Chapter 15

Try Again For The First Conquest

It took the group a couple of days to reach the next cave. Once Antic had slept that night, he woke up completely restored. His body had healed faster than anyone would think possible and no one could explain it, but they’d take it. Killing the six billiks had given them each nearly two hundred experience points, but that still left them with a long way to go to get more ability points. They realized just how big of an upgrade that bed like chamber in Yuma would have been if they already had magic to begin with, but were still happy that they could now use magic, drink potions and respawn, though no one had wanted to try the last option voluntarily. Jex had reached level five in bows meaning she could shoot one percent faster and inflict one percent more damage, with one percent more accuracy per level gained. Torger and Graul realized they would have to try to make her a better bow.

Torger, Graul and Antic snuck toward the next cave, east of Indio, as quietly as possible. They didn’t know if the spiders were venomous, and they only had one vial of anti venom. They took a step in and saw webs all over the walls. Graul used his sword to clear some away and it sent ripples along the web further into the cave. A few seconds later a spider the size of a dinner plate came running along the side of the wall at them. Before it got too close Graul swung his sword and cut it in half. It died instantly. “Maybe this won’t be so bad.”

Spoken too soon as another spider came along the other wall and Torger cut that one in half easily enough. What they didn’t see was the spider running along the ceiling. It dropped from the ceiling on to Antic’s head and he swatted at it with his spear but it bit him on the back of the skull. Graul stabbed it in the side but it didn’t die. It tried to turn to bite Graul but couldn’t move much seeing as how it was skewered. Torger sliced down at its head cleaving it in two, skillfully stopping the copper blade a half inch before he sliced Antic.

Graul whipped his sword upward and flung it away. Antic collapsed to the ground but a second later climbed to his hands and knees. “Why does this keep happening to me?” The others asked him if he was OK and he said when he got bit his whole body went into paralysis, but now he felt fine with no side effects. Checking his Stats he lost eight health from the bite. He shuddered imaging getting bit over and over again while being unable to move and slowly dying. “Guys I’m not afraid of spiders but I don’t think my spear will do much good in here. This is a place for knives and one handed swords.”

“And fire. Brun! We need your fire here!”

Antic walked up the near hill with the others while Arden and Brun came down.

“Brun, let’s see if these webs are flammable.”

It turned out they were flammable. The whole cave seemed to catch fire and it raced all the way to the back, much deeper than they thought it would be. A negative side effect was that the four men got singed from the flames losing most of their eyebrows and hair. “We really need to get some helmets.”

Another negative side effect was that it pissed off every spider in the cave. They all suffered a little damage from the singing but were running at them as if unharmed. Once again Torger yelled “Run!”

They ran up the hill but the spiders didn’t give chase. A few stayed near the mouth but the rest went back inside. Torger said “Swords out everyone. Jex, cover us.”

When they came near, Torger told them to go to the sides of the cave mouth. Jex came and stood thirty yards directly in front of the cave mouth and quickly released three arrows striking all three remaining spiders. The arrows sank deep and the men finished their lives. Torger and Graul walked inside carrying dried wood and set it on the floor several steps in. The light was dim but Brun lit the stack of wood on fire. What they saw made them retreat once again. There were snakes on the ground, yellow in color and about a foot long, coming out of nests under rocks.

Everyone gathered more dried brush and Graul and Torger stood guard killing the occasional spider and snake as the others built the fire into a huge ball of intense heat. They all left the cave and watched as smoke billowed out. Hopefully the monsters would all suffocate.

A half hour later Graul and Torger reentered, choking on the smoke. There was enough light to see that that the snakes and spiders had not died as they hoped. Torger and Graul killed a few more but had to leave from the thick soot in the air.

Not knowing what else to do, the group set up camp for the night. During Rome’s watch that night he spotted a coyote in the distance but nothing else happened. The next morning they put their heads together.

“I think we could kill them all with swords if we could just see in there. How do we get light inside?”

“Can we make torches? What are those made from?” asked Arden.

“They’re made from pitch, I think, but we don’t have any. Can we flush them out?” answered Graul.

“I wish we could, but I don’t know how. The smoke should have done that.”

“What if we all learn fire one?” Everyone turned to look at Rome. “We are almost near getting another ability point. What if we kill what spiders we can and one at a time learn fire one? Those with the magic could provide light for those without it.”

Brun said “I’m in. I need to hit as many of those things as I can to get fire two. This could bring me a long way toward that goal.”

No one liked the idea overly much but agreed to it, except Antic who insisted on getting extra health with his ability point.

