Survive Harder Season Two: Game 2: 2 of 2None of my injured players come back of course, but the KO’d women also fail to wake up.
“Well, little brother. I guess they’ll let us on the field at last,” Teresa says, trying not to sound nervous. Seven women remaining from the half, plus our two catchers from reserve, equals nine. Against their eleven. With one reserve still in reserve.
“Okay,” I say, after they’ve gotten their mugs for the half -- we couldn’t afford much brew this game, so they’re sipping it carefully. “Anyone cold?” No one is wearing their furs.
“How is this even possible?” Aeta asks, amazed.
“Snow is insulating,” I reply. “And the vapor up in the sky actually gives off massive amounts of heat, twice, in order to freeze. Between that and all the exertions going on, by the players and the fans...” Blank looks. “We’re up north near the chaos hole of terror,” I continue. “Nature doesn’t work right here.” They nod, accepting that; I have to admit it sounds the much more plausible explanation. Not that my tutor ever accepted it usually.
“They’re all here for you-all,” Marbet tells the women. “You know that right? Or even if not for you, they’re here for the game. Not for the Nurgles.” True enough; any Nurgle team has a difficult time gaining any fan support, for obvious reasons, and the Eruptor team is fairly new. “Their cheers... people fear disease,” Marbet continues. “You’re fighting what they can’t fight -- what those... those
traitors to all life decided to join instead of fighting against!”
Nine against their twelve. But our women look ready, largely thanks to Marbet Mavenwood.
“Wherever they kick the ball,” I instruct, “whoever gets the ball, run up to the line and let them form around you. You-all brilliantly shut them down last half; if we can get a score, you have a good chance to do the same thing this half!” Nine against their twelve. “The goatman who likes to get the ball, he doesn’t want to run: he wants to throw. But he can’t! -- not in this snow! So they’ll strip the line again to protect him. If that happens and we’re ahead, never mind, just hold the line until he gets desperate enough to try a run.” I didn’t say that if that happened they might not be able to break into his cage.
Nine -- against eleven and one in reserve.
I put my three best blockers up front, even though one is a catcher, and set my remaining women in a wide net backfield waiting for the ball, with a thrower and catcher farthest back.
Now we hope.
[Gamenote: “brilliant coaching” gives us an extra reroll this half, by the way. Oigme’s “leader” ability only works the first half, unless we splurge on halfling chefs for some inscrutable reason.]
The ball lands smack center and it’s time to cage up.
We form up the initial cage so quickly the opposing team hasn’t even had time to decide how to charge for the ball!
Teresa, our more experienced catcher who has also become an elite blocker, is helping hold the line on the left. Hearing the calls of the women behind, she ducks her marking lineman and flips over the nurgle-snail’s tentacles to run back to help form the top of the cage; Oigme runs back as well, while the landsquid is distracted in flailing at the escaping catcher!
“See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!” taunts Akantha the Seducer as she also springs to escape.
But she turns leftward, naturally, to run. And so runs straight into the tentacles lashing in frustration back through where Oigme used to be.
Marbet gasps beside me, shivering.
Akantha has stiffened in shock, muscles quivering as the tentacles slide along her --
“What is it
doing?!” I hiss, appalled.
“They... seize their prey that way. It could be worse,” she quietly moans in sympathy for Akantha. “Regulations require the beasts to have certain... glands removed... but only some of them.
“others remain”
Akantha is rapidly, shallowly gasping; unable to move; tears rolling down her face in horror.
“The other glands paralyze their prey. In various ways.” Marbet retches a little.
I cannot blink. I cannot look away as time seems to freeze. “... does ... it ...”
“hurt? No...” Marbet sobs. “It doesn’t.
“A week or so before I quit, a... coach... tested a beast... he thought it was funny. They all did. The goatmen especially -- “
“I swear on my life -- Marbet, why are you even here?!” The Nurgle team is laughing as the other women pause unable to collect their wits in shock to make a choice of what to do. Akantha is keening. The crowd is --- more appreciative of the Eruptors now. Calling out the worst imaginable jokes.
“They meant to do this. The women I mean. I tried to warn them.” I don’t know who is talking, Marbet or I or both to each other. “You don’t have to be here,” I try to say; Akantha slumps to one knee, spent.
“I have to help your friends, your sisters... get through this... defeat it... survive it!” Marbet wails.
“Survive it, Akantha! I know you can do it! Don’t let it win!”
The Beast of Nurgle relaxes, instinctively pulling its tentacles back in order to make more room for biting its prey without hurting itself...
Akantha chuffs air, hardly, once; then stands up, wobbling a little, and tells the Beast, “You’re done already!? HAH!!”
That takes some of the mockery out of the enemy! “Try that again, whenever you want! Better you than any of them!” She slings her arm in disdain. “Believe me I’ve had worse!
