Chapter 33

After a night of dreamless sleep I woke up feeling refreshed. I had heard of men being plagued by nightmares from the things they had done. I was pleased that yesterday's fighting hadn’t caused my mental strain. I was aware that these men deserved what we had given them. They were the worst sort of people that killed and stole as they went. It was our duty to put them down like the rabid animals they were. They were even worse than animals. Animals killed to eat and survive. These men did it for pleasure and coin. I’d kill them again in a heartbeat. They didn’t deserve any more of my time. It was time to go after the next group. I got dressed and put on my sword again. All of my other gear was still being stored in Morigans storage item. After making sure I had everything on I made my way out of the room and into the dining room. I was the first one there, so I sat down and waited for the maid to come over with some breakfast. After only a few minutes of sitting the maid brought out a plate of food for me. Three eggs with a big slab of ham and toast on the side. It looked wonderful and it tasted just as good. I had been eating for a minute or two when the first of my companions started to appear. They came and sat at the table and the maid brought plates out to them as they appeared. Once we were all assembled Devin went over the plans for the day. “First we need to talk to the mayor and pick up our payment for yesterday. After that we will head for another raider camp. This one is located in the field a few days from here. You may ask how they can so brazenly stay in open sight. The answer is there are more than thirty raiders in this camp. So it would take direct action from the kingdom or the guild to deal with them. We are going to try to thin out their numbers before we make the main assault. First we will scout out the surrounding area and then the camp itself. Then we will decide how to proceed with making the numbers more favorable. I have a few ideas but that can wait until we have finished scouting out the area. Let’s head to the mayor's office.” We finished up our breakfast and then made our way over to the mayor’s office. When we got there the mayor was waiting to meet us. “You have taken out one of the raider hideouts. So here is the first part of the bounty. I’ll pay you for each group and there will be a bonus if you can take all of them out.” He handed Devin a bag of coins which he then handed to Morigan. Once they were in her hand they seemed to disappear. The mayor was a little surprised but said nothing. We left the office and headed for the raider camp. We walked out of the city gates. We walked until midday and then we stopped to have a quick meal. After we ate we continued on until it was time to stop for the night. We set up camp and ate dinner. We also talked about the raiders. We had at least two more bases to clear out including the one we were heading to. There were also a few smaller bands of raiders out here that we wanted to hunt down after we dealt with the bigger groups. These smaller groups wouldn’t be as difficult in a fight but they may be harder to find. A small group of raiders could hide much easier than a group of twenty to thirty. Either way we would find them and put them down. Something had needed to happen to these raiders for a long time. They had been allowed to stay here and flourish for too long. They couldn’t be allowed to come into our kingdom and do whatever they wanted to innocent people. We needed to show any other raiders that might be thinking of coming here that it was a bad idea. We would make an example of these raiders to put fear into all of them.

We went about our routines as normal. Trying to fit in a little training after dinner. We practiced some sword forms and then it was time to stand watch while the others went to bed. We sat up watching the far and chatting silently. Nights on watch were boring but necessary. We couldn’t risk being caught off guard. There were so many raiders out and about and any of them may try to attack us when our guard was down. That was when it happened. An arrow flew by my head and into the fire. We were instantly on alert. We sounded the alarm that we were under attack and within seconds everyone was out of their tents and ready for a fight. Ten armed men approached us from the direction the arrow had come from. They didn’t waste time with words and just attacked us. They must have thought their superior numbers would be enough to turn the tide in their favor. In seconds Charlotte and Morigan had taken three of the men out with a combination of magic and arrows. Devin charged towards the would-be leader and the rest of us made our way towards the men that were still alive. The men were in shock. They thought they could just come here in the middle of the night and kill us all while we were asleep. This would be their last mistake. We cut them down like the animals they were. Devin quickly dispatched the leader and Sora,Adrian and I took out the remainder with no real effort. These couldn’t even be considered raiders.They were little more than common bandits. They looked starved and had terrible equipment. They had no business trying to take on a group like ours. Though greed made people do crazy things.

As the last of the would-be bandits was dealt with everyone regrouped around the fire. We waited for Devin to tell us what he wanted done. “ We will gather the bodies and burn them away from camp. They probably won’t have anything on them worth taking but check anyway. Let's get to work.” With that said we worked in pairs to gather up the bodies and pile them some distance from camp. We then set them on fire using magic and made sure there was nothing left but ash. We went back to camp and every one settled back into their tents and Devin and I continued our watch. Not much time had passed since the beginning of our watch and everyone needed their sleep. We finished up our watch and when it was time to change the watch we went into our tents and went to sleep. I woke up the next day and climbed out of my tent. Breakfast was ready. I went and ate and then it was time to break camp and continue on our path. Those men last night hadn’t been part of tiger raider groups we were hunting down but they still could cause harm to people if we had let them go. It was best that we dealt with them the way we did. They were probably deserters from the military or farmers that had fallen on hard times. Though that was no excuse to turn to banditry. Any one that chose the life of a bandit or raider knew what choice they were making. They were willing to take lives to try to get rich and they knew that in exchange their lives were now forfeit.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

