Kit watched as Dove raised his head and glanced up the mountain. “Mmm, looks like it. Well, what are you all standing there for, let’s get into place and get our weapons ready.”
Nervous laughter escaped from someone’s mouth. Kit turned his head to see Crackers giggling like a fool, she was darting her eyes left and right. Kit thought she looked like a rabbit about to bolt from its prey. Kit felt her nervous tension jump towards him. His palms instantly started sweat and his breathing became erratic.
A gentle voice drifted into Kit’s ears. “Breath in and smell the sweat air.” Kit couldn’t help but follow the words. “That’s it now listen to my voice, you are not alone, we are doing this together. Focus on your breathing.” Kit followed the sound of the voice to see Mud with an encouraging smile.
Kit closed his eyes and focused on calming his heart and breathing. Soon he had returned to a semi normal state. The only thing that gave away his nervousness was a slight tremor in his hands. Gentle encouragement could still be heard from Mud calming Crackers. Kit watched as she also calmed down from her panic attack.
This was his first big battle so Kit wasn’t surprised that he freaked out a little before it had even started. He guessed it was the same for Crackers.
A small smile played over Kit’s mouth watching Crackers and Mud interact. It was nice to see his employees working together outside of the restaurant. With how fast Mud was able to calm them both down Kit thought Mud must have a similar ability like Snickers to calm people down. “Thanks Mud that was just what we needed.”
Mud’s small smile turned into a full blown grin. “No problem Kit. Come, let’s take our place.” Kit turned to see how the others were faring. Kit was envious to see a looks of delight on Charlotte and Dove’s faces. He desperately wanted a bit of their confidence right now to be able to enjoy the thought of the upcoming fight.
Kit nervously made his way over to one of the stone markers and took out his crossbow. The wooden device weighed heavy in his hands. Kit ran shaky hands over his weapon for the day, he hoped that his one afternoon of training would be enough for today’s battle.
His eyes roamed over his position and fell down the line of stones. He was currently stationed last in line closest to the mountain. He blew out a breath then turned towards Dove anxious for more instructions.
“The trampling thick heads will be here shortly. It will be very important that you all listen to my instructions from now on. No one is to fire an arrow without my say so, got it.” Dove turned a stern gaze amongst the group. Kit felt Dove’s tone along with the heated gaze left no room for argument, he could only nod his head in agreement.
The switch from smiles to an authority figure floored Kit for a moment. He blinked to see if it was still the same Dove, he saw just moments ago. The change from being laid back to someone Kit automatically wanted to follow was amazing. His confidence in Dove leading them today grew even more.
“It’s time to have the cider. So, if you have any questions ask me now.” Kit blinked his eyes stupidly at Dove. Questions? Kit could only think about trying to keep himself calm, let alone anything else.
When no one raised any queries, Kit took out his apple cider and took a deep drink. His face scrunched up involuntarily at the sour taste. He opened his mouth to speak to test out the side effects. No sound left his mouth, a moment of panic at the inability to talk passed over him. Kit gripped his throat and trembled. A pat to his shoulder caught his attention.
Next to him Mud was laughing without any sound, Kit thought he looked like a silent jester. The sight made Kit silently laugh as well. He was very thankful to his friend for distracting him once again.
Soon his attention was caught by Dove speaking again. “I expect one or two trampling thick heads to come down first. We won’t be firing arrows at the first trickle of monsters. We will wait for the main group to filter down. That way we can do maximum damage to the bulk of the herd.” Dove’s eyes weren’t on the group as he spoke. They were plastered to the bottom of the ravine.
Kit’s gaze automatically followed Dove’s to stare at the creek bed down below. Eerie silence filled the air after Dove spoke. Kit felt like all the sounds around him amplified. He could even hear Mud swallowing next to him.
An unsettling feeling settled over Kit. Without the distraction of chatter, he found he was focusing on the rumbling sound that was getting louder. Kit’s heart started to speed up with each increase to the unusual sound.
Soon the vibrations in the earth also picked up to a tremble. It was like an earth quake was happening right under his feet. How big were the monsters going to be if they could cause this amount of shaking to the ground?
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Kit’s question was soon answered when a one of the monsters came into sight from around the bend in the gorge.
The trampling thick head resembled a goat, it had large thick horns that arched backwards over its head. A short tail and grey straight hair covering its body. It would have looked cute if it wasn’t the size of a fucking fire truck.
Ding!
[CAL]
Special Event: Monster run.
Join in the battle to defeat the heard of Trampling thickheads migrating from the Spirit devouring ranges.
Time remaining to complete event: 02hours 00minutes
Reward ???
