Backyard Dungeon 4 Chapter 4

The entire column froze as the reverberation of the monstrous roar echoed off the rock walls and ceiling. Dolrath warriors looked back and forth as they tried to find the source of the sound, and I grabbed the Galil but kept it pointed at the ground as I combed the trees and murky pools for any creature that could have made such a rumbling utterance.

I thought about the Pit Wyrm, but that ugly fucker had make a high pitched screech. This roar was deep like a foghorn, and I could feel the echo in the pit of my stomach as it faded. Then I felt the ground shake beneath my feet, and one heartbeat later, it shook again as I imagined the massive foot that caused the ground to quake.

“Let’s keep moving,” Chief Ekneme ordered. “I want to get well ahead of whatever that is.”

“If it catches our scent, my lady, it might track us as long as we’re in its territory,” Bhathok replied as he shook his head. “And if it’s as big as it sounds, it would keep a very large territory.”

“We’re not getting away from it,” Amrila said in a strained voice.

“What do you mean?” I asked as the ground shook again. “What is it?”

“I’d wondered why we hadn’t seen anything else living in this swamp,” the horned woman continued as if she hadn’t heard me, and I could see genuine panic in her angular face.

“Talk to me, partner,” I said as calmly as I could, and I took the red-skinned woman by the shoulders. “What is it?”

“A fucking Basilisk!” Amrila exclaimed.

“A fucking what?” I asked, but the Nileme was already on the move.

“Spread out men!” the dark-haired princess commanded in a voice much louder than I had heard from her before. “Do not clump up! Do not look into the creature’s eyes! Incoming Basilisk!”

“What the fuck is going on?” I asked as I shouldered my Galil and watched the trees around us.

“Giant fucking lizard,” Bhathok replied with a fierce grin. “Don't look it in the eye unless you want to spend eternity decorating this swamp.”

“Spread yourselves and find cover!” Ekneme repeated the princess’ orders. “Let the archers do their work first. Aim to blind it!”

The Dolrath followed their leaders’ commands and moved off the paths to take up position in pairs behind the trees.

“We should probably spread our fire power,” I said to Nileme. “But be careful.”

“You as well, Eddie,” the warrior woman said with a strange intensity.

The dark-haired woman and I held each other’s eyes for a moment, and then she and Bhathok ran for one of the spinally trees.

“Come on, partner,” I said to Amrila, and we left the path and ran across the marshy ground to the questionable cover behind a tree festooned with hanging moss. “Why don’t we want to look it in the eye?”

“It will turn you to stone,” my wife replied as she pulled out her swords. “If it doesn’t eat you first.”

Holy fuck.

“That’s just peachy,” I said in a sarcastic tone. “Alright. Shoot to blind.”

The ground continued to shake with a slow rhythm as we waited in the tense silence, and my stomach was knotted so tight that I wondered if I’d ever be able to take a shit again.

How big was this fucking thing?

Then I saw the Basilisk as it lifted its head above the trees a hundred yards away and roared. My Pro Xs did their job and cut off almost all sound, but I could still feel the rumble in my bones, and I saw some loose pebbles and dust fall from the ceiling above. The beast looked something like a gargantuan monitor lizard, but with a crown of massive spikes that haloed its flat head. Its open maw was lined with razor sharp teeth, and the big fucker wipped its tail and caused the ground to shake again.

How the hot fuck did something like that live in a cave?

The beast continued to lumber toward us from the other side of the path.

“Hold!” I heard Bhathok shout to steady the warriors’ nerves.

Then the Basilisk crashed through the trees on the other side of the path, only thirty feet from where Amrila and I hid. One of the beast’s massive, clawed front feet came down on the side of a tree and easily pushed it over, and the tree cracked and groaned as its roots were pulled from the ground.

The Basilisk was only ten feet tall, but its long, charcoal gray body stretched out for at least sixty feet, not including its long tail. Spikes of all different sizes grew from its spine and tail, and its black tongue flicked from its grinning mouth.

Double holy fucks.

“Archers!” I heard Ekneme shout.

“How the hell do I shoot out its eyes without looking at them?” I asked as a cold sweat prickled my brow.

“Only its direct gaze can petrify,” Amrila replied quickly. “But all it has to do is turn its head and poof-- you start to turn to stone.”

“Direct gaze, huh?” I echoed as a thought occurred to me. “Okay.”

