28

Defense

The furious look in Gale's eyes was chilling, but before she could decide on the best way to flay me, we were distracted. The smear of blood and feathers that had been Sebastian was starting to… boil away, for lack of a better term. The mess was bubbling and churning as the edges faded into red mist, which slowly swirled around in a lazy circle. There was not a single sound in the room as we all stood transfixed. More and more of the dead bird joined the red mist until finally all that remained was a red cloud. The cloud roiled for a moment, looking like a small storm with flashes of blue in place of lightning.

Then, the small cloud suddenly sped toward the floor and melded into the stone as if it were passing right through. Gale sprinted off toward the stairs, and the rest of us followed. We ran down to her workshop, which was a few feet of stone below us. It took us long enough with the new routing of the dungeon that we missed most of the show. The group followed Gale to the doorway of her workshop, where we all stopped and stared. The silvery egg from before that we had guessed was a phylactery for the lich was now pulsing red in a rhythm like a heartbeat. Gale held the egg gently in two hands; she looked calm now as she held the egg, but I had seen the look in her eye when it seemed like the bird had been killed. She was very attached to the thing, even after such a short time.

Unfortunately, even though the bird was probably not dead, the egg didn't seem to be doing anything else besides pulsing. After several minutes of nothing new happening, Gale shut the door to her workshop, closing herself off from the rest of us. No one knew what we could do to help, and soon everyone broke off and went about their battle preparations. It felt like the day passed slowly and far too quickly at the same time. No one was in the mood to rest as the sun set on the last day of our deadline. I felt like I should do something, and it seemed like I wasn't the only one. All of the minions, except for Gale, who had locked herself away, were anxious and fidgety with nothing productive to do. The night seemed to drag on, and tension only grew.

Finally I had enough, “STOP!”

Everyone looked around frantically as if expecting trolls to burst from the walls.

I continued my unplanned speech, “This isn't working; everyone is way too wound up… I have an idea; follow me outside.”

As we walked, I quickly enacted my plan, thanking whoever designed the dungeon system for the time stop feature. When we reached the yard, I heard several gasps.

“What is it?” Someone asked.

I grinned, “It's an observation tower. When we made the tree over the entrance, we were still trying to hide the dungeon, but… everyone knows about it now, so…”

I waved at the tall, undisguised construction. I had taken some inspiration from firewatch towers I had seen on Earth. It was really just an elevated deck, on very tall stilts, open to the sky. The top of the tower reached well above the treetops, offering a long unbroken line of sight. It wouldn’t be very useful as a lookout tower, anything could approach on the forest floor without trouble from above, but that wasn’t why I had built it.

The true purpose of the tower became apparent when we reached the top. The top of the tower was a wide deck that allowed one to move around and look out in any direction. There were places to sit and relax, but the main attraction was the chairs at the center of the deck, which leaned way back, like beach chairs, offering a view of the sky. With no light pollution and only the sounds of the breeze on the leaves, staring into the starry sky felt like we were in another world.

There wasn't much in the way of entertainment in this world; I hadn’t even seen any evidence that the people of this world knew what electricity was. So quiet, unobstructed views of the star-filled night sky were one of the highest forms of entertainment for us all. I had never seen the night sky in this world myself and found that it was largely the same as on Earth. I didn’t know any constellations or how to identify stars based on location on Earth, having never been interested enough to pay attention to such things, so to my eyes it looked just like the sky on Earth. It brought up some feelings of nostalgia and homesickness I thought I had buried. I could almost imagine I was still there and all of this had been a dream.

The monsters all seemed enthralled by the sights. Several looked over the railings down at the sea of leaves and branches that they had always looked up at. Some joined my observation of the stars, only having caught glimpses of such things in gaps through the trees before. Gerald decided the best part was the long ladder up to the deck area, and he continually raced up and slid back down. The childlike glee in his face reminded me just how young some of these inhabitants were. I would have to make some sort of jungle gym for them.

The tower served its purpose admirably. All of the monsters had relaxed quite a bit, and a few even slipped into the sleep-like torpor as we stared into nothingness. There would always be time to worry later; being on edge at all times would serve no purpose. There was no telling how long it would take for the trolls to come knocking either. It may take days for…

“Hello up there. Care to come down for a chat?” The voice was Ezekiel, the dungeon avatar.

With a sigh I climbed down to find the fox man standing there with a pair of trolls. At least it seemed like he had only brought two bodyguards and not a raiding party.

When he saw me, Ezekiel smiled a predatory grin. “Now, that is more like it. We were starting to think you didn't want to see us anymore. You know you were supposed to bring the tribute today, right? Where have you been?”

“Sorry, time got away from me. I totally forgot about that with all of the humans running around. Could you give us another couple of days?” I tried.

He laughed, “Right then, let us continue this farce a bit longer, shall we?. I can understand you losing track of time, but we are here now. No need to worry yourself. Give us the materials, and we will take a few of your goblins back to… have dinner with us.”

