Chapter 28: Bear-dger

  The bear-dger barreled towards Allie and Holly in a frenzy. Alex thought he would have to watch them get trampled over by the beast, as he knew he wouldn't be fast enough to get there and push them out of the way. But the two girls weren't helpless. They each dove in different directions, the animal threading between the two of them and slamming againt a tree a few feet beyond. The entire canopy shuddered slightly, but the tree held firm.

  "Take the small ones. I'll distract the big one for now." Alex called out as he ran forward.

  The beast had already turned around when Alex was upon it. He groaned and gritted his teeth as his still injured arm protested the rapid movement he was subjecting it to, but that didn't stop him. He brought the spear in his right hand up and jabbed. The beast couldn't back away because of the tree and failed to swipe the weapon with its claws. The spearhead pierced the creature's fur stopping at the shaft. It wasn't very deep but it was enough.

  "Ha!" Alex yelled as he twisted the spearhead and pulled it back.

  It was a move he had learned when watching Devon fight the badgers just minutes earlier. The guy was surprisingly deft at the weapon and Alex took to mimicking him. The twisting action lacerated the puncture wound further as Alex withdrew. The beast roared in rebuke.

  "Badgers and kobolds and bears, oh my," Garret yelled out just as he arrived. He came barreling through the leaves of a low hanging tree branch and rolled along the ground as he landed. He was obviously messing around with his ‘ring of mad-hops’ once again. Alex refused to call the item by that name, but it didn’t really matter what he wanted, it was Garret’s item. "That thing the den mother?"

  "No idea, just help," Alex shouted without turning away from the beast.

  He backpedaled as the thing recovered and took a swipe at him. He couldn't take advantage of the full spear's reach with his injury as he had to hold the weapon in only one hand. He was forced to choke up on the shaft to have control of the thing, sacrificing its length compared to the others.

  Against the smaller badgers, this wasn’t a problem, it still gave Alex a longer reach than the beasts. In this instance, it was an issue that Alex was going to have to keep in mind during the fight.

  It was better than the sword he still had sheathed on his hip. Alex had no confidence in his ability to not chop off his own leg with that thing.

  The large badger again rushed forward, this time at Alex, forcing him to also dive to the side in a dodge. He rolled back to his feet easily, his arm sending new jolts of pain through his body which he ignored.

  Garret was on the thing once it scrambled to a halt. A thrust from his spear brought a new wound to the creature’s hide. His higher strength had his spear piercing twice as deeply as Alex could manage. Garret got it low on the shoulder and then pulled away to avoid the counterattack. Alex also got a jab in on its flank during the distraction and jumped back to gauge their handiwork.

  It's not enough. He thought.

  While Alex was opening up his wounds with the twisting maneuver he learned from Devon, they weren't that deep. Garret's were deeper, but not that wide. All the muscle, fat and fur were matting over the creature's wounds and were quite effective in stopping the bleeding. They were doing damage, but nothing lethal. He looked over to Holly and Allie, they were already finishing off the "little" ones and could start helping, but how much?

  "It's not bleeding. We aren't hurting it enough." Alex called out.

  Garret dodged another swipe, only barely. His agility wasn't like Alex's. If the others went in for attacks, would they be fast enough to avoid getting killed in return? He didn't know.

  "Should I build a fire for you?" Garret shouted over the beast's grunts.

  “What?”

  “That’s how you killed the first one.” Garret smiled at him.

  Alex shook his head in annoyance. Burning the thing like he did to the beast from the very first night might actually work. A little campfire wouldn't do it though, and they didn't have any spells yet.

  "Distract it for now, let me try to come up with a plan. Allie, Holly, only attack the flank when you know you can get out of its range right after. It's fast." Everyone nodded and began a coordinated dance.

  Garret mostly feinted and made weak jabs to keep the thing's attention. It tried to barrel into him again and Garret shoulder-checked the thing in response. Alex thought for a moment Garret would be strong enough to hold it.

  He wasn't. The scout was sent rolling back across the forest floor in a heap.

  "I said distract it, not grapple it," Alex shouted again.

  "Sorry, must've rolled a one on that athletics check," Garret yelled back, jumping to his feet.

  He was rattled, but not hurt. He dodged when the badger repeated its rush. The girls at least got an attack in between the badger's offensive, adding more puncture wounds that sealed themselves with fat and fur right afterward. Alex thought about his friend's crazy attempt. Garret couldn't overpower it, but he did stop it for a moment.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Alex could see more of their squad showing up at this point. Eric and Henry were off to the side, Lance and Cole had managed to catch up as well. They mostly watched at first, figuring out what the hell was happening.

  "Okay Garret, I have an idea. Get over here." Alex shouted.

  "You got it, Scorpion!" Garret ducked under another powerful claw swipe and ran over to Alex.

  Allie stabbed again and jumped away. Henry and Lance each threw their spears. One missed completely, the other only grazing the beast's arm.

