Chapter 54

 

The spider invasion…

Day 11 since entering the gnomes’ warren…

“Quick move it!” the lieutenant signaled both in the gnome language and to us so we knew what was going on. He was being firm now. It gave the other gnomes confidence.

We were stunned into silence.

“Girl, stay away from the front lines,” he said to Vira, waking her up to action. I was almost as dazed but managed to get myself going. It was easy to get like that, seeing things that were foreign to our world and being caught up in watching the violence crashing over those below like a wave.

“Have to stay moving,” I muttered to myself.

“But my light…”

“Is useless if you die,” he retorted. “Extremely useless…”

“Hurry, don’t stand out in the open or you’ll get killed,” the lieutenant gestured for us to get down in a trench like structure next to the switchback trail system. It seemed to follow it all the way down around the courtyard and could be used either for water or hiding men in it. It led down into a crater like pock marked courtyard that was ruined below where everything was happening below us; though crudely made and not very good looking it wasn’t bad for providing survival cover to range people up top of the bowl area.

This courtyard had been the focus of many previous battles also, I can see.

Other gnome defense units also had recently arrived with human refugee units from our people. But not a lot of them were at the front line yet. They seemed to be still coming out of adjoining chambers and tunnels. It seems there’s more than one set of switchback trails from other corridors that adjoin together to cover the range fire positions around the gate area.

So others were helping out too?

“I wonder how many others will be joining us?” I wondered.

The lieutenant gave no clue that he knew. Or maybe he didn’t trust us enough yet with that information.

I caught sight of Akira and Yuriko working with another gnome unit near the front lines where all the mess was occurring. Of course they would be the first to get down by the front. Akira was crazy to expose himself like that, basing his decision off his reckless strength winning through. He was again using a heavy log and smashed a spider’s abdomen so hard its guts splashed out coating all the gnomes around them. The spider twitched and died.

But somehow I doubted it was going to be that easy.

The gnomes were cheering. They had taken up some kind of odd chant. The chant seemed to be referring to Akira.

“What are they saying?” I asked turning to the lieutenant..

He shrugged, “well…uh…it’s kind of embarrassing.” He didn’t want to tell me.

“Go on,” I urged.

He finally relented, looking bashful. It’s something like, “Go, goat man? It wasn’t my idea,” he said apologetically.

I had to cover my snicker.

“Where were you?!” Suddenly Asakura was by my side, with Rina and Yumi.

“I could say the same to you guys,” I muttered.

“The whole warren has been mobilized. They have even armed their young lings,” Asakura said with a look of grief on her face.

They are suddenly a bit relieved now that they are with me.

“They wouldn’t do that unless they feared everyone in the colony being killed,” I said with a tingle up my spine.

“How’d you find us?” Vira asked while we found cover positions.

“Rina can find you anywhere it seems,” Asakura said while looking at me. That sounded too true…but still spooky at the same time.

Rina waved to me with a weird look on her face. No way? Was this the infamous ahegao look? I pulled her down in the trench so she wasn’t just standing out in the open. Yumi followed right behind.

Yumi scowled seeing it. She stuck out her tongue at me. She was of course having a jealousy reaction too.

“Vira stay with us. If you work your holy light with Yumi’s shield we can probably be the most effective then and still keep everyone alive. We should be working on looking for some kind of opening to exploit,” I add.

“Got it,” she said with no questions. She could already see Yumi’s magic equipment energy shield out. But it looked like somehow Yumi had leveled it up or something and it was now bigger than before. Did she know how to manipulate the system then? She was probably not telling me a lot since I could see it like this now.

I wanted to ask her how she’d done it, but there wasn’t time now. Even if we had the time, I doubted she’d give me a good answer. She knew I’d wanted Saiya to share information too.

“But I’m normally with Saiya’s team. I don’t know what will happen after today,” Vira said stiffly.

“We’re not poaching you, just looking for a temporary way to save everyone and you might do some temporary good here. Rather than anyone’s team being the focus, we’re all just trying to survive. Think about those little gnomes that are hoping their parents are going to come home,” I countered.

“Ugh, you’re right,” she muttered.

“Lez pow- gwuehhh,” Yumi’s battle cry suddenly died, as she took Rina’s elbow in her gut hard interrupting whatever she was about to cheer. She took a step back to recover her balance. She looked a little sick and spit up something.

“Ugh, wh-why’d you do that?” she gasped, on the ground. She acted like she’d been betrayed.

