Tycoon May: Chapter 11 (Patreon)

Chapter 11

The sounds of screaming were echoing throughout the cave, urging Grant to move forward.  When he squeezed out of the narrow passage into the main cavern, Grant was immediately confronted by a mole the size of a horse.

“Run!  It’s Danger Diggers!”  The shout came from Alicia, who was distracting another of the large beasts farther up the tunnel with quick and ineffective jabs of her spear.  Grant immediately used Iaijutsu to slash through the outreaching paw of the Danger Digger trying to smash him to the ground.  At least, he tried.

His sword clanged hard against the shovel-like appendage of the giant mole, its thick claws as hard as steel.  Grant stumbled back, his Uchigatana vibrating in his hands hard enough that he almost lost his grip.  Using Belladonna Dodge to avoid the downward swipe of the monster, he managed to avoid being crushed into the packed dirt of the cave floor.  The sudden shift in direction seemed to confuse the giant mole, and it ignored Grant to shuffle forward toward the sounds of battle in front of it.

<You didn’t even scratch that thing.  If you had made it mad, I’m pretty sure you would be dead right now.>

“If I can get on its back, I might be able to kill it.”  Grant looked up to see the shoulders of the Danger Digger rubbing against the top of the tunnel, leaving him no room to get on its back.  “Or not, I guess.”  Grant was trapped, with no way out.  He would have to find a way through, or risk getting left behind.

“Just leave him!  He’s a homeless bum, and doesn’t even matter!”  Grant recognized the voice of the scared young man coming from the cave opening, and when Alicia’s eyes met his own, he saw the defeat written clearly on her face.  She mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ and sprinted out of the cave.  They really were going to leave him to die.

Grant wasn’t willing to just give up.  He darted to the side, skirting the edge of the wall and shooting the gap between the Danger Digger and the wall.  He made it past the first one, but the second giant mole saw him coming.  It slammed its body sideways against the tunnel, crushing him against the rocky wall.  Grant probably would have died if it weren’t for him managing to brace his sword against the wall, causing the Danger Digger to impale itself on the blade with the force of its attack.

While Grant was still injured, he wasn’t crushed to death.  The Danger Digger flinched away from the stabbing pain in its side, allowing Grant to drop to the ground without becoming a mancake.  His sword was still stuck in the side of the mole beast, and Grant couldn’t get his right hand to respond.  He tried to roll away before the beast recovered from the shock of being stabbed, but the grinding of broken bones in his right shoulder and leg slowed him down.  He barely got clipped by the flailing claw of the injured giant mole monster, snapping ribs and sending a lightning bolt of pain through his consciousness.

<Get back to the crevasse!>  Sarge’s voice in his mind helped clear Grant’s head.  He looked up to see the tunnel filled with Danger Diggers.  The path outside was completely blocked.  <Your only chance is to get clear before they trample you to death.>  After shouting in Grant’s mind, Sarge’s tone went completely calm and cold.  The pain was still making his head fuzzy, and he only had flashes of clarity.  <Grant, you are severely injured.  If you don’t move, you are going to die.>

“No.”  The single word was all he could manage.  The pain in his chest from broken ribs stole his breath, and everything looked like he was looking through a tunnel.  Grant could only use his left arm, the rest of his body refusing to move.  “No.”  He said it again, denying the call of unconsciousness, and started dragging himself back down the tunnel.

His empty hilt dragged along behind him, clattering off the rocks and dirt of the tunnel floor.  The sound was covered up by the stomps and squeaks of the Danger Diggers, who were more worried about chasing away the wagonload of people that were trying to leave.

Grant got lost in a world that only involved moving his left arm forward, and pulling himself along the ground bit by bit.  He barely even noticed when one of the giant moles stepped on his lower legs as it went by, bending his armor and crushing more bones.  His skin burst along his calves, and blood drained steadily out of the damaged limbs.  It only added to the background noise of agony, made worse by his Bodily Awareness skill.  Nothing changed the need to move his arm, drag himself forward, and try to breathe.

He wasn’t sure how long it took, but Grant was shaken out of his daze by the shouting in his head getting too loud to ignore.  <Grant!  You went too far!  Turn around, the crevasse is behind you!>  Shaking his head — and immediately regretting it — he realized his mistake.  His almost flat legs were next to the opening in the wall, and Grant had no way to pull himself inside.  He tried pushing himself back, but his blood-slicked palm couldn’t get enough traction.

The weakness of blood loss made it harder to ignore the encroaching darkness that tried to blanket his vision, and drawing in anything beyond a tiny gasp of air into his lungs was impossible.  Grant blacked out for a moment, but snapped his eyes open after only a few heartbeats.  “No.”  He gritted his teeth, refusing to give in.  Grant reached over and grabbed a piece of rock sticking out of the wall and pushed, spinning his body.  His blood helped, making it easier to slide his body on the rocky ground.  It was only a couple of feet away, but to Grant it felt like miles.

He was halfway through pulling himself into the gap when a Danger Digger passing by kicked Grant, snapping his lower spine against the wall opening.  The will to fight, to keep living, evaporated.  He knew that it was over.  Not being able to use his legs was the end.  Grant finished pulling himself into the crevasse before collapsing, his mangled legs barely clear of the outside.

<Don’t give up now.  Close your eyes, push past the pain, and use Live by the Sword.  Try to heal what you can.  Then use a healing potion to boost it.>  Sarge’s calm tones helped center Grant, and he closed his eyes to try and meditate.  He wasn’t sure when he actually managed to drop into a meditative state, but eventually a message popped in his vision.

Health: 22/940 -> 116/940. Critical areas focused. Blood loss halted. Blood level at 65%. Infection removed.  Skeletal integrity at 55%.

Grant tried moving his legs, and only his left responded.  His bent armor had kept his bones from healing completely, but they were at least more solid than the mess they had been before.  He pulled himself the rest of the way into the Metallica chamber, and gingerly removed the armor from his legs.

<Now, take a healing potion.  If you’re lucky, it will finish healing your spine, and you can walk again.>  It took some painful and awkward shuffling before he could reach the storage pouch on his belt that had somehow gotten turned around to the small of his back.  Once Grant had it in hand, he bit off the cork keeping the potion sealed and drank the mixture in one gulp.  A hard tingle went through his body, and Grant felt a burning in his chest and legs.  Suddenly, it was much easier to breathe.

He was struck by a coughing fit that wracked his body with pain, and Grant groaned as he spit out a globule of blood.  <You must have had a punctured lung.  Try moving your legs.>  Grant did, but his right leg still wasn’t responding like it should.  It only twitched, making his eyes blur with the strain.  <That’s what I was afraid of.  Healing your ribs and lungs took most of the potion’s energy.  There wasn’t enough left over to finish healing your back.>

“So, what do I do now?”  Grant scooted himself against the wall, using it to hold himself up.  “I can’t fight like this.”

<Now?  You accept defeat, and die.>