The three of us quickly came up with a basic formation; Punchy in front with Rufus rear-left and me rear-right. With Excalibur lighting the way, we slowly made our way to one of the nearest 'corners' of the map, knocking out monster after monster on the way.
"You have to be kidding! We can't hold out from here, we'll be swarmed!" I whispered to Punchy angrily.
"Hear me out- we don't have to stay here, we just use it as a fallback position. If we get overrun at the other outpost, we can regroup here and flank from starboard." He looked at me for a second. I blanked out and he knew it. "Okay, so if the platform up there gets swarmed too much and we just so happen to get away, then we come here and attack the swarm from the right. Get it?"
"That is… I don't want to be rude, but that's the worst idea ever. Of all time. Monsters don't attack in 'swarms,' they all work individually, and unintelligently at that. And when you say 'right,' is it your right or my right?"
"I meant north," he said, embarassed at the flaws in his plan.
"Which way is north, then?" I instinctively looked up to where the sun should be. The stone made it impossible to tell which way was which at all.
"Let's say… That way." He pointed to the exit. It somehow looked even smaller and farther away than when we were on the platform.
"So we know which way is north. Great. But the rest of your plan is still… You know, not… Good. Sorry, but I think that we should have a better Plan B than one that will get us slaughtered." I looked up at the platform and sighed. It was the only place in the entire room that wasn't entirely impossible to survive on, but at the same time a few determined spiders could drive us out easily enough. It was possible- possible- that we could need a fallback.
"At least you put it nicely," he replied sarcastically. "But you're right. I don't see anywhere-" an arrow flew by his ear, slapping a rock in front of him loudly. We whipped around and readied our weapons, but Rufus tackled the skeleton and ripped its skull away before either of us could land a single blow.
"Nice shot!" I laughed, and Rufus wagged his tail in response. Punchy and I relaxed our weapons.
It was a mistake.
The sound of clanking bones suddenly pounded in my ears and I knew we were surrounded. I backed up and ran into Punchy. Good. Fighting back-to-back like that would keep skeletons from shooting us from behind. I held my bow up again, quickly shooting down three skeletons in front of me. Five more skeletons took their places.
"Ah!" I cried. An arrow had caught me in the shoulder and blood was quickly seeping into my shirt. I clenched my teeth and tried to ignore the pain and I strung another arrow and shot another monster down. The limited arm movement slowed me down, but I still hoped I could slow them down enough to escape. I felt another arrow brush my knee, nicking the fabric. It might have hit Punchy, but I couldn't worry about that.
Two more down. Rufus was barely keeping up, now limping from where one of them kicked him in the ribs.
"We can't do this!" Punchy shouted over his shoulder. "We need to run for it or die!"
"Okay, you go first and I'll hold them off. I'll be right behind you!" I poised my bow to clear the way to our platform and Punchy sprinted towards it, mowing down skeleton after skeleton in his way. As soon as he was at the ladder, I grabbed Rufus in my uninjured arm and chased after him. He was already halfway up the ladder when Rufus and I started climbing.
Suddenly, as if in slow motion, I watched a single arrow shoot through the air and impact in Punchy's side. It didn't look fatal, but he cried in pain and dropped from the ladder. He fell, went right past me, and landed on the floor at the feet of a dozen waiting skeletons.