“I’ll lead the way, but maybe someone else should try to make contact with the dwarves,” I said. How the dwarves reacted to the giant mech stomping around remained to be seen, but hopefully, the fact I was only engaging the tiki monsters would help in dealing with our potential allies.
“I’ll try to contact them, once we’ve dealt with the main threat,” Marie offered. She seemed like a good choice for negotiations if they were needed.
I walked my mech down the trail, turning a hard right to enter the large clearing where the battle was taking place. The dwarves had set up a camp and had built a makeshift barricade out of whatever they could. Their barricade had already been breached and a score of dwarves were huddled together trying to fight off a swarm of tiki monsters.
Most of the tikis were surrounding the dwarves, but a few following one of the giant anacondas had broken off and were heading right at me. I didn’t hesitate before firing out magic missiles at the enemy. One missile cracked against the snout of the anaconda and other took out a tiki before I was in melee range.
Melee range for me was a lot further for me than the enemy, and my first sweep of the bladed spear sliced off the head of the anaconda and one of the tiki creatures. Only six or so of the little monsters were escorting the snake, and crushed another with a stomp before the rest of our group joined in and finished off the few remaining creatures that had started to climb atop my armor.
With the immediate threat taken care of, I moved toward the attackers surrounding the dwarven defenders. A few noticed me and the rest of party, choosing to peel off from attacking the dwarves and attack us directly. The little creatures were fearless and targeted the largest threat they could find, which was my mech. I began stomping, swinging my spear, and crushing any of the monsters I could grab in my claw.
The enemy fell by the dozen, and when the rest of the party joined in the fight, the tiki monster attack was broken. Several shrill calls sounded the command for our foes to retreat. That didn’t stop us from killing them, this was a dungeon, and we’d eventually have to face everything that escaped. Taking care of them now, when we had the advantage, was better than letting them dictate the terms of a later fight.
“Who are you people?” One of the dwarves asked sharply as the last of the monsters scurried out of reach.
“We’re here to deal with those monsters, and your welcome for saving your hides,” Marie said a bit more sharply than I expected. She must have been on to something, since the dwarf didn’t even flinch at her sharp retort.
“Aye, you’ve earned our respect for that bit of fighting, but how do we know that your intentions are honorable?” the same dwarf asked. All of them were around the same short and stocky size, but the one that spoke for the group had a longer beard with several charms and runes woven into it.
“If we wanted to harm you,” I’d just let him loose on your camp,” Marie said, gesturing toward my mech.
“That’s a biggen, but I believe we’d fare better against it than against those little kidnapping beasties,” the dwarf said, tapping the mining pick he held. I kind of believed him, the mech was heavily armored, but if anyone could find a way through the armor, it was a bunch of dwarves with tools.
“We’re not here to fight or argue with you, we’re here to end these things,” Marie said, tapping a dead tiki with her toe. Before the dwarf leader could respond, there was a commotion behind us, the headless snake began to twitch, and I noticed a bulge in its stomach appear. Lillia and Rupert, who were watching our rear, began to approach with their weapons ready to strike.
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“Stay your hand, that snake is dead, but my people inside the beast might not be,” the dwarf leader shouted before charging toward the snake with a few of his people in tow.
“Hold off for now,” I ordered my minions.
The dwarves began to cut through the thick scales of the snake with their knives. It was a gory process, but a few seconds later, the blood covered hand of a dwarf pushed through the snake’s corpse. A few careful slashes of their blades opened the snake enough for the trapped dwarf’s head and shoulder to emerge. The others pulled their comrade from the corpse of the snake, cheering that they had managed to save one of the victims of the fight.
“I’m surprised he was still alive in there,” Marie said, joining the dwarves near the snake.
“Aye, these beasties don’t want to kill us, they’ve been dragging us away to their master,” the dwarf leader said as he pulled a towel from his pack to wipe off the gore covering him.
“What is this master of theirs and where is it located?” Marie asked.
“It’s down, there on the next level. I’d stay up here if I was you, though. Going down there is a death sentence,” the dwarf said.
“If we don’t stop what’s down there, those little creatures will just keep coming,” Marie argued.
“Bah, that’s what them other humans claimed. They ignored my warnings and went down into the hole, nothing came back out except for the swarm of beasties you helped us fight off,” the dwarf told us.
“The other party made it past here?” Marie asked.
“Aye, I tried to talk sense into them, but humans are stubborn, as you likely know,” the dwarf said.
His people began to move among the fallen, dispatching any wounded tiki creatures, and checking on the dwarf casualties. The bodies of about a dozen dwarves had been scattered around the battlefield. To my surprise, several of the fallen dwarves began to revive, and only three of the fallen were truly dead.
“I might be able to help your people,” Nicolas offered.
“I’m not too proud to turn down help,” the dwarf leader reluctantly said.
Nicolas had them gather the wounded in a group so his aura would cover them all, then he started with healing. It took several minutes until most of the wounds were handled. After that, he switched to the aura that helped combat toxins. After a bit of time working on the toxins, the wounded started to perk up. They’d still have some minor lingering effects, but nothing that would slow them down too much.
“Is there anything about their master that you can tell us?” Marie asked once the wounded were taken care of.
“I can’t say exactly what it is, the team that breached the temple where these things came from were all killed. All I know is that our people were working to breach a doorway, and then the next thing I knew, these creatures were pouring out of the temple and attacking us,” the dwarf stared into the jungle, lost in the recent memories for a while before he continued.
“We climbed up here, but the exit was gone, only a wall of jungle remained. It wasn’t long before these things climbed up here and started attacking us. There’re several other camps up here and we were all trying to find a way through the jungle. I doubt any of us will make it out of here alive,” he bemoaned.
“I’m sorry, but the other camps all appeared empty. When we head to the level below here, what will we find,” Marie asked, trying to get a feel for what we’d be facing.
“More of the same, the dammed jungle closing in on you everywhere you look. If you follow the path, you’ll eventually reach the temple we were trying to plunder. Somewhere in there is the thing that’s controlling all this, take it out, and you save us all,” the dwarf said, pointing toward the corner of the clearing where a hole dropped down to the next level.
“My mech will make short work of the tiki monsters, but there’s no way I’m fitting it through that,” I said, motioning with the mech’s claw toward the opening. It was several feet too short in diameter to fit the mech. I was going to have to go on foot, which would rob us of our most powerful weapon.
“Ha, we may be explorers, but we’re still dwarves. If there’s one thing every dwarf knows, it’s how to dig a hole. Keep those monsters off us, and we’ll have that entrance widened enough to fit your machine,” the dwarf leader said, much to my delight.
“What’s your name? I forgot to ask. I’m Marie” Marie said.
“Pleased to meet you Marie, Grumbellow is what they call me. Well boys, we got a job to do, gather up your tools and let’s get this done. If we get that machine down there, we might have a chance at surviving this,” Grumbellow ordered to his group.
“We might have an even better chance if you join us in the fight,” James added.
“That be true, but my boys aren’t fighters by trade,” Grumbellow argued.
“You were losing the fight up here before we arrived. If we fail, you’ll be forced to fight again, and we won’t be there to help you,” James warned.
“I’ll have to think on that,” Grumbellow said thoughtfully.
“Don’t take too long, as soon as we can get Rico’s mech down there, we’re leaving,” James said.