Brun walked into the cave between Torger and Graul. There was still a stink of smoke but they could breathe easily enough. After a few feet he saw movement along the ground and cast fire at it. A snake writhed in pain and Torger slashed it, and the light lasted long enough for Graul to see two spiders and kill them. They waited to see movement again and after a minute Torger stabbed his sword toward the ceiling. His aim wasn’t true in the dim light and he sliced the side of a spider. It fell to the ground, then with an amazing ability it jumped up two feet and bit Graul on the thigh! He fell to the ground, paralyzed. Torger sliced it and it died and at the same time Brun cast flame at the ground again revealing two more snakes. Torger dispatched those and Graul recovered a second later then they went outside again.

Arden, Jex, and Brun were going to be the next ones to get ability points, since they had hunted while the others started building a second house. Arden and Jex looked at their Experience then looked at Torger and shook their heads. They were almost there, but not quite. Three people with Fire 1 would make things go much faster.

After ten minutes Brun’s mana was full and they entered again. This time was much the same as last time, killing two spiders, two snakes, and Torger got bit. When they exited Jex and Arden were grinning. They each bought Fire 1, and Brun bought Ice 1.

For the rest of the day they entered and exited the cave casting Fire 1and eventually saw no more life inside. On a hunch Antic collected a few spiders and snakes and put them in his satchel. Once everyone was certain it was safe, Arden entered and a message came into his vision.

Would you like to take possession of this property? Yes No

Arden’s ADD made him automatically select yes, and the message disappeared. Jex asked him “What were you thinking?” and he didn’t have a good answer, but his Cities icon showed he and Jex were the owners of the cave, automatically named Arden and Jex’s cave. No one else was part owner or mayor. That must have been because they were married. Neither really wanted the cave, there were no resources around to make the land prosperous, but it did allow them to activate a shield that covered the mouth, the same as Home’s shield. Of course the name sucked, but they didn’t plan on upgrading it to be a level three cave, and if they didn’t level up the cave they would never get the chance to rename it.

Upon further examination it showed Arden and Jex each received 300 exp for “Conquering a level 1 hostile village.” That caused a verbal fight to break out between Brun, Antic and Rome over who gets to claim the billik cave when they conquer it. They never came to a peaceful conclusion about it, so they played rock paper scissors and Antic won. The treasure they found was a bit disappointing, a dwarf merchant’s body and goods: a pouch of twenty-three coppers and two glowing stones. After some more bickering, and by way of democracy, Rome kept the loot in his bag as he was the most trustworthy of the group.

Chapter 16

Billiks

They set up a watch that night even though they were inside the cave, but that turned out to be unnecessary. The next morning they headed back toward the billiks’ cave. Along the way they saw huge three toed footprints in the sand. It was heading the way they had seen the troll before, and everyone stayed on high alert.

They came to the cave late the next day. They decided not to begin the siege until the morning, but when it was almost sunset several billiks came out of the cave and went in different directions. They had to kill the one that came towards them. Jex shot it with an arrow, Brun and Arden cast Fire 1 at it, and Torger and Graul swung swords at it. After two days of practicing teamwork in the spider and snake cave, the seven of them fighting one billik was no challenge at all.

There was no sign of the bodies they had killed just outside the mouth a few days earlier. Jex had the second watch and she saw the billiks that had left earlier drag in rabbits, and one dragged in a deer.

At sunrise Jex had the idea of baiting them to come out. She put some deer meat on the ground about forty yards outside the cave. Graul, Torger, Brun, and Antic lay in wait nearby and sure enough a billik came out and inspected the meat. Jex shot an arrow into its face and the others ran in to attack. Brun cast Fire 1 at its face and Antic thrust his spear at its face and Torger and Graul systematically cut off its legs. Arden spared his ammo.

Fifteen minutes later another one came out to inspect the meat and they did the same thing. They were able to kill two more that way, but then no more came out.

Jex said “This is working great, but maybe they’re nocturnal. Maybe we should try this at night.”

Everyone had conflicting emotions of getting the task over with to find the treasure, versus not dying in the effort. They agreed to try again at night.

They had better results and killed another fifteen that way, but then they stopped coming. The next morning they saw none come out, and waited all day, but none came out that day or that night either. Everyone but Jex approached the cave and she kept an arrow knocked. Once they were five feet away a dozen or so billiks ran out of the cave and attacked the whole group!

