Showing a strength far beyond what their frames should have been capable of, both lapins deftly hefted the logs into place, rolling them over the entrance, and shoving them together so closely that hardly any gaps remained. Then they wedged logs in at an angle to brace the whole structure. Tilly then rushed forward and started shoving dirt and leaves in any opening larger than an inch. Soon they had the entrance completely barred, with lazy streams of smoke escaping through any crack it could find.
Another roar sounded from within the temple. This time, it was more muffled. The two Loggers had taken up their position on either side of the door, and both stiffened, adjusting their grips on the shafts of their axes nervously at the terrifying noise.
“That one sounded a lot closer,” Nyuk muttered through gritted teeth.
“Roars are good. The more oxygen it uses, the better for us. We gave the fire all the oxygen it needed to grow into a real monster of a burn. Now we have cut it off. The fire will consume all the oxygen in the structure at an enormous rate, while at the same time, filling the space with toxic smoke. At least that's the plan...” Tilly shouted, rushing through an explanation, more for himself than for his science-averse companions.
The reality was, just because he hadn’t seen any other openings, didn't mean there weren’t any, and then there was always the possibility of some magic bullshit exception throwing a wrench in the plan. He just had to hope that the conditions would deteriorate rapidly enough to take out the beast.
But for better or worse, this was the best they could do. Tilly’s notification log was flashing like crazy, so he took two more steps back from the barricade and pulled it up.
You have entered Combat with a Level 38 Corrupted Ancient Cave Bear.
You have poisoned your opponent with… Error…
Your opponent is suffocating.
Your opponent takes 0.5% radiant heat damage
Your opponent takes 0.5% radiant heat damage
Your opponent takes 0.5% radiant heat damage…
There were a lot of those, but not enough to take more than half the thing’s health.
Your opponent is suffocating. Without access to a fresh air supply, it will lose consciousness in 30 seconds.
“Holy Hell guys, I think it's working,” Tilly exclaimed, eyes wild with excitement at the sight of the notifications continuing to pour in real-time.
“Human…”
“No seriously, check your notification logs!”
“Human Tilly!” Kuro said, his voice strained.
Tilly looked up from his notification screen in confusion. His face fell as he saw Kuro and Kyuk looking not at him, or the entrance, but out into the surrounding forest.
Tilly whipped his head around in dismay.
Corrupted animals and mythological creatures emerged from the treeline all around the clearing, moving towards the temple in their twitchy uncoordinated manner. They still had about 150 yards before they reached the temple, but that wouldn't add up to much time.
“...It must have called for reinforcements. SHIT! How smart is this thing?” Tilly snarled looking down at the swollen dark roots he was standing on in accusation.
Just then, another roar demanded their attention from just inside the structure, followed by a huge thump that caused every log in the barrier to jump. Tilly’s head whipped back around to his notification log. The timer till unconsciousness was still ticking down.
7 seconds until loss of consciousness.
Another thump, this time causing a few logs in the barrier to teeter away from the wall, before miraculously falling back into place.
The knuckles on Tilly’s hands turned white from how hard he was gripping his weapons. It wasn't going to be enough…
He looked over at the two lapins and a sardonic smile cracked his anxious features.
'Time for plan B. I hope this shit works...'
“Alright, you guys take the infected monster army, I’ll take the bear! Make sure to stay clear of the entrance when it opens up.”
Kuro’s eyes widened and he nodded, moving past Tilly to stand between him and the oncoming wave. Nyuk quickly formed that same warding sign with his hand, before stepping up beside Kuro, and Tilly took one last steadying breath before hunkering down just outside the falling radius of the logs.
A final terrible impact sounded against the log barrier, flinging them in all directions. Air was immediately sucked into the void created by the escaping plume of thick smoke.
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The corrupted bear loomed in the midst of the vortex, its already grotesque appearance had not improved under the deadly conditions inside the temple. Its matted, dirty fur had become a nightmare landscape of melted hair and burned flesh. Its front forepaws and head were charred so badly that Tilly could see bone, but none of that compared to the sound of its breathing. A deep crackling gurgle sounded from its throat, revealing what should have been life-ending burns in its lungs from attempting to breathe superheated gasses.
Yet still, it stumbled forward, its forepaws barely able to hold its weight, the furious hatred in its eyes undimmed by the damage it had endured. The air rushing back into the Temple had not been lost on Tilly. Plan A had failed. It was time to bet it all on Plan B. In this case, “B” stood for Backdraft. Tilly's mind had gone so far past panic at this point, that he had nothing left but stupid snarky lines and movie references. The words of his captain after Tilly's first fire filtered up through the chaos that was his internal environment,
"Rookie, I don't give two shits if you are nervous. Process that shit later. When you are on scene, it's go time. However you feel on the inside, all I want to see out here is a Salty Jake, unimpressed by the shitstorm unfolding before you. I want you to look like you see this shit every day."
'Just another fire... Another day at work... ' His mind spun on manic wheels, attempting to beat down the animalistic fear that had closed in on his chest like a vice. 'It was just a giant bear trying to claw his face off. No big deal.'
“Wow, you don't go down easy do you?” Tilly shouted, his voice full of false bravado. He then stepped right into the bear's face, pouring it on thick.
“Did you hurt your little pawsies in the fire?” He asked in a shout, his voice rising several octaves as if addressing a toddler.
