Unconquered Tower

SEVENTEEN

“There you are, we were getting worried,” Moira said as the trio stumbled out of the ruins of the village. With the fighting dying down and the two hobs slain, the horde had broken. Except those who had been trapped inside of the walls.

Ogres and goblins had haunted the burning ruins. They’d ambushed the trio at every step of the way, but with Harris’ bloodline power, they’d never even been scratched. Blood and flesh hung from the edges of Roan’s warhammer, all that remained of their attackers.

“Didn’t think you’d have evacuated the village,” Taoya said with a shrug. The big man was moving slower, having burned through all his reserves and not wanting to strain his body. With his enhanced stats and skill it hadn’t mattered. It just took slightly longer to kill the ogres.

“The fire and smoke obscured too much visibility and was hindering in the healing,” Darren cut it, pointing to the rather large collection of survivors that stood in the field outside of the burning village.

They’d formed a circle with the injured piled up in the middle. Potions were being handed out and bandages wrapped up the smaller wounds. Roan had to guess there were at least a few hundred survivors, but it was hard to tell in the dark.

“How many hobs did you get?” Darren asked, hardly waiting for them to get closer so he didn’t have to shout.

“Two. Plus a bunch of ogres and eight shamans,” Taoya reported.

“Tyler got one of them too. That’s why she used her bloodline ability so early. Apparently the hob blitzed them right at dusk with a team of ogres. She melted them but took herself out of the fight,” Darren said. He pointed to where the tall woman was sitting in the center of the injured. A haze emitted from her as she sipped on a canteen and ate a protein bar.

“Gave her an inferior-grade healing potion and have her pushing it out. She can’t handle anything stronger than that at the moment,” Moira said when she saw them all looking at the elite.

“Smart. Three hobs here, dragon at Village Two, then three hobs at the last village?” Taoya guessed.

“Why’d they skip us?” Harris asked.

“Him,” Roan piped up, throwing his finger at Taoya.

“I want to agree, but let’s not be too hasty. If we close off other possibilities we can be blindsided,” Darren cautioned.

“We escort the survivors back to our village and then?” Harris asked, going to a knee and taking a sip from his canteen. Roan followed suit as he looked over the battlefield. It was filled with corpses that already were breaking apart. If he stared long enough he could see the skin sloughing off of goblins and covering the dirt.

“No more night hunting. We’re exhausted,” Darren said. Roan agreed. Without Taoya being fully charged up they would be easy prey to a hob and its shaman guards.

“We’re fucked tommorrow night then,” Roan said.

“Yeah. Five more hobs released and the dragon? We’re not going to survive that,” Darren agreed.

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“What do you suggest then?” Taoya asked, turning to look at Roan.

“We use all day tomorrow to upgrade as much as we can. Max out those time dilation chambers and run as many quests as we can. Rally all the survivors and then when it’s dusk, we go to the dragon’s cave,” Roan said.

“We can’t fight that dragon. Not yet,” Taoya countered.

“Kite it like I did when we first arrived. Hit it with everything we can as it emerges from the cave and lead it away. Everyone else goes into the cave and through the stairs,” Roan said, laying out his plan.

“Who says we can go? That we can take the stairs to the next level?” Moira countered. She wasn’t being argumentative, but casually pushing back on his idea.

“The quest doesn’t have a locked status like the last level did. It just said find the stairs. We get the level guardian out of the way and we can get a bunch of people out,” Roan said.

“Its a decent idea. But do we really want to give up the hunting opportunity?" Taoya said.

“If we lose the villages we lose access to the market. How long do you think we’ll last in the woods hunting without the market? And we lost the bounty boards. We can still earn credits, but nothing like we’re doing now.”

“He has a point. Losing the opportunity feels wrong though,” Darren said.

“If we all gathered at one village we could potentially hold off the hobs. But the dragon?” Roan said, feeling the need to remind them that the dragon was the threat. At least until the general or hordemaster showed up.

“We could kite the dragon like he said. Give everyone the opportunity to move on or stay for one more full day?” Harris said.

“Who’s going to kite the dragon through the woods in the dark?” Roan demanded. He’d done it in the light and it had been a nightmare of adrenaline, living one step in front of the dragon’s massive feet.

“I can do it.” Taoya volunteered immediately.

“No.” Darren responded, just as fast, his voice harsh as he looked up at the mountain of a man.

“If we lose you, we’re fucked. Until more skills and bloodlines improve or we meet up with some of the others, then you’re our best bet at surviving. Our main powerhouse fighter can’t be doing a delaying action. I can do it,” Darren said.

“You’re not fast enough,” Taoya countered.

“Not yet. But we have the body tempering manual and I can take that to boost me. Roan was able to stay ahead of it before he started tempering,” Darren said. He looked them over and sighed, wiping at his face.

“We’ll put it up for a vote with the Pact members. In the meantime, let’s get everyone back home and behind walls. We need to see how much we’ve earned and try to gather up every resource we can.” Darren walked away from them, shoulders set firmly as he entered through the ring of guards and headed directly to Tyler.

“Seems out of character for him to take that risk,” Roan said when he knew Darren couldn’t hear him.

“You don’t know him.” Moira spoke softly as she watched Darren bend down to talk to Tyler.

“I don’t, you’re right,” Roan said, feeling the beginning of hostility from the three sect fighters.

“He’s devoted to his plan. Of course he wants to live and see it through, but he wants it to succeed even more,” Taoya said.

“A truly dangerous man if he’s willing to sacrifice himself for his goals.” Roan knew that Darren was willing to sacrifice others, but that he’d sacrifice himself wasn’t something he thought he’d see.

“It’s not a bad plan. It just needs a bit of adjustment,” Roan finally said. Three pairs of eyes turned to him and he waved them over so he could explain his idea. While he wasn’t Darren’s biggest fan, nobody seemed like they were, nobody could doubt his skill or leadership so far. It was too early into the climb to start having their leaders die in vainglorious sacrificial moments.

“While I like the idea of Darren kiting the dragon through the woods, I think we can do better with teams working the dragon over,” Roan began as he used his foot to sketch in the blood soaked muddy ground.