I took a deep breath, peeked out from around the tree, and looked through my sight at the monster’s head.

The Dolrath archers released a volley of arrows, most of which bounced off the Basilisk’s thick scales, and the beast turned to look at them and roared again.

As all sound was cut off for a moment, I aimed at one of the small, lifeless black eyes on the side of the creature’s head and put my red dot right on it. Then I squeezed the trigger three times in rapid succession.

The Basilisk shrieked this time as it snapped its head back and shook it, and when it roared again, I saw the ruined, gorey hole where the eye had been a moment before and felt a wild sense of exaltation.

One down, one to go.

As if emboldened by the monster’s wound, several Dolrath warriors ran out onto the path with their swords raised. The one-eyed bastard heard their war cry and suddenly turned toward them as it leveled its good eye at one of the Night Elf soldiers. There was a strangled cry from one of the men that was suddenly cut off, and the warrior froze with his spear held in mid throw.

Then the Basilisk barreled forward with a short but terrible burst of speed, like an alligator hopped up on meth. The big fucker’s snapped its jaw and caught another soldier in its saliva filled maw, and only the bloodied legs of the warrior could be seen. Then the Basilisk swung its head up, threw the Night Elf into the air for a hot second, and closed its jaws around the body.

There was a stomach churning crunch as the beast began to chew while the third Dolrath soldier ran the fuck out of there.

What the actual fuck?

“Come on,” I snarled at Amrila, and I moved through the trees to get a better shot at the other eye.

“I think we should do the troll maneuver,” Amrila said as we ran through the trees.

“Fuck no!” I said as I watched another volley of arrows bounce uselessly off the monster’s thick hide. “Did you not see what just happened?”

“I did,” the horned woman said as we came to a halt behind another tree. “But I can stay on its blind side and draw its attention while you shoot out the other eye. We’re much faster and better equipped than the Dolrath.

Everything went silent for a moment as my Pro Xs kicked on again, and I looked toward the Basilisk. There was a bloody hole along its jaw, and I knew that Nileme had taken a shot.

Then the Basilisk shot forward again at the trees near where we’d just been, and a group of Dolrath were forced to retreat back further into the swamp.

“The trees will slow it down,” Amrila concluded as she looked at me with her dark eyes.

“I don’t like it,” I said but then had to pause as the sound cut off again. “Just stay out of its reach. The trees might slow it down, but not stop it.”

Amrila and I carefully made our way back toward the Basilisk, and I heard another scream that was cut short. By the time we reached the Basilisk, the monster had already cleared almost a hundred yards of the pathetic, fragile trees around it as it thrashed, whipped its long tail, and stomped the uprooted trees into the soft ground of the marsh. Mud-covered Dolrath warriors had surrounded the beast, and the noise of their shouts seemed to confuse the dump creature.

I quickly took stock of the situation and spotted Nileme and Bhathok. The princess fired several shots at the Basilisk, but it thrashed in fury as it tried to decide which Night Elf to attack next, so she couldn’t get a clean shot at the monster’s good eye. Meanwhile, Bhathok commanded a group of spearmen only a couple of feet away from the princess. I couldn’t see Ekneme, or the useless Vemmen, but I assumed the chief was on the other side of the monster in command of a flanking force.

As Amrila and I ran up, there was another scream that added to the confused shouts of the warriors. I didn’t know how many of them had used the earplugs I’d given them, but either way, I knew the force was temporarily half deaf after the gun fire.

“Bhathok!” I shouted as I came up to the general. “You need to rally your men and follow Amrila! We have a plan!”

“Thank the gods!” the red-haired warrior shouted back at me. “Because this is hog shit right now!”

“Alright,” I said to Amrila. “Guide them through the troll maneuver. I’m going to get Nileme.”

“Yes, partner,” the horned woman said with a fierce smile, and then she turned to Bhathok. “Follow my lead!”

As the two of them ran off with a handful of soldiers, I booked it over to where Nileme stood as she prepared to fire again.

“Wait!” I said as I came up to her. “The others are going to cause a distraction, and then we’re going to both fire at the Basilisk’s good eye. Once it’s blind, we can move in for the kill.”

“As you say, Eddie,” the dark-haired Night Elf said as she shoulder her rifle again and waited for the right shot.

The beast was about twenty yards away, but as I looked out at the space between the creature and us, I saw two frozen Dolrath and got another idea.

