Jenny’s long-range communication guard broke down after she gave Bo directions to her location. One second, she was crystal clear in a basin of water, the next Bo was talking to himself. The pitmaster was frustrated he couldn’t continue the conversation, and even more frustrated that he had to wait till morning to go after the minotaur lizards. He finally settled in with the comforting thought that it was better to set off with fresh troops in the morning than to march through the night to fight monsters in the dark.
As he lay in his bed, Bo found himself less worried than excited. The lizards were big and scary, but Bo had twenty-five archers. Even if they weren’t the greatest shots—and they certainly were not—a steady rain of arrows could whittle down even the strongest enemy. With his deck-fueled power to provide front-line defenses against incoming attacks, his people had a very good chance of taking down the lizards without suffering any significant casualties of their own.
That is a good thing. Your troops are not battle-hardened. If one of them takes a wound, the others may panic. Fear can turn a winning engagement into a bitter rout. You must keep an iron leash on your people or risk losing everything.
Bo chewed on that worry as he drifted off to sleep, and it was the first thought on his mind in the morning. It was impossible to guarantee that none of his people would suffer a wound. He’d couldn’t even promise they’d all come home. And while Bo needed all of his fighters in this battle, he couldn’t mislead any of them about the very real dangers they will face.
This is a foolish approach. Do not tell them they may die. Tell them you will see them all safely back in their sad little beds when night falls.
“And what happens when they find out I lied about the danger?” Bo asked.
It will be too late for them to do anything but fight or die.
“I want them to trust me, Barbie,” Bo muttered.
That is a stupid way to lead. They should fear you. Trust is for your peers. You have none.
“There’s a big difference between men and devils,” Bo said as he left his room.
Which is why Bo felt a lump forming in his throat after he whistled to get his people’s attention at the morning breakfast gathering. Bo wasn’t a public speaker. He didn’t know how to motivate people.
Lie to them. Tell these people they are about to embark on a glorious mission to free their home from danger. It will work.
Bo took a deep breath and looked out at the crowd that had gathered around him. Maybe Barbie was right. Telling people they were on the side of angels and would all come home safely was the easy thing to do.
But in the back of his mind, the pitmaster couldn’t help but hear his father’s words. Any job worth doing is hard, but you gotta do it, anyway. The pitmaster cleared his throat, clasped his hands behind his back, and told his people the truth.
“Jenny found a spawn point for minotaur lizards,” Bo said. There were a lot of blank faces out there, and he explained what that meant. “Those’re monsters. Big ol’ lizards, about the size of a St. Bernard. We need to wipe them out and wreck their spawn point before they overrun our territory. If you can shoot a bow, I’d sure appreciate your help. It won’t be safe, but I’ll be right there alongside you to help.”
A murmur rippled through the crowd, and Bo held his breath, waiting to see if he’d get any volunteers. A few moments passed before Hank thrust his hand into the air. “I’m not the best shot, but I can hit the broad side of a barn, and I know how to take orders. I’m in.”
Martin and his group of friends all raised their hands, too. They had strange grins on their faces, as if they knew something that Bo didn’t. The pitmaster wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he appreciated their show of solidarity. They were the best fighters he had, and it would have been a shame if they’d suddenly lost their spines.
Over the next handful of heartbeats, more of Bo’s people raised their hands. Soon enough, he had more volunteers than missile weapons for them to wield. It was a good feeling to know he’d have to turn some people away, rather than going into the battle shorthanded.
“Martin, come with me,” Bo said. “We need to talk about who’s coming on this fishing trip.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Martin said. “I’ve got a surprise for you, anyway.”
----------------------------------------
The surprise turned out to be spears and some rough suits of armor. Not a lot, five of each, but Bo was grateful for the extra work Slick had done. Martin and his men would form an armored spear division that could protect the archers in hand-to-hand fighting. The rest of the volunteers were given bows from Slick’s workshop, and they set out to deal with the threat to their territory.
The expedition felt strange to Bo. For one thing, having all these people follow him was just strange. He had almost thirty people under his command, not including Jenny, who was out there running reconnaissance for them. All these people were relying on him, and Bo wasn’t sure how to direct a group of fighters in a pitched battle. He decided the safest course was to keep everything as simple as possible.
“When it comes time to shoot, focus your fire,” Bo said. “I’ll point out targets, and you stick them full of arrows. If we run into a bunch of lizards, aim for the ones in front.”
“That’s it?” Hank asked. “Even a big dummy like me can handle something that simple.”
