It was hard to track the komos from this distance, thanks to their color-changing ability. Nick chewed on his lip, considering his options as his odds of victory dwindled before his eyes.
With these numbers, his plans could still work. But everything would end in disaster if the rest of the tribe remained cut off by the solid wall of tooth and scale milling below. Even if the lemurs tried to break through, far too many would be picked off before they could climb the hillside, succumbing to the reptiles’ superior numbers. Nick had been hoping that the Elder would arrive and take charge before the komos inevitably turned on the lemurs trapped within the valley.
By now, he could hear the water growling as it engulfed the forest floor. A surging, gurgling roar that vibrated the dirt beneath his toes. Don’t rush it, Nick. Wait for the right moment to act. It won’t be long now. Over the next five, nerve-wracking minutes, he monitored the standoff taking place in the valley below, praying that the elite members of the tribe had survived the raging flood; that the komos wouldn’t start slaughtering the lemurs before he was ready to act. Just as he was beginning to lose hope, Nick saw what he had been waiting for.
In the final seconds before the ocean consumed everything below the highlands, the rest of the tribe came running out of the woods. The Elder and Bandit led the way, emerging into the valley beside an immense clump of komos. Thank god it’s one of the lesser prides and not the one led by Komo Alpha. Nick relaxed, if only by a hair. While the situation was grim, the tribe was in better shape than he had expected. Not only had most of the lemurs managed to stick together, they had brought a modest stash of weapons and supplies along with them.
While this was good news, it did little to resolve the problem at hand. With the komos’ numbers bolstered by the recent arrivals, the tribe was surrounded by vicious predators. On a brighter note, several smaller groups of lemurs were able to dart around and join the army led by the Elder, consolidating their position.
Nick hissed through his teeth, trying to find a way out of this mess before it was too late. There were now over two hundred giant lizards barring the path leading to the hilltop. A force four times the size of the Elder’s, and each lizard was over twice the size of the average lemur.
For the moment, the beasts merely eyed one another, as a few of the more aggressive komos were forced back by the tribe’s warriors. But this fleeting moment of equilibrium was fated to erupt in a storm of blood. Nick was certain that as soon as the pride regained their composure, they would fall upon the tribe as one, tearing the lemurs to pieces. Even without an alpha to lead them.
He had mere heartbeats before it would be too late to prevent tragedy from unfolding. A merciless slaughter that would seal his fate alongside the tribe’s. He had been wracking his brain over the last ten minutes, and he had eventually come up with an idea. But the tactic wouldn’t work without the lemurs’ cooperation.
With no time to second-guess himself or concoct another plan, he sprang into motion. Hoping that the tribe would understand what he was up to, Nick took aim for the strip of earth running between the trapped lemurs and the base of the hill, then started throwing rocks as quickly as he could. Due to his haste and being drowned in enough adrenaline to jumpstart an elephant’s heart, his aim was shit. Fortunately, that didn’t really matter, since it was impossible to miss with so many lizards bunched so tightly together.
To bolster the strength of his throw, Nick sent the rocks sailing up in a high arc, letting gravity add its power to the force of the impact. With a savage smile, he watched as his first stone clocked a komo right between the eyes, causing the beast to stagger while whipping its head around to determine where the attack had come from. Although it didn’t seem to do much damage, the lizard scampered away from the area, shoving its way between its brethren and creating a ripple of momentum leading in that direction.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Nick tried his best to gather the attention of the increasingly agitated lemurs beside him, who were calling out to their trapped kin with worry writ clear upon their expressive faces.
“If you want to help them, then do what I’m doing,” he implored. He threw another rock to emphasize his point. For a long, tension-saturated minute, the tribe looked past him, and he was deathly afraid that he had run out of time; that there was nothing more he could do. But then one little lemur picked up a stone and hurled it at the mass of komos gathered below. Then another joined in, followed by a third. Soon, all the lemurs by Nick’s side were chucking rocks down into the valley.
The lizards hissed in agitation as the storm of stones pelted them, drawing their attention away from the trapped lemurs. Then, to his immense relief, the komos started moving out of the way. Over the next five minutes, the lizards shoved their way out of the stonefall and created a narrow strip of open ground, although they were clearly contemplating charging his position.
He knew that the moment to act had arrived, before the window he had opened slammed shut forever. Praying that the lemurs would understand what he had in mind, Nick grabbed a bundle of spears and started running down the hill, heading for where the bulk of the tribe sat surrounded by enemies.
Activate real-time strategy protocols. He shifted his perspective, preparing to immerse himself within the hundreds of bodies filling the valley floor. As he ran, overlaid across his field of view, he visualized an overhead representation of the forces laid out below. It showed each creature as a glowing dot, green for the tribe and red for the pride, as well as marks representing the surrounding terrain.
This was an ability that Nick had developed during the years he had been obsessed with competitive RTS gaming. It let him view the battlefield as a whole, offering an impression of the overall flow of combat and helping him predict how the melee would unfold. It was by no means a perfect model since Nick wasn’t a computer, but it was good enough to broaden his perspective and help him revise his plans on the fly.
He sprinted down the hillside and into the valley. He took a pair of rocks on his shoulder, and as before, the lemurs stopped throwing and started following him. Each primate held an extra spear in their other hand as they ran along the narrow column of cleared ground. Pushing past the double wall of lizards who had yet to notice his arrival, Nick ran up to the Elder and tossed his bundle of spears to the ground by her feet. Then he turned around and darted back the way he had come, passing the lemurs following behind him.
By now, the komos had realized that the primates were among them. They turned, responding to the tribe’s proximity with aggression clear in their posture, hundreds of lizards hissing in unison. On his way out of the valley, Nick kicked one komo in the face, dodged a set of streaking claws, then used his dagger to drive back a third before he made it past the pride and started running up the hillside.
Nick had no intention of participating in the melee that would momentarily ensue. While he really hoped that this would work, he wasn’t willing to die if it didn’t. He made it back into position, looking down to learn how events unfolded, breath held and jaw clenched tight. He turned around in time to watch a final pair of lemurs deliver their spears to the main group. Then the lemurs who had come down from the hillside turned to fight the komos, who had begun to form ranks and attack now that the rain of stones was over.
The armed members of the tribe arranged themselves into two long rows. Fighting back-to-back with enough space for the other lemurs to run past, the spearmen held the lane open while the unarmed lemurs ran through to join Nick on the hillside. Bandit and the Elder fought with the ferocity of beasts twice their size, taking down a half-dozen komos between them as they struggled to protect the others’ escape.
Although Nick’s plan had averted catastrophe, the tribe took casualties as the spearmen withdrew, harried on all sides by a solid wall of fang and claw. Throwing stones to help secure their retreat, he saw seven lemur spearmen fall while fighting on the line, then a final four who pulled back too late and were surrounded by furious lizards. As sad as it was to watch the lemurs fight and die, he was relieved.
Against the odds, they had pulled it off. The tribe had escaped the valley floor, taking only a fraction of the losses they would have suffered had Nick not intervened. However, he knew their real test was yet to come.