They beat a hasty retreat, falling back a full block before ducking inside an alleyway. After smashing a single undead that had been inside of a dumpster, they came together to try and figure out what they were going to do.
“It hasn’t even been a full day yet. I recommend we return to the base and discuss a path forward with the others reasoned Nyx. “We will certainly need the Drake woman for this. At a minimum. And I am sure that Derrick can create some equipment to assist us further.”
Verrick nodded at that assessment. “I agree, My Lord. Your canine soul bound has several valid points there. We certainly cannot assail such a fortress without considerable backup. We may even want to go so far as to approach several of the smaller groups to gather more to our cause. Taking such a location by force of arms would require numbers that we simply do not possess.”
Ray understood what they were saying. If the repository went into lockdown there was no way they were getting inside without causing so much damage that the building would be reduced to rubble. That would make the location useless, not to mention anyone and everything inside would be killed. While he didn’t give a shit about the bandits he didn’t want to kill anyone they had entrapped or enslaved.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was thinking too. Let’s see if we can get at least most of the way back home before dark,” he said. “Verrick, have someone scout ahead for a low-level building that we can clear. We do not want to be caught outside after dark.”
The Aelvin {RANGER} nodded and issued several commands in the flowery language that his people possessed. Shortly after a single {RANGER} shot out of the alley and down the street. Ray had no doubts that he would find exactly what they were looking for. Verrick wasn’t one to issue a task and not have it completed thoroughly.
The group began to exit the alley, as soon as the first {RANGER} stepped out however a wordless cry resounded through the street.
“See! I told you there was someone lurking around here!” a male voice called out. “And it's an Elf! Hey there pretty Elf, want to come play with me?”
The single Aelvin in view happened to be the only female {RANGER} in the group. She turned slowly and mechanically, death in her eyes.
“Aye look guys, she’s getting a bit grump-“ the voice started, but was cut off with a curse as he narrowly dodged the arrow she sent his way.
Ray cursed and ordered the group out of the alley and into the street. He cursed more when he saw that there were a full two dozen, or more, bandits arrayed against them. Most of the poor excuses for humanity were equipped with clubs, rebar weapons, and various knives and machetes. A few, however, held modern hunting crossbows. Those would pack a punch and easily take out anybody they hit.
“Watch the crossbows,” Ray ordered, drawing his blade as the bandits yelled out a hooting war cry and charged in masse. They were met with Nyx, Ray, the uninjured Goblin, and half the {RANGER}s. The two lines smashed into one another with bone-jarring force, and immediately Ray’s group was pushed back. Quantity was a quality all its own.
Ducking under a swing from the first bandit, Ray got his weapon in between the next attack from yet another snarling bandit, preventing it from striking his chest. Ray snarled back as he activated the enchantment, watching with no small amount of satisfaction as the blade burst into flame causing the man to howl and leap backwards.
“That one’s got a magic blade!” he snarled, causing several of the attackers to swivel towards Ray.
Alarmed, Ray pressed his momentary advantage. He swung low, causing the man to block. At the last moment, however, Ray arrested his momentum and brought his blade up point first. The sharp tip went in under the man's chin and pierced his brain. With a savage yank, he ripped the weapon sideways and parried another blow from a second person, spraying gore in a wide arc and causing a general distraction.
Even as he was locked into combat with his current attacker, a sharp line of fire erupted from his back. With a yell, he shifted his weight and brought his blade up and around scoring a glancing slash on the shoulder of the bandit. The wounded man fell back as Ray quickly located the crossbowman who was reloading. He had narrowly missed him the first time, and Ray wasn’t about to give the man a second one.
Charging forward, Ray brought his blade down on the head of one man that was struggling with the Goblin, freeing up the small green man to go after a new target. He made several more opportunity attacks as he moved, allowing {RANGER}s to group up and push forward. The crossbowmen had taken up positions on top of a large burned-out van. Unfortunately, they weren’t quick enough as the five men leveled their weapons at Ray and fired. He was about to resemble a pin cushion.
