Penelope watched as Patrick scrambled to get last-minute traps in place. Derek had been going around camp telling everyone who would or wouldn’t listen about his theory for the boss fight. At first, there hadn’t been many who believed him, but the more he pushed his story, the more uncomfortable people became with the fight ahead.
From her perch on top of one of the many towers, Penelope could see the numerous log traps, walls, and even a single ballista that they’d managed to put together.
This is overkill. Penelope shook her head. All because Derek riled a bunch of people up.
“It just means that when he’s wrong, he’s going to lose a lot of credibility.” Jeru snickered. “He’s going to be the boy who cried wolf.”
Why does that make me feel like he’s going to be even more of a pain? She ran her fingers through her red ponytail one more time, then tucked it behind the collar of her jacket. With the ability to enchant gear with whatever enchantments they wanted, Penelope had finally been able to ditch the robes, oversized pants, and sandals for a leather jacket that wouldn’t snag on every branch or bramble, pants that were more like denim than pajama bottoms, and boots that kept her feet clean.
It was a welcome change, but one that left her looking completely different than what she’d been wearing the last time she’d started this fight.
“Because people like him are never wrong.” Jeru grumbled. “He’s going to blame someone or something else for the inaccuracy, then move on to his next ‘revelation’ to get people to rally around him again.”
Maybe he’ll make something mad and they’ll take out the ballista. She looked over at the main wall. Derek and a couple of his people were manning the ballista there. It was already loaded with a large wooden stake and Derek had his hands on the lever to shoot it.
“That this is going to do nothing to these monsters.” Jeru shook his head. “They’re firing level one wood at level thirty monsters. They might as well be throwing paper airplanes.”
Well, maybe all this overkill will put people at ease a little more for the next boss fight. Penelope turned back to the black barrier.
“You definitely won’t be able to build most of these traps.” Jeru floated around the tower. “The lightning storms will destroy the towers and the traps.”
I thought the lighting only stuck in the squares we were… Realization dawned on her. The entire safe zone is going to turn into a battlefield the moment the barrier comes down.
“Bingo!” Jeru shook his head. “Which means everyone who hangs back…”
Is going to have to dodge the storms while we face off against the bosses. Penelope groaned. Ugh! One more thing to have to worry about on the next floor!
“Pen, you okay?” Circe walked over to her friend. “The countdown is about to start.”
“I’m fine, just have a bad feeling that Derek and his groupies are going to mess something up somehow.” Penelope looked at the others on top of the tower with her. Ula, Marlow, and Riva were all on the other side of the tower talking about something. While they were up here, Ula was only going to be helpful targeting a flyer who managed to get around Circe and Penelope, which was very unlikely to happen.
Patrick appeared on top of the tower. “That fool has got everyone whipped into a frenzy. I swear, if he’s right and we’re fighting double bosses, I might just throw him off that wall myself!”
“A thirty-foot fall is unlikely to kill him.” Penelope looked over at the balding man.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“I know that and we’ve got Healers who can patch up whatever he breaks, but it might just make my headache feel a little better!” Patrick tugged on his metal helmet.
“Let’s just focus on the monsters at hand, and then we can talk about how to deal with Derek and his friends while we get ready for the next floor.” Penelope closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“There’s not a lot for us to do up here.” Patrick peeked over the edge of the tower. “We’ve got fifty towers at the front…” He turned around and pointed at the row behind them. Seventy-five behind us and a hundred behind that…” He grumbled. I really wanted to get another row, but we didn’t have time for that.”
Penelope opened her eyes and looked around. The towers on the front row were twenty feet up in the air, while the row behind them was only ten feet above the wall and the row behind that was basically just a platform on top of the five-foot-high wall. Only the front wall had an actual pitfall ditch behind it. The middle wall had an exposed ditch with stakes sticking out of the ground, while the back wall simply had a fence of stakes on the other side of the wall.
