Jake was quick to assess the situation once the hedge opened. In this rectangle-shaped clearing there were at least two dozen wolves present. Six of them were dead at the feet of the garden’s forces, twelve more were in the midst of attacking and threatening them, and the last batch stood in reserve behind two goblin commanders at the formation's flank.
Above them there were also four short of a dozen wasps present.
Goblin Wolf Commander - Level 5
Goblin Wolf Commander - Level 4
Tunnel Wolf - Level 4
Before Jake had even looked at the rear of the formation, three identifiers had already appeared. They marked the two goblin commanders and the wolf that stood between them and Jake.
Will hadn’t bothered marking the ‘unimportants’ for Jake through his Data Share skill. It was convenient, just the way Jake liked it.
As Will stood up to unleash streams of poison spray at the wasps above, the goblin nearest to the hedge, the one that was level 5, turned to the gap the Mother Tree had opened through for them.
Quicker than Jake, the goblin, or the wolf in between them, Thorn was the first to act. Lashing out as soon as the hedge opened, he struck the wolf standing in the way around the neck with its whip.
With a whimper, the wolf was dragged towards them with its head against the ground.
Jake jumped over the grounded wolf with his chainsaw roaring as Will started firing at the wasps. The level 5 goblin commander barely managed to shout something before Jake brought his whirling blade down on it. The light faded from the goblin’s eyes in an instant and a kill notification followed shortly after.
You have assassinated a Goblin Wolf Commander!
Enemy: Level 5
Jake would usually imagine an assassination as something quieter than running in and drawing everyone’s attention with a roaring chainsaw, but he wasn’t going to argue.
Before he could even take a step towards the second goblin, it was already shouting something unintelligible to Jake in its native goblin tongue and pointing at him. The surrounding wolves all turned to Jake and bared their fangs.
Which was exactly what Jake had wanted.
He ported his chainsaw away and replaced it with two cans. One was bear spray, the other was pepper spray. He emptied the can of bear spray out into the air over the bulk of the wolves gathered.
The wolves went wild. Well, more wild than they already were before. The remaining goblin tried to get them refocused, on their assault, but Jake gave it a shot of pepper spray to eyes for its efforts.
[I.P Weaponization] Proficiency has increased!
Jake turned away from the fray and towards the clearing’s exit at the invader’s flank. A wolf standing between him and the exit tried coming at him. It received a blast of pepper spray and Thorn’s second vine around its neck for its efforts.
The garden’s forces were already standing in front of the clearing’s only other exit. Once Jake stepped in front of the exit at the invaders flank, they were trapped. None of them were getting out of this alive.
“It’s all you, Will,” Jake said, holding two cans of pepper spray ready for any wolf that dared approach him. Jake didn’t need the level progression for killing them, but Will could certainly use it.
Blinded without the goblin’s leadership and enemies surrounding them, there was no way for the tunnel wolves to recover. Panic broke out through their ranks.
Some tried rushing past Jake and received a face full of pepper spray. Some tried to run through the hedge, but jumped back when they smashed their faces into a wall of thorned wood. There was a reason why they hadn’t been running through the hedge in the first place, after all.
At one point, Jake even saw one of the wolves trying to dig a tunnel through the paved tiles of the garden square. All the wolf accomplished was scrapping its paws.
It was no use, the only escape left open to the tunnel wolves was death. In the middle of all this mess, the remaining goblin wolf commander ended up getting trampled.
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It was still alive, but Jake wasn’t about to fight his way through a stampede of wolves to finish it off. Despite the time limit, this instance was still less of a race and more of a marathon. He wanted to save his stamina.
Besides, his main job here was to sow chaos rather than killing the goblins. The bulk of the clean up was supposed to be the garden force’s job and they were looking eager to do it.
Thorn Sentinel - Level 7
Thorn Sentry - Level 4
Thorn Sentry - Level 4
The remaining three thorn warriors amongst the garden’s forces lashed out with sharpened vines sending the blinded wolves in front of them running to and fro into each other.
