DISCOVERY PART 5B

Day 445; 1257 (Afternoon)

Focus: 513

After firing several dozen volleys into the wall of webs without much rest, 513 concluded that a quick pulse of True Sense was necessary. He needed to gather intelligence on the effectiveness of his blind bombardment before proceeding to the next step in his stratagem.

The reason for waiting so long to verify the impact of his attacks was his reluctance to use his unique ability. He feared that he would form a dependence on it, further narrowing his options for strategy and tactics. This change in reasoning was due, in-part, to his battle with the Tree Mimic. Following a post-battle assessment, his perspective on True Sense’s utility as a panacea for detecting potential dangers, drastically changed. As such, the ability was now used in its active form only when or where necessary.

513: "Hmm, how strange. No damage...the wall just...ate the stones."

He remarked, knitting his brows together.

After sending a few more exploratory pulses of the ability, he heaved an exasperated sigh while shaking his head in disappointment. He then walked back towards the siege engine.

Crossing his arms, he leaned against the mangonel and began to ponder. [So, there is no other way. Fire. I need to use fire…but don't want to waste quality materials…] Tapping his foot on the ground, he continued to deliberate. [Gah, I guess I have no choice.]

Reluctant, he paused his bombardment of the wall of webs. Continuing at this stage would only add to the wall’s structure, rather than take away from it -- hampering his progress.

513: “I need something substantial...something that doesn’t cripple my ability to build…something other than animal fat, since I'm running low...”

While mulling-over which materials to use, he paced around his sled until eventually growing bored. For reasons unknown to him, his indecisiveness had grown more vexing than normal.

With no solution coming to mind, and his body sitting idle, he decided to roll large, round stones across the ground, away from his encampment at random intervals. At first, he did this for entertainment, alleviating his conflicted thoughts with a random spurt of mundane joy. But as soon as one of the bowled rocks triggered a pitfall, he promptly realized that the casual activity was more productive than at first glance. Thus, he bowled rocks until the surrounding area was cleared of ground traps.

Whistling to himself, he then inspected the results of his work.

[Lots of pitfalls. It’s a good thing they aren’t too deep. I can probably retrofit these into defensive structures. Yea, let’s do that.] He thought.

Nodding in satisfaction, he gave himself a good slap on the shoulder, then returned to the siege engine.

The leisurely break from his normal, contemplative brooding was instrumental in relieving his mind. And with a clear head, he quickly came to a decision, one he wanted to test out immediately.

513: "This should burn for quite some time"

He said, as he smothered a thin layer of blood pitch on the projectile loaded inside the mangonel's bucket.

Once the payload was fully coated in the dark, rubber-like substance, 513 took two metallic-looking rocks out from a pouch attached to his utility belt and struck them together. The strike caused sparks to shower over the bucket, instantly lighting the blood pitch on fire.

[Nice.] He mused, while stowing away the metallic rocks back into the pouch.

With a tug of his right hand, the restraining rope on the siege engine loosened, causing the mangonel’s tensioned arm to violently spring forward in a wide arc. The motion launched the flaming rock towards the wall at high-speed.

A smile appeared on 513’s face as he watched the rock cut through the air like a meteor. It roared menacingly as the dimly lit forest was temporarily illuminated by its bright flames. The towering silhouettes of shadows created in it’s passing, flickered in-and-out of existence like a fleeting memory. Upon reaching its target, the flaming projectile slammed into the wall of webs with little resistance, only stopping after colliding with another solid object.

Fire quickly spread from the entry-point of the projectile, devouring any webs it came into contact with.

[Maybe I should have done this from the start.] He mused, while intently watching the alluring scene unfold before his eyes.

The fires continued to spread as the area of impact began to glow cherry-red from the spread of heat and embers. Within the wall, the sound of crackling and wheezing from trapped moisture inside the boulder coated in blood pitch was oddly reminiscent of a steaming tea kettle and an exploding gas tank. Their combination resounded throughout the dead-silent, dismal woodlands like a shrieking terror.

