《The Butcher of Gadobhra》Chapter 96: War Council
Advertisement
Overlord Madskweek was looking forward to his great victory. He would give a huge victory speech, and then set about fortifying this new realm. And then he'd reconquer his dungeon and enslave that overgrown female who dared to challenge him!
The pinkskins were finished. He had destroyed their town and flushed them from their burrows. All of them were now quivering in the large stone den he was saving for last. Once his brave warriors over-ran its defenders, this battle would be over. Even as he watched, the handlers were luring and prodding Ubermaus up to the entry to the stone den. Nothing could withstand the giant rat's charge. It would shatter the doors easily and he'd be in.
From within the stone den he heard a loud noise, like a trap being sprung. Something was thrown high in the air and towards his horde. The cowardly pinkskins were attacking him! How dare they! He made a note to find out how they were doing that. Sitting in safety and throwing things at his enemies seemed like a great tactic. He was just upset they were throwing at him.
'crunch'
The small barrel hit the street and broke open, scattering smoked meat all over. Several rat-kin began gathering it up and stuffing it in their mouths. They were rarely fed, and never something this good! Ubermaus squealed with rage as it saw food going into other creature's mouths. That food belonged to it! The large rodent charged the meat thieves, killing several. It began killing any rat-kin near the area where the barrel hit. It took 20 minutes to get the monstrosity under control and headed back towards the stone den.
'krunch'
Another barrel hit, this one a bit further away from the stone den. Ubermaus and the rat-kin raced to see who got to it first. Madskweek yelled at the handlers and cursed the pinkskins. But it didn't matter, he was still going to win! Ubermaus was always hungry and feeding it was just making it bigger! They'd run out of food soon! And then victory would be his!
Advertisement
=*=
"Good placement. Keep chucking a barrel in tha direction each time they start moving this way." Jorges was happy with the little catapult they had set up in the courtyard. Like all his favorite siege machines, this one was built on an ancient design by the early roman empire. He was originally going to lob rocks at the big rat, but Rolly had suggested a barrel of smoked sedge beast. The monstrosity lived up to its name, and surprisingly the rat-kin were fighting with the large rat for the scraps. "All right, you boys have fun. I've got to go have a quick council of war with some folks."
The ad hoc council included General Themis, Benjamin, Rolly, Sir Timothy, and Brandon. Ozzy was there, but he just smiled and sharpened his cleavers. Suzette flitted around offering refreshments.
Themis had thrown a wrench in Brandon's plans. He'd assumed as soon as he got his people inside, that he would be in control of the fortress. It wasn't working out that way. Not only did the ACME workers and townsfolk ignore his orders, Themis directly reminded him of the specific rules about the homes of contract workers.
Sir Timothy looked around at the stout little fortress. "Why not just sit tight in here until the Legion sends re-enforcements?"
Themis shook her head. "That rat is too big. That's a Tier 5 Monstrosity out there. It's going to hit those gates hard. They might hold for a couple of hits, but eventually it's going to get in. You can’t under estimate the strength of a monster. They don’t have the limits of a normal person. They push harder, hit harder, and do things that a human with the same STR score can’t even begin to do.
Ben said, “Force equals mass times velocity squared. And that thing has a lot of mass.”
Advertisement
The current strategy of tossing it food buys a little time, but it's just going to get bigger. We need to prepare for it breaking in, and then hit it with everything we can. Maybe take it down with numbers before the normal sized rat-kin swarm in."
"Most of the workers have extremely specialized skills. If that thing was made of wood, stone, leather, or a pile of vegetables, we could fight it. But it sounds like a slaughter trying to fight a Tier 5 raid boss." Ben was cursing ACME again for gimping their classes.
Rolly was drawing pictures on the floor in charcoal. He made a little cartoon about a rat walking into a mousetrap, and then roaches swarming all over it. He kept adding more details and not really paying attention to the talk going on.
Jorges was looking at the extra timbers they had stored inside. "We could try blocking the exit with wood and stone. But after seeing what that thing did to the tavern, I'm sure it could just dig or eat its way through."
Brandon scowled, although to be fair it was rare now that he wasn't scowling. "Make it quick or it won't matter, they'll be headed this way soon."
The catapult launched another barrel of smoked ribs to the Ubermaus.
Ben walked over and looked at what Rolly was drawing. "Ok, I think we have a plan."
"Ooh, nice mouse drawing, he has such cute little whiskers. " Suzette patted Rolly on the head.
General Themis stared at the drawings for a minute before nodding. "Better than nothing. How do we organize it?"
