After Joshua stopped talking through the mental link with him, Nathan turned his attention back towards the two giant beast in front of him that were now charging at each other. The four armed monster used its extra set of arms to increase its speed as it ran across the flaming crops while the rhino like beast lowered its head so that its spikes would be the first thing to be met on impact. They both continued to shout and roar at each other all the way up until their collision. The four armed one moved out of the way of its horns and wrapped two of its arms up under the others frontal legs. The rhino like one on the other hand used the chance of its head being so close to its enemies to dig its teeth deep into its opponent"s shoulder. The four armed monster screamed in pain for a moment before it started to use its strength to lift the other ones front legs off the ground before slamming its extra fist into the helpless monsters unprotected gut. They continued to grapple with each other for a moment before the large tail of the four armed monster bit down on one of the others hind legs causing it to open its mouth from the pain. The four armed one used this as a chance to lift the creature up into the air then slammed it harshly into the ground. Before it could try to do anything else to the laid out monster it was harshly kicked away by one of the spiked monsters large feet and both monsters were back to glaring at each other once again.
This trial of dominance repeated a few more times and it kept Nathan on high alert. He wasn"t sure if he should be scared out of his mind at the fact both of these monster could easily tear him apart any minute now, or excited at watching one of the coolest looking things he had ever seen and it wasn"t on a computer screen. He was finally snapped out of his thinking when he heard an arrow fly out from one of the windows below and hit a zombie that had made it out from the flames. It was in that moment that he and the Ca.r.s.en brothers all realized they didn"t have time to just watch the fight in front of them, but needed to help deal with any threats that made it through the fire.
"Alright, let"s take out anything that makes it through those flames." Dave said getting a nod from his two brothers in response. "Nathan try to make sure everyone has enough ammo to keep firing down below, when things start getting to hairy will come down and signal everyone to start moving towards the bas.e.m.e.nt."
"Cool, be careful up here. Make sure not to get the attention of those beast on us and just let them kill each other. If we"re lucky it will take a while." Nathan replied rushing back inside to help the others. When he got back down to the second floor he had to weave around several traps before he finally reached the area where people were shooting from. He watched for a moment as these men seemed to be surprisingly calm in the face of danger. Compared to how they were acting at the start of this mess it seems like having to face constant onslaughts of zombies over the past month had strengthened their will.
Nathan peeked out of one of the windows that had a crack opened for shooting and could see several zombies starting to make their way through the flames and trying to make it through the ditches in front of the house. The archers were constantly picking off any of the zombies that seemed like they had a shot of making it through before returning to peppering the ditches that were starting to be filled with burning zombies. Nathan made sure to bring every archer an extra bundles worth of arrows, so that they could continue their current strategy before he hurried down to the bas.e.m.e.nt to check on the others. When he arrived the mayor came up to him after he came down the stone steps. "How are things going?" Mayor Clark asked. Some of the injured men that were awake in the back room set up in their beds to listen.
"We"re holding them off for now, but two larger monsters have already showed up." Nathan replied causing several of them to gasp. "Luckily they"re fighting each other for now, but that won"t last forever. We still have a few traps left to slow down the a.s.sault of the big guys, but after that we"re going to have to all hold out down here and hope for the best."
"Have you heard any news from Joshua and the others through that mental thing you guys have been talking about?" Mayor Clark asked nervously.
"I did, he"s busy fighting the boss right now so I wasn"t able to speak with him for long. If we can just hold on long enough for them to take it down then we"re in the clear, but based off the size of those things we don"t have much time left." Nathan explained.
"Alright. Thanks for letting us know."
"No problem, I"m going back up to help the others. Stay safe." Nathan said before rushing back up the steps and heading around the mansion to refill several bundles of arrows to those who were running low. They were starting to run out of stock, but it should be enough to keep things going for a little while. After finishing his duties he rushed back up to the roof to check in on Dave and his brothers. When he arrived he saw they were steadily firing arrows and picking off the more dangerous threats that had gotten to close to the mansion for those in the floors below to get a nice aim at through the silted windows. They weren"t as good as Natalie with a bow, but for the most part they were taking each of their targets out with one shot.
"Everything alright down below?" Dave asked without taking his focus off of what was in front of him.
"Yeah, they"re holding up well but they will run out of arrows well before all of the zombies are taken care of." Nathan replied as he walked over but made sure to keep enough distance so he wouldn"t interrupt their concentration.
