NOVEL NEXT Book 3 - Chapter 25
They made walls before they went into the square.
Blocking off the front part of the square had been discussed when they first started, but Patrick had argued that walling off the square and creating a divider would only make his job of creating living spaces harder and block off the accessibility of the floor. It also took more setup on top of what the burn squad was already doing. Considering that the burn squad was down a member, the task of burning away the underbrush was going to take longer, which meant going forward, the setup that they were going to do was going to take even longer.
Penelope walked into 26D1 and immediately <Blinked> on top of the wall. She'd moved her orbital eyes into the square to make sure that there weren't any Cornmen close to the wall, ready to explode. It helped that the walls were eight feet tall, so even though the monsters were able to tell that they'd entered, they didn't know where everyone was.
Patrick shouted something from the opening that they'd left in the wall down at the corner of 25D9 and 26E1. A Bunker was forming in the corner, with the sides connected to the established wall. Archer Stoery was part of the team that was doing the other half of the Dungeon, but Jerry Howard was a metal affinity Tank and was fortifying the stone walls with metal plates. The fifty-year-old former beekeeper was impulsive and reckless and constantly butted heads with everyone, but they didn't have many options for who to bring with them into the squares.
Penelope made a mental note to look for better candidates after the upcoming major reset.
"The good news is that you don't have to use everyone." Jeru pointed out. "Even later on when you start splitting the Dungeon into four groups, you'd only ever need 480 of the 584 humans on floor 10. Add in everyone from Dinmar and you'll probably only use about a hundred humans overall."
Wait, 584? Penelope released a <Mud Wave> in front of the charging monsters. I thought there were 625 people summoned… Her brain ran the numbers to figure out where the other 41 people were.
41 is the number of loopers before me. Penelope <Blinked> to the left side so the others could shoot over her. The monsters pulled back. Without knowing where on the edges to attack, the monsters didn't want to commit to attacking the corner, even with the exploding monsters.
Penelope groaned. If the monsters weren't going to come to them, then they were going to have to hunt down the monsters. She <Blinked> back behind the wall where the others were talking.
Jeru. I know you're holding something back. What happened to the other loopers?
The blue Elf was silent for once. Most of the time, he still floated around her, but he'd vanished the moment she'd realized that he quoted her a number that was too low.
I'm not going to forget my question. Penelope sighed as silence continued to be her answer. The longer you keep this from me—
"Just focus on your fight right now." Jeru snapped. His voice softened. "I've told you before not to worry about the other loopers and now isn't the time to talk about it."
Penelope thought about arguing, but he had a point. The last battle had killed two of their allies and maimed another. She couldn't afford to be distracted right now. I'm going to expect an answer before we start the next column.
Jeru didn't respond, which only confirmed the severity of the topic.
Leaving a question unanswered was going to gnaw at her, but her parasite wasn't talking, so Penelope did her best to ignore the nagging unease that had settled in her mind.
"PEN!" Patrick huffed as he walked over to her. "Talk some sense into her!"
Penelope looked at the person he was pointing at. Frederica Riddle hadn't sneaked behind the enemies yet.
"What's going on?" Penelope looked between the two leaders.
"The little ones aren't charging us, so I said we needed to go and kill all of the Shadows." Frederica put her hands on her hips. "But someone is worried that it will leave us too exposed and that his walls won't be able to stop a stampede."
"I said that we could do it safer." Patrick huffed as he pointed at the walls in the square behind them. "Did you not see what those things did to Archer's walls when they blew up?"
The memory of being thrown to the ground as shards of rocks peppered her replayed in her mind. Penelope nodded. "I was there. I saw what they can do firsthand."
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"So you know that even if we kill them, those stupid spider-things can carry the bombs with them to the walls?" Patrick stood straighter as if he'd just won the argument.
Penelope winced. She hadn't realized that was what had happened. Which meant that some of the Tanks had allowed themselves to get blown up in order to break down their defenses.
"Killing the Shadows will cause the rest of the monsters to charge us…" Penelope ignored the grin on Frederica's face. "But it's more important that we take out Cornmen first." It was easier to look at Patrick since his face was covered with a metal helmet. "If we can snipe all of those, then we can just wait out the explosion, and then it'll be safer to move around the square."
Patrick rubbed the back of his helmet with his gloved hand. "True, but we can't send the assassins out there to stab them…" He gestured at Frederica. "They'll blow up in her face."
"I can do it." Circe bounced over to where they were talking. "I can move in the shadows too, so I can get in range, then POW!" She mimicked shooting monsters with finger guns.