For just a moment, the bear's charred face froze in incomprehension, then its eyes glazed over in fury again, and it stood up to its full height, ready to squash another pitiful annoyance. Its immense size filled the entrance as it squared up against its challenger. With its full attention on Tilly, it completely missed the wall of flame now rushing up the hall, greedily following the flow path of fresh air right up to its source, consuming all of the fuel Tilly had laid in its path like a train on tracks.
“Kurt Russell sends his regards.” Tilly snarled before diving to the side under the bear's furious swing.
It turned its head sluggishly to follow where the prey had landed and was engulfed in an explosion of flame. The heat was so intense that it burnt the skin on the back of Tilly's legs under his leather pants as he crouched in a protective huddle at the side of the entrance.
The fire almost immediately burned through the fuel Tilly had left near the entrance. As it died down, nothing remained of the corrupted bear other than a charred husk.
Tilly had no time to gloat as the sounds of a fresh conflict started to build behind him. Gurgling barks and snarls approached the entrance and Nyuk and Kuro stepped up to the tide and began to swing their simple but effective axes in wide sweeping arcs. This fazed the creatures for all of two seconds before they began to try and flank the pair and Tilly leaped to his feet to join the fray.
He started throwing his hatchets one after another trying to take the pressure off the two lapins as they continued their fighting retreat. They carefully moved backward until they came up against the charred bear husk, lying half in the temple and half outside.
The Corrupted seemed to hesitate at the heat. That or the sight of their huge immolated ally.
Whatever the reason, the lapins and Tilly took their chance and leapt around the bear's corpse, using it as a macabre barricade, and took up new positions just inside the temple. The heat had reduced to bearable levels, as fresh air continued to vent the structure, leaving the entrance full of thin lingering smoke. They fought through coughing fits and reengaged the infected creatures, who in turn moved forward with renewed ferocity.
This new position limited the creatures' possible approaches to over the corpse or around one side, the other being completely blocked by the corpse. This created a bottleneck that reduced the attack from overwhelming to barely manageable. Tilly felt something changing in his Legendary Leather Armor, as he continued to fight in the unbelievably hot conditions.
“You will go now and we will hold them off!” Kuro grunted through a cough while absolutely demolishing what once might have been the face of a cute forest deer.
“I can't leave you guys to fight all these alone!” Tilly replied between racking coughs, continuing to fling his weapons at anything that appeared over the top of the body.
“We did not come here to slay its minions…” Nyuk said, pausing to plant a vicious kick on some poor jungle cat’s head.
“You will find a way to kill the abomination, or you will die trying. This is our duty.” He finished, shoving Tilly out of the way, and moving shoulder-to-shoulder with Kuro.
Kuro didn't add anything else, but Tilly saw him nod fiercely along with Nyuk's statement.
Tilly took one long look at the struggling Loggers bravely holding the line and felt a burning heat begin to build in his torso, mirroring his environment in its intensity.
He turned and laid a critical eye on the path forward. The thick roots covering the ground seemed burnt on top but by no means destroyed. Tilly had built his trap to draw the fire towards the entrance, so the deepest chamber would have gone untouched by flame. That didn't mean it wouldn't be hot. He doubted he would even survive the environment he was about to enter without some sort of a crazy resilient body.
Just then, Tilly heard Nyuk grunt in pain, and he stopped thinking and sprang into action. He didn't bother looking at how many levels he had gotten from the battle with the bear. He had felt something change as he received the automatic Dexterity and Endurance that came with each level, but he didn't have time to check on exactly what he had gained.
He just mentally dumped all of his free stat points into Endurance. This time the effect was impossible to ignore. The pain in his lungs from his wracking cough numbed down to a mild dryness and the fiery pricking sensation covering his exposed skin felt like it had been covered by a cool blanket. Even the weariness that had been weighing down his body from the long day of strenuous physical activity had lightened.
He reached around for his satchel and pulled out his water container and bandaging. He took a quick drink to wet his throat and then used the water to completely soak the bandaging through. Then he wrapped the soaked gauzy cloth around his mouth and nose several times until it felt slightly difficult to breathe through.
Slinging his satchel back over his shoulder, he started moving down the hall in a low crouch, towards the superheated epicenter of the fire. The sounds of the two lapins fighting faded as Tilly moved quickly but carefully, controlling his breathing in anticipation of what he would find in the center room. The bear was only the beginning of his problems. A prologue to the hellscape that was the tree's domain.
Tilly fought through his instinct to stop moving forward, even as the heat on the front of his face built to unimaginable levels. He arrived at the entryway to the first room and found that while the flames had died down, it still felt like his skin was about to melt off in the face of the heat radiating off the smoldering embers that filled the room, turning it into a giant oven. A path stretched out before him through the burning wreckage. Left by the giant bear's rampaging charge out of the inner sanctum. If he was ever going to stop this thing, he had to make it through the rest of this blaze before the two behind him were overwhelmed.
Tilly didn't hesitate, it was too late to turn back now. He lowered himself face down on the ground and took a few short breaths of the best available oxygen in the room, fighting down an almost irresistible need to cough. As he filled up his lungs with hot dry air, he rose up like a sprinter on blocks.
He then locked down his desire to breathe, and before he could rethink his cobbled-together idiotic plan, he leaped forward into a sprint.