Chapter 84: Preparation and Scouting (Patreon)

As we spoke, a deal was forged between Carina and I. The terms were simple. If I succeeded in killing Martin, then his residency card would go to her. The other less palatable term was that Anders was off limits. She’d made it explicitly clear that she will deal with her brother. Either by convincing him to leave or forcing him to. No one else was to go near him.

I accepted on the condition that she stay close to me until her brother was found. After our last encounter, he was bound to attack me on sight while ignoring everything else in his path.

She agreed and divulged the location of what she called ‘Martin’s camp.’ It was southwest from the town and about half a day’s hike at regular speed. She said that there was a small clearing that led to a series of interconnected caves. Martin would disappear into one of those caves for hours at a time and come back stronger. She’d asked him how he was doing it, but he’d refused to say. She said she’d even tried following him one time but that he’d disappeared.

“Be careful going in there,” she said. “The place is like a maze, and it’s easy to get lost.”

I nodded as the rest of the group came over. Carina split off with the other survivors to catch up while Hugo hooted with glee as he flew to my shoulder.

“The church still works!” he said. “All my spirit summons are charged up and ready to go.”

That was good news. For a second there, I’d thought we were going to have to talk about him staying out of the fight. I told him I was glad as I re-entered the church. It wouldn’t hurt to get a little more advice from Yakeshi before the battle.

But as I stepped inside, I received no notifications.

That was disappointing, but I guess I shouldn’t rely on him.

I went back out and told the others to make whatever preparations they needed for the fight ahead. Damian told me to go on ahead without him and that he’d catch up before he went back into town, likely to craft poisons or traps of some kind. A few of the others checked over their weapons and armor, While I re-sharpened all of my blades. I took particular care of my katana that had several notches chipped out of it. Once that was done, I started pulling out zombie corpses one by one and emptied their blood into vials and potion bottles.

I’d gotten quite lucky in my search through town. One store that used to be an apothecary was abandoned and all the active ingredients were missing. All that they’d left behind was empty glassware used to store their goods.

I crafted two large blood potions that went back into my inventory and several vials which went into a pouch on my belt. My Blood Reaver senses told me that the magic within the blood would last for several days while stored in the glassware, so there was no danger of it going to waste.

When we were ready, Miller, who’d been appointed Yanis’s unofficial babysitter, asked, “what about him?”

Carina frowned at the man. “I don’t recognize him and I thought I knew the faces of everyone who joined Martin’s group.”

Yanis licked his lips. “I was… uh, a late addition.”

“He’s not going to be worth much in a fight,” said Miller to me.

He was right. Bringing him with us might be more dangerous for him, but something was telling me not to let him out of our sight.

“What do you want?” I asked Yanis.

“Safety and residential access. I think I can earn both if I stay in this group and contribute. I’m sure there’s still followers from town out there who are the same level as me.”

I sighed. It made sense.

I nodded to Miller. “Take off his restraints.”

Miller tried to protest, but I cut him off and said, “stay behind him and if he makes a wrong move, then kill him.”

Yanis swore he would do no such thing, but I also sent a private party chat message to Hugo to remind him to keep an eye on him too. We can’t afford to have anything go wrong, but I also couldn’t just turn away a willing fighter. Not when Martin could have anywhere from five to fifty people following him.

We set out soon after, with Carina taking the lead. I was close second, followed by Yanis and Miller. The spellcasters and archer who lacked our stamina trailed behind at the back and struggled to keep up. There were several times when I’d notice Carina’s jaw clench as we were forced to stop and give the others a break, but otherwise, she said nothing.

At one of these breaks, I decided to ask her a question. “So, Battleborn, what kind of powers do you have?”

“What kind do you have?” she countered.

“I heal with the blood of my enemies.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Seriously?”

I nodded, and she whistled. “That sounds useful.”

“Okay, your turn,” I said.

She shook her head. “I never agreed to that.”

“Come on, I told you mine.”

“Which was stupid. Next time we fight, I’ll know to keep you away from my blood.”

“So there’ll be a next time?”

I caught a glimmer of a smirk before she looked away. After a pause she said, “Battleborn get stronger and tougher the longer we fight. Anger and rage can fuel us too.”

That sounds like they’re a bit of a berserker Class. Only the anger doesn’t seem to blind them or make them dumber. At least not in Carina’s case.

I thanked her for the info, but she just shrugged and reiterated that I was to stay away from her brother. I promised that I’d do just that.

It was late in the afternoon when Carina told us that we were getting close. I had the others hunker down in the forest while Carina, Hugo and I went on to scout the enemy.

After a few minutes of trying to sneak towards the camp, I sorely regretted not asking her to stay behind. Her footsteps were loud and heavy. Somehow, she managed to find every dry twig to snap and every leaf to loudly crumple under her.

Eventually, I had to stop her.

“You need to slow down,” I said. “You’re making too much noise.”

“Not anymore than you,” she insisted.

I told her to wait and listen as I took five silent steps forward. Then I had her try, and I became worried she’d alert half the forest.

She frowned. “What am I doing wrong? Why are you better at this than me?”

“It’s probably due to my high dex stat. Look, from now on keep your eyes on the ground to avoid the twigs and take lighter steps.”

Carina nodded and took it seriously as we continued. She wouldn’t be sneaking up on someone directly anytime soon but her steps were noticeably quieter.

At the edge of the tree line, we crouched down and surveyed Martin’s camp from a distance. There were more than a few tents there now. I counted at least twenty in front of the cave entrance. But the deeper concern were the fortifications.

Fifteen feet high tree logs had been lashed together with rope to create a fence that surrounded the camp. Behind them were wooden walkways in which several archers patrolled and as soon as I saw them, I warned Hugo to steer clear. Animals weren’t known to be friendly on this floor and I couldn’t take the chance that one of them might want to get in some target practice with Hugo.

More people walked out of the cave and it looked like my worst estimates were right as well. There was at least fifty people in the camp and perhaps even more still lurking in the cave.

I was to about to signal Carina to retreat when I felt a tingle on the back of neck that screamed danger. I drew my knife and swiveled only to find Damian crouched next to me holding his hands up in surrender. Of course he’d be the one to sneak up on me and to come to see things for himself. A description of the camp by someone else wouldn’t have cut it.

[Lucas Hudson: What do you think?]

He nodded.

[Damian Sutter: Doable.]

And then he annoyingly retreated back into the shadows without elaborating.