Shadow Sun Expansion

by Dave Willmarth

  Allistor’s chest heaved as he gulped down deep breaths. His head whipped back and forth, seeing only dead or dying murder chickens. The one he’d impaled on the spike was still struggling, until Helen stepped forward and blasted its head from its neck. The berserker chicken had been mauled by the one Allistor had just pinned to the ground, but wasn’t quite dead. He jerked his spear free and slammed it through that one’s skull as well.

  He, Helen, and Fuzzy all leveled up, golden glows surrounding each of them. When they were sure there were no more of the kyllings in the woods, both of them went to check on Fuzzy. They had to coax the ferocious bear cub out from under the table, offering him bits of burnt chicken. As the traumatized bear gnawed on the crispy meat, the two humans looted all the mobs. They each received a total of three thousand klax, eight stacks of meat, several claws and beaks, four sets of eyes, and some kylling hide.

  Helen sighed. “We need to dispose of these before they draw any more monsters. I’ve had enough for one day. But we shouldn’t waste any of this. We’re going to have enough murder chicken meat for a bbq at the Citadel.” She grinned at him, producing her knife and proceeding to harvest the nearest corpse. Allistor pulled his own knife from inventory and got to work as well.

  Fuzzy helped himself to the leftover scraps until his belly was full. Then they convinced him to help by dragging the unused bits over and dropping them off the cliff into the lake, where a feeding frenzy immediately began.

  Helen made sure Allistor harvested the beaks and claws that weren’t included in their loot, and as much of the hide as possible. And of course, the meat. When they were done, they had nearly a thousand pounds of meat in total.

  It was fully dark by the time they finished harvesting the murder chickens and Helen had taken down the smoker. All three climbed into the Juggernaut and settled down. Allistor chose the driver’s seat, which reclined to an almost-horizontal position and was comfortable enough to sleep in. Helen chose to curl up in the back, using Fuzzy as a pillow, the two of them quickly snoring. Allistor wished for about the hundredth time that they still had working video cameras to record the moment. Eventually, he too drifted off to sleep.

  *****

  Morning came sooner than Allistor expected. Fuzzy’s full belly and gastrointestinal eccentricities eventually filled the vehicle with a stench so intolerable it woke the sleeping humans well before dawn. They evacuated the vehicle, loudly scolding the bear cub, who didn’t even wake up.

  Sitting on one of the tables as the Juggernaut aired out, Helen grumped. “I want coffee.”

  Allistor started to rise to restart the fire, but she gripped his arm and pulled him down. “The coffee and the coffee pot are in the truck.”

  Laughing, Allistor sat back down. “We should know better than to feed him so late in the day. Or let him sleep inside with us after eating a hundred pounds of chicken brains and guts.”

  Helen nodded. “He needed the protein. Both to replenish all the blood he lost, and because he leveled up and got bigger.”

  “Only thing I noticed him leveling up is his gas attacks.” Allistor mumbled, making Helen smile.

  “So, what do you want to do today?”

  “Well, I was thinking just a nature day. Sit in the sun, do a little hiking, maybe some fishing. But now I’m thinking we should go ahead and set up the Stronghold and get back.”

  Helen looked at him for a long moment. She stared into his eyes as he did his best to look innocent. Finally, she smacked his shoulder. “You just want to go mess with Nancy!”

  “You betcha!” He beamed. “How do you NOT want to? We’ve been giving her shit about fast-growing those baby chickens and bunnies since almost day one. And now we just fought a herd of giant, killer murder-chickens! No way I’m passing up this chance!”

  Helen snort-laughed at his enthusiasm. It felt good to just be silly and childish for a few minutes. What better time than right after being chased from your bed by a bear cub with weaponized farts?

  “I just hope we can find more of them. Maybe capture a few and start raising them. I mean… two hundred pound chickens can feed a lot of people.” Helen winked at him.

  “Heyyyy! We should totally do that! I mean, we have all this space, right? We could raise herds of dino-chickens right along with the elk and buffalo. And these things are big enough to ride! Imagine going into battle on murder-chicken mounts with… with lasers on their heads!” He paused for a minute, both of them belly-laughing.

