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Bk 3 Ch. 23 Healed
🕑 Added 2024-10-31 00:32:45 +0000 UTC23.
A/N: Kinda screwed up the pacing so this chapter came up a bit shorter than expected.
They came two hours after dawn. Cameron led them through the ruins of the city outskirts, his armor dinged and bloody. His shield was a battered wreck that he let hang by his knees as he trudged at the front of the group. The rest came behind him in a ragged line, all of Santi’s friends and family still alive. A heavy weight left his shoulders as he saw them all, Tank, Bianca, Daniel, and Hana. Yessenia was walking in the center, her massive golem drenched in gore, by her side.
Grimvr and Torin were next, Mom between them looking blankly about her. Behind her trailed twenty or more people, all of them looking worse for the wear. Rayleigh had a group of her own people that clustered around her, seeking her stubborn strength after the tribulation they had just endured.
Chloe leaned against him, more in exhaustion than in any type of affection. After he had finished off the Acolytes, more and more monsters had come. Chloe had come out of the store, tired but willing. She had killed her fair share before the waves had finally broken, thirty minutes before dawn.
They had rested, sitting next to each other and waiting to see who would be coming out of the frenzy outside. Santi didn’t know how large of a group had originally come, who had answered his call, but he was staring at a battered and exhausted group. He could only imagine who had been left in muddy ground.
“Cam! Good to see you. Tank, you have any juice left in the tank? Me and Chloe are torn up,” Santi said to them as they walked up to him. His wounds were half healed, coagulated messes that had drenched his clothes and were now tacky and stuck to his skin.
“Santi. This had better been worth it. There is enough dead left behind us to fill a cemetery,” Tank’s voice was dead and flat. Exhaustion shot through his body as he staggered up to them. Santi pulled a mana potion free, his second to last one from the box he had earned, and handed it to the medic.
Tank didn’t even hesitate as he grabbed the potion and drank it down in a single swig. He went to Chloe first and started to do his work while Santi headed toward Cam and Bianca. The rest of the war party was breaking apart, collapsing into the street or against a wall, spent to their last.
Bianca leaned against Cam who still stood tall. Mom marched toward them in a clatter of metal, her once pristine armor dented and battered. Torin stayed next to her, his hammer held easily in his hand, still dripping his opponent’s blood. Grimvr stuck with Yessenia as they marched straight into the grocery store without looking at him.
“Are you guys ok?” Santi whispered to his best friend and older sister.
“Fuck no, Santi. That…that was horrible,” Bianca whispered towards him, seeming to draw strength from leaning against Cameron.
“Santi. It was a nightmare. That shit. That shit, man,” Cam swayed and Santi reached out to grab him and by proxy his sister. The three formed a tripod for a moment, helping each other stay upright. Cam got his legs back under him and Santi helped lead them to a partial wall and they all sank down. Mom and Torin followed after, but didn’t crowd them.
“It was just a wall of flesh and blood and teeth, Santi. There were so many of them, they just kept coming and coming and coming. Then there were the other people. The cursed. They were worse. They laughed and howled when we cut them, they didn’t care no badly how we hurt them. They only stopped when they died,” Bianca whispered, curling into Cam.
“How many were there?”
“Fuck man, who could tell? There were lots of them, dozens, fuck maybe a hundred. Most were weak, sub twenty-five, but there was maybe three of four who were strong as us. Me and Bianca got one of them and Grimvr, Daniel, Hana, and your Mom got another. Torin killed one and Yessesnia’s golem got another,” Cam cut in.
“We need an accurate count. That scout we snagged said their camp numbered in the hundreds if not thousands, but they had roughly a hundred Acolytes. Six made it into the town, you got four. That’s ten percent of their Acolytes right there. Then the ones we got on the coast. They’re thinning down.”
“Santi, we lost a lot of good people. We can’t afford another victory like that,” Cam interjected.
“Agreed,” Tank said as he came leading Chloe over. Chloe slumped to the ground while Tank leaned over, resting a warm hand on Santi’s shoulder as spells started to work on him.
