Path of Dragons

“Yeti patrol sounds like a sick band name, bro,” Dat said, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “Like death metal or something.”

“After everything I just said, that’s your takeaway? I just admitted to doing something incredibly stupid,” Elijah said. “I could have gotten everyone here killed. And you’re talking about band names?”

Dat shrugged. “Seems like the most important part,” he answered. “Besides, we’re friends. When friends make mistakes, we don’t browbeat them into submission. We listen. We acknowledge it. And if that friend doesn’t take steps to mitigate those mistakes in the future, then we start getting a little more insistent.”

Coming from Dat, it was a surprisingly insightful comment. Though Elijah had begun to suspect that Dat wasn’t quite as simple as he seemed at first glance. From his conversations, he knew that the Witch Hunter had gone to a fairly prestigious university, getting great marks along the way. Perhaps he should have refrained from judging the proverbial book by its cover.

“And you?” Elijah asked, looking at Sadie.

“People make mistakes. Just don’t make the same ones over and over again.”

“To err is human, bro.”

“Bein’ damn stupid is human too, apparently,” Kurik said. “Don’t do that again.”

Elijah sighed, then rubbed the back of his neck. He had expected them to be a lot angrier – or at least less forgiving of his blunder. Yet, they’d all chosen to take the high road. It was more surprising than he expected it to be. Maybe it was because they truly did need him, and they didn’t want to compromise their chances of gaining more rewards from the challenges. After all, they probably couldn’t overcome the obstacles in their way without his help.

Given the way things had started, Elijah wouldn’t have thought it was possible. Clearly, they were far more understanding than most would have been in their situation.

In any case, Elijah had neither the time nor the inclination to examine it further. Instead, he wanted to concentrate on the task at hand. Getting into the fortress would doubtless prove incredibly difficult, and that was nothing compared to what he expected to encounter once they were inside.

“There are hundreds of yetis in there,” Elijah said. “And they’re powerful, too. The lower-level ones are dangerous, but the ones we’re really going to have to worry about are the ones wearing plate armor. They’re strong enough to do some real damage, and they can take my best shot and keep on going. On top of that, they have this ability that spreads cold on every attack. I could handle it, but I think Ward of the Seasons and my equipment helped mitigate the effect.”

“We don’t have fancy equipment like that,” said Kurik.

“I’m more durable than you are,” Sadie said. “So, I can take whatever they have to dish out. For the others, we’ll just have to play our roles and avoid getting hit.”

With that, she fixed her gaze on Dat, of all people.

“Don’t look at me like that, bro. I don’t pull aggro.”

“I hate it when you use those gaming terms,” Sadie said. “Even if they are appropriate. And yes, you do. Did you forget about that time with the rot abomination?”

“Uh…that was a one-time thing.”

“And the spindle golem?”

“A two-time thing?”

She sighed. “My point is that you need to watch it. That’s it. Be careful. You know my abilities only go so far, and Elijah’s healing isn’t instant. One wrong move, and…I just…just be careful, okay? Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t,” Dat said.

“I think we might have another option,” Elijah said. He’d been thinking about their predicament quite a lot, and he thought he’d stumbled upon an approach that would prove a lot safer than a frontal assault.

“What do you have in mind?” Sadie asked.

“It’s pretty simple, really,” Elijah began. Then, he went on to explain everything he’d found along the way. Most importantly, he focused on the fields of natural treasures he’d stumbled upon. “I think they’re pretty valuable – enough so that if we start messing with them, the yetis will be forced to respond.”

That supposition was based on two things. First was the feeling Elijah got from the treasures, which were strong enough to suggest immense cumulative value. Anyone who had gone to all the trouble of cultivating such crops would surely go to great lengths to protect them. That brought Elijah to the second reason, which was based on a more observable fact. The yetis routinely sent their most powerful warriors to patrol the area surrounding the fields, a fact which supported the idea that they wanted to keep those crops safe.

So, putting them in danger would surely elicit a strong response.

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“That seems logical,” Sadie said. “But what do you want to do?”

“Traps,” Elijah said. “Lots and lots of traps. I think we should kill all the yetis in the area, then put traps at all the entrances. And in the fields. Everywhere we can, actually. When those armored yetis come to investigate, they’ll get a big surprise.”

“This ain’t what bein’ a trapper is s’posed to be about,” Kurik grumbled.

“What? This is exactly what it’s about,” Elijah said.

Dat agreed, adding, “It might be the only way, bro.”

“Don’t like it. Not one bit,” Kurik said, rolling a pebble between his fingers. “You all don’t know it, but my class has a bit of a history to it.”

“We don’t even know the name of your class,” Elijah pointed out. “I’ve just been thinking of you as a trapper.”

Kurik let out a harsh laugh. “Would that was true,” he said with a shake of his head. “But no. I ain’t no true trapper. My class is called Sapper, and it ain’t meant for huntin’ and wilderness survival. It’s meant for war, and not the noble sort. When a Sapper comes ‘round, that’s when things start gettin’ messy. Which is why I don’t go ‘round crowin’ about it. We ain’t got the best reputations.”

“Then why’d you take it?” Elijah asked.