Torger and Graul dodged and parried and cut off legs, Antic thrust his spear at their faces, and Brun cast Fire 1 twice, but Rome was useless in the fight and was pierced repeatedly. Out of the corner of his eye Torger saw a green flash where Rome had been, then his body was gone. Arden was the next to fall, having emptied the two rounds from his revolver, leaving his back and side vulnerable. Brun wasn’t much better, after using his mana he retreated and picked up the smaller rifle, and he fired ten bullets from the .22 rifle, then he too succumbed to stabs. Antic got his spear stuck in the skull of one and as it jerked back his spear was ripped from his hands. He never saw the billik that bit him in the back of the neck, nearly decapitating him. Torger and Graul fought back to back keeping the creatures at bay, but three billiks charged Jex and then the brothers lost their cover fire. Torger stepped on an uneven rock and fell down, and that was all it took for Graul to be surrounded and stabbed in the back by a billik leg.

“Horrible nasty beasts! I’m going to kill ‘em. I’m going back right now to kill ‘em all!”

“Calm down Brun. Yes we’re going back to kill them, but it’s going to be days before we’re back there. Stop yelling and get some clothes on.”

Torger, Graul, Rome and Antic were putting on their old furs in the cabin where they had respawned, while Jex and Arden presumably were getting dressed in the half built new house where they were supposed to respawn. Only Brun stood in the living room completely naked yelling about the injustice of dying. They all respawned in the living room without the clothes, armor, weapons, or satchels they had. Torger hoped they were still at the mouth of the billik’s cave, but if they drug them into the back of the cave as he feared, that would be difficult to get their stuff back. There was only one option in his mind, increase his debt to Baybil. What also was painful for all of them was that they lost all the experience they had gained from killing the billiks the day before.

An hour later they began walking to Small Hammer armed with branches as clubs, and Arden had the .30-30, which he had left behind for their journey. Torger asked him what guns were left behind when they died.

“The twenty-two with twenty-one rounds, the forty-five revolver with two rounds, and the shotgun with twenty-six rounds. Once those are spent, we’ll have no more ammo. It seems the tyters wanted us to not die immediately, but also not spend three years blasting anything we came across. We’ll have to plan very carefully how to use them.”

Once they arrived in Small Hammer, Torger told Baybil that they had all died from billiks, and if he would loan them swords, bows, and armor, they would bring back some bounty to him, and possibly buy the gear.

Baybil listened to their needs and predicament. After thinking a few seconds he replied, “The price is that you bring back fifty billik legs for just loaning the armor and weapons. After all chances are the village black smith will probably have to repair them. The purchase price would be one gold, seventy-five silver for all of it.”

Torger answered “Thank you Baybil. Not to complain, but why is our getting more stuff less expensive than what you charged when we first met? We’re already twelve gold coins in debt to you.”

“Two reasons. First, we now have trade relations, giving you deep discounts. Second, and the larger part, you’re not desperate anymore. You can walk away from this deal and be OK, but when we first met you would have died without help, all of you. Can’t blame a dwarf for makin’ a little extra coin while helping out a stranded traveler. So if we have a deal, let’s walk over to the armory and see what can be modified to fit you.”

Inside they were amazed by all the different grades of weapons and armor, but the prices jumped drastically for every upgraded piece. They walked out with better gear than what they had originally. Torger, Graul and Antic had iron armor head to toe, and Torger and Graul also had iron swords and wood and iron round shields, while Antic had an iron spearhead affixed to an oak pole, and Brun had a mage’s tunic and wood staff. Jex was given a recurve bow made of elm, with a quiver of arrows with iron arrowheads. Arden and Rome got nothing, Arden had his .30-30 and Rome was supposed to be a white mage but didn’t know one single white magic spell. He was torn between saving his ability points for Cure 1 or Shield 1. Either way he would be useless in a fight until he learned one of them.

They were also given water skins and poor quality magic satchels filled with fruit and bread. Torger watched his friends relish eating fruit and bread, sick of unseasoned rabbits to eat, so he asked Baybil to send his farmer with them. When they got to Home the farmer said he would plant and nurture the seeds, for half the crop. Torger and Graul agreed, and then they all started walking to Indio again.

Brun found that having a mage’s staff was a little different than pointing his finger. At the top of the wood staff was an amethyst and he had to point the gem at the target before saying “Fire one.” Baybil told him a mage’s wool tunic added ten percent to a spell’s strength, and a wood staff also added ten percent to a spell’s strength. Fire 1 had caused 7 health damage from his finger before, but now it caused 9 health damage without requiring more mana.

One week after they had died, they came to the top of the hill in front of the cave. Their increased stamina combined with comfortable leather shoes allowed them to cut a day off the trip. But, as he feared, Torger didn’t see their gear outside the cave. That night they set out deer meat in front of the cave. A billik came out to get it, Jex shot an arrow into its face, which went in about two inches deeper than the stone arrowheads had, and Antic shoved his iron tipped spear into its face, going in deeper with seemingly less resistance. Torger and Graul found slicing off its legs was easier with iron swords than it had been with copper, and having a shield on the left arm allowed them to be more brave when near the legs. Even Brun increased his Fire 1 damage from seven to nine per cast. Once that billik died, another came out, which they killed. In all they killed seven billiks with ease. This gear made a huge difference!