“Then we need to be smarter. They outnumber us and can absorb losses we can’t afford. Where’s Daniel?” Santi asked, looking around.
“I’ll go get him,” Mom said, breaking off to go find the elusive scout.
They all settled down to wait as Santi thought feverishly. His mind was in a thick fog, tired and drained of all energy, but he could feel things connecting. Dots connected together as he thought of how to solve his problems.The variables were sliding together, the pillar, the beatles, missing scouts, his sisters class.
Daniel came up, walking slowly and without hurry as Hana trailed behind him. Mom was nowhere to be seen and Torin frowned when he failed to spot her. He turned and marched off without a word while Daniel sank into a crouch across from him.
“You called?”
“The scouts you lost to the beatles. Where were they? From here.”
“Little North and East. Maybe thirty miles.”
“That’s where we’re going then. Let everyone catch their breath, any who are still able to fight will move toward where we lost the scouts. Me, Chloe, and Daniel will go find Keegan. Those who are too hurt to fight will lead the community here back to Homebase. Everyone else will go to where the scout base was wiped out.”
“What are you planning, Santi?” Chloe asked sleepily next to him.
“We have too many enemies and not enough allies. But, Duncan told me he didn’t kill that base and I believe him. Which means there’s a high level bug nest close to that town. We’re going to make a trap and we’re going to endure. Yesi’s going to need a lot of supplies and we have plenty of ingredients sitting right outside the town limits moldering right now.”
“Who the fuck is Duncan?” Cam asked. Santi ignored him for the moment as he continued to come up with a plan on the fly.
“Someone go and grab Yesi. Her grimoire will have the ingredient lists she needs to make something special. I’ll pay anyone who goes out there and works collecting five wooden coins and open up the market to them immediately when I finish claiming the pillar.”
“Are coins really worth that much?” Someone muttered. They definitely were, but only Santi and the dwarves knew that. The wealth his Mom and Dad had acquired while running their little restaurant was impressive. It’d be more than enough to pay back Torin for his time and work, if he would accept it.
“How soon till it’s yours?” Chloe muttered.
“Later today. We will have it set up before we move out of here.”
“I need a nap,” Chloe declared, closing her eyes and falling asleep nearly instantly.
“We’re getting off track. So, we’re going to lure everyone up there and somehow lure a bunch of high ranking bugs into the fight and just hope we get out of it ok?” Bianca asked.
“It’ll be more than just hoping it goes ok. We’ll work it out, but Yesi is going to play a big part. We just need to find her the right ingredients and a good power source.” Santi’s mind flashed back a particular rift heart that had been stolen from him. One that hadn’t been used for the earlier ritual that Duncan and his faction had planned.
“There’s plenty of ingredients, but where are we going to get a power source? I don’t think there’s any rifts around here for us to take.”
“You’re good now, Santi. I don’t have anything left in the tank anyway.”
“Did you just make a pun off of your nickname?” Santi said with a chuckle so weak it barely passed his lips.
“Yes. Laughter is the best medicine. What we need, all of us, is some sleep. We’re all burnt out and at the edge of our abilities. Need to heal up and prep for tonight. Doctor’s orders.”
“Can’t ignore the doctor. Someone gather up the community members from here and have them do the harvesting. Five awake and on watch, the rest sleeping.” Santi’s orders were met with a wave of nods and acceptance as everyone staggered to their feet and headed toward the burnt out store that Frank and Zeke’s factions were set up in.
Santi had a moment of isolation as everyone left, only Chloe, slumped against the wall next to him snoring softly, his only company. He had a long line of notifications he had to scroll through, but his eyelids were drooping shut and he was struggling to stay awake.
With a groan of effort he got up, his knees weak and wobbly as he scooped up Chloe. She hardly stirred against him as he started off toward the store. He had a tentative plan, he had the pillar, and he had enemies. His allies were with him, now all he had to do was execute the plan.