With only twenty teams, there was too much space to cover, with the length of the barrier between 30E and 29E being fifteen hundred feet long. Most of their spells only reached thirty feet, which was how far apart Patrick spaced the towers. That had given them thirty-one towers to man. Granted, the groups were spaced out so that even the unmanned towers could be covered by the groups on either side, but they stood out as a weak spot in the defensive line.
The chant started, with each team joining in as they counted down from ten.
“Keep your wits about you.” Patrick growled. “Hopefully, we don’t have to take this to the ground.”
The last number was yelled out and the black barrier fell, revealing what they were up against.
“YESSS!!!” Circe cheered as only six large monsters were revealed. “SUCK IT, DEREK!”
“We’ve got 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, and 30.” Penelope let out a sigh of relief. I was tempted to have you just reset it until we got a boss fight without 26.
“30 is arguably more nasty.” Jeru warned her.
The Primal Bomber stood eight feet tall on two furry, black legs. The black fur continued up its chest, then turned to red down its arms. Blue rings circled the arms, while gold ones glowed around the legs. It was clad in a torn loincloth, with a fluffy, red tail trailing behind it. The duck-bill-faced monster had eight eyes and two pairs of horns on its head. One pair curved like a ram’s horn, while the other was curved down and jutted out beside the tooth-filled bill like tusks. A thick, red mane protected its neck.
It doesn’t have wings, what—
An acorn the size of a basketball appeared in its clawed hand and caught fire. The Primal Bomber arced back its arm and threw the flaming nut like a fastball at one of the towers. The projectile fell short, but the explosion blasted dirt and dust in the air.
“And that’s why it’s nasty.” Jeru clicked his tongue.
“We’re going to have to take that thing down!” Patrick looked at Penelope. It’s going to blow up our towers the moment it gets close enough!”
“It becomes a priority the moment it gets in range!” Penelope looked at the other new monster. The Rubsanas had already taken to the air. The winged Demon was also a biped, though it stood on two webbed feet and had a body made completely out of brambles. The duck-headed monsters had two clawed arms and a long tail that ended with a snake head. Compared to the rest of the bosses, the one from column 27 looked like the easiest thing they were going to have to fight.
“The main problem is that the bramble body makes it dangerous for melee attackers. You need a Tank that can withstand the beating, watch out for the tail, and then just burn it with fire.” Jeru gestured at the wave of smaller monsters approaching the towers. Two sets of each type of monster from each of the represented columns were in front of them. While the bosses were getting closer, the little monsters were the immediate threat.
“Let’s light the moats and if something gets over or around us, get in front of the next wall and try to take it down before we have to fall back!” Penelope shot a
Seventy-two little monsters wasn’t much more than the fifty-four that were usually in a square. As the flames rose higher from between the double walls, the monsters slowed down, staying well out of range of the people on top of the towers.
“Looks like it’s bosses first!” Circe pointed at the Demon Chimera.
The twenty-foot-tall monster roared as it galloped on all fours towards one of the unmanned towers to their left. The two groups on either side of the empty tower unleashed their ranged attacks as the three front heads slammed into the tower, knocking it over with ease.
“We’ve got a breach!” Patrick looked at the group of flying bosses that were changing course to follow behind the gigantic monster. “We need to help them out!”
A flaming acorn smashed into the wall on the other side of the lumbering boss, sending stone flying and scattering the burning brush. Tanks moved to the ground on the other side of the ditch to hold the boss’s attention, but that just exposed them to the cluster of smaller monsters.
Everyone rushed to focus on the breach, but Penelope remained rooted in place. She didn’t need Jeru to tell her who or how many had died. She could see them taking losses from seven towers away.
She didn’t have to say anything. Bright light washed away the current battle.
Rating, Review, Follow, Favorite, or Comment does wonders to boost my morale. If you want to help support my writing or check out advanced chapters, head over to my .
RR Writer's Guild