A bark that was closer in kin to a roar sounded out from Nyx. She had snuck in under the bandits and positioned herself perfectly. The sonic attack ripped the projectiles out of the air, and unlike the Rare monstrosity they had fought earlier, flung bandits in all directions. The crossbowmen on the van were also thrown off their feet, two of them falling off their makeshift perch entirely.
Ray disabled another bandit with a downward slice, cutting off his hand. The man recoiled backward with a howl, only to catch an arrow in the throat. He parried another blow, only to have the Goblin abandon its spear and fling itself at the man's face. The small green man landed on the surprised bandit and began tearing into his head with its claws and teeth. It wasn’t long before he want down, falling still as the Goblin torn into his chest, ending the fight.
Ray shivered, that was not a way he ever wanted to go.
Taking a short step back, he observed the fighting. One {RANGER} was down, pierced with a dozen knives. They weren’t getting back up anytime soon, not until Ray could resurrect people. If that was even possible with all the new changes to the System. There were numerous small injuries and a few significant ones, but overall just a single loss.
Nyx was dueling a bandit, the Goblin was enjoying its meal, and Verrick was finishing the last few bandits and crossbowmen left. All in all, it could be considered an overall victory. Even with the casualty and injuries. Between the losses that they had seen from the Reaper and their current win, the bandits had lost a significant chunk of their fighting power. Ray only hoped that would make them more cautious, and not so quick to send out patrols. Ambushing and wiping out patrols was great, but they needed to get back home and strategize. Not keep fighting when they had no supplies or base of operations.
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The last bandit was dispatched with brutal efficiency by one of the {RANGER}s. He looked up and nodded at Verrick, who turned to Ray for orders.
“Quickly gather up any decent weapons and toss them in the storage,” he said, opening his storage space. “Put the Aelvin body in here as well, it will be preserved. Then grab the hurt Goblin and lets get the fuck out of here.”
The weapons were mostly trash. Several machetes and crossbows were all that made it into storage along with the Aelvin corpse. It took only a few minutes to accomplish that before the group was moving, and none too soon. They were only a half block away when yells came from the area they had just fought in. As they moved further away and turned down a side street, Ray could hear whoever had stumbled onto the scene spreading out and searching for them.
They wouldn’t be found as long as they were sneaky enough, there were just too many different paths they could take to escape. But they may have to go considerably out of their way to return home. If they wanted to avoid more fighting that was.
Ray sighed, irritated. Nyx glanced at him for a moment but turned back to sniffing the air occasionally while looking around as they moved. “We don’t have a choice,” he finally said, getting everyone’s attention. “Verrick, Nyx, find us a place to hole up. A small building, with as minimal a threat level as you can find. We need to hole up, heal a bit, and rest. Then we can make for home first thing in the morning. I don’t want to risk being caught outside at night when we are this beat up.”
“As you say, My Lord,” Verrick replied. Nyx just nodded. They both understood that with their current travel speed, and their current injuries, getting back home before night was not only unlikely but impossible. Hunkering down in any kind of building and securing it was their smartest choice.
The challenges of the night were something they had already experienced inside of a building with a defendable chokepoint. They had only barely survived that. Doing so out in the open, without heavy weapons and against who knows what was lurking inside of this territory was outright suicide. And that didn’t take into account the bandits that were probably still looking for them.
Nyx and a {RANGER} darted away from the group, reducing their already low numbers even more. The first scout had yet to return, although a quick conversation with Verrick told him that she would be able to find them again easily. The {RANGER}s had some ability that allowed them to locate one another within a certain distance, and they were still well within that range.
It didn’t take long before Nyx and the {RANGER} returned. The news that had was both good and bad.
“Good news Ray,” Nyx started, “We found a substation with solid concrete walls. One way in and one way out through a reinforced steel door. Easily secured and defended.”
“That was fast,” he replied slowly. “What's the bad news?”
The Aelvin {RANGER} that had gone with his soul companion explained, in excruciating detail, what the bad news was.
