Unexpected Guests - Chapter 10 - Wild Thing!

Woo! Finally done, several hours later than I have the last few weeks....

Since I know my free members couldn't read the previous message I'm repeating here. Feeling a little sick today, that's why things took so long. Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow, but if I get worse I may end up taking the day off.

I haven't come up with a clear plan for the week, but it's going to be something like: 2UG, 1SS, 1IM.

I may start writing on Wednesdays again, and if I do I'll be doing SS and IM. Which brings the total up to 4TBoB, 2UG, 2SS, 2IM, which'll be a good selection for the week... we'll see

“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered. “You’re the ones that killed Deadbeat?”

The small group of women with a massive flower for a lower half smiled shyly, some shrugged, a couple even tried to slowly creep away on the mass of vines under the bud. They weren’t exactly the fastest plants I’d ever encountered, they were actually quite slow, it’s just they could cover a massive area with those vines of theirs.

I sighed, and made a quick motion to the rest of the squad, who immediately moved in for the kill. 

The plant women did their best to resist, throwing dozens of prehensile vines at us but even though the vines were fast, they didn’t last long against a set of sharp blades. We cut through them, without mercy.

“You know, it’s strange. That group leader we defeated back there only listed her Pekeketua and Anthophilan troops, which I can only imagine were the frog and bee troops. She didn’t mention anything about these… flowers?” Spooky said.

“Alraunes!” Nyx shouted, using Bandit.

“No, she didn’t, but I suspect that was intentional,” I muttered. “By not revealing they had backup the Alraunes could launch surprise attacks while we were distracted. If that fight had dragged on for a while they might have been able to grab two or three people.”

“Smart move,” Spooky muttered.

“It was,” I agreed, “and not the only one. Did you notice they avoided grabbing Bob, despite him being much closer? They must have seen our other fights, or had someone advise them on our tactics.”

“And we just revealed our biggest ace in that last fight,” Bandit grumbled.

“Maybe not the biggest,” I replied, glancing at Bob, “but, yeah, we have to assume they’ll all know we have guns going forward. It’s not all bad though, if they know we have guns I can only imagine they’re going to be hesitant to resort to a long range firefight going forward.”

“Which means we just have to deal with the ambushes and suicidal charges. Huzzah…” Bandit mumbled.

“I know, it’s not perfect, but it’s something,” I exclaimed. After quickly glancing around, and confirming there didn’t appear to be anyone else waiting to ambush us, I sighed. “We must be getting close to the end, if the other two floors are anything to go on. Let’s hurry to the end, once we complete a ‘wing’ we’ll be able to bring one of our teammates back.”

“That’s a weird mechanic,” Bob exclaimed. “Why would you allow your enemies to recover? You should grind them while they’re down!”

“Because this isn’t a war, it’s closer to a game,” I explained. “Plus, I have a feeling that most teams have WAY more trouble than we have, even when they know all the encounters, and tactics.”

“Well, they should just get better then,” Bob huffed, causing the others to chuckle.

“Bob, do you think a PMC member could stand up to you?” I asked.

“Nooooo….” the bear replied.

“Then you shouldn’t expect the people around here to be up to your standards either. I doubt many people around here could stand up to you, magic or not.” 

The bear stared at me for a moment, then nodded.

“Okie dokie,” he said, before turning and marching forward. I just shook my head as I followed.

It didn’t take long until the path opened up. Unlike the previous floor there was no grand arena, just a wide clearing with a cave on the far side. The clearing was littered with the remains of different creatures, making the area look like the lair of a predator. 

“The floor leaders are all intelligent creatures, right?” Spooky muttered.

“To the best of my knowledge,” I replied quietly, not taking my eyes off the cave. “But I don’t remember anything in the rules about it.”

Something in the cave snorted, sending a wave of dust rolling across the arena. I immediately switched my helmet to a light amplification mode, and got my first look at what we were facing. It was lionish… well there was a lot of ish going on. It had two heads poking off the front of its body, both a lion and goat, the body of a lion with bat-like wings, and a snake for a tail. It was so strange that I just kind of stopped and stared at it for a minute. 

That probably wasn’t the smartest idea when standing in front of a monster that was, in theory, just a better version of a lion. As soon as I stopped the beast burst from its lair. 

