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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 146: Bait
🕑 Added 2024-11-14 18:00:05 +0000 UTCAs the sun began to set, Edge and Jumo went to join the other hunters. They were careful not to pass through the silo’s fall zone, just in case they had fucked something up.
When they arrived, they saw that the rest of the team had been busy. A massive pile of fresh produce was leaning against the wagon. The women were using it to hunt animals around the farmstead, which they planned to use as a bait trail to draw the lizard into their trap. They already had several carcasses ready to go. Edge froze them with his iceblade, so the smell wouldn’t attract the predatory lizard’s attention before they were ready.
Trapper refreshed her alarms and placed a few other deterrents while the crew made camp. The team ate dinner while going over their plans and psyching each other up. With any luck, well before the sun set tomorrow, the padamas would be dead and its skills would be digesting in Edge’s core. Then the crew would be ready to scout the borderlands, return to Puppet Town, and collect their well-deserved reward.
Although he ate his fill at dinner, he went to bed hungry. Skill-Eater was muttering behind his ribs—eager to find out what the lizard’s skills would taste like and add them to their collection.
Since Edge didn’t have enough Perception to see in the dark, he was given the last shift. Riller woke him up once the sky had begun to lighten with the coming of dawn. He waved to Sasha, who was already up in one of the silos, leaving him to guard the party if the padamas attacked while they were sleeping. It was his job to hold it off long enough for everyone to wake up, grab their weapons, and join the battle.
He stood there in the predawn twilight, knowing that at any second, the padamas or another sizable predator could come charging in. That only Sasha’s eyes and his blade would be standing guard during those crucial seconds.
It was a tense situation, but it would have been a lot worse without Trapper’s alarms ringing the farmyard. While they would only provide a brief warning before whatever tripped them drew near, it was far better than being completely exposed to the stealthy lizard’s ambush tactics. Even still, it was hard not to imagine its lightning-fast tongue slamming into him at any moment and from any direction. Or one of its tail spikes plunging into his chest with the force of a battering ram.
Edge took a deep breath and forced himself to unclench his jaw. A dangerous battle was coming, but there was no point in stressing himself out before it began. Even still, he couldn’t calm his racing heart or keep his palms from sweating.
He realized that while he was afraid, he was even more excited. That he relished the challenge ahead. The fight itself, and the chance to grow stronger that victory would bring.
Blue was already awake. The friendly beast walked over to get some early morning scritches. Edge snacked on some dried meat from his pack, giving the dino the last of the candies that Rita had made. He received some nuzzles and a few slobbery licks for his trouble, which helped him to relax, if only by a hair.
As soon as the sun rose, the rest of the team woke up and donned their gear. Then it was time to complete the trap field, lay their bait, and lure the padamas in. Trapper was hard at work preparing her magical devices. She was able to lay more than she had originally planned thanks to the mana-seed she had found before calling it a night. Violet was setting up the other equipment they would use during the hunt.
That left Riller, Edge, and Sasha to take care of the bait trail. The three of them left together in the wan light of dawn. They planned to kill a dozen or so large animals or early-stage beasts, then string the bodies in a line pointing toward the farm, where a bigger pile would be waiting. Violet was thawing the carcasses the crew had collected the day before, and she would arrange them in the middle of the killing field.
Edge’s heart began to pound as they left the farmyard behind. This was the most dangerous part of their mission, other than engaging the beast if the traps weren’t sufficient to bring it down. For the next few hours, they would be more vulnerable to the padamas’s attack than at any other point in their journey, since they were operating without Trapper’s sense life skill to warn them of the lizard’s approach.
They didn’t have much choice. They needed the crew’s leader to construct the traps that would either weaken the beast or kill it outright. The three of them walked side-by-side, not speaking a word and communicating by hand signals. They were relying on conventional stealth and Sasha’s silent step to avoid the lizard’s notice, or anything else that wanted to eat them for that matter.
They kept one eye on the sky as they began to hunt for anything large enough to use as bait. Both Sasha and Violet had a flare gun, and were ready to fire it if something unexpected happened and the crew needed to regroup ahead of schedule.
Over the next hour, they took down a trio of foxlike beasts the size of an Earth stag. They drained the blood into buckets—pouring it out along the line of bait to increase the scent that would draw the lizard to them. Then they figured out the best locations to place the remains.
