69 Phase 59: Farm Wars IV
Map image:
https://imgur.com/ie9btTS
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Henry and Rita started by calling in their armies of Comrades. Satrox took charge immediately. "Rita! We need three towers, there, there and there! Use your bugs spitcrete and your plants' earth-hardening abilities! Henry! We need a perimeter, from there… to there! Burn sand to glass or harden soil to rock, but we need a spiked barricade as fast as you can get it up!"
"Got it!" Henry and Rita dashed into action.
"What about me?" Colin asked.
"You and me?" Satrox mused. "Well, I guess we can take part in the building. Sandy's shortest route of attack will be across the pond itself, but doing that will put her forces in direct line of fire from all three towers, so her best bet for a quick strike would be either from the left, or the right, taking attacks from two towers rather than three. That means we'll need to strengthen the barricades there, and there."
Satrox wasn't building his fort at their starting location, Colin realized. He was building nearer to the pond's water source, towards the east.
"The important thing, Colin, is that the two of us need to hold back." Satrox explained. "Our Comrades aren't too suited for building. They have the strongest firepower of all our forces, but they're also the fewest in number. We should keep them fresh and ready for the second round. Just help around carrying stuff. Don't exert yourself much."
Rita's ants were raising entire towers out of nothing but hardened blocks of soil and spitcrete. Every block had to be covered in spitcrete and piled straight up, but between her ants and her spiders, with the plants' help carrying them where necessary, the job was done at a shocking pace.
Henry was grateful for the help, though. "There's a lot of spikes to dig in."
Before he knew it, Satrox's Pegasus had lifted an entire row of spikes using sheer wind and shot them all into the ground right where they should be, one neat row just like that.
"Hurry." Satrox said, looking at Sandy's fort. "We don't have much time."
Sandy, Colin noticed, was building a fort with a single tower and two flat top buildings on either side of it. {I see. She can field bigger Comrades on top of those flat-top buildings than she could put up on the Tower.}
They hurried, but Sandy had bigger, stronger Comrades, on par with Satrox's own, and she had a lot more of them. Despite their numbers, Satrox and Sandy called out at the same time. "DONE!"
Sandy sent over a huge fireball almost immediately, followed by a lance of ice falling from the sky.
{Scrap. She can hit us from all the way over there?!}
"We have to do the attacking." Satrox concluded with a wince. "Sorry. I didn't expect that. We're going to be at a disadvantage."
"Let's just go!" Rita barked.
Satrox nodded. "Rita, you go left. Colin, you go right. I'll go straight through the middle. Henry, guard the Fort! She's almost definitely going to try a sneak attack!"
"I'm going right…?!" Colin stared.
But Satrox didn't answer. He and all his birds went straight for Sandy, arching high over the pond. Rita and all her swarms and plants marched out over the left, and Henry's Lynxmice were filling the towers, popping up at the turrets.
Colin gritted his teeth and dashed out on the right.
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Map link:
https://imgur.com/L0D30Pn
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Sandy was sending out her forces too. In fact, she was coming right at him.
"What the…?" Colin stopped short of the stream, seeing Satrox attack Sandy's fort with Rita catching up quickly.
Sandy, seeing Colin come from that side, had obviously decided that he was the easiest way to reach Fort Satrox and moved out to march right through him to get there.
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Map link:
https://imgur.com/miRcvV6
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Colin gulped. {I'm not going to reach her fort.} He decided. {I should wait right here and stop her at the stream. Henry can provide fire support. Her Comrades will be more vulnerable while they're crossing the water. If I can stop them in the middle of it, we might have a chance!}
He waited for her, steeling himself and extending his staff. Shiro and Sonia darted to his left and right, Raiki and Kirin hovering directly behind and above. Eclipse took to the sky, and swerved around, ready for an attack dive with all the weight of her momentum.
Sandy was almost in range. She brought only eight Comrades on the attack, but those eight looked like serious fighters.
{I'm in for it. I'm really in for it now…} he thought. "Raiki! Kirin! Open fire!"
