by Dan Thomas
Placing the glass on the counter, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up his Murf account on the forums, navigating to the profile menu and once again deleting everything that was associated with Murf.
“O-o-okay.” Max walked back to the sofa, sitting down heavily and picking up his headset, looking at the sleek black plastic on the exterior.
How much had he risked by infiltrating the Ravagers? Jag had really put the fear into him, but he didn’t have time to burn thinking about it now.
He slipped the headset back on. It automatically powered up, going to the account settings screen where he had left it. He selected Holic and told the machine to log him in.
The blackness melted away.
He was bombarded by a picture of bright greens, splashed with purples of hanging fruit and yellows of flowers. Everywhere around him there was movement, creatures of different sizes rustling through the foliage. He could almost picture what animals were around him just from the sounds. All of his senses were much keener than he had gotten used to, the information the world provided him more easily readable. Everything except for the scents of the world, which felt dulled as he breathed in the warm air.
“Wow, I’ve missed this,” Max said as he looked down into the jungle from the stony ledge around the mine entrance, seeing the clearing where they had found the Mononykus all those weeks ago.
He brought his gaze back up to the mine entrance, and the Utahraptor that stood looking at him lazily. Max walked over to it, being watched with indifference as he came around its side, rifling through the packs that had been hung onto its saddle rig.
Inside he found several bundles of bandages, two large bottles filled with dark brown liquid corked with a small bundle of wires that Max would guess would spark on impact, as well as food and water. Max stashed everything into his bag, eating some of the dried meat and washing it down with water from one of the skins, replenishing Holic’s stamina that hadn’t been refilled from the hard work mining that he had last done.
Effortlessly he vaulted into the saddle of the raptor, running his hand down the feathered neck of the dino. It was a new tame as Max didn’t recognize the wiry beast, covered in green and brown plumage, but it was a wicked-looking creature. Max only had to guess that just below the aloof demeanor was a ferocious amount of fight. Being a Utahraptor, it would make the third Tier-three dino that the Crew had ever tamed. They’d been even busier than Max had thought.
Creature: Utahraptor
Tier 3
Type: Dinosaur, Theropod
Diet: Carnivore
Maturity: Adult
Level: 20
Bonding: Stranger
Temperament: Vicious
Species Traits: Cold-blooded, Lightly Insulated, Bloodthirsty, Lithe
Individual Traits: Mankiller, Long distance runner
Max brought up more detailed stats to glance through.
Health: 26002600
Stamina: 2300/2300
Bonding: Stranger-This creature is not hostile toward you, but doesn’t know you. No bonuses
Species Traits: Cold blooded-Gain negative status effects from being cold much quicker and at much higher temperatures than normal
Lightly Insulated-Body Temperatures fluctuates a little slower
Bloodthirsty-This creature will regain a portion of stamina after every kill
Lithe-Boost to agility and use stamina slower
Individual Traits: Man killer-This creature has a 30% damage bonus to humanoids
Long-distance runner-This creature uses 20% less stamina after running for 5 minutes or more
Chopsticks had been thoughtful with how he had leveled the raptor’s Individual Traits, knowing that he’d have to make the run to the fight, and what enemy they would be facing.
He glanced down at the other side of the dino, seeing that there were arrows strapped onto the leather around its thigh, the tips wrapped up in a leather bundle.
Max reached down and untied the bundle. He slipped one of them out, seeing the deep black obsidian tip dripping with a pale green liquid. Chopsticks had made good on his poison suggestion, which would give them the edge on the Ravagers’ raptors. He slipped the bundle into his depleted quiver.
Tied across the saddle was Max’s mace, a stout Kousa wood shaft topped with two thick, lens-shaped blades of obsidian that crossed each other, securely glued with resin where they were slotted into the handle. He had neglected to bring it with him to the mine, not thinking he was going to need it, having brought only his bow and spear, which were still slung over his shoulders. He was glad that someone had brought it for him, though.
He slid the mace onto his belt and rummaged through for the last large item—a bundle of several large bone plates.
