignoring the burning pain down my side as I stamped a clawed hind foot down on the Urten who'd just cut me. Damn, that cut had hurt. It had also taken a fourth of my health away.

Ursam was still toying around with the third Urten. The second one must have had his arm pulled out of its socket or something, because he wasn't struggling anymore. Rather, he was lolling unconscious from where he was being dragged behind the large ursine beast, white in the face. I sent an additional command at Ursam "Come here." and started jogging further down the tunnel. I growled at the realization that he wasn't immediately following and doubled down. "Come here!" I wanted to stay, make sure he followed, but I just couldn't spare the time. If anything, this short altercation had definitely proved that the Urten were dangerous opponents, especially if they were allowed the time to engage their powers.

The cavern with the training room shrank down to a smaller tunnel. I ran past caverns on either side, rank smells from inside indicating that Urten lived there, traces of movement hinting that some were still there. However, the dim glow from ahead told me all I needed. That was where I was going. The others would just have to deal with any add-ons from the side rooms. I smiled to hear heavy footsteps from behind. Good. Ursam wasn't being entirely daft today. I could tell from the mini-map that this was my target. The space ahead would lead me straight to the front entrance of the lair. The light coming from up ahead slowly gained in intensity and I did my best to sneak the last handful of steps.