When Terry and his little group got back to the road they looked both ways but only saw empty road. Opening up his messages he tried to send a message to Izzy, except he got an error message.

Error: the person you are trying to contact is not able to receive messages at this time. Please try again later.

He thought it was odd that she couldn’t receive messages as she was still highlighted in his friends list. He asked the others if they could try sending one but they all got the same message. He tried the others but still got the message.

Opening up his status window he focused on his summonlings tab and was surprised to see that it was empty. Opening up his damage display he scrolled back through it and about an hour before he saw the messages saying his skeletons had been destroyed, within a few minutes of each other.

“Um, guys, I think we may have a problem.” He said as he closed out of his windows and turned in the direction the group would’ve come from.

“It would seem so.” Katar said and looked in the same direction.

“What are you guys talking about?” Gantar asked.

“All my skeletons were destroyed about an hour ago and we can’t send any of the group a message. That means they most likely got attacked while we were hunting.”

“What!”

“Though at least it looks like everyone is still alive at least. Except I’m thinking that that means they were attacked by other intelligent beings. Humans most likely.”

“That’s not good.” Tabitha whispered.

“No, no it’s not. Come on, we better hurry if we want to try and catch up to them before it gets completely dark.”

“I don’t think that’ll happen.” Katar grimly said.

“I don’t either.” Terry said and started off at a jog.

Everyone followed him and they made their way back along the road. It took them about half an hour before they got to a scene that spoke of an attack. He knew it was from their group as he spied five piles of bones scattered around the area. He went around and resummoned his skeletons and re-equipped them with swords he had in his inventory. They weren’t as good as the ones they had had but they were something.

As he was doing that the others were going around and examining the scene. Spike was sniffing around and then bolted off in the direction of a far-off tree line.

“Spike!” He yelled at the animal.

Spike stopped and turned around and then looked back in the direction he had been heading. Like he wanted to say that they had to hurry.

“Just wait up for us.” Terry said and they all started off after Spike.

Spike led them to the tree line and into the trees. Zipping around trees and jumping over fallen ones, Terry and the others were having a hard time keeping up, especially Tabitha and the skeletons.

“Spike, slow down. We don’t want to rush into an ambush.”

At that Spike slowed down a bit but was still going at a fast jog. After what felt like hours but was only about twenty minutes they came to a trailer park. It was encircled by trees and looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Terry counted over two dozen trailers that were still standing and even more that were over turned or destroyed.

Spike stopped just inside the tree line and waited for the others to catch up. Terry didn’t see anything right away but he could hear faint voices. There was a trailer about a dozen feet from the tree line and the group and an idea started to form in Terry’s mind.

“Tabitha, take Gantar and lift him up onto that trailer. Gantar when you get up there lay on your stomach and see what’s around.”

They both nodded and moved over to the trailer as quietly as they could. Tabitha lifted Gantar up onto the trailer and he belly crawled over to the edge and looked over.

After a few moments Terry received a message.

I see a large fire burning and there’s over twenty people around it. I also see what seems to be cages with people and animals in them. They don’t seem to be paying any attention over this way either. I don’t see any lookouts though they could be hidden around.

Closing out of the message, Terry looked around and saw that there was an open path towards the middle and the fire that curved around some trailers. Opening his messages up again he was about to send one to Tabitha but then looked and saw that the one Gantar had sent was a group message with the others added into it.

Tabitha, take Gantar and move him closer to the fire along the path. Katar and I will go around and try and flank them. I’ll leave two of my skeletons with you guys.

He received affirmatives from the others. He turned as Tabitha reached up and got Gantar and then he led Katar back into the woods with Spike right beside him. They made it about a hundred yards before Spike let out a soft low growl and the two men stopped in their tracks and hunkered down. The fire was to their left and let just enough light to see well enough but not so much as to expose them. In front of them about five yards were two men that were whispering and one of them was leaning against a tree.

Terry tilted his head and listened to what they were saying but the sound from the group by the fire drowned them out. Good he thought, less chance they would alert the others. He was just about to draw his sword when Katar put his hand on Terry’s arm and stopped him. He motioned that he would sneak around and take them out with Spike. Terry nodded and watched as the elf all but disappeared after about three steps and Spike slunk after him.

It didn’t take them long to take care of the sentries and Terry quickly made his way to them. After looting them he stuffed them in his inventory and they turned to look towards the fire.

“You smell anyone else Spike?” Terry whispered to his pet.

Spike lifted his head and took a long inhale before dipping his head and then started off again.

“I guess so.” He said to Katar and they moved off in the direction Spike had went.

They made their way around the trailer park and stopped when Spike let out a soft growl. Up ahead of them there were two more men standing against a tree and smoking while barely paying attention. It would be their undoing as Katar and Spike moved silently through the trees and brush before pouncing on them with barely a rustle.

Terry moved forward and looted the body Spike had taken care of and then shoved both into his inventory, then moved to join the others. They were now on the other side of the park and had a fairly good view of the fire and the captors. There were two dozen cages that Terry counted and at least twice that many people milling around the fire. He could see people in some cages and animals in others, though he didn’t recognize anyone or anything in them.

