“What’s going on?” Xavier asked as he saw the elves setting up large defensive structures.

“We’re expecting another attack, only this time it might be more than one or two assassins.” Aranor said with a dark look crossing his face. “A mercenary group was found and stopped by our reinforcements as they were about to cross over into Deepwood.”

“Mercenaries?” Benedict asked, surprised.

“Turns out it wasn’t the old king behind the assassins.” Aranor said with a sigh. “The beastkins are making a move. Some of their people inside our own kingdom hired mercenaries. Their target was Ajax but it was mostly a target of opportunity; their main job was making sure a war kicked off.”

It was easy for all of them to understand the point of view for the people who took the job. They were simple mercenaries, more than that their target was a pontiac future tyrant from another kingdom. From Aranor’s explanation the mercenaries were upfront when questioned but it seemed like the plan had almost succeeded anyway.

“Ajax needs to do a better job of spreading some information about himself.” Lexi huffed in annoyance as she had tried to get him to do some outreach events in the past five years but any sort of social function, whether they contained nobles or commoners was something Ajax treated like a cold, he couldn’t always avoid them but he could take precautions. “Right now only the important nobles have any decent information about him and even that is brand new from the tournament, he needs to undercut any fear mongering that can be caused.”

“More importantly Deepwood is innocent?” Anna asked, very much surprised at the turn of events.

“I wouldn’t exactly call them innocent.” Aranor said with a shake of the head. “The did take a very relaxed attitude to our safety and all but invited the attempts on Ajax’s life by taking advantage of the visit to scour their own nobility. But it’s more down to negligence and indifference than anything malicious.”

With the time dilatation everyone knew that the final two floors wouldn’t take the group more than five hours on the outside to clear. Following that it would be another half a day or so before the prince finished clearing the final floor and they could finally start to move.

“What reinforcements are waiting for us at the border?” Benedict asked.

“Two ranger teams, the equivalent of your squads.” Aranor said after a moment to think if he should disclose that.

That answer wasn’t one any of them had expected but it did clear up the reason why they were waiting by the border and didn’t advance into Deepwood to meet them halfway. “As long as we make it to the border we’ll be safe. One more week.” Lexi said as she calmed herself to better analyze their situation.

That was when the first attack hit. The attacking force was only ten people but their levels allowed them launch a brutal initial offensive against the defensive perimeter the army had set up before quickly retreating.

The two new high level guards the queen had sent didn’t sit idly by as this happened however. The attack was well placed as far away from where the two of them were keeping watch but both covered the distance in seconds before dashing into the woods after the attackers.

“If the mercenaries were stopped at the border, who is attacking now?” Xavier asked.

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“One is a mercenary company that has gone rogue.” Lioriel who had been close enough to listen in on their discussion finally chose to join in. “This was their first move against Ajax, they are also few in number which is why the royal family wasn’t keeping such a close eye on them before. That said the limited members that they do have are all decently high leveled and have combat experience.”

“What about the other assassins? Figure out who they were?” Anna asked.

“Underground syndicate that we have tried to find for years.” Lioriel nodded in confirmation. “Formed by the remanence of a noble family the previous king dismantled early into his reign. It seems that some of the survivors were more capable than initially anticipated. They took this job not only for the payday but also in hopes that once the war wipes out the royal family they can regain a high position in what’s left of Deepwood.”

“What are the beastkins up to?” Anna murmured her rhetorical question as she tried to fit all the information she had into something that made sense.

Unlike all the other races the beastkin didn’t have two separate kingdoms. Because of the sheer variety that beastkins as a race came with, racism wasn’t an issue for them. Their country was divided between two spheres of influence, the herbivores and the carnivores. With ten dungeons at their disposal instead of the usual five the average adventurer with the means to travel had a much stronger baseline.

The bigger problem for the beastkins was that a good 60% of their country was a sandy desert, the rest of their lands weren’t all that rich in high quality resources. The poor stretch of land meant that they were almost never the target for an invasion. Because of the large amount of desert and lack of resources however their own army didn’t have the population or the equipment to start a war for conquest. At best they would invade during or after the end of a war to try and extort or steal.

This could have all changed in the last few decades from what Anna knew. Her father had mentioned that in the last forty years trade with the beastkins had slowed to a crawl, for a country that was so reliant on trade that had been surprising. According to the Gryndor royal family a spy purge had also taken place twenty years ago and infiltrating additional spies hadn’t bore any fruit yet. Now they were trying to cause a war.

“It does seem like they are up to something.” Aranor acknowledged. “With the latest treaty signed with the Republic nobody has been too keen on sending all that many spies to infiltrate.”

The republic acted like a big shield for the beastkin. Unlike the untamed area that separated the elves from the humans or the elves from the dwarves the beastkin had big mountain ranges followed by long stretches of desert; any movement against them would need to pass through the Republic. In much the same way however the beastkin themselves would need to go through the Republic to attack any of the others. This sense of safety let them relax their vigilance a little and it seemed like now they were paying the prince.

“Those animals are going to pay for this.” One of the two elven champions said as he approached Lioriel while throwing the decapitated head of one of their attackers.

Lexi frowned as she heard the insulting term, she had grown close to Kate in the past few years, knowing that they would become sisters-by-law once she married Ajax she had spent a lot of time getting to know the healer and her daughter. In the end however she chose to say nothing, there was no point antagonizing the elves any further at this point.

The hit and run tactics continued for the next few hours, each attack killing anywhere between five and ten soldiers. The two champions had also managed to get two more of the attackers as they chased after them but on their last chase an ambush awaited them in the forest and one of them came back missing his left hand from the wrist down.

“The coward is with them.” was all he growled as he bandaged the stump.

It was easy for all of them to put together what happened. The champion had managed to block the arrow with his hand but was then forced to cut it off at the wrist to prevent the poison from spreading.

It wasn’t long until Ajax, Darkclaw, Elara, Harold and Arianwyn all came out of the dungeon. Harold looked battered and bruised, obviously the final floor mini boss had done quite a number on him, from the smile on his face however everyone could tell he had come out victorious in the end.

Getting all of them up to speed on what was happening didn’t take long. The news that it wasn’t Deepwood’s royal family or even their nobles that were behind everything but the beastkin made Ajax frown deeply.

It wasn’t that he was feeling guilty for having blamed the Deepwood nobility, he still did, if to a lesser degree. What troubled Ajax was how easily he had overlooked the possibility. He had been so focused on the danger and his anger at the elves that he hadn’t considered the possibility that someone was using them to start a war.

It hadn’t even been two minutes since Ajax exited the dungeon that Aranor reacted. This time however Ajax’s [Danger Sense] didn’t react at all, he only registered the attack once the arrow slammed into the ice wall Aranor had put up.

“The backlash is getting to him.” one of the elven champions chuckled as they examined the arrow. “Serves the coward right.”

From the angle the arrow hit the wall it was clear that the attack would have missed Ajax by half a foot, that was why his [Danger Sense] hadn’t reacted. The drop in skill didn’t do much to reassure Ajax as he also saw just how desperate the assassin had become. He couldn’t wait for the prince to finish the dungeon so that they could leave and reach the protection of the two ranger squads waiting at the border.