It wasn’t that bad of a hit, I thought.

“That is NOT going to be our battle chant. And damn it, if you do that you’ll ruin my chances with Shun,” Rina said in Hyde mode. Her eyes looked like they might form lasers and burn Yumi. If only it were true…

“But-…”

“You want to get hurt?” came the quick retort.

“N-no! Please, it’s fine now!”

“Good.”

“Hey that wasn’t nice still,” She muttered barely audible. She glanced at Asakura for pity.

Asakura didn’t buy into it. Yumi forgot she saw stuff like that daily in school and knew the science of the con art of teenagers.

“I’m going to have to punish you. I don’t like you saying unnecessary things,” Rina said venomously.

“Like maybe a spanking?” Yumi looked at her intensely and a bit too excited. It was the perverted old man look.

“Why was she suggesting her own punishment?” Asakura whispered to me.

I shrugged. I didn’t need to say anything. But I was looking at the two clowns before us, hoping they wouldn’t distract us any further. “Guys, we really don’t have time for this,” I said.

But she was cut off from her delusion, “stop distracting us with your foolishness. This is serious. Get it together and stay quiet. The enemies will go for positions they know about to attack first. And those will occur based on noise,” Asakura said.

They both looked chastened. “S-sorry,” they both said.

“Watch your step the rocks here are sharp when you trip,” Rina glared at her eye to eye.

“OK, get in your usual positions. Vira stay close to Yumi, on the other side of her as me,” I said. We then began trying to work our down down but staying low while following the ditch line.

But we were suddenly forced back when we had gotten a bit further.

The giant black carapaced spiders were making a comeback below us in the bowl shaped courtyard. Their red eyes glowed all over the cavern where they were engaging us, in blood list. Together there was a frightening non-stop echo of chattering from all of them sounding out their cries together. They seemed to grow their courage by chittering noises together.

The gnomes were still trying to fight back, but it wasn’t going as well as they wanted.

A few of them had charged through the block of gnome fighters bowling them over like a stampede. The gnomes tried to retaliate to stop it, but were then surprised by the net move the spiders pulled off. The gnomes were living bowling pins now, and not doing so well.

“Holy shit, they can spit acid!” Yumi exclaimed.

Hearing it my gut sank in depression. Acid sounded really shitty for a wound. A lot of things are scary to people but thinking of your flesh and skin being burned off by acid is definitely one of the worst ways to die.

“What?!” we exclaimed.

Sure enough the spiders had good range with their mouths and even could hit people way back here on the crossbow line. Two gnome crossbow users died instantly as their faces dissolved into muck and a funky smell and cloud of smoke erupted from the hits. Even the white bones of their skulls underneath somehow started to cave in and melt like a deflating soccer ball. The gnomes didn’t die peacefully even though they died fast; of course even after they were dead their bodies were twitching.

I covered my mouth quickly, and ducked down. I had almost lost my lunch again. I wasn’t scared of fighting but seeing flesh dissolve is … not fun to watch. I had to distract myself from thinking about it.

Asakura and the others also ducked down near me.

We had to cover our mouth and noses to keep the terrible vapor from making us choke even when over ten feet away.

“Everyone get behind the rocks,” I said.

Fortunately the gnomes had foreseen needing archer cover fire positions when they’d built this place. We then threw rocks as hard as we could at spider abdomens since we didn’t have crossbows while others fired the real thing. Even if we salvaged them from the dead it wouldn’t do much good without training on how to operate the special loading mechanisms and springs. Plus they were small for human hands.

Elsewhere more gnomes were dying, as the spiders began spraying their acidic spit.

Within ten minutes we were pinned down and the front block where Akira and Yuriko was had been standing only moments before. I began to worry when I couldn’t see them anymore.

“Hey get your head back here,” Asakura said guessing my mind state. “You can’t worry about everyone. Focus on our team! Keep your courage together.”

“Got it,” I said sheepishly.

Rina even managed to help out. She had pulled back and was helping gnomes open up the extra ammunition crates. She had some kind of box opener tool and together with some other gnomes they were opening up smaller boxes once the big wooden crates were open. They could also use the crate for cover.

Our courage picked up when two spiders were killed, who happened to be two of the charging spiders. But it was a costly victory that had killed eleven gnomes each.

“We have to do something. The costs are too big,” Asakura said.

Then we spotted the supply crates in the back.

“What’s in those?” I asked the gnome lieutenant.

