Before
There’s no lollygagging in the morning – as soon as it’s light enough for me to see, I get up. The cubs complain a little as I move, but they quickly fall asleep again. Most of them, anyway. Storm keeps an eye on me, her eyes glinting from within the pile of fur, down, and limbs. She doesn’t deign to leave the warm nest, though, leaving me to shiver a little in the dawn chill. The sooner I can get a fire going to boil some water, the better.
It’s slightly misty, but I know from past experience that that will clear up. The mist seems to be the only thing keeping the smaller plants alive in this ongoing dryness – it still hasn’t rained since I got here. I’m glad of it in many ways, but I can see that there are a number of plants which could do with a bit of soaking.
By the time my rumination is done, the water in my pot is bubbling. I let it cool a little before drinking some and transferring the rest into my empty canteen. I put the canteen into my travel satchel – if I put it in my Inventory, it’ll stay practically boiling hot which I don’t want since I don’t have any tea or coffee with me. After chewing on a bit of meat and a cooked potato, I’m ready to go.
By this point, Bastet and the cubs are champing at the bit – figuratively speaking. We set off, once more following the river. We walk together as a ‘pride’ or ‘pack’ – the cubs needing to have a chance to stretch their legs. While we move, I muse over my plans for today. We should make it into lizard-folk territory by lunchtime, I reckon, perhaps later if we get held up. We’ll need to gather a lot more information before barging in, though. It’s a pity about that bird last night: a dedicated scout isn’t a bad idea, really. Bastet is stealthy, but she’s quite big and she’s also become an essential part of our combat strength. That, plus the fact that she’s the cubs’ main carer, makes it a bad idea to send her off for any length of time, but that’s what I’m going to have to do, I think – she’s far stealthier than I am.
The weasitors or those baby crocodile things I’d encountered in my first few days in this world would have been pretty perfect, unless they were so weak they were easily picked off, which is a concern. Unfortunately, at the time I was just so overwhelmed by everything new around me and the thought of using my freshly-gained Skill of Dominate really didn’t occur to me. I’ll just have to keep my eyes out for something which might be suitable, and not quite as anti the idea as the bird was.
The journey is fairly peaceful. We have enough time to tire the cubs out enough that they have to return to the sling before our first encounter happens. The creature sees us before we see it; our first realisation that it’s there is when we hear an offended bellow and the sound of plants cracking to our left.
A large mass comes barrelling out of the thick undergrowth straight at us. We split apart; Bastet dodges one way and I dive the other. Fortunately for us, it doesn’t seem to change direction very easily as once it skids to a halt, having missed both of us, it is quite ponderous in turning around.
It seems to be a grumpy herbivore, from the look of the plants still hanging out of its mouth. In appearance, it’s similar to a triceratops with only one horn. Fortunately, it’s also a lot smaller than a real triceratops: its head only reaches my shoulder level when it’s raised high. On the downside, that means there’s still a good deal of animal to provide momentum to charges. We’ll need to make sure not to get caught – getting hit by this thing would probably be like being hit by a truck.
How are we going to approach this? Bastet’s already slashing at its hindquarters, to little effect: it’s pretty well-armoured with skin that probably rivals that of the crocodile I fought. The same technique I used on that particular creature is unlikely to work here, though. Seeing that the creature is distracted by Bastet’s mostly ineffective strikes, I back away a little and scan the area. There! Making a beeline, I tuck the cubs away behind a sturdy tree, warning them to keep still. Hopefully they’ll be sufficiently protected from the fight, but I need to go and help Bastet.
Flipping mentally through my weapons as I hurry back to the action, I decide that my mace is unlikely to have too much effect: the creature is just too bulky and my weapon too weak. If I could bash through its skull that would be one thing, but as it is, I doubt I’ll do much more than just annoy it. Instead, I pull backwards and retrieve my bow and arrows from my Inventory.
I’m going to have to be careful here. Fortunately, I’m out of melee range so I shouldn’t have an issue with injuries, unless I don’t keep a sharp enough eye out for its charges. Unfortunately, as most of the creature’s body is well-armoured, I’m going to have to really put my new Dexterity to the test. Fortunately, with the practice I’ve had since making my bow, I’m a much better shot than I was on that ill-fated test-run.
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As often seems to happen since Bastet is the biggest damage-dealer and also has better stats in general than me, she’s the main distraction. Although her claws and teeth aren’t that effective against its armoured skin, she is still managing to pierce through to an extent, causing pain if nothing else. When she gets a soft part, she does a fair bit more damage. The mini-triceratops is far too distracted by her slashing at its nose, targeting its eyes, and trying her best to bite at its throat to pay attention to me.
