The most important item on his agenda was completing the construction of what Nick was calling his “pollen bomb.”
One of the creeper bulbs had burst while he was harvesting it, but the other was still intact. The natural mechanism contained within the blossom would serve as the device’s propellant, dispersing the pollen after he tossed the bomb inside the pack’s den.
The drug-infused pollen was the weapon’s primary payload. Although he planned to add three more elements into the mix, enhancing the pollen’s ability to strip the beasts of reason while filling them with an all-consuming desire to devour. If everything worked out as he hoped, the device would let Nick turn the tables on the pack, and the hunters would soon become the hunted.
He was planning to toss in a flashbang immediately after launching the pollen bomb, impairing the bonecrunchers’ vision and stripping them of their ability to hunt by sound. He also wanted to confuse the pack’s sense of smell and irritate their mucus membranes. Thus, it was time for a bit of impromptu alchemy.
Nick started by grinding a pile of charcoal into a fine powder between two rocks. He repeated the process with the last bit of chemical salts he had found in the dungeon, which had been sitting in the bottom of the canister he had poured into the foreman’s helm before he had moved them into an empty coconut husk.
He placed both powders inside the bomb using the inventory management trick he had invented while harvesting the pollen, manipulating the objects while they were inside his backpack. Nick couldn’t blend or refine his concoction within the dimensional storage, but he could alter each ingredient’s position relative to one another and pack them inside the container. He used this method to remove the petals from the flower with the blown dispersal mechanism, pouring its pollen into the tube along with the other powders.
He was pleased to discover that there was plenty of space in the canister for the intact blossom and the various substances he had prepared. The flower still had room to expand and should be able to disperse the pollen without being impeded.
The goal of all this tinkering was to drown the hyena-boars in sensory overload while the drug muddled their minds, infecting them with an insatiable desire to feed. Blind and deaf, driven to a feeding frenzy and stripped of reason, Nick was gambling that the pack would turn on one another; that a brutal melee would ensue within their den, killing several crunchers on the spot and wounding the rest.
To achieve his goal, he needed to saturate the crunchers’ lair without getting caught in the blast or the chaos that would follow. He had figured out how to deliver the bomb from a safe distance over the last few hours. But for it to work, he had to rig the canister to pop open when it collided with the cavern’s floor.
To create such a mechanism, Nick had carved thin strips of leather from the hide of a komo that he had stumbled onto the day before. The corpse was half-eaten and starting to rot, but that wasn’t a problem for what he had planned. He chopped the carcass into gory chunks with his sword, storing the rancid flesh inside his pack after cutting away a portion of the leather. He sliced the lizard skin into strips and left them soaking in a coconut shell filled with seawater.
Nick would use the treated leather to bind the canister and form a seal. One that would preserve the payload mid-flight but burst open after impacting the ground. Visualizing the mechanism that he intended to create, he removed the tin from his pack, leaving the rest of the bomb inside his storage.
He cracked open the lid wide enough to insert his pinky, then wound the leather strips around the gap, leaving the seal to tighten as it dried in the sunlight. When Nick went to check on it four hours later, the ring of leather was secure enough to hold firm against a bit of tugging, but it seemed inclined to give way when struck with sufficient force.
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Just to be safe, he tested the mechanism by tossing the container high into the air. It completed its arc before slamming against the ground. To his relief, the bomb’s casing held firm until it struck the earth. Then the lid popped neatly off the canister, revealing the cavity inside. Elated by his success, Nick reset and rebound the bomb’s casing, then slid it into his pack once the leather was dry. When he replaced the payload from the safety of his dimensional space, his pollen bomb was complete.
After stopping by the spring to wash up and fill his canteen, Nick spent the rest of the day training. When the light began to fade, he climbed into the branches of the great tree. Although his mind was racing, trying to prepare for any possible contingency, he willed his inner monologue to still so he could fall asleep as quickly as possible. It still took several hours before he was calm enough to pass out. For tomorrow, he would willingly participate in the most dangerous battle of his life.
He awoke with the rising sun, surprised that he had been able to sleep at all. As he ate a breakfast of cold crab jerky and spring water, he visualized the steps he still needed to take before his preparations to battle the bonecrunchers were complete.
Although he had doubts that this was a wise plan, the stormfront on the horizon told Nick that his time was nearly up. He needed to take out the pack and find a shelter where he could hole up and ride out the approaching searstorm. Their den was his best option, and he needed to eliminate the hyena-boars before he could sleep safely at ground level regardless.
Nick would never have believed that he would willingly face down seven massive predators at once, each able to obliterate him in a direct exchange of blows. The practical, survival-oriented part of his brain urged him to turn back and screamed that this undertaking was insanely dangerous. But that piece of his mind was viewing the matter through the filter of his old life on Earth. A survival instinct that had been rendered obsolete by the arrival of the System.
In spite of the danger, he was certain that this was his best chance of living through the next two weeks. However, his fears were not without merit. He knew deep inside that there was a significant chance he was watching the final sunrise of his life.
Despite his mixed feelings, all the pieces of his plan were almost in place. Nick just needed to arrange a few final elements and he would be ready to fight.
After stretching out his muscles, he made his way north, stopping to say hello to Bandit and the Elder when he ran across the tribe. Today, Nick only paused long enough to greet his furry friends before continuing on his way. The lion’s share of his attention was riveted on his looming showdown with the bonecruncher pack.
His next stop was to finish the pit trap he had begun working on after realizing that he would eventually be forced to fight the pack. Nick had been hoping to find multiple holes where he could construct a series of pitfalls, but in the end, he only located one that was suitable for his needs—a depression in the forest floor about three feet wide, twice as long, and seven feet deep. He would have dug more holes if he had found anything that he could use as a shovel, but his attempts to craft one with the limited tools at his disposal had ended in frustrating failure.
Finishing this trap by hand had been a monumental chore, requiring hours of grueling labor for several days. In the end, Nick was satisfied with his handiwork. The sides of the pit were sheer and deep, located behind a gentle rise where it was hard to spot until you were standing right beside it. The fall wouldn’t be enough to finish off a beast as tough as the bonecrunchers, but he had already found a solution to that problem.
After some consideration, Nick lined the bottom of the pit with dagger-sharpened stakes. Working from the front to the back, he planted them in the earth until the spikes were dense enough that several were guaranteed to catch anything that fell inside. He needed to make sure that everything was still in place, then complete the camouflage job that ran over the top.
After a thorough inspection, he carefully replaced a few stakes that had worked themselves free, shoving their bases deeper into the soil. He took out his dagger and sharpened another handful that looked a bit dull, until he was satisfied that their points would penetrate hide and flesh with ease.
While his hands were busy digging and carving, Nick devoted the rest of his attention to contemplating his plan for getting the pollen bomb inside the hyenas’ den. He needed to make sure that his method would work without getting caught in the blast himself or being swarmed by ravenous beasts after the device detonated. Visualizing the terrain around the pack’s lair, he estimated that it would take him two full minutes to sprint to the closest tree once he had launched the bomb.
It was going to be close, but Nick thought that he could pull it off—if everything went according to plan.