We’d had to form barriers to keep the caustic liquid from pooling into the chamber, which would in turn burn the feet of the defenders. The acid didn’t burn away with fire, but we found it could be frozen. The acid would eventually melt, but it lost its acidity after that. That became Elle’s job. She zipped from one chokepoint to the next, freezing the pools of acid.
I worried about the others. I sent a message to Bautista, asking him for an update.
Bautista: We couldn’t get back into 72. There are both ghouls and the Krakaren monsters, and they’re coming from everywhere. We’ve fallen back down the line. We got chased to station 60, but we couldn’t get in. There’s a big group of those mantaur things guarding the platform. Each one is a neighborhood boss. They’re super strong. One of them has gotten his hands on one of those alarm traps, and it’s playing some heavy metal song over and over. I think the song is giving them a buff, and it’s making everybody’s ears bleed. We had to fall back. We’re stuck between the two groups.
After that, I started to receive even more dire messages from several other groups. One group was pinned in the area between trainyard E and the monsters all pouring from the tunnels. They’d thought to switch over to the employee line, but they couldn’t get close. And the station mimic at the trainyard was sending pieces of itself out to hit them from behind. They were getting squeezed.
Everywhere, groups who’d stayed in the stations had taken heavy losses, but those who’d fallen back were unable to get back in, and now we had reports of province bosses appearing in the rooms where there hadn’t been one before.
“We need backup!” a voice cried behind me. It was the dog soldier woman. She was falling back. A human to her right abruptly had tentacles wrapped around him. His body exploded into mist. These new Krakaren monsters were suddenly all level 20 to 23 and about seven feet tall.
“Donut, Katia! Ludacris!”
“Mongo, stay!” Donut yelled as she jumped to my shoulder.
We detached from our spot and ran toward the hole in the defenses. “Get back! Let them through!” Elle cried. I pulled a boom jug from my inventory.
“Ready?” Katia asked, widening as she moved. She rotated her riot shield 90 degrees and pushed it forward, like a literal battering ram.
Ahead, the hallway was full of monsters, crammed tight. They screamed and rushed at us.
“Go!” I said.
She activated Crowd Blast. She rushed forward, exploding into the crowd like a wrecking ball. The Krakaren monsters and ghouls rocketed back like bowling pins. Acid misted into the air, and Katia cried out in pain.
I was already running, following her. She’d gone far, all the way to the first intersection. This junction was like a T, going left and right, both with short stairwells leading down, which in turn led to a dozen other chambers in each direction. I made a split-second decision as I ran, and I pulled a second boom jug.
Katia, dazed, but still on her feet, pulled her crowd-control baton and swung it in one direction as the crossbow flipped upside-down and fired in the other.
We came running up.
“Let me know when you’re ready!” I yelled.
“Go,” Donut said. “Counting down from three now.”
I tossed the boom jugs in both directions just as Donut puddle jumped us back to the main room.
Twin fireballs erupted at the end of the hallway. The three of us stumbled backward, having been teleported back into the main room.
Only then did I feel it, the acid burning my face and legs. Donut cried out in pain, also burning.
But Imani was right there, and all three of us glowed. She’d cast something to negate the acid, and a moment later, it was as if nothing had happened. Though my jacket, my only non-magical clothing item, now had a huge hole in the left arm. My cloak and other magical items were unharmed.
The dog soldier and the others quickly reset their defense while Imani shouted for backup at the chokepoints.
“That was pretty awesome,” I said, breathing heavily. “Katia, you okay?”
“I hate that ability,” she said, wheezing. “But wow, it works well. Did you see them all? There were like fifty of them at the bottom of both stairs, and you hit both groups.”
“We just wasted my last Puddle Jump of the floor,” Donut said. Mongo came rushing up and sniffed worriedly at Donut. “I’m fine. Mommy is fine.” She looked over at the dog soldier woman. “You’re welcome.”
The woman just grunted and reset her magical flamethrower.
Boom. We all felt the ground shake. A huge explosion rocked the chamber. A moment later, a second explosion also rocked the walls. Everyone paused, looking about.
I looked worriedly over at the crane, but the device held. The chains groaned, and the cart trembled, but it remained hanging there.
“What was that?” Katia called.
I shook my head. “It was nearby. I think that was maybe the soul crystal over at station 12. The second explosion was maybe the one on the other side of the noodle.”
“Fucking hell, Carl,” Elle said, floating up. “Did you do that?”
“Why is it every time there’s a big explosion, you immediately think I had something to do with it?”
“Because it usually is you,” she said.
“She does have a point, Carl,” Donut said.
“Was there somebody over there? Why did it blow?” Imani asked.
“I didn’t see anybody on the map,” Katia said.
Imani pointed. “Elle, take a team and check it out. Be careful. We might have to fall back to station 12 if the ghoul generators on either side are gone.”
“On it,” Elle said. She shouted at a pair of crawlers, and they headed toward the employee-line exit.
I had a thought. I sent a quick message to Mordecai.
Mordecai: I think you’re right. I’m guessing the soul crystals they use for those ghoul generators are a little smaller than the one you have in your inventory, so they can’t handle so much simultaneous stress. I know this because you’re still alive. Too much local stress, and they pop, like fuses. Luckily when they go that way, they’ll only kill everything in the room and maybe a block in each direction. And not an entire quadrant.
Carclass="underline" Holy shit I have a glorious idea.
Mordecai: No.
Carclass="underline" You don’t know what it is yet.
Mordecai: I don’t care what it is. If it’s a Carl idea, it’s probably a brilliant idea that’s going to get you killed. Donut told me about how you captured the Nightmare train. I bet you thought that was a glorious idea, too.
Carclass="underline" No, that was a dumb idea. This is much better. Though it’s funny you mention the Nightmare.
32
Time to Level Collapse: 17 Hours
Time to the Opening of the Stairwells: 11 Hours
When Katia had performed her crowd blast, quickly followed by me tossing the twin boom jugs, we’d killed several of the larger-sized Krakaren monsters at the same time. I didn’t know if it was because we’d killed them all at once, or if the constant fighting and killing had finally added up to some lifetime load limit. Whatever it was, soon after, the two closest soul crystals had popped. At least that was what I was gambling on. I suspected the bigger the Krakaren beasts grew, the more of a burden each one put on the crystals when they died.
This was likely all by design. A part of the game. A way to keep everything “fair.” In fact, I also suspected killing one of those province bosses likely had the side effect of blowing every soul crystal in the area.