“My Lord,” he began formally, “There is a beast within that takes up the entirety of the small structure. I… do not know how to describe it other than to simply say that it is a maw. You open the door, walk inside, and the maw closes. I quickly tested this theory by throwing in an undead I located within a dumpster nearby. Your insight into their hiding places allowed me to locate one quickly. The result was far from pretty and entirely lethal.”
Ray blinked at that, confounded how that was the easiest location they could find. Nyx was happy to answer that for him.
“The nearby buildings are packed with undead and other creatures. Their numbers here are far, far higher than they were in our territory,” she explained, licking one of her paws. “I believe they continually spawn until the building is either full or cleared from top to bottom.”
“Wonderful,” he grunted. Then he blinked, the solution may be easier than he thought it would be. “Fine. How about we open that door and Verrick and the {RANGER}s shoot it until its dead? Its not like it can dodge.”
Verrick nodded, “A simple, if inelegant, solution My Lord. Both the request and tactic will be easy to implement.”
The group fell in behind Nyx who led the way to the odd concrete structure. It was only a block away, tucked back behind a larger office building. Had this been a normal city it would have been disguised as any other building. Often times in larger cities with a lack of space structures such as substations, infrastructure sites, and even oil rigs were hidden in shells that resembled the buildings around them.
It took far longer for them to get to the little concrete box, and when Ray saw it he was not impressed. No more than forty feet to the side, with a bump out in the back that was probably an additional hundred square feet or so, it was tiny. But it looked sturdy enough to withstand a bomb or two for sure. He couldn’t imagine how a creature the size of what they described could have crammed itself into the space, much less filled it entirely.
At least not until the {RANGER} that had gone with Nyx walked up and opened the door.
Fetid, rotting air poured out of the entrance and made him gag. It was worse than anything he had ever smelled before. No sewer could have come close to comparing. The {RANGER} stepped back and picked up a fist-sized rock. She then hefted it into the entrance. Ray watched in fascination as a fanged maw slammed shut around the stone, crushing it into dust. It really was a building-sized creature. The thing gave a light belch and the door swung shut without any action on their end.
“I… am having second thoughts about this,” Ray said softly.
Verrick only shrugged lightly and said, “We can continue to sweep the area for another location My Lord. However, we risk both running out of daylight or encountering the bandits. This is the nearest location we could possibly secure.”
Swallowing, and still having a bad feeling about the situation, Ray gave the go-ahead to proceed. The {RANGER}s lined up and drew upon their dwindling supply of arrows. Once knocked the weapons began to glow blue, with the intensity increasing until it was almost too bright for him to look at. With a nod, he walked over and grabbed the door handle.
“Alright. On three,” he said, getting confirmation nods from the {RANGER}s. “One, two… three!”
Ray flung the door open and threw himself to the side. The Aelvin unleashed a barrage of powered arrows directly into the gaping maw of the creature that was inside of the building. Every arrow entered and exploded in a blue light, shaking the structure from the inside out.
The mouth covering the door puckered inward like a giant sphincter before a popping sound was heard. What followed that noise was an event Ray would never be able to forget, as the monstrosity disgorged everything it hadn’t digested up to that point.
Dozens of bodies, undead, bandits, several animals, a small car, and even more odds and ends that he couldn’t identify poured out of the doorway. The stink was nearly unbearable and even the Aelvin wrinkled their noses in disgust. Poor Nyx darted away with a yelp, her powerful nose more the likely making the smell outright painful to experience.
“That… is beyond gross,” Ray muttered, taking a step back from the expanding pool of viscera and gore. He was as surprised as anyone else when a message popped up in front of him:
BUILDING MIMIC
{RARE}
Sighing in resignment, he motioned to the group, “Let’s secure this so I can claim it. Maybe I can just clear it out and we won’t have to clean it by hand.” The possibility of not having to clear the creature manually got everyone moving quickly. Leaving it inside the building wasn’t an option, but moving the remains of the Building Mimic had everyone reluctant to take action.
No one wanted to deal with that.