They set the first body beside the breach in the perimeter fence. They dropped the second a few hundred feet out, in the direction of the freshest trail signs they had found. Then they positioned the third, returned to the field, and kept right on hunting.
By the time that noon had rolled around, they had killed another half dozen beasts, placing them in a long line leading to the farm. During the process, they added more blood to the ground between each body.
After returning to confer with Trapper, the crew decided that their efforts had been sufficient. If the padamas was anywhere in the area, it should find the bait and follow it back to their ambush. If not, other beasts would get to it first and the crew would have to try again the next day. But Edge had a hunch that matters would come to a head today, and judging by the tension in the air, everyone else felt the same way.
All the pieces of their plan were in place. The kill zone was in the center of the farm—an open space running between the barn, the farmstead, the silos, and the fields. Trapper had created a ring of spike-lined pits around the exterior, like the ones they had used to defend the butte.
For the second layer of traps, she had created an oil slick that used the same delivery system as the acid glue. Unlike her caustic solvent, this substance wouldn’t do any damage, but it was odorless and incredibly slippery. If the lizard walked through it, it would lose traction on its feet for at least a few minutes—giving the hunters time to spring their ambush and making it harder for the beast to evade the other devices.
The third layer consisted of a series of spring-loaded spears and bolts. They wouldn’t do much damage, but they would provide one hell of a distraction. The crew didn’t have to worry about triggering the traps themselves, thanks to Trapper’s ultimate ability, although they would still have to watch out for stray shots once the battle began.
Finally, the tripwire for the silo deadfall was set in the center of the kill zone, where the big pile of corpses was arranged. She had used manifest trap to place the trigger, so she could manually detonate it too.
Their plan was to let the padamas gorge itself. While it was busy eating, their leader would arm the trap-rings from the outer layer in, surrounding their quarry with rows of deadly devices in every direction. If everything went well, once the lizard was in the middle of swallowing its meal, she would activate the oil slick and the deadfall at the same time.
With any luck, the big bastard would be too distracted to notice until it was too late. But if it noticed that something was wrong, it would hit the projectile throwers when it tried to leave, providing a painful distraction that would keep it in the kill zone for a few extra seconds.
By that point, the slippery oil would cover the central area, making it harder for the beast to avoid the collapsing silo. If everything worked out, the falling building would hit it dead center, doing more damage than everything else the crew had concocted combined.
Even then, it might not be enough to kill the padamas outright, although a direct hit should be powerful enough to cripple it. Even a glancing blow from the silo would inflict some serious injuries and stun the beast long enough for the hunters to launch an alpha strike.
Trapper, Riller, Violet, and Sasha would keep their distance and unleash their strongest skills. Landing as many poisoned arrows, flame imbued arrows, and magtech crossbow bolts as possible while Jumo, Edge, and Blue circled around to attack the creature from its blind side.
The melee team’s goal was to take out one of the lizard’s legs, hampering its mobility and making the rest of the fight more manageable. Violet had distributed a few consumables to add to the mix, and her empower beast skill should let Blue dish out some serious damage when combined with charge, thrust, and gore.
Trapper had emphasized that the melee team would engage in hit and run tactics, rather than battling blade to claw. Under no circumstances should they trade blow with the colossal opponent, who could kill them in a single attack.
Edge’s job consisted of two parts. First, he was going to try to freeze one of the padamas’s knees. Second, he would do his best to distract the beast if the others ran into trouble, since he could get away with shadow step and leap, then conceal himself once he broke line of sight.
If the crew needed to retreat or regroup, the pit traps would buy them time to get away, since the hunters could run right over the top unless the lizard had already triggered them. The oil would make it harder for the beast to climb back out and hamper its pursuit, especially when combined with the spines impaling its legs. Then they would have to decide whether to press the attack or fall back, although Edge was hoping that the beast would be dead before it came to that.
While Trapper concluded their final review, everyone rubbed an ointment into their skin to erase their scents, and another onto their boots that would counteract the oil slick. Then they moved into position. Riller was up in a silo, Blue was in the barn, and the rest of the crew was hiding in the farmhouse, where they would be out of sight to anything coming to take the bait.
All that was left was wait and pray that their plan would be successful. Although, even if things went well, there was a good chance that the hunters were in for one hell of a fight.
