Risen World

Chapter 48: Making Their Last Stand Part 3

It had been a couple of hours since the rest of his group had left to deal with the boss in town and Nathan was waiting alongside the others in the mansion to see how things would go. Everyone was on edge and were already up and about ready for whatever the day decided to throw at them. Instead of defending from the fence line like they had been before they were all inside the mansion taking up post alongside the boarded up windows or on the balcony on the second floor. Dave and his brothers were on the roof and were prepared to look out for any sub-boss class monsters arriving while the others were on their guard against smaller threats.

Nathan spent his time checking up on the chat box and seeing how other people were handling the new situation and he was quickly seeing that things weren't going so well. The amount of people in the chat room had dramatically decreased over the past few days, some were probably from the spreading haze that might be taking out all there electronics while others could be from the attacks of the sub-boss class monsters that started appearing yesterday. The messages he did get were mostly of people running low on supplies and complaining about the fact that it was too dangerous to go scouting anymore. Some of the conversation revolved around the fact that the cities were getting worse since the haze was no longer just spreading out, but was slowly starting to spread up as well. Lots of comments spoke of how they might only be able to stay out of the haze for another day or two and then they would have to face the hell below.

Nathan read through all of these comments and felt helpless. He wanted to help out, but there was nothing he could do for them. So instead he typed into the chat box about how Joshua's group was going to be making an attempt to take down one off the bosses from the smaller towns. A lot of people from the cities didn't seem to care as they thought it was impossible to take down creatures of the magnitude of the boss monsters, but the people that were located near smaller towns quickly started asking him questions.

How many people would be involved? What kind of boss monster were they going up against? Did they have people that could attack it straight on and damage it enough to even matter? Do they have a plan to kill it in the first place? In that moment so many questions were flying past Nathan's computer screen that he had to pause the chat to read through some of them. Nathan spent the next half hour or so answering these questions in the hope that it might give some of these desperate people some new life. After a while he told them that he was going to be busy for a while and hoped that his group pulled through so that he could see them on the other side before logging out.

Nathan got up and stretched his legs before heading to the kitchen and fixing a few sandwiches. He made one for himself and a few for the Carsen brothers before heading up to the roof and checking up on them. When he arrived he was met with a scene of one serious brother keeping watch, one lazy brother with his eyes closed while he pretended to look through a pair of binoculars while laying down, and one weird one smiling as he poked a stick at a snail he found on the railing of the roof. Nathan stared at the scene for a moment before announcing his presence. "Um, you guys want some food?" He asked as he closed the door behind him.

Dave turned around at the question and when he did he notice his two brothers goofing off. He kicked Devin in the side to wake him up and smacked Dillon over the head for fooling around before turning his attention back towards Nathan. "Thanks, we could use something to eat." He said while walking over towards Nathan with his two brothers following close behind.

"Any signs of trouble?" Nathan asked after he handed out the food.

"Outside of wondering zombies in the forest triggering some noisemakers, there hasn't been anything major as of yet." Dave replied before taking a bite out of his sandwich.

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"It's been nice and quiet so far. Just perfect for a nap. Good weather as well." Devin said as he found a spot to sit down without any barbed wiring or wooden spikes to hinder him. "Hope it stays that way."

The group fell into silence after that statement for a while as they all continued to munch away. Nathan was the next one to speak as he brought up the conversations he had over the chat box. "I informed the people online about our plan to kill the boss in town a little while ago."

The others looked up at him in surprise for a moment before thinking it over. "How'd they take it?" Dave asked.

"Some of them asked a lot of questions and were interested, but a lot of the people from the cities didn't believe it would matter in the end." Nathan replied before letting out a sigh. "I just wanted to give them some hope. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people out there were killing themselves to get out of this hell if they felt trapped or lost a loved one."

"I'm sure that's been happening for a while now." Devin said with a frown before Dillon came over and gave him a hug.

"Don't worry guys will be ending all of this today!" Dillon said loudly with a bright smile.

"What makes you so sure?" Nathan asked while Dillon's two brothers also stared at him questioningly.

"Simple, Josh hasn't let us down yet. What makes you think he will now?" Dillon simply replied as Devin finally shoved him off of his back.

"You're right. We just have to believe and stay alive until he pulls through. Though for some reason people keep saying that." Nathan replied. They all nodded in response to him before a loud shrieking sound came from a long ways away. It wasn't coming from the direction of town, but instead it was from the direction of the closest city. After the loud noise ended suddenly far off into the distance they could see big purple clouds rise up into the sky before soaring off into several different directions. Unluckily for them one of the masses was headed in their direction.

"Damn, looks like it's time for everyone to get ready for a fight." Dave said as he signaled Dillon to go tell everyone down below. Nathan stayed and watched as the large purple mass continued to glide through the clouds before it started to fall down towards them. By the time it landed it crashed into the road just outside the fence creating another small crater similar to the one the winged beast had made the day before. They all watched as the purple haze on its body started to spread and thin out allowing them to get a good look at the creature in front of them.