Trying not to hurry too much, Holic deftly equipped the armor, tying them around his arms, legs, and patches of his body. It wasn’t as protective as full plates, but he’d be able to move and fight much easier, especially with light bone instead of metal. Max didn’t recognize the sheeny, almost green-hued bone, and didn’t even want to think what beast his Crew had killed for it.
He then reached and grabbed the last item stowed onto the rig. He sat up straight, looking at the flintlock pistol, the bag of ammo in his other hand.
“Return to sender, huh?” Max holstered the gun through his belt, hanging the ammo next to it. “Come on, then, let’s go!”
The raptor bolted forward, leaping from the ledge, landing lightly in the jungle below, taking the whole thing in its stride as it accelerated to a breakneck speed, while effortlessly dodging around trees and leaping over fallen branches.
Max held on tight as the wind and low-hanging leaves whipped at him as the jungle became a blur of colors. They passed several large browsing herbivores that spooked as they sped past, but they were already out of sight before the dinos could react.
As they ran, Max unfocused on the game world around him, telling his console to bring up the Jabber chat over the blurred scenery. With a flick of his eyes, he joined their main channel.
“Anyone here?” he asked.
“Holic!” Chopsticks’ voice answered.
“We were just starting to wonder if you were going to make it,” Ticket said.
“Yeah, I’m just on my way, thanks for the dino and all the gear, by the way.” He shifted focus back into game, still whizzing through the jungle, the raptor snorting heavily as it flew through the undergrowth. “How are you all doing?”
“Not great,” Pez’s strained voice came through. “I can’t get past this fucking thing.”
“Is that Remington?” Max asked. “I did warn you they had another one of those things.”
“Sure, but I was expecting us all to be in the base by the time they got it saddled up.” Pez cut off. “Ah! Come on!”
“Chopsticks, can’t you help Pez out? Send your dinos up to take Remington out or something?” Max asked, his mind racing for a solution. He felt so powerless at this distance.
“No can do,” Chopsticks said. “Those raptors are still waiting for me. They’ll make mincemeat of me and my dinos if I go out now. For now, I’m just taking shots at them if they poke their heads up.”
“Damn,” Ticket said. “Otherwise, I’d ask you to help me out at the gate, I’m under heavy fire here...unless you’ve got any more surprises up your sleeve?”
“Uh, no, I don’t think so,” Chopsticks said.
“Okay, well, just hang on, I’m not far off now. Oh, and Ticket, watch your back, I think Maeve and Aedyn were out on a couple of Carnotaurs. They’ll be getting back anytime now.”
“Great.” It sounded like she had gritted teeth. “I’m almost through the first gate, but they’re really hammering the dinos here.”
“Just keep pushing, they’re going to be running out of ammo at some point.” Max grasped onto the saddle as the raptor leaped over a large rock in its path.
“Yeah, I felt the ground shake from that explosion,” Chopsticks laughed.
“Just hurry up and get your ass here, otherwise I’m going to be sitting in this hole forever.”
“Going as fast as I can.” He looked back down at the raptor beneath him, neck outstretched as it sprinted with no sign of slowing down. He just hoped this thing had enough stamina to maintain the pace.
Max kept quiet, letting the others focus on what they were doing. Every so often, they would check in with each other to see how the raid was progressing, though from what Max could tell it had pretty much stalled. Pez couldn’t take on the Majungatholus with just one of the Abelisaurus but couldn’t get enough space to get the pair inside, while the raptors had managed to climb onto the wall but had only succeeded in pushing the defending force into one of the remaining towers, where they were holed up. It sounded like they were still taking potshots at the Abelisaurus through the arrow slits in the wall. Meanwhile, Ticket was still struggling to break down the robust first gate, taking time to move the dinos into the bare cover of the boulders to recover a little, bandaging the worst of their wounds and letting them regain stamina.
Max couldn’t imagine how horrendous the outcome of the attack would have been if the Ravagers had been allowed access to their vault, along with the arsenal that now lay buried.
