Matthias steepled his fingers as he and Alyssa, along with the two lizard-kin, stared at the map laid out in front of him in contemplation. The Fairy had spent the last week extensively exploring their floating island, mapping it out from the edges inward and reporting back to him to update the piece of artistic cartography that lay in front of them. Those explorations were now complete, and they all had a large grasp of what their small slice of the world looked like, along with four very large problems.
The first issue, and by far the largest, was that of the sleeping dragon on the side of their island. Alyssa risked a closer inspection of the creature, only to find the damn thing was gigantic. It took up a significant portion of the northern shelf of their floating land. Matthias could see why it slept all the time, keeping itself fed was a serious problem. When it woke it probably wiped out the majority of life in the area before going back into hibernation. They would have to figure out what to do if, or when rather, the giant lizard woke up.
The second problem was more mundane, if immediate. The walled-in courtyard that the Golems had completed had been avoided entirely by the sabretooth cats since their last major fight. Unfortunately, it had been constantly probed and attacked by the raptors, having no more than a dozen skirmishes with his constructs since it was finished. This prevented him from really going outside or expanding into the area around the cavern.
The third problem was, thankfully, going to turn into a future boon. It turned out the lizard-kin hatched nearly fully grown. It took time for them to eat, fill out their muscles, and became fully strengthened, but they grew six inches and were ready for work in a matter of hours. This also, incredibly enough, meant that they were ready to procreate, and procreate they did. The pair had found the hatchery and, going over every inch of it and falling in love at first sight, laid no less than thirty eggs. Matthias would soon have a boom in the Lizard-Kin population. He had decided to alter the first round of eggs as well. He spent a hundred Power on nine eggs to give them powerful abilities they could grow into. It only remained to be seen if they could be passed to the descendants.
The fourth, and last problem, was that of supplies. To put it simply, Matthias was running out of NEX. He had done little, if any, trading through the {BAZAAR}. That needed to change, and quickly, if he wanted to continue to survive.
This led him to the gathering he had just called, where he would be announcing his first Corporate Action as CEO of Mob Inc. Turning from the map, he observed the rows of silent Golems, waiting for orders. Leading from the front was his Masterwork Golem, eying him with developing curiosity. The construct hadn’t said anything yet, but it seemed to be growing in intelligence daily.
Having decided to gamble, Matthias made another forty basic Golems in the Assembler. This had only cost him the Power required to convert stone to iron, but it had still been costly and dipped into his rapidly dwindling reserves. The only thing that saved him from bankruptcy was the fact that his ability now converted NEX to Power at a fifty-to-one ratio instead of a hundred to one. Even still, the entire process cost him nearly five percent of his total NEX, a huge expenditure for someone with no income yet. Twelve thousand NEX had left his account to build the Golems. He only hoped it would be enough, as this wasn’t a tactic he could afford to repeat.
Staring at his line of makeshift troops, the Golems were far from the best warriors they could be. But they would be adequate in culling the numbers of the raptors from the area. With this number of workers, he could also instruct them to begin construction of a more serious, and permanent, set of fortifications to keep the annoying carnivorous lizards out of the area. Matthias still didn’t know what had brought them here, but he suspected it was the large pile of sabretooth bodies that had drawn them in initially. Now they had found a source of food and didn’t want to leave.
But he had a surprise for them.
Dinosaurs were something that Matthias knew had existed on several of the human’s home worlds, albeit they were extinct and buried as bones. One Earth still had them alive and roaming even, and they were present on several other worlds in various universes. However, they had not, for whatever reason, been added to the database of the Assembler. An oversight that he quickly corrected the moment he realized they were not present.
Currently he had the Assembler creating a dozen of the creatures, utilizing the last of the organic material that had been gathered. He planned to create a sort of light cavalry, with lizard-kin riding raptors. He had thought to do the same with the large felines, but they were more ambush predators while the raptors were far more oriented towards direct combat.
This would be his primary force for the foreseeable future.
“Alright everyone,” Matthias said, turning back to the table. Alyssa and his two lizard-kin watched him in attentive silence. “We are going on the offensive and our goals are twofold; push the raptors out of the area and secure it to have the lizard-kin begin setting up infrastructure. The hatchery is going to run out of space pretty quick with the number of eggs you two lay,” he said pointedly, causing the two bipedal reptiles to shuffle in embarrassment.
“Alyssa, Masterwork, and I will take the first group of Golems out and begin hunting down the raptors and any other threats in the area,” he continued. Then he gestured at the two lizard-kin, “You two will bring the second, smaller group, of Golems out and begin digging a trench around the area that I mark as we move. Make it deep, ten feet or so. Pile all the soil on the side of the rock, I have other plans for that later. Once that’s done, I want you to dig another trench through the forest to that river. After we have a moat in place, it should deter a lot of the more aggressive creatures that don’t have wings.”
The group nodded, and Matthias was happy to see the lizard-kin not only understood him but began communicating between themselves. He wasn’t sure what they were saying, exactly, but the female won out in their argument, as wives are wont to do, as the male's tail drooped in acceptance. He couldn’t help but grin at the exchange.
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“Alyssa, you are going to be our messenger. I need you moving between our two groups and giving me updates,” Matthias said, giving the Fairy her task. She saluted at him in acceptance. “If anything goes wrong, if you see anything sneaking up on us, and any orders that I need relayed will be your responsibility as our fastest scout.”
The Fairy held the salute, “You got it Boss!” she barked.
“Any questions?” he asked. Seeing that there were none, he got up and began leading the Masterwork and his Golem army up the tunnel. He had used up most of the stone that had been excavated to make them, but hell if he couldn’t dig out some more. And there were always those mineral deposits they needed to look at as well.
