Kaldalis had to angle his way back towards his friends now that he had the Globin Captain on his back, but each hop landed him in a group of Xorn, drawing their attention as well. He kept moving, kicking off as soon as his feet met the ground. The haste let him cover the distance quickly and without giving any Xorn the time to punch him, but meant that his jumps were haphazard.

He was drawing more of a crowd.

When he touched down back at the treeline, outside of the Infernal Horde’s army column, he had at least twenty Xorn pushing through the group to get to him, alongside the bulbous form of the Globin Captain.

“Tanks adjust?” Kaldalis said, offering a weak smile at the tanks present who hadn’t gone off to gather Globins. “Just keep the Xorn busy. Don’t fight straight-up. Getting rid of the Globin is the goal here, okay?”

There wasn’t time for the other tanks to grumble at the task he’d laid before them. The Xorn were upon them, and they went about the busy task of tagging them to stop the four-armed monstrosities from getting past them to Kaldalis.

And the Globin Captain charged, uninterrupted, through the line towards Kaldalis.

As soon as it cleared the line of the handful of tanks that let it through, it lunged at Kaldalis, its disproportionately small leg lashing out in a kick. Even though it was dwarfed by the monster’s oversized torso, the leg was still huge in comparison to Kaldalis, and he had to hurl himself almost to the ground to avoid getting punted.

The foot came down in a stomp while he was off-balance, forcing him to dive aside a second time.

“Jesus,” Kaldalis cursed as he scrambled back to his feet to prepare for its next attacks. “I thought you were supposed to be a healer? Ease up on me, why don’t you?”

The monster’s only response was to lash out again, slapping at him with its hands. As he hopped back away from the strikes, the DPS came to the rescue, taking up positions around the monster and commencing the attack. Kaldalis gritted his teeth and set his feet, committing himself to staying one step ahead to allow them to do their work.

It took some trial and error to learn the attack patterns effectively enough to reduce the demand on the healers so that some extra support could go to the other tanks. Despite the Globin Captain’s swollen abdomen making him think that there would be some stereotypical belly slam attacks, all of its strikes were with fist and foot.

And despite the bottom-heavy profile the monster presented, it was shockingly agile. Its attacks were fluid and difficult to follow, but once he started to recognize how its body moved, he could understand how the start of the motion would lead to the attack that followed. When its left shoulder thrust forward, the motion would carry across to its right arm. And when it shifted its head back, the motion rippled down its entire body before it launched a kick at him. Once he had that under control, all that remained was to just weather the storm.

Kaldalis had to direct some help to move out to the regular Globins as Courbois and the other mobile tanks brought them in, but he tried to keep the bulk of the damage dealers on the captain. The other Globin needed to be dealt with so that they could go back out and peel more of them out to support the defenders on the wall.

Periodically, they had to make a quick move when the Globin Captain flicked its fingers and created a red healing puddle underneath the smaller fights, undoing big chunks of their hard work in seconds.

The whole while, Xorn crashed against their defenses, both at the town, and here. Kaldalis felt like there were some number of Xorn who were hard wired to try and protect the Globin, breaking away from the charge on the camp and following the tanks pulling the Globin away. But the Xorn Captains kept their attention on the walls, and as Kaldalis fought the Globin Captain, he saw one of them march into the killbox.

He hoped that the defenses were holding. Kaldalis actively tried to ignore the large chunks of wood that were newly missing each time he looked over.

They were holding. There wasn’t another choice. They had to do this.

“Are we having fun yet?” Balrim asked as he tossed Kaldalis a potion.

Kaldalis ducked under another haymaker from the Globin Captain. “Ask Myrin.”

The Suyon in question was hacking away at the Globin Captain with a cackling laugh. As usual, all she needed to be happy was to watch the big numbers flying by.

Balrim and Kaldalis shared a look, both rolling their eyes at the tiny woman’s glee. Rule #32: Enjoy the little things. It was the state Myrin lived in, and the state Kaldalis needed to learn to embrace.

He tried to find the joy here. He was outdoors, tanking, and playing with his friends. All those things were good. Sure, he was getting a vigorous workout dodging the Globin Captain’s furious attacks. But as long as he stayed ahead of the swings and kicks, there was a small amount of enjoyment to be had.