"By the time we"ve run out of arrows we"ll all be down in the bas.e.m.e.nt anyways. For now we"ll just keep this up and…" Dave started to say but was interrupted by a loud shout that came from one of the sub-bosses. Nathan turned his attention towards their fight with each other and noticed several wounds all over the bodies of both of the freakish creatures. The latest attack by the spiked monster resulted in it ramming one of its head spikes directly into the injured shoulder of the other sub-boss. The now gravely injured monsters wailed in pain for a moment as it was slowly being pushed back through the fire, its tail flailing back in forth as if it was panicking.
Nathan watched this scene for a moment and was expecting the fight to start coming to a close. If that was the case they would have to rely on their last few traps to hold that spiked one off for as long as possible. Just as his thoughts started heading in that direction everything changed when the impaled monster stopped screaming and started to grin instead as it quickly grappled the spiked monsters head and then used his other two arms to hook under its front legs and force its target off the ground as it held it in place. That"s when the large tail snaked around under the now struggling monster and chomped directly into its belly. The spiked monster wailed in pain as the tail started to pull out its guts. It kept struggling but the four arms that were holding it in place kept it from being able to escape. After a while of watching the gruesome scene the spiked beast finally stopped moving as the tail pulled out what looked like a large gem and crushed it.
The winning sub-boss tossed its adversary aside before roaring towards the sky in victory while its tail continued to eat parts of the dead monster. "Looks like were out of luck." Dave said as the creature started to turn its attention towards them. "Devin and Dillon go ahead and start telling the others to head towards the bas.e.m.e.nt. The barricades and obstacles we put in the way beforehand should hold them off long enough for everyone to gather up. Nathan stay with me and tell me the best times to light up the traps. You"re the one who came up with them so you"re the best man for the job."
His two brothers nodded before running down below. "Alright the first two traps are straight forward and simple. Just shoot them like you did with the trap earlier when it comes near them." Nathan started to explain.
"What makes you so sure it will head for the traps?" Dave asked.
"Because it will head for us, even now its glaring at us as it finishes its meal." Nathan pointed out. They both noticed that the creature"s tail was just about done eating and now it was starting to sway back and forth as the monster stood up to its full height before shouting and starting to run towards them. "I"ll handle the last trap, just don"t miss otherwise that thing is going to tear this building apart before everyone gets to safety."
Dave simply nodded before taking out his arrow, lighting it on fire, and then aiming for the first trap. When the monster was starting to close in on it Dave let the arrow fly and watched as it smashed into a tractor that was loaded up with several gasoline canisters and a couple of poison containers left behind by Madalyn. Just as the sub-boss ran by the tractor it exploded into a small plume of flames that knocked the beast off its feet. This sent it tumbling and crashing into a nearby area full of cars and farm equipment. Dave immediately set up his next arrow and sent it flying into its next target that instantly lit up the graveyard of cars and caused several violent explosions to surround the beast in an impromptu inferno. Its wails were a sign that everything was going according to plan.
"Head on down while I finish the last trap. I"ll be right behind you." Nathan said as he headed over towards the side of the roof. Dave nodded before heading inside while Nathan came up to the last trap he had set up. He waited until he could see the monster trying to stand back up inside the flames before he pulled out a knife and cut a cord he had hanging from the roof. A heavy object that looked similar to a bowling ball fell from the roof and landed on a plank of wood that caused a loud clicking sound. Suddenly the sounds of gears turning went on for a few seconds before a loud bang happened and several arrows, knives, and other bladed object were sent shooting out of a strange wooden contraption that he and Joshua had put together. Along with the sharp objects a few poison gas grenades were launched as well.
Several of the zombies were shredded by this, but most of the object flew forward directly towards the area of the sub-boss. Nathan could hear the satisfying thud of multiple knives or other tools smashing into his target before the poison grenades lit up the inferno even more. Satisfied with his task Nathan rushed inside to get to the bas.e.m.e.nt with the others. When he made it down to the first floor he took a quick detour and ran towards the kitchen and turned on the gas of anything he could find. He waited till the room started to smell like rotten eggs before rushing out and grabbing a candle and lighter on his way to the bas.e.m.e.nt.
He saw David waiting for him at the top of the steps and signaled him to wait a moment before lighting the candle and leaving it outside the bas.e.m.e.nt. He rushed down the stone steps as Dave locked the entrance. Everyone started to help him put any obstacles they could find in the way to make it harder for anything to get into the bas.e.m.e.nt. Then it got to point that all they could do was wait. After a few minutes they started to hear something tearing into the house above in complete rage along with the groans of several zombies.
For a while all they could hear was the sub-boss throwing stuff around or smashing the building apart as it looked for them. That"s when the faint smell of rotten eggs approached before a large shock wave blasted throughout the building as the gas above caught fire. Nathan took one long breath before thinking. "Now it"s all up to you Josh."