"You still have to get away." Penelope shook her head. "And you can't go invisible again as long as the monsters can see you."
"I can get her out." An older dark-skinned woman with curly black hair stretched out her hand as she got closer. "Lois Burns."
"I know who you are." Patrick grumbled. "The dark Caster."
Lois's blue eyes twinkled as a grin crossed her face. "Guilty, but that means that I'll be able to walk in the shadows with Circe, then I can <Blink> her back here." She tapped the wand on her belt. "And I can shoot one of them as well."
"I can go too." Riva walked over. "Drop <Shadow Chains> on the Cornmen they kill to make it harder for the other monsters to move them before they explode."
"That could work…" Patrick looked at Frederica and sighed, then turned to Penelope. "She's going to go out there one way or the other. Can you watch her and make sure she doesn't get herself killed?" He gestured at the others. "I'll see what we can do to prepare for the monster stampede."
Frederica cackled and vanished.
"I guess we're starting." Penelope shook her head as she turned her attention to the orbital eyes above her. She was getting more used to swapping her vision back and forth without the vertigo. She watched Frederica walk through the shadows to her right, then hop over the wall.
"Looks like we're going that way." Penelope pointed in the direction Frederica was sneaking.
"Be safe!" Circe waved as she melted into the shadows.
The other two women vanished as well.
Penelope lowered her voice as she walked up to Patrick. "You should send Elias with them as well."
"Good call." The leader looked around for the dark affinity Tank. "Where's Elias?"
Penelope left him to deal with supervising and <Blinked> after Frederica. Following the invisible women wasn't difficult for her, since she was able to see the invisible with her <Clairvoyance>, but she didn't want to follow too closely as to give her friend's position away.
The monsters moved away from her <Light Balls>, which made it difficult for Penelope to stay within a single jump from Frederica. The deeper into the square she went, the more small trees she had to navigate, but most of the underbrush had been removed to keep the burn squad from creating a fire line that they could blow at the monsters.
There weren't any Shadow Casters in this square, nor were there any water affinity Shadows, so Penelope wasn't worried about having her movement or spells stopped. With the monsters giving her a wide berth, it gave her an idea.
She <Blinked> to the other side of where Frederica was heading and the monsters split in half. Penelope set her sights on the two Cornmen that were between her and her friend and <Blinked> towards them.
The monsters scrambled to get out of the way, with the Cornmen splitting in either direction. A Rapten charged her, but the moment it was in her range, she blasted it with a singe <Knives Out>, which was more than enough to kill it.
I really need to find a way to make this cheaper. Penelope eyed her mana. She didn't want to use a mana potion in this square unless it was a life-or-death situation, but every time she <Blinked>, her mana went down by 3. Considering she had 202 maximum mana, that wasn't a lot and her mana recovery while in combat was 3.15 mana per minute, but a minute was an eternity when a monster was in your face.
She <Blinked> towards the Cornman on her right, trying to keep herself closer to the bunker, which was being reinforced with another outer wall. A commotion behind her let her know that the others had made their move. A quick check from her eye above her told her that the dark Tank hadn't made it out for this mission.
Frederica sliced open the lone monster, cutting away the husk wrapped around the kernels, then popping the exposed yellow kernels like zits as she stabbed with her blades. The other monsters moved towards the lone Human the moment she revealed herself, ignoring that Penelope was moving that direction as well.
Knives rained down on the monsters as they charged the older woman. Penelope was beside her friend in moments and grabbed the laughing woman standing over the corpse of her target.
"Let's go!" Penelope <Blinked> towards the bunker, popping out on the other side of the monsters that were still alive. She could have killed more of them but only hit the closest ones and the ones that were near her exit. She'd avoided the Chogs, since the pig-monsters with a mushroom cap on their head like a hat were the Healers for this column. She already knew that her spells wouldn't be enough to bring one of those horse-sized monsters down and considering that they were Healers, they didn't pose much of a threat.
"That was GREAT!" Frederica cackled as she flicked her arms, throwing the vile-smelling fluid at the ground once they were safe behind the wall.
Penelope sighed but couldn't stop the grin that tugged at the corners of her mouth. It was good to see her friend enjoying herself after the cloud that had been around the older woman the last two weeks since Oakley had died. A quick check of her eye in the sky let her know the others were okay as well.
The ground shook as the corpses exploded, but no one was close enough to get hurt. Now that they knew how to deal with the Cornmen, they could finish the rest of the column safely.