This was the weakest link in his plan by far, but it was a risk Nick had to take. He needed to defeat the pack before the searstorm arrived, and he was running out of time.
Even if he found somewhere else to ride out the storm, if Nick wanted to survive the rest of the tutorial, he needed to be able to travel through the forest without the constant threat of ambush. He was certain that the pack would catch him sooner or later if he didn’t deal with them first.
This fight was the best shot he had, since the creatures living to his east and west would be even harder to defeat. Furthermore, if the System shrank the size of the island again, an occurrence that he rated as falling somewhere between probable and inevitable, he would have no hope of evading the pack thanks to their incredible hearing. Dealing with the spiders and the lurk in a smaller space would already be enough of a nightmare.
It took Nick the better part of two hours until he was satisfied with his pitfall. Now he was ready to conceal the pit and lay out his bait. He began by taking a series of long twigs and placing them across the gap in the earth. Once they were arranged in a stable configuration, he ran a second set over the top in a diagonal pattern, forming a wide mesh.
He then covered the lattice with dried leaves, needles, and a bit of dirt until the depression was no longer visible. He took a branch from a pine tree to use as a brush and went over every bit of ground that he had crossed over the last few days, erasing his tracks as thoroughly as he could before deciding that his pitfall was serviceable.
Nick stepped back to give his pit trap a final inspection. It wasn’t a perfect job by any means. The pattern of the leaves was distinguishable from the rest of the forest floor, but not by much. The trap wouldn’t trick the sharp senses of most animals; the disturbed ground was still too obvious. But it should work well enough for what he intended if the crunchers reached the spot while under the effects of the creeper’s pollen. When they rushed over to take the bait, gravity would take care of the rest.
This trap should be sufficient to finish off one member of the cruncher pack, but Nick’s work was far from over. Even one survivor would pose a lethal threat, and he needed to slaughter them all before he could claim their lair as his own.
He hoped that his opening gambit with the pollen would severely wound or kill at least half of the hyena-boars, but he couldn’t count on a best-case scenario. Even if one or two survived his initial round of traps, it would represent a major step forward. However, Nick hoped that his machinations would slaughter them all without forcing him into direct confrontation. He was especially wary of engaging the Cruncher Alpha, who was stronger and tougher than the rest.
To hedge his bet, in addition to his pit trap and pollen bomb, he had concocted one final ruse that could eliminate another pair of crunchers if everything else went according to plan. After making a final adjustment to the sticks covering the pit, Nick was ready to begin the final step, laying the trails of bait intended to seal the pack’s fate.
He reached into his pack and drew out a piece of bloody, half-rancid lizard meat, then carefully set it on top of the pitfall. He walked twenty feet to the north and then pulled out the next morsel, a slippery section of entrail.
Although it was a grisly, nauseating task, Nick had chopped up the half-rancid flesh of the komo into gore-smeared chunks the size of his fists. It was a deeply unpleasant experience, but at least he was able to toss the pieces into his pack without having to worry about the mess contaminating everything inside. Even though the meat had started to rot, he couldn’t smell it from inside the bag’s spatial storage.
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He continued moving toward the crunchers’ lair, using the bloody pieces to create a trail of meat across the woodlands. He had to act fast or risk the remains getting eaten by other animals, so Nick went to work as quickly as he could. Twenty minutes later, he found himself standing at the spot where his trail of bait ended, or where it would begin, from the crunchers’ perspective. He judged that the first glob of flesh was in clear sight of the entrance to the beasts’ lair. If they emerged from their den, they should find it within seconds. He just needed to make sure that they didn’t find him first.
As time was of the essence, Nick kept moving, heading due south while laying down a second trail. This one led to the section of forest where the komos resided. After arriving at the boundary of their territory, he crept forward to take a quick look at their forces, taking in the sight of at least fifty lizards enjoying the afternoon sunlight.
He stopped to consider komos’ alpha, who was twice the size of the next largest lizard—another beast that he wanted to avoid if at all possible. Half of the lizards were hard at work digging out a network of tunnels into the side of a small hill, which must be how they intended to ride out the approaching searstorm.
Nick judged that the combined might of the komo pride was more than a match for a solitary cruncher. They would make short work of an intruder if the beast entered their territory alone and with enough haste that it failed to recognize the danger in time. It was a bit of a gamble, as he couldn’t set the final piece of meat too close to the lizards, or they would find it and eat the trail he had left. But if everything worked out as he hoped, it would be close enough to start a fight.
Racing to place his third and final line of bait in time, he began jogging northwest, crossing into the shroom’s side of the woods. Creating the final trail was dangerous, making him break out into a cold sweat. That was because the bloody chunks needed to be tossed within the kill zone of the ravenous creepers.
Nick wouldn’t have even been willing to entertain the possibility if he didn’t have his antidote sitting in the loop of his belt, ready to quaff at the first sign that the creepers had released their pollen. He threw the last lumps of komo meat as hard as he could, sighing in relief when they landed close enough to the vines. He was certain the plants would respond to the crunchers’ intrusion if they tried to eat the morsels.
The moment the last scrap of flesh hit the dirt, he spun on his heels and got the hell out of there. Even looking at the vines made him so nervous that his hands were shaking. He consoled himself with the fact that the pollen would seal the fate of at least one cruncher—if Nick could get the beast to follow the trail to begin with.
He finished laying the last line of bait as he headed toward the crunchers’ den. He soon found himself back at the clearing where the three trails of meat converged, just inside the tree line before the hills began. His preparations complete, all that was left was to act.
Nick took a long moment to steady his nerves and visualize the opening moves of his assault. Although he eventually managed to stop shaking, he couldn’t stop the racing of his heart. This was unquestionably a desperate venture; a wildly dangerous gamble, where failure would entail a serious risk of death. And unlike the other life-and-death battles that he had experienced during the tutorial, this was one of his choosing.
But he didn’t have time to second-guess himself. He needed to act while the meat trails were still intact; otherwise, all the work he had put into his plan would go to waste, costing him at least a day. A day that Nick did not have. While he traveled across the southern forest, he watched a band of angry green clouds advance along the horizon. Feel occasional licks of searing wind interspersed with the chill sea breeze.
Another searstorm was brewing overhead, and he needed to find a suitable shelter before the boiling rain broke over him. If he didn’t claim the cruncher’s lair for his own, Nick was going to wind up dead, one way or another.
In short, it was time to roll the dice and see how the pips landed; to learn who would live to see the sun rise tomorrow—Nick or the ferocious bonecruncher pack.