We got everything packed up and ready to go. We headed out back down the road. We still had quite the way to go before we made it to the raider camp. We walked for most of the rest of the day. Only stopping for lunch before continuing on our way. We stopped at night like normal and set up camp once again. Either tomorrow afternoon or early the day after we should be able to reach the raider camp. We did some stretches and sword form practice before eating dinner. After that it was the same thing as usual. Standing watch until it was time for me to get some sleep. The night passed by without issue. No attacks in the middle of the night and nothing else out of the ordinary. We switched places with the next shift on guard duty and went to sleep. The next day was the same as the last. We walked until it was time to have lunch. Then after we ate we walked until we came close to the raiders camp. Devin stopped the group and said. “We will stop here for tonight. Tomorrow we will scout the camp. After we are sure of their numbers we can begin the second part of our plan. We need to thin out their numbers before we try a straight up assault. For now let's relax. We will need to be up early tomorrow morning. We will talk about this more tomorrow. Let's have dinner and then everyone can get some rest.”

We spent the rest of the night relaxing and eating. We had a lot to do tomorrow. The number of raiders was supposed to be around thirty and that was a number we couldn’t just take on in a straight up fight. It was time to stand watch now. Like usual nothing happened and it was soon time for our turn to rest. I went into the tent and went to sleep. I was woken up early the next morning by the smell of bacon cooking. I climbed out of my tent and went over to the fire. I was handed a plate of eggs and bacon with a piece of bread. I ate my breakfast and then started getting ready to go. We took down the camp and got our gear ready. Devin gathered us up to give us the plan for today. “Just like we talked about yesterday we will be scouting out the raider camp. We need an exact number and as much information as we can get. We get as close to the camp as we can without giving ourselves away. For the most part Charlotte will be relied on to do the up close scouting. She’s the one out of all of us that can stay hidden even right under the noses of the raiders. Well let's head out. We have a lot to do.” We got ready quickly and then completed the journey to where the camp was supposed to be.

The first thing that caught our attention was that there were definitely more than thirty raiders in this camp. By what I could see the numbers were probably much closer to one hundred. This was a much bigger group than anyone had thought possible. This group could even attack the villages in the area if that was the plan. The numbers here were very shocking and they wouldn’t be content in just attacking the random farmer. The amount of supplies a group like this would need would require them to take risks and attack the local villages just to get supplies. We had to do something to take down their numbers. We had no way to fight a group of this size. We couldn’t have fought them if it had just been the original thirty, much less a group of one hundred. Devin sent Charlotte in to get a better look while the rest of us went back a fair bit. A group like this would have a lot of guards and they would be on alert for people coming to attack them. It was best that we didn't let them know we were here. So we backed up and waited for a while. She nodded at us and waved for us to make our way back towards camp. We went back to camp and then she told us everything. “I counted ninety six raiders. Of course there could be more that I didn’t see or a few that are away from camp but that is the number I came up with. They have at least eight men standing guard at all times. So getting into the camp would be very difficult. I almost got seen when I snuck a little too close. So direct action doesn’t seem like a good idea. We need to lure small groups off and take them out little by little. They also have a storage building built up to hold all of their supplies as well as a tent that has been set up for their leader. I also saw what appears to be a mess tent where the men gather to have a meal. Other than that it just seems like a normal campsite that any large group might use. I wasn’t able to actually get into the camp so there may be things hidden in the buildings or tent but this should be most of the relevant information.”

Devin looked to be in thought for a moment and then spoke up. “Thank you Charlotte for bringing back so much information. We wouldn’t know half as much information without your help. We are going to need to come up with a plan or multiple plans on how to deal with this group. Otherwise we will have to send word to the guild that we need back up and I don’t want to injure our reputation by not being able to complete a contract on our own. So that will be a worst case scenario. What I think we should do is when they send out small groups to get supplies or to raid the nearby settlements that we ambush these groups to try to even out the numbers. Though this will only work a few times and then they will know they are being hunted and they will start coming after us. When this happens I say we lead whatever group comes after us back to the cave that we just cleared out and turn the hunter into the hunted.” Everyone went back and forth for a while but this did seem to be the best option to even the odds. We needed to thin their ranks and they would eventually know we were out there. Which would cause them to come after us. It would be best to meet them on our own terms and we could set up traps in that cave to help take away their number advantage when they did come for us. We spent the rest of the day going over what we would be doing. We would take turns watching over the raider camp. Then report back if they sent out anyone and then we would set up the ambush. So with a plan set we went to work. This was sure to be an eventful contract.