Once Rick officially planned out his route between all three targets, the task of luring them all to the same location was now upon him. It wasn’t easy doing so, but he somehow managed to successfully stay close enough to his pursuers that they the chase would be worth it long enough to draw them all in.

  Now the monsters were clearly not on friendly terms with one another and if Rick wasn’t present then perhaps upon running into one another in the pursuit of Rick, they would’ve immediately began a brutal environment shaping battle without a second of hesitation.

  But apart from a few roars and what was essentially a shoulder bump every time they neared each other while chasing Rick, the three beasts seemed far more engrossed with the target of their chase than the other way around.

  They wanted him, and if they were to come to blows, then it would be because another one of them was about to claim the kill on Rick for themselves.

  Rick, on the other hand, was running for his life.

  No longer was he trying to keep them behind him as he ran around to the next target. This time he was actually running as fast as his Tier Six body could carry him. Thankfully he was at a point where his body didn’t feel like it was killing itself from the inside anymore.

  Due to everything he put his body through since he ventured this far deep into the Dark Lands of Mir, it would take more than a few days of rest to get him back to peak strength. But he didn’t have that amount of time. What he had now was enough though, and if it wasn’t then it would simply have to be, as with three monsters chasing him, there was no time or room for anything else.

  He ran and ran and ran until he was finally back at the site he painstakingly prepared according to Velora’s little plan.

  The plan in question?

  ‘I still I can’t believe your great plan was nothing but a pitfall trap.’

  [We are on a time crunch and so is our information. In a situation like there isn’t much we can do in terms of complex plans. A pitfall trap is simple enough to be enacted without too much thought. If executed right, it is something that can be very effective against multiple opponents that all lack effective cognitive abilities.

  [It matches our situation almost to a tee. Of course, the pitfall trap will not be nowhere near enough kill our targets, but it should put you in a much more favorable position to defeat them. Especially with the other items we have prepared.]

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  ‘…I wasn’t doubting the plan Velora. Just surprised since a pitfall trap is one of the oldest tricks in the book. It was something so simple that it didn’t cross my mind for even a second. If I didn’t agree with it’s effectives, I wouldn’t have bothered with digging that big ass hole. Though I appreciate the explanation.’

  […]

  Ignoring Velora’s embarrassment for now, Rick finally neared the pitfall trap and after flexing his legs for a brief a moment he leaped over the massive, uncovered hole. Rick didn’t have time to find foliage big enough to cover both length and width of the hole, but with how dark things were in the forest anyway Rick hoped there would be no need for it.

  And thankfully he was right.

  Two of the three monsters chasing after him, fell directly into the hole while the third one tried to leap over it, only to be immediately met with a Ruknar empowered strike of the spear that slammed it down into the hole.

  Then something Rick really hoped for happened.

  The monsters didn’t immediately just jump out of the hole. Instead they began biting and clawing at each other with real intensity unlike when they were chasing Rick. It was much easier for them to ignore each other when the wide open forest was around them Rick was running away, but Rick, other rather Velora was smart.

  While the hole was wide, it wasn’t wide enough that they could all sit in the hole comfortably. Using his knowledge of the body sizes of the Tier Seven monsters he’d fought before, Rick made the hole wide enough for them to fit but still have rub bodies with each other.

  That was apparently unacceptable to them.

  Rick and thankfully Commander Meegra didn’t let that moment go without action. The other item prepared by Rick on the input of Velora was a couple tree logs. Rick didn’t have time to make the pretty, but he made sure to sharpen at least one end of 8 different trees that he used his spear to cut at the base.

  He grabbed two of them while Meegra grabbed one.

  With roaring yells, both Rick and Meegra threw the sharpened trees with everything they had at the targets below.

  Due to how much of the hole the bodies of the beasts filled up, there was no need to even focus on aiming. All three logs struck true, and the beasts who were struck cried out in pain.

  Rick then promptly poured out his flames in full in the hole and once more again the cries of the beasts poured out in the surrounding forest as the flames seeped into their wounds.

  “Back of and focus on support Meegra!”

  Unlike in the past there was no room for complaining about made to back off anymore. Even if she didn’t like it, and she definitely didn’t, Meegra knew that fighting directly alongside Rick would only cause more harm than good.

  And after seeing the result of their attacks in the hole, even she could agree that it was time to retreat.

  The monsters weren’t interested in fighting each other anymore. Now they were out for blood.

  Although striking them with the logs was truly damaging, and pouring the flames on top of them only increased the damage dealt, that simply wouldn’t be enough to claim the lives of all three of them.

  Not that Rick thought it would. There was a reason why he made the hole far deeper than it was wide.

  Of course Rick didn’t have a shovel to dig, but when one punch was enough to cause a crater to form, a few more of them was all it took to make a truly deep hole.

  So when the monsters attempted to climb up, he and his spear was right there waiting for them.

  Needless to say, Rick claimed the lives of three more Tier Sevens in that moment.