“That’s about the size of it,” Bo said. “If anyone has better ideas, please let me know.”
But nobody did. And after an hour of marching to the southwest, everyone joking and laughing like they were on their way to a fishing trip instead of about to risk their life, Bo and his team came within sight of their enemy. The pitmaster raised a hand, and they all quieted down to look at the monsters scattered across the ground ahead of them.
The red clay plain was wide open. Patches of knee-high grass dotted the open ground, providing no cover at all for the humans. Bo worried it might hold some sneaky lizards, but he saw no sign of that. Yet.
A few hundred yards ahead, Bo saw the wide spawning pit where most of the lizards had gathered. He wasn’t sure how many were in that earthen bowl, but a few dozen remained scattered around the plain, oblivious to the coming trouble.
“Not much action yet,” Jenny said.
Bo nearly jumped out of his skin. He had his cleaver in his hand before he knew what was happening, and his hooves churned up clouds of red dirt when he spun to face the scout. She’d wisely got his attention from well outside of arm’s reach and waggled a finger at him.
“You need to boost that Wisdom,” Jenny said. “You’re too easy to sneak up on. It’s not much of a challenge.”
“What did I tell you about sneaking up on me?” Bo asked.
“I don’t know,” Jenny said. “You say a lot of stuff I don’t pay attention to. What’s the plan?”
Bo surveyed the terrain and his enemies. It was clear the lizards had no tactical skill. The monsters outside the pit weren’t on patrol. Bo wasn’t even sure they were keeping watch. They were just hanging out in small groups. Those little clumps had yet to react to Bo’s forces, which was weird.
“These things don’t seem very bright,” Bo said to Jenny.
“Dumb as stumps,” she replied. “I killed one last night. Just walked up to it and stabbed the stupid thing in the back of the head. He had friends ten yards away, and they didn’t even respond. If one of them has time to squawk, though, that gets the others all riled up.”
Bo looked at the scout with a frown. “I thought you were careful.”
“I was,” Jenny said, holding her arms out and doing a slow turn for the pitmaster. “Not a scratch on me. What kind of scout wouldn’t at least get some idea of the enemy’s strength?”
“So, how strong are they?” Bo asked. Jenny had stuck her neck out to gather information. He’d be a bit of a dick if he didn’t use it.
“Not very,” Jenny admitted. “They don’t seem to notice you until you’re about thirty feet away. You can do jumping jacks outside that range and they’ll just ignore you. Same with killing their buddies. It’s kind of weird.”
“Sounds like it,” Bo said. “But it also sounds like it helps us, so…let’s get to it.”
The pitmaster watched the lizards for a few minutes before deciding how to tackle this problem. At this distance, the monsters looked like the bigger cousins of the little skinks Bo had chased around the house growing up. They were covered in thick scales, which Bo assumed would provide them with some protection from the arrows. More worrying to him, though, were the big, curving horns he assumed gave them their name. Those wickedly barbed natural weapons would cause a lot of damage if the lizards got close to the archers.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
And that will cause a panic. You cannot allow that to happen.
Bo agreed with the devil. He walked off to the east and motioned for the archers to follow him. He picked a cluster of lizards that were the farthest from any of their allies. Bo pointed them out to the folks with bows.
“Okay, that’s our target.” Bo said. “Tear ‘em up.”
“Form up,” Martin said. “Just like we practiced.”
The archers lined up into two groups of roughly equal size. They formed short lines, giving each other enough room to draw their bows and knock an arrow, and aligned themselves at forty-five-degree angles to their targets. That arrangement gave them a solid crossfire without having to worry about shooting one another.
“Have at it,” Bo said.
The archers had clearly been practicing more than Bo had seen. One member of each group called out commands at a rapid, even, pace. “Knock, draw… Loose!”
Bowstrings twanged and arrows flashed through the air. Several of the missiles fell short, others went long. But a good half of them found their targets. Three quarters of the on-target arrows hit the nearest lizard and nailed it to the ground before it could rouse itself. Arrows hit the next lizard as well, but its scaled hides shed most of that damage. Not a single missile hit the third lizard, which jerked its head up and around to face its attackers. It threw its head back and opened its mouth to unleash a cry of warning.
Bo’s heart sank. If that thing got off a warning, they’d be up to their balls in angry lizards in no time. That was not the way he wanted this fight to go.
“Loose!” the shot-callers cried.