Luckily the cages weren’t in the firelight so Terry and Katar moved towards them thinking they might be able to free them without fighting. As they made their way over, Terry sent a message out to the others about what they were going to try and do.

The pair got to the edge of the trees and before going out there Terry focused on one of the people around the fire and tried to inspect them. It showed the person as a level one. He inspected a few more and found they were the same or around it, give or take a level or two. If most of the group was below level five, like his they might be able to handle them, as he doubted they would want to die.

Taking a moment to think Terry stopped and looked around the area. He wasn’t sure if the people would give him up or if the animals would make enough noise for someone to come check. He mostly just wanted to get his people and get out of there.

Taking a breath in he made up his mind. Sending a quick note to Gantar and Tabitha to make their way towards them but leave the skeletons where they were. He then sent the ones with him back out into the woods and had them move up further. He hoped there would be enough noise to cover their little trek but he needn’t have worried as the group around the fire was more interested in drinking and partying than paying attention to the woods.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

It didn’t take Gantar and Tabitha long to make their way to him and Katar. Tabitha had switched to her non-combat form and was easily able to move around silently. Which for some reason surprised Terry. Once the four of them were together again he explained his plan.

“Okay, what I’m going to do is send in the two groups of skeletons and attack the group at two different points, most of these people I’m hoping are below level five, so they should be easy to deal with. While they distract the fighters and we’ll moved to the cages and try and free anyone we can. But mostly keep an eye out for our people.”

“But if you attack from that direction, won’t that possibly push the non-combatants this way?”

“Hmm, possibly, though I’m hoping they’ll go more that way” he pointed the way they had come, “rather than go towards the cages. But we’ll just have to keep an eye out just in case.”

The four of them moved quietly to the cages and each one took a different cage. As they moved closer to them the people inside started making noise.

“Shhhh, we’re here to get you out.”

That quieted them down but there was still some murmuring around as the word spread.

“Spike, you’ll be on look out. Anyone comes this way, you take care of them, got it?”

Spike snorted and crouched low at the edge of the cages. With that Terry ordered his skeletons to move in and attack.

It only took about ten seconds before they heard a scream followed by another and another. Soon they could see the fire group start to panic and move away from the attacks and start to flee into the woods.

As the group started to move, Terry went up to his cage and slid his dagger into the chain links that held the door and twisted, snapping them. Pulling the chain out he swung the door open and the people inside rushed out and started running away. Gee you’re welcome, he thought as he quickly moved to the next cage.

The operation was going smoothly as the four of them broke open cage after cage. He kept an eye on his skeletons and they were doing surprisingly well, though he couldn’t see what they were up against. He did hear Spike chewing on something but he ignored it and kept moving.

Coming up to a cage in the middle he moved up to break the chain.

“Terry, is that you?”

“Izzy?”

“Yeah. What the hell took you so long?”

“We had to make a little pit stop.” He laughed at his little joke.

“It’s not funny. Just get us out of here.”

“You’re right, sorry.” He quickly busted the chain and opened the door.

Izzy, Tamara, Susan and Bradley stepped out. “Where’s the rest?”

“They’re around here somewhere. The only one I didn’t see with us was Sam.”

“Shit, she probably smarted off to the leader or something and they’re doing things to her.”

He pulled out some of his spare weapons and handed them to the four, “Can you guys help busting the cages open? I’m going to help Spike keep an eye out.”

Just as he was moving away from the four, he looked at his display and saw that he had lost four of his five skeletons. Moving over to where Spike was he looked out at the fire. There were four people still attacking his last skeleton, and it was holding its own. He saw five more people moving from where the other group had attacked and he knew the last one wouldn’t last much longer once they got there.

Turning away from the scene he quickly dropped five human bodies on the ground and five kobold ones. He cast summon skeleton on the first human body and while that one was on cool down he cast summon bone weapon on the first kobold body. Alternating between the two he had his five skeletons back and weapons for them in less than two minutes.

When he looked back at the fighters they were looking around before someone came running out of the woods. The person stopped at the piles of bones then ran up to the group of nine and gestured towards the cages. The nine turned and looked as one at the cages before starting to jog towards them.

Terry looked back to see how his people were doing and from what he could see they were almost done. He looked back at the group coming towards him and he moved out in front of the cages, with his skeletons staying behind, but Spike moved along with him. He moved to just inside the firelight so the group could see him. When they did they stopped and raised their weapons.

“Stop right there.” Terry shouted.

“And who do you think you are, attacking innocent people?” A man said as he stepped out in front of the others.

He was medium height, maybe five foot eight or nine, with long black hair and leather jacket and pants. He held a machete in his right hand and a cleaver in his left. As Terry looked at him, he could just feel that this wasn’t a nice guy and that he should just kill him where he stood.

“You attacked my group first. I’m just here to get them back.”

The person who had ran up to the group from the woods was standing behind the others but at Terry’s words, moved up behind the leader and whispered something to him.

“Well, well, well Terry, it looks like tonight just isn’t your night then.”