It was fast, extremely fast, I barely had enough time to draw my axe before it bore down on me. Thankfully the rest of my team was far more prepared, and less surprised, then I was. Heavy just managed to step between the monster and I, catching the cat mid pounce and shoving it to the side. 

“Down!” the polar bear ordered, bringing his mace down on the goat’s head.

It probably wasn’t the smartest thing he could have said in this situation, because it seemed to enrage the beast. The monster reared up, and brought one of its massive paws straight into the shield. Instead of bouncing off, and attacking again, it sunk its claws into the wood of the shield. I saw Heavy’s eyes go wide as the cat creature used its prestigious strength to throw the shield to the side. Since Heavy had lashed the shield to his arm, he went with it.

With my guardian out of the way, the monster set its sight on me again. 

“Impressive, I don’t know many things that can throw Heavy, magical or otherwise,” I growled. “If you think that’s going to, in any way stop him though, you have another thing coming.”

Both heads chuckled. The lion head even shook as if it was saying ‘I don’t expect it to’. 

Intelligent then, got it.

When it started charging again I began swinging my axe to keep it at bay. Quick, back and forth strikes instead of long heavy ones that would leave me open. Sure, the short strikes might now bite deep, but the head of the weapon was glowing orange white with heat, which was enough to make any animal hesitate, magical or otherwise.

While the cat-thing swiped at me, trying to find a way past my weapon, the others weren’t idle. Bandit slipped around to the far side of the clearing and fired a crossbow bolt directly into it’s side.

“Over here you blighter!” the fox yelled before turning around and shaking his tail at the monster.

The goat head snapped towards him, while the cat kept its eyes locked on me. 

“You sure I’m what you should be looking at?” The fox taunted. The goat head snapped back towards me, but I just took a step back and threw my thumb towards my left. Just as Bob connected, tackling the monster at a full sprint.

I honestly thought Bob had killed the thing on impact. Not only did it sound like an antithesis getting hit by a car, but the monster didn’t move for several seconds afterwards. Once the stunned surprise faded however, the lion-goat jumped back to its feet and immediately started tussling with Bob.

I had to hand it to the beast. Throwing Heavy was one thing, going toe to toe with Bob? That was another thing entirely. The two heavy weights struggled against each other, throwing up dust as they wrestled with each other.

When I tried to approach, and help Bob the snake tail snapped out closing just a couple inches from my face. Backing out, I tried again from another direction, only for it to happen again. Frustrated, with the relative stalemate happening in the middle of the area, I snapped. 

“Spooky, remove that serpent. Heavy, goat head. Bandit, aim for the vitals. Bob… Hold it still,” I shouted.

The stalemate ended right there and then. The monster reared up and clamped its leonine head down on Bob’s left arm, while simultaneously batting him with its right paw. Just a few seconds before a similar attack had nearly caused Bob to topple, this time he didn’t budge an inch. 

I saw confusion, and then fear pass the creature’s eyes as Bob locked one arm around the lion head, and the other around the creature’s front leg. No matter how much it struggled the monster couldn’t get Bob to let go, it couldn’t even get him to budge from his spot. 

He’d never move from that spot again, unless he wanted to, that was the whole point of his spatial anchor.

The rest of the team closed in. Spooky quickly dispatched the snake tail by letting it latch on to him, then severing the extended body. Heavy brought his mace down on the goat head again and again, slowly smashing it into submission, and I approached the now wide open belly.

The monster knew how open it was, and its back legs were kicking wildly as it tried to escape the hold. It wouldn’t be enough.

My axe bit deep into the chest, ribs cracked, flesh sizzled. The lion-goat cried in pain and fury, but didn’t die, its body was just too thick for me to get a fatal hit. So I swung again, and again, cutting deeper and deeper until the monster finally laid still. 

Even after the monster dissolved I could still smell of burning flesh and cracking bones didn’t leave me. I actually felt a little ill. It might have been a victory, but it didn’t feel like it.

“You okay boss?” Spooky asked, as the portal appeared.

“Fine,” I muttered. “This simulation is just a little too good sometimes.”

I went to wipe my hands on my pants, trying to clear the blood, when I realized they were completely clear. All the viscera had dissolved with the creature.

I sighed and turned towards the opening. “Let’s get into the rest area. We need to figure out who we want to bring back, along with which wing we want to challenge next.”

“We’re right behind you,” Spooky replied quietly.