The Buried Claw had managed to delay the stonemen a full thirty minutes past what Zevrack had promised, with he and his warriors arriving in a quickly moving line of scales and tails, just ahead of the stonemen. I quickly informed them of the plan and those who weren’t too exhausted moved into positions on different roofs, loading their dart guns with whatever poison ammunition they had left. I stood at the defensive position we’d created at the end of the funnel, along with Galgrum and those of his people he trusted the most with the defense of Mykas.

The air was tense, and I could feel my heart pounding as I watched the line of stonemen slowly approach. It wasn’t fear that was quickening my pulse though, but excitement. I hadn’t ever done any big important things back on Earth. My mom had always said that what was important was the little things. Putting your shopping cart away, saying thank you, calling a friend to check if you hadn’t heard from them in a while. I still believed she was right, but man, attempting to defend a city of innocents? That was worth putting away a shopping cart four or five times at least.

We had spent the last several hours frantically preparing for this and during that time I’d been pleasantly surprised to receive fifty XP for the death of a stoneman. Being in a party with Zevrack meant I got XP for his traps, and that additional fifty had earned me my third level. I reviewed my character sheet.

Cormac

Half-Elf

Lvl 3 Mercenary

->XP: 1500

->HP: 34

Stats:

->STR: 13

->DEX: 15

->SPD: 15

INT: 14

WIS: 10

PER: 11

->CON: 11

LCK: 8

Known Skills:

->Sword (LVL 7)

->Club (LVL 6)

Mace (LVL 5)

Axe (LVL 5)

->Spear (Lvl 7)

Hammer (LVL 5)

Bow (LVL 5)

->Dagger (LVL 10)

->Improvised Weapon (LVL 6)

->Barehanded (LVL 9)

->Stealth (LVL 3)

Feint (LVL 1)

Trapfinding (LVL 3)

Abilities (Racial):

Half Borne of Magic

Abilities (Class):

Anything in a Pinch

For the Right Price

A Job is a Job

Spells:

Flash Step 1x per day

Grease 1x per day

Spark unlimited uses

It had been awhile since I’d looked at it, and I was gratified to see solid improvements in skills and stats beyond what I’d expected at the start of the level. I assumed things would slow down as I went, but at these early levels my progression felt like it was overdrive.

I was no longer as buzzed as I had been when I’d eaten the deathcap, but I still had a kind of cold twitchy energy that made me want to charge the stonemen before they reached us, but I tamped down that instinct. I had arranged about ten bidents around myself, stabbing them into the ground so they wouldn’t be weighing me down. In front of me and the other dwarves were dozens of boxes, barrels, and anything else we could use as cover. Its only purpose was to slow the enemy down while we retreated, but we’d also taken the time to douse them in oil. A nice surprise for when the stonemen reached us.

As they were closing in on Mykas I got a better look at them. There was a mix of male and female warriors, all with skin the color of rock. Most of them were also adorned in some kind of warpaint, and none wore any significant armor. They reminded me of drawings I’d seen of the Celtic warriors that fought the Romans. The majority of them were wielding the picks I’d seen before, but several had daggers or short curved blades as well. In the lead was a giant of a dwarf wielding two massive clubs that ended in stone blocks.

Once they were a little over halfway to us, that center man slammed his clubs on the ground and roared. His host answered in kind, and then they all charged with a kind of wild abandon. As they moved a few of them began to work their roars into chants, and I could see beams of light gracing different warriors who were suddenly moving at almost double the speed of their companions. They’d been buffed.

I hefted one of the bidents, and took several steps back. I had gained a lot more proficiency with them, and felt a lot more confident with weapons in general than I had only a short time ago. I took aim at the stoneman that led the pack. A man with a flowing gray beard and black eyes full of manic rage. I wound up, and threw with all my newly increased strength. The bident flew through the air and slammed into the right side of his chest. He fell forward and slammed into the ground, the momentum of his charge carrying him further toward us, and the rolling driving the bident deeper into his chest until he was dead. I hefted another, and another, throwing one after the other as the enhanced stonemen closed in on us. I managed to drop a few this way, and the dwarves on either side of me dropped even more as they threw their own bidents. Unfortunately one of the stonemen in the lead was quicker than the rest and managed to reach our lines without a single bident hitting him.