AND I SURVIVED!!”Her teammates cheer, as does the crowd, as Akantha the Seducer stretches luxuriously.
-- the lineman across from her lunges --
-- she meets his lunge --
-- and lets him push her back away from the Beast.
“You’re no fun,” she retorts, insanely. “Go back home and let me have my way with your pet over --- “
-- a goatman tries to blitz her.
She still hasn’t recovered yet, not enough to counterpunch, but she stays on her feet.
“Better!” she tells him. “If only you weren’t
dripping with disease, I could use you! Too bad your snail is cleaner than
any of you!!”
Then her eyes roll back in her head and she falls to the ground, unconscious, utterly spent.
The Eruptors have taken this time to carefully march up toward our cage; between the various threats, and their concern and admiration for Akantha, the women don’t know where to run together.
Marbet is waving off the goblin couriers, who hesitate on the sideline whether or not they should go fetch Akantha. “She’ll be all right,” she explains, to me. “She just has to... recover. They might kick her while she’s down, but they haven’t seemed the kicking type so far...”
“I am so, so sorry,” I say, watching the enemy slowly enclosing our girls. “You shouldn’t have to see this. You shouldn’t have to be here. I... i should have run away, long ago, so-that-they’d-give-this-up-and...”
“RIGHT FIELD PUSH, SISTERS!” Oigme shouts. “They’re in range now,
GO!!!”The women had been luring the enemy in, so that they themselves could strike with greatest force and efficient effort!
Various goatmen, leering at their prey, find their smiles smashed to the ground -- and suddenly most of the women are running rightward, trying to arc around the nurglebeast and its dully astonished lineman!
“Go on sisters!” Oigme orders as she and Tereis, her sister from the farm, stand alone to guard against nearly two thousand pounds of disease and looming armor.
But no! -- the Eruptors, enraged at the loss of their victims, surge ahead as well, knocking several women down, including Oigme!
A goatman charges up and strikes Athtar who has the ball in the back!
She isn’t hurt -- she twists, sensing the blow at the final moment, staying on her feet even --
but the cursed ball leaps free.
Several players scramble for it, as it dances in victory at its escape along the ground, including the Beast itself and several linemen.
Tereis Antandre flips out of reach of a Nurgle lineman and scampers for the ball as well...
But just as she grabs it in triumph, one of the nearby rotters in between her and the squid gives her a punch and she drops the ball -- which happily scoots between the squid and a bunch of Nurgle linemen.
At least all the women are on their feet again, if somewhat woozily.
The former farmgirl tries again, lifting the ball and shouting, “You’re the worst chicken I ever tried to -- !!”
-- and spasms --
-- the tentacles, having rested, now are paralyzing her, too, from behind.
She cannot run away.
Unseeing, unable even to care, she drops the ball again and, shuddering, submits, sinking into a puddle on the ground. Where she shakes intermittently.
I can hear Marbet and Akantha, distantly and nearby, rasping their anger and despair, as the other women pause in horror again.
One of the Nurgle linemen lumbers over and picks up the ball, dismissively walking away as several teammates form his cage.
Akantha the Reducer heaves herself in flips and leaps to strike at the tender tentacles, which zip away to safety behind the head of the Beast -- and then with spinning kicks -- one -- four --
six in a row, she by herself drives the thing to retreat a little despite its mass.
“You want to inflict those...
kisses on someone!? Here I am! Not her! I can take it!”
“I swear,” I tell Marbet as she weeps in frustration next to me, “if any of those things ever gets near you... they won’t. Not even near. I don’t care if I’m executed by the League. I don’t care if they make me feel like I’m dying for thousands of years.
Never.” The hell of it was, I knew that out in the wild... this would be so much worse... I knew what a Beast of Nurgle could really do. This was only a nightmarish echo.
My father had taught me, having fought them before, himself, during an outbreak. Having seen the remains of what they could do to horses, cows, villagers caught by surprise and unable to get away.
The women are too spread out to stop the carrier and his cage.
Two get in front of them anyway: Oigme and Lykopis. The goblins weave across the field, bringing Tereis Antandre to the infirmary on the sideline; Marbet lets them this time.
Oigme and Lykopis both are simply too exhausted to resist being pushed down and aside aside by the Nurgle linemen ‘caging’ the ball, leaving the lineman with the ball to alter his path in some confusion and then to stomp more centerfield with a goatman approaching to lend support. The only good news is that a multi-team attack on Alkidike Synope ends with the lineman down instead! -- the woman shrieks revenge against them for hurting her sister earlier. Still, they’ll stand up. She just can’t hurt them enough.
“How are they even possibly going to stop this!?” I mutter, and try to guide Marbet away from the goal-line as the enemy approaches.
