by Demi Harper
‘Why aren’t they splitting up like last time?’ I mused aloud as the kobolds continued to march along the tunnel.
‘Last time, they had Barka,’ Ket replied, though she sounded as confused as I was. ‘Barka was a high-level kobold commander; there’s no way Grimrock has been able to replace him in such a short amount of time, which probably means there are less skilled individuals in charge here.’
‘That’s good news, right?’ It sounded that way, but her tone suggested something was amiss.
‘Ye-es,’ she said. ‘Just… be careful, okay? I don’t trust anything Grimrock does. This could easily be a trap, designed to make us think these raiders are weaker than they really are.’
So she was thinking along the same lines as I was.
Good.
The kobolds kept coming in their loosely arranged pairs. Occasionally a kobold’s grip on its spear would go lax; the weapon would drift to the side and either trip or poke the creature beside it, who would instantly snarl at the offending wielder. Their lack of discipline was a dramatic contrast to my gnomes’ recently developed teamwork skills.
After the first thirty kobolds had entered my Sphere of Influence, I saw something that made me snarl: a pair of shamans, easily identifiable by the rat skulls dangling from their leather-strip kilts, and the obsidian daggers glinting at their belts. The pair were followed by another pair, and another, and another, until the invading column was once more made up of regular kobold fighters.
Eight shamans in total. Unlike the one who’d almost managed to infiltrate the Grotto last time, these shamans weren’t wearing armor.
It’s almost as though I’m being invited to target them. Am I overthinking this?
The influx of kobolds eventually ceased. I frowned down at them as they made their winding way toward the Lake. I’d counted sixty pairs of the creatures, including the shamans.
‘Only a hundred and twenty?’ I mused. ‘That’s not much more than last time. Could he be holding something back?’
‘Maybe,’ said Ket. ‘Or perhaps he just hasn’t had time to rebuild his forces to what they were before.’
‘Then why show his hand early? Why not, you know, wait until the deadline?’
‘Because he’s a treacherous jerk?’
True.
Still, something didn’t add up. I wouldn’t let myself grow confident at the sight of a smaller force than last time. And I certainly wouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating my opponent.
But when the first kobolds reached the Lake, they halted, as though regrouping. The rest slowly filed in to join them, and they all milled around, as though waiting for instructions.
The inferior quality of Grimrock’s new warriors was already starting to tell. They were all in one place, including those pesky shamans. I could take them all out in one fell swoop!
After a brief, urgent discussion with Ket, we both agreed this was too good an opportunity to pass up, and so I began to summon the rest of my god-born into position. Those already in the cavern – the two whipfish lurking on the ceiling, and the boulderskin beneath the water – remained as yet unseen.
The shamans were the biggest threat. Unfortunately, they waited at the center of the enemy group, surrounded by a throng of sword- and spear-wielding kobolds.
If only there were some way we could reach the middle and take them out!
Then I froze, the seed – or rather, the spore – of an idea beginning to take root in my mind.
Fifty-Nine
Ambush
Back in the Grotto, my warriors were performing last-minute drills, checking the palisades, sharpening their weapons, and warming themselves up for the possibility of battle. The slingers were counting their supplies of ammo, and squealed somewhat indignantly when Ris’kin made a beeline for the modest stacks of puffball mushrooms atop the palisades. After patting the slingers’ shoulders reassuringly, my avatar scooped up a couple of puffballs – very, very carefully – and made her way into the Passage.
I instructed her to deposit the puffballs just beyond the barricade of rubble. She made two more trips, and the three forrels from the Passage darted in – unseen by my gnomes – to collect the items. They then passed them on to the forrel packs in the three branching tunnels. The first three forrels then returned to the Passage, where they would remain.
I had the other three forrel packs bring the puffballs to Octavia in the Heart, where I instructed the massive twice-evolved spider to try and pick one of them up. Having seen the care with which Binky had handled the baby gnome during our rebellion, I had little doubt Octavia could manage this delicate task despite her size.
