Forsaken 337 BC
Page 15
"I can't put my finger on it, but I feel there is still something out here but what I do not know. But I think we are not the hunter, rather we are being hunted like we are prey." Lesley added,
"Like Natasha, I feel like we should be ready to fight, this mountain has not finished with us yet." Bethany replied,
"I'm not sure, though I feel we have to be ready and be on our toes." While Daphne said,
"I think we are facing the wrong way, whatever is hunting us is behind us not in front of us." Cain snapped a command,
"Turn around, shields forward and overlap with our Doru out, be ready to stab or throw.
Even though this was the first time they had worked with shields as a unit they turned as one, facing up the mountain, shields overlapped, Doru poking out from the gaps of the overlap. Ready to make attacking them difficult.
"Coming from our 10 o'clock, two flying creatures. Contact eight… seven… " said Daphne. Cain told his women, not to look into the sun, keep their vision on the ground, look for shadows. Three seconds after Cain's words, two large shadows rushed toward their shield wall.
"Push forward and thrust… Now," shouted Cain. As a unit they pushed their shields forward and thrust with their Doru. The two shadows turned into two Harpies, each with a short sword in their right arms, poised to thrust. The harpies angle of attack changed as the shield wall rushed toward them.
Thrown off balance by the sudden move of their prey, the harpies tried back-winging, but they were pierced each by two Doru and both received serious wounds. Cain called, "Reset," at which they retracted their Doru. Then he said, "Thrust," and four Doru pierced the seriously wounded and grounded harpies a second time, instantly killing them.
Cain went through the process, did any of his women feel anything, should they relax or be ready to fight? A quick reply from each of his women allowed them as a unit to relax.
Chapter 12
Walking The Line
Bethany looted the two Harpies, she received 30 Harpy feathers, two eyes, one tongue and three large bloody claws. According to the information pop-up she received, all of the collected Harpy parts were useful in Alchemy. Bethany also looted two medium knives, four weak healing, seven medium stamina potions and seven gold bars.
:That’s a first, we never looted potions of health or stamina back in 2027:, Bethany thought, as she told the others what wonderful looting she received. Toni and Sophie looted the Satyrs, between them they received five eyes, six stomachs, twelve hooves and eight small knives. The Satyrs each had 38 Drachma though no healing or stamina potions. Toni recovered two pelts while Sophie received three. Toni checked the money they had as a group, she looked at their shared inventory, and noticed they had over nine thousand Drachma, thanks to the gold bars from the Harpies.
"Everybody ready? Let’s walk the line down to Agiasobele. The local map shows we have around a mile to travel before we reach the next and largest groups of Satyrs. We will have to break the group up, I think they are too large for us to hit in one go, anyone got any ideas?" Cain said.
"I remember playing an old console game, one of the first adapted, crudely made into a VR game. One where you held paddles in your hands to interact with the game. The best VR game I picked up and played for hundreds of hours was Elven Assassin. In several instances the player has to separate the target from those around them, which wasn’t always easy to do, not with the paddle controllers. I think we need to try pulling them toward us in threes or fours, whittle them down, taking small bites rather than the whole enchilada," said Bethany.
With a quickly devised plan to break up the Satyrs in place, they continued down the mountain. Walking in single file at the edge of the crushed rock road on grass and barren rock, as it made less noise. They were careful in descending a steep part of the trail down down the mountain side still walking at the side of the track. Daphne who had rotated and was now doing point duty, noticed a large group of the Satyrs three hundred yards to her front.
Dropping to a knee and using hand signals, Daphne called Cain forward. Cain joined Daphne and with Lesley they decided and moved away from the trail, over into the trees. Finding a usable clearing with a rocky outcrop toward the back edge, Cain told the DreamBabes this would make an excellent hard point. He pointed out where they could prepare several traps.
"The rocky outcrop will be our protection," Cain said, "In case the Satyrs come at us as one large group rather than in threes or fours, it will give us a better chance than fighting on the ground."
