Chapter 61 - Skydiving Lobsters

  I hopped up on one of the concrete barriers beside Alex, who was using the thing as a rampart behind my makeshift wall. He glanced my way and then turned his attention immediately back toward the oncoming horde of Karabos.

  "What do you think?" I asked.

  "I think we're in a lot of trouble, but I also think you already knew that," Alex replied. "What are you really asking?"

  I shook my head. "I don't know. You seem to be better at coming up with answers than most of the rest of us. I suppose I could use a few of those right now, if you've got any."

  Alex chuckled. "See, that's what happens when you socket a bunch of Intellect crystals instead of focusing on Strength and Stamina."

  "That's fair," I replied. "But without those Strength and Stamina stones, I don't think I would have been able to get you out of that spider web."

  "Also true," Alex said. "Our choices make us good complements for one another."

  "I won't argue about that."

  "So you're looking for what?"

  "Advice about how to win this fight?"

  "I don't have any solid answers for you, unfortunately. I can think of a few tips, but they're probably already obvious."

  "Alex, I'm not sure what's obvious to you is still obvious to the rest of us, at this point," I said. "Just like those Strength crystals allow me to lift a truck over my head, those Intellect crystals have made a similar impact on your smarts. I'll take whatever advice you have to offer."

  Alex went silent for a long moment, and I wasn't sure if he was thinking about how to answer or just coming up blank. If he didn't have anything to offer me, I'd just fumble my way through it as best I could. But I remembered the situation with those towers we took down together. Letting Alex do a little pre-planning was definitely a positive there. I had a feeling it would be here, too.

  The Karabos continued their inexorable march up the street toward us. The monstrously large crab was still pulling up the rear along with its complement of high-tier Karabos riding shotgun. Ahead of it, the other forces were already separating themselves up into two different waves, with the giant crabs forming the vanguard and a massive force of a couple hundred Karabos foot soldiers coming up close behind them.

  "You're probably right," Alex said at last.

  "About what?" I asked.

  "About what's obvious to me not being obvious to other people. It's something I need to keep in mind. I'm still not used to how much of a change these stones have made. Anyway, you wanted advice, so here's what I've got."

  "Shoot," I said.

  "You see how they're coming at us with all those weaker troops first?" Alex asked.

  I nodded.

  "That's to soften us up. They want us to throw all of our strength against those early waves. That way, we won't have enough left to deal with the stronger attackers in their final wave."

  "That makes sense," I said. "What are we going to do about it?"

  "You're going to have to do something that's extremely difficult for you," Alex said. "You're going to have to hold back when fighting these early attacks. If you burn yourself out, spend all of your mana, and exhaust yourself fighting the first waves, you'll have nothing left when it's time to deal with that beast of a creature they've got acting as a mobile battle platform there. Basically, you burn yourself out against these first attacks, and we're going to lose."

  I heard what he was saying. It made sense. I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to do about it. "So you're saying what, exactly? You want me to hide somewhere? Let our people die when I could save them?"

  “Hide? No. But let people die you could save? Possibly, yeah," Alex replied. "I hope not, but you have to understand, even your strength is still finite. You get injured too badly to keep up the fight, or you burn out your mana so you can't fly giant crabs around, or in any other way make yourself incapable of facing down against that big one, and we're toast. You are our only shot at taking that monstrosity out. The entire reason they're sending these first waves is to wear you down enough that you won't be able to. Don't let them."

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  "I get it," I said. "But that sucks."

  Alex nodded. "I didn't say it was going to be easy. I just said it was going to be right."

  Then the first crabs were coming within spell range. The Karabos foot soldiers escorting them got themselves behind busted cars or whatever other cover they could find and started flinging spells in our general direction to keep people's heads down. Our side returned fire, of course, and soon the air between the two battle lines was filled with spells.

  There were almost two dozen of the giant crabs, and they kept advancing. Each had a pair of riders aboard it. They were tucked down behind a pair of shields, which I realized each of them were carrying. They just lay the base of the shield down against the crab's back, and it formed a very solid defense. Even Alex's ice blast wasn't enough to unseat one of those riders, not with their shield in place. I watched one of his blasts explode harmlessly against them.

  The crabs kept marching forward. Each scuttling movement brought them closer to our wall, and there didn't seem to be anything we could do about it. Not at range, anyway.

  "You know, Alex," I said, "I think you're right about them trying to wear us out and all. But if those crabs hit this wall, they're going to tear huge gaping holes in the thing in no time flat. I don't think we're going to survive that either."

