Brace For the Wolves

by Nathan Thompson

“... Yes. Yes,” I said. “That is a good idea. Let's just do that.”

  Somebody snickered. I told myself I didn't care who and placed myself behind the archers. I saw Virtus suddenly shrug his shield onto his back and grab a number of javelins in one massive hand.

  “Kill the traitor-prince!” a monster repeated, and then the shadows above began moving forward and downward.

  Weylin nocked an arrow, holding several others loosely in his hands. Karim began muttering. Breena flexed and shook out her tiny fingers, but did nothing else.

  After a few more moments, Weylin loosed a wind-whistling arrow. The missile had a corkscrew of sharp wind twirl around it, trailing a foot beyond the missile in every direction. Then he loosed another, and another, and I began to hear screams and splatters sound out from above us.

  Just Ilklings and Wretches so far, the elf said in my mind. After everyone's last Rise, we were finding that mental communication was a lot easier now. But each arrow seems to be taking three of them.

  That was good news, I thought as a brown-furred, black-skinned Wretch rolled down the stairs. Virtus stabbed its throat with a javelin, then braced it against the bottom of the stairs to serve as the start of a makeshift barrier. Then he began hurling javelins over everyone's head into the shadowy mass of monsters at the top of the stairs.

  Karim's hands had finished forming an entire page of glowing blue script, and dozens of his blue bolts began piercing upwards. As they struck their targets I heard a sound that reminded me of a snuffed candle, and more small, spindly corpses began tumbling down the stairs. Through the mind-link I felt Eadric calmly stab them with his spear and push them near the base of the stairs.

  If this kept going well, the Horde would be building us a barricade.

  Breena floated a little higher, giving herself a clear sight around all the action firing up into the swarming mass of monsters. Avalon couldn't inhibit them anymore directly, but it had done a marvelous job of keeping the outdoor light streaming in from blinding us. Furthermore, it had been sending small tendrils of glowing mist out to crawl over most of the monsters, helping us notice and target them more easily. I saw mist-outlined shapes continue to take fire from darts, spears and buzzing arrows, often noticing one missile go through several of the smaller Horde at once.

  After a dozen seconds of this fire some of the Ilklings began to turn around, trying to retreat from the intense amount of magic-enhanced fire being directed into such a confined space. But the Horde behind them were having none of it, pushing and trampling the child-sized, oily monsters right under them. This push managed to keep the corpses of previously slain Hordebeasts in front of them, and they began to clear the stairs at a much faster rate. Soon they were halfway down the stairs, and the archers of my little group got ready to pull back.

  I heard another howl from outside, and the monsters began bursting down the stairs with adrenaline-boosted speed.

  Avalon, shut the door again, I commanded.

  Complying.

  I heard the door above begin to grind its way down a mess of small screaming bodies, and another frustrated howl sounded from outside.

  The Hordebeasts in the stair-tunnel shot a couple frightened looks behind them, but the ones furthest at the back snarled and pushed the rest forward. Karim and Weylin had time for one more volley, and then they ran behind us as Virtus, Eadric and I got into position. The dwarf and skeleton locked shields together easily, despite their difference in size. I stepped into position behind Eadric, so that I could cover him partially with my own shield and thrust my spear over his head.

  Just before I did that, however, I paused to give Karim time to reach past me and fire off a giant lightning bolt up the stairs. Our lightning magic could only travel in a straight line, but it was now powerful enough to slam through multiple targets if they were all in a row.

  Another dozen or so Hordebeasts died, and then the battered remnants were upon us.

  The largest of the little monsters being four feet tall and under ninety pounds (gear included), they hit our shield wall with all the force of a charging pack of deer. Directed against an oncoming semi-truck. Spears thrust forward, shields heaved, and half of the little monsters were knocked down right on their backs. The absolute strongest of them could handle the average fully grown man. The weakest of the three of us was still three times stronger than the strongest man back on Earth. And I was probably able to lift over a dozen of the little monsters if I could figure out how to carry them all in my arms. So a large number of them hit our wall and bounced right back off. The rest encountered our weapons as we went to work stabbing our spears into their bodies. Again, our enhanced strength made blasting through their poorly armored bodies even easier than crushing empty soda cans. Six coordinated thrusts later and the tunnel was clear of enemies.

  Fangs, Dragon-Me suddenly spoke into my mind as the last Wretch and Ilkling were both stabbed by a single thrust of my spear.

  What? I asked, confused.

  Fangs stab. Claws slash. Tail crushes. Your formation is a mouth full of fangs, biting as one. Good work.

  Thank...you, I said slowly, unnerved by his complimenting me. Now we need to make sure we got them all.

  Exactly.

  We were off to a good start today, and that terrified me.

  The mind-link conveyed my desire for cleanup, and everyone else's mind-link conveyed a polite 'duh' to my concerns. Breena flew up and used her Air magic to send bodies tumbling down while Virtus and Eadric stacked them as a barricade just beyond the end of the stairs.

  One brief check to make sure the bodies were dead, another few moments to make sure everyone had recovered and recharged their spells, and then I was ready to address the pounding on the stone door outside.