Lightning blazed past him, three blasts at the same time, making his hair stand with their power. {What the…?! That felt like Raiki's power… with Kirin's Triple Zap technique! They COMBINED their powers?!}
Sandy's big Growly bear went flying. Literally flying, tumbling backwards six feet in the air. Colin stared in shock as Shiro barked at Eclipse and the small Shadow Hawk shot downwards at blurring speeds.
Sandy's Comrades looked up and prepared to counter…
Only to get struck at the feet by both Shiro and Sonia, scything right past them without bothering to stop. Sonia gnashed teeth into a Rhinotle's back leg, her fangs glowing red in the armor-piercing technique known as Piercing Fang.
Shiro slashed his tail across that big red Heron's thin legs, causing it to stumble and peck at him, almost nabbing his tail. But Eclipse slashed down from the sky at the Heron's bent neck, and her claws shimmered with dark power. The Heron managed to snap at her once before Sonia arrived from the other side and sunk teeth into that same neck.
The Heron collapsed, head spinning around dizzily. It held up a white flag and started waving it.
Shiro, Sonia and Eclipse darted away from the counterattacks of Sandy's big Comrades, just as Raiki and Kirin did another combined attack, this time bowling the Rhinotle over. The Rhinotle got back up again, shaking its head, but kept moving forward.
Sandy could see the problems she faced quite easily. "Charge!" she ordered her Comrades, drawing her sword.
She dashed right at Colin.
Long range fire from Henry back at the towers nearly fried Sandy's hair. A strong wind had started and streams of fireballs were riding that wind, slamming into the Rhinotle, the Stag Beetle next to it, the second Growly Bear, and a tall Green Panther. Sandy jumped back as the Rhinotle and the Green Panther sat down and declared themselves out, then lunged forward again, crossing the stream in an instant with her second Growly Bear, the Stag Beetle, a Firebull and two fully matured Desert Wolves.
{I'm so glad she left the golem behind to defend her base…} Colin thought, even as he raised his staff in reply to her sword.
"YIP!" Shiro grabbed Colin by the trousers and pulled.
Colin blinked. Shiro was suddenly two feet in length, with long legs. {Did he change sizes when I wasn't looking?!}
"YIP!" Shiro said urgently, pulling Colin back.
{He wants me to run.}
Colin ran for it.
Henry's Lynxmice switched from fireballs to ice shards, still using strong wind to extend their range to rain them into Sandy's ranks even as Colin abandoned his idea of stopping Sandy at the stream and ran for safety.
{Shiro's right. My Comrades are all hit-and-run types. We're not suited for a slugging match.}
Raiki and Kirin blasted the Stag Beetle, overturning it so that it lay on its back, legs kicking the air.
Sandy stopped to get it back on its feet, with help from her Firebull and Growly Bear.
That pause was costly. Henry's Comrades combined their ice shards into a powerful Ice Lance and nailed the Firebull with it. The Firebull hadn't worried about the fireballs coming across earlier, but ice was a completely different matter. It sat down, shivering, and shook its head. It waved its hooves in the air declaring itself out.
Raiki and Kirin blasted the Stag Beetle again. This time, when the Stag Beetle fell on its back, it stopped moving altogether.
Sandy left it alone. It was out.
Henry's Lynxmice changed their attacks once more. This time, it was sand and grass coming on that strong wind.
{The bear and the wolves won't take much damage from earth attacks. He's slowing them down…} Colin thought. {Buying time while dealing less damage. Or maybe he's just giving different Comrades a chance to rest.}
Raiki and Kirin took advantage of the time Henry bought them. They blasted the Growly Bear next.
Sandy was left with her two Desert Wolves. "Pull back!" she spat, dashing towards her heavily assaulted Fort.
Raiki and Kirin zapped the stream itself as they were crossing it, using the water to hit all three targets at the same time. Shiro, Sonia and Eclipse charged in, with Colin at their heels. Henry managed one last weak long-range zap into that water before Sandy and her Desert Wolves got out of it and reached the other side.