No more three foot tall cockroaches came out, but this time the group knew what to expect. “Rome, sorry man, but you’ve got to take one for the team.” Rome had been a team player, the navy taught him everyone needs to work together for the greater good, but still he was trembling as he walked toward the cave all by himself, with the others ready to attack once the billiks came out.

When he was ten feet away several billiks ran out and attacked him. Rome never stood a chance, but he had to believe he would respawn again. Arden fired round after round at them, Jex emptied her quiver, Brun cast Fire 1 twice then retreated, Antic stabbed their faces, and Torger and Graul cut off legs. The billiks moved sideways, backwards, forwards, they bit, kicked, and stabbed, but ultimately they had no intelligence, no unity in their attack, and fighting as individuals instead of as a group they were all killed. The men collected nineteen of Jex’s arrows which hadn’t broke, and climbed up the hill, bruised and tired.

The first battle was won! Even though they ached all over, and Antic and Graul had bite marks on their forearms, the victory was sweet! They counted eleven more dead billiks in addition to the seven they had baited, and that not counting the ones they killed the week before. But they still had no idea how many were left. Torger asked that question out loud, mostly to himself.

Antic answered, “According to Rome, we should have sixty-seven left, and thirteen of those are injured or already dead. His theory was this: in the first cave there were one hundred snakes, and one hundred spiders, so there are probably one hundred billiks. Yes I know it’s weird he calculated out his experience points divided by the group and multiplied by the number of kills or something like that, I really don’t care how he came to that conclusion, but on our walk here he was explaining it to me and said he thinks we’ve killed fifteen billiks so far and injured thirteen more when we died. I asked him ‘What about the razorlings at Calico?’ and he said they may have been out hunting or soaking up sunlight, or he may be wrong. But if the pattern holds true, we’re one third of the way done.”

“Rome’s too smart for his own good. I would have rather not known we have a long way to go. I’m really sorry we had to sacrifice him. Do you think he’ll stay at the property like we told him?”

“I doubt it Brun. He’s probably already walking this way to meet us, the stupid guy. Here’s for you Rome.” Arden poured his water skin on the ground.

“Rome’s still alive honey. Save your water.”

As Jex was saying that, they didn’t notice the two billiks climbing up the hill toward them. Torger saw one out of the corner of his eye as it raised a front leg to pierce Brun. Torger jumped forward and deflected the strike with his shield, but the pointy leg still left a deep scratch on Brun’s back. He yelled in pain and the others scrambled to their feet. Graul cut off a leg from the other billik that was raised to pierce Jex. Antic stabbed it in its side, but even the iron spear head barely penetrated the exoskeleton.

Torger rolled to his side after deflecting the strike to Brun, and with a quick back hand slash he cut off the offending leg. Everyone then scrambled away from the two billiks and surrounded them. Brun was in a lot of pain but was able to cast Fire 1, and Antic shoved his spear into the face of the other one. It immediately went brain dead and the five remaining legs all tried to run a different direction at once.

By then Jex had her bow and a second later shot the other billik through an eye. It too began moving erratically, and Torger and Graul finished them off. They looked down the hill and saw billiks watching them, then retreated into the cave once again. It seemed that they were both hungry and scared. If that was the case, Torger thought, soon hunger would overcome their self preservation instincts and they would come out to hunt. If they chose to do that at night when someone was on watch, game over, again.

“We need to hit them while they’re hurting. I say we try to draw out a few more right now. I think they’re weak, scared and desperate.”

Everyone agreed and once again they set out deer meet near the entrance. Fortunately for the group, billiks were extremely stupid creatures. They drew out four more and easily killed them. No more came out that night, and no one was willing to go in. They set up a watch, and everyone was told if they come out, let them go as long as they don’t come near them. Torger took the first shift, and sure enough once everyone stopped talking about twenty billiks left the cave, all giving a wide berth around the hill the people were camping on. At the end of his shift an hour later they returned with a few rabbits and a couple deer, and some had nothing. Torger was tempted to use the bow to injure them as they went in the cave (about one every five minutes), but the risk of them attacking the sleeping group was too great. He woke up Jex then went to sleep.

During his watch that night Arden came up with a plan, which he proposed to everyone at breakfast. “We lit a huge fire to try to smoke out the spiders, but that didn’t work. I say we try it again.”

