I paused next to a small stand of pine trees barely taller than Earth trees and scanned the nearby grasslands. Morning was half over and the sky was a blue so intense, it made my soul ache when I needed to look away.

The trees looked impressive, rising above the enormous sea of waist-high grasses of the central valley, crowning the only decent rise within a mile of the distant settlement. Ruby hadn’t been kidding. They’d found an excellent place for the settlement. A large, flat-topped hill rose steeply out of the plain over a mile away, with rocky outcrops soaring over 50 feet higher in craggy spires all around the edges.

Given a couple more days, we could raise some pretty impressive defensive barriers between those spires and turn the entire place into a castle. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that much time.

I focused on the dim shapes of humans and bulls battling in front of the western side of the settlement. Dust billowed around them, making it hard even for me to see clearly with Sight of the Explorer. I saw enough. They were in trouble.

“Is that the settlement?” Burns asked as he led the lead element of our party to join me. The rest followed in 5 person groups. Jane, William, and Hector arrived with Burns. They all squinted at the distant hill.

“We’re late. They’re under attack by a large herd of bulls.”

“Bulls?” Jane asked with a frown. “Like cow bulls?”

“Sort of.” I quickly related our attack on the humanoid cows and what I’d overheard about another herd of bulls. “Looks like the bull herd is larger. I count about 200. Mostly bulls, with some cows mixed in. The bulls look pretty big.”

“We need to get over there fast,” Burns said, waving the rest of our group to hurry.

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea.” I zoomed in on the distant battle again.

The humans were being hard-pressed by the herd of angry bulls. Most of the bovines walked on 2 legs, wielding spears or long-handled blades that reminded me of Japanese naginatas. A few dropped to all fours to charge the human lines in small groups, smashing into their defenses with crushing force.

In the center of the human lines, a glowing magical barrier of golden light extended for over 10 yards. That barrier formed the lynchpin of the human defenses and the heaviest fighting raged around it. Even with that barrier, the humans were being pushed back.

Spells and magic flashed across the battlefield, lighting it up in a constant barrage of brightly colored flashes. The spells were helping the people keep the bulls back, but they were already fading. In moments, they’d be overrun. I doubted we could get there in time.

Even if we did, 20 more people wouldn’t turn the tide. The bulls could trample us as easily as they were about to trample the settlement. We had to do something, though. We’d lost too many people already. If the settlement fell, the bulk of the survivors who had finally managed to group together could be slaughtered.

“We have to do something,” Jane said, echoing my thoughts as everyone rushed up to find out what was going on.

“Running over there to die won’t help.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Burns asked coldly as Hector explained the situation to the others.

I considered and discarded several ideas, but kept running into the simple problem. We lacked time. The embattled people needed some kind of distraction now, but what could draw the attention of an entire herd?

I smiled. “Actually, I do.”

Pieces of a plan started falling into place. It might actually work.

I extracted my cow bell.

“Cow bell of the herd matriarch. Rare. All members of the herd will hear the bell and will obey its call. Bearer of the bell gains temporary authority over the herd as long as a higher authority is not present.”

The description was slightly different than before, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. Hefting the bell, I said, “I’m going to ring this and see if I can order the herd to back off until we can link up with the others.”

“Do it,” Burns ordered.

I rang the bell. It reverberated in my hand and the sound grew louder and louder until most of the others clapped hands over their ears. The sound swept across the plains and echoed back from the distant mountains. My senses expanded with the bell and my mind touched every member of the distant herd.

Come to me.

They responded instantly. Fighting broke off as every bull and cow in the herd turned from the humans to face me over a mile away.

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Yes! I’ve got you now.

Then another will slammed into mine, snapping my connection. A trumpeting angry bellow thundered from across the plain, so deep it rattled my bones as much as my ears. Every bull in the herd took up the cry, their voices rising into a rolling torrent of noise, punctuated by the individual cries of the cows.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Jane said as everyone turned to me with worried expressions.

A shouted thought slammed into my brain and I grimaced at the spike of sharp pain. ‘Bell from my mate. Murderer. Vengeance is mine. I will crush your bones and every member of the herd will take a bite of your flesh before your life fades.’

The mental voice was deep and guttural and somehow primal. The words were simple, but the threat was very real. Were cows and bulls even carnivores? I did not plan to be the test subject to find out.

A new rumble echoed across the plain and dust billowed into the air as every single bovine charged as one straight toward me. In the back of the herd, I spotted a figure towering over the other tall bulls, its enormously muscled torso that of a man, capped with a mighty bull’s head.

A minotaur. It had to be 20 feet tall and as burly as that Rockslide Ogre had been. Its horns spread more than 10 feet, and it carried a giant, double-bladed ax as it loped easily along with the rest of the herd. As I zoomed my vision in on the distant minotaur, Identify triggered.

“Tecton Earthwarden. Minotaur. Level 25 Boss. Defensive earth mastery. Tecton leads both of the bovine herds through sheer overwhelming might and exacts merciless vengeance upon anyone who dares harm any member of his herd. He is currently Enraged.”