The monster wasn't as tall as the other one they had seen before, but that was because it stood on four legs instead of two. Its body was bulky and similar to that of a rhino, but instead of one horn near its nose there were several spikes all along its back. Even its knees had spikes emerging from them making it extremely difficult to approach. It had two large horns on the top of its head that were clearly used for combat and most of its body was covered in thick skin that would be extremely difficult to penetrate. The thing that made it seem so different from a normal animal was its glowing eyes and its large mouth that had a jaw that allowed it to open up wide enough swallow any of them whole.

The monster sniffed the air around it for a moment before looking in the direction of the mansion and snorting as it stomped its feet harshly on the ground. It locked in on Nathan, Devin, and Dave who it could see on the roof before opening its mouth wide and letting out a long roar. They thought it was going to charge in their direction to assault the mansion, but instead it just stood there and glared at them from beyond the gate. The unusual thing was the fact that its horns started to glow and radiate a bright light that would quickly cycle through dimming and brightening over and over again.

They watched this weird situation for a while before Dillon came back. "Everyone is in position to defend the building for as long as possible." He said before turning to look at the monster. "I've got to say that looks pretty cool, but still a bit terrifying." The others glared at him before turning their attention back towards the sub-boss. After a few minutes several noise makers in the forest started going off as if a large amount of bodies were moving through the area. It didn't take long before hundreds of zombies started pouring out from within the trees as they swarmed towards the boss monster. They didn't attack it but stopped right in front of it instead, waiting for it to do something. Soon the hundreds of zombies built up to well over a thousand and it kept getting worse.

When the sub-boss stopped radiating that light from its horns all of the zombies in the area stopped looking towards the creature in a dazed fashion and seemed to snap out of whatever hypnosis they were under. When they regained control of themselves they started to sniff the air before turning towards the mansion as if they could smell the people inside. In the next instant well over a thousand zombies were rushing through the ditches and smashing onto the fence. More and more zombies continued to charge in from the forest and join the crowd that kept banging and clawing against the fences. All of the bracers they had put up overnight were doing their job, but it wasn't taking long for them to start digging into the ground as the weight of the zombies pressing up against the fence started to be too much.

After another thirty minutes of the constant strain one of the bracers finally broke and soon it was as if a damn had broken as more and more of them fell apart. Then parts of the fence started collapsing letting the now thousands of zombies pour through. Several of them got caught up in the newly made ditches and the wiring, but there were so many of them that those unlucky to get caught were simply trampled over as more of the things poured in through the new gap in the fence. "What are we going to do?" Nathan asked Dave.

Dave watched on for a moment as more and more of those creatures continued to rush into the fields. Several wire traps all throughout the crops were slowing down their progress, but they didn't have all that much time before they reached the mansion. Dave took an arrow from over his shoulder and lit the tip with an oiled rag and lighter before aiming down at an area of the crops that had several canisters of gas in it. "I'm going to light them all up. This time around will be doing the bonfire instead of Josh and the others." Dave responded as he cracked a slight grin that was a bit of surprise for the others.

"You sure you want to do this already?" Devin asked.

"Those are probably most of the zombies in the area flooding over to that things call. If we kill this group then we should be able to manage against smaller hordes for a while, but if they make it to the house then we might as well head to the basement right away." Dave explained. The others agreed with his logic as the waited for most of the zombies to make their way past the fence and into the crops. By the time the zombies near the front started getting close to where Dave was aiming, the ones coming in from the fence had slowed down to a small trickle. In that moment he let his arrow fly towards the target before watching the gas explode into a raging flame.

The fire quickly spread through the crops with several gas canisters throughout exploding whenever the fire reached them. Soon several pained screams started to fill the air as the horde started to catch fire. After five minutes the fire had spread through the entire field with the help of the gasoline that had be spread all throughout it. The smug look on the sub-boss faded away to a sneer as it watched all of its underlings burning alive in front of it. Finally having had enough the sub-boss let out a roar before charging straight through the front gate and into the flames without a single sign of pain on its visage.

Nathan and the others all tensed up as they watched the creature charge in their direction. They were preparing to spring another trap of explosives closer to the mansion in front of the beast to stop its charge when it suddenly stopped on its own. They all wondered why until they heard a whistling sound from above and turned to see another cloud of purple haze soar over them and land into the crops in front of them. Nathan watched wearily as a new creatures emerged from the cloud of purple haze and let out a deep rumbling sound as it stretched out and stood tall.

This new monster stood on two legs, but looked nothing like a human. It had four arms that were far bulkier than any human could ever achieve and it had an enormous tail that curled upwards and hovered over its back like a squirrel. The difference between it and a squirrel was the fact that its giant tail had a large mouth with rows venom dripping teeth sticking out of it. The new creature looked around its surroundings before turning to see the other sub-boss staring at it. They both glared at each other for a moment before roaring at each other in anger.

Nathan looked on at the scene for a moment before shockingly saying allowed one phrase. "They're having a territory war aren't they?"