Halfway through Nick’s desperate dodge, his injured leg collapsed out from under him. Instead of ducking, he wound up diving headfirst down the hillside. The unplanned fall was the only reason that he lived through the next eleven seconds.
As he hit the ground hard, tumbling down the steep hillside head over heels, a massive body went streaking through the airspace occupied by his throat only half a heartbeat prior. It was the cruncher, passing close enough to brush Nick’s nose with the tip of its tail. His collapse bought him another few seconds of life, even if his situation was only marginally better than before.
He completed seven full revolutions before he regained control over his momentum, earth and sky changing positions in a disorienting jumble of rotating color, each impact driving molten daggers into his injured leg. Miraculously, he had embarked on his brief journey back down the hillside without losing his grip on his sword or skewering himself in the process.
Caught in the jaws of a battle that had broken free of the net cast by Nick’s theoretical understanding of large-scale combat, it took everything that he had not to give into the urge to panic. Not only because he was wounded and behind enemy lines, although that was undeniably terrifying. But because all his plans had fallen apart, the situation had progressed from marginally manageable to completely out of control within a scant handful of heartbeats.
Although his preparations had been better than nothing, they had proven to be woefully insufficient when matched up against the inherent chaos of conflict. His initial strategy to counter the komos had gone more or less according to plan, the battle proceeding along the course that he had set. But the lizards were simple-minded beasts and relatively weak compared to the rest of the creatures trapped in the tutorial.
As Nick rolled to a stop, staring up at the sunny blue sky above, an epiphany struck him. Revealing just how inadequate his understanding of large-scale conflict truly was. Until now, he had been contemplating strategies and variables in a dry and clinical manner. Despite his flexibility and diligence, his calculations were based on his gaming experiences. And though each game claimed to capture the grim reality of war, they were all ultimately simulations governed by a computer program—the millions of variables present on a real battlefield reduced to a few hundred abstractions and arbitrary conventions.
Now Nick grasped with bleak certainty that games could never hope to contain the infinite ocean of information surging across a true killing field, the myriad opposing forces at play as hundreds of intelligent beings did their best to outmaneuver and destroy one another, each unified by a single, overarching desire—to live through the day.
Having witnessed true conflict with his own eyes, he came to understand that a real battle was a living thing. A writhing sea of forces and feelings. Of intentions, revelations, and reactions.
This fleeting moment of epiphany only lasted for the blink of an eye, although it was a moment that would change Nick forever. But he would have to ponder the insights he had obtained and how he might apply them later. Because in between the drawing of one breath and the next, his awareness snapped back into its usual configuration.
With it, the realization that he was seriously injured and trapped behind enemy lines rose to the forefront of his awareness. The knowledge that at any second and from any direction, a blow might land that would claim his life, bringing his story to an untimely end.
In that instant, Nick understood that the next decision he made would determine whether he lived through the day or died on the spot. With his life on the line and not a moment to lose, he pushed through the pain, overcoming his terror-tinged disorientation through sheer effort of will. With an agonized groan, he rolled back onto his feet and assumed a fighting stance, raising his sword in an unsteady grip. Knowing that his power and speed would be severely curtailed by the wound to his leg.
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He swept his gaze around his body, trying to analyze his situation as quickly as he could… only to discover that what he decided to do next would not wind up mattering after all. Because standing right in front of him, jaws spread wide and muscles poised to strike, was the Bonecruncher Alpha.
It looked him straight in the eye and then pounced. Nick reached for his wand as he started to duck, every cell in his body screaming that it was already too late; that in less than a second, he was going to die, and there was nothing that he could do to save himself. The monster men call war had closed its fangs around his throat, and now the alpha would follow suit.
He watched on in horror, understanding that this would be the final moment of his all-too-short life when the fickle flow of battle shifted once more. The alpha’s jaws were mere inches from closing around Nick’s neck, splayed wide enough to tear his head clean off when they snapped shut. All he could see was the dark tunnel of the beast’s throat—the ivory mountains of its ragged teeth—and smell the fetid death thick upon its breath.
Lost in the depths of the darkest moment of his life, half a heartbeat before the alpha extinguished Nick’s light, help arrived from a most unexpected quarter. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a thick strand of silk wrap itself around the alpha’s jaws—a line of webbing moving faster than thought. At the last possible second, the string pulled taut with such force that the beast bit off the end of its own tongue, as something pulled on the web-rope with incredible strength.
Nick watched on in mute incomprehension as the alpha’s face turned, then jerked hard to one side. Fast enough to snap the neck of a lesser beast. It altered the trajectory of the cruncher’s flight by a scant handful of degrees. In that moment, he knew that he had a chance, throwing his body back at the last possible moment. It was enough to cause the alpha’s body to knock Nick off his feet instead of landing on top of him, crushing his ribcage to pulp. The impact knocked him out for a moment, and when he came to, he was lying on the ground once more.
A white wave of pain reverberated throughout his leg, stunning him but not inflicting any permanent damage. While struggling to regain control over his body, he was rendered helpless for the time being. With nothing left to do but watch, the game-trained part of his brain began putting the pieces together, processing the battle playing out before his eyes.
He realized that he was lying on his back while looking uphill, staring up at where roughly a hundred komos were locked in a fierce melee with the tribe’s spear wall. It was a fierce, bloody exchange, but one that cost the lizards far more lives than the lemurs, thanks to the Elder’s tactics and Nick’s foresight.
What he was seeing didn’t make sense. The pack was nowhere to be found, and while the forces in the valley had shifted positions, it looked like only half of the komo pride was engaged in the battle for the hillside. When Nick was able to turn his head, changing his view to look straight at the mountainside, he discovered the first half of his answer. Because dozens of giant spiders were streaming down the side of the cliff looming over the valley floor. Rappelling down the sheer rock wall, then launching themselves onto the battlefield in what was clearly a practiced maneuver. I knew the spiders could get up there if they tried.
Nick was shocked by the sight, but he didn’t have time to stare. He shook off his daze through sheer effort of will, then continued turning his head until he was looking down at the valley floor. Taking in a battle that had taken a turn far beyond the scope of his predictions.
He sat up, still too weak to stand, watching the carnage wrought as the spider army initiated a surprise attack upon the predatory beasts trapped between the hilltops. It was now clear that the spiders had deliberately ambushed the pack, waiting until they were engaged with the lemur spear wall before descending from the mountainside and falling upon the crunchers from behind.
I think I was only out for a couple of minutes. Nick struggled to process what was happening as the sounds of battle raged all around him. The pack must have fallen back and regrouped the moment their alpha was hit. These crunchers are more disciplined than the first group I fought. As vicious as the hyena-boars were, the pack’s prowess was blunted by the sheer skill displayed by the warriors of the spider colony.
Across the blood-drenched hillside, teams of spiders waged war upon the bonecruncher battalion. A battle that the intelligent arachnids had instigated on their own terms.