“Best option I had. Sappers ain’t well-liked, but they are respected. If my clan hadn’t been banished, I would’ve had a good life. Lots of opportunities. Lots of death. I was okay with that when I picked the class, but after comin’ here, I thought I’d get the chance to do somethin’ else. Maybe move my class away from the war part and into somethin’…I don’t know. Guess that pit’s been dug, though.”

“What’s the difference between what your class does and a trapper?”

“Trappers ain’t tryin’ to kill so much as catch. Some of ‘em are even gentle ‘bout it. They want the pelts intact, right? So they trap. Then, they kill without leavin’ a mark. Don’t work so well on smart creatures like dwarves and such. But a Sapper? We ain’t s’posed to care ‘bout none of that. We kill in as efficient a way as possible, no matter how gruesome. We’re there to slaughter whole armies,” Kurik explained. “And if there ain’t another Sapper – or worse, a gods bedamned War Engineer – to counter us, we’ll do just that. The only problem is that we need protection. We ain’t built for fightin’ as such.”

“I’ve seen you fight, bro.”

“That’s ‘cause I’m special,” Kurik stated. “I don’t get to just sit back and let an army protect me, do I? No I don’t. I got to get in there and play Ranger, too.” He scratched his beard. “The point is that I ain’t too happy ‘bout this plan. But I don’t see no other way, either. We’re here, and we ain’t gettin’ back topside without goin’ through that fortress. So, if killin’ is what we need, then that’s what I’ll do. Just don’t come cryin’ at me when you see what that means.”

Elijah nodded, and though Dat clearly wanted to know more, he remained silent as well. Sadie just narrowed her eyes, though she didn’t voice her disapproval. Despite Kurik’s mixed feelings about his class – or the sort of carnage it could create – Elijah couldn’t help but think that the Sapper sounded like precisely what they needed. What’s more, Kurik had gained more levels than anyone else since the Trial began, so he had a couple of new abilities he could bring to bear.

Regardless, as Kurik had pointed out, moral quandaries aside, they didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. They couldn’t fight an army head-on, especially when said force was composed of such powerful members. They needed to use every tool at their disposal, and it just so happened that Kurik’s skillset was exactly what they required. But even then, it was no easy task ahead of them. Simple, sure. But easy? Definitely not.

Still, it was nice to have some notion of how they were going to overcome the challenges ahead of them.

So, they resolved to rest for another day – letting the commotion Elijah had already caused fade from the yetis’ minds – while they prepared for the task at hand. Kurik, in particular, spent a lot of time sketching traps in a small notebook he kept with him. All the while, he kept muttering about a lack of proper tools. Even so, when the next day dawned – at least as far as they could tell without a means of telling time – they were all as prepared as they were going to get.

For his part, Elijah spent most of the time cultivating – because, after feeling the dense ethera surrounding those natural treasures, he felt positive that he could use them to create something akin to his cultivation cave back home. Perhaps it would even be better, though he doubted that much. In any case, he was eager to get started, and he hoped that by the time he finished making a proper space, he would have some insight into how to push himself to the next tier of Mind cultivation.

Soon enough, they found themselves trekking through the various tunnels and caverns. When the others saw the forests of ice trees and other vegetation, they were suitably impressed. However, tempering that excitement was the biting cold for which none of them had any real defense, aside from Ward of the Seasons, which only served to somewhat mitigate it. It slowed their reflexes and made them lethargic, but a steady dose of Soothe helped to keep the worst of it at bay.

Regardless, everyone in the party was eager to finish the challenge and move on to the next.

Except Elijah, of course. He could have spent weeks in those caves trying to figure out how the various pieces of the ecosystem fit together. The ice that suffused everything was a curious material. It wasn’t alive, and yet, it had some characteristics that said it was. It didn’t make sense, but Elijah didn’t have time to study it.

And even if he had, he was self-aware enough to recognize that he didn’t have the patience for true experimentation or observation. He’d inevitably lose interest after a short while, so it was probably best that there were more pressing concerns.

Eventually, they reached the fields and, predictably, had their first clash with the armored yeti patrols. It went much better than Elijah’s first encounter, but that wasn’t to say that it was entirely smooth, either. If anything, the creatures were even stronger than he’d first suspected, and the patrol pushed Elijah and his group to the brink of what they could handle.

But they emerged victorious, and once the threat had been seen to, they got to work implementing the plan. Kurik was the key component, but everyone pitched in, digging pits and gathering materials meant to construct the traps. Along the way, they were forced to fight two more patrols.

“It’s getting shorter,” Elijah said, wiping his arm across his forehead. “The intervals between patrols, I mean. I think they know something’s wrong.”

“Then work faster,” Kurik growled.

Sadie added, “He’s right. We need to get this done far more quickly.”

“I think they’re telling you to shut up and work, bro.”

Elijah shook his head. “Yeah. I caught that.”

Then, he went back to digging a trench, a process that was complicated by the fact that the ground was mostly composed of stone. Fortunately, his Strength was up to the task, even if the pickaxe Kurik had given him was wearing out at a rapid pace. In any case, they’d accomplished so much already, and they only had a little more to go before they created yet another Killin’ Field.

Hopefully, they’d get everything done before the yetis truly descended upon them.

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