A few moments later, she had a puffball held gently between her pedipalps, and was looking up at me inquisitively as if to say, ‘And just what am I meant to do with this?’
‘Patience. You’ll find out in a moment,’ I murmured. I couldn’t help but feel guilty at the danger I was about to put her and my other creatures in, but I reminded myself that my god-born were merely soulless mana-made creatures, no matter how much I anthropomorphized them. When it came down to choosing between them or my gnomes, my precious flesh-and-blood denizens had to come first. They only had one life, after all, while I could always make more Binkys and Octavias.
Banishing my qualms, I instructed my three evolved forrels – one from each pack – to each pick up a puffball. The basic forrels could probably have managed just as well, but the evolved creatures’ paws were far more dexterous; our puffball supply was limited, and I couldn’t risk one of the basic forrels dropping the precious things at the wrong moment.
Thus armed, I directed the three forrel packs to proceed toward the Lake. I made sure that one of the packs used the new tunnel, so that we’d be attacking the kobolds from both sides of the Lake cavern. Octavia accompanied them, still clutching her puffball in her palps.
‘Are you sure about this, Corey?’ Ket murmured.
No, I thought.
‘Yes,’ I said.
Not permitting myself any further doubts, I ordered Octavia to stealthily move in on the target. The arachnid responded to my command instantly. Scuttling up the wall and on to the ceiling, she entered the Lake cavern unnoticed, her blackish form blending with the wavering shadows on the surrounding rock.
If she could get above the shamans, she could drop the puffball, hopefully catching some of the surrounding kobold warriors in the mushroom’s toxic cloud. Then, while the most dangerous enemies were blinded and choking, my forrels would throw more puffballs in from both entrances, then charge forward themselves and wreak destruction once the unsuspecting shamans and warriors were neutralized.
Please, please don’t let this be a mistake.
Octavia moved silently, creeping along the ceiling entirely unseen by the kobolds waiting below. But as she crept closer to the shamans at the center, disaster struck. Her pedipalps twitched, and she lost her grip on the puffball she was carrying.
‘Not yet!’ I cried, but it was too late.
The puffball fell toward the kobolds on the outer edges of the group. At my mental command, Octavia immediately scurried back toward the exit. She reached the tunnel with not a moment to spare.
The gray missile she’d dropped burst upon impact with a kobold torch-bearer’s head, discharging its fungal spores in a cloud of dust, and the air around the kobold’s torch ignited with a fiery whoosh. The force of the conflagration pushed the surrounding kobolds back several feet, where they collided with their comrades. A handful of kobolds from the center of the explosion fell, burned beyond recognition. The others nearby barked and snapped aggressively at one another in confused havoc.
‘What—’
‘Whoa!’
Ket and I both yelled out at the same time, barely believing what we’d just seen. Elation coursed through me, along with more than a little satisfaction. Puffball spores exploded upon contact with open flame? I avidly eyed the handful of torch-bearing kobolds among the crowd below. Finally, it seemed we
had the means to stand against our enemies!
But the kobolds in the cavern were growing rowdy, and I suddenly worried they would move on, taking away our opportunity to get rid of them all in one go. I couldn’t allow that to happen. After ordering Octavia to go and collect the remaining puffballs from the Heart, I reached out with my mind, and the rest of my god-born surged into action.
The twice-evolved boulderskin launched itself from the water and into the milling ranks of kobolds, where I commanded it to cause as much injury and confusion as possible. Its mission was to distract and weaken the kobolds rather than kill them, at least for now.
The boulderskin’s ferocious assault drew the enemy’s full attention, and ensured that the now-panicking kobolds were taken unawares by the arrival of my three forrel packs.
