Tycoon May: Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Chapter 14

Grant didn’t have any other options, so he started climbing the pile of broken skulls.  It was clear the creatures they came from had been massive, on the scale of the Miniature Ice Giant he had fought in District April.  They were old enough to have been bleached white by the sun, but the smell of death lingered over the area.  Grant used the gaping eye sockets to pull himself up to the second layer of stacked bone.  He was able to squeeze between two of the skulls into a gap big enough for him to sit down with room to spare.

<Don’t take too long to rest.  This place is not… good.>  Grant nodded at Sarge’s advice.  He felt it too.  There was something wrong here, and it wasn’t just the pervasive sense of doom being inside a stack of giant skulls gave him.  It felt like something was waiting, holding its breath.  A spark, just waiting for a gust of wind to turn it into a wildfire.

“What do you think it is?”  Grant didn’t know why he was whispering, but it felt wrong not to.  “A spirit?  Are the ghosts of the dead watching me?”

<No, I would sense a restless spirit.  This is something else.>  Sarge paused, and Grant felt the sword buzz in its sheath.  <Whatever it is, it’s leaving you alone for the moment.  Eat something, and get some strength back.  Then get out of here before it changes it’s mind.>

“But Sarge, it’s almost sunset.  I shouldn’t go out at night without any cover around here.”  Grant waited for a reply from the sword spirit, but he didn’t get one.  Instead, he pulled out some materials from his storage pouch and had a small fire going within a few minutes.  He sipped stale water from an almost-empty water skin as he roasted a hunk of meat from the Danger Digger over the flames.  Once the fat started to drip into the fire, he pulled it free and quickly devoured the tough monster meat.  It was stringy, gamey, and almost raw in the middle, but his starving body didn’t care.

Still hungry, Grant pulled out another Danger Digger steak and took his time to cook it properly.  It was much better after he sliced it into strips, and Grant could feel his body start to heal itself again now that it had the energy to do so.

While he was eating the last few bites, true dark settled over the blasted lands surrounding his bone fort.  The sounds of monsters fighting one another in the distance echoed menacingly in the hollow skulls, making the already dangerous environment even more threatening.  Grant used what was left of his water to quickly put out the fire, before the light attracted anything.

<Something is coming.  It’s too late to run.  You need to hide.  Now.>  Grant didn’t have anywhere to go, beyond climbing higher into the pile.  He managed to squeeze into a skull barely large enough for him to fit through the single eye-hole.  Once he was inside, there was room to turn around and look out over the plains.  A distant flash of lightning briefly illuminated the area, and as far as Grant could see, the ground was covered in ants that were busy tearing apart any creatures unlucky enough to stumble across their hunting grounds.  Considering how high off the ground he was, they weren’t regular ants, either.  They were larger than a dog, and their numbers were uncountable.

<Whatever you do.  Don’t.  Move.>  For maybe the first time ever, Sarge whispered an order quietly.  <There are too many of them.  You’ll be ripped apart in seconds.>

The ants engendered a kind of fear that Grant hadn’t felt before.  It made his limbs tingle, and his chest feel tight.  If they were to find out where he was, it wouldn’t matter how many he killed.  It was an impossible fight, so he did exactly what Sarge suggested.  Grant held perfectly still, no matter how uncomfortable the tight space made him feel.  Images of the death of his friends in District April ran through his mind before he could push them back inside the box of emotions where he kept them.

After an indeterminable amount of time, it started raining hard enough that Grant couldn’t see the ground through the occasional flash of lightning that lit up the skies.  Instead of it making things better, it only heightened his fear.  It might have been his imagination, but Grant thought he could hear them chittering back and forth to one another in the wet night as their hard limbs scraped through the thick mud and brittle bones surrounding his macabre piramid.

<Calm down.  Take a deep breath.  You’re hyperventilating.>  Grant let out a long exhale, doing his best to bring his pounding heart under control.  He spent the rest of the night in a light form of meditation, keeping his ears open in case his hiding spot was discovered.

Eventually, the rains stopped as the coming sun started to lighten the sky.  Grant opened his eyes in time to see the last of the giant ants disappearing into hidden holes that spotted the ground, the biggest of which was hidden right under the pile of skulls he was sitting in.  He got to his feet and immediately climbed down, his stiff body warming up quickly as he started running.  There was absolutely no way he wanted to be anywhere near here when the sun went down again.

<I don’t think you’re heading in the right direction.>  Grant didn’t slow down as he looked around, fighting through the thick, stinking mud that splattered and caked on everything it touched.