“Move up!” I said to Nileme as I started to walk forward.

“What?” the princess shouted in a confused tone.

“Move up!” I repeated. “I’m going to help them. Just be careful not to look at its face for a minute.”

I stopped near one of the petrified soldiers and saw their skin had gone from a deep blue to a smooth, hard gray. It was as if someone had dressed a statue in beetle shell armor, and when I saw them up close, I pushed back the horrific idea of what being stuck like that would be like and focused on the monster.

Amrila had said only the monster’s direct gaze could turn someone to stone, and I hoped to shit that was literal. If I blinded it with a light, it wouldn’t be able to look directly at anything.

As the two of us stopped close to the Basilisk, the beast shifted its head toward us, and before I could even think, I clicked the flashlight on my Galil on and off several times as I pointed it at the thing’s beady, dead eye. The Basilisk reeled back and roared again. This time, I could hear it a little, even over my Pro Xs, and the sound filled my blood with ice. Suddenly, I was very aware of just how close we were to the monster I’d seen eat someone minutes ago, but I thought my idea had worked.

“Aaaaiiiieee!” I heard Amrila’s battle cry as my headphones kicked off again.

The monster started to turn its head toward the sound as the Dolrath spearmen and Bhathok started to shout and call while they beat their weapons against fallen trees and moss covered boulders. Their eyes were hard, and their faces were set in expressions of defiance.

As the Basilisk turned its head, I shoulder my Galil and carefully aimed my red dot again. The monster’s head was cocked to the side, as if it were trying to hear where the noise came from, as my red dot found its mark.

“Fire!” I shouted as I squeezed the trigger again and again.

Next to me, the dark-haired warrior woman fired off her rifle as well, and I watched as the Basilisk’s eye burst in a fountain of dark gray icor and blood before it turned into an ugly hole of gore. The monster reared back onto its hind legs and screeched, and it was suddenly a tower of scales and ropey muscles forty feet tall.

The Dolrath spearmen ran forward and launched their weapons at the monster’s pale underbelly, and I watched as the spears sunk deep into the pale, thin skin of the Basilisk’s vulnerable underside.

“Fire! Quick!” I shouted.

Nileme and I fired shout after shot and left a lot of red, bloody holes as the beast slowly fell forward. When the monster hit the ground, it drove the spears deeper into its guts, and the big fucker seemed to barely have the strength left to hold its head up.

I quickly dropped my mag and switched it for one filled with regular rounds, and then I advanced on the Basilisk as it struggled to keep its legs under it. Once I was only ten feet away, I emptied the mag into the bloodied pulp that had been its eye socket. The monster shuddered as its legs gave way and splayed out from underneath it at awkward angles, and the beast fell completely to the ground.

A cheer went up from the Dolrath warriors as the Basilisk died, and suddenly I felt hands on me as I was lifted into the air. I flipped my rifle’s safety on as the soldiers all cheered in unison, and Bhathok and several of his men carried me on their shoulders.

“King Eddie!” Bhathok shouted at the top of his lungs, but he was probably unable to modulate his voice because of the earplugs. “Slayer of Basilisks and Pit Wyrms! Master of rife-ells!”

I was a little embarrassed by the Dolrath’s show of gratitude. I hadn’t been the only one in the fight, after all. But as the men carried me over to where the chief stood, I saw she also looked impressed.

The men set me down as Ekneme removed the bright blue and yellow silicone earplugs from her long, graceful ears. I straightened my clothes as I stood before the chief, and then I pulled down my headphones and stood to my full height as I looked into Ekneme’s intense, dark eyes.

“Well done, Your Highness,” the chief said in her rich voice. “I have captains who could not match your leadership. Many of my warriors have survived this day because of you. You have my gratitude, Eddie Hill.”

“I’d say it was a group effort.” I smiled and was still a little embarrassed at all the attention.

“Your modesty suits you,” Nileme said as she stood next to me. “But only a true leader can rally his people in the face of such an enemy.”

“You are talking to a wall,” Amrila said as she smirked at me fondly. “My husband is modest to a fault. That and his relentless optimism are his greatest virtues.”

“I’m just sorry we didn’t all make it out,” I said as I looked at the petrified soldiers that dotted the swamp.