Shiro, Sonia and Eclipse ignored the water entirely, leaping clear across without even getting wet. Colin, though, paused to wonder if it was safe to cross yet. After all that zapping, there was bound to be some electric current left over.
Raiki and Kirin swooped overhead unleashing their Triple Zaps again, using that to hit all three targets separately.
{I've never seen then directly attack a Dreamer before… but Sandy's using armor and sword; she's using Adventura rules. She's considered a combatant in the battle as well.}
{And,} Colin realized, {So am I.}
Before, he died in one hit from others' Comrades. The difference was that now he had a fighting chance.
{And fight, I will!} Colin charged, using his staff as a pole to vault over the stream.
Sandy drew her sword and slashed at Sonia. Sonia leapt back, but Sandy pushed in just as Colin arrived.
He timed his move. He noted the angle of Sandy's strike, then stabbed his staff down into the ground before it hit.
{A clean block!} Colin exulted as Sandy's sword smashed into the staff. {Wonder why she didn't power it? Probably because she doesn't want to waste the battery or something.}
"About time." Sandy smiled, seeing Colin there. "Don't worry, I won't use the laser edge function. I'd hate to replace your staff after I broke it."
Sandy, Colin realized, wasn't really taking this seriously. She was, as Satrox suggested, having fun. She was playing.
"Shall we?" Colin grinned, pulling his staff back.
Sandy crouched, keeping her sword in front of her. Colin took the same stance he took earlier, both hands on the staff, held to his right.
Shiro, Sonia and Eclipse whacked Sandy from behind.
"HEY!" she protested, spinning around.
Just in time for Kirin and Raiki to blast her from above.
"Wow!" Sandy winced, half-blackened and thrown to one side from the blast.
"You guys…" Colin groaned to his Comrades. "Can't I even have a normal duel in peace?"
Sandy, amazingly, got up again. "I'm not out of HP yet!" she declared.
"Wow, Sandy, you're tougher than your Comrades." Colin said, marveling.
"I like the idea of being useful in a fight." Sandy said. "Now come on, already, and call off your dogs."
"Shiro! Attack the Fort! Bring everyone with you." Colin said. "Leave this to me."
Shiro gave him a flat look, then shook his head. "Yip!" he called to the others, and they raced to join the siege on Sandy's Fort.
"Ready?" Sandy asked.
"Ready." Colin said, and charged.
He stabbed his staff out at her center, using his left hand as a support while his right hand shoved it out. Sandy parried it easily, and counter-charged, pushing her blade back against his staff, then landing a fast slash down his middle before he could step back.
The impact sent him tumbling back over the stream. He rolled as he landed, getting back to his feet in a hurry as Sandy crossed the stream.
"You're right." Colin said, feeling the place where he'd been slashed in wonder. "There's no pain at all."
"But you should watch your HP." Sandy said. "Once it runs out, you're dead and back at your Home Base feeling as sick as ever. It won't matter now, because we're training, so zero HP doesn't mean dying, but you should be aware of it in real fights."
Colin nodded, and used the full length of the staff to whack at her legs.
Sandy took the hit, and slashed him again in the meantime. "I'm only using weak slashes now, none of my techniques, but you should be a bit more careful of how you attack."
"You're being very kind." Colin said.
"You need the experience." Sandy explained.
Then she charged.
Colin reacted before he knew what he was doing. He took her blow in the middle of his staff, then shoved it to one side, bashing her on the left of the head in the meantime. Then he lunged forward, slamming his right fist into her forehead, followed by his left elbow. The staff whipped around into her neck, and once his feet landed, they shoved him right into her waist, tackling her down. Where she fell, though, the impact pushed him back upright, and before he knew it, he was pointing his staff at her face, looking down at her and wondering what in the world he just did.
Sandy, staring up at him wide-eyed, had to be wondering the same thing. "What the…?!"
And {then} Henry's blast of lightning slammed into her.