Each of the puffball-wielding evolved forrels was flanked with two of their basic brethren, who slashed and bit at the confused enemy on either side in an attempt to force a path through to the center. I commanded them to stay amongst the enemy, hoping against hope that the shamans wouldn’t utilize their fireball or deadly rain attacks upon an area containing the bulk of their entire army. Though it wouldn’t be the first time. The puffball carriers among the forrels were under new orders: to launch their projectiles as close to the shamans as they could, and then seize a torch and blow the enemy to bloody smithereens.
The whipfish on the ceiling provided what assistance they could. Their extra-long appendages lashed out at the red-scaled enemies below, paralyzing them in place. Thankfully, the chaos caused by the boulderskin and forrels on the ground meant that the kobolds didn’t even realize there were also attackers above them, and the whipfish continued their work unscathed.
But the kobolds’ natural strength and vicious instincts were beginning to tell. I watched in frustration as they gradually recovered their wits, felling two of my basic forrels and hacking at the evolved one they’d been guarding. The evolved forrel struggled valiantly to press on and reach the shamans, but the enemy were too strong. Sensing its own impending defeat, the forrel heaved its puffball grenade in the shamans’ direction a moment before a kobold blade half-severed its tufted gray head.
The puffball sadly fell far short of its target. However, it did ignite the air around a dropped torch nearby, blasting two kobolds into the rock wall nearby. A crack indicated the impact had snapped at least one spine.
This fighting business is back-breaking work.
I hurriedly poured two globes of mana into Creation and flung the resulting forrel into the fight, commanding it to protect the remaining two evolved forrels and help clear a path to the shamans. Then I did the same with a second new forrel, then a third, and finally a fourth, until my mana globes were near empty.
The new creatures joined the fray, adding more confusion as the kobolds spun in confusion to see where the new threats had come from. My forrels did their best to cut through the enemy, but it seemed one of the shamans – why haven’t they used their fireballs yet? – had finally gotten wise to the cause of the explosions. The big kobold was barking orders at the surrounding troops, and many of those with torches began to sprint toward the lake.
Before I could stop them, they’d flung their torches into the black water, extinguishing them in a barely-heard sizzle.
Sixty
Boom
The handful of kobold torch-bearers that remained standing began to follow suit, zig-zagging between brawling opponents to reach the water and extinguish the key to my plan’s entire success.
No!
I urged my boulderskin toward the water, desperate to stop them. But the massive armored amphibian’s rampage had taken it to the far side of the cavern, and at least fifty kobolds now stood between it and the lake. As it started to barge through them all, I sought out my whipfish. One of them had fallen, felled by the thrown spears of kobolds who’d finally noticed its presence, but I was able to send the second whipfish toward the water with orders to stop the kobolds from reaching it with their torches.
Before the whipfish could get there, the first kobold flung its torch into the lake. The second one was right behind it and did the same. The whipfish arrived just in time to lash out and freeze the third kobold; however, this caused the kobold to drop its torch, which rolled into the shallows and promptly sputtered out.
There were just two more torches lit, and both wielders were heading for the water. I searched desperately for Octavia, but the arachnid was still on her way back from the Heart, moving slowly and carefully lest she disturb her volatile burden.
For lack of a better option, I took control of one of the two remaining evolved forrels. I made it throw its puffball toward the shamans, then immediately twist around and race to intercept the kobolds heading for the lake. The puffball landed several feet away from the shamans, where it exploded in a non-lethal cloud of dusty gray spores, choking and blinding the kobolds in the area but not really harming them. A waste, but getting our hands on one of the last torches was vital to making this work.
The fourth torch-wielder was almost at the lake. I mentally screamed at the whipfish to stop it, but our luck was turning for the worse; as my creature lashed out, the kobold tripped over the sprawled limbs of a fallen body, landing flat on its face and inadvertently dodging the whipfish’s attack. The torch flew from its hand and into the water.
Damn it! Only one torch left.
‘Come on!’ I urged my evolved forrel. It struggled to comply. Muscles bunched beneath its gray fur as it pushed itself harder.
