Chapter 55: Zane’s Plan
The crunch of footsteps echoed across the summit as Zane and his men stepped forward. They took slow, steady steps as they approached the boss.
From the looks of it, Arthur could tell Zane’s plan was to take the Alpha by surprise and hit it from all three directions at once, and either kill it before it realized what was going on or at the very least, injure it.
Arthur watched everything unfold in silence, his gaze traveling between the three men and the massive beast.
The Stonehide Alpha still lay on the ground unmoving. It didn’t seem to have noticed the three men inching closer and closer with every step.
...Not until they slipped within a five-meter radius, that was.
Then the Alpha’s eyes suddenly opened.
Two slits of molten orange opened in its stone-gray face. Arthur saw them scan its surroundings like a pair of emotionless blades before they quickly landed on the wiry man in the lead. For a moment, even the air itself seemed to turn heavier across the summit.
Then the boss opened its mouth.
"RAAARRGH!!!"
An unbelievable wave of pressure exploded outward, causing the entire peak to shake violently.
Even from a distance, Arthur could feel his ears ringing violently, and for a second he thought he was gonna go deaf. He’d never heard anything like this before. Next to him, John let out a curse and hurriedly clapped his palms over his own ears, desperate to keep his eardrums from bursting.
And if the pressure was this strong dozens of meters away, Arthur could only guess how bad it must have been for Zane and his group who were standing in the center of the storm.
...Unfortunately for the trio, this was only the beginning.
The Alpha finally moved, slowly rising as if it was waking up after a long slumber. Its massive frame unfolded upward in its full majesty.
Arthur found himself measuring the creature without meaning to. Twelve feet (4meters), no, probably more than that. It was easily twice his and John’s height, and well more than twice their combined width.
Its hide was covered with slabs of weathered rock, with scars running across its torso.
It looked around, at the three humans daring enough to approach it.
But it didn’t rush.
It just took a single, slow step forward... and as it raised its massive leg, the entire peak trembled once more. Arthur could feel the ground shaking beneath his feet, pebbles skittering and clicking together as they rolled down the slope.
All the while, the Alpha’s eyes never left the three figures before it.
"Now!" Zane suddenly roared, jumping forward, no longer hesitating. Arthur couldn’t see the man’s expression, but even from afar, he could see him tremble, his legs shaking. But to his credit, Zane still forced himself to move.
His spear flashed once as he aimed a thrust straight at the boss’s belly. The other two moved with him, Pyth’s makeshift axe and Brock’s boar tusk coming down barely a second later.
The Alpha didn’t even try to dodge.
Zane’s spear glanced off its hide with a dull scrape, barely striking some sparks as it did, while Brock’s tusk thudded uselessly against its flank, as if it had landed on rubber. Only Pyth’s axe sank in... maybe half an inch, before it bounced back out again.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
Then the Alpha finally moved.
It didn’t strike fast.
Its front left leg, that was easily as thick as a tree trunk came sweeping in a wide arc, aimed squarely at Zane’s chest. It looked like it was trying to swat a fly.
It was slow enough that Arthur could follow every inch of it and marvel at how slow it was, but the gust of air that came alongside was another issue entirely.
Zane dropped low, hurriedly throwing himself under the sweep as his torso kissed the ground. The giant leg passed over him by a few inches, close enough that the wind of it tugged at his hair.
Arthur clenched his fists. He wasn’t even the one fighting, and still his body thrummed with adrenaline.
Was he... eager to fight?
...
Zane was up quickly after dodging the Alpha’s attack. He picked up his spear and barked orders through clenched teeth at his teammates as he broke into a run. Surprisingly, the other two didn’t hesitate. Pyth went for the beast’s left leg while Brock aimed for its right ankle.
Once again, Brock’s tusk bounced off the stone armor as though he’d stabbed it against a wall of steel, but Pyth’s axe actually bit in slightly. It punched through the hide and lodged into the Alpha’s leg, drawing out the tiniest beads of blood.
That finally drew a reaction from the monstrous creature.
Its head turned, its molten eyes landing on Pyth as if the man’s strike had finally made it angry.
The next attack came his way.
"Switch!" Zane shouted, already moving to the side to widen the gap between him and the monster.
Pyth didn’t wait for more words, either. He already knew the plan. He backpedaled to open the distance between them, then bolted away with everything he had. The moment those cold, merciless eyes landed on him, he knew he had to move.
As soon as the Alpha locked onto him, Zane and Brock stepped in together to attack again. Zane thrust hard at a crease on the monster’s hip, drawing out a few sparks in the process, while Brock chopped into the same leg Pyth had struck just now, aiming for the shallow wound the man’s axe had opened up.
The Alpha’s expression twitched for a moment. Its gaze didn’t quite leave Pyth, but it paused, as if weighing whether to deal with the ants at its legs first.
...And that was all Zane’s group needed to reset the rhythm.
Pyth kept running, circling the peak to stay clear of the boss’s attacks, while Zane and Brock filled the space he’d left, hammering at the edges the Alpha couldn’t guard without slowing itself down.
And in the midst of it all, Arthur tracked their pattern.
"So this is what they were going for, huh?" Arthur mumbled to himself.
Next to him, John nodded while rubbing his chin.
"It’s guerrilla warfare, more or less. One draws the boss while the other two chip at its sides. The moment the boss switches targets, the person it targets starts running while the other two attack it. Not bad."