The evening after Backhand Blow was ambushed…

Alula could still taste blood in his mouth, even after many hours since the conclusion of the ambush. He had been one of the ‘lucky’ few who had survived Captain Lydon’s push, with over half of the men perishing before they made it to the forest. In the forest itself, archers were still present and they presented a great danger for those who were trying to get away from their enemies. Some continued onwards in what could only be described as ‘battle-frenzy’, others tried to retreat back the way they came, while those who were spent, simply dropped their weapons and sat down.

Alula was part of the latter group, seeing no chance at victory and thus ceasing his futile resistance, and relying on his background to save him from the fate some of the others would most likely suffer. He was correct in this estimation, as every high-ranking officer of the band, who were all from the Novak Duchy, had already been taken away, heading down the road towards their homeland. Alula couldn’t be sure exactly who had survived this day, but he was sure that Captain Lydon did. He had killed six enemies before he was eventually subdued, losing a hand in the process.

The enemy must have known who he was, as they did not fight him with the intention of killing him, but rather to capture him. It is much more difficult to fight an opponent with that intent, and Lydon was no fool, and exploited this fact as much as possible, making the enemy pay dearly with their lives before he was overwhelmed.

The enemy knew he was not from the hinterlands, hailing from Tulia to the east, and so did not include him in the batch of prisoners that were sent to the Novak Duchy. What they wanted with him he did not know, but whatever it was couldn’t be good for him. He served loyally in the band, believing in the leadership of Captain Lydon, but now that the band was destroyed he was left adrift, with no certainty in regards to his future.

His worrying was interrupted by a rough kick to his rear, an uncomfortable feeling as the boot that delivered it was armored. He looked up from where he was sitting with some of his fellow mercenary prisoners, and saw one of the Novakian man-at-arms, who shouted at him to get up. He chose the path of least resistance, understanding that a prisoner had no room to complain about his treatment.

He was roughly led towards the Backhand blow command tent, which had been appropriated from their own baggage train. Almost every face that he saw as he entered it was foreign to him, all except one.

“TRAITOR!” Alula shouted, surprised by the vehemence in his voice. But how could he not be incensed at seeing one of the men that he recruited, standing deferentially in the command tent of the band’s enemies. His outburst earned him a punch to the gut, which while still armored, did little to decrease the pain he felt from the blow.

“Is that the man?” Asked the noble who was occupying Lydon’s old desk, looking at Baruk, a mercenary that Alula had recruited personally.

“Yes, my lord” Baruk answered, remaining respectful and looking at Alula’s pained face without any shame.

The noble gestured to the stool that was prepared only two paces away from his desk, which was an order for Alula to be brought to sit on it. The men-at-arms did just that, and after Alula recovered slightly from the pain, he found himself sitting close to the noble who was no doubt the organizer of the band’s ambush.

“You are the recruiter Alula?” Asked the noble, indicating he knew more than he let on.

“And what if I am?” Alula responded to the noble’s question with one of his own, which made the atmosphere in the tent turn even more hostile.

“Then I would have a proposition for you” the noble answered, ignoring the rudeness shown to him by a commoner.

“And why would I want to hear such a thing from my enemy?” Alula asked provocatively, expecting another punishment for his words. He could see one of the guards that stood behind him getting ready to deliver another punch, but it was stopped only moments away from his ribs by the noble, who raised his hand.

“Why do you assume that you are my enemy Alula? Lydon Novak and his band of rebels are Duke Novak’s enemies, when it comes to men like you, who are not from the hinterlands, the question of whether you are enemy or not remains unanswered” The noble explained, giving Alula a semblance of hope.

“I am not sure if the Duke would see it that way, I’m sure you are aware of what the band’s objectives were. After our defeat, all that awaits us are shackles, or even a noose” Alula replied, not believing there was any hope for himself.

“That remains true for those who are out there, freezing in their own shit…” The noble clarified. “...You however, are blessed as you have a function that none of those present here can fulfill…” He stated, but to Alula it all just sounded like gibberish.

“And what pray tell, can a man such as myself do for a Novakian noble?” Alula snidely asked, thinking that all this pompous man wanted was more dirt on Lydon.