So much to do, but he needed more people and resources before he could afford to delegate anything. What he wouldn’t give for a competent middle manager. But that could wait for now.
Matthias split up his forty Golems into two groups and sent them in opposite directions around the perimeter. The goal was to mark out an area for the moat by digging out two thin lines with a twenty-foot gap between them. Once that was completed they would reconvene and head into the plains to hunt raptors and the giant felines. Once they were pushed back he would claim a good part of the central plains to use for farming. Eating actual food would be nice instead of his backpack rations. They were filling but lacked taste and texture.
For the first quarter of their circuit, everything went well. They didn’t encounter any raptors or sabretooths. In fact, they didn’t encounter anything at all. Alyssa had reported to him that there were other creatures in the area, but aside from the various predators that had attacked them, he hadn’t seen anything at all.
The group cautiously moved forward, with Matthias on the inside with four Golems. Two more of the constructs marked the area for the moat, with the remaining fourteen on the outside to guard against any approaching threats. Slow and steady would win them victory in getting the moat ready. But it wasn’t going to be that easy. Roughly a quarter into the task they were attacked for the first time.
He had been watching the Golems work when Alyssa dropped out of the sky and landed on his shoulder, nearly scaring him to death.
“What the hell! I thought I asked you to give me some kind of warning!” he chided once his heart rate came back down, but the Fairy wasn’t going to let him relax.
“No time Boss! You have a huge group of those lizards coming this way! There has to be at least fifty of them!” she said, rapid fire. “The other group is fighting on the far side as well. These things are way smarter than we thought!”
He had about five seconds to absorb that before the first raptor burst through the chest-high golden grass on the far side of the larger group of Golems. That one was quickly followed by several dozen more of the creatures as they hissed and trilled, charging the line of Golems standing guard. To the constructs' credit, they immediately turned to engage the threat.
The raptors slammed into the line of Golems, trying to knock them prone. It was like a bunch of toddlers trying to tip over a building, they just didn’t have the leverage to destabilize a five-hundred-kilo moving rock statue. At least, not at first. The aggressive reptiles' talons, however, were another threat entirely. They tore deep grooves into the construct's stone bodies, often striking for weak points such as heads and joints.
The Golems fought back, each punch caving in chests and tearing off tails and legs. It was a gore-filled melee that Matthias watched from behind a secondary line of constructs from a good distance back. He had drawn his gauss pistol but declined to engage with the aggressive raptors. They were fast and strong enough to shred him quickly, and he didn’t have any kind of active defenses such as armor or shielding. Getting involved in the fight as it was would be suicide for him.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be ready for anything to happen, and good thing he was.
One of the raptors, in a stunning display of dexterity and power, dodged a Golem and used it as a ramp. Running up the construct's arm it leaped off its shoulder in a side spin, landing neatly on its feet behind the row of Golems that had been protecting Matthias.
“Fuck,” was the only thing he managed to say before he rolled to one side, narrowly avoiding having his head ripped off by the nine-inch talon coming off the overgrown lizard's back foot.
He came to his feet and watched as the raptor shuffled its feet, punched the air, then let out a trilling warble in challenge. Blinking, Matthias stared at it stunned contemplation. “Did you just… challenge me?”
Another warble, accompanied by more kicks and punches answered him. Then the raptor charged, going from intimidating mixed martial arts display to rampaging carnivore in an instant. Matthias did the only thing he could do in that situation. He leveled his gauss pistol and shot it in the face. The unenhanced solid shot went through the raptor's head, dissolving it in a spray of blood and bone. It slammed into the dirt, its momentum carrying it right up to his feet.
“Well… that was anti-climactic,” he grunted, turning just in time for the second raptor who had avoided the line of Golems to catch him in the gut with a spinning kick.
His eyes went wide and with the breath driven out of his lungs, Matthias went cartwheeling across the ground to land in a heap. He lay there even as he heard the cry of the raptor as if it were shouting out in victory over him. He struggled to his feet and searched for his pistol, but he must have lost it after he was sent flying.
Dark orange blood dripped from his face, and he spat a mouthful out onto the ground. Matthias gingerly felt his side, realizing that a single kick must have broken more than a few ribs. He was surprised he was even on his feet to begin with. He looked up just in time to see the raptor avoid the slow Golems and charge him. A charge that was interrupted abruptly and with extreme violence.
The Masterwork Work Golem smashed into the side of the raptor with a vengeance, picking up the startled reptile. Spinning in place a half dozen times while picking up speed with every rotation, it launched the screeching carnivore over both lines of Golems, and far into the plains. While he knew it was impossible, Matthias could have sworn he heard it land with a meaty thud. The spectacular sight was so impressive, that the fighting had stopped for a moment as everyone ogled the new airborne raptor. That is, at least until a Golem took advantage of the pause to smash in the head of another violent lizard and the scrum started back up.
Alyssa dropped out of the sky as Matthias fell onto his butt, gasping in pain. The Masterwork took up guard over him while the Fairy fussed over his injuries.
“Damn Boss, you really got hammered,” she chided as she removed various plants and handmade bindings. “Let’s get you patched up. Not much I can do about the ribs, you need more advanced medical care than I can give you with my field dressings for that. If you are going to come out and do stuff Boss, you need to get some armor or something. What’s left of your suit would stop a punch much less a weapon of any kind.”
Matthias couldn’t help but agree with that, and he was going to say as much when a deep roar echoed out over the plains, bringing the halt to the fighting immediately. The raptors withdrew instantly, pulling back and sprinting into the plains. They had left behind nearly thirty bodies behind like it was nothing.
He turned to look at his wide-eyed scout Fairy and with a voice that was short of breath asked, “Alyssa? What was that?”
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