Terry leveled his eyes at the man. “I think you have it backwards. I’ll let you live if you let me and my group leave in peace.”

The person behind the man whispered something again.

“Ah, but I was just about to have some fun with Izzy and Tamara. They seemed like women who would need a strong… hand, to compel them.”

“You’re just lucky you didn’t do anything to them already, otherwise you would already be dead.”

The man took a step forward and held his weapons out to his sides. “Come and let’s see who will be dead.”

The person behind the man stepped back and behind the rest of the group as Terry took a step forward and gripped his sword. “Fine by me, the world can use one less asshole like you.”

The two men stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move first. As they were doing their stare down, Terry subtly cast his leech link and linked to his five skeletons. The man must have sensed he did something as just after the ability was finished he rushed at Terry.

As the man moved forward, Terry cast leech life level one on him slowing him down to a slow jog. Terry then moved forward and as he did so he cast cleave and swung his sword horizontally and saw an arch of death energy leave his sword and make its way to the man, hitting him square in the chest.

Cleave knocked the man back a step and took a good chunk of his health as well. Terry got to the man just as he was recovering from the attack. The man swung his machete at Terry’s neck but it was blocked by his sword. As Terry blocked the machete the man swung his cleaver at his stomach and he had to jump back to avoid getting gutted by it.

“Not too bad… for a dead man.” Terry taunted.

The man snarled and then started to glow red as he crossed his weapons. Thinking fast Terry cast a lightning bolt at the man and struck his crossed weapons and blew him back five feet. His glow stopped. Terry then rushed forward and tried to stab the man but he rolled out of the way and swung his machete down, which made Terry jump back.

The man rolled up and looked around at his people. “What are you waiting for, get him.”

With that the rest of the man’s group surged forward. Terry was almost caught by surprise; except he was expecting him to do something like that. As the group moved forward, Spike was the first to bound into them and latch his jaws around the closest persons leg. Just as Spike did that Terry cast rush on the foremost person and in an instant his skeletons were there and struck down the man and then turned to look for other targets.

As soon as the skeletons rushed the one man, Terry was already casting leech life level two on the center of the group, slowing them down. The two people on the outside on the left of Terry weren’t affected and they moved towards him. Terry thought about using cleave but didn’t want to hit his skeletons or Spike, so he moved forward to meet the two attackers.

The first one swung his weapon down and Terry side stepped it and then punched the man in the stomach, doubling him over before bringing his knee up to meet the man’s face, knocking him onto his back. The second one, after seeing Terry deal with the other man so easily, turned to flee, but Terry plunged his sword into the downed man and then duel cast lightning bolt. The fleeing man was struck by the spell and knocked forward, paralyzed.

Yanking his sword from the one man Terry moved to the other and stabbed down, killing him as well. Turning to see how the others were doing he saw Spike was chewing on one while another had quills sticking out of their face and chest. His skeletons were mopping up the ones they had killed. Terry moved back to the little group and looked at the long-haired man and the person who had whispered to him.

As he came to front and center he saw who the person was, it was Sam. “Well Sam, it looks like you picked the wrong side.” Terry said as he cast leech life level two. Sam and the man were both caught in it but Sam tried to turn and flee as the man moved forward. “Spike, fetch.”

Spike dropped what he was chewing and bolted forward, ramming into Sam and knocking her down before standing over her and growling. Terry side stepped the man’s weak swings and punched him in the stomach before kicking him in the back of the knees, bringing him down. “I told you, you could live if you just let me and my group go.” He whispered in the man’s ear before skewering the man, killing him.

Terry turned and looked at the carnage around him. He laughed at the thought that just a few weeks ago this would have disturbed him even more so than it did now. Izzy and the rest of his group were walking towards him. When they got to him, Izzy and Tamara looked at who Spike had pinned down.

“Well, I’d be.” Tamara said as she walked around Spike. “Ye should’a known that Terry would’a come for us and kill andy’one who got in his way.”

“Yeah, I should’ve known it was you. So, what are we going to do with her?”

“Nothing.”

The two women turned and looked at him in shock.

“What do you mean, nothing.”

“I mean, she wanted out of our group, she got out of our group. She’s exiled.”

The two women looked at him but then their faces softened. “That’s almost worse than just killing her.”

“It is but maybe it’ll teach her not to betray people who were nice to her.”

“Nice! Ha. You people hated me from the beginning.” Sam shouted at them from her position beneath Spike.

Spike growled at her words. “We might not have liked you, but none of us would have betrayed you. Your attitude just sucked. So maybe being alone will help you adjust it.” Terry almost pitied her, almost. You betray him and his friends, you pay for it. “Come on, let’s go before anyone or anything shows up.”

He then turned but then stopped and turned back. Sam got a little smile on her face as she thought he might have changed his mind. “Almost forgot.” He bent down and stowed all the bodies in his special inventory. “Now we can go.”

The group turned and started walking away with Spike still standing over Sam. They made it to the woods before they heard one last growl and bark before Spike came bounding up to be beside Terry. None of them looked back as they made their way into the woods.