To Bo’s relief, the archers were no dummies. They saw the threat of letting one of lizards call for help. Their arrows hammered into the monster’s throat in a brutal flurry. The impacts pushed the creature’s head back, and the arrowheads ripped through flesh and bone with terrifying ease. The creature fell to the ground, its nearly severed head flopping into a puddle of blood.
The third lizard didn’t shout a warning. Instead, it showed Bo and the others where it really got its name. The creature suddenly reared up on its hind legs and took off running.
“Loose!”
Arrows rained down on the fleeing lizard. Its legs gave out as missiles sprouted from its back, and it hit the ground looking like a scaled hedgehog. The archers had gotten the hang of shooting at moving targets with surprising speed, and let out a cheer of victory. They thrust their weapons into the air, grinning wildly at their success.
“Nice work,” Bo said. “Let’s whittle these bastards down before they fight back. Pick your targets and take them out. I’ll be on standby in case they get close to you.”
Bo was excited to watch his people at work. They weren’t a finely oiled machine by any stretch of the imagination, but they worked well together. There was no showboating or heroic theatrics here. The callers from each group pointed out targets, the archers focused their fire, and volley after volley slaughtered the minotaur lizards.
The pitmaster followed the archers from one firing mark to the next, with Martin and the other spearmen beside him. Over the course of the next half hour, thirty lizards met their ends. The archers had fallen into a brutally efficient rhythm, and no monster survived long once they’d set their sights on it.
But as good as their run was, it didn’t last forever.
The lizards had finally figured out something was up and pulled back to protect the crater. The creatures formed a defensive perimeter around their spawning pit, heads raised, tongues flickering for any sign of trouble. They didn’t react to Bo’s people, who watched them from a good fifty feet away, but the pitmaster knew the lizards would spring into action if they got much closer.
“What now?” Martin asked.
The pitmaster scratched his beard and tossed his cleaver idly in one hand. He didn’t want a long standoff with the lizards. The more time they spend out here fighting monsters, the longer their home was unprotected. They’d lose a lot of people if jackalopes or thunder bison showed up at the casino.
“Let’s put pressure on them. Move up to the edge of your range, archers.” Bo followed along behind the lines of shooters. “Martin, cover their right flank. I’ll watch the left. If we see any forces closing with us, hold your ground and keep shooting. Let me and the spears finish them if they get too close.”
The group advanced in silence, but Bo felt a current of tension flowing through them. It was one thing to pick off small groups of overgrown lizards. It was another to march toward a nest filled with the things.
“You’re acting like an actual leader,” Jenny said. “It’s kinda hot.”
“I’ve never been kinda hot,” Bo said. “I’m always scorching.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” Jenny said with a grin. “It’s a good reminder to keep my hands off you. Wouldn’t want to get burned.”
“I am too hot to handle,” Bo agreed.
That is not what you really want, though. All this flirting will only frustrate both of you. When this battle is over, make her your prize.
The archers came to a stop, and Bo was grateful for the distraction. He didn’t want to listen to Barbie, but the devil wasn’t far off the mark when it came to how the pitmaster felt. He didn’t want to be just friends with Jenny. But…
The shot-callers pointed to a point along the lizard perimeter and barked orders at their units. The archers raised their bows, so the arrows pointed toward the sky, and unleashed another volley. Missiles arced up and disappeared into the sun’s glare. A moment later, though, the black shafts plummeted from the sky and into the perimeter of lizards.
With no specific target, the arrows were more scattered through the monsters’ ranks. But the bows were powerful enough that it didn’t take a whole volley to kill a lizard. Two or three arrows did the job in most cases, and even those hit with only one arrow were often severely wounded. The archers had found their range, and now it was time to punish the monsters.
A second flight of arrows was in the air when Bo heard a familiar noise.
The sound of riffling cards.
“Watch yourselves,” the pitmaster called out. “They’ve got a champion.”
Bo searched the ring of lizards for any that seemed stronger or even just bigger than the rest. There were a few that were slightly larger than their brothers, but Bo sensed nothing special about them. The lizards were too far away for the system to give him any information, so all he could do was watch and wait. He double-checked that he’d equipped his cleaver and drew a hand of cards. Webspinner, Danger Spice, Hog’s Hop, Severance, and Hungry Hungry Devil. Not the best hand, but good enough.
As Bo watched, the archers launched another volley. Even more of the lizards went down this time, their blood running across the wet clay that surrounded the spawn point. But those casualties were replaced by more lizards scrambling up out of the crater.