“If we get close, they come out and attack. I don’t think it’s possible.”

“Wait Brun, he might be on to something. Torger, do you think we could get up the hill above the cave mouth? Maybe we could throw a lot of brush near the mouth without them coming out, then light it on fire.”

Torger considered Graul’s plan and agreed to try it. They walked around to the top of the cave while carrying brush until they were standing over the cave mouth. No billiks came out. On the count of three they dropped their armful of brush to land in front of the mouth, then Brun cast Fire 1. The wood ignited, but the two brothers could hear clacking feet running away from the fire, not towards it. That gave Torger the opportunity to think of something new. “If they’re all at the back of the cave now, we can throw wood further in to the cave and then you can ignite that.”

A few minutes later everyone except Jex and Arden tiptoed into the cave with an armful of brush. After going in ten feet they heard the clacking of hard feet on stone. They all dropped their piles and Brun lit it on fire, then they backed to the mouth of the cave. The clacking feet scampered away from the fire, but the men could see the cave quickly filling up with smoke. They backed out and got ready for a mass evacuation drill. But the billiks never came out.

They waited for over an hour before Torger looked inside again. The wood was still hot and smoldering, and billiks were up next to the pile of hot ashes. The ones close to the fire were pushing backwards, and the ones in back were pushing forwards. They were crushing the ones in the middle. He called out “Jex, Brun! Get over here!”

Jex approached and saw what he was looking at then started shooting arrows at the front billiks while Brun cast Fire 1 twice, then was replaced by Graul, and when Jex was out of arrows she cast Ice 1 twice. When all was done they ran away and up the hill in front of the cave. They had killed six more in the skirmish, the front billiks trying to push backwards away from the hot coals and arrows, but then the rest of the billiks surged forward over the dead bodies of their family and out of the cave. They were moving slowly and the movement of their legs were disorganized so that it looked like they were stumbling. It seemed breathing in smoke for an hour straight did have an effect on them.

Without a word spoken, Torger, Graul and Antic saw their opportunity and ran forward. Legs were cut off and faces were stabbed. This went on for fifteen minutes, until the remaining billiks recovered from the smoke damage. By then twenty more billiks were dead, but there were enough left that the men had to retreat up the hill.

“Arden! Cover us!”

A loud bang came from behind Torger, and the billik next to the one he was fighting had some yellow pus come out of its face, and it no longer had a back end. Torger continued backing up the hill and another shot fired. When he got to the top another shot was heard. He stabbed the billik he had been fighting in the face, all the way to the hilt, and it died. He looked to his left and saw Brun cast Fire 1 at the billik Antic had just stabbed. It too died, but Torger didn’t see Graul.

“Where’s Graul?”

No one answered and the .30-30 fired again. “Damn bolt action! Arden next time get a semi-auto!”

Torger met another billik coming up the hill and quickly cut off its two front legs, then it bit him on the shoulder. He grunted in pain and stabbed it through the eye, its brain died but legs were still kicking. He heard the rifle fire again then Arden called out “Out of Ammo!”

This was bad. This was very bad. He guessed there were about fifteen more billiks at the bottom of the hill recovering from the smoke. “Where’s Graul!”

Torger cut off the remaining legs of the billik that was trying to eat him. A few seconds later he heard a different blast, his own shotgun. He looked down the hill and saw Graul pump it and shoot again. The billik’s side looked like it had exploded, since Graul was only fifteen feet away. He called out “Arden, Jex come here!”

He pumped and fired again, killing another billik, and everyone ran towards him. “The cave is clear! Go get guns! Arden take this.” He drew his sword and ran towards a billik. Torger and Antic joined him and Jex cast Ice 1 then she and Brun ran into the cave. Arden pumped and fired. He pumped again and fired, then ran into the cave knowing the shotgun would only hold five shells.

That had given the other three men room to work. They slashed at legs, mandibles, antennae, and eyes, slowly dwindling down the remaining billiks. Antic thrust his spear awkwardly and randomly, pure terror in his eyes as he was aware they were on all sides of him. After another minute of intense hand to foot combat, they heard more gunfire, the .22 rifle. A bullet entered a creature behind Antic, and he heard it back away from him. He turned and stabbed it in the face, knowing he would have died if it hadn’t been shot. Another bullet entered a billik that Antic hadn’t seen to his right, and he was able to stab that one in the face too. Then another behind him again. After multiple shots Arden called out “Hold your fire! Save ammo.”

Torger and Graul slashed with their swords and blocked with their shields until they were able to reach Antic, then they fought back to back protecting each other. Another minute later all the billiks were dead.