Cyrus’s happy voice spoke into my ear. “That was a master stroke, Lucas! You saved the settlement from guaranteed annihilation. Of course, you’ve drawn the personal hatred of Tecton. I can’t wait to see how you turn this seemingly suicidal gesture to your advantage.”

Eva’s voice spoke up. “Quest update. You have drawn the personal ire of Tecton Earthwarden, the minotaur stage-1 boss. Defeat Tecton and his herd without allowing the settlement to be overrun. Reward: one legendary item from your home world.”

Did we even have legendary items on Earth? Didn’t matter. We’d drawn out the stage boss too early. We weren’t ready.

“Lucas, what is happening?” Burns demanded.

I licked suddenly dry lips. “On the good side, I managed to divert the entire herd away from the settlement.”

“And the bad?” Jane prodded.

“They’re coming here to wipe us out first.”

“Oh, is that all?” Burns snapped.

“Not quite. The minotaur who leads them is an angry fellow named Tecton Earthwarden. He’s the stage boss.”

“Already?” Hector exclaimed as everyone around us broke into worried arguments.

“We need to run!” Susan cried and many turned to flee.

“Stop!” Burns shouted before I could. “It’s miles back to the forest. We’ll never outrun them.”

We’d spent several hours traipsing through the plain toward the center. Now I knew why we hadn’t run across any monsters. They had all massed to attack the settlement.

“The trees!” One fellow I hadn’t met yet shouted. “Those of us with Bio Morph can scale them and help everyone climb.”

If the trees had been the giants we’d seen in some of the forests, it could have worked, but they weren’t. I doubted there were enough branches strong enough to support even one person’s weight for us all to fit up there, and we would never get everyone high enough to escape that giant minotaur’s reach. He’d probably just head-butt each tree and knock them over.

“Won’t work,” Burns said, triggering another round of arguing. We didn’t have much time. We needed a plan.

“You had to ring the stupid bell, didn’t you?” Hector snapped at me.

I shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?”

“Except we’re all going to die!” He looked like he wanted to punch me. Thankfully he resisted the urge because I would have punched back. He’d probably have time to use a potion to heal a broken jaw before the herd arrived.

My thoughts raced as I considered and discarded ideas. If it was just me, I’d have several good options, but I needed to protect the entire group. Hector did have a point. I’d caused this mess. I didn’t regret buying the settlement some time, but I refused to let everyone with me die as a result.

“We’ll make our stand here,” Burns decided. “Melee fighters to the front. Ranged fighters behind. Support folks behind them.” His confident tone cut through the chaotic shouting. He spun to me. “How many of those energy rifles have you got left? They could turn the tide in our favor.”

“It’s not a bad plan, but I’ve got a better idea.” I grabbed Jane’s hand and said, “Everyone link hands.”

“What do you have in mind?” Burns asked as people looked from me to him. Only one skinny guy moved to take Jane’s hand, but I don’t think it was because he believed me. He just waned to hold hands with a pretty girl.

“I’ve got a spell called Phase Walk.” I shared the description.

“Phase Walk. Spell. Transform yourself and anything you are carrying into an ethereal form for 5 minutes. Immune to physical damage. Remaining Uses: 2. Mana cost: Moderate.”

Jane frowned. “I don’t think it’ll work. It says everything you’re carrying, but if we’re all holding hands, you’re not carrying us.”

The herd had closed to within half a mile already and the ground was starting to shake. If they launched an elemental earth attack against us, we could be crushed any second.

I bit back a curse. Jane was right. Then I smiled. “Then the solution is obvious, isn’t it? Quick, get on my back.”

Burns scowled. “That’ll save you and Jane.”

The same fellow who had suggested using Bio Morph started climbing the nearest tree with the speed of a monkey. Another older man and a young woman followed.

My smile widened. “We just need a better platform to make this work.”

Burns started demanding more information, but I strode to the tree next to the one the 3 Bio Morph folks had just climbed. The trunk was only about a foot in diameter at the base. Seizing it, I heaved.

The tree ripped from the ground, roots snapping and showering dirt in every direction. For a second I simply exulted in my superhuman strength. Stats were so amazing! Ripping a 40 foot tree out by the roots with my bare hands didn’t even strain my limits.

“What are you doing?” Jane demanded as most of the others retreated a few steps.

I dropped the tree to the ground and jogged about a third of the way along its length, about where I figured the balance point would be.

“We’re nearly out of time. Are you planning to use that as a battering ram?”

“No.” I hefted the tree and settled the trunk onto my shoulder. My leather jacket offered some padding from the rough bark, although with my constitution so high, I bet my skin was tough enough that I wouldn’t even bruise, let alone get scraped by the bark.

I patted the trunk. “Same plan, just a better way to carry everyone. My Phase Walk spell will work. Everyone, quick, jump onto the tree and hold on.”