For now.
It was about to get very loud. Luke had plans to bring down destruction and ruin on the heads of every single Hive Wolf on the peninsula.
“Are you sure about this plan, Luke?” Shepard said. “From what you said earlier, there are a ton of wolves out there.”
“Skywalker. Bossman’s name is Skywalker,” Bumblebee interrupted.
“It really isn’t,” Shepard said, exasperated.
Luke rolled his hand. “Be that as it may, while in the field I don’t want any confusion. Call me Skywalker during this mission.”
Shepard shook his head in disbelief, but said, “Fine.”
“And yes, I am sure about this plan. Because we aren’t fighting a ton of wolves. We are fighting one Hive Wolf. We only have to convince that one mind to commit everything to the fight, and after that it will all be over. My lure will bring in the majority of the Hive Wolves, and once we have killed enough of them, the rest will attack like mindless beasts.”
Bumblebee patted the large bundle of scale hide he and Sandwich were carrying. “Is that what this is, a lure?”
“Yeah, I got the idea when I was talking to the Seer. He said it should work. Well, he said the idea is sound.”
“You aren’t exactly instilling confidence, Skywalker,” Shepard said.
“We went over this, you know that we won’t even be close to the action and we have everyone here to protect each other in case things go sideways. This is as prepared as we can get.” Luke said confidently.
Internally, he wasn’t as confident. This was his first fight against intelligent monsters. He had developed a plan A and B, but plan C was to run. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
The eight of them walked through the forest, arriving at the estate village as dawn light was warming the copper roofs. Waking Kruro to collect the enchanted weapons took longer than expected. Apparently naga don’t like to get up at dawn. After knocking on the door for a few minutes, Jinx walked through the walls and down to her burrow to wake the runewright.
Luke tried to convince Jinx to stay, but she wasn’t having it. She knew something was up and wanted to come with. Since he literally couldn’t stop her, he was forced to let her come with. He sighed and patted his shoulder.
They headed out then. Luke sent his magic drone ahead to scout out the route. He saw a few monsters along the way, but directed the group around them. They didn’t have time for fights right now. He wanted to start the attack early enough in the day that the Hive Wolves were still sluggish.
???
“Sighted in, ready to go!” Bumblebee said and gave Luke a salute.
“This isn’t the military, you don’t need to salute.”
“I know bossman. But since this isn’t the military you can’t order me not to salute,” Bumblebee said with a grin. He shut his visor and drew his Acid Sword.
Luke shook his head, but ignored the backtalk. “Whatever. It’s time to get going. Extend those legs into running position and go catch the attention of some Hive Wolves. It’s time to start.”
Bumblebee activated the extending mech legs on Mark I and bounced in place for a bit. He waved and said, “Be right back.”
Then he practically disappeared, racing down the steep side of the bluff. He was showing off what he could do with Rush. The rest of them stayed at the top and manned the positions Luke had assigned them.
Shepard, Barrow, and Green were on the right side, and Sandwich, Davis, and Vanessa were on the left. Luke made sure his magic drone was in position, as high up in the air he was allowed.
Bumblebee raced across the scrub brush and arrived in front of one of the ‘fingers’. The four thin landmasses were almost certainly full of Hive Wolves, but he only needed to catch the attention of one of them.
He slowed down and held out his sword, activating it and letting it drip acid onto the sandy ground near the scraggly bushes. Luke told him to get their attention, but it looked like Bumblebee wanted to play a part. He stalked forward, acting like he was hunting monsters.
A single Hive Wolf jumped out of the bushes near the ridgeline of the landmass, nine inch claws outstretched. Bumblebee bent space and slid out of the way with Evade. The monster was still realizing it had missed when he sliced the Acid Sword down onto its back. He cut deep, the acid worked deeper. Within seconds, the monster was dead and almost cut in half.
He snuck forward again, pretending he was still hunting for monsters. Luke cursed him, all he needed to do now was to run. He was going to get himself killed by stalking deeper into their territory.
Bumblebee walked forward, disappearing behind the stone outcropping that was the start of the finger’s ridgeline. Luke clenched his fists and sent his magic drone after him. If he had to, he would reveal its presence to save the idiot.
Moments later, Bumblebee raced back towards them, with more than a dozen monsters on his heel. He was flinging acid behind himself, injuring and enraging the monsters. Luke’s heart beat faster as the reckless kid ran towards the target site.
Bumblebee stopped in front of a large form. It looked like the body of a large monster, hydra skin stretched over tentpoles with rotting meat inside. That strong smell was accompanied with a carefully cracked tier three monster core. The heavy smell of mana on the air would make it seem like there was a tier eight or nine core within the body.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Once the monsters following him caught scent of the body behind him, Bumblebee spun and attacked the Hive Wolves. As much as Luke hated it, the action worked perfectly. The hive mind of the monsters had caught a whiff of a delicious core and now there was a chance the human would kill the outriders and take it.
Dozens of wolves streamed from every finger, aiming directly for the mech in front of their meal. There were also a handful from the north and south, ones Luke hadn’t even known were there. Bumblebee laughed and spun on his heel and raced away. He put on speed with Rush and made it up the steep side of the bluff.
The monsters surrounded the lure as he ran away. They were pawing at the scales, but the monster hide was too tough for even their long serrated claws.
“That was dumb, you just needed to lead them over to the hydraskin tent, not risk your life,” Luke said.
Bumblebee caught his breath and said, “It worked, didn’t it?”