As the vines sprouted from the flower on its back lashed out, the thorn sentinel stepped forward. The eldest of the wooden children Jake had seen so far, it stood a head taller than Thorn and the other two thorn sentries.
In its open palm, it sprouted a thorned spear. The thorn warrior grabbed the nearest wolf to it and thrusted the spear down its throat.
Your party member, Will, has reached Level 2.
Your party member, Will, has unlocked the Target Reticle skill.
One of the murder wasps came crashing down from the sky next to Jake. Not only were the wasps being hammered by Will, the garden’s forces were attacking as well.
Venus Acid Spitter - Level 5
Venus Acid Spitter - Level 5
Two monster plants with heads like venus flytraps were spitting streams of acid up at the wasps from on top of the hedge.
Good thing they’re on our side, Jake thought, seeing their acid bubbling on top of one of the wasps’ corpses.
The wasps had managed to stay out of spitters’ range while keeping their attention on them up until now. They couldn’t do that when they had to try and cover for their collapsing ground force.
Once all the Murder Wasps had been killed, the spitters and Will joined in with the thorn warriors to put an end to the directionless pack of wolves. The spitters rained down acid from above while Will was handing out beatdowns with his bat.
Your party member, Will, has reached Level 3.
“Five points to Vitality,” Will said. He’d taken a couple bites, but he put the points in mostly because he was out of breath. Jake’s job hauling junk out of places required him to do some exercise. Will’s remote programming jobs most definitely didn’t.
“Five points to Strength,” Will added after feeling the effects of the Vitality boost.
So much for saving our points, Jake thought.
The fighting didn’t last long after that. Really, it was more of a clean up rather than anything that could be considered close to a battle.
Jake watched his friend put the remaining goblin wolf commander out of its misery at the end. It appeared that additional levels helped the goblins more with competence rather than improving their strength. Unfortunately, it couldn’t make much use of that competence when it had been trampled and blinded.
There were three thorn warriors who had fallen before Jake, Will, and Thorn of My Vine had arrived, but not a single member on the garden’s side perished once they joined the fray. In contrast, two dozen wolves, ten wasps, and two goblin wolf commanders had all perished.
Once the battle was done, Jake approached Will and Thorn. “You two having fun talking?” he asked. He was sure that they were sending messages back and forth between each other. For those who weren’t in the know about Will’s Data Share skill, though, it’d probably look like they were having a staring contest.
“Actually, yeah,” Will said. “Thorn is pretty cool.” Will laid his hand down low and the thorn sentry gave him five.
Jake smiled. “Well, you guys can talk while we’re moving. Ask the Mother Tree which way we should go next.”
He didn’t expect any hold up on that, but instead of directions, he got the three thorn warriors they’d saved approaching him.
Mother Tree: These young ones would like to thank you for your assistance and saving their lives.
“Save the thanks for later and tell us where to go next,” Jake said. He had checked the defense’s integrity after the fight and decided that what they’d done wasn’t enough.
The hedge maze was too big. They’d put out the equivalent of a fire where they were now, but there were a hundred more fires like this going on in the garden at the same time.
The only way they were going to be able to save this place was to do like the quest said and figure out a way to make these pests retreat.
With that said, they were first and foremost fighting for the sake of increasing Will’s strength. Failing this quest was an important opportunity lost, but it wasn't the end of Jake’s life.
He was willing to take as many detours as possible before the quest reached its deadline to help Will get a better start. It would pay off in the long run.
Screw whichever generated plant person they were screwing over by not insisting to finish this right away. If they wanted to blame anyone, they could blame the Mother Tree for getting them to take inefficient actions.
Mother Tree’s Defense Integrity: 72%
“Oh!” After getting the Mother Tree’s directions, Jake was about to walk out of the clearing, but remembered an idea that he had.
“Before we go, can you two fire a few shots of acid right here.” He pointed to the part of the paved path right next to him.
With little delay, the two venus acid spitters obliged. Jake opened a portal next to his feet at the last second right before the corrosive spit hit the tile. He told them to fire a couple more shots into the portal after that and they did.
“I’ll make good use of it,” he said with a smile after closing the portal.