  “Alright, Avalon, open the door, and repeat the message about punch and cookies waiting inside.”

  “Complying. Query as to purpose regarding the offering of non-existing refreshments to invading hostiles.”

  “Warfare is a mental thing, Avalon. And morale is a powerful force multiplier.” I turned my head towards my team. “Speaking of which, if we win this fight, drinks are on me.”

  “You don't have any dr—” Karim began.

  “Stop,” Eadric interrupted. “Don’t finish that sentence. Just thank the man.”

  The pounding stopped as the door slowly began to open. Everyone seemed ready. Through the mind-link Weylin assured me that he still had plenty of arrows left. Through the same link Breena assured me that was because ‘Wood magic was awesome.’ I had no idea how they found time to make so many magic bonus arrows, but then most of what I had been doing was just sleeping and screaming, and I wasn't even sure how long I had been doing either.

  The door finished opening. Avalon's second assurance of totally free candy and promise of a complete lack of painful demise waiting down below was met with awkward silence. Then the Raw-Mawed Wolf howled again, and the angry hoots and screeches sounded up again. But this time I detected a lack of enthusiasm in the Hordebeasts' war cries, compared to the first assault. That was understandable. The Horde had left close to a hundred bodies on those stairs.

  Time to see if we could do better on those numbers.

  Assault resuming, Avalon said in our minds. Still primarily composed of Ilklings and Wretches.

  That made sense. There was usually a massive disparity in numbers between the size of one Hordebeast class and the next.

  I looked at the barricade just before the stairway landing, saw that our spears could still reach over it easily, then decided we would risk more melee this time, to keep the drain on ammo and mana to a minimum. The others agreed with my plan and so I ordered Avalon to wait until the stairway was packed completely full of Horde, then shut the door again.

  A massive, ground-shaking bark sounded out from beyond the door. Brown and black shapes began to hurl themselves down the stairs.

  By mental agreement, we held our fire and let them come.

  Whoops and shouts soun
ded out all along their way down, right until they saw the barricade built out of the first wave. Then the brown-furred Wretches and black-skinned Ilklings tried to scamper backwards, but the throng behind trampled them and pushed them forward. Then that row faltered, and was pushed and trampled, until the mass of bodies impacting us resembled a tumble instead of a charge. The makeshift barricade absorbed most of the shock, and once again our spears went to work. Weylin and Karim started firing.

  A few moments later, Avalon deemed the tunnel filled to max capacity and began closing the door. An angry howl greeted its actions, but by now everyone was completely used to the noise and kept thrusting and pushing against the mass of bodies choked up in the tunnel.

  It wouldn't last long, I knew. The three of us were strong and braced, but there were over a hundred of these monsters stuck in the tunnel with no way out except down. They started to knock their way through the barricade, sending a body loose here and there.

  Which was what Breena had been waiting for.

  The little sprite flew into position and fired a massive lightning bolt far bigger than she currently was straight up the stairs. The blue-white bolt powered through the tiny bodies easily, charring and hurling them out of the way as it blasted through them, creating a brief, but clear, hole all the way to the top of the stairwell.

  Perfect enough for my needs, I decided as I pulled a finger free to point out a stored spell of my own.

  I used my Fireball spell for the first time in combat, and it felt like a rite of passage as the tiny but expanding bead of red fire hurled up the body-free opening. It reached the center of the stairwell before a body impacted it and triggered the detonation.

  Normally the fireball would explode in a spherical radius, but the tunnel's tight walls prevented that. The fire had to expand and it only had two directions to do so: up and down.

  Which in a happy coincidence, happened to be the same location where all the people I didn't like were currently hanging out.

  Hot air blasted into our faces as red and orange tongues rode their way down screaming, writhing bodies. At the Initiate level, my fireball already had a moderately impressive radius, and combined with the restrictions imposed by physics, it pretty much covered the whole tunnel. A few seconds later, the only thing rising from the tunnel's opening was the smell of burnt flesh and victory.

  I spent another moment to store another ready Fireball spell, but as I did so I heard angry tornado-howls and something massive slam against the stone door outside.

  Avalon, I sent as everyone prepared for the next wave. Send another message and tell them no one under five feet tall can enter this tunnel unsupervised. Apologize for the inconvenience and tell them we're offering free cake as a consolation. Magic cake, I added, after a moment's thought.

  ...Complying, Avalon sent back after the briefest of pauses. Withholding further queries for now.

  That's probably a good idea, I answered.

  The mighty slams against the tunnel door ceased as it began to open again, and I could hear the Dark Icon's car motor-sized growl all the way down here. The door's opening was met with a cautious pause, and then Avalon relayed its message.

  “Oohhhhh, I get it,” Breena said out loud, holding a little hand over her mouth as she snickered. “You're mocking them.”

  “Pretty much,” I agreed.

  “Well, we're going along with it,” Breena decided. “But if you hold out on your enemies, you need to be generous with your friends to make up for it. If we live through this, we're getting cake.”

  “And drinks,” Eadric reminded. “Don't be remiss about the drinks either.”

  “See?” Breena said happily, pointing to the dwarf. “This guy gets it!”