Rolly shrugged. "I'm just a worker, that's above my pay scale, someone else has to be in charge."
Fearless Leader is forming a raid group! All are welcome, even the treacherous curs attacking my town.
Join now to get a good spot!
EP, CSP, and Loot will be shared by the raid!
Brandon was a little upset when he read the message, they all received. He yelled, turning in a circle looking for the opposition leader. "Dammit. No way in hell do I work with the enemy! And when I catch you, I’ll be ripping out your lungs."
Sir Timothy paused, then accepted. "Suit yourself Brandon, I'm not missing out on a raid. If the rats win, we lose." Everyone else quickly joined. With an incoherent gurgle of rage, Brandon joined as well."
Rolly started yelling orders. "Right in front of the gate, I need the following people for Team Speedbump: Themis, Sir Timothy, Brandon, David, and Ozzy."
David didn't like the sound of that. "Oh shit."
Ozzy smiled like an idiot and yelled out "Huzzah!"
Advertisement
Tidal Lock
Humanity has finally taken the next step into space. Governments run research stations throughout the solar system while private enterprises mine asteroids for rare metals and exotic minerals. However, space remains beyond the reach of the everyday person. In contrast, virtual reality technology has led to an explosion of full immersion entertainment for the average consumer, and many people turned to VR for the thrill of spaceflight.One game, Parallax Gate, lets its players experience living in an interstellar civilization. For maximum realism, its developers created a world solely defined by the players' personal skills and ability.Mark Asami, a student of aerospace engineering at MIT, dreams of bringing spaceflight to the masses. To his disappointment, his first year courses barely relate to his interests, so he passes time as Aero Rayne in Parallax Gate with his roommate and their organization, the Temple Wraiths. Before they realized, a chain of in-game events drew them deeper into the game's world and politics than they ever intended to go.
8 131Echoes of the Past Long Gone
The Echoing Past has reached Earth and now humans will have to learn what it means to receive legacy of unknown power that come with unknown intent and unknown conditions. Will they find a way trough turmoil encompassing everything or be left in ruins to never be more than a passing note in history? - Please note that English is my second language and there are bound to be gramatical mistakes. As this is also first time I am actually trying to write a story please exuse me if there are some inconsistencies. That said I hope you enjoy my creation.
8 188From Within The Dungeon
This is the story of Nathaniel Spencer, a twenty-three-year-old man, who'd lived a bit of a rough life. His' is a story that begins as many others do. With his death. After having a steel beam dropped on him, crushing his body, Nathaniel finds himself reincarnated into the world of Grandlore! He, and a few others who are in the same situation as him, must now work together to survive in this strange new world and hopefully find a way back! Chapter Length: 2000 Words or above. It can only be more, never less. Chapter Releases: Whenever I write something. Gotta get dem creative juices flowing first. Preferably once a week though. Content Warning tags are there to give me creative freedom. Don't worry too much about it. This story is somewhat slow in the beginning. Think of it as the early chapters of Second Coming of Gluttony and all the other KN novels where people get sucked into a different world. Cover by [Asviloka] Check out his art thread here!
8 93Domain Warz
Join Murphy as he steps into the world of a Cosmic Game with far reaching implications. Laugh and cry as you watch him struggle like an ant to subvert terrible luck, develop a basic modicum of common sense and form at least a tiny speck of ability to socialise with others. Then be awed as he climbs to the very pinnacle of this Game World to pry free the shackles of the perversely cruel Game System that has cursed him!
8 118Life, Death and Other Troubles
CURRENTLY EDITING/REWRITING Progress - 11/13 Life sucks for Ashton, a regular office worker. His death sucked too. His next life hopefully won't be as crappy as the last but... there's a good chance that will suck too. Ashton is reborn into a darkish fantasy world, his soul split in two, creating his second, sperate personality Ash, a bit of a bloodthirsty guy. How will they cope in a world filled with demons, elves, dwarves, goblins, ogres and magic? For Ashton at least, not that well. Their new life is rough, it might break them, change them, rebuild them from the ground up. How will they cope with such a different way of life? How long can they survive the harsh environment? What will the two become by the end? -Contains mature themes, slavery, gore and offscreen rape. - My first proper story, would love some constructive feedback!
8 86Book boy [DNF]
Dream is the guitarist in an extremely popular band. George is a librarian in a quaint little library. One day Dream stumbles in, and George finds his nose in a Percy Jackson book.1# karlnap 26/8/2022
8 174