They spent the next hour preparing a mix of traps, starting near the rocky outcrop and moving toward the tree line. In the trees, Cain made several one-foot-deep spike holes. The laid snagging lines, which were made with stretched twisted rawhide, studded with broken arrowheads, all at Satyr's neck height of four feet high. With Toni's help, Cain created five dead-weight drops, where loops of rawhide set high in the trees, balanced with fallen trunks. When triggered they would pull the Satyrs off their feet, leaving them hanging six or seven feet in the air.
Near the rocky outcrop there were lots of new saplings growing. Cain, had his DreamBabes bend them backward holding them down on trip pegs. He followed behind them, fastening javelins to the saplings and began turning them into lethal whip javelin traps. He used thirty of the javelins the group carried to create a deadly AOE, Area Of Effect, trap.
"I've placed small piles of rocks at the outer edge of the trapped zones. When we return it will most likely be at a fast jog or flat-out run. Avoid the rocks and we will keep clear of the AOE traps. OK ladies, it is time to go play with the Satyrs," said Cain.
Leaving Lesley, Sophie and Toni at their hard point. Cain, Daphne and Bethany moved down through the trees toward the group of Satyrs. On the way down the slope, Cain fastened lengths of white cloth around some tree trunks, he said to Bethany and Daphne.
"You should always keep the white cloth on your right when going back to the others. The idea is to stop you from getting turned around, especially in a large wooded area."
It took twenty minutes of tying cloths to trees, carefully moving unnoticed to within one hundred yards of the Satyrs. Bethany counted them, whispering to Cain and Daphne, saying she counted only seventeen in the group. Cain checked the local map on his HUD, he could see where some of the red icons had split from the group. :The auto tracking function helps especially when dealing with large groups.: Cain thought.
As Bethany was whispering, twelve of the group moved away toward the few that Cain noticed had moved earlier. Cain had Bethany, who was a better archer than him take a shot at the nearest Satyr. He asked her to try for a hit rather than a critical, so they don’t scream, he told her. They moved silently back another fifty yards, before Bethany took the shot. Bethany hit a level twenty-one Satyr, causing it to bleat, not scream, it stood there trying to see who shot it, while balancing on one leg as the arrow jutted from its bottom.
Daphne took out a gladius and equipped her Parma shield. Cain pulled back a draw, letting loose at another Satyr, hitting it also on the rump. This Satyr spun in place looked up the slight incline and spotted Cain and his two DreamBabes. It bleated then began a limping trot up toward Cain; the arrow waggling as it moved.
Bethany counted five following the limping Satyr along with the one she shot earlier, they had moved sixty yards away from the larger group, following the retreating humans.
Together with Cain, Bethany risked shooting again at one of the limping Satyrs. Their arrows hit true, one of them was a fatal hit, killing the first limping Satyr. The second Satyr now had an arrow in its left arm and was bleating loudly. One dead there were only five Satyrs trotting up the slope, Cain and Bethany each loosed another arrow, then turned and ran with Daphne back toward their hard point. Seeing the humans running away from them the Satyrs gave chase, bleating loudly as they ran.
Bethany led the way, keeping to the left of the cotton marked tru
nks, Daphne brought up the rear. Cain said,
"Don't run so fast, we want the Satyrs to keep chasing us. If we pull away from them they may stop and we'd have to do it all again."
They slowed their run which enabled Bethany and Cain to nock another arrow, they turned and fired. Cain’s arrow hit and would have killed the tree if it had been running after them. Bethany’s arrow hit the lead Satyr in the chest, causing it to scream at the top of its voice at them, doing critical damage.
The other Satyrs joined in the screaming as they ran, following what they thought was the prey up a path through the trees. The lead Satyr snapped the arrow from its chest as it pulled ahead of the others and was almost upon the last human.