He could only hope that he might be just enough to tip the balance in their favor.
On the raptor ran, and soon Max could see that familiar break in the tree, the hill fort just visible between the trunks.
“I’m through!” Ticket’s voice came in loud. “The first gate’s down, but, oh, crap, they’ve set up barricades on the way up.”
“I’m pretty much there, just coming out of the trees.” As the raptor cleared the jungle, Max could clearly see the back of Abe and Lis at the rubble that used to be a tower. Thick black smoke trailed into the sky from behind the walls.
At the front of the base were some of the Coprolite Crew’s larger dinos. He could see one of the two Torosauruses, with a long bony frill crowning its skull similar to the Centrosaurus or a Triceratops, along with the Hesperosaurus, its short and wide orange backplates standing out against the green of the grass. Both were just heading into the walled section past the destroyed outer gate. He assumed that Ticket, along with Taz, the second Torosaurus, and the boneheads were already within, fighting their way up to the second gate.
Movement from the jungle, farther along, caught his eye. Two larger dinos—Carnotaurs—had just appeared at the tree line, charging for the dinos at the gate.
“Sam!” Max yelled through the comms. “Behind you! Maeve and Aedyn are here!”
“I’m a little busy! Can you take them?”
“Uh,” Max pulled the raptor to a puffing stop. “I can try.”
“Just keep them off of my back a second, I’ll send a couple of the dinos down to help, but they can’t really turn around in here,” Ticket yelled.
“All right then, let’s give it a shot.” Max used the mental link to tell the raptor their new targets. Even with its shortness of breath, it jumped into action, quickly hitting a flat-out sprint once again as they raced toward the two big carnivores charging across the plains.
Aiming for an intercept course, the raptor quickly closed the gap with the Ravagers. Max took his bow from his shoulder and began firing off arrows from the saddle, making sure that he wasn’t using up the precious poisoned tips. Even at this distance and speed, Max had no issues hitting the large dinosaurs, which was certainly refreshing as he saw the obsidian tips disappearing deep into the flesh of the dinos. But even Holic was not accurate enough to shoot the riders.
Something whistled over Max’s head, a returning arrow embedding itself in the dirt just behind the raptor, which changed direction slightly, snaking over the ground to avoid the projectiles.
As they got closer, one of the Carnotaurs broke away, turning its bulk around to face Max. It picked up speed again, thundering toward the smaller raptor, ducking its head to brandish its horny plates atop its skull.
The raptor kept up its sprint, heading directly for those horns. Max could now clearly see Maeve in the saddle, snarling at him as she nocked another arrow, firing it off, the projectile thumping into Max’s shoulder.
His armor took the brunt of the force, but he still saw a small, precious portion of his health knocked away.
He kept his attention forward.
Just as the raptor was about to skewer itself on the Carnotaur’s horns, it flitted away, quickly changing direction. As Max felt it begin to turn, he launched himself out of the saddle, his momentum throwing him through the air before landing heavily on the lowered neck of the Carnotaur, among the arrows stuck into its scales.
“Holy shit!” Maeve cried, frantically reaching for a knife on her belt.
But Max already had his mace in his hand. As the Carnotaur raised its head to see where its enemy had gone, Max slid down the top of its spiny neck, bringing his weapon down at Maeve, activating his much more advanced Heavy Attack Trait.
Maeve leaned back but couldn’t move far enough. Her hide armors no match for the vicious attack, one of the razor black blades sliced through the thick leather across her chest.
Maeve reacted fast, grabbing Max’s arm and pulling herself upright as she bounced from the Carnotaur’s gait, swinging a right hook into Max’s face.
Max reeled from the impact. As his body leaned backward, he brought his leg up, kicking Maeve in the chest where she was bleeding from.
