Brace For the Wolves

by Nathan Thompson

  “Me too,” I grumbled. “Then again, I'm surprised he didn't attack us earlier.”

  “It takes a great deal of time and work for an Icon to go fully corporeal,” Guineve replied. “And given his young age, he must not be sure of his power. He probably wanted to make sure he had to face me first. Once that was known, he then had to spend several days gathering as much power as he possibly could.”

  “That just gave you more time to heal,” I said, shaking my head.

  “He could not have known how injured I was, dear Wes. And at my most weakened state I was still able to slay several Spawn. At any rate, he has chosen to bring his full power to bear. Because he now knows he must face me.”

  “I just don't get why he didn't show up earlier,” I replied. “I mean, you and Breena were trapped and hiding. Yes, I was captured, but you two were still at large. And your location was known, at least.”

  “He should not be able to show up on Avalon at all, dear Wes,” Guineve replied calmly, though I doubt she felt as calm as she looked. “Icons have never traveled to Avalon without its own permission. Even when Cavus corrupted part of it with his presence. The fact that this creature can travel here at all is a mystery.”

  “Doesn't matter now anyway, I suppose,” I decided. “How are you feeling, Guineve? Do you feel recovered enough to fight this thing?”

  “I do not have a choice, dear Wes,” Guineve replied. “He is coming either way.”

  “You're right,” I replied. “We need to see what we can do for when he comes.”

  Guineve turned her head towards me, arching that eyebrow like she used to do all the time. I had missed that expression.

  “I do not think you can help me face him, brave Wes,” she said carefully. “Even if you were at your greatest strength.”

  “I get that,” I replied. “But I doubt he's coming alone. I need to get the people to safety and the fighters organized.”

  Then I remembered about the strange, giant fortification that was in the center of the shelter. And how small its opening was. We had moved everyone closer to that area anyway. We weren't far from it ourselves.

  “Actually, if he's big as he sounds we won't have to face him at all,” I said quickly. “I can move everyone into the monolith structure the ghosts were trapped in. The entryway's only large enough for one or two people to go down.” I started to pace, and I didn't even realize it. “Even the howlers might have trouble fitting in there. We could just wait until you finish healing.”

  “But we would leave the crops and food, dear Wes,” Guineve said, though she still seemed like she was considering my idea.

  “Guineve,” I replied. “I don't know your physical strength, but I can carry over a thousand pounds on my person, and I can carry another thousand easily in my portable space. The plants themselves aren't that heavy. I should be able to scoop up anything that's somewhat grown and move it down into the shelter. We can probably find a way to keep them growing down there. Breena has Earth, Wood, and Water magic. We could probably come up with sunlight. And if we can't, there are other sealed openings in the complex. We can have someone else pop out and just plant the seeds where only we can find them. That shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes. They'd be dozens and dozens of miles away and with the transportation magic we can go back and forth from that spot quickly. I'm sure you could use your magic to monitor it. Guineve, unless I'm missing something, they can't siege us.”

  She looked at me pensively.

  “Your idea is doable, assuming the underground structure is safe.”

  “As far as I can tell, the other doors in there can only be opened with Avalon's consent. It was set up to be a last-resort refuge that if breached, trapped the invaders with the people they murdered. I don't understand much more than that yet, but as far as Avalon tells me, nothing else down there is breaking through. And we're in far more danger up here. Getting everyone downstairs is the safest course of action I can come up with.”

  A second more of thinking was all it took.

  “You're right, Wes. Well done.” She smiled grimly at me. “I should have realized that myself. Avalon?” she asked out loud.

  “Intent understood,” the blessedly intelligent planetary supercomputer replied from below their feet. “Conveying message to populace now. Citizens of Avalon,” all of the surrounding mists suddenly boomed. “An attack on the shelter is beginning. Immediately travel to the nearby structure indicated by the trail of mist. Enter the deepest part of the structure so that the Lord and Guardian of Avalon can ensure your safety. Local warriors Virtus, Eadric, Weylin, and Karim are to report to the Guardian and Nascent Lord. These messages will repeat until all have complied.”

  “Now that was convenient,” I said to Guineve. “And I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. We've known about that place for less than a week. I keep forgetting about it and I spent a day underground in it.”

  “True. It probably has some magic in it to cause that effect,” Guineve realized. “Which might possibly explain how I had been stupid to ignore it all those thousands of years.” Guineve shook her head, before I could protest. “At any rate, we have larger concerns. Can you completely close off the structure once everyone is inside?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I think oxygen is going to be a problem. We have to leave one door open. And in fact one door is breachable.”