“Ahh, sure, I put your stuff down here; just let me go get it.” I said, as I slowly backed away toward the dungeon entrance.

He was far, far above me in levels, and if he grabbed me now, there wouldn't be much I could do to stop him from taking the crown and killing us all.

Ezekiel stepped closer and gently placed a hand on my shoulder, shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so… How about you just start the construction mode and create the material here? No need for anyone to go into the dungeon, is there?”

I tried pulling away, but it was like a steel clamp was wrapped around my shoulder, slowly squeezing. Suddenly a meteor of a troll slammed into the fox man from above. Tessa had leapt off the tower and crashed into the fox man trying to tackle him. The difference in power was apparent, though. Even surprised as he was, Ezekiel barely stumbled back a single step. The colossal impact was completely absorbed, and Ezekiel tossed the troll to the ground with ease. That was enough though, without his iron grip holding me in place, I ran. I didn't have time to look back, but I could hear shouts and brutal impacts as several more of the minions did whatever they could to impede him.

I began to regret the distance I had put between the tower and the dungeon entrance as I ran. The doorway seemed so far away, and no matter how I ran, the sounds of struggle behind me never seemed to get further away. I was so close to safety when something caught my leg and I tripped. I sprawled out halfway into the dungeon and tried to crawl the rest of the way. But my leg refused to move.

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I looked back and saw Ezekiel had both hands wrapped around my ankle and was slowly pulling me back, snarling with rage. Half a dozen of my minion friends held him down while a few more held back the troll bodyguards. Thankfully neither of the bodyguards were the original Tessa or Terry, so no one had any trouble fighting them. I tried again to pull free, but there was no breaking his grip. Slowly I began to slide back toward the dog pile.

I was out of options. In desperation I tried freezing time, but I forgot that dungeon avatars were immune to the freezing time effect, and my body was not. With my active resistance suddenly gone, I started sliding back even faster. Inch by inch, I slid back toward my doom. Then I had an idea that I prayed would work. I quickly created another of my cheap, crappy swords with the construction interface and placed it next to my hand.

Before I even restarted time, Ezekiel was laughing, “What do you plan on doing with that? I don't know what level you are, but you clearly can’t hurt us. Not even all of your minions at once can hurt me.”

He was right; I couldn't hurt him with a good sword, let alone this dull junk. I restarted time and abandoned trying to pull away. Before I could slide too far back, I grabbed the sword and twisted back around to get a better angle. We made eye contact, and the fox man's grin was slowly being replaced with a look of confusion. I smiled bitterly back and swung the sword down with all the force I could muster.

My shin easily parted from my knee, and the sword sparked as it hit the stone floor. Ezekiel probably could have grabbed the other leg before I could crawl away, but the thought never occurred to him, and he just stared uncomprehendingly at the severed foot in his hand. I used the moment to roll into the dungeon away from the struggle and into safety… more safety than before anyway.

The sight of me cutting off my own leg had stunned all of the combatants, and, like some sort of cartoon, they all paused mid-fight to stare. I was in no danger of bleeding out, not needing blood at all for my zombie body, and the pain was surprisingly less than I had expected as well. Somehow I was the first to recover, and I dragged myself into a seated position at the top of the stairs, looking out into the yard at the shocked monsters.

It was like a signal to restart, and all of the fighting resumed as soon as I looked out. Without me as a target to focus on, Ezekiel was free to retaliate against the horde dragging him down. With an ugly snarl he started throwing monsters off his back and climbed back to his feet.

“You want to do this the hard way, fine. I'll have you beg me to kill you before the end.”

I couldn’t keep track of his movements after that. In the blink of an eye, Gary and Geoff had fallen, cut to ribbons by the wickedly sharp claws that were still extending from Ezekiel’s hands. Flames burst from his back, taking on the shape of six more fox tails in addition to his physical one. His next punch, directed at Tessa, fell several inches short of its target, but a wave of fire continued forward, igniting the troll's skin like dry leaves.

Fiery punches, slashes, and kicks went almost entirely unanswered. Some goblins continued forward in the face of the overwhelming force; some fell back. The fight quickly turned into a chaotic one-sided slaughter. We were already down to just two combatants when Gary returned to the top of the stairs after respawning.

The goblin stood next to me and whistled in awe. “Wow… what should we do, boss?”

I shook my head. “We can't fight that… We need to pull back and hope Gale's traps can protect us.”

Gary gave a mirthless chuckle. “No need to pull back… there isn't anyone left to pull back.”

And it was true, as we spoke, Ezekiel finished off Handy, who had been holding back from the fight so as to avoid hurting any of the other minions. None of us had even managed to scratch him. The fox man turned slowly back to us with hate in his eyes. He took two steps toward the dungeon, but, before crossing through the entrance, he stopped, seeming to shake off his rage. Ezekiel calmly stood up straight and brushed dirt that didn't exist from his pants, nodded, and waved the two troll bodyguards over. He spoke quietly to them, and the larger one broke off and approached the dungeon.