  “Let me build the Stronghold, then let’s see if you can track them back to their nests or whatever. Maybe there are eggs?”

  “Yup. Let’s do that. And speaking of eggs… when was the last time you got an update on the dragon eggs?”

  Allistor’s expression changed from enthused to grumpy. “Amanda has been examining them every week. The dragons inside are growing, but very slowly. That first day when we killed their mom, she thought they were about eighty percent developed. After all these months, she says they’re maybe eighty five percent now. She enlisted a guy named Daniel to help monitor them every day. He talks to the eggs. Like, has entire conversations with them. He has named them and everything. It’s a little strange.”

  Helen nodded. “I was thinking maybe you should modify the design of the Strongholds a bit. Maybe add in a landing pad? Somewhere up high, like on a tower or connected to the walls or something.”

  “Landing pads for dragons?” Allistor’s voice went wistful as he stared up at the sky, imagining patrols of dragons and riders landing.

  “Well, sure. Maybe. But also for airships. Spaceships. Whatever.”

  “What? Oh, right. I see what you mean.” Allistor abandoned his dragon fantasy. “Sure, we can do that. Hold on to your britches, here we go.” He closed his eyes and pulled up his interface, selecting the Stronghold option. As always, the area around them became invisible, with the contour of the land underneath them laid out in a grid that showed dimensions as well as topography. Allistor placed the structure so that it pushed right up to the edge of the plateau on the steep sides, with the gate facing the gradual slope. He constructed a main building, high walls that stretched across the entire low side, and added the usual power, water, and sensors. He built a greenhouse, placed the fifth of his six teleport pads, then added several towers spaced around the outer edges. The tops of some of the towers he flattened to allow for ships, or dragons, to land.

  When it was done, and the blinding light had faded, they were sitting on their table in the center of a wide dining area, the pavilion having remained inside the new walls. Fuzzy, awakened by the light, came sniffing around. He took in the new structure without much reaction, instead focusing on getting ear scratches from Helen.

  “Oh, no you don’t, Sir Fartsalot! I haven’t forgiven you for the nasty wake-up this morning. I think I can still taste it in the back of my throat!” she scolded the cub, who was doing his best to look innocent. He gently placed his Fibble doll in her lap, then nudged it with his nose as if offering to let her play with it.

  “Oh, so your way of making up is offering me your dirty, slobber-soaked doll?” She looked down at him, doing her best to maintain a cross expression. When he sat back on his rump and huffed at her, his head tilted to one side as if confused by her lack of enthusiasm, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Alright, ya big smelly teddy bear. Come here ‘n’ get some scratchin’. But the next time you stink up the vehicle, you’re walking home!”

  Fuzzy placed his head in her lap, not believing her for one second. Neither did either of the humans. She handed him back his gooey doll, which he took from her as gently as if it were a living thing, then gave him a good thorough ear, neck, and snout scratching.

  The three of them puttered around the Stronghold for a few minutes, Allistor claiming the master suite at the top of one of the towers for himself, Amanda, and Fuzzy. Helen asked Nigel to reserve a nearby room on a lower floor for her. With that taken care of, they took some supplies out of their inventory to stock
the kitchen for the first few survivors who showed up, leaving about a week’s worth of food for two people.

  Allistor didn’t want to leave the place empty, on the off chance that someone else was roaming the wilderness and might try to claim the Stronghold. “Nigel, can you put me in touch with Andrea please?”

  “Of course. One moment, Lord Allistor.”

  They only waited a few seconds before Andrea’s voice came through. “Allistor? What’s up?”

  “Not much, just been fighting a herd of giant murder chickens. Probably one of Nancy’s experiments gone wrong.” He winked at Helen. “Anyway, we have a new Stronghold. Let’s call this one… Wilderness. Helen and Fuzzy and I are going to track the big birds – they’re called kyllings, and today was the first I’ve seen of them – and I would appreciate it if you could send a few guards here to watch over the place? Lots of room here, and it’s beautiful country. So if some others want to come hunt or fish or craft or whatever, that’s fine too. Oh! And let Nancy know there’s a new greenhouse to play with?”

  “Sounds interesting. I’ll come check it out myself. We’ll take care of it, boss. And… murder chickens?”