  “Confirming that all openings into the defensive structure are breachable, given time,” Avalon interrupted me. “The remaining hostiles inside said structure are sealed by deep magic, not by engineering.”

  That matter, its seeming contradictions, and a host of other questions were issues I would have to deal with for another time. For now though, Guineve was right. Save lives, kill enemies, then focus on other stuff.

  I took another half-second to wonder just what I could accomplish if I had two days of free time in a row, then got back to work.

  “Wait,” I voiced. “I just remembered that even though the opening was super-cramped, large creatures still got down there somehow. Avalon, do you have any information on that?”

  That knowledge was based entirely on the dreamlike whispers from the Earthborn corpses in the circular room. So maybe I shouldn't have bothered to verify it. But Avalon answered me anyway.

  “Confirming that openings in structure vary in size, but certain entities also have the ability to increase or decrease both their size and the sizes of allied creatures. Estimates show that Avalon's previous invaders primarily used magic to force their way in.”

  “Fantastic,” I replied. “So we leave the smallest door open and set up a kill funnel. And re-arm whatever traps we can.”

  “The door was trapped?” Guineve asked as we began to walk, giving me her arched eyebrow look.

  “Immensely,” I sighed. “There were traps on top of traps. I had never seen a more lethal entryway in my life, and I suspect there isn't one anywhere else.”

  “And you still decided to open it?” she asked, her brow arching even further. “Why?”

  I stopped walking for a second.

  “Um,” I began intelligently. “Well... it was a door.”

  “Yes, dear Wes,” Guineve replied quietly. “One that you knew to be dangerously trapped, with no clear promise of anything valuable on the other side. What possessed you to open it, instead of choosing something else to explore? Was that the last part of the woods? Were there truly no other choices available to you?”

  The dear woman blessed me by sounding concerned, and not castigating.

  I was about to explain my reasoning again, when I realized I didn't have any. Just conditioning from years and years of video games, tabletop gaming, and bad movies.

  “Guineve, do you remember when I said I probably needed more help from you than I even knew? I think being smart about doors might be one of those ways I need help.”

  “Indeed,” the woman replied, and I barely made out the grin on the corner of her mouth. “Breena darling, are you re
ady?”

  “Yes!” a tiny and familiar voice shouted as she streaked toward me in a tiny blur. “I've got all the seeds packed up so I'm ready and don't you dare leave me again because the last time I sat out from a fight everyone got hurt and the bad guys took over and—” she paused to take a breath—“and you're not leaving me behind and that's final!”

  “Fair point, Breena,” I replied to my tiny friend. “And yeah, we probably should have summoned you the first time those idiots tried to mess with us. You're here now. We'll figure out what to do when we get everyone secure.”

  “Yay!” she screamed, throwing up her hands and growing. “I mean, yes! I mean, thank you!” She threw her arms around my neck, then got control of herself again. “I mean, let's go kick some bums!”

  “That's the spirit,” I decided. “Let's find the other guys and work out a defensive set-up. Avalon, keep us updated on the Dark Icon's positioning as well as any forces he brings with him.”

  “Command confirmed. Will provide updates via private communication,” Avalon replied.

  “Great,” I replied. “Now while we run, let's figure out how to kill a wannabe god.”

  They wound up taking thirty minutes to reach the warding perimeter outside the woods of the shelter. Avalon's surveillance abilities had improved with the destruction of the Pit, the securing of the first floor of whatever the hell it was that we were hiding inside of now, and the recovery of Guineve and Breena, along with the final repairing of the planet's fragmented consciousness. I had confirmed Raw-maw to be the invading Dark Icon, as well as the number and composition of his troop.

  Basically, his troop consisted of every single surviving Hordebeast on Avalon, especially the howlers. And there were no more subtleties to their attack. They were charging straight in, into the opening they had first seen me take into Avalon. No split forces, no two-pronged attack, just an overwhelming five hundred-strong force of Ilklings, Wretches, Mongrels, and howlers. Apparently we had killed the only Spawn-type Hordebeasts left on the planet. Why they had stopped making more baffled me, but I thought about how the Spawn had been the only Hordebeasts curious about me, instead of paranoid and hateful.

