Chapter 28: Raid at the Lakeside

Miguel awoke suddenly, and he found himself scratching at his cheek, which was strangely itchy.

He was still lying against the cave wall, and now felt cold and uncomfortable. His mouth felt very dry, and as he slept, he had somehow become aware of movement in the air above.

At least one of the yiqu was circling over the small group, he was sure.

“Wake up,” he called out sharply to the others, raising himself to a crouching position, and then groaning at how bad his back and shoulders felt.

Profile!

Strength: 14 Speed: 18 Melee: 4 Ranged: 14 Spirit: 1 Agility: 6 Hit points: 19 of 19 Experience points: 480 Hunger: 31% Thirst: 86% Fatigue: 15%

“Urgh. Even the stats know that I need something to drink.” He looked at the water on the cave floor, then quickly dismissed that option. It might be tempting, but Sid’s experience had shown that whatever the liquid was, it wasn’t safe.

He then glanced over at the severed razor-lizard head, which had continued to pool blood inside the plastic sacking overnight. It had been an inspired idea on Aluna’s part – at least, assuming that the potency of the liquid actually persisted over time.

Ideally, though, they would get hold of some smaller bottles and vials. As it stood, they could have loads of healing potion back at the cave, and still get killed when out in the open.

Sid and Aluna were now rising up too. Sid groaned and snarled, stretching his long arms upwards, but Aluna was clearly more of a morning person. She was on her feet quickly, a smile on her face. But then she, too, frowned, and equipped both of her daggers. “Hey! I’m down two hit points, what the fuck?” she exclaimed, rubbing at the back of her neck. “It must be those goddam yuqi.”

“They’re close, but there can’t be more than two or three of them left in here,” Miguel replied, looking up to the cave roof. And soon, the number had reduced by one more, as Aluna slashed in the air.

Equip bow

Equip arrow

Miguel came to her side and stood ready to take out any more of the creatures that he might see, but so far, beside the one that Aluna had just slashed and killed, there was no sign of them.

He unequipped the weapon, and looked to Sid. “Well, what now, leader?”

“We take our weapons,” said Sid, “and make for the lake. We all need to drink, and to find more supplies.”

Aluna had moved over and reached into the sacking, presumably to use the blood to heal her lost hit points, slicing carefully at the top area of the plastic with one dagger. A minute later, she walked back to her companions, licking blood from her fingers.

“Does the stuff still work?” asked Miguel.

She nodded. “Yep. At least for now. Perhaps there’s a twelve-hour expiry time, or 24 – who knows, right? But for now, we are covered, and I’m back up to my max hit points.”

“Good.”

”Well – no time like the present, team,” growled Sid. “Our opponents won’t be waiting around. How many arrows you got, Miguel?”

“Just five.”

Sid nodded. “Okay. Finding more is a priority, or else another missile weapon for you. Want to take a torch as a backup weapon?It’s daytime, so we won’t need the light.”

Miguel nodded, picking up one of the torches, and leaving the other in its place, still burning. Then he paused, and returned to the same spot, and extinguished the second torch with a splash of the liquid from the underground pool. It sputtered and then went out, but not before emitting an acrid green smoke. He didn’t know if the torch had a fuel supply that was finite, but there seemed to be no sense in risking it.

“We need water obviously,” added Sid, “but we could also do with more food, too, and something to carry and store our water in.”

“Vials for the dino blood, too, I was thinking,” added Miguel, pointing towards the plastic sack.

“Add those to the wish list,” Sid replied, and began to lead the way down the entrance tunnel. “We need a lot of things, and so far we haven’t found much. But at least we can win a fight.”

Miguel hadn’t mentioned to Sid the fact that Chloe had helped them out the previous evening while Sid was out cold, and decided that now might not be the time to raise it.

“There might be other chests dotted around, don’t you think?” said Aluna. “Maybe in the forest?”

“Probably,” replied Miguel, now walking alongside her, just behind Sid, as the group approached the cave entrance. “It was just by chance that we found our one. But the thing is, other teams might have found the remaining ones already.”

Sid glanced over his shoulder as he walked. “No. They will have faced the same problem as us. Spend too much time hunting around out in the open, and you’ll get attacked by razor-lizards.”

“But fail to do so, and you won’t have weapons to defend yourself,” added Aluna.

Sid grunted again, and then got down to a prone position and wriggled out of the concealed cave entrance. Miguel followed, and decided to pull out the arrow that he had marked the entrance with the previous evening. He needed the ammunition, and besides, he was pretty sure he had been to the entrance enough times now that he could find it again later.

Moments later, the three teammates were hurrying down to the forest. It was, indeed, morning – though Miguel was unsure how Sid had been so certain of that, prior to leaving the cave. His torch guttered in a breeze that was coming from the direction of the lake. The two razor-lizard corpses still lay nearby, and once again, Miguel saw several scavengers, including four of the small two-legged dinosaurs.

Notification: You have gained 1XP

“What was that for?” asked Aluna.

“I assume that it was because we scared off those scavengers. They can’t be worth much.”

“Easy experience for us, then,” said Sid, continuing to walk just ahead of the others as they approached the forest’ edge. “Bring them on.”

The small group found it slower going as they began to push their way through the undergrowth. Miguel found the path that he had walked on before, but there were signs of change – trees fallen, branches broken, and at once point, a spray of scarlet blood on the path.

“Something fought here,” he said, pointing to the ground.

Sid came to his side, and then grunted. “Whatever it was, it has moved on now.”

“Don’t you think that chests would be away from the path?” said Aluna. “Hidden?”