“Before we get to specifics, it is clear you require some additional information before you can make a decision. Firstly, I am not from the Novak Duchy; I am Baron Cadmar Ingen from Sipon in the Kingdom of Hessia” Barom Cadmar introduced himself, surprising Alula with his identity.

“I was unaware the band had made enemies among your country’s nobles” Alula stated, thinking that the upper-leadership of the band had kept some information from him.

“Your band as a whole is not the enemy of my liege, it is a man who is one of your squad-leaders that we have unresolved business with” Baron Cadmar corrected, surprising Alula even more.

“You attacked us just so you could apprehend one man?” Alula questioned in disbelief, already running through the squad-leaders in the band to pick out who it was that brought this misery upon himself and all of his brothers.

“I suppose that is one way of saying it. The ambush only accomplished the goals of one of the two parties that collaborated in it, as the man we are searching for escaped in the opposite direction from where your Captain led his breakout. I lost four good men trying to stop him, but my personal guard was killed within minutes, which is a complication I was not expecting. He led his seven remaining men to the forest, and we will be sending out search parties at dawn to begin the hunt” Baron Cadmar informed Alula of his predicament, with vehemence in his voice.

“So…you want me to participate in the search? Why not some of the others who are well-enough to participate as well?” Alula asked, still not understanding why he was chosen in particular.

“It is because you are the man who recruited him, and as such would recognize him should he choose to change his appearance. If I brought in the others, their numbers would give them ideas I’d rather not deal with, as such you were chosen for this task. If the search is successful, then you will be free to go, a privilege the other mercenaries will not have” Baron Cadmar made his offer, and the information he gave narrowed down the list of suspects in his mind, as he had not recruited all of them. He had seen some squad-leaders fall in battle, others were taken away earlier to the Novak Duchy, and even more were captives of the baron.

After mentally checking off every man he could, only one was left unaccounted for in his mind. The others in the tent thought he was deliberating on whether to accept the Baron’s offer, but Alula had already decided to accept when he came into the tent. He was a mercenary, and after the band had been destroyed he no longer felt like he should lay down his own life for someone who had clearly escaped the battle unharmed.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I’ll do it, if it is Lev you are searching for then I’m confident I can find him” Alula stated resolutely, pleasing Baron Cadmar.

***

The cleanup of the bandit camp lasted well past the morning of the following day, an arduous task that was surprisingly not accompanied by grumbling from his squad, something that was almost customary. The fire was fed fuel constantly, as no one wanted to be stuck all the way out here in the cold; The workhorse that pulled the wagon they originally followed to find the camp was fed as well, as they would need it to remain strong and energized to carry all the loot they would sell. The bodies of the bandits were not buried, as the ground had hardened too much, making the difficult digging of graves even more so, and as such they were just tossed in a pile downwind from the camp.

The armor that they wore was gathered in their storage area, where many things that Fisk thought were worth bringing were stored as well. His estimates for how much the stuff the bandits had robbed grew over time, and by the end of it, the wagon looked like it was carrying more than one work horse would be able to bear. I made Fisk cut down our haul, discarding things that took up a lot of room, and were cheap by comparison.

There were planks of wood which while of decent quality, were not worth bringing with us. Foodstuffs were the priority, as if we could pick up a decent amount that would save us some expenses in the future. The armor and weapons were something we definitely would be taking with us, as even in their worn state, they were made of metals which could be melted down and used by blacksmiths for other purposes. The swords that were repaired in ‘Hawa’s’ smithy looked freshly forged, and had not seen any use as we managed to stealthily kill ten out of the eleven bandits.

Those could be sold quite easily according to Fisk, and when it came to such things all of us trusted his judgment more than our own. I didn’t want to stay in this area for too long, in case the now-dead bandits had any friends, and we set off at a slower pace towards the North, choosing to not return to Zelan in case someone would recognize the wagon which had departed it only a few days ago.

The one who was the happiest with the results of our raid was Castos, who finally had bows and arrows to use, something that would come in handy once the spring returned. We decided to keep four of them, and all of the arrows that the bandits had stocked up on. From the dried meat we found among their supplies, it was clear the bandits were hunting too. The preliminary plan was to sell almost everything, including the wagon and the horse in Renia.

