Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

The squirrel army was forced to split into three smaller forces as the reality of their attack set in. During the march, they had learned that the Gryalth maintained three entrances to their outpost on the surface, and, having no idea which one was the metaphorical front door, they decided to attack all three at once.

The plan was simple enough: Overwhelm the guards and get as much of the force inside as possible. From there, smaller groups were to fan out and start taking as much ground as they could as quickly as they could, with no prisoners. Despite how straightforward the plan was, there was one extra bit of subtlety tossed in, something Ethel had cooked up to surprise the Gryalth defenders and hopefully give their assault a big boost.

These thoughts were replaying through Cal’s head as it once again made hard contact with the small enclosed space he was in. Not for the first time, he wished he hadn’t gone along with Ethel’s idea, even if it was a good one. Other than the physical force of being bounced around, he had no idea how the initial contact of the fight was going. He comforted himself with the fact that this wouldn’t last much longer, and the looks on the faces of the Gryalth should be worth it.

As he braced for another impact, the shell around him cracked and broke apart instead. “Hah, bet you didn’t see that coming!” Cal yelled as he pushed himself free of the tree golem that had held him. The idea had been to seal his group inside the golems for the initial assault and see if they couldn’t trick the Gryalth into thinking it was just the squirrels. Based on the result of the two Gryalth who immediately saw him, Cal was happy with the results, if not so pleased about the bumps on the head.

Both Gryalth in his path had started backing away with panicked looks across their faces. They hadn’t at all been expecting him to pop out of the golem once they managed to bring it down. He shot a blast of lightning at them both, mainly as a brief further distraction so he could take a quick survey of the battlefield.

As far as he could tell, he was the first one out of the golems and had done so earlier in the fight than Ethel had expected. The squirrels were clashing with the ranks of the Gryalth, but it looked like there weren’t many of the battle mages on the ground. He had no idea how many were on Pluto, so he pushed the fear of them massing inside down. He would deal with that if it happened. First up, he needed to get this army inside.

Cal ran forward, shooting off arcs of electricity at every Gryalth within distance. He poured in enough mana to make sure each blast would continue through any other nearby Gryalth. It wasn’t an overwhelming amount of juice, as he didn’t want to risk any overextension of his core yet. Still, it was plenty to allow any squirrel or golem engaged with a Gryalth who had been hit to take advantage of the blast easily. All around him, he heard the cries of the falling Gryalth as he ran, which was immediately followed by the cheering of squirrel soldiers.

The largest of the tree golems was the next to fall. It was massive and made only for two purposes. The first was to create a dramatic show of force. The second and much more important reason was to house the form of the only genuinely living tree golem inside itself. As it collapsed to the ground, Frank tore his way free and started barreling through the lines of Gryalth in front of him. Cal was sure they regretted having down the larger golem the moment Frank had started throwing them into the air.

“THE FRANK IS FREE. LET THE CARNAGE BEGIN!” screamed the rampaging plant man loudly enough to be heard through the chaos of the fight.

Everyone else was only slightly behind Frank as several shells started to break apart, continuing the pattern of shocking the Gryalth at their contents. Cal only half registered that further progression of the battle as his focus had zeroed in on breaking through to the inside. It seemed the Gryalth had kept the powerhouses in front of the doors. There were four of them standing close together, chanting in a slow rhythmic pattern, using words that Cal couldn’t make out. They were flanked by two creatures that looked like an octopus and a horse that somehow had a child.

Not liking their looks at all, Cal shot two concentrated blasts of lightning with some added void mana, one at each. Both found their marks, but neither fell to the ground. They both just looked angry. Cal started to channel a giant ball of lightning just as his many-timed killer joined him in his attack. Onelder started firing mushrooms from the gauntlet on his arm, each one exploding as it hit the creatures blocking their path forward.

So this was where Albert had gotten all his practice. At least someone had used Onelder’s knowledge as much as possible. Cal hadn’t had as much time for training with the Cyclopean as he had hoped, but that hadn’t stopped him from expanding some of his abilities anyway. He added some friction mana into the ball of lightning a split second before releasing it into the waiting Gryalth.

It worked just as he had intended. The explosive force sent them flying across the cavern, ricocheting off anything they hit. He doubted they were in any shape to oppose their entry now.

“Not bad. Are ya really sure we ever managed to kill ya?” Onelder said.

“Yeah, a few hundred deaths are a thing you tend not to forget,” Cal fired back, annoyed again with the alien. “DOOR IS CLEAR, EVERYONE, INSIDE NOW!” He screamed out as loud as he could, the call being taken up by those who were closest.

Within minutes, hundreds of squirrels, a few humans, a Cyclopean alien, a giant tree man, and a capybara were inside.