The thing he wants to do most of all in the world is to sit down and take a break. But he can’t, not when the others are relying on him to hold his side. He swings [armor breaker] from his left and lances out with [oceanic ixwa] from his right. His [Tautavan Empire treads] thump heartily into crab anteriors. Tacky ichor pools on the ground beneath him and threatens to make him slip and skid.
The bodies have grown so numerous that they are becoming like fortifications. The sinuous green crab variant that spawns now crawls over its fallen fellows. Todd casts them back down again.
Joe is up and moving. He’s taken back his sword, even though his gait is stilted. He cleaves crabs with a vengeful fury, and curses them individually.
Ranger Drew is sprinting deep into the swarm. They slash at him and he springs into an aerial cartwheel that soars over them. Landing, he sweeps his spear to clear space, and then he breaks out and reaches the latest build points orb.
Todd spares a glance down in that direction. Ranger Drew will be stuck fighting himself free for some time. It’s a poor place to be.
The bugs are coming from all four directions now. Todd keeps a constant eye out for when he has to cover the rear.
The turrets work tirelessly according to a rhythm that’s built into their functions. Force arrows punch at regular intervals into enemies. It helps lighten the burden.
Venom trickles through Todd’s veins. It was only a scratch that got him, but a stinger scraped his arm. Now his muscles want to lock up at odd intervals and he has a tremor on his left.
He chops off a forelimb and jabs under an armpit. The bug recoils. Another one is just as eager to come at him.
The group has been saving up build points to purchase a more expensive turret. The ideal goal is to procure the [lesser chain lightning] defense, but they may settle for a less ambitious [lesser frost spike barrage]. It’s up in the air based on how the next few hours go.
They’re all tired. They’re starting to make mistakes. The creatures are starting to become more unusual or annoying to fight. The latest green ones are fast and have long stingers. The previous dark red ones had longer claws and swung them like sabers.
Todd saves his cosmic energy for reinforcing his body now. His signature skill just doesn’t have the staying power for a long, drawn out fight like this. Relying on his own flesh and bones is the smart move, even if it is exhausting.
His hand flashes and he pins a crab to the ground like its a butterfly being stuck to a board. It thrashes violently and he slashes with the other weapon to chop a few inches off the flailing abdomen and disarm it.
Stomping on the top of the creature he draws his ixwa free with a squelch. In the following motion, he downstrokes to his left and cracks the back of a bug wide open, then he boots it away.
Before he feels too proud of himself, his planted foot slips in the muck and he falls. His legs scissor into a painful splits. Groaning, he drops his weapons on the ground to put his feet back under him.
A crab comes at him from behind and he fires a [water spear] into its face, mangling its eyes. Picking up his weapons, Todd squats and stabs, killing the thing. He leaps to his feet and slides through the gunk, this time on purpose. He intercepts a crab rushing towards the crystal and pierces it through the tail before bashing it to death with the sword.
He coughs a wracking cough. The chemical in the air is no less potent, no less irritating. It seeps into his pores, and he feels an itch in his skin.
Far off into the distance, Ranger Drew breaks free of the surrounding crabs and makes his way back towards the turrets and the group. Todd moves out with the others to meet them. They’ll have just enough time to clear out this wave before the next one starts.
“Bringing us presents?” Joe shouts.
“You shouldn’t have!” Candra laughs loudly.
Todd doesn’t have anything clever to say. He could joke ‘I wish we had butter’. Maybe he could say ‘seafood, coming up!’ with bravado. But no. He simply sets his jaw, takes a stance and waits for the clash.
Thirty two hours in. The [lesser frost spike barrage] is up and running. The pillar is made from a scraggly, gnarled pine. Snow flakes from the ice ring apex of the tree and floats down to settle on its needles. It constantly replenishes itself and defies the temperature in the room.
Sharp spikes of glacial blue ice appear in the air, one after another. They form and fire quick as can be, and they cripple bugs rapidly.
In fact, the turret is so effective that Ranger Drew is noticing he is gaining less energy from kills. He mentions the fact as if it is a personal offense.
Still, it allows they to start rotating out and taking breaks. Candra is seated at the crystal now. She meditates with a nexus crystal and takes sips from her canteen. Todd rushes around to pick up the slack. There are too many directions to defend against and a growing number of obstacles in the way.
In the downtime between waves, he, Ranger Drew, and Joe drag crabs into walled piles on the first and second steps of the platform. Anything to get them out of the way.
Todd faces off against a broad bodied, blue shelled crab. Its defensive properties are much higher than other types and Todd relies heavily on [armor breaker] to fight them. His ixwa can kill them if he aims at the seams between plates, but it’s hard to make the mark.
Three of the beasts lie around him. They twitch and bubbles emerge from their mouths. The living bug swipes at Todd with its heavy, cleaver like forelimbs. Todd backpedals, then surges forward to hack the beast down its center. It’s arms curl and nearly trip him up as he extracts himself.
The wave is complete.
Todd checks the timer and in some measure of surprise he sees something unexpected.
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Next Wave: 03:57:31
He reads the interface again to make sure. An actual break! He practically throws himself down at the crystal next to Candra and his bag.
If it’s possible to take a nap, he’s going to do it. His legs are wobbly and his fingers are gripped tense like piano wire. Pulling out a ration token, he conjures up a new meal and wolfs down food with ravenous urgency.
They hold a quick meeting, just to cover their state. They raise the option of changing their strategy, but they don’t come up with many workable ideas for things to change.
Todd lays down and closes his eyes. The ground is hard, but he doesn’t care. He drifts off to sleep with weapons gripped in his fists.