Because our squad didn’t have many snipers we weren’t able to do much yet.

“Just liquor,” the gnome said suspiciously but waving his hand to get us away. “Nothing good there to use.” He didn’t like our attention over there.

Asakura and I looked at each other.

“Gnome liquor?”

“Nothing good there to use,” The gnome repeated very firmly this time. His eyes looked evil, as he bore down on us. He looked like he was considering abandoning his post to protect the booze suddenly.

Nah, maybe I was wrong; that was my imagination I think…

“Hey…that might work,” Asakura said it about the same time I was thinking it too.

“Yeah you don’t want to mess with that. It’s high proof ratio too, like I said nothing there for young kids to worry about,” he tried to wave us off again.

Asakura and I bolted for the crate running quickly.

“Hey what are you doing? We don’t get to drink until the battle is over. That’s for the victory party,” he said confused at first.

The gnomes hadn’t caught onto our movements yet. We tore pieces of cloth from the lining cloth of the crate to protect the bottles from breaking. We wrapped bits around and tied them in the tops of the bottles.

Some of the gnomes were scowling at us. They thought we were taking an early drinking break maybe? They started to look like we were cheating them somehow.

“I didn’t see it before, but the gnomes always have this glassy look in their eyes after dinner,” Asakura said.

I should have known.

“What? Really?” I asked, unsure what she was getting at.

“Their all alcoholics,” she explained whispering under her breath and using her hand to cup the side of her mouth to talk to me leaning closer. “I didn’t catch it before but wondered why they always had like a burning skin complexion after dinner with the sloppy look in their eyes…and sometimes they’d try to read a story to one of their kids and be holding the book upside down. It didn’t click for awhile what was really going on.”

Oh man. Suddenly I realized this might be dangerous on another level.

“If that’s the case then…they won’t like what we’re doing. Hurry, once they are onto us it’s all over,” I said.

“Will the spiders know you are making fire bombs though?” Asakura asked. She apparently thought I meant the spiders.

“No, not them! What do you think will happen when the gnomes figure out what we’re doing to their precious treasures!” I hissed.

“Are you guys making Molotov cocktails? That looks like fun!” Rina suddenly asked appearing out of nowhere in her bib overalls. Of course she was too loud.

Rina …didn’t play with fire did she? I’d never seen her play with matches. Had I missed something? Or maybe it was the influence of the lawless environment?

“SHH! Be quiet! Stay down!” I said too quickly.

“Yeah, stay back this is dangerous,” Sensei said.

“Ah Shun, you are so cool,” Rina tried to give me a slap on the back but I ignored her.

“Can I throw one? Pleaseeeeeee!” she had a strange look in her eyes suddenly. It reminded me of Yumi’s obsessions.

“You’re step sister…there’s something not right there,” Asakura whispered.

“Ya think?” I wanted to say it out loud.

Oops...I did say it aloud.

The gnomes were still fighting. But what would happen when they learned we were going to weaponize their precious booze that they had worked painstakingly to craft.

“Rina get us a lit pine torch fast!” I barked.

“You got it boss!” she darted to the back.

But the lieutenant gnome wasn’t a fool. After seeing us holding the lit torch and several gnome big gnome liquor bottles with tails of cloth sticking out of them he panicked. Apparently that idiot Rina was also asking him for advise now on how to make the best Molotov cocktails. She thought it was his idea. The other gnomes were now scowling at him too. He looked terrified even more than he did for the spiders. He was more than a dozen yards away but had hawk eyes and a sharp wit. He was headed straight for us with murderous intent.

“Shun! That gnome…he’s…I know that look…run!” Rina yelped suddenly realizing the damage she’d caused.

“NO!” His cries rang out loudly. He accidentally rallied the troops by stepping out of his hiding place. The other gnomes thought he meant to charge the spiders, but instead he was definitely aiming at us. They were also so furious and wanting to do something that they didn’t really bother to look which way he was running.

The gnomes streamed down the hill towards the spiders, hearing his cry out for courage. At first it looked like both us and the lieutenant were going towards the front, but then we had to veer away so that we could go from the side. We also didn’t want to get trampled by those running behind us. The lieutenant changed direction with us while the other gnomes didn’t.

“So courageous that lieutenant! What? Wait…why is the he running the wrong way?” I heard one of the elders say.

“Yumi cover me!” I said.