After that I was planning for all of us to head North-East, traveling along The Ballyr Sea. We would end up in Rypus, a place that had a nice balance of being sufficiently far North to have temperate winters, having a reasonably-large population, and at the same time: not be in a desert. Fisk bargained so hard that we didn’t manage to sell everything in one day, so our stay in Renia was extended to two. Fisk brought in over fifty golds of local mint in return for everything but the necessary food, and one of the swords.

The sword in question was the one that the only awake bandit used against Dorian, and sported a noble’s coat of arms on the pommel. The armor that Kurt and Opie now wore bore the same branding, and they had chosen to sell off their own armor in Renia as this noble’s had better quality. The danger of someone questioning why this armor was used existed, but they assured me that their current pauldrons would cover it up.

The first order of business, now that we had some funds, was to make our way to Ballir, where I wanted to use the money to get all of us a uniform set of good armor, perhaps based on the one’s Kurt and Opie were so giddy about. Our journey was routine, with us not moving too quickly, choosing instead to camp early each evening to train our swordsmanship, and get some of us capable with bows with Castos’ instruction.

I required all of us to begin training physically using the exercises all of them were familiar with, as I had kept up with my push-ups, sit-ups, etc. for as long as they have known me. Some didn’t see it as necessary, but their opposition was due to laziness, not some valid reason, and as such they agreed once I told them about the other part of the changes I was making, presenting them as related.

Fisk and Cameron, the two who had the best ability to look ahead, did not seem to think that improving the quality of the food we would eat was a necessary expense. Fisk even thought that I was letting the success of our first and only raid get to my head, cautioning me to spend less money while we had it, just in case something unexpected were to happen. I agreed with them in principle, but in this instance having better nutrition would be necessary if our armed forces were to be superior to any enemies.

Better food would improve our overall strength and endurance, while doing wonders for morale that the other bands and armies were lacking. Eating the slop that we were used to in Backhand Blow was sufficient, but it wasn’t providing the things our bodies actually needed to support the muscles that soldiers needed. They provided enough calories, but they weren’t the ‘right’ kind of calories, mainly carbs. Since they didn’t even know what a ‘calorie’ was I had to explain it to them in simpler terms: our body needs meat and vegetables, in addition to the food we were already eating, with perhaps more salt and seasoning.

Salt and seasoning were expensive, which was the main reason they were so opposed to my suggestion. But the others who did not understand just how much money I wanted to use for our food only had the thought of better food on their plates, and supported my decision unanimously. That was until I informed them that we would only provide such things to those who trained just like I did, and although Castos and Dorian agreed without question, Edmund followed shortly after, the others spent one evening looking at our much better food with jealousy before joining our training the following day.

By the time we could see the familiar place where the band had camped two months’ ago, everyone was already stronger and happier, although our funds were only half of what they were before. I brought Cameron, Fisk, Kurt, and Opie with me into the city of Rypus, where we made our way to a blacksmith. The man examined Kurt’s and Opie’s armor with a professional eye, and reaffirmed their views on its superiority. He quoted us an extravagant price of 13 gold coins for just one set, but Fisk managed to whittle him down to 9 with the promise of future business. We ordered two sets right then and there, paying half of the money as a deposit, and he told us to return in a few days when he would be done with it.

We spent the time camping outside of the city to save some money, which the others were not entirely happy with but accepted with the knowledge of how expensive the armor we ordered actually was. Before long, Cameron and Fisk were outfitted in similar armor, but now we had to earn enough money to get the rest of us in the same set of armor. I wanted a set for myself as well, but slightly modified to give greater freedom of movement with my two swords, but my current set would do me just fine until the rest had better protection.

We used the same exact method for locating a bandit hideout, and found one in the forests to the North-East of Rypus. This one had more people in it though, we couldn’t be sure for sure as the base was located in a cave, with a watchman posted at the entrance. We counted at least fifteen different looking men, some of whom were either in the city or watching the road from Rypus to Lagon. The larger numbers worried me greatly, so we decided on a plan to kill a few outside of the camp while they were making a supply run.