It had worked, maybe a little too well. There were now more than a hundred Hive Wolves assembled in front of the bluff, surrounding the scaled lure and sniffing the mana rich air. Luke had planned for thirty monsters, max fifty. His plan might not work with this many.
After a moment of indecision Luke decided to go ahead. Even if this didn’t work today, he needed to reduce their numbers. He barked out, “Fire!”
An instant later, the sounds of magic mortars went off, mostly silent. Six huge flaming balls of fire arced through the air, traveling hundreds of feet to land near the gathered monsters. None of them hit the beasts, instead they formed a rough circle around the Hive Wolves. Huge flames rose up from where the magnets landed and the monsters backed away.
“Again!”
Six more balls of fire flew through the air, landing in a circle around the monsters again. Just as planned. They had sighted in the magic mortars without mana earlier, just magnets. Once they had the range correct, they sprung the trap.
The Hive Wolves moved as one, away from the fire around them and towards the hydra skin in the middle of the target zone. A few of the Hive Wolves broke through the tent then, discovering it had been hollow inside.
Luke pressed a button then, activating the tiny actuator next to the cracked mana core. It connected a series of runes, ones that attempted to create an impossible power feedback. The small crack turned into an explosive decompression. A flash of blue was accompanied by a deep thump they could feel in their chest, hundreds of feet away. The mana detonation shot outwards, killing the monsters nearby. It was just as destructive as Vanessa had said that day with the hovertruck accident.
In an instant, more than twenty monsters died in the core vaporization. Of the survivors, many of them were injured and barely moving.
“Fire at Will!” Luke yelled and the others tilted the magic mortars slightly and loosed fireballs again.
The third, fourth, and fifth rounds decimated the remaining monsters. The fireballs were spread out, making it difficult for the single hive mind to react to simultaneous attacks. The fifth launch exhausted their ammunition for the mortars, but it had done exactly what he wanted it to.
Dozens more monsters had died, leaving only twenty or so alive in a burning field. Luke ordered his drone to fly in then and start picking off the survivors. It swooped in from the sky, using the airguns he had installed yesterday. Lightning froze the escaping monsters, and fireballs finished them off.
Luke had to bite his lip to keep himself from maniacally laughing. It was working so well. He hadn’t even fired a shot.
The monsters must have sensed him gloating.
“Behind us!” Vanessa yelled and pointed.
Less than a hundred feet away were about twenty Hive Wolves. They had been sneaking up behind them, probably since before Luke started the attack. The hive mind had been trying to counter-ambush them. Once the monsters realized they had been spotted, they raced towards the humans, blurring across the ground.
Luke raised his arms and fired all four arm cannons at once. Fire, ice, lightning, and sawblades sped through the air and killed two monsters. The survivors spread out, juked and jumped as everyone else added their own spells to the mix.
Another three monsters were cut down, and then the Hive Wolves were too close for spells. Luke pulled out his Fire Spear and activated Overcharge. His vision sharpened, his agility increased and a feral grin spread across his face.
They thought they were ambushing the humans, but they were just serving themselves up for him. He used Frictionless Slide to jerk forward, slicing into and through two monsters. He spun his long spear and brained a third one trying to sneak up on him from behind.
Three monsters were giving Sandwich trouble, and Luke slid twenty feet over to help him out. He stabbed his spear in and out like a flaming needle. He didn’t need to stop to make sure they were dead, nothing survives a spear through the head. Instead he raced on, helping others with their fights and killing stragglers.
Jinx followed his example, phasing in and out of fights to deliver the killing blow. Her newest set of prosthetics were big enough to let her jump more than five feet in the air with every attack.
Vanessa didn’t need any help, she had killed two of them on the approach and was bashing Hive Wolf skulls in with her lightning hammer now. When the last one was down, she looked around and seemed disappointed there weren’t more.
Luke glanced back to the other Hive Wolves. Most of them were dead, but the magical fires had gone out. Five of them had survived and were racing towards the humans. There weren't enough monsters left to form a hive mind smart enough to realize they should be retreating.
He grinned and shot a single spell into the air. Overcharge was still active, so a massive fireball shot out of his forearm, melting the barrel as it flew. The conflagration screamed through the air, impacting the center of the monster’s formation, killing four of them with the single spell. The magic drone flew in and finished off the last one.
He deactivated Overcharge and activated the second half of Repair Craft so he would be ready for anything. Luke looked around for further targets, but found none. The System of the World agreed that the fight was over and gave him a bevy of notices.
He pumped his fist. That had been a very productive fight. Profitable too. Even if only half of these monsters had a tier one core, there was a goldmine in that smoking field. War Machine hadn’t leveled up, but that wasn’t a surprise. His class level was locked behind his skill levels. Since his highest skill was level eight, he couldn’t raise his class above level eight.
He glanced around. It looked like Sandwich had taken damage on his hip, but could still walk. Shepard had lost his helmet and had a nasty scratch on his forehead, but he waved away Luke’s concern.
Vanessa was flipping her hammer and looking around for more victims. Luke was going to make a joke, but then he saw something that made his heart drop. Jinx was laying on the ground, breathing hard.
Today’s chapter title comes from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
For those worried about Jinx, please enjoy this exchange from The Princess Bride (1987)
- : She doesn't get eaten by the eels at this time.
- : What?
- : The eel doesn't get her. I'm explaining to you because you look nervous.
- : I wasn't nervous. Maybe I was a little bit concerned, but that's not the same thing.