Ograch surveyed the area from the tower, his face becoming just as grim as Lanek’s at the sight of the gaunt tide. Next to him, Ivan scanned the crowd, looking for anything that looked like it might be in charge, but all he could see were the typical lesser gaunts, bulwarks, impalers, and chargers. For his part, Lanek was relieved to see that no sign of the floating bastard that had nearly killed him at the breach in the city walls.
As strong as Lanek felt after his new titles and levels, he knew that whatever that form of gaunt was called, it would crush him like a bug. Cursing, Lanek leaned against the railing, completely at a loss as to how to proceed.
Ograch looked over at him and shrugged. “I don’t think we have many options here. The only thing I can think of is to just hold the entryway and grind them down.”
“That would only work for so long.” Ivan chimed in. “As sturdy as this place is, once the bulwarks reach us, the walls will not hold. I could try to reinforce them, but I won’t be able to do much before they arrive.”
Thinking for a moment, Lanek gestured for Ivan to follow. “I have an idea, but we’ll have to talk to Caelis first to see if it is feasible.”
Ivan passed his bag of wood stakes to Ograch. “Here, take these. Focus on a target and wait for the rune to glow before tossing a stake into the air. The stake should track your target, but it does have limited range. If the rune does not glow, then it means that your target is out of range.”
Ograch nodded grimly, setting the bag next to the quivers that he had removed and set on the ground. The hobgoblin began firing arrows into the crowd of gaunts, once more aiming to cripple rather than kill. Sure, a kill was a kill, but a crippled gaunt would not only be out of the fight but also trip up its fellows.
As Lanek and Ivan descended, Caelis joined them at Lanek’s call. “Come up with something?” she asked.
“Maybe. Ivan here has a class that specializes in runes. To be precise, he is a Runeshaper if that means anything to you. Do you think he could help get the glyphs in the control room operational?”
“Control room? Oh, the glyph room.” Caelis turned to Ivan. “I have no knowledge of Runeshapers, our rune crafters had the Runesmith class. I’ll guide you to the control room, as Lanek calls it.”
“On your way down, collect whatever cores the Night Arrows brought with them. If possible, I want the defensive wards to take priority.”
“Understood.” Ivan said, following Caelis down the stairs.
Lanek watched the two descend out of sight before rushing to the stables. He climbed to the top of the wall surrounding the stables, recalling Sanguineus and Kazuma before using his traversal ability to climb down the outside of the monastery, shrouding himself in mist as he descended. I need to buy Ivan some time.
He shot across the plaza and climbed to the rooftops before creeping from rooftop to rooftop. Lanek came to a stop as he found a spot on the horde’s flank. He watched for a few minutes, identifying the bulwarks lumbering down the street from the direction of the main gate. Moving slowly to avoid attention, Lanek maneuvered to the rooftop of a two-story building on the main thoroughfare from the gate and waited.
He watched as the gaunts pushed and shoved past one another, eager to reach the monastery. Finally, a bulwark stepped past his hiding spot. As soon as he had a clear shot, Sanguineus’ Vessel streaked out and struck the back of the monster’s skull. Lanek had expected to kill the bulwark, but he hadn’t expected the critical strike bonuses from the stealth attack and Shinobi to hit quite so hard. The bulwark’s head exploded from the force of the strike, its massive form collapsing without a sound and crushing its lesser kin beneath it.
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Not wanting to give the gaunts time to react and discover his position, Lanek was already moving to the next rooftop, looking for his next target. The next bulwark went down just as easily, but it would not last. After the two bulwarks fell, the gaunts started swarming the rooftops, guarding the bulwarks from any further sneak attacks.
Well, I guess I don’t have any other choice. With that thought, Lanek stood and openly revealed himself, ripping his way through the lesser gaunts that had joined him on the rooftops. At the sight of their target, many gaunts turned their attention away from the monastery and focused on the dranrid. He steeled himself and began a fighting retreat, but not towards the monastery. Instead, he was trying to lead them to the east.
He leapt across the city from rooftop to rooftop, making no attempt to hide his presence, killing any gaunt within reach of his whip without slowing. Those gaunts further away from the cluster attempting to breach the monastery chose to follow Lanek rather than try to force their way into the monastery. Whenever Lanek slowed to allow the gaunts to catch up a bit, arrows and stakes would fall from the sky, causing the pile of bodies around Lanek to grow and push the gaunts into a frenzy.
He couldn’t tell if they were too angry or too stupid to notice that he wasn’t the source of all of the corpses, but it didn’t matter. He just needed them to keep following him. Eventually, the gaunts began to chase Lanek with wild abandon, forcing him to forego fighting just so he wouldn’t be swarmed. Finally, his destination loomed before him, the small neighborhood where he had encountered the matriarch.
He didn’t bother slowing down, Lanek simply charged through the street and deployed a salvo behind him, rocking the area with explosions. The gaunts shrieked in their horrendous way, enraged at their prey killing yet more of them while they were unable to reach him.
As soon as Lanek was through the neighborhood, he took a sharp turn to the north, causing the gaunts to alter direction to intercept him. Unfortunately for the gaunts, what would normally have been a good plan took them on a straight path north and through the matriarch’s territory. Within seconds, hisses and clicks echoed from the buildings all around the gaunts, that brief warning was all that they would receive before they were swarmed by giant spiders. Several bulwarks and chargers broke through the spiders, only to be skewered by a massive leg descending from the rooftops.
The gaunts pushed forward, ignoring their losses and continuing to force their way after Lanek, slaughtering spiders as they want. Watching the battle from a fair distance outside of the matriarch’s territory, Lanek grew concerned. Something was driving the gaunts forward as even they would have broken and fled by now, even if it was only to regroup.
He considered running some more, but chose to stay put. His mere presence seemingly enough to make the gaunts reckless and suicidal. The sheer tide of gaunts was putting a strain on the spider swarm and they would surely have been slaughtered if not for the matriarch. Not a single strike that the gaunts managed to land on the matriarch could manage to pierce through its chitinous exterior.
Lanek struggled with the urge to lob his remaining salvo into the mass of spiders and gaunts, but held back. He had no doubt that the matriarch was intelligent and was most likely already quite angry at him for dragging her brood into this fight. However, he did not want to enrage her further by striking her and her children while killing gaunts. I can just imagine her getting so pissed off that she heads to the monastery. I can’t imagine that it would hold at all against her. Hell, she could probably just climb straight up and into the stables with her brood.
Suddenly, Lanek felt a heavy pressure descend on him, freezing him in place. Slowly shaking off the feeling, he raised his eyes and discovered the matriarch staring directly at him. Oh shit, I’m going to die.
Before he could break free and run, the matriarch turned away, dismissing the dranrid as insignificant. Lanek, shaking in fear at the sheer power he had felt, noticed that the gaunts had been slaughtered to the last. The spiders were busy cocooning the corpses and dragging them into the surrounding buildings while the matriarch exuded satisfaction.
Not wanting to waste any more time and terrified at the prospect of the matriarch returning her attention to him, Lanek took off towards the monastery. As he ran, he kept coming back to that sense of satisfaction that the matriarch had been giving off and that he hadn’t actually felt any anger when she had looked at him. A feeling of dread welled up in him.
What have I done?