  At any rate, they were staying roughly together while making a hell-bent charge at me, disregarding tactics over speed. That baffled me too, until I remembered that Guineve was healing every moment, and that they had no idea no how much longer she needed to recover, or if her current power was already sufficient enough to deal with them.

  For that matter, neither did I. I had no idea whether Guineve could already handle them either. And I suspect that if she knew she could herself, we wouldn't be all holed up underground. There was really nothing left to do but find out the answer to that question empirically.

  Well, okay. There was nothing to do now. There had been plenty of things to do while I waited for the dark army-knockoffs to finally make it over here.

  “So,” Karim asked, standing behind me as we waited underground, near the stairway that we had first entered this place from. “You're sure this will work? Again?”

  “Of course not,” I replied with a friendly snort. “But it seemed kind of stupid to completely rule out a tactic that hasn't failed a single time yet.”

  “Normally I'd agree,” Karim replied carefully. “But this tactic has already worked at least four times by now. They say one should never count on the stupidity of an enemy.”

  “I've heard that proverb,” I answered him, still watching the light stream in from the opening. That was odd too, actually. Most Hordebeasts seemed to prefer night fights. And I never encountered any sign of the howlers even once during the daytime. “But they also say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing multiple times and expecting different results. So expecting them not to walk into our traps this time would be insane.”

  “I have never heard that particular saying before,” the scribe-mage slowly said as he took in my grin. “But I suspect you are using it incorrectly.”

  “Maybe, but understand that if a large number of monsters do wind up dying in a spectacular and colorful fashion, I'm going to take your current lack of optimism as a sign of madness, and try to get you the proper help.”

  “So this is what it feels like,” Eadric mumbled. “Guess he learned from watching us make fun of him.”

  “At least he was paying attention,” Weylin whispered back.

  “Besides,” I continued. “By now we recovered all the mana we spent. Not doing what we did would have been a waste.”

  The giant howl sounded out once more, causing a cold wind to sweep down the tunnel and right down the back of our necks.

  “See?” I said. “He agrees. I am a genius.”

  “And we thought he was humble when we first met him,” the dwarf grunted. The elf nodded at him.

  “Guess a couple nights of real sleep really can do wonders.”

  “Imagine how cocky he'll get when he's finally had a full week off,” Karim said dryly.

  Critics, all of them. But enough of that. Time to get serious.

  “Avalon, update?” I asked.

  “Hordebeasts are still advancing ahead of the Dark Icon. Formation suggests that the lesser species of Horde will be used as shock troops, with the Mongrels and howlers put into play afterwards.”

  “Not even planning on surrounding us,” Eadric grunted.

  “Raw-maw is a wolf,” Weylin pointed out. “Wolves hunt, and they wait. But they do not siege.”

  “And he's short on time,” I added. “He's worried about Guineve recovering too much for him to be able to fight her. If that happens, they lose Avalon and their best shot of ever getting to me.”

  “You think they're still worried about that?” Karim asked incredulously.

  “It's just a hunch, but yes,” I admitted. “I don't think their obsession with me has diminished in the least.”

  Moments later, the lesser, but still terrifying, howls of the hordebeasts sounded out from above. And the chant followed their lupine call.

  “Bad seed, bad blood, mingled with wrong brotherhood. Slit his veins and purge his taint and kill the traitor-prince!”

  “It's what they're created to do,” I said softly. “That one I talked to wasn't lying.”

  “What, Wes?” Breena spoke up.

  “The howler I confronted the morning after we escaped,” I answered. “It described how they had been hunting me all across Avalon's worlds, despite the fact that I was right here on Avalon, and they already suspected it. But since they couldn't reach me here, they just started looking for me everywhere else, as if I'd magically turn up there.” I shook my head. “That takes a special level of crazy.”

  “Or Icon worship,” Eadric noted. I turned to look at him.

  “He's right,” Breena nodded. “If it's in an Icon's nature to do something, then his or her most devoted followers will find themselves taking up those same inclinations, whether they mean to or not.”

  “Really?” I asked. “Wouldn't that make the howlers more devoted to this Icon than their Horde Pits?”

  “It's possible for Horde to do both,” Breena answered. “In fact, it seems to be their nature to have a leader, and as long as the leader loosely serves the interest of the Pit they will be loyal.”

  True, Aegrim's voice said in my mind. It is in their nature.

  They were supposed to be my army, Dragon-Me protested.

  And they still can be, child, Aegrim insisted. If you but trust me.

  Ha, both me and Teeth replied at the same time.