Harmony continued to tick and restore Stomper’s health, leaving Atlas to keep track of the action. Shadows swirled and Shade appeared. He slashed downward, and a wing popped off one bird. It squawked in protest before he reversed his slash and buried a blade in its neck, directly under the beak.
A nearby Fighting Cock tried to attack him, but the rogue threw something down and a puff of dark gray smoke obscured his form. The chicken charged through the dark haze and looked around in confusion when it emerged from the other side without its prey.
Shade appeared again and leaped from the smoke. Both of his blades sunk into the back of the chicken while blood and feathers flew into the air. The rogue jumped off and faded into shadow again as it died.
A loud screeching noise filled the area and the constant smashing of metal on metal drew Atlas’ attention back to Stomper. A chicken was on its back, its wings beating furiously as its legs kicked out nonstop. The blades on its wings and legs battered Stomper’s shield as he tried to back up and hold his defense against the other enemies. A shimmer of metal flashed in Atlas’ view before a piece of a blade buried into his thigh.
Fighting Cock dealt 20 damage to you with Death Throes.
“Damn it, Carhein. We said don’t cut their heads off. Don’t you know what happens to chickens when they flop around dead like that?”
“My apologies, valiant warrior. The lust of battle took over. Carhein shall strive to avoid that in the future,” the axe wielding role-player spouted off.
Atlas swore he heard Shade sigh, even though the man was stealthed somewhere. Instead of dwelling on it, he carefully extracted the blade from his leg and dropped it to the stone floor with a clatter.
The battering of the dying chicken did more damage to Stomper than normal, so Atlas cast a Nurture and refreshed his Harmony spell.
You healed FaceStomper55 for 17 HP with Harmony.
You healed FaceStomper55 for 38 HP with Nurture.
The final three Fighting Cocks went down to an onslaught from Shade and Carhein while Stomper held their attention. Quiet filled the room, but Atlas spotted the notifications for the experience.
You gained 2,185 experience for the death of Fighting Cock. (x23)
These guys killed twenty-three of those crazy things in that short of a span? Hell, they probably could’ve beat that fight without me this time.
“Looks like our strategy worked better this time. Almost didn’t need the druid,” Shade called out as he reappeared beside the party.
“The druid has a name,” Atlas grumbled as he stuck his tongue out at the rogue. A grin was all he received in response.
“We don’t know what else is to come as we,” Stomper began, but a rumbling noise stopped him. Three more spaces on the wall opened up. Each of them looked to be about eight feet tall and over thirty feet wide. At the entrance of each stood a row of Fighting Cocks lined up side by side. Noise behind them drew their attention and another set of identical doors appeared, but no chickens sat in these.
The chickens in front of the door on the right squawked and ran diagonally across the room toward a door on the other side. They crossed their wings in front of them and steel poked out as they ran. Atlas felt like he was being charged by a wall of cactus, only they bristled with full size blades and not thorns.
Atlas ran to the side and Shade disappeared. Stomper resumed his defensive stance and Carhein took up his position slightly behind the tank. The birds never even slowed their charge as they closed in with the two fighters. Metal screeched, and both men yelled in pain as blades cut their flesh and tossed them to the side. The birds continued their charge until they stood in front of the door they ran at and turned back to watch the group.
The fighter’s health bars each sat in the yellow, and Atlas cast Nurture on Stomper and sent a Harmony spell at Carhein.
You healed FaceStomper55 for 38 HP with Nurture.
You healed Carhein for 17 HP with Harmony.
As the two were climbing back to their feet, the chickens in front of the middle door squawked and dashed across the room. Stomper tried to brace himself for the charge again when something clicked with Atlas.
It’s the plague dance. The birds don’t stop charging. We aren’t supposed to kill them, just avoid them.
“Stomper! Dodge it. This is an avoidance challenge, not a fighting one!”
Both men glanced at Atlas and nodded before running to the side and narrowly avoiding the chicken closest to the edge. Before this group even made it to their destination, the last group charged forward and ran for the final unoccupied door on the opposite end.
The party raced across the cave until they cleared the path of the birds. Each stopped and looked around in triumph until they heard the first group squawk yet again and dash back across the room toward a different doorway.
The Fighting Cocks seemed to run faster than last time, and the group struggled to keep pace. Each time another group charged, the chickens ran a little faster. Atlas grew frustrated with the increasing speed and shifted to cat form to better keep pace.
The only problem was, they didn’t stop coming. There were no signs that anything they were doing was going to end this fight. Shade echoed his sentiment.
“We can’t keep this up. We will tire out and we won’t be able to move fast enough to avoid the charge. There has to be some way to stop this,” the rogue told them.
“I see a glorious butt nugget over there on the small pedestal,” Stomper said as he pointed toward a small stone outcropping near the entrance they originally came through. On top of the shelf sat an egg.
Atlas looked
