Ultimate Level 1 - 194 - Outsmarting the Tower (Patreon)

“We really need to figure out how those brown cows are bringing so many allies,” Batrire said as she watched Fowl check all the corpses. “Is it like a magical summoning spell, or are there really that many of these things inside this tunnel system?”

Shrugging, Max stared off down the tunnel. 

“I can scout and bring back whatever I find. If we go slow, we might be able to decrease the number of additional groups that attack. My biggest concern is what lies further down the tunnel,” Max replied. “This spot helps us being as low as it does, but if we get somewhere with a twenty- or thirty-foot roof or the tunnel gets wider, we’ll be unable to bottleneck them like we did.”

“So, you’re planning to venture down the tunnel and lure back a group or two at a time?” Cordellia inquired, her voice filled with curiosity. “I wonder, what could possibly go wrong with that?”

Everyone turned their attention to the newest member of their group, Cordellia, and noticed the mischievous smirk she couldn’t hide. The sound of laughter reverberated off the cold, hard stones, creating a brief moment of respite from the tension and worry that had settled after their last battle.

“Well, we’d send Fowl, but with legs as short as his, he’d never make it back in time,” Max informed her.

Fowl held up his middle finger at his human friend, grinning the entire time.  

-----

Slowly, Max made his way down the tunnel, doing his best to stay silent on the cold, hard worked-stone.  The occasional bit of gravel or other rocks were lying on top of the dirt-packed area.  Fresh hoof marks showed the path of those that had come at their group.

The ceiling was getting taller, and now that he was about two hundred yards past the group, he could feel that it was probably high enough that a minotaur could manage to get over one if it jumped right.  That meant they really needed to stay put and pull creatures to their choke point.

His sonar revealed that the tunnel was turning up ahead, and he could sense an opening into something even bigger.

The number of torches on the wall began to increase, yet the light they gave off almost didn’t seem to improve.  It had to be something magical, keeping a certain ambiance and mystique to what they were going to find.

As the tunnel turned, a giant opening appeared, and Max almost let out a whistle as he walked toward the open area.

A giant circle-shaped room appeared, well over a hundred yards wide, but about sixty yards of it were missing. A giant stairway descended along the outer wall of the room, and a rushing wind came from deep below.

The stairs were about ten to fifteen yards wide, and each step was about two feet in height.  Leaning over the edge, Max could see the bottom went so far down that the darkness of it swallowed up the torches sunk into the wall along the stairs.

About seventy yards away, a pack of four minotaurs faced upward on the steps: three black and a brown one.

Frowning, Max slipped away quietly from the edge and made his way back to his team.

-----

“That sounds like both a good thing and a bad thing,” Tanila said.  “The advantage of limited space to fight in and having the high ground is nice.  Cordellia would be able to use her bow effectively and provided no one gets knocked off the edge. We should be good.”

“But without knowing how far down it goes, the other question I’m most worried about is how long we might end up fighting,” Batrire replied. “Mana isn’t an issue for one of us, but you and I need to be smart, and if we’re having to build walls to funnel them in, it might cause some problems.

“I still think Seth’s plan to push as many off as possible is a great idea,” Fowl stated. “Surely you two can manage that with your spells.”

Rubbing his bald head, Max nodded and saw the look Tanila was giving him.  Her eyes showed concern, everyone knowing that if someone fell off the ledge, there was a long fall that would most likely end in death.

“How much damage will Bulwark and Armored Warrior mitigate?”

Fowl turned to look at Max, his fluffy eyebrows raised as he did. “You're not thinking about if one falls off and trying to activate before hitting the ground, are you?”

“Just as a last resort.  Could one survive a fall of a quarter mile? Half a mile?”

The dwarf warrior shrugged and grimaced.

“I don’t want to test it, but I think you have a skill that would make everything not matter.”

Max’s eyes perked up as he tried to consider what Fowl was saying.

“I don’t think it works like that,” he replied.  “The speed at which I’m moving carries over when I come out of the portal.”

“But if you made yourself go upward, wouldn’t that speed cancel out?”

A pain formed in Max’s head as Tanila and Batrire gasped in shock. They stared at Fowl, who seemed surprised at their looks.

“How did you even think about that?” Max asked. “I mean, I’m not sure, but maybe… that seems like a lot of math, and I haven’t tested it yet.”

“Oh… just when I was younger and some of us were in a cart, we were idiots running off the back and trying to jump, seeing if we could run fast enough to fall straight down.  Usually, it didn’t work, mainly because our legs are short and the cart wasn’t long, but it reminded me of that.”

Chuckling, Max smiled and gave his friend a gentle shove.

“If I have to test it, I’ll let you know, but in the meantime, I’d prefer not to.”

Batrire came over and gave her man a kiss on the cheek.

“Who knew I loved a dwarf with a brain?”

“Bah, screw you all,” Fowl cursed as he grinned.  “So, are we ready to go?”

Everyone nodded, and the group moved down the tunnel in the direction of what Max had found.

At the top of the stairs, Max decided that the best choice was to use their spells and bow to maximize the damage before the minotaurs reached them. Without a surefire way to kill the brown one in the pack, adds were going to come, and all they could do was prepare for them.

