With the activation of [Flash Stride], William appeared behind the two archers, sweeping Sharpie down with a use of [Vortex Slash]. The cut started halfway up the left man’s torso, cleaving cleanly through the first man and severing the lower right leg of the second Archer. Blood and Viscera showered him as the freshly made corpse fountained it’s body’s contents out in every direction. The second Archer hit the ground in a scream, writhing in agony. His bow was forgotten as both hands were clamped around the stump of his lower leg. William danced back from the thrusts of the two Fighters who responded quickly to the assault. The Fighter to William’s right did a double thrust with his spear, forcing William to block both blows. The effort however, exposed his left side to the thrust of the other fighter.

Fortunately for William, he was able to block the spear, making it glance away from his torso that had been the original target, but felt it slash a half inch deep into William’s shoulder instead. That was when his party’s attacks hit.

Two [Fire-Bolt] beams impacted the backs of the two fighters, setting their garb alight. The metal of their chain mail cuirass would heat up quickly. The main benefit of the surprise attacks came from the kinetic force making the two fighters stumble forward just enough for their spears to lower by a couple of inches. William thrust Sharpie straight into the throat of the left most Fighter just in time for a blur of motion in the form of Maya to appear to the right of the remaining Fighter and plunge her dagger into his skull.

The two bodies hit the ground at the same time, their armor clanging against the dirt and leaves. The sound of nature would have returned to William’s ears if not for the pained groans and moans of the one remaining soldier. William’s party assembled around the injured man who eyed them all with disdain as his plight continued. William commanded Echo to act as a lookout as William attempted to get the information that he desired.

“Where’s the rest of your troop? Are they north of here?” William asked, giving a cold glare to the wounded soldier.

“They’ll… be up your arse… soon enough!” The soldier replied, baleful disdain carried in his voice.

Despite the seriousness of the threat and the hate in his enemy’s heart, William burst out laughing. It was a good retort. William took hold of his emotions and calmed his laugh, returning to some semblance of composure.

“John, Maya, hold his arms down away from his leg,” William said, keeping his eyes on those of his foe.

The soldier tried to shuffle away, but moments later, found his arms out to his sides beneath the grasp of William’s companions.

“W-what’re you d-doing?!” the soldier replied, his voice full of fear.

“Gaining information.”

William wiped Sharpie off on his sleeve and stored it away, moving his free hand to one of the daggers at his side. William crouched down and took a firm grip of the soldier’s bleeding leg and jammed the dagger into the wound. He began to slowly twist it left to right. John grimaced, Maya looked mostly indifferent, bar a slight twitch of her brow. Stacey and Jane turned to look away as the man screamed, wailed, and howled in agony.

“Okayy! Okay! I’ll tell you!”

William pulled the dagger out of the meat of the soldier’s leg, nodding to his friends who let go of the man. He was dry crying from the pain as his hands found his wound once more and pressed tightly on it.

“Our main troop… is about twenty miles… north. Near a small village.” The soldier said, looking at the severed part of his leg laying on the floor a couple feet away.

William paled and it was all he could do not to rip the man’s head off and sprint back to Greenwell. He was barely able to maintain his composure. To his surprise, the others had managed to restrain themselves too.

“Did the town have wooden defenses around it?”

The soldier gave an affirming nod, seeming to save his words for the more complex of answers if needed.

“What’ve you done to the town?” William asked, struggling to keep his growing anger in check.

“We… captured the people, though a couple tried to run and were… cut down.”

William went ice cold, his anger put on hold as fear fought to rise to the surface.

“How many?”

“Two… just two?”

“Just two. Just two of his people.” William thought, struggling more than ever to control his emotions.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Were they older looking people?”

The soldier shook his head and replied, “Both young.”

Relief shot through William. The fact that his mother and Wallace were older, implied that they still lived.

“Do you hurt your captives?”

“Only when they… disobey?”

William could see that the soldier was growing more pallid and sickly in complexion. He wouldn’t last much longer. He could get Jane to heal him, but it would be a waste of MP.

“How many of you are there?” William asked, hoping it wasn’t an entire army.

The solider chuckled low.

“Fifty, well… forty six now I suppose… once I die. We’re all nearly level twenty, and three of our troop including our… commander are all over level twenty. You lot are fucked.”

The soldier said no more, closing his eyes and laying down on the dirt in anticipation of his demise. William stuck the dagger he still held into the man’s neck, eliciting a short gurgle before a final gasp of escaped air signaled the man’s end.

The sound of Jane’s trembling voice broke a short silence as she tended to William’s shoulder wound.

“William. What’re we gonna do? Mum’s in danger!”