My part of the strategy is to target its other weak spots: using my arrows to pierce the softer points where its scales aren’t quite as thick – mostly behind its joints. I’m shooting at pretty close range, even if I’m far enough away to avoid most attacks, so my arrows are hitting with significant force, several piercing by a good couple hand widths. The wounds slowly take their toll, my attacks at its major joints making it slow even if they’re not causing much bleeding. Every time that the creature starts trying to turn to get at me, Bastet is there to lay on more pain and grab its attention. It tries to charge a couple of times, but we just dart out of the way and restart the attack when it stops again.
It’s not fast, and neither of us escapes without injury – Bastet takes the worst of it as she’s far too close to the business end of its horn, but I get accidentally hit a couple of times when I wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way. The main thing, though, is that we survive and the creature doesn’t. Once I’ve damaged its joints enough, it becomes unable to move around properly and ends up slumped to the ground. Bastet grabs onto its throat to suffocate it, but I give it the coup de grace, shooting its brain through its eye at point-blank range.
We take an hour or so to recuperate and for each of us to eat our spoils. For a clear herbivore, it’s worth quite a bit of Energy – six percent for the animal itself, and another two percent from its heart. Bastet digs into its organs with eagerness, and encourages the cubs to do the same. For once, the cubs were actually exactly where I’d left them – Trouble included. Perhaps they’re slowly learning that this place is dangerous...
Of course, there’s far too much meat to finish it, or even make proper inroads into the corpse. Not wanting to waste such a large quantity of meat, I pack it away in my Inventory once we’ve eaten the most Energy-dense bits. Putting out my small fire and washing off in the river, we get going again.
In the end we get another two hours or so of peace before the next encounter. This time we’re attacked right next to the river in a section where the trees have retreated a bit further away, leaving a mostly-rocky sandy area clear of most plants. There’s a strange rumbling, cracking sound from behind us and we turn to see a small group of strange rolling boulders following us quickly. At least, that’s what they look like as they come closer. I consider running, but they’re too fast for the cubs to escape.
“Trouble, Storm, Ninja, move!” I tell them forcefully, Bastet underscoring my instruction with a sense of urgency. To the cubs’ credit, they obey without question, putting on a surprising burst of speed. Unfortunately, they don’t all run in the same direction. Ninja runs to Bastet who picks her up and runs quickly to the nearest tree to deposit her in its roots. Storm also runs to a tree, actually jumping at it and climbing up to the first branch where she sits there trembling and wide-eyed.
Trouble, on the other hand, goes in the opposite direction – straight into the water. By this point, the river is reasonably wide and as deep as my waist at its centre - far too deep for a raptorcat cub to cope with. I don’t think – I just react. Running into the river, I grab him and then keep going, finding a large boulder just the other side. Depositing him at about shoulder-height on me, I tell him firmly not to move. I’m already running back to the fight as I try to work out what’s going on.
Bastet is grabbing their attention, trying to keep them away from one cub in the roots of a tree, and the other holding onto a branch rather precariously. She’s doing a good job with that, but she isn’t having much impact on them. They aren’t all that big – about knee-height on me – but that’s big enough to have a decent impact. Add to that the fact that her claws and teeth appear to be having even less of an effect as on the previous creature, and she’s in trouble.
We’re going to have to be smart about this. I’m not very optimistic, but I do try my weapons on them. As I’m still at range, I first try my bow, but my arrows are just deflected straight off. I nod absently – nothing unexpected, though annoying. Perhaps if I was an expert archer I’d be able to aim for a tiny chink in their armour, but I’m not that good. Yet, anyway. Tucking my bow away safely, I grab my mace and spear. Wielding one in each hand, I try my luck. Both of them manage to knock the creature off course briefly, but otherwise have no visible effect.
This isn’t going to work. Can I grab the cubs and then signal Bastet to follow? Maybe, but I sense that she’s already getting tired – having to avoid being hit by five different creatures all moving at different speeds and in different directions is exhausting. We did well against the creature that was almost my height and multiple times my bulk, but this group of much smaller creatures is threatening to over-run us.
Taking a step back from the situation, I desperately look to see if there’s something I can use against them. Maybe we could all jump into the trees and get out of their reach that way? It’ll waste time, but better wasting time than being knocked off our feet and rolled over by these guys. Then I notice a particular weak point. The creatures are fine while they’re in perpetual motion, but if they get stuck against anything, they have to uncurl, shift their position, then push off into that ball again. Frankly, they look rather like massive woodlice with many legs, over-sized mandibles, and a segmented shell. They’re still armoured even in their uncurled position, much as a turtle is, but my eyes still light up.
Seeing a possible opportunity to end this on our terms, I send a quick mental image to Bastet. It takes a moment, but I soon get back a response of weary assent.