“No.” She plants her feet and refuses to budge. “I’m staying here. Let them come. I know... they cannot hurt me.” Technically, she believes they won’t be allowed. I see she needs to do this, and we stand together watching their approach.
“DON’T YOU DARE!” Akantha the Reducer shouts across the field to her teammates, “DON’T YOU EVEN DARE,” she cannot dare herself to try to run away and so be caught by the tentacles again, “LET THOSE THINGS GET NEAR
OUR LITTLE SISTER!!”No less than three women escape their marking enemies and catch the lineman in time to try to make a difference. But can they?
THEY
DAMN
WELL
CAN!!!He tries to escape leftward and gets sidekicked, popping the ball free in the middle of the girls!
“SURVIVE HARDER!!” various women yell in something like triumph!
Marbet sighs in relief. “I had to stay. I had to stay.
“But I’m glad I didn’t have to stay,” she says as both teams ponder what the hell they ought to do now and how to do it.
“I’m glad you tried to take me away,” she adds, smiling a ghost of a smile. “I’m glad you stayed with me, too.
“I accept your promise. I know you can keep it. I know you will.”
Lykopis the Huntress is as good a woman as any nearby to try picking up the ball --
-- but she fumbles it as it wrenches from her hands!
-- Aete Alcinoe our more experienced catcher can catch it...
And she does! Whew!
Unfortunately, she gets too worried about the goatman up north and refuses to move until he’s knocked down. [Gamenote: I forgot she really ought to move at least somewhat up the right side of the field before switching to another player. siggghhhhh...]
“Aete!” Lykopis howls, “You fool! We only have a minute or so remaining!” Aeta’s jaw drops in realization of what her overcaution has cost us: any chance of scoring. The women do their best to set up some loose protection for her anyway.
Then,
one of the linemen miraculously finds a path around our defenders,
speeding up for a blitz on the self-recriminating Aete --
-- with support from the lineman who had been sidekicked to drop the ball --
-- she has no hope -- -- the blizing lineman is actually slung by his fellow as she turns in shock to see the slaughter coming --
With perfect precision, Aeta braces herself in line with the charge AND PUNCHES HIM WITH THE BALL!! -- right at the very center of gravity!
With a soggy oof, the cretinous traitor splorches to the ground.
“You want it back?” Aeta sniffs, handing the ball to the shocked Nurgle lineman who had been carrying it before.
He blinks stupidly, and in fear.
And refuses.
“Good choice,” Aeta nods, as the other women laugh; and then she’s running for daylight.
It won’t be enough to win. But it might be enough not to lose.
After some risky maneuvering, the women build a little cage around Aete. At least she’s farther away from THEM being able to score.
The Nurgle coach is screaming literal curses at his infected troops, as the women warily watch for chances to move even farther safely downfield.
One lineman, in distress, turns from where he has been... distracted... by Akantha the Seducer teasing the frustrated tentacle beast, which (being really stupid) wants to seize her again but can’t quite figure out how to get past her defenses.
The lineman lowers himself to start a blitz toward Aeta --
-- and is snapkicked by Akantha the Reducer in the joint of his knee.
Which pops like an overripe fruit.
“Now,” Akantha purrs, turning back as the tentacles strike while maybe she’s defenseless...!
She casually swats them away. “Where were we?” The thing squeals.
The goblins rush in to carry the lineman off. Our first and last casualty caused this game; Akantha’s sisters-in-arms cheer but exhaustedly.
Another lineman from center right field was able to get close enough to prevent much easy running, at least without a handoff first...
Sadly, the ball squirts free during the handoff despite a heroic effort by Aeta to place it firmly, leaving minor gashes on her arms from the spikes infesting the ball.
Under the impetus of the curses on their already-damned souls, several Eruptors surge for the ball, bellowing in pain and desperation, knocking down several women who just don’t have the strength anymore to stand.
One lineman jostles Akantha as he rushes by --
-- and stumbling, she cannot avoid the tentacles this time.
They take her down. And leave her there, unable to do much more.
Lykopis the Huntress stands alone remaining near the ball; a lineman tries to take it.
She slashes him with a sidekick, sending him into the snow.
And that’s the game. The goblin referee blows the signal.
The women collect Akantha where she shivers in the slush. I can’t tell if she has been weeping as I run out onto the field with Marbet to give her my cloak and Marbet’s wrap and anything we can find to... un-expose her.
“’sokay,” she whispers with haunted eyes, “I’ll be okay.” She reaches a hand to trace what feels like a tear on my cheek.
“I’ve had worse. Much, much worse.
“And I survived.”
A tie against rotting demonic hulks. We’ll take it. We have to.
The Eruptors choose us as their visiting team in the final day of the pool.
And now, for the worst of reasons...
...they have fans of their own.
