Liv scrambled from the cave bear’s back as the massive beast started to shake in order to dislodge her. Once Liv was on the ground, the bear stared hard at her before walking off to find Yuri. Lanek was chuckling as he approached her.
“What was that all about? Did you know she was going to let me ride her?” Liv asked.
“Yes, and she wanted me to tell you that this was a one-time thing and not to get any ideas. Apparently, mama bear over there was extremely pissed about being slapped in the face with a shield and damn but she has a mouth on her. She figured combining your strengths was the best way to put the Warden down, and it seems that she was right.”
“Lanek, I can’t wait for Yuri to get large enough to ride into battle. That felt amazing! The amount of raw power I could put behind my attack was beyond anything I’ve experienced before.”
“I’m glad it was so exhilarating. I gotta ask, though. ‘Your cold ain’t shit’?”
Liv flushed a bright red. “Shut it. It just slipped out in the moment.”
“Hmm.”
“I mean it.”
“Uh-huh. Sure.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’m going to go check on Yuri while you get this out of your system.” Liv grumbled as she talked away from her now loudly laughing companion.
He joined her as they approached Yuri and Ograch, both of whom were hovering over Reaver. “Hey Ograch, how is she? Did you need more healing potions?”
“She’ll be fine, I have plenty. She’s tough as hell, only got knocked out, no lasting damage. She’ll have a few bruises, though.” Ograch replied as he stroked the raptor’s head as she rested.
“I’m happy to hear it. That attack of hers was vicious and I don’t think the fight would have gone so well if she hadn’t intervened when she did.” Lanek replied.
Ograch nodded, then shared a look with Liv. “So, speaking of that battle. What’s going on with you? You kinda went a bit crazy there with all of the explosions and taunting the big bastard.”
“Yeah, you’re usually a lot more cautious than that.”
Lanek looked at them silently for a moment before explaining. “Look, I just realized as we were about to enter the prison that we would be in a lot of danger fighting something powerful and unknown in unfamiliar territory. I didn’t like the idea and it just kind of pissed me off, so I decided to try a new approach. This might just be the start of a new tactical approach to retaking the city.”
Ograch looked at Lanek incredulously. “I can’t speak for Liv, but I’m damn glad that we made that bastard fight us on our terms. Look how much better it turned out! Aside from Reaver getting knocked unconscious, we made it through relatively unscathed.”
“Aye.” Liv chimed in. “We slaughtered that monster. I don’t think the fight would have ended without injuries or a fatality if we had been forced to fight the Warden in his lair.”
“Good, I’m glad you like the idea. I’ve got a few more that I want to discuss with everyone once we get back home and I’m hoping that they are on board as well.” Lanek said as he turned back and walked toward the loot left behind by the Warden. No weapons or armor had been left behind this time, just a single monster core that was several times larger than the others they had found and five reward stones. I’m going to have to find some way to get these to Eldros. They’re basically just paperweights at this point.
With the loot collected, the party ventured into the prison, making their way through the rubble toward the warden’s office. That corner of the prison was relatively unscathed by Lanek’s explosive salvos, but that was to be expected as Caelis had mentioned that her node was located in a reinforced room connected to the office. No other monster came out to bother them as they kicked in the office door.
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Within the office, they found little signs of habitation. The Warden had most likely spent his entire existence shambling around being tortured by his guilt and the specters as there were deep furrow in the floors of the prison that were still intact. After a bit of rummaging about, they found the hidden door Caelis had told them about and retrieved her node from what looked like a medieval panic room.
An escape tunnel and a panic room? Damn, the wardens running this place were paranoid, weren’t they? I don’t even want to know how they treated the prisoners if they were this scared for their own safety. Lanek shook his head in disgust at the implications and led the group out of the prison and toward home. None of them attempted to linger, for all of them had felt the need to get out of the cursed place as quickly as possible.
On their way back to the monastery, Lanek found his eyes being drawn toward the matriarch’s territory. He wasn’t sure why, but he was getting a very bad feeling, like something terrible was about to happen. However, despite his feelings he could see no movement from that direction. Even after sending Kazuma and Sanguineus to scout the area out turned up nothing, although he had made sure to have his companions get no closer than two blocks to where they had encountered the spiders.
By the time they made it home, Lanek’s gut was almost screaming at him in alarm. Once the party was in the monastery, he had Caelis gather everyone in the meeting chamber. Caelis’ eagerness at seeing the node he carried immediately turned to alarm at the tone of his voice and demeanor.
When everyone was gathered in the meeting room, including Khurzag who had just returned from his most recent scavenging trip, he began speaking. “Talwarg, Khurzag. Do we have anyone outside of the monastery right now?”
“Aside from a few lookouts on the houses around the plaza, no.” Khurzag replied.
“Why? What’s wrong, Lanek?” Talwarg said, foregoing his usual teasing due to Lanek’s obvious concern.
“On the way back from the prison I started getting a very strong feeling of dread from the matriarch’s territory. I don’t know if it means something is coming. Hell, I don’t know if it means anything other than that I am nervous about the matriarch’s attack or if something is legitimately trying to warn me. I did send Kazuma and Sanguineus to scout the spiders’ territory out, but they saw nothing. But, just to be safe and since we are close to the two week mark that Caelis warned us could be the earliest the matriarch could move, I want us to hunker down. So, before we continue this meeting, I want everyone pulled back into the monastery, the doors closed, and the barricades put into place.”
Talwarg and Khurzag stood up immediately, sensing his urgency. “It will be done, my khan. We will be back shortly.” Talwarg declared before marching quickly out of the room.
Caelis looked at Lanek in concern. “Are you sure this is necessary? We should have a few days before anything happens.”
“I’m sure. I don’t want to risk anyone’s lives by pushing our luck. Besides, a few extra days of scavenging the city or hunting won’t make much of a difference at this point. We have the majority of the materials that we need and enough food to last through the winter, right?”
Ivan nodded affirmatively. “Yes, even if we had more materials, we couldn’t realistically use it all in the near future. It is probably best that we seal ourselves in here and focus on making this place into even more of a fortress. Since all of the systems are active now, I was hoping to start enhancing the structure of this place with glyphs and wards as much as possible before the attack.”
“That’s fine with me, Ivan. Feel free to start doing that once you get Caelis’ node installed after the meeting.” Lanek said, passing over their prize for clearing the prison.
A few minutes later, Talwarg and his second returned to the meeting room, declaring that the monastery was secured and everyone was inside. “I’ve also put a few more people in the tower to keep watch. We’ve also given a few crossbows that Khurzag’s scavengers managed to find to some of our better archers and placed them on the walls.”
“Crossbows? Nice. Did you manage to get some makeshift stairs built?”
“No, sorry. As soon as you said that you wanted the monastery locked down, we used some ladders to get our archers on the walls.” Talwarg said apologetically.
“No need to apologize, we needed them up there and that works just as well. I would still like to try to get some stairs built as soon as we can. I don’t want people stranded up there if the spiders come over the wall because they can’t get down the ladders quickly enough.”
Talwarg nodded. “I’ll borrow some of Ivan’s crafters and get them working on it after the meeting.”
“Good. Now, in light of recent developments, I’m going to be making changes to our strategy going forward and I want you all to be on board. However, as harsh as this is going to sound, ultimately these changes will happen whether you like them or not.”
Looking around the room, he saw two reactions to his statement. Caelis and Ivan both seemed rather shocked at his harsh words while Talwarg and Khurzag stood a bit straighter, eyes sharpening. Nerek smiled and nodded at him approvingly.