Listening to such noise made 513 ponder, rather than panic in fright. [Hmm. That’s a pretty effective distraction.] He considered, while stroking his beard.

Blood pitch pooled above the ground as heat from the flames melted the coating off of the boulder. Once enough had collected, the pool branched-off, acting like a small stream of water, emptying into low spots on the ground to create miniature pockets of blazing dirt.

[Good! Good!] He thought, excitedly. [Much easier than I...wait, what’s happening, why is it stopping?]

Alarmed, 513 silently observed as the spread of the fire was halted, appearing to be contained by a thick section of wall, darkened with objects containing more mass than the strands of silk surrounding it. In response, he quickly pulsed True Sense to gather intel.

513: “...so that’s where all the bodies went…”

Genuinely surprised by what he detected, 513 shook his head in disappointment.

What had stopped the spread of the fire were not webs, trees, rocks, nor ground debris, but a series of strategically placed corpses, acting like a non-flammable stop-gap. The corpses were spread in a manner that would prevent the entire webbed structure from catching fire all at once, similar to how bulkhead compartments on ships contain the spread of leaks in the event the ship’s hull were to become damaged.

The only reason 513 hadn’t noticed this before, was because he had assumed the mangled and twisted bodies spread throughout the wall were either oddly shaped rocks or disfigured tree roots.

513: “Just how many lives did it take to build this wall?”

He muttered somberly to himself.

It was becoming clear to him that the cost of his private war was starting to impact the local ecosystem.

A little shaken, he reasoned with himself. [What's to say this would not have happened without my involvement? Sure, the wall would not have been made, but I am certain that the amount of death would have remained…if I had to guess, the bodies in that wall are from all the cocoons missing in their territory.]

With a bit more self-convincing, 513 snapped-out of his self-loathing. He then reminded himself of his conviction. [That’s enough of that. I know very well what type of path I chose to take. I cannot stop what I’ve already started, I can only follow through and finish.]

With his mind clear of conflicting thoughts, 513 returned his attention back to preparing the siege engine for another volley. After cranking the tension arm of the mangonel into position, he loaded the bucket with a new boulder, this time, coated it with a thicker layer of blood pitch.

Once everything was ready to launch, he turned around and faced the wall of webs, observing the fires he had created continue to rage wildly.

Flames from the remaining pools of blood pitch seared the bloodied remains of strung-up corpses, causing thick, grey smoke, smelling of death and roasted meat, to spew-out from the large hole in the wall burned out by the fires. The smoke gradually obscured the light of the flames as more of it bellowed out from the hole, becoming indistinguishable from the darkness of the wall itself.

[If I were anywhere else, I'd be worried about attracting predators.] He considered, as he watched more of the smoke spill into the open air.

Once the dark smoke subsided, 513 launched the readied projectile at the wall. This was done purposefully to prevent the new flames from extinguishing early due to lack of oxygen.

Since it took quite some time for the smoke to settle between launches, he spent his downtime constructing various traps from materials he had hauled on the sled and debris on the ground. By nightfall, he had filled most of his surroundings, including the uncovered pitfalls, with defenses and alarm systems.

513: “Now, on to building walls and trenches for uneven terrain and a bit of trickery.”

He proclaimed, while grinning to himself.

The mixture of construction and bombardment continued throughout the night as 513 mentally prepared himself for a prolonged siege. Each flaming volley launched by the mangonel steadily ate away at the wall, but progress was often hindered by incombustible obstacles.

[So, my options are to adjust alignment and continue, create a new entryway adjacent to the current one, or wait for the corpses to crumble into ash, allowing the fires to spread into other sections of the wall…well, I’m a patient man.] He mused.

In the end, he decided to forego a new entrypoint and instead, added even more blood pitch to the mangonel’s ammunition.

513: "This should move things along. Probably."

---Chapter End