Extra reward obtainable for each Spartan Fire resident participating in the event alive at the end of the monster run.
Spartan Fire residents: 175/175
Warning: If all residents are killed during the event, player will receive a penalty of frozen levelling ability for 1 week and a permanent loss of 100 levels.
Accept Yes/No
What the fuck was this! If he lost 100 levels he would be in the minuses. Was that even possible? With a trembling finger Kit clicked accept. It was too late to back out now, even if he wanted to run, it was useless. His friends and fellow villagers were already participating. He didn’t think there was any way to stop the monster run now.
A countdown timer appeared hovering of to his right at the edge of his sight. A tally of the Spartan Fire residents sat underneath.
Kit had a very bad feeling after reading the notification. Why was there a tally on the spartan fire residents in the information! This was bad, very fucking bad! He didn’t want anyone to die during this event. He knew it was a game in the back of his head, but to him it felt so life like.
If he lost even one resident Kit would feel sad, let alone if he lost one of his important friends in the game. He knew he would be devastated. Kit felt his pulse spike as worry took over. They would all be alright, wouldn’t they?
Dread sunk into Kit’s bones as he stared once again at the trampling thickhead at the bottom of the gorge. This was well beyond what he thought they would look like. How the fuck were they going to kill one of these things, let alone a whole herd of them!
A sense of responsibility settled on his chest. This whole monster run was because of him. He knew it was vital to Spartan Fires growth. Without the money they would receive from the items they collected from the dead trampling thickheads, the village would stagnate in growth.
Would losing friends be worth it? He knew the other Spartan Fire residents only participated in the monster run to gain money. But after seeing what a trampling thickhead looked like he thought all the residents were bat shit crazy!
If he wasn’t a founding member and needed the town to grow to promote his own restaurant he would put down his crossbow and encourage everyone to leave.
He couldn’t understand the innerworkings of the residents’ minds. It was clear after seeing one of these monsters this really was a suicide run. Just one of these things could trample the whole village, let alone the 500 of the big fuckers!
Kit felt his mouth go dry, sweat broke out on his brow. He was very thankful to be up high right now and not down on the ground with the other Spartan Fire residents. He knew it was a selfish thought, but he couldn’t stop it popping into his head.
His eyes had stayed glues to the approaching monster this whole time. The closer it got the more Kit could feel his adrenaline rush out into his system. He could see dust drift up each time the large monster stamped its hoof on the ground.
Three more trampling thick heads followed the first one. A ringing started in Kit’s ears, a nervous breath escaped his mouth. The crossbow in his hand was starting to feel like it weighed a ton, the muscles tighten in his arms to keep the crossbow from falling to the ground.
Kit jumped in fright when he heard Dove speak. “Knock your arrows and get ready to aim.” Kit fumbled to get an arrow out of the quiver attached to his back. He pointed the crossbow towards the ground and stood on the cocking stirrup, then quickly slotted the arrow into the barrel.
With a pounding heart he raised the crossbow and searched for a target. In the time it had taken him to load the crossbow, the bottom of the gorge had filled with the enormous beasts. Loud thuds from the monsters’ hooves echoed all around him, dust started to fill the gorge behind the monsters. Kit felt his panic rise with each thump.
At least he wouldn’t be short of a target. He realised Crumpet had been right last night, they couldn’t miss hitting one of the trampling thickheads. With the size and the number of monsters in the gorge his aim would be true every time unless he fired into the sky.
The crossbow held in front of him trembled badly. Kit tried to steady his hands, without success. He tried to calm his quickened pulse with controlled breathing. Kit gave up after a couple of seconds, nothing in this situation was going to stop his adrenalin surging.
Fear for the Spartan Fire residents waiting in the plains mixed with his adrenalin. If they didn’t take out a chunk of these fuckers, then the waiting residents would be slaughtered in under a minute when they arrived on the plains.
He looked at the tiny arrow slotted into his crossbow. How the fuck was this going to do any damage to a monster of this size! His team was responsible for dealing the initial damage to these humongous beasts. This minuscule stick would be like throwing a twig at a brick house.
This was going to be a shit show! Kit shook his head to get rid of his negative thoughts. Not everyone was a novice like he was, he was pretty sure only Crackers and he were the only noobs here.
Kit sucked in a shaky breath, mentally crossed his fingers that this stick would do some damage and aimed his crossbow at a trampling thickhead in the middle of the herd.
His ragged nerves were stretched taught waiting for Dove’s signal to aim. More of the monsters came spilling into the ravine. It looked like a thunderous river of giant goats down below. Kit could feel a suffocating feeling well up in his chest at the sight of so many of the monsters.