Maeve cried out, letting go of Max’s arm. With his leg back down the dino’s shoulder, Max levered himself forward and struck down with his weapon again, but Maeve was ready this time, whipping her arm out to knock the handle of the mace aside. With her other hand, she managed to grab the knife from her belt, stabbing at Max, who twisted his body out of the way, almost bouncing off the Carnotaur as he lay flat against its neck.
Maeve shuffled forward, trying to lash out at Max as he recovered, but Max brought his mace across his body, cutting into her knife arm, following up by cutting across the Ravager’s midriff again.
Maeve doubled over, but instead of clutching her wounds, she grabbed hold of Max’s leg and wrenched it up.
Max flailed around, trying to grab hold of anything as he was spun about, rolling off the Carnotaur’s broad shoulder, then falling the short distance to the ground. He bounced off the dirt, sliding to a stop. He felt bruised, but the fall even from that height barely damaged him. A smile crept across Max’s face as he got to his feet. He had almost forgotten how good it felt to be Holic.
Max looked back at the Utahraptor, which had been leading the Carnotaur toward the tree line, but it had disengaged, running back toward Max. Max slid the mace back into his belt loop and jumped at the raptor as it ran past him, grabbing onto the saddle and flicking his leg up to seat himself.
He then told the raptor to keep running and catch up with the second Carnotaur, kicking up clumps of grass as it sped over the ground.
Aedyn began shooting arrows at Max as his Carnotaur reached the gap in the boulders at the base of the hill. At the gate, the Torosaurus had turned around, trying to squeeze past the bulk of the Hesperosaurus which was shuffling backward out of the ruined gateway.
Arrows flew past Max as he hunched over, pulling his bag around his body to reach inside and grab one of the firebombs. He pulled it out as the raptor came even with the larger carnivore.
Max felt the raptor flinch as an arrow embedded itself in the dino’s side, but it didn’t slow down.
Max answered by lobbing the firebomb at Aedyn, immediately telling the raptor to move away. He heard the shattering sound, and a screech like rusty metal grating filled his ears. He glanced over his shoulder to see the large dinosaur rear its head up and down as flames scorched all down its side. Aedyn was frantically trying to pat out the flames that coated him, losing control of the dino that bolted away from Max, trailing flames as it headed around the wall and away from the gate.
Max glanced toward the gateway. The Torosaurus was out into th
e open and had already built up speed as it thundered downhill after the running Carnotaur. Despite its bulk and shorter legs, it quickly reached the fleeing carnivore.
Max winced as the Torosaurus slammed its spiked frill into the Carnotaur’s side, sending the large predator tumbling over, and Aedyn flying as the dino rolled down the hill and smashed into one of the boulders at the bottom, the force of the impact shunting the large rock.
Max saw his opportunity. He once again pushed the raptor on, racing toward the downed rider as he pulled his spear from his shoulder.
Aedyn had only just managed to get himself to his feet before Max was upon him. Sensing an opportunity to kill, the raptor launched itself into the air, feathered arms outstretched for balance as it flew toward the Ravager.
Aedyn’s eyes opened wide in surprise as the raptor slammed into him, forcing him to the ground. Aedyn cried out as the raptor’s sickle-like claw ripped through his hide armor.
Max leaned in the saddle, spear poised as he looked for an opportunity to stab down but had to hang on as the raptor stamped his foot down on Aedyn, trying to claw his vitals.
Aedyn rolled around, covering his face and neck with one arm, frantically reaching for his dropped knife with his other while he was covered in fresh lacerations.
Max tried to get the raptor to let go of Aedyn as his hand grasped his weapon’s handle, but the raptor refused to give up its prey squirming underfoot.
Aedyn grabbed his knife and stabbed it deep into the raptor’s thigh, which shrieked and finally listened to Max’s command, stepping off of the bloody player.
Aedyn scrambled to get to his feet, but Max easily reached him with his spear, thrusting it into his chest and sending him sprawling back to the ground.
Aedyn rolled away, pushing himself onto all fours, but as soon as his back was turned, the raptor pounced, sinking its teeth into Aedyn’s neck, his body going limp in the dino’s fatal grasp.