William had no clue. Forty six soldiers around level twenty or over was impossible for their group to fight, let alone the ones over that level. Worse, the hills around Greenwell had next to no cover besides the odd brush or tiny stands of trees. Worse, William only had one hundred Grit after the recent kills, meaning he couldn’t use his abilities from that job more than once for decent effect, though that would still be of use once they formed a plan. William was annoyed that he didn’t get much Grit for human kills, but it was what it was in the end.

William took a few minutes to think of a way forward and come up with a rough shell of an idea.

“I think we need a better look, but we won’t be able to do it at day time. The best bet for gathering info would be me and Echo sneaking a peak tonight and then going from there.”

Jane shook her head in dismay and replied, “We don’t have time. They have her captive. She needs us, William.”

William raised his hands in a placating manner.

“Rushing in won’t help us. They have her and the others captive, yes, but that means they haven’t outright slaughtered everyone. It’ll mean another night in custody for mum and the others, but I can’t see another option. You got any ideas? If they’re better than mine, I’d like to hear them, because mine is the best I could conjure.”

Jane fell silent, her eyes trained at the ground beneath them. She was deep in thought, but after several minutes, she shook her head.

“Okay, we’ll if no one else has anything to suggest, let’s go with my plan. We can’t rely on others to help, so it’s just us. Until then, we should carry on like normal and find somewhere sheltered in the woodland where we can work from.”

“Won’t they come looking for their patrol, man?” John asked, glancing towards the north.

William looked in the same direction, considering John’s point. The missing squad would be a problem. They couldn’t do much about it for now so the only thing William could think to do was store the corpses of the four men and their gear in his Spatial Ring.

“I’ll store the bodies and hide the evidence that way. If they find no bodies, maybe they’ll send out search parties. That’d thin the herd at Greenwell somewhat, making our job easier. Let’s get moving and find a good spot to set up,” William said, stopping as he saw the severed leg of the soldier they interrogated.

William willed Echo to come down and eat a few pieces off the top of the leg. His friends grimaced as Echo squeaked happily, his tongue cleaning the blood from his little snout. Echo flew off to continue his original task after a rewarding head scratch from William.

“William? What the hell was that?” Jane asked, staring at the now chewed chunk of leg.

“We’ll leave the leg here to fuck with any search parties,” William replied, shrugging his nonchalance.

“What? How would that help?”

William let out a quiet sigh, but replied, “Squad goes missing. Search party leaves base to find aforementioned squad. Search party find chewed remains of a soldier’s leg. Guards start searching for beasts in area. That’s the gist anyway.”

William nodded and started walking, the others following. William was initially a little annoyed at Jane’s moaning, but she was worried, so he let it be. He was also worried, but had made a bunch of mistakes since coming to GAEA so wasn’t going to rush in and make another one that was near enough suicidal.

He knew Jane probably realized how she was coming off as he noticed her staring off to the left seeming to be deep in her own thoughts. He hoped that this disaster would end with their victory and fellow villagers’ safety and Jane could relax more.

They walked for a couple more hours, killing the odd Lynx that crossed their path, amongst other forest creatures that attacked. By the end of it, William had three hundred Grit. He was happy that the gain came without having to stray from his plan. Eventually, the group found a particularly thick area of trees where the roots and branches started to overlap. There was a small gap big enough for them to crawl through behind two large bushes on the outside. William crawled inside first and found a small, roughly three meter wide space of dirt, leaves, and small twigs. They had stumbled on some creature’s den. It would make a great hideout, particularly as it was only a roughly five minute walk away from the clearing near the logging area.

The group took shelter in there with their bonds perched outside in three directions in case anyone approaches. Echo had fallen asleep, finally needing rest after his long time of being awake. They didn’t want to burn to death so fire was out of the question, but Echo was comfortable enough lying on the twigs. William still found it interesting how he didn’t sleep like bats, even though he looked very close by comparison. Not that he minded. The little guy was quite cute to look at.

“I’m sorry, William, about my behavior earlier,” Jane said, looking at her feet as she leaned on John’s shoulder.

“I know, sis. I get it. We’ll sort this out though.”

Jane nodded and the group started spitballing ideas depending on the circumstances of what William and Echo found later on. Unfortunately, those discussions failed to bear fruit and before long, evening loomed. That was William’s cue to start moving. It would take a short while to get back to Greenwell, but he would have a few hours to get the lay of the land before he needed to head back to his friends.

William kissed Stacey goodbye, and shared less romantic goodbyes with the others as he and Echo crawled out from their hideout.

“Okay buddy, let’s go see how fucked we are.”

Echo squeaked excitedly a couple times and took off into the air.