“Walls will be set, and Fowl will stay near the edge. With his armor, he can’t get knocked off and provides the coverage for there,” Max said as they prepared for their first fight. “I’ll stand next to him and keep the wall closest to me. Talina calls for wall changes, and we back up as needed. Any last questions?”

Everyone shook their heads as Max and Fowl descended about ten steps, giving them room to retreat a few if needed while the others stayed on the upper part of the giant hole.

“Here goes,” Max declared as he summoned a massive fireball and nodded at Cordellia.

His spell flew across the open area, casting an orange and red glow as it raced across.  The range on it wasn’t designed to be perfect, yet his goal was to ignite the spot where the pack of four was.  

Cordellia had much better aim, and as she waited for his spell to connect, she began losing arrow after arrow upon the beasts.

A loud roar followed by a long, drawn-out moo signaled that the fight had begun.

The fireball had impacted near the front, catching two of the black monsters on fire. Their archer had managed to get two arrows to hit the smaller brown one.

More roars and moos came from below and the sound of hooves on stone echoed through the darkness below.

“Goblin shite,” Fowl muttered as he held his mace and shield ready.  “Sounds like a stampede.”

A snort came from Batrire, yet everyone watched the edges of the stairs they could see.  Soon, shapes were making their way upward, running past the torches and blocking the light for a moment, signaling that a stampede was on its way.

The first group made it to them in less than ten seconds, black minotaurs charging upward and at the two defenders.

The monster’s long two-handed axes prepared to unleash pain upon the dwarf, and the human never got a chance as Tanila sent a giant stone toward them, knocking them down as it rolled along the stairway and into the other two, sending the brown one over the edge.

“YES!” their mage shouted as the boulder continued to bounce and descend along the edge of the stairs. Her angle had been perfect, forcing the group toward the hole.

Max wanted to rush forward, cutting down the two who were standing up but waited, letting Cordellia put in the work, sending arrows that sunk deep into their hide, making them start to look like a porcupine.

More roars and mooing came as the sound of the stone still rolling down the stairs found the next group about seventy yards behind, surprised at the ball of death.

“Hurry up, already!” Fowl groaned as one of the first two finally reached him and Max.

Its axe came down, and the dwarf warrior easily deflected it to the stone he was standing on. This left the beast open for Max to swing his halberd and cut through its arm and into its chest.

Stumbling, it tumbled over the side, roaring as it fell into the black hole to the right. The sound finally ended after ten seconds.

“That sounds like a long fall,” Fowl exclaimed as he waited for the second minotaur, which made the same mistake. It attacked the dwarf and got its attack blocked while losing an arm and a chunk of its chest to Max.

Max sent it over the edge with a shove, letting it join its fallen ally.

“We got incoming!” Cordellia shouted as her bow continued to sound like a bard’s harp, the snapping of the string audible from the number of arrows she was letting fly.

Max leaned over slightly to get a better look, wishing he could see as good as the elf obviously could, but winced at the sight.

“There are like forty already, and maybe more coming!”

“Let them build up and then use a rock!” Tanila yelled. “I’ll be ready soon! Prepare your next wall when the next group gets here.”

Max nodded and found himself grinning, listening to her giving orders.

It’s about time everyone started carrying their own weight.

He chuckled at his own joke, knowing that phrase would get him in trouble, taking out the last of the first pack with Fowl.

“Get ready to smell cooked beef,” Max quipped. “This is going to take a while.”

Fowl chuckled and nodded, banging his shield and weapon together as a pack of five raced toward them, three of them already peppered with a dozen arrows.

-----

Time stretched on, but the truth was they had already defeated a hundred of the minotaurs, and the wave of monsters that had originally felt like it would never end was coming to a halt.

The last pack had struggled to make it over the fallen ones on the stairs, now slick from the blood left by their death.  Even when the bodies dissolved and left behind the gem, the blood had stayed longer, causing a dangerous ascent to become even worse.

Both Max and Tanila had alternated their boulder abilities, letting groups build-up, sending one down, bowling over anywhere from four or five to once, almost a dozen, as it rolled along the wall, forcing the beasts to stand near the edge.

Max would then send out fireballs, causing an explosion that sent others tumbling over and helping him to keep his mana high.

“Almost four hundred arrows,” Cordellia said as she swapped out another quiver.  “Like shooting pigs in a pen, but I really don’t feel bad about it.”

Batrire sighed, having been the only one who did very little.  

“You four did great. I was impressed with the teamwork. Now, rest up, and we can see about slowly making our way down,” their healer informed everyone. I don’t want to be stupid and get overconfident. “Something tells me we weren’t supposed to be able to do this.”

Their ranger laughed and shook her head, causing her braid to whip back and forth.

“I’ve fought in the tower for months.  You four have done more than any group I have been with, and I doubt even Dexis’s group could compete,” she said.  “The combination of spells and abilities you bring is beyond anything I can expect the tower is designed for.  Most mages only pick up earth for the root and wall portion, rarely advancing it till way later if they can.  Those who actually hit level one hundred, which, as you know, is super rare. They would save those points, excited at the day they got elemental mastery.”

Nodding, Max bent down and collected a few of the gems near them, waiting for the bodies to decay and not bothering to harvest anything right now.

“It seems like that’s the tower's problem, not ours,” he replied with a smug grin.