Chapter 34:

"What are you all talking about? A taproom?" Bjorn called out as he strode over to us, joining us on the tile. He wasn't being careful where he stepped or walking gently like we were.

"What are you all scared of?" he said, clearly a little impatient after having spent so much time getting healed.

"No," Astrid said. "Trapped room, like spike traps and stuff."

Bjorn looked around as if he was in a forest searching for trees. "There's nowhere to set a snare or a pitfall or anything," he said.

I rolled my eyes at his lack of imagination. "One of these tiles," I said, tapping the tile underneath us, "could totally be a pit trap. We step on it, and then bam! We fall into a pit of spikes fifteen feet below."

Bjorn held out his hand to Helga and asked for her sword. She passed it over, and he started tapping the tiles. "See? Problem solved," he said as he stepped forward, putting some of his weight on the tile he had just finished tapping. But without enough, he would fall over if it fell out from underneath him. Once he had about thirty percent of his weight on it, a series of spikes shot up and stabbed him through the foot. Two spikes managed to pierce his foot right between the toes and closer to the arch, protruding six inches out of his foot. He yelled in pain as he slowly lifted his foot off the spikes and stepped back. A pool of blood started to form from the base of his boot at a disturbing rate.

"You idiot," Astrid said as she yanked up the cuff of his pants so she could touch his calf. "I only have so much mana, and I'm going to get mana burn or something if I keep having to heal your dumbass."

Bjorn chuckled as he gingerly put weight back on his foot after it was done healing.

"Yeah, well, um, I'm gonna wait back there," he said, passing Helga her sword and returning to the entrance.

"See, the thing is," I whispered to Astrid, "he's not exactly wrong. What can we really do besides tap and explore?"

She looked around with me, but neither of us had any good ideas. The tile we were on was safe, and if I was right, the grid was about ten tiles by ten tiles. Likely, we had to either find a path or find the traps we were capable of surviving. It seemed that it required a decent amount of weight. Bjorn was at least 200 pounds, so he definitely had less than 100 pounds on the title to trigger it...

"Oh!" I called to Jonas. After a few seconds of explaining, he brought us the massive badger pelt. I hefted it. It felt about seventy pounds, conceivably enough weight to trigger the traps. I held on to the edge and tossed it on the tile Bjorn had stepped on. Sure enough, the spikes shot up.

"Okay. It's less than half of Astrid's weight, so it should be enough to trigger any trap meant for someone her size. Still, though, nothing said that there aren't ones made for something heavier." I thought aloud.

I reeled back in the pelt and tossed it onto the tile next to us, and spikes shot out again. The one diagonally, nothing happened, and I gingerly started to step across before Astrid grabbed my arm.

"No, I'm lighter," she said, "better odds if I go," and stepped over before I could stop her.

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Then, I handed her the pelt, and she tested the tiles around her. Moving carefully, the two of us marked a path for the others to follow the safe tiles. It was a simple zigzag pattern that only took a few minutes to verify each step once we got it down. In twenty minutes, we only had one more.

And, of course, the last one didn't follow the pattern. All three of the tiles in front of us fell away into a black hole when we dropped the majority of the pelt weight on them, only managing to barely maintain our balance of the first one as the pelt unexpectedly started to pull us downwards. We had to go sideways for a bit until we reached the edge, and then we could hop across. Bjorn grumbled that we could just jump across anyway, but none of us really wanted to risk that. We made it out of the fourth room without any more significant injuries.

We only gained two percent completion for that room. But we were making progress. Through the entrance to the next one, we stopped and exhaled. I wasn't sure what I expected, but the rooms kept getting harder. This time, there was one of the massive badgers, the size of a mammoth, surrounded by five of the very small ones from the first cave. Neither would be insurmountable on their own. We had dealt with them before, but together?

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully, trying to figure out some sort of strategy. "How do you want to handle this, Miles?" Jonas asked.

I was only half surprised that they were actually asking me. Sure, I had made decisions so far, but I had the least combat experience out of everyone here. Still, I guessed I'd been doing okay so far.

"We're not going to be able to take them both at once. Neither the cubs," I started to call the small ones, "or the mama bear." I knew it wasn't actually a bear, but it was just easier to think of it that way when it was larger than most bears I'd ever heard of. I didn't think we had a chance of downing the large one before the small ones got at our backs. No, we would have to be careful about this approach.

"How many can you get with your arrows before they reach us?" I asked Astrid.

She looked thoughtful. "Two, maybe three."

I looked over, a plan forming. "Okay," I said, "this is how we're going to do it." Everyone huddled in to hear me better.

"So, I'm not entirely sure, but if Astrid starts picking off the cubs, I believe there are two things that could happen. Either the little ones are faster, and they'll reach us first, or the big ones are faster, which will reach us first. I think their instincts will be rather simple, and they'll charge to take out the threat. Two of us need to work our asses off and keep the big one distracted while the other three deal with the small cubs as quickly as possible so they can move in and support. Then we do the same with the large one. I don't think we'll be able to burn down the mama fast enough with the cubs nipping at our heels. It'll make switching off whoever has its attention much too difficult."

Everyone nodded along. "So either way," Bjorn said, "I should start shooting until they have our attention, and then I charge the big one?"

I shook my head. "No, actually, I think you and Helga should take the cubs. You'll be faster at finishing them off. Helga's long reach, and..." I just gestured at Bjorn's general figure, "will be quicker. Jonas and I are just as fast and should be able to give you thirty seconds or so to finish off them, hopefully, two cubs."

Jonas looked grim but nodded, and everyone else seemed to agree. I didn't like it, and I didn't like our chances of success, but it seemed that we were going to die here in this challenge anyway. We might as well try to make it as far as we can.

In fact, I repeated that part out loud, and it actually seemed to help ease some of the tension. We still had a long way to go, but we were making progress with real weapons.

With a little bit of jostling and preparation, we took our spots. Astrid conjured five arrows and stuck them in the dirt in front of her for easier drawing. Bjorn and Helga took up one side of the cavern while Jonas and I lined up on the other. I held up my hand with three fingers and counted down. Three, two, one. Then Astrid let loose her first arrow, piercing the eye of a cub and dropping it dead. Her second was not quite as accurate, but she hit it in the face, maybe downing it. A third arrow flew, and the mother roared. The cubs dashed, but nothing went to plan.

Unlike what we expected, neither one charged us. The three remaining cubs ran around and hid behind the larger badger. The last cub took a shaft in the hindquarters, yelping but still able to move. The badger roared and slowly walked toward us.