Dungeon Life - Chapter 189

So… that’s less than optimal. The invaders are building up their forces with each passing minute by using some kind of sleep or hibernation to conserve their internal fuel. Even worse: there’s something big coming, and I get the feeling it’d be a bad idea to let it get to the group of invaders without throwing some kind of wrench into its plans.

It seems like Leo feels the same, as he pretty quickly orders just about everyone to move. Honey did some quick math for the floor space and the room an invader takes up, and it looks like we’re still going to be outnumbered, but if we don’t do something before the big thing shows up, we’ll have missed our chance. The best time to strike would have been a couple days ago, but the second best is now.

The worst would be waiting for what I can only assume is some kind of leader to show up and organize everything properly. The defenses are pretty poor, which is heartening. There’s just the one entrance at the top of a huge ant hill, but that choke point is the only real defense they seem to have, aside from numbers.

Honey and Leo finalize their plans while on the move, and even Rocky seems to be taking the situation seriously. I can still feel him eager to mix it up a bit, but he understands the severity of the situation to not take things lightly.

Honey has her bees each carrying a cinder ant to keep them warm, and they help explain the basic plan as everyone marches. I can’t keep too much track of all my denizens with them outside Southwood’s borders, but I can look through the eyes and other senses of my scions.

Almost all of my denizens are on the march, too, though not all of them are actually marching. The tunnelbore ants are covered in the arcane hands, with the crows, ravens, and bats all scouting ahead and reporting back to Leo. The bears and foxes all have snakes or slimes hitching rides to keep warm, though I’m not certain what Leo’s going to do with them once they all arrive.

The wolves and wyrms go ahead of the column of denizens to strike the lumberjack invaders, clearing a path for everyone else to keep moving quickly towards the beachhead of the enemy. By the time any of my scions see the break in the trees, the invaders there are dead. A few tundra wolves are lost in the fight, but the double-whammy of surprise wolves and surprise wyrms let them deal with the threat before they could form any real counter.

Leo sends them ahead to ambush the reinforcing logger invaders, and the army marches on. The ravens and fruit bats that return from scouting pick up a hand or two each before taking to the air again. I don’t think they’re going to be the best air support, but any is better than nothing, especially when all signs point towards the invaders not having much of an answer to flying foes.

Once they enter the clearing, the battle is truly on. The invaders screech, and even from so far away from the hill, Leo can faintly hear echoing screeches coming from deeper in. He howls a signal, and the army of denizens split to do their assigned tasks.

It takes only a few moments for the slimes to hop off their rides, then the wolves and bears charge for the hill as the airborne hands rain magic down on the entrance. Bolts of electricity, spikes of ice, blades of wind, orbs of fire, and other moderate elemental attacks make it difficult for the invaders to sally forth. Even though each attack isn’t too powerful, that kind of mix makes it very difficult to put up any kind of effective defense, besides staying inside.

Not that the invaders seem inclined. The hordes behind shove the ones ahead, even if the leaders are no longer capable of moving under their own power. While the bodies of the invaders provide some cover, they still keep the horde from being able to spill out.

When the bears and wolves get there, their jobs become equal parts fighting and clearing. Vipers and spitting cobras riding the large mammals help with the fighting, as well as watching their backs as their rides work to shove aside each dispatched foe.

While the entrance is occupied, Leo has the back line making their own fortifications. The tunnelbores start carving trenches as the foxes obscure their positioning with a bit of mist. Rocky even gets in a bit of practice as he hammers the ground ahead of the bores with kinetic force, following a rhythm to help make it easier.

Once the ants are in a good groove, literally and metaphorically, Rocky starts heating it by pulling energy from the air and surrounding ground. The slimes and snakes are more than happy to hop in and wait for the probable counter attack, and Rocky is just trying to keep the cold where he wants it. My zombie knows the invaders don’t handle cold well, so if he can keep a lot of it on hand, he can use it to devastating effect when he needs to.

All the while, Leo and Honey watch and coordinate. Healing ants nestled in the fur of the frontliners have kept minor injuries from building up, but an invader still sometimes gets lucky and injures or even kills one of the denizens. While the bears will respawn and potentially be able to rejoin the fight in time, the wolves will spawn way back with me. Injured wolves limp back to get the more significant help the healing slimes can provide, while the bears seem more inclined to just tough out all but the worst of injuries.

So far, it’s going well, but each passing minute, it seems like the forces at the hill are more and more pressed to hold back the invaders. A wyrm pops up near Leo and rumbles at him, causing him and Honey both to freeze for a moment. It gives me a chance to absorb the report, which makes the reaction of my two scions a bit more reasonable.

The rockslides have been quietly sapping the large cavern, and though they can’t collapse the entire thing, they’re ready to go with what they have. They just need Leo’s signal. Leo’s howl seems to pierce the entire Green Sea Forest as he embraces his title, and I’m surprised to see Honey is able to follow suit.

An air of authority settles over Leo, Leader of the Pack and Warden. The denizens move with more speed and confidence, the ones holding the top of the hill now able to shrug off all but the most serious of blows.

Honey’s compound eyes glow a soft white as the Seeker of Truth surveys the battlefield, feeding Leo information and letting him direct the battle. The denizens move away from certain positions, leaving holes in the masses of the joint forces of mine and the Southwoods, before rumbling is heard and felt.

Large holes appear in the ground, with the screeching of injured invaders sounding like music to the ears of Leo and Honey. Rocky takes the opportunity to send the freezing gale into the tunnels as well, ensuring any invaders that might have tried to attack from the pockmarked battleground would have a hard time doing so.

Suddenly, Leo’s eyes widen and he howls once more, calling back the bears and wolves at the breech, and solidifying defensive positions around the holes in the large clearing. The warground seems almost silent for a moment, broken only by the grinding of the tunnelbore ants still working, and the whimpers and whines of the injured being treated.

A new sort of rumble comes from the ground, along with whispers of mad ideas. Skittering is heard, but without the usual screeching of the invaders. The rumbling intensifies, the loose hill slowly crumbling, before it suddenly bursts in an explosion of black tentacles.

Through the dust, glowing green eyes can be seen, and occasional gleaming white teeth, far too many of each to fit on a single head. Or any head, for that matter, as the settling dust eventually reveals what I can only describe as a shoggoth. I wish I had read more of the mythos to know any weaknesses. It probably doesn’t have much, come to think of it. Those stories aren’t really about people triumphing over the unknowable terrors from beyond existence.

It bellows and waves most of its tentacles, slamming two into the ground to drag itself forward, and screeches echo up from the multitude of holes littering the clearing. This probably isn’t good…

Even worse than one of Lovecraft’s nightmares walking around in front of my scions, possibly leading an army of killing machines; it seems my scions aren’t the only ones with titles to embrace.

I just hope they can stand up to the Harbinger of ■̵̴̸̸̶̴̴̶̴̸̷̸̸̸͉̰̗̦͇͋͆͊́͆͝■̸̶̷̴̶̸̵̷̶̤̓̈́̇̅̉■̸̴̷̵̷̶̵̷̷̶̷̸̴̶̨̢̠͔̟̮̂̅̀̌̕■̴̸̷̵̷̷̷̵̼̲͓̅͂■̸̷̶̴̵̴̸̷̸̵̢̥͕̈͋́͝■̶̵̵̴̶̵̸̴̷̴̵̰̼̌͑͗͆̄͝■̴̷̵̸̵̴̷̶̻̬̖̀̏