Two days into the mission, Todd is feeling feverish. He’s running on fumes. They’ve had a few more short breaks, long enough to cultivate, take care of essentials, and little more. It’s a poor substitute for sleep.
On the bright side, Ranger Drew is starting to open up. The constant mortal struggle enlivens him. The older man tells them little stories about his time growing up in Akron, Ohio, mostly about riding on various motor vehicles.
It’s forward progress, and Joe seems encouraged by it.
Candra meanwise is in an ever deepening bad mood. The conditions of the mission are getting to her, and she even starts to snap at Joe. Todd doesn’t know how to help. The men start to leave her alone to brood.
The next wave arrives and a brown, spiky crab swarms in from all directions. Todd waits for them underneath the actinic glow of the newly purchased [lesser chain lightning turret]. He has yet to see it in action, and is in rapt anticipation of its effect.
The four of them stake out a cardinal direction each. By now, they each have a little ritual they perform, waiting for the bugs to arrive.
Todd swings his arms like a flapping bird and hops on his toes. Then he shakes out his legs and adopts a firm stance. Static electricity gathers and the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
Todd darts out to meet the incoming crabs. Their spiked shells have needle sharp points and he has to dance away from them every time they get too close. [Armor breaker] shatters chitin. [Oceanic ixwa] causes internal bursting hemorrhages. When he kicks, holes are punched in the soles of his boots and prick his skin. Light flashes over his shoulder, along with an almighty zap, but he doesn’t see the result. The turret is firing in another direction. In fact, none of the turrets are firing his way. He must be too far forward. He falls back, leading the crabs dangerously close to the hub crystal. As planned, a force arrow blows a hole into the thorax of a bug. Todd cycles cosmic energy through his body; he strikes blindingly fast. His pace is almost faster than he can keep up with. Avoiding the natural weapons of the bugs is easy as long as his mind is clear.
It’s not that Todd has become some master warrior within a week and a half. He’s still clumsy, his attacks still lack decisiveness. It’s just that his raw stats make up for his deficiencies.
In fact, the main thing holding him back now is his strength. Punching through the armor of these stronger crabs is tiring work, and his wrists sting with the effort.
Todd wants to give up, to give in. But the fear and pain is there to keep him sharp. Piece by piece, he dismantles the new crabs. When he’s done, he sticks them on his ixwa and tosses their bodies to clear his floorspace.
Every couple of waves, he switches weapons with Candra. She can’t seem to decide which one she prefers. Annoyance grows in her features as wounds appear on her arms and legs.
When they finish the current wave, she swallows a healing pill, cussing up a storm. She waylays Todd and exchanges her scepter for the sword again, twirling it once to get the heft of it.
Todd takes her mood in stride. He isn’t all too happy either.
“My hands are like, shot,” he complains.
“I know!” Candra exclaims from the floor. “I’m going to drop my fucking stick.”
Todd tilts his head. “Your what stick?”
“I dunno what it’s called! Whatever it is,” Candra snaps.
“Ciforre called it a [Marut sonic scept-”
Candra cuts him off. “I don’t care what it is. It’s a piece of shit. I can’t kill these things fast enough.”
“Yea, it’s been weirdly tough,” Todd changes the subject. “This feels more like extreme than hard. I don’t know how a team with [mercury rod]s could handle it. I’m worried.”
“That’s a good point,” Candra glumly acknowledges. “God damn it.”
“Maybe we’re getting a tougher run. We have more stuff. The system can push us harder,” Todd offers insincerely.
“Maybe,” Candra mumbles. “The system is just like, fuck us in particular? Wouldn’t that be a gas.”
“Wouldn’t it?” Todd shakes his head. He extends a hand to lift Candra up. “Come on. We’ve got a wave coming.”
She takes his hand, then once she’s up settles her gi under her new belt. “Let’s do this,” she grumbles as she moves to take her place in front of the chain lightning turret.
Now sixty hours have passed. An arc of incandescent electric current snakes into the torso of a slate black crab, then threads through out its tail and into another bug. It makes a chain of four before the charge dissipitates.
The creatures flail, half cooked from the inside. Todd ignores them for now. He’ll have to come back for them. The [lesser force arrow turret] has been upgraded to a [rapid fire force arrow turret], and it releases crippling bolts at a sizeable rate.
Ranger Drew no longer complains about missing out on levels. There are more than enough crabs for hiim to drown in. His leg armor is torn and he has dried blood on his pants.
They are down another healing pill. That leaves them with three of the better ones, and eight of the lesser ones. They regret each one used, they need to hold onto as many as possible for the others when they get back.
Todd is caught off guard and fires a [water spear] to make space. The skill doesn’t form right when he has a weapon in his hand, the spray shoves the crab into a tumble but doesn’t pierce it. Still, room was what he needed and he brings the scepter down with a crack and a pop.
His boots are falling apart again, but he figures its just the cost of business. They’ve served him well.
Something like a runner’s high courses through him. He knows he’s going to crash, but for now he has boundless energy. His brain is hot in his skull and his muscles are taut like cords.
Fighting a retreating battle, he slays the crabs he is responsible for and then scampers off to help Joe combat his own. They cover for one another, fluidly changing lanes according to their needs.
It’s become harder and harder to collect build points now. More often than not, the four of them choose not to risk it. They’ll have to make do with the towers they have.
Four hours later and the quest updates to show a welcome reprieve.
Next Wave: 07 : 29 : 56
Todd gasps in relief. Joe whoops in celebration. Candra lets out an exhultant curse.
Ranger Drew? He barks at them to get back into position.
Todd gulps as he looks out into the tunnels at the approaching bugs. So many clacking legs. So many undulating carapaces. This penultimate wave is huge.