  Helen laughed. “Think eight-foot tall dino-chickens with scales instead of feathers. And claws as long as your forearm.”

  Allistor added, “Don’t tell Nancy, but we’re going to see if we can track them back to a nest and find some eggs. Raise a whole pack of them. We got about a thousand pounds of tasty chicken off just the ones we killed here.”

  “Damn, boss. Leave some in the kitchen, will ya? We’ll have some bbq ready when you come back.”

  “Already done. See ya then.” Allistor concluded the communication.

  The three of them exited the gates, Nigel closing them automatically as they walked away down the slope. Helen quickly picked up the trail. “Turns out a pack of giant dino-birds isn’t that hard to track.” She pointed to deep gouges in the earth where the running chickens had passed.

  Nearly half an hour later she slowed the pace as the tracks converged into a tight passage between some rocks. There was evidence of many more tracks, some old, some fresh, leading in and out of the narrow opening. Without speaking, she motioned for Allistor to go first. And a finger held to her lips told him to go quietly.

  Casting Barrier on himself, he crouched low and moved through the space. He gripped his shotgun loaded with buckshot, intending to mutilate anything that came at him around a corner. The rocks on either side of him rose steeply upward, and were probably climbable. But he’d need both hands to do so.

  Stepping out of the narrow passage on the other side, he found a wide hollow in the side of a cliff face. Not quite deep enough to be considered a cave, it extended maybe thirty feet into the stone, and was at least a hundred feet wide. The ceiling at the front was twenty feet above, and it sloped downward to less than ten feet at the back. Almost as if a giant axe had swung into the side of the hill and carved out a wedge.

  More importantly, scattered around the interior were more than a dozen nests.

  They didn’t look like chicken nests. There was no hay or twigs woven together. These nests were constructed of small branches, bones, hides, and leftover bits of whatever the murder chickens had been killing. The place reeked of rotted meat, and Fuzzy flat out refused to approach. There were no kyllings visible.

  “Cover me, I’ll check the nests.” Helen whispered. She strode forward, watching the ground to avoid stepping on any twigs or bones that would snap loudly. Peering into the first nest, the edges of which were built up about three feet above the ground, she shook her head. Moving on, the second and third nests she checked were also empty. But she paused at the fourth nest, one near the back wall, and gave Allistor a thumbs-up. She carefully reached down and lifted a white mottled egg that looked very much like the eggs found in the hen house at the Warren, only about twenty times as large. She made the egg disappear into her inventory, then reached for more. When she’d emptied three eggs out of that nest, she moved on.

  Allistor had counted eight eggs retrieved when a low growl from Fuzzy alerted them both. Helen was still near the back of the nesting area, and as she looked toward Allistor and Fuzzy, her eyes grew wide. Turning as quickly as he could, Allistor instantly regretted their little egg hunt.

  Kylling Brood Mother

  Level 25

  Elite

  Health: 39,000/39,000

  The murder-chicken bosslady was easily a third again as large as any of the ones they’d already fought. Over ten feet tall, she made the others look like cuddly peeps in comparison. Her eyes glowed a deep red, revealing an intelligence that concerned Allistor. He noted a constant low growl rumbled from her chest, lowering in pitch as she stared at him. She had a larger set of wings that, as she unfurled them to either side, looked almost large enough for her to be able to fly. Her beak dripped with blood, as did the half of a wolf carcass she held in it.

  Her wingspan was easily thirty feet, and with both of them open, she effectively corralled them inside the nest area. Helen moved forward to join Allistor and Fuzzy, abandoning her egg search. “Probably better to leave a few anyway. In case we killed the only male.”

  Allistor barely registered what she was saying. He was watching the brood mother, who tilted her head and listened as Helen spoke. A moment later, she let out a half-roar, half-squawk that echoed so loudly in the stone chamber that Allistor covered his ears.

  To his dismay, when the echo died down, he heard several answering calls. In moments, six more of the normal-sized murder chickens appeared behind the brood mother.

  “This is very bad.” Helen muttered, causing the boss chicken to tilt her head again. “We need to run and climb a tree or something.” There was the beginning of panic in her voice.

