We found the camp pretty easily. It stood out because of the change to the land that the enemy caused. The entire thing looked hastily made, nothing at all like Michael's compound. The dirt looked to be dug up in a ring, one or two feet deep with just a small path left to enter and leave. The removed dirt seemed to have been used to raise the land inside the ring, putting it a couple of inches higher than the surrounding land. The height difference wasn't extreme, but it did present a problem with getting in undetected. To add to the difficulty, there was a wall made from small trees that were cut down and held together with dried mud. The hurried nature of the construction meant that the wall was not uniform at all. The height ranged from close to 8 feet at its tallest to barely 4 feet at the short parts. In general, the camp looked flimsy and would not withstand a full assault from an army, but to our small group, it was practically impenetrable.
Where the path was, stood a hole in the wall that should have probably held a gate. There was no gate or even a door luckily. Unluckily there were guards stationed here to make up for this lack of defense. We could make out a little bit of the camp inside and it looked like it was all makeshift tents covered in leaves.
We studied the camp for a couple of hours before backing off to discuss a potential strategy. “We are not going over that wall,” I said as soon as I was sure we were outside of earshot.
“We can crawl through the ditch,” Dax began to outline his plan.
“I think it’s called a moat.” Heidi interrupted without even a hint of humor.
“I’m pretty sure those are just for castles,” Aiden answered as he looked towards the camp, distracted by Heidi’s outburst.
“Does it even freaking matter?!” I could hear my voice grow a bit louder and my tone deeper. I never was good at hiding annoyance. “As you were saying,” I made a show of slowly looking at Dax.
“I was saying if we approach from the side, we can crawl through the…” Dax paused for a second to think. “We can crawl through the moat, and maybe we can ambush the guards before they can raise the alarm. You and Aiden from one side, and me and Heidi from the other. You and Heidi have more reach with your weapons, and Aiden and I can provide support in case it comes to close combat.”
“What if they scream and alert everyone else?” Aiden looked scared as he spoke, his eyes drifting between the camp and the river we came from. “It would be hard to run away.”
“I don’t think we really have an option here.” I wasn’t a fan of the idea of trying to fight a small army. “Two days ago, I could brag about never being in any fight outside of an online forum!” I felt a pang of fear rising in my core.
“We have to do it.” Heidi looked squarely at me as she spoke, “And I thought you would have noticed as well. There was almost no activity in that camp.”
The conversation went on for a few more minutes before we finally decided to attack at dusk to hopefully gain a little advantage of sneaking around. The next couple of hours passed in almost total silence as we all tried to build up the courage and energy to attack.
As the sun began to go down behind the trees, I watched as Aiden stood and began to check his shield and Warhammer. Dax walked over and got help pulling the straps on his armor tighter as Heidi approached me to ask me to help check her armor. I did what I could, tugging here and there, but I had no idea what I was doing at all. Thankfully Dax had a watch that still worked because he didn’t like pulling his phone out while working construction. Heidi also had one because she would watch the time while working the rides. We synched them up and I took Heidi’s watch so we could both plan to be at the gate at the same time. “I feel very SEAL Team 6 right now,” I thought as I slipped down into the dugout hole.
I glanced at my watch as we stopped just before we could see the opening, “Five minutes.” I whispered back to Aiden, who nodded and hefted his shield to check that it was secure. We pressed our backs against the wall side of the ditch “Moat is definitely for castles only,” The thought annoyed me as soon as it crossed my mind. The watch ticked away what felt like hour-long minutes until the appointed time.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
I rushed around the corner and took aim throwing the weighted end of my dart at the leg closest to me. As my dart flew, I chanced a look over and saw the other guard had fallen but was holding the other end of Heidi’s bo staff. I felt panic grow in my chest as my dart wrapped around the leg of my assigned guard and I pulled as hard as I could. His leg came out from under him, and he fell into the ditch landing face down and driving his beak into the dirt. I jumped on his back while shouting at Aiden. “Help the others!” My dagger was already passing into the first victim of the assault as Aiden scrambled onto the dirt bridge.
I heard a scream of pain coming from the kenku before it was cut short with a wet thump of Aiden’s hammer hitting flesh. I didn’t dare look as I continued to plunge my dagger into the body that lay under me. I felt a hand touch my shoulder and my skin grew wet under the touch. I stopped and looked over at a blood-covered hand and fell off the body, and crab-walked back to the side of the ditch.
Dax stood there, his hand covered in blood and his body looking like a terrifying Jackson Pollock painting. “We need to keep moving, these two are done.” He spoke sternly and I could only nod silently as I use the wall to stand up.
My legs moved with great effort, feeling as though they were made from Jell-O. “This is worse than I imagined. I hate it here so much.” I thought as I climbed onto the dirt bridge with the others, barely fighting back tears and the mental breakdown that threatened to consume me. “Let’s go.” I managed to get out, trying to reassure myself and the others, but only the words came out as more of a quivering whimper.
We entered the camp proper, and there were tents around, and the beginnings of several fires but there was no one at the fires. We stood in the open and could see no one and no movement in the camp other than the shadows from the small flickering flames. “Where is everyone?” Heidi asked quietly as the eerie lack of anything in the camp made the whole group uncomfortable.
Slowly, we walked through the tents checking for signs of anyone who might be hiding. We made it through roughly a third of the tents before a noise made us all jump. Crashing of wood falling to the ground as we saw one lone kenku warrior standing in the middle of the camp. The wood he was carrying from fire to fire silently sprawled on the ground at his feet as he produced two thin swords.
[Quest update: Defeat the camp’s general to claim possession and eliminate the threat of the enemy.]
I moved off to the side as Dax stood directly in front of the general. Aiden went to the other side while Heidi followed me halfway around before stopping to let me take the back. The movement was slow, and the general did his best to watch us as we moved to surround him. Dax was the first to act as the general turned his head to check on me.
A swing down with both of his weapons gave Dax a strong swing, but his attack was deflected with a single sword while the second snaked out and sliced along the side of Dax. Aiden charged forward with this shield held between him and the enemy, providing an opening for Dax to move back, grunting in pain.
A loud crash of metal against metal as the general took Aiden’s charge with his swords crossed in front of himself. I thought this proved a great opening and I threw my chain dart at the general’s legs. I was already enjoying the victory in my head when the enemy stepped sideways, disengaging from Aiden, and letting his forward momentum draw Aiden into the path of my weighted dart. The chain wrapped around Aiden’s legs, and he tripped sliding on the ground and yanking me closer to the melee as he pulled on the chain.
Heidi was already moving as the only standing fighter left. She held her staff like she was a jousting knight in a medieval festival. The attack must have confused the general with its complete lack of skill or finesse because he barely managed to sidestep it. This caused him to stumble over Aiden's prone body. I was still in motion as I saw the birdman staggering towards me, and I raised my dagger in defense. A wet "shuluck” sound was made before a sudden weight landed against me causing me to fall.
[Quest Completed!]
[Hold the base through the night]
The prompt told me what happened when I fell, and yet another quest was given. I struggled in fear and disgust under the weight of the dead body pinning me to the ground until Aiden managed to stand and help me roll it off.
I stood and scanned the surroundings for any more attackers. “No one else has appeared,” Dax grunted as he slowly moved towards the nearest campfire.
Heidi was sliding herself under one of my arms to help me get to the fire as well. “I’m not even the injured one!” I was screaming protest in my mind, but I did enjoy the support, so the argument stayed internal. Aiden followed as we made our way to Dax’s fire, he had managed to grab a few pieces of wood to add as we arrived.
“We got another level,” Dax spoke in a quiet almost monotone as he stared into the flickering flames.