“A Dolrath accepts they may have to give their lives in the line of duty,” Ekneme said in a sober tone as she also looked at the warriors who had been turned into stone. “It is considered a great honor to us. But we may be able to restore the ones who have been petrified. The others will have their names written down in the Meeting House in honor of their sacrifice. Amrila, do you know if it’s true that a Baslisk’s venom can reverse the effects of the beast’s gaze?”

“I have heard that.” The horned woman shrugged. “I couldn’t say if it is true.”

“Bhathok,” Ekneme said as she turned to the general. “Please have some of the men harvest some of the creature’s teeth. Perhaps the Crardu will know how to perform the feat. And someone find my advisor. He is doubtless up a tree somewhere.”

As the warriors gathered up the dead and saw to the chief’s orders, Ekneme, the princess, Amrila, and I found some low boulders to sit on and rest. Only six warriors had been lost. Two were dead, but the others had been turned to stone, and the chief seemed confident we would be able to bring them back.

“No other creatures would live in the same swamp as that wretched beast,” she said as she pulled some rations from her pack. “So they should be safe here until we return from our meeting with the Crardu.”

“I sure hope so,” I said as I took the chief’s cue and got some jerky from my backpack.

“I would like to thank you further,” the older woman said as she tore a chuck off a dark brown loaf of bread. “I would name you a captain of my army, but I know you have other obligations to attend to.”

“That’s quite an honor,” I said as I opened the bag of jerky and offered some to Amrila. “But you’re right. I don’t think I could put everything on hold to accept that kind of position.”

“Instead,” the chief continued, “I would like to make you a shield brother of the Dolrath tribe. It is mostly an honorary title, but it would mean you are welcome in my lands and any of its settlements at any time.”

“Thank you, Chief.” I grinned at her and felt a warmth spread through my chest at the offer. “I would be honored.”

As the four of us talked and ate some of our rations, Vemmen finally reappeared, accompanied by two Dolrath warriors. The vain man’s yellow robes were now completely ruined and covered in swamp sludge, and I stifled a snort.

“We have found your advisor, my lady,” a female soldier said with a slight smirk on her face. “He had hidden himself in a fallen log during the battle.”

“I was cut off from the force in the course of the fight,” Vemmen replied in a defensive tone. “I thought it best to wait in safety until I could be found.”

“I see you have come through unscathed,” Amrila remarked in a scathing tone. “Good for you.”

The coward opened his mouth to respond, but Ekneme cut him off.

“I am glad you made it through,” she said without emotion. “Go find yourself some food while I speak with our new shield brother.”

“Shield brother?” the man in the silk robes repeated in a scandalized tone as he looked at me.

“Yeah,” I replied as I looked Vemmen in the eyes. “You missed that, too.”

“Eddie won the day,” the princess added as she looked coolly at her mother’s consort. “It’s because of him that the Basilisk is dead and you are safe.”

Vemmen shot me a look of pure hatred as he was shuffled away by the soldiers, and as the rest of the force rested, Bhathok came up to our group and bowed to the chief.

“We have successfully freed a dozen teeth and what I believe is the venom sack of the monster, my lady,” the mohawked general said in a formal tone. “It was disgusting.”

“Thank you, general,” Ekneme said as she stood.

“Are we ready to go then?” I asked as I crumpled the plastic bag from my jerky and put it in my backpack.

“Yes,” the chief replied. “I believe we are. Tell the man to prepare to move out.”

It didn’t take long to round up the twenty four Dolrath warriors that remained, and once the column had gathered again, I walked with the chief and my friends at the head of the force. I caught sight of Vemmen as he sulked somewhere near the center of the group, but the rest of the journey through the swamp went pretty smoothly.

Because nothing wanted to live in the vicinity of the Basilisk, the swamp was still eerily silent except for the conversion of the soldiers. I noticed their morale had improved since the fight with the monster, and there was a lot of good natured banter and talk among the men. As I listened to them talk and joke, my spirits were lifted, too. The swamp didn’t seem as dark or alien, and as we reached the far end of it, I could even hear the sound of birds and insects return.

The land around us started to dry out as we left the marshy reaches of the swamp, and the terrain became more rocky as we came to the far side of the cavern. The wall of the caves loomed before the column, and I saw a low, wide opening into a tunnel as we marched forward.

“Is that the way to the Crardu territory?” I asked Bhathok who marched next to me.

“Yes,” the red-haired warrior replied. “We’re on our way to see the mystics.”

I chuckled to myself as the general’s words reminded me of a line from an old movie.

We were off to see a wizard.