Infinite Farmer: A Plants vs Dungeon

Tulland tossed an Acheflower towards Necia in the split second before Halter reached him, trying to catch both Ley and the rogue in the blast. Halter dodged it easily, and Tulland simply didn’t have the attention to spare to see if Ley was affected in any way. What focus he had was now firmly on the rogue.

The first several clashes felt good. Halter was coming in with his dagger blazing, but every hit he managed to land on Tulland’s armor slid off without causing much damage. The rest were deflected with the pitchfork, leaving Tulland uninjured after the first few clashes.

Seems like he’s not having such a good time.

Pay attention to your vines, you fool.

Tulland looked down at his arm and found that the System was right. One of his Clubber Vines was not entirely dead, but had been shredded within an inch of it.

“Figured you’d know if I killed it outright.” Halter ducked in for another few strikes, killing it absolutely. “Good job noticing. And Tulland? Good seeing you. Bye.”

Stealth skill. Halter disappeared. The ground was mostly open around them, so it wasn’t as if he was hiding in anything more substantial than tall grass. Whatever he was doing was closer to invisibility. I have no clue how to deal with this. Should I run?

I don’t think so. It’s a bad match-up made worse. There’s a hard counter.

That bad? He’ll catch me?

Tulland circled a bit, dropping plants as he did. Anything that had the slightest chance of giving him an extra moment to react whenever Halter came out of stealth went on the ground. The System hadn’t given Tulland much to go on, but what it had given him was at least something.

It’s a bad matchup, but not just because I can’t run. Tulland poked his pitchfork out at the nothing, hoping to get lucky and catch Halter coming in. And not just because he’s fast, or stealthed. Those would be reasons to run. It’s something else.

Halter stayed hidden for the time being, and Tulland felt the cost of that stress in every nerve. It was a tactical decision, Tulland was sure. If Halter could get him to lapse even for a moment, the rogue would strike. He tried to keep himself calm with the thought problem the System had given him.

It can’t just be that. I know a lot of reasons Halter is a threat, but I should have a chance. This new stealth is bad, but even then. There’s no reason he would be a bad match-up beyond what we’ve seen before unless…

Tulland’s face suddenly twitched with the smallest, quickest smile he had ever had. He sighed and prepared himself to take a big risk. Halter was still nowhere in sight, and Tulland started poking furiously into the air, leaning farther and farther with each new blow, trying to keep the directions of each attack as random-seeming and unpredictable as possible. He amped up the pace as much as he could, ignoring the clangs in the background as Ley hit Necia’s shield again and again.

And then, finally, he made a mistake. In the fury of the blows, Tulland finally over-extended. His foot slipped in the dirt, skidding forward and opening up his stance just enough to be considered a mistake. He planted his pitchfork in the dirt to regain his balance, with only the slightest sound of footfalls on dirt indicating the fact that Halter had already moved to take advantage of it.

Tulland finally let the smile burst on his face fully. It looked like the System might just have been right. Halter was bad news to be sure, but they had fought before. Tulland’s class had been undeveloped, and he had hardly known what he was doing, but he still won a qualified victory. And now that his pitchfork was a qualified weapon, things would look very different.

He’s trouble, but a hard counter for my class he’s not. That’s for sure. Tulland let loose a little intent and an overcharge into his plants all at once, setting off an explosion of powder and acid that coated the entire area, Halter included. Which means he’s not a hard counter for my class. I’m one for his.

With Halter suddenly visible in the air above him, Tulland commanded all of the Clubber Vines on him to hit the ground at once, pushing his arm up and giving him just a little bit of a boost as he slammed the end of his Farmer’s Tool’s handle into Halter’s jaw. Halter stumbled back and restealthed, only to find a pitchfork in his arm when he sprung towards Tulland again.

“See, that’s the problem with Ley.” Tulland hucked another acid bulb forward, stabbing at the rogue and scratching his thigh in the opening the missile created. “He can only tell you about things he knew in the past, and I had a hell of a time in the last few dungeons. The acid bulbs are new. And you know what’s great about them? I can tell where the acid is. It’s like a big sign hung on your back.”

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“Won’t matter when you are dead.”

“Oh, sure. So long as you can make that happen.” Tulland thrust forward again, almost catching Halter on another tine. “But I have a feeling you won’t.”

One thing that had always been true of Halter’s build and didn’t seem to have changed much was that he absolutely relied on speed. He was the chaser, a person who was probably named for doing just that. He was hard to hit, but couldn’t take much damage before it started to affect him, something that had let even a weak, pathetic Tulland get the upper hand all those months ago.

And I’m stronger now. So let’s stop dodging the fast guy. It’s his turn to try and run away.

Tulland lunged at Halter, who managed to circle away from the strike, and the next, ending up facing almost exactly the opposite way from where he had been. Backing away, he managed to open up some distance on Tulland, who took the opportunity to fully bat a Silver Star through the air at him, using the tines of his pitchfork as a contact surface and getting the projectile moving just a bit faster than Halter could dodge. By some miracle, the damn spiked thing flew exactly to target, burying itself into Halter’s hip and slowing him down that much more.