The Satyr was stunned as the human stopped, turning to face it and thrust out its shield, making it raise up fully on its legs, stretching its muscles. It would have noticed as it reared had its eyes been fixed on avoiding the shield, the human thrust a sword deep into its side, ending its life with one thrust and twist, splitting its heart.
The four following Satyrs, smelt blood and increased their pace, leaping the cooling body of their former leader. They noticed the humans had stopped running as they disappeared scurrying up the face of a rocky outcrop. Together the remaining Satyrs screamed with anger then charged the pile of rocks, somehow they avoided all the traps. As they were almost upon the rocky outcrop, the humans stood and shot their arrows dispatching them with ease.
Sophie wanted to jump for joy, things had gone as they planned with the first group. Six easy victories, another action where they improved their team work. The Satyrs didn't make the start of the outcrop. Bethany liked the way everyone contributed to the fighting, working as a team rather than as individuals like most VRMMORPG players tended to do.
It pleased Daphne that she managed to use her new skill, Death Strike, as she read of its use in the pop-up table they each received after the fighting had finished.
"Another Death Strike, well done Daphne, we will all have to find a way to reward you for killing the creatures so efficiently," said Toni, giving her a hug, along with Bethany and Lesley. Daphne felt a warm rush flow through her body, her mind picturing Cain kneeling behind her, filling her as he fucked her. All the while she worked on bringing Toni to another climax with her tongue, it was a race she aimed to win, this time.
Lesley left hugging Daphne and walked after Sophie, as she set off to loot the six Satyrs. By the end of the looting Sophie had collected more parts for Alchemy concoctions and a few dozen Drachma and oddly hundreds of Obol; the smallest currency in the game zone. Lesley kept watch while Sophie skinned the last Satyr, their vigilance paying rewards as Lesley heard the snap of a twig.
Lesley and Sophie, pushed two round point arrows into the ground, before they each nocked a broad head arrow. Patiently waiting until the stinky, slinking, Satyrs were fifty yards away still in the trees before they fired their three arrows. They aimed their first arrows, but nocked and fired the two round points in quick succession, Sophie noticed they were firing faster now than earlier in the game.
While their last two arrows were in flight, they turned tail, running toward the rest of the group at the rocks. They could hear the bleating and screaming from the large group of Satyrs chasing them. Remembering to keep to the white cloth ties on their right as they ran, they had no difficulty heading in the correct direction and reached the pile of rocks in the small clearing. Seeing the keep clear marks Cain left behind they skipped past the extra traps Cain had created.
Time To Satyr Goodbye
Sophie with Lesley reached the pile of rocks before the first Satyr reached and ran into one of the head high traps, its screaming cut short. Each person heard the ping which would have notified them of the creature's death, if Enoch had not played with Cain’s settings as party leader.
"How many do you think there are following you?" Cain asked Sophie.
"We didn’t stop to do a full count, but I think all of that initial group we watched in the beginning, plus a few more," Sophie replied. Cain checked his HUD map and tried counting the fast moving red icons, he gave up after stopping and starting four times.
Another scream cut short, as a Satyr found a rope trap. The cacophony of sounds and the pitch of the screaming changed as the Satyrs found the stake pits. Cain said to the DreamBabes.
"The purpose of the pits is not to kill the Satyrs, merely slow them down. As you all know, walking when you get a splinter in your foot or a stone in a shoe is difficult, and painful. Imagine then trying to walk when you have an inch stake punched through or snapped off in your hoof. Each time they place the affected hoof down, it makes it difficult for them to act or react at a typical speed thus giving us an advantage."
Another ping, another Satyr found a trap, cutting its life short as the large group of Satyrs finally burst through the tree line, seventy feet from the rock pile. The Satyrs stopped, not seeing any humans to chase down and kill. In front of them was an open space with a pile of rocks topped with three large shields.
