I ran toward the general with my spear facing out, but then I took a page out of Nola’s book. I tried to pole jump like she suggested so long ago. My spear dug into one of the small holes in the thin rocky ground and I catapulted into the air.
My foot slammed into the general’s forehead. He stumbled but didn’t fall. I, however, did fall. Hard.
As I lay on my back, wondering if I was paralyzed, the monster bent over me. He balled his fist, then slammed down with it.
I rolled to the side in time and got to my feet. I ran toward Vix.
“Are you okay?” I asked, not taking my eyes off my opponent.
“Unh,” is all she said. Damnit. Twenty-five settlers and not a single healer, or even a potion maker of any kind.
“Get inside,” I said. “You need a recovery bed.”
“I want to fight,” she said.
“And you will,” I said, “but not today. Go!”
She rolled the front door aside enough to squeeze through and shut it again. Cindra and Mamba watched from atop the nearest tower.
“I can outlast you,” the general said. I can outlast all of you!”
I felt my mouth foam. I spit to the side, frothy saliva that reminded me of a rabid dog. That evil magic was working its way into me.
I was pissed that he hurt Vix. Pissed that he hurt any of the girls I was sworn to protect. Pissed that he wanted to hurt Nola.
I roared. I ran at him with my spear stretched out and pierced the metallic skin of his shin by a Piercing Blow.
He howled and reared back, then lifted his leg and stomped. The ground cracked below his foot. He swung his fist low and caught me up, knocking me into the tower’s wall and cracking my back. I was winded, and every inch of my body hurt. I couldn’t fight this way.
I got to my feet and stumbled toward the door.
“Duul will destroy everything you have ever known,” the general said. “The delicate cities you so carefully planned will be rubble. The beautiful pastures you manicure with fruit trees and crops will be fire and ash when man learns to fight in his name!”
Forget your calm thoughts, Nola said. This guy’s the one in need of some serious chill.
She was right. The goddess of last minute ideas to save the day was right.
“Enough,” I said. I struggled to keep the hatred from my voice, afraid that letting it strike my ears would send me over the edge. “You’re right.”
“You would give up so soon?” he asked.
“I’ve never wanted war more than I do now,” I said. “Everything Duul said is true. The gods are weak. Keeping you from the goddess is a waste. Let me fight alongside you. Let me serve as Duul’s head priest!”
The general laughed a hearty, deep laugh. It was the callous laughter of a mirthless creature whose only pleasure derived from pain.
“Let me make amends for my missteps,” I said. “Let me increase your Strength.”
“You offer to skillmeister me?” the creature said.
“Arden!” Mamba yelled. “Arden, no!”
Oh, Arden, Nola said, have I really lost you?
“I offer freely,” I said.
“Give me the Strength to crush your goddess with my bare hands,” he said.
“All I needed was your permission.”
I opened the creature’s skills menu before me. It had killed so many people and gods, yet its stats were a shadow of what they could have been. The XP stored up was tremendous. I added one point of Strength, then two. The creature grew in size and shape, bulging outward in a massive display of brute power.
The ground creaked under his weight. I improved its Strength again, one point at a time. A crack split in the rock underfoot. More Strength only increased its size, his weight. The crack grew longer, snaking across the surface of the path to Nola’s temple.
The earth strained to hold this giant up, groaning under its gravity. Just a little more, I thought. I pumped all of his XP into Strength, forcing his shape into a mighty pillar of metallic muscle.
His XP ran out before my plan worked. Instead of sending him into the depths below the rocky path, I had made him invincibly strong.
He beat his fists against his newfound muscles. For a moment, I panicked.
Then I looked at my own skillmeister menu. My HP was drastically low. I smiled.
“You left me at 9% of my HP, general,” I said.
He cocked a head to the side, thick cords of muscle tightening in his neck.
I pointed my spear at the ground and activated Spear Cannon. A burst of power erupted from Razortooth’s blade, blowing up the rocky ground beneath the general’s feet. The ground crumbled in a thin layer of brown stone, already weakened by the monster’s heavier, bulkier body.
He crashed into the meditation room below, his body a pincushion for sturdy stone spires that had finally served a purpose.
He groaned and twitched, then lay still. The room below, now an open pit exposed to the sun, filled with black blood. It charged the last of the energems we had collected, providing us another round of powerful tools against the next wave of Duul’s attacks, whenever they may come.
Once the dark ooze had disappeared from the depths, a large black stone sat gleaming under the sun. It was the energem the general had stolen from Valleyvale and carried with him on this assault. We’d have to decide whether to use it or return it to the city, but that was a conversation for later.
“It’s over!” I yelled. Cindra and Mamba had run from their tower, careful not to lose their footing along the edge of the pit that had opened up. They hugged me, one on each side, as Lily and Ambry stood on the other side of the chasm.
The stone door rolled to the side. Vix stood there, still bleeding and leaning on her hammer for support.
“I told you to rest,” I said.
“How could I rest?” she asked. “When I left you were losing. If it came down to it, I was going to pick up where you left off.”
I took a few steps into the temple as the other settlers cheered and whistled. The base was badly damaged, and so were we, but we had won.
+26
You did it, Nola said.
Thanks to you, I said. When you said that guy needed to chill out, I realized you were right. He was in dire need of a little meditation.
So I did it again?, she asked. I gave you a clever insight?
That you did.
As we filled the temple, Nola opened her eyes. She pushed aside the front panel of her crystal and reached out her thin arms. Her pretty face shone with yellow light. Then she spoke directly to all of us.
“You, brave men and women of our settlement, have accomplished something few others have. Through hard work and ingenuity, you created a defense that even Duul’s army could not surpass. I could not be more proud of you, or happy for you.
“Duul is responsible for so much suffering, which has touched my life personally. I’m sure it has touched yours too. He has conscripted or killed this land’s fathers, sons, and brothers. By now he has trapped and enslaved countless mothers, daughters, and sisters. Together, we must stop him. We may be the only ones who can.
“When I came to this temple, it was a hollow shell, a home started and abandoned, by what god or goddess I do not know. I claimed it as my own, but I was alone.
“My head priest, your leader, Arden Hochbright, has turned this empty cave into a home. A beacon of hope and security in a world occluded by fear and hate. But it’s you that made it grow. You brought this place up from nothing and built homes, walls, workspaces. You craft and dig and build and cultivate. We are a settlement now, soon to rival the Imperial City. Welcome, everyone, to Halcyon.”
A few people repeated the name aloud. Halcyon. It was a momentous name, imbued with more meaning than your average Meadowdale or Valleyvale. This was a place that would matter.