“How many are down there?” Bo asked Jenny.
“Sixty or seventy,” Jenny said. “Or at least there were last night when I checked. Could be more. I couldn’t get close enough to see if they were still spawning.”
“Can you get over there and check again?” Bo asked.
“Yep,” Jenny said. “It’ll take a while, though.”
“Better get a move on,” Bo said. “If you see a champion, let me know.”
“You betcha,” Jenny said. She punched Bo in the arm and faded away. As she hurried off, Bo could just see her outline, shimmering like the Predator.
As he watched her go, a new message hit Bo like a gut punch.
ENEMY CHAMPION HAS ACTIVATED A STRATEGIC GAMBIT CARD
Heel Nipper
Type: Power
Activate: 3 Resolve
Generate: 3 Strength
Power: 3
Your forces harry the foe from all directions, causing POW wounds to spread across their forces during each round this gambit remains active.
Rarity: Rare
THIS GAMBIT REMAINS ACTIVE UNTIL ALL HARRYING UNITS ARE DISPATCHED
Cries of alarm erupted from Bo’s archers. Small packs of minotaur lizards exploded out of the patches of tall grass, their long horns thrusting at the pitmaster’s forces. Martin and his team turned aside one pack with their spears, and the archers took down another with a brutal flurry of point-blank shots. But the element of surprise worked in the lizards’ favor, and the long horns of a third pack speared into three of the archers.
The wounds weren’t fatal, but they were serious enough to take the archers out of the fight for the moment. The sight of blood ignited panic in Bo’s troops, and he saw Barbie’s prediction come to horrifying life. A small group of archers fled from the battle line, and several dropped their weapons altogether. In the blink of an eye, Bo’s troops had gone from handily winning this fight to losing.
Show them your strength. Rally your troops, or you’ll lose them all.
“Hold your ground!” Bo roared and activated cards in a flurry. He used Danger Spice to take one pack of ambushers out of the fight, temporarily, and Webspinner locked down another.
But in the time it took Bo to accomplish that, another group of ambushers had burst into the fray. One of them caught a fleeing archer with its horns, impaling the man from back to front. With an angry bellow, the creature reared up and hurled the man off his horns. The archer tumbled like a rag doll, his bow flying free, and landed hard.
He didn’t move.
Stop them, or you’ll lose that whole group. The others will panic!
Hog’s Hop carried Bo into the lizards that pursued his fleeing archers. The impact ripped blasted two of the lizards off their feet and staggered the one that had killed the archer. With a roar, Bo activated the Severance card and tore the head clean off that bastard.
“Get the other two!” Bo shouted at the archers.
The order shook them back to attention. The living archers skewered the lizard with arrows. Their success bolstered the men, but Bo knew their courage wouldn’t last long.
“Get back to your firing lines,” he shouted. “Go!”
Bo followed the archers and was relieved to see the worst of the ambush was over. Martin and his team had quickly and efficiently dispatched the enemies trapped by Bo’s webs. Their quick action and the pitmaster’s rapid response had stabilized the archers enough for the shot-callers to get back to work. Volleys of arrows targeted the ambushers and ripped them apart.
Despite their counterattacks, though, the ambushers had corralled Bo’s troops and forced the archers and spearmen away from the spawning pit. They were a hundred feet farther away from their target after the ambush than before it. Not all the lizards had retreated to the pit, either. Powerful groups formed defensive blockades between Bo and the spawning pit.
“Fighting through that won’t be any fun,” Martin said.
“No, it will not,” Bo agreed. “And I think we’ve got more trouble ahead.”
As if in answer to Bo’s worries, another system message appeared.
ENEMY CHAMPION HAS ACTIVATED A STRATEGIC GAMBIT CARD
Type: Power
Activate: 3 Strength
Generate: 3 Resolve
Power: 3
POW Heroes rise to lead your forces to victory! During this gambit, all allied forces receive +2S, +2C, and +2R.
Rarity: Uncommon
GAMBIT REMAINS ACTIVE UNTIL ALL HEROES HAVE BEEN DEFEATED
“Uh, Bo?” Martin asked. “What the hell is that?”
“Bad news,” Bo said.
A trio of enormous minotaur lizards emerge from the spawning pit. They stood on their hind legs and were clad head to toe in heavy armor. Their enormous, clawed hands held massive spiked mauls fashioned from stone and metal.
As one, the heroes raised their weapons above their heads and bellowed a challenge to Bo.
And then they charged.