It was as though the Satyrs were waiting for a sign, a command to rush where the humans had gone to earth. A larger Satyr following the group pushed side a sapling and stepped past the waiting Satyrs. Holding a short sword in one hand and a small child’s shield in the other, it bleated, screamed then pointed with the sword at the rock pile. At its scream, the Satyrs began a charge toward the hidden humans.
Cain had been waiting for the charge, he noticed the de-facto leader had not joined the others, but stood with two other larger Satyrs watching. The unwounded Satyrs were the first to reach the trip lines they had laid in the long grasses, sixty feet from the rock pile. Every single Satyr crashed to the ground, most found the snapped-off arrow heads they'd jammed into the earth around the trip lines.
As they crashed to the ground, Cain and his women stood above the rocky outcrop and took aimed shots at the temporarily downed Satyrs as they began to stand. They fired three volleys before the last Satyr got back to its feet. As the third volley of arrows reached their targets, they had killed four more Satyrs. Two of the Satyrs skipped past the spring trap saplings oblivious to their narrow escape from death.
Cain watched them close on the outcrop, he trusted Sophie and Daphne would take care of the problem they may bring.
Daphne put down her recurve bow, equipped her two gladii while Sophie nocked two arrows. They waited for the Satyrs to close on them at the right hand side of the outcrop. Without speaking, Daphne moved to Sophie’s left as the Satyrs rushed toward them.
The first Satyr jumped halfway up the rocks, a medium knife held in its right hand poised over its shoulder to strike. Sophie let loose the twin arrows, both hit the Satyr in the chest while its arms were in the air. The impact of a double arrow strike knocked the Satyr backward and cleared the rocks, it was dead by the time its body hit the ground.
Daphne waited for Sophie to loose her arrows, with the twang of the bowstring She leapt forward hitting the Satyr as it hooves touched the outcrop. Her left gladius removed the Satyr's right knife wielding arm at the elbow, her right gladius removed the Satyr’s head. Shaking the blood from both gladii, Daphne replaced them in their back scabbards.
As Daphne and Sophie dealt with the two Satyrs who were faster than the others, the remaining ones reached the sapling javelin AOE trap. Cain asked Toni to be in charge of when to activate the trap. As Toni and Bethany watched the Satyrs approach the trap zone, th
ey pulled the activation cords taut. They let the three leading Satyrs pass the AOE trap, then as the others enter the trap zone, Toni and Bethany pulled the four activation cords.
The AOE sapling trap, worked better than Cain planned, as they speared four Satyrs through their chests with the sprung javelins and two through their legs. The three Toni let through faltered in their charge, hearing the death cries of the those caught in the AOE trap. Cords pulled Bethany armed herself with her recurve bow, shot one Satyr in the head while Sophie sank an arrow into another Satyr’s heart.
Daphne, leapt from the top of the outcrop landing on the back of a Satyr, who turned to see the four who died on the AOE trap. Pinning its body to the ground with both her gladii, Daphne waited two seconds while it bled to death before she returned to the outcrop.
The lead Satyr was still near the tree line, it screamed at the top of its voice, the two with it joined in. Cain stood on the outcrop and encouraged his women to do the same. He asked Toni and Daphne to join him as he walked toward the three remaining Satyrs. Sophie, Lesley and Bethany kept their bows nocked, and scanned the skies for signs of any more Harpies.
The lead Satyr pounded at the ground, digging small tufts of grass back with each thrust of its hooves. Calling out a challenge to the puny humans, who through trickery had killed its troop of brothers.
"If we stop here and bang on our shields with our gladii, I’m hoping the Satyr will see that as a challenge and rush to attack us. Daphne, you kill the leader use Death Strike if you can. Toni and I will take out the other two. Remember their legs are their weakness," Cain said.
Together they banged on their shields then moved slightly apart to give each other room to fight. The Satyrs stopped their pounding of the earth, as they charged toward the humans who dared defy them. Cain braced himself as the leader charged him with one of the other Satyrs, the final one charged at Toni.