I examined it before it could enter and trigger the invasion.

Name: Tony

Classification: Dungeon BW Monster

Race: Troll

Level: 8

Tony crossed into the dungeon alone and triggered the invasion.

Dungeon Invaders detected

Invaders: 1

Dungeon construction interface locked during invasion

Dungeon entry and exit locked during invasion

Unassigned minions locked in stasis for duration of invasion

Moving minions to assigned rooms

We all teleported to our room assignments. I quickly hopped out to the bunk room where we were to gather. Either adrenaline or perhaps the urgency of the situation gave me the ability to ignore the pain of my leg. I had so many questions, but we all managed to hold our tongues until the last of us wandered in.

Geoff beat me to the punch. “Wait… did that troll enter alone?”

I nodded, “Yes. It says there is only one invader.”

Lilith handed me a short spear to use as a crutch and said, “None of the traps have triggered yet…”

“What's he doing? What’s going on?” Tessa asked.

No one had an answer. We all waited awkwardly for something to happen, but nothing did. I tried entering the construction interface to check if I had missed an invasion defeated message, but I only got an error. Several people asked, and Lilith confirmed several times that no traps had triggered yet.

“We need to send someone to check.” I finally decided.

Lilith shook her head. “I cannot, and neither can you, Rob. If either of us falls, then they could easily destroy the dungeon.”

Lawrence raised his hand. “I'll go; I’m pretty fast, in case he chases me.”

It was true, the human zombie was probably the fastest among us. His longer legs had even the graceful Gabriel beat. We sent Lawrence through the back entrance to avoid opening the boss door and allowing Tony in. It seemed to take hours, but eventually he returned looking confused.

“It's… just standing there.”

“What?” I asked.

He shrugged, “I don't know. It never came down the stairs… It's just standing at the top, not moving.”

It was like the time Kasumi lured us outside to talk. Back then we eventually gave up and went to have a look, but the troll immediately turned on us and almost killed us all. This was really strange. We discussed options for a while, but we really didn't have many. In the end we decided to attack with overwhelming numbers.

We all gathered at the bottom of the stairs, this time using the boss door because if we lost thirteen to one, then we were dead anyway. Everyone gathered their weapons and climbed the stairs slowly. When I could finally see the troll, it looked just like the last time, standing completely motionless, as if oblivious to the world around it. Again, Lilith and I held back; aside from the fact that climbing stairs with one leg would be an impressive achievement, we couldn’t risk one of us falling. Lilith had told me once that the dungeon would collapse if she was killed and her laurel crown was taken, just like with me. So, Gary led the way with Gabriel at his side. Eventually the two of them entered striking range with their spears.

As they wound up to attack the motionless troll, Tony sprung back to life, swinging his giant arms wildly. Gary and Gabriel were both knocked off the stairs to the stone floor below. Handy snarled and leapt over the next two rows of goblins and into the troll. Lawrence was right behind Handy, and the two of them engaged the now wild troll. Handy clamped down on the troll's neck with his wicked fangs. Tony tried dislodging the hell beast but only served to rip his own neck further. Lawrence used the distraction to stab him in the belly, spilling ropey intestines across the floor.

The blood was enough to make the struggling troll slip. Before he could fall, Tony grabbed Lawrence with the hand that wasn’t beating on Handy. Then with a furious roar, the three of them fell to the ground below with Gabriel and Gary.

Invasion defeated

Calculating results…

Invaders slain: 1

Invaders retreated: 0

Damage taken: 315

Damage dealt: 87

Minions slain: 4

Loot lost: none

Loot gained: 1 Troll corpse

Invasion duration: 21:13

Invasion reward: 1 copper 5 tin

Invasion penalty: 2 copper 23 tin

Loot value: 30 tin

Convert loot to mana coins?

I tried confirming the conversion, but before I could, another troll charged into the dungeon, and we all teleported back to our assignments.

Dungeon Invaders detected

Invaders: 1

Dungeon construction interface locked during invasion

Dungeon entry and exit locked during invasion

Unassigned minions locked in stasis for duration of invasion

Moving minions to assigned rooms

Only one again.

Lilith answered my unspoken question, “There are more of them outside… I only got a glimpse when the invasion ended, but they are waiting and only sending in one at a time.”

I rejoined the group in the bunk room. This time it took much longer for everyone to gather. Everyone looked almost as confused as I felt.

Geoff finally spoke, breaking the prolonged silence, “Oh… oh no… I think I know what's happening.”

Everyone turned to him expectantly.

He swallowed thickly and continued. “Attrition. Boss, how much did you get for that as a reward?”

I hadn't actually checked, but Lilith supplied the answer, “None… the penalty for losing minions was more than the reward.”

Geoff nodded, and my stomach sank. They were going to bleed us dry.