He jumped over the makeshift barrier and ran right toward me. I shifted my stance with my bident and stabbed at him, but he dodged under and forced me back with a series of pick strikes. He had a faint glow to him, and attacked relentlessly, not allowing me even a breath to draw a different weapon. I blocked a strike with my bident and he smashed his pick right through its haft, forcing it out of my hands.

I didn’t have time to draw another weapon so instead I threw a straight left at his face. I heard a crack as I hit his nose, but he barely reacted, striking out with his pick even more rapidly as the pain I’d caused him enraged him further. Frustrated that my eyes were taken off the approaching stonemen I yelled and threw out a kick managing to knock him flat.

At that point one of the dwarves on the line with me broke away and slammed his sickle into the stoneman’s chest, killing him.

I nodded at the dwarf and returned to my place in the line. The approaching enemies were much closer. I stopped targeting individuals and instead began throwing as hard and fast as I could into the areas the enemies were most tightly clustered. After that it wasn’t long until we were completely out of javelins. The dwarves drew sickles, or mining picks, and I took out my sword, revealing its glowing blade. We stood there, as a group, waiting for the stonemen to reach the makeshift barrier we created and looking as if we were intending to make our stand there. That wasn’t the case of course.

As soon as the first wave of stonemen reached it I leaned forward along with a few others on the opposite ends of it, and we cast spark. The barrier was up in flames almost immediately, and I saw the stonemens' expressions turn to surprise and horror as those that were against were also lit aflame.

My group took that moment to run, and we scattered to the positions we’d designated. Mine was the farthest and highest roof from where we were. It took me a fair amount of time to bolt through the town, and scramble up onto it, but luckily Elle and Zevrack were able to help pull me up. On the roof with us were piles of spice bombs, bidents, and heavy rocks.

I peered down and watched as the stonemen cleared the flaming debris in their path out of the way and began surging through the town, right through the funnel. Elle, Zevrack, myself and all the others on the roof with us began lighting the fuses on the spice bombs. We waited until the majority of the stonemen were between the two rows of buildings, and the first few were just starting the reach the town center, and that’s when we began throwing.

There were yells of surprise followed by screams as the bombs went off. I’d initially asked if we could simply make general explosives, but Elle and Lokren hadn’t had time to work that idea out, and rushing bomb making didn't seem like the best idea. Still, watching the stonemen scream and writhe from what was basically pepper spray bombs was impressive enough.

Once the stonemen were suitably distracted the men, women, and kobolds on all of the roofs started throwing down bidents, chucking heavy stones, or firing poison needles into the enemy forces. We quickly thinned their numbers, dozens dropping from the moment we began our counterattack. It wasn’t a pretty tactic, but it was the safest and best option we could manage.

After a few minutes the spice cloud began to thin and I took stock of how we’d done. It looked as if a little over half of the enemy warparty had been killed. The rest were recovering , huddling up in the center of the area between us, just out of reach of stones or bidents from us. Not that it mattered as we were nearly out of both and the kobolds seemed depleted of needles and darts as well.

The stoneman with two clubs stepped out from the rest of the group and faced them. He began roaring, slamming his clubs on the ground, and pointing up at us while giving what looked to be a very impassioned speech.

I looked over to Elle whose ears were already glowing. As I did I saw some of the color drain from her face.

“What’s he saying?” I asked.

“He says they need to fight us. That we must be punished for stealing their people.”

“Wait, he’s saying you stole their people?”

“Yes. He seems certain it was us.”

I looked down at the man that was clearly the leader of the stonemen and noted the tears in his eyes, and the rage in his voice. “We may have made a mistake.”