The rogue was running out of options now. Tulland pushed forward a few more times, inflicting minor injuries on his enemy before Halter seemed to lose the entirety of his will to fight and turned on his heels to run as far and as fast from Tulland as he could get.

Tulland had suffered in the dungeon much more than he had enjoyed it. He had been punctured by thorns, gouged by an elk, bitten by all manner of beasts and endured elements and rough living far beyond what a normal person could have survived. He had worked his back sore turning soil and covered himself in filth and sweat more times than he could count. But some things counterbalanced that suffering, at least a little.

Necia was one of those balancing factors, but as great as she was, she didn’t come close to making Tulland’s impending doom in The Infinite feel good. Food had helped a little, but didn’t close the gap. Soap and a hot bath had done a surprising amount, but there was still always a good, safe edge in favor of the bad he had experienced that kept the good from taking the lead, even momentarily.

But when Halter’s first step of retreat took him directly into the patch of protective plants Tulland had laid around himself during that first dangerous stealth, the gap finally closed, if only for a moment. The sound of a three or four Clubber Vines making contact with shins all at once saw to that task just fine.

Halter screamed and fell to the ground, taking another five or six big thwacks from the vines as he rolled out of range, tried to find his footing, and sunk another Silver Star deep into the soles of his boots. Insanity flashed across his face as Tulland got in position above him, pitchfork pointed down.

“You can’t…”

Halter held up his hands in supplication, suddenly looking very ready to negotiate. Tulland wasn’t.

“I can.” The tines of the pitchfork came down hard, penetrating the dirt behind Halter and soaking the soil with his blood. “I really, really can.”

Halter coughed, staining his mouth red as he did. He slammed his dagger forward, pushing the thin point past Tulland’s armor and deep into his leg. Tulland ignored the pain, set his grip on the handle of his tool, and twisted. Deep in Halter’s chest, something cracked. He reared up for one last stab that never found its target, then slid limply back down the tines of the pitchfork to the ground.

You were right. Hard counter.

I thought I was. Now see to that woman.

Tulland almost slapped his own forehead as he realized how much danger Necia was still in. he turned to find her facing a large tree, a giant of a plant sitting alone and ruling its own domain of the plains land around them. Ley was presumably in there, absorbing potential for his big, overpowered attack.

Oh no. He doesn’t know. Tulland ran towards the fight as quick as his farmer legs would carry him. How long has he been charging that attack for?

A long enough time. It will too late once you get there, I’m afraid.

It was. There was a sudden whoosh of wind as Ley shot out of the tree like a lightning bolt, moving directly towards the center of Necia’s shield. Every bit of intelligence he would have been able to gather would have led him to just that tactic, to hit with a single big strike that would overwhelm her defenses.

He had no way of knowing how much Necia had grown in the meantime. Even Tulland didn’t. Her countering skill had been low-level back on the tenth floor, but the same wasn’t true now. What had been a level five skill at most was probably sitting near fifteen now, just waiting for an enemy that relied on big, flashy hits to do its work.

And now it had it.

Ley let loose a war cry as he drove his knife deep into the center of Necia’s shield, embedding the point into the metal just as the counter hit. The knife stayed there in the shield as the counter flashed into Ley, immediately slapping his arm and sending him spinning to the ground like an intoxicated ballerina.

And somehow Necia was just fine. The extra levels in the skill seemed to have a cushioning effect, leaving her staggered and injured but still on her feet. The same could not be said for Ley, who was all unnatural angles and cries of pain as he laid on the ground, broken.

“That should do it. What do you think I should do with him, Tulland?” Necia asked once she recovered.

He hadn’t even known she knew he was there. The question caught him off guard for a moment, but only a moment.

“Whatever you want.” Tulland stepped forward. “Or I could.”

“No, I have it handed.” Necia shouldered her sword and walked towards the downed rogue. “We can’t trust him anymore, you know.”

“No, you can.” Ley lifted his head. “He threatened me. I had to do it. He’s a better rogue.”

“Was.” Tulland held up the red points of his pitchfork. “And I’m not even sure about that.”

“He’s dead?” Ley was visibly shocked, then forced a desperate smile onto his face. “That’s great! There’s nobody to threaten me now. I have no reason to betray you again, you know. I could just…”

Necia’s sword dropped. Ley jerked just once on the ground, then was still.

“It’s too bad.” Tulland looked away from the mess. “He wasn’t bad.”

“He didn’t seem bad,” Necia emphasized. “But we only knew him for a while. There’s no telling what he was back on his world. Maybe he was always a coward there. Maybe he was worse than Halter.”

“I doubt it.”

“I do too. But it doesn’t matter. Sometimes, one decision is enough.”

“You think?”

“We would have been dead enough, if it had worked.” Necia nudged Ley with her toe, one last time. “You want anything off of him? Or Halter? They could be fertilizer, at least.”