With Asakura in tow behind me carrying prepped liquor bottles and Yumi in front, we began charging towards the spiders with the now homicidal gnome lieutenant following us ready to cut us down as soon as could to rescue the precious. He was only twenty feet behind us and nearly as fast as we were. We could hear his cries. It seemed he was crying at the same time…

I had the lit torch ready but had to be careful not to get it too close to Asakura. She wouldn’t like being a human torch with that many bottles hugging her chest as she tried to avoid tripping and following me at the same time. The hill incline didn’t feel great on my knees as we continued down the rocky slope of this big part of the cavern.

We tried to stay close to Yumi as she blocked several spider acid arrows spat at us. She intercepted three of them easily, then a fourth went wildly over our heads. As long as we tried to stay in a line behind her we were going to be OK I hoped. Still having acid shot at you really isn’t worth it.

Maybe now is a good time to leave, was a temptation racing through my mind. But this was the only way to leave that I knew off.

Closer and closer we got to the spiders…

“Now give me a bottle!” I cried. I lit the end only a second after Asakura handed it to me. Then I lobbed it into the closest spider.

Direct hit. The bottle shatters on the rock floor and the gnomes scream louder than the dying spider! It’s burning to death quickly. I’m surprised by how quickly fire consumes spider bodies, even with their big size. The gnomes want to put out the flames but race about in circles because there’s nothing they can do to save their alcohol.

“No! You fucking humans! I’ll kill you myself!” the lieutenant was now in a total rage. He wasn’t the only one in the throes of such a terrible rage. Many of the gnomes cried terribly but were now fighting harder than before. I’d never seen eyes that color of bloodshot before.

Gulp*

We couldn’t stop now because we were more afraid of him than the spiders.

“Go, go, go!” I barked at Yumi and Asakura.

“Which way?” she frantically screamed.

“Anyway, but just don’t let the gnomes get us!” Asakura cried out, dodging the lieutenant’s hand axe swing.

“Just keep circling! Hurry! That little bitch is going to murder us!” I called out.

“He won’t stop!” Asakura cried out, following close behind me as we ran.

Sure enough he was getting closer. I grab another bottle and sped off again.

Within another few minutes two more really big spiders were dying in pretty violet and red flames. But somehow the number of gnomes chasing us had increased to at least three, all with sharp weapons.

The victory was easily achieved right after that with only three spiders escaping. But to this day the gnomes hate us for burning their alcohol. We still had to keep running for at least a half hour after that while the gnome elders tried to stop the others from skinning us alive. In the end we only managed to get them to stop by using the liquor bottles as shields against their murderous weapon swinging at us.

A bizarre hostage negotiation ensued with some of the gnomes even offering to trade us their children to get back their alcohol. We promised them we’d return the liquor bottles unharmed and more importantly, ‘unopened’ in the morning if none of us was murdered by them in our sleep. The gnome elder sighed tiredly wondering how he was going to explain that to the others as he left our defensive holdout position.

We heard, “those fucking humans! They stole our medicine!” being chanted long into the night and it’s gnomish equivalent. Another version was, “how are we going to live without our medicine?! Filthy human scum!” With looks of murder in their eyes the little men were showing their true colors. It was supposed to be some kind of post victory rally where they bragged about how many they killed. But they had somehow lost their focus.

If we can just get through the night, they had to sleep sometime.

We then found out the true scandal.

It seems the gnome colony was losing all their money in trade with the dwarves not because of the caravan guards after all, though that was a factor. They were all binging on vast quantities of alcohol. We found one of the cave warrens had mountains of empty bottles stashed there as some kind of shrine where gnome monks prayed constantly. It seems that this particular clan of gnomes seemed to have a mass cultural or genetic weakness to it.

And the problems they blamed on us recently, were to cover it up. It was a hidden secret and their version of Shangri-La.

Was this also what had contributed to their losses against the giant spiders fifty years ago?

We started to wonder if it’s safe to be alone with the gnomes now. Who knew they had so many problems? This was the real reason for their poverty.

“Buu…we’ve been deceived,” Rina whispered to me. She must be thinking the same thing.

“Don’t you complain too, you helped start this mess,” Asakura grilled into her.

The gnome lieutenant also somehow or another became a national hero in the Dwarven Kingdom overnight. Somehow revisionist gnome and dwarf historians had changed the story somehow with the lieutenant charging single handed with Molotov cocktails to rescue the trashy ungrateful humans from spiders, we later heard.

We weren’t supposed to know that part.

The dwarves didn’t drink this much did they?

Now I need to rethink our escape plan.