  "Stick close. When it rushes, I want you to shoulder-check it again." Alex said as he watched the badger turn around to swipe where Allie used to be.

  "Uh, that actually kinda hurt."

  "But did you die?" Alex snapped back with a smirk.

  "Touche', fucker." He chuckled and settled into a ready stance. "Don't miss."

  Garret whistled. It caught the badger's attention, for a moment. It looked at him and Alex and ignored them to turn on Allie again.

  Alex cursed under his breath as he quickly hefted the spear over his shoulder and threw it as he yelled loudly. The spearhead sank an inch into the badger’s back. It wasn't even enough to go past the thing’s thick muscles, but it at least got its attention. It turned around swiftly, the spear dislodged and fell to the ground.

  "Come on you dungeons and dragons reject!" Garret shouted at it and waved his spear. That seemed to work because it charged at them.

  Alex cursed again and fumbled to draw the sword he had sheathed on his belt. He wasn't confident with the weapon, but it would have to do since it was all he had and the badger was already barreling down on them.

  He stepped to the right as the creature ran. Garret stepped forward into it. The two collided, and again Garret was sent rolling backward. Alex heard the air leaving Garret's lungs this time. The badger stayed still for a precious couple of seconds, Alex lunged.

  The tip of his sword pierced directly into the badger's eye and sank into the orbital socket with a squelch. Alex could see the thing's eye leak out liquid like jelly from the sides of a sandwich. He gagged.

  "Die!" Alex yelled at the beast as he twisted the sword's hilt and pushed. He could feel the metal scrape against bone as it moved, but not enough to break through into its skull.

  The creature roared in pain and protest as it started to thrash its head around. It tried shaking to free itself, forgetting it had claws for the moment, and the strength to punt Alex like a soccer ball. Alex was grateful for that.

  Alex held the sword like a lever, keeping the badger's head still as much as he could. The blade was still stuck in its eye socket, grinding away as the two of them fought. Alex wasn't nearly as strong as this thing, but controlling its head didn't require him to be equal.

  He pulled down hard, forcing the badger to lower its head to his waist level. Then he slammed his knee against the end of the bottom of the hilt with all the strength he could manage. This wasn't like when he was trying to knock out Kate, Alex gave it everything.

  The thin bone at the back of the badger's eye socket finally gave up. Alex's sword drove itself into its cranial cavity, propelled by his knee, and pierced into its brain.

  The creature shuddered a final time then collapsed.

  Everyone cheered and began to celebrate. Holly and Allie hugged. Garret tried to high-five Henry, who shook his head. Even Peter and Cole smiled and gave a thumbs up Alex’s way.

  "Damn, nice one!" Garret patted Alex on the shoulder.

  "It's a warrior," was all Alex said.

  "What?" Eric had retrieved their spears at this point and handed Alex back the one he had thrown.

  "The system says it's a Badger Warrior." Alex clarified what he meant. He didn't want to say what that implied.

  "A warrior? Not the den mother queen or whatever?"

  "No."

  "So that was a warrior, then what about the smaller ones? Just the children?" Holly asked. Everyone had made their way over now and began surrounding the warrior's corpse. Even lying dead, the thing came up to Alex's waist. It was hard to believe this thing was just the den's basic warrior.

  "Probably not children, but just food gatherers," Devon said. "In bee hives, warriors are the fighting force and the other ones bring food to the queen. Maybe it's like a bee hive sort of thing. All the children would be kept at the den."

  "Okay, that makes sense. But, that means there are even more of these warrior ones further in?" Lance peaked at the wound in the beast's eye socket as he spoke. He didn't seem at all perturbed by the gore.

  "Possibly. So the little ones were just a light warm-up. We have to fight what, dozens of these? I don't know if we are ready for this." Alex said.

  "Well, that thing just gave me enough experience so I can get my agility up to five," Holly said.

  "Same here," Eric added.

  Turned out Allie and Lance also had gained enough from the badger-warrior and all the other "badger-drones" so far to be able to push a chosen stat up and reach their first refinement. The others weren't that far behind either.

  "That might make the difference. If everyone can push their stats up to refine their body, we can figure out some strategies to take these things down." Alex said.

  "You think this queen mother badger will be even more difficult?" Garret asked quietly.

  "Doubt it," Devon said. "Queens tend to be less combat-oriented and more about pumping out offspring in hive colonies. It's the warriors that are gonna be the threat."

  "Good then, let's all-"

  "Unless she has royal bodyguards," Devon interrupted. "If those exist, they'll be even tougher than the warriors. I hope we don't have to deal with royal bodyguards"

  A chorus of groans erupted in the squad.

  "Seriously man?"

  "Come on."

  "What did I say?"

  "Devon," Alex put a hand on his friend's shoulder and shook his head. Disappointment shined in his eyes as he looked at Devon. "How many times do I have to tell you? Don't jinx a mission."

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