“Doesn’t matter.  The only place we need to be is somewhere else.”  He picked a direction and activated the training mode for Thundering Step.  It made moving over the soupy ground much easier, skimming over the muddy surface instead of it trying to steal his boots with every step.

<I guess I can’t argue with that.  There’s bound to be another city somewhere around here.>  Sarge waited for Grant to get farther away from the area before talking again.  <While it might have been a miserable night for you, it did improve your mental cultivation.>  When Grant didn’t reply, Sarge let out a long sigh.  <Do you… want to talk about it?>

“No, I don’t want to talk about it.”  Grant took Sarge’s interruption as a chance to slow down.  He had gotten out of the immediate area, and the terrain was slowly shifting from muddy desolation to spots of long grass and the occasional scraggly bush.  “And you don’t have lungs.  There’s no need for such a dramatic sigh.”

<I know.  I just wanted to.  Let’s be honest, feelings aren’t exactly what I’m good at.>  Grant smiled at Sarge’s comment.  The two of them had somehow started to grow closer without him even realizing it.  While Sarge was still his task-master, he was also his friend.

The rest of the day was spent dodging the occasional group of monsters.  The muddy and blasted terrain was interspersed with copses of trees and large clumps of long grass, which was enough to avoid any more confrontations while he was still healing.

Grant’s biggest issue was quickly becoming a lack of water.  Any puddles left by the rain were too polluted to drink from, and the only streams he crossed were more of a trickle of filth than actual water.  He swore to himself that from now on he was going to carry a dozen water skins in his storage bag.

Finally, as the sun was starting to set, Grant saw another walled city in the distance.  It was built on the edge of another forest, with a fast-flowing river through the middle of it.  He couldn’t see into the city from his angle, but it was easy to guess at its overall size.  It was almost double what he had seen at the last city, with walls that matched.  Sneaking in wouldn’t be an option, so he made for the center of the wall, hoping there would be a gate he could use for entrance.

It was deep into the night when he finally reached the walls.  The monsters in the region had become much more active, forcing him to slow down and move much more carefully to avoid a fight.

Unfortunately, by the time he got to the walls, they had already sealed the gate for the night.  Shouting for someone to open up would only bring monsters down on his head, and considering the mud and blood coating most of his body, Grant might even be mistaken for a monster himself.

<I’m sure you won’t be able to get into the city by using the river, but you could at least clean up a bit.>  Grant nodded silently at Sarge’s advice and made his way around the curve of the wall until he reached the riverbank.

Thankfully, any creatures roaming the area seemed to avoid getting too close to the imposing wall.  Grant could faintly make out protruding siege weapons poking over the crenelations, their metallic parts gleaming threateningly in the starlight.

After reaching the riverbank, Grant was disappointed to find it wouldn’t be easy to reach the water without venturing far away from the city.  There was a steep drop from the edge of the bank to the rushing waters far below.  Whoever the city engineers had been, they decided digging out the banks into sheer-sided cliffs was a good idea.

<They did it as an effective way to limit monsters getting close without being smashed against the underwater obstacles.>  Grant looked where Sarge’s orange construct appeared in his vision.  <They built the wall on a series of stone pillars, and put metal grates between them to trap any monsters trying to squeeze between them.  It’s a copy of a design that was used all throughout the cities in District September before the war.  I don’t want to imagine what that place looks like now, after the barriers went up.  The whole place is probably one massive swamp by now.>

“We’ll just have to find out for ourselves when we get there.”  Grant looked over the side, barely able to see the water below.  “For now, I need to find out how to get down there.”

<Look for a set of stairs or a ladder near the base of the wall.  They had to leave some way to inspect and repair things for the city work crews.>

Grant did as Sarge instructed, and eventually found a narrow set of stairs that were almost invisible in the dark.  He followed them down to a small platform that was half-submerged by lapping water.  It was barely large enough for him to stand on, so he took his time cleaning himself off.  Falling in and getting drowned against the underwater grates wasn’t how he wanted to meet his end.

“Now what?”  Grant avoided drinking the dark water, but his thirst made it hard.  At least he was presentable enough that he wouldn’t get killed out of hand by the guards.  “How do I get inside?”

<You don’t.>  It was Grant’s turn to let out a long sigh.  <I know camping outside the walls isn’t the best option, but you don’t have any other choice right now.>

A roar followed by the sounds of two massive monsters clashing against one another came from above.  Grant peeked over the cliff to see what was going on, but it was too dark to see.  “I guess sleeping on the staircase is my best option.”  The sound of tearing flesh followed by a loud splash further upstream caused him to duck back below the cliff.  “Or, just sitting here until the sun comes up.”  It was going to be another miserable night.