There was a wordless cry from Panbu’s walls, and Kaldalis spared just a moment to glance over, terrified that it meant the defenses were falling.

Instead, he was greeted by a welcome sight.

Nearly fifty people were swarming up the walls, each one raising a bow and adding their arrows to those in the archery towers. Atop the gate there was one man with sword and shield instead of bow. He was a huge and familiar-looking Bhogad.

Reinforcements from Cotanaku had arrived. A little later than he expected, but they’d arrived.

Garyung pointed with his sword, shouting orders too far away to be heard here, and the archers narrowed their focus to match his direction. One of the Xorn Captains staggered under the sudden weight of the attacks directed at it, raising its four arms to block the arrows.

And with that, the tide turned.

The defenders had been fighting what felt like a standstill, but had been a losing position. They’d held their ground and sent a few Infernal Horde running, but the constant hammering on the walls meant that the situation wouldn’t hold forever. With the addition of Garyung’s forces and leadership, though, the situation changed dramatically. The directed arrows meant that the Xorn Captains turned tail and fled within a few minutes. And when the Xorn that had pushed its way into the killbox emerged again to flee into the jungle, it wasn’t long before the normal Xorn were sent running in droves.

And shortly after the turning of the tide, the Globin Captain staggered, broke, and ran.

As soon as the Globin was on the run, the army of Xorn and Globin that remained broke and ran as well.

They’d done it.

In confirmation, the quest on the left side of his vision completed.

He wanted to let his fatigue catch up to himself and drop to the ground to catch his breath, but he needed to make this victory count. It only took a moment to marshal his will to start to lead his group back to Panbu’s gates.

Garyung met him at the gate with a handful of his council members on hand. Gavinkim, Sardol, and Ikzoz weren’t present, and Kaldalis assumed that all of Cotanaku hadn’t shut down for this.

“I can’t thank you enough for the timely arrival,” Kaldalis said, offering Garyung a hand. “I assume someone filled you in?”

“The folks you sent to clear the door for me had enough of the story to get me caught up,” Garyung said, shaking Kaldalis’s hand. “From what I heard, you had matters well in hand. I just happened to show up in time to grab a bit of undeserved glory, I’m sure.”

They both knew that Garyung joining the battle was the turning point. But Garyung had taken to this political bullshit quite well, and apparently believed that Kaldalis needed the victory in his name more.

Considering that his next stop was to the Panbu council, he was inclined to agree.

“I assume you got the same notification as last time,” Kaldalis said, waving to the group behind him to indicate that they could walk around and go back into the camp. “What were our odds this time?”

“Fifty-eight percent,” Garyung said with a laugh, “which is why I scrambled the crew and got over here. But it did look a lot better than that. I think you really had it in the bag without us.”

“Yeah, it must have lowballed you,” Kaldalis agreed, “most of us were out in the jungle dicking around when it happened. I’m with you, we could have won, but it would have cost us.” He gestured at a spot on the wall about fifteen feet to the left of the main gate. “I think we only had five or ten minutes before we had another entrance to guard.”

“All’s well that ends well, eh?” Garyung said, raising his voice and giving a thumbs-up to the group of adventurers passing back into the camp. He earned a bit of a cheer at that. “And a good thing, too. I couldn’t have made the money appear for a second time.”

“Where did the-”

“Don’t ask,” Garyung said, visibly turning a bit pale. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

“One thing I don’t understand, though,” Kaldalis said, looking up at the camp’s badly battered walls, “is why the upgrade hasn’t happened. It doesn’t look like anything has changed. Was there an extra step when we did it for Cotanaku?”

“Not that I remember,” Garyung said, looking around at his council. “The attack was broken, there was a brief pause, and then it happened. What’s different here?”

There was a little chime and a quest appeared on the right side of Kaldalis’s vision. He could tell from the immediate groan that went up from everyone in the immediate area that he wasn’t the only one.

Kaldalis turned his attention to it and waited for the text to expand before he shared in the combined misery going around.

Bad Medicine: A Taste of Their Own

Take the fight to the Infernal Horde den. Defeating the Xorn Major in the heart of the Xorn Den will end their threat to the camp, safely completing the upgrade to a town.