Miguel nodded thoughtfully. “Probably, yeah. They wouldn’t want to make them too easy for the teams to find.”

“Makes sense,” said Sid, stroking his beard as he looked in the direction of the lake.

“Then let’s split up, at least for a short while,” said Miguel. “We can take three routes ahead – more chance of stumbling across something useful.”

“But then we’ll lose each other,” protested Sid.

Miguel shook his head, and pointed the way Sid had been looking. “The lake is straight ahead, and if you lose your sense of direction, just go downhill from here. Stay low, stay quiet, keep out of trouble, and I’ll see you all at the lake side.”

“Agreed,” said Aluna.

After a pause, Sid gave a curt nod, then moved away to the left. Aluna headed right with a wave, and Miguel continued forward on the path for a few dozen paces, then headed into the undergrowth to the left.

His mouth felt parched, and as he dodged past branches and bushes, he wondered why the humidity in the air didn’t make him feel any less thirsty.

If anything, it made it worse.

He slowed, already feeling the combat fatigues getting sweaty at his back and armpits. It was as if the entire climate had changed when they had entered the trees. And that was entirely possible within the Demon Hunters simulation, he supposed.

Trying to forget about his thirst, Miguel pushed on, looking from one side to another. One very large and shiny leaf had a drip of liquid hanging from his tip, and he hesitated, remembering the damage caused by the liquid back at the cave. All the same, this was probably just condensation.

Right?

He decided to chance it, and stuck out his tongue, allowing the drop to land in his mouth. It tasted fresh and sweet, and there was no sign of any damage report, though he had to swat away another insect that tried to take a bite out of him.

Miguel then looked around, and found two more such leaves, before scolding himself. “You’re supposed to not be thinking about thirst,” he muttered. “There’s a lake not five minutes from here.”

Just then, he realized that he was standing on something unusually firm, and he bounced on the spot to confirm the sensation. Was it a rock, or something more interesting... like a hidden weapon?

He crouched, placing the torch down on the ground, and began to push at the earth near his feet, running his fingertips around to find the edges of whatever it was. If it was another cave, he thought to himself, it could be much closer to the source of drinking water.

Then his heart leaped. This was no rock, but a flat piece of wood. Could it actually be the lid of another chest, hidden under the earth and leaves?

Equip shovel

Standing up straight again, Miguel began to use the shovel to clear the edges of the wooden shape. Sure enough, it was roughly square, wooden, and artificial... And as he scraped away more of the debris that covered its lid, he saw that there was a ring in it, too...

Unequip shovel

He stooped to pull at the wooden lid. It resisted at first, but with muscles straining, he raised it up a crack. “See, Tarja,” he muttered under his breath. ”Points in strength are not a total waste!“

It was dark among the undergrowth, and Miguel picked the torch back up, holding it up to the chest... and gasped. This was no chest! Below the wooden lid there was no compartment, as he had expected, but rather four walls of a shaft, apparently made of concrete, and a ladder leading down.

A trapdoor.

Feat: Sharp eyes. You have gained 50XP

“Wow...” he murmured quietly, holding the torch deeper into the shaft below him. Whatever was down there, it was deep enough that he couldn’t see the bottom. And it had to be there for a reason.

Just then, he heard a yell and then a scream, and the clashing of weapons.

“Sid, Miguel – help!” It was Aluna’s voice, he was sure. There followed a banging noise from the same direction.

He let the trapdoor slam down, and then thrust the torch into the ground just beside it. It was imperative that he find this again! He had to hurry to help his teammates, but he took a second or two to kick a bit of dirt and some leaves over the trapdoor. It wasn’t well hidden, but would be invisible to enemies at first glance, at least.

Then, Miguel turned and began to race through the undergrowth as best he could, ducking branches and leaping fallen trees. All the time, he was heading for the lake. He heard the occasional further bang, but no more screams.

After a minute of difficult progress, the area to his right opened up. It wasn’t so much a path as a rocky area where no trees could grow. Darting over in that direction, Miguel realized that there was a small river ahead – or a wide stream – and as he moved closer, he was able to race at top speed along the nearer of two grassy river banks.

“Miguel!”

Another shout. That was welcome news in a way – it showed that Aluna was still alive and conscious. Miguel pictured her surrounded by three or four players from an enemy team, backed up against the lake and trying to fend off their attacks.

But when the stream opened out onto the lake, he saw something elese entirely.

About twenty yards away across and sand-and-stone beach, a wooden jetty ran out from the stony shore of the lake, and Sid was standing upon this, retreating step by step further from land as an unfamiliar-looking lizard stalked towards him. Smaller than the razor-lizards, the creature was around the size of a tiger, and similarly striped, although its stripes were black and green, and it was lower to the ground. It had a round, turtle-like head with a bony beak, and there was no doubting its murderous intentions.

To the right, on the other side of the stream, Aluna had found a rowboat, and was out on the water, hunkered down inside it perhaps ten yards out from the shore. On the area of beach closest to her, all four members of a team dressed in blue-and-red combat fatigues had crossbows levelled in her direction, and were using a second rowboat, overturned, for partial cover. It must have been their crossbow bolts that Miguel had heard banging. He heard a further bang as another one hit the side of Aluna’s boat.

And as Miguel came to a halt, wondering which of his friends to help and how he would even reach Aluna, a second of the green-and-black striped lizard lunged at him from the side. He only saw it out of the corner of his eye at the very last moment, and it knocked him right from his feet as it pounced.

You have lost 2 hit points You have 17 hit points remaining

“Urgh...” he said, lying on the sandy ground as the beast loomed over him.