  Yup, I thought. Good for morale.

  The silence from above continued for a moment longer than normal. Well, sort of normal. I've only had Avalon taunt this thing for a total of three times, so maybe I didn't have a very good sample for drawing averages yet. But then I realized I could just ask around about this issue.

  “Guineve, Breena? Do Icons or Dark Icons ever really get taunted? Is it something they have a lot of practice handling?”

  As Breena turned her head toward me, a blast of hot air swept down into the tunnel, and the voice behind it made our ears boom as it echoed of the confines of the narrow walls.

  “YOU MISERABLE SOILED SACK OF DOG DUNG! YOU THINK YOU'RE WINNING? YOU THINK YOU'RE WORTHY ENOUGH TO MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME? I'LL RIP OUT YOUR LOWER EXTREMITIES AND STUFF THEM INTO YOUR MOUTH ALL AT ONCE! I WILL DROWN OUT YOUR WORDS WITH YOUR OWN LIMBS AND SHAME!”

  Everyone shook their head from the force of that bellow. The mind-link told me that all of our ears rang several long moments afterwards.

  “No, Wes,” Breena finally said. “Generally Icons are treated with both respect and deference right from the very beginning, both by their worshippers as well as anyone who fears their power. The only people brave enough to make fun of them are either other Icons they have a grudge with, or a Challenger that has decided he's about to resurrect in a few moments anyway. If an Icon's disrespected at all, it's generally a completely new experience for them.” She crossed her arms and looked at me. “Did I answer your question, Wes? Please let me know.”

  I grinned, but Guineve answered for me.

  “I'd say you were perfect, dear. That was an excellent job of being sarcastic but still informative.”

  “Really?” Breena brightened. “Cuz I've been practicing for like—”

  “KILL THEM!” the deific entity roared at us from above. “KILL THEM ALL AND BRING ME BACK THE TRAITOR-PRINCE!”

  “Get ready,” I told everyone as we reformed the shield wall. “And Breena, remind me to make a list of all of the reasons I love you ladies.”

  “Aww, that's sweet, Wes.” She beamed again. “Now pay attention. You need to focus on your angry wolf god nemesis for a bit.”

  Karim muttered angrily under his breath. I couldn't hear it, but I felt Weylin and Eadric's agreement of his words through the mind-link.

  Critics.

  Though, then again, I suppose they had plenty of reason to be upset. Breena and Guineve were Starsown Satellites. Guineve had probably spoken with Icons and Breena had definitely been alongside previous Challengers who had battled them in the past. The Testifiers had none of that for reference, and so were dealing with the fact that they were about to fight the fiercest battle of their lives.

  And it was all my fault.

  Recalling that, I was grateful they were still bothering to stick around.

  “GO!” the echoing voice boomed. “BRING ME BACK THE TRAITOR-PRINCE!”

  The roars of deeper Hordebeasts answered the massive wolf, and footsteps began to fall upon the stairs.

  With roughly half of the invading army already dead, this felt like the main push, and Avalon confirmed that assessment by revealing that the Mongrels and other strong Hordebeasts were leading the downward charge.

  As agreed upon earlier, everyone activated their magical traps.

  I had asked Breena before why our trap magic had been so effective, as it hadn’t really failed us a single time so far. She explained that trap magic was a type of magic fairies made special use of, and everyone else tended to forget about. Well, except for the Testifiers. It was kind of their job to not forget stuff, which was why these three had stayed current with it. It was a little time-consuming to set up, but the mana cost was just a single cast up front and then I could just forget about it until the trap was triggered or a week passed and the trap faded, since the most important part of the spell was knowledge of pursuit and intent for harm.

  Maybe that was why they kept working, over and over. Because things had kept coming to mess with me and I had finally decided to be prepared. I decided to call that constructive pessimism.

  At any rate, with the larger Hordebeasts finally leading the charge, the magical spells we had set up all over the ground outside tore through the remaining Wretches and Ilkling
s and anything else still hanging back, included the Raw-Mawed Wolf.

  The Dark Icon probably wasn't even scratched by the effect. I couldn't see him, but maybe I'd never know. But this latest setback threw him into another howling, thrashing frenzy, causing even more damage to the Horde.

  The Dark Icon has regained his self-control and begun dispelling the outside traps, Avalon informed me. Calculations suggest over 90% of the lesser Hordebeasts have been slain by this point.

  I had figured that would happen. The traps we had constructed ourselves wouldn't be strong enough to outright kill any of the Mongrels or howlers. And if we had activated them right off the start, Raw-maw would have been in a better frame of mind to dispel them more quickly. That was another reason I had Avalon taunt them so much. As it was though, Raw-maw had finally run out of shock troops, and was forced to deploy his elites for this next attack. And that was perfect. I gave the charging monsters a ten-count, then issued my next command.

  Avalon, activate the Shelter's stairwell traps.

  That stairway had been a nightmare for us to travel downward initially. The number of traps would have made traveling that passage again a waking nightmare for me, if I wasn't too busy having all of my other nightmares. When Avalon had gained more power from all the running around we had done this week, it was able to reset its own traps and then upgrade them slightly.