  Allistor shook his head. “They’re faster than us. Our best hope is to get back to that narrow spot ahead of them, and hold them there. Hope they don’t figure out to go around some other way and come up behind us. Or down on top of us.” He didn’t like their chances, but he wasn’t about to give up.

  The first thing he needed was to get past the boss and her wings. The others were holding well back behind her, as if waiting for some command. Allistor intended to make sure that command didn’t come. He began by casting Mind Spike on the brood mother. She shrieked in pain, the sound hurting the ears of both the humans and bear. Her wings furled, and she spun around, ripping the earth to shreds with her claws as she thrashed her head and tried to pry the spike from her brain with her wings.

  “Now! Go!” Allistor cast Flame Strike on the kylling nearest the path to the choke point. It screeched much like its matron, flapping its vestigial wings and bumping into its nearest cousin. Fuzzy led the charge, outpacing the humans with his four legs. Helen was right behind him, and Allistor brought up the rear.

  The rest of the kyllings charged, shouldering past the burning chicken or dodging around it. But the distraction had bought Allistor and company enough time. Fuzzy and Helen passed through the narrow spot, and Allistor slid to a halt just on the other side, turning to face the oncoming monsters. He cast Erupt into the narrowest spot just as one of the murder chickens was about to push through. The stone spike shot upward, bursting through the kylling’s foot and into its gut, stopping its momentum completely. Two others ran into it from behind, pushing it farther onto the spike and jamming its writhing body into the choke point. For good measure, Allistor cast Flame Shot on it, causing it to burst into flame and scorching the two behind it as well.

  Helen had her shotgun out and pushed him aside, blasting the trapped kylling in the face from three feet away. Its head disappeared in a cloud of blood, bone, and a tiny amount of brain; the buckshot and bone shrapnel continuing on to damage the kylling behind it.

  The others immediately began to pick at the body, tearing off chunks as they attempted to pull it out of the way. A moment later they were joined by the brood mother, whose head towered above the others.

  Kylling B
rood Mother

  Level 25

  Elite

  Health: 36,200/39,000

  “We should run for it!” Helen shouted, much louder than necessary. Allistor was right next to her. Something about this fight was unnerving her. He shook his head. “It won’t take them long to get past this. We need to kill them now.” He paused, then grinned. Turning to face Helen, he put a hand on each shoulder. “Deep breath. We’ll get through this. I’ve been waiting for a chance to use that scroll.”

  He pulled the Storm scroll from his inventory and opened it. The magic flowed into his head, knowledge of the formation of clouds, water condensation, the buildup of friction between the positive and negative ions in the clouds, and the release of the charge. To his surprise, he learned that lightning actually originated in the earth nearly as often as in the clouds, when the positive charge in the earth reacted to the negative charge in a cloud and a visible bolt was released.

  All of this absorbed into his consciousness in a matter of seconds, and he felt a little dizzy as Helen continued to massacre the kyllings that were trying to clear the path. She fired once at the brood mother’s face just to keep the beast back. Allistor saw tears running down his friend’s cheeks.

  Looking upward, he teleported himself to the top of the rocks to the right of the path using his Dimensional Step ability. Now looking down at the flock of murder chickens and their scary-as-hell mom, he focused on her and began to channel Storm. He had nearly three thousand mana left after the spells he’d already cast, which would give him up to thirty seconds of lightning damage. He hoped that would be enough.

  A light cloud gathered above him, drawing in wisps of other clouds and getting darker as it grew larger. It began to rotate, small sparks of electricity flashing here and there as it built up a charge. It was nearly ten seconds after his initial cast that the first lightning bolt struck. Since he’d targeted the brood mother, the bolt hit her. Her roar of frustration turned into a surprised squawk that lasted only a second before she was stunned. More bolts began to strike around her as Allistor continued to channel the spell. The other kyllings were struck as more mana was poured into the storm. First a few here and there, then all of them were struck repeatedly as the number and frequency of the bolts increased. Allistor gritted his teeth at the twenty-second mark. The rapid and extended drain of mana from his system was almost painful. And the heat that rose up to wash over him along with the smell of ozone and burning flesh was getting uncomfortable.