Their supplies were gathered in a set of villages that were North of Rypus, from what Cameron found out by asking around, the villages paid a ‘protection fee’ to the bandits that lived in the forests, and in return they were not raided by them. Since they didn’t actually have that much money, this fee was in the form of food and some fodder for the two horses that pulled the bandit’s wagons. Whether this ‘protection’ was worth anything we couldn’t say, but most likely the villagers just wanted to have peace, and they were willing to hand over some of their harvest if they could be left undisturbed.

Our scouting mission was much longer, and we managed to spot the bandits preparing to head to the villages for resupply, with a route through the forests clearly visible. The man who was acting as the leader of this trip to the villages was killed out of nowhere by Castos’ arrow that pierced his throat. The man made the mistake of not wearing a helmet while they were traveling, and the others likewise only wore armor, with their helmets in the empty wagon.

They didn’t expect to be fighting anyone, perhaps only gearing up to intimidate the villagers, their lack of vigilance was something we took advantage of. With the leader gone, some decided to flee, while others stood their ground and fought us, centering around the body of their dead leader. Only Castos was proficient with the bow, so the rest of us moved in swords drawn, and dispatched the men who defended the supply wagons, while Dorian and I ran after two escaping bandits, as we were the fastest.

We managed to run our swords through their backs at a decent distance from the enemy camp, so there was no chance that they could have heard the commotion. We decided already that we would leave the horses and the wagons here, and come back for them later when we were done with the men who were inside the camp. They must have felt secure in their base, as there was only one lookout in the only entrance, the base being located in a cave on the side of a rocky hill.

I approached the base quietly, before walking up to the guard casually, as if I was meant to be there. I gave him a nice smile, my helmet dangling behind my shoulder. He interpreted the gesture as one of friendliness, and was caught off guard when I took out my short sword and sliced his neck. After securing his body in some bushes nearby, Cameron and Dorian were posted to perform the function of lookouts.

Should anyone approach the base, he’d send Dorian a bit further inside, and then they would ambush whoever came in from two sides in the narrow pathways of the cave. Myself and five others carved out a bloody path inside the cave, and by the end of the carnage there were thirteen dead inside the cave, the lookout in the bushes outside, and five who were part of the resupply group.

We thought there might be more who might be returning, but before we could deal with them another voice came from what I thought was another corpse, chained to the wall.

“Are you going to kill that big bastard now?” It asked me, speaking in a hoarse voice.

That voice caught me unexpectedly, as it was in a sorry state, right next to the dead chained up body of a woman, and some others who I thought were children by their size. Before responding I sheathed my blades, and walked up to give the man some water to drink from my waterskin. After drinking a little, I forced it away, as drinking too much in one attempt might have done the man more harm than good.

“What big bastard?” I asked, asking for clarification.

“Siward, the leader of these ingrates you killed” Stated the chained up man, and after his response I decided this man was not a threat, and began trying to release him. But I couldn’t find the keys that would allow me to do so, so asked the man where the keys were kept. He pointed with his fingers to the dead body of the man who had fought the hardest, and he actually almost killed Edmund before Opie came to his help.

The man indeed had a set of keys around his belt, and I found the right one after fiddling around with them a little. After he was set free, I decided to continue the conversation. I introduced myself as ‘Luzon’ , the name I’d be going by when in front of anyone not part of our core group, and asked him to explain what he knew. He told me about this bandit group, and its leader, who was a very large man, the one who had the keys was apparently his right-hand man. We didn’t see anyone that could match this leader’s description, so the now-free man who was still unsteady on his feet said that he was most likely whoring in Rypus.

We needed some time to decide what it was we were going to be taking from the bandits, so with that knowledge in mind Fisk, Cameron and I began making a plan to ambush him on his return. We weren’t keeping our conversations quiet, so the man who the bandits were keeping prisoner overheard us, and interrupted our conversation.

“I have a debt to Siward that needs to be repaid, if you would lend me a sword and perhaps some of the bandit’s food, you’ll have one more swordsman at your side” The man proposed, and fury in the man’s eyes meant that there wasn’t a chance I’d disagree.