The final torch-wielding kobold was almost at the lake; it reached its arm back to throw the torch.
My boulderskin crashed into it from the side, knocking the kobold to the floor and pulverizing it with the momentum of its charge. The torch fell to the floor, sputtered, but stayed lit. As it began rolling toward the water, my evolved forrel arrived in time to scoop it up to safety, and both Ket and I let out massive sighs of relief.
Octavia was finally making her way along the passage toward the lake cavern. The puffballs she carried in her palps were clustered together, wrapped in a neat parcel of spidersilk as per my instructions – a nice little care package for our ‘visitors’, and the only way she’d been able to safely carry them all at once.
My spider was only moments away from reaching us, but the kobolds were ready to flee. My last evolved forrel had fallen, managing to launch its puffball at the shamans just before it was hacked to pieces by the surrounding kobolds’ blades. The puffball burst at the nearest shaman’s feet, covering it and those to either side in gray powder. Those in the vicinity bent over, barking out coughs of pain and frustration as the spores settled in their eyes and entered their lungs.
I considered calling Ris’kin into the fight; surely my avatar could turn the tide here. But no; she needed to remain in the Grotto, ready for when Snagga showed its vile betentacled face. Likewise with Binky; he was the only god-born my gnomes could stand to be around, and I wanted him there to protect them. My remaining god-born would have to do the best they could here.
Only two of my basic forrels were still fighting, and they were looking very worse for wear, so I ordered them to disengage and return to the evolved torch-bearing forrel by the water. Meanwhile, I commanded my boulderskin to focus on keeping the enemy in place; it lumbered around the red-scaled mass, herding the forty or so remaining kobolds into the center of the cavern. To buy even more time, I had the sole remaining whipfish also skirt the edges of the melee, freezing enemies in place to make it that much more difficult for those in the middle to break out.
I realized too late that this would make it very difficult for my forrels to get to the shamans at the center. My attention fell on the boulderskin instead. Again, I felt guilty for ordering it into what would most likely be its death, but this was crucial.
It was the work of moments for my evolved forrel to pass the torch to the huge amphibian, which clenched it tightly between its jaws as the forrels launched themselves back into t
he fight.
I had to time this next part very carefully.
‘Come on, Octavia,’ I whispered urgently.
The moment the spider re-entered the cavern, I sent the boulderskin shoving through the kobolds’ ranks. Distracted by the forrels, the kobolds fell back before the amphibian’s massive bulk as it forced its slow way through toward the shamans.
But as Octavia began her approach along the ceiling, some of the kobolds on the opposite side to the boulderskin spotted her. They began to launch spears up at her huge bulk. Luckily, her twice-evolved form meant that her carapace was thick enough to endure the missiles thrown from such a distance.
However, the closer she came, the more damage the spears did to her, and Octavia began to slow. I glanced anxiously down at the boulderskin. It was barreling through the mass of kobolds, knocking enemies over left and right. It was almost through to the shamans; just a few more seconds—
A well-thrown kobold spear took Octavia in the leg, severing it at the knee. She lost her grip and dropped like a stone, but luckily managed to catch herself with a spidersilk safety line so that she hung just a couple of feet from the ceiling.
Less luckily, she’d also let go of the bundle of puffballs.
‘No!’ wailed Ket. ‘She’s too far away from the shamans! She needs to keep going!’ It was true; Octavia would barely even catch a handful of the warriors in the puffballs’ radius when they hit the ground below her.
Good thing they aren’t going to hit the ground.
As soon as Octavia let go of her burden, I ordered her to activate her web-shooting ability. She pointed her spinnerets, and a wad of shining white spidersilk shot toward the falling puffballs, which were pushed along its trajectory – straight into the center of the gathered army.
The spider’s puffball grenade landed hard in the midst of the shamans, bursting upon impact with their tough scales at the same moment my torch-carrying boulderskin finally broke through to them.