  He nodded. "Yeah. You're right. You get any ideas for taking those crabs down quickly?"

  "I do. But I'm going to need Maggie's help for it," I replied. I hopped down from the wall and went looking for her. I knew she wouldn't be that far from MacGregor, and he was easier to spot than she was. So I went and found him first.

  "Captain!" I called out. "Where's Maggie? I need her help to translate a request to our fine feathered friends."

  "She's here," MacGregor replied. "What are you thinking?"

  I came over to stand next to him. "When I was fighting those giant crabs earlier, I discovered something interesting. They're not actually part of the Karabos army. They're more like horses or war elephants or something like that. They always have handlers with them, directing them in battle. I've seen the handlers walking alongside them, but this group has them riding the things instead. I think the same principle will apply, though. If we take down the riders, those crabs will lose direction. Some of them might go wild, but a good chunk of them should probably just flee the battlefield."

  "You've seen this yourself?" MacGregor asked. "We've been assuming the crabs were just another type of intelligent enemy."

  I nodded. "I have. I had one of the things literally try to run away from me as soon as all its handlers were dead."

  "One doesn't mean there's a pattern," MacGregor replied. He looked hesitant, but then snapped a sharp nod at me. "It's worth a try, though. We'll give it a shot, see if taking out a few of those riders puts a dent in the problem. If it does, that should make all the difference in the world."

  "Great. If you can have Maggie translate that for the Peristera, that would be amazing," I said. "I'll try to pick off a few of them. If that works, you can order our new allies to jump in and do the same. Our spells aren't getting through those shields they're using, but the Peristera can fly over and attack them from other angles."

  "That'll put the Peristera at a lot of risk," MacGregor said.

  "I know. I'll see what I can do to mitigate that myself. I figure I can tie up some of the Karabos mages by giving them an easier target. Or at least a more interesting one," I said.

  "Do it," MacGregor said, "but be careful. We can't afford to lose you."

  "I know," I replied. "Alex already gave me the speech. I get it."

  I turned away from him and launched myself into the air. First, I soared high enough that I could see the whole battlefield without worrying about getting shot down by enemy spells. A bunch of them saw me, and they were clearly interested in taking shots at me. A few even sent lightning bolts in my general direction, but at that range, they were easy enough to dodge.

  A quick dive brought me down into combat range in a heartbeat. I came at the lead crab from the side, instead of the front, and snatched both Karabos soldiers from its back. Without slowing down, I heaved them southward as hard as I could.

  As it turned out, I could throw someone a very long way. They flew through the air like they’d been fired from a cannon and crashed into the glass side of the Government Center T station, breaking through and sending glass raining glass down. I had a feeling we wouldn’t be hearing from them anytime soon.

  I pressed ahead and grabbed the two soldiers from the back of the next crab. These two saw me coming and tried to adjust their shields to block me, but I just punched straight past, breaking one shield in half, and snatched them up anyway.

  Spells were flying all around me now as the Karabos tried to shoot me down, and enough of them were Lightning Bolts that it was making me nervous. I took the two Karabos with me as I rocketed skyward again, dodging spells all the way.

  “What to do with you two, though?” I asked aloud. My captives were still struggling to get loose. One of them drew a blade that was like a very short sword or a very long knife and started trying to hack at my leg. The blows stung, but he wasn’t getting past my Natural Armor. “You really don’t want to be doing that, dude.”

  He kept jabbing at my leg, and while he wasn’t breaking the skin, it was starting to hurt, and he was ruining yet another pair of pants. Finally, I just had enough of it. Plus, I was high enough. I dropped the one that was stabbing me.

  The Karabos warrior shook all his arms and legs as he fell about a hundred feet like he was trying to flap wings he didn’t have. It didn’t save him. He made a spectacular Rorchach-style design on the pavement when he hit.

  I glared down at the other one. “Am I going to have similar trouble from you?”

  The Karabos drew his blade, and for a moment I thought I was going to have to drop him as well. But he dropped the sword, instead. It sailed down and shattered when it hit.

  “Smart choice,” I said, then flew us back toward friendly lines. I wanted to drop this guy off. We hadn’t managed to take any Karabos prisoners yet, and while I didn’t know if there was value in doing so, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

  I needed to get back into the fight fast, though. I glanced down to check on things as I came in for a landing. The two giant crabs whose riders I’d removed were running away, but the remainder were still rushing in toward the wall. Another minute and they’d be tearing it apart.