Etz didn’t feel good. He wasn’t sick, but something about sitting here when he could be in the ruins leveling up just felt wrong. He didn’t even care about this Ander guy. Theirs was the largest faction, and wealthier by a large margin. Who cares if this guy got his hands on a few documents? Cormal, obviously. And when Cormal wanted people to sit on their butts outside a cave mouth, that is what people did. Etz sighed, resting his head on his hand as he sat on a rock in front of a random cave. It was so thoroughly boring.
But that was when he saw a glint of gold in the deep blackness of the cave. Etz rubbed his eyes and looked harder, seeing a large and ostentatious key hanging from the waist of a black figure. Etz reached and grabbed his lieutenant's cloak and started to open his mouth, not taking his eyes off the figure.
“It's the black guard!” Someone else spoke as Etz was about to speak, but he didn’t care. It was the black guard. The reward… Etz needed that reward. He couldn’t climb the wall now, but with that reward he could climb the wall to sunlight with no problem. Etz saw people jumping up and grabbing their weapons, but he wasn't going to be preempted again. He was the first into the cave, hearing the cries of the level 25 Cormal had put in charge. He didn’t stop, and soon heard the pounding of dozens of pairs of feet coming up behind him. The figure before him disappeared into the dark, But Etz was not deterred. That key was the key to his success here in the Pit, and Etz would not be denied.
By some miracle, Etz managed to stay in front of the pack, winding through the caves until he was completely lost. Still, he could see the glint of the key in the darkness ahead of him, and that was all that mattered. Suddenly, the Black guard slowed down, allowing Etz to swiftly close the gap. As EtZ prepared to lunge, the floor fell out from beneath him, and he fell. And he fell. And he fell.
. . .
Phase 1 of the plan had gone off without a hitch. The idea that the Black Guard had been spotted was enough to inflame every one of the people standing guard over the entrances. They followed without thought, which was exactly what Ander had been hoping for. Making an intelligent enemy act like a stupid one was difficult, but Ander managed it, and then drew them into the vertical shaft he had found. A full dozen men had fallen in, which was more than Ander had expected by half. But it was now time to start to whittle them down.
Ander ghosted away from the shaft, taking a tunnel that would take him to the side of the stalled army, somewhere about halfway through. It took him only a minute to run the distance, and he hit the side of the army hard. They had a number of torchbearers, and Ander focused on them to reduce their visibility. In the span of three seconds, three torchbearers had been dispatched, and he dashed away down the tunnel. The men chased him down this new tunnel as he fled, hooting and hollering as they followed him to their doom.
Slowly, he whittled down their numbers as he got them more and more lost in the tunnels. After the third attack, the leadership finally got them under control. A quarter of their men had died, and not a scratch had been put on Ander. But now, with them huddled up and listening to orders, Ander couldn’t attack them further.
It did occur to Ander that he could leave this group to find their way back. He could leave, and he would be able to get out without an issue. But Ander simply didn’t want to. These men had been waiting, he could only assume, to kill him. They wanted their stuff back, and were mad about the men he had killed. The problem was, Ander had been in his right to kill the recruiters, as they had been threatening bodily harm. And then when he had tried to be merciful, the man had tried to run to the authorities. And while Ander didn’t believe that there was much that these people could do to him, it would be quite the warning to have them enter the caves and never return. Ander didn’t want more trouble, and he was willing to do what was necessary to make sure that people got the message.
To that end, Ander pulled out a bow. He needed to get these people moving again. Having them huddled up in a cave would not be good for ander in the slightest. Ander loosed one arrow. One man attempted to block with a shield, only for the arrow to veer out of the way due to Ander’s wind control. The arrow took the man behind in the chest, and was followed up by several more repeating shots. Screams and cries exploded from the men in the group, and the leader called a charge. Ander put away his bow, and started to run again, drawing them off into the caves.
Whenever they tried to slow down or run away, Ander punished them for it. Taking a number of men down with his bow shots. He continued that just long enough to force them to turn around and pursue again. Not once did they send anyone out to try to confront Anderand give the rest time to flee. In Ander's opinion it was an obvious strategy that would require the level 25 to take him on directly, if the level 25 was not an apparent coward. Ander sent a few more shots into the group, trying to peg the level 25, but had no such luck. He had killed another dozen like this, and they were getting close to the cave of stalactite pillars he had prepared. This pull should do it.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Ander fled into the stalactite cave, mingling in with the pillars until he was completely hidden. He watched as the group entered the caves warily, trying to pick him out of the shadows of the room. They advanced, but as they advanced they naturally had to move out of the way of the giant pillars, ruining their formation. They should have remained at the entrance, but they were so frustrated about being killed one by one with arrows from the darkness, that they spread out to try to find him.
Which was just fine by Ander. One didn’t have to be very sneaky to skulk around a poorly lit cave, especially with emotions so high. One man was shouting, his face red with rage, as he swung his sword and torch at dancing shadows. More men were huddled together near the cave entrance, fearfully brandishing weapons in all directions. It was this group Ander targeted first. He leapt at the group from high on one of the stalactite pillars, plating his feet into one of their chests to break his fall. He held his sword high and swung it down to decapitate the one he was standing on. Meanwhile the other men were screaming and running deeper into the stalactite forest.
Without warning, a man flashed into Ander’s wind sense, coming at him at very high speeds. Ander dodged, using the wind the man created to push himself out of the way. Ander swung with his sword and was parried. And then the man was on top of him. Ander could do little other than dodge and parry for several seconds, but the man was unnerved, and was making wild mistakes. If only Ander’s skill was higher, he could have made use of his enemy’s mistakes, but that was not the case. It didn't matter, because the stalactite forest was Ander’s battlefield. Where the other man, the level 25 Ander assumed, had to fight to maintain proper footing, Ander could almost literally float through the battle. The stalactites gave him plenty of footholds and allowed him to turn the other man’s two dimensional battlefield into a three dimensional one where he was king. They traded blows back and forth for the better part of 10 second, and Ander had to say that the other man was the better fighter. But a step on nearly solid air allowed Ander to move behind the other man, who found a foot of solid steel protruding from his chest.
The rest afterward was simple cleanup. Mostly he chased them into monster dens, allowing the monsters to do the work for him. But he did take out a few more of the stronger ones. It was unpleasant work. But any time their weeping or screaming started to get to him, he reminded himself what they would have subjected him to.
Eventually, he left the caves to find that night had already fallen. Night came early in the pit due to the high walls, and this was easily to Ander’s advantage. At first, Ander was surprised to see a camp of Crimson Stars members several hundred feet out from the cave entrance. Apparently they had noticed the absence of the guarding force. It was dark enough that Ander was able to slip by without notice. Ander figured that they would be going into the caves soon to figure out what happened to the guarding force. They wouldn't find anything. He had cleaned things up like he had in the fight with the recruiter. At most they would find the odd blood stain, or a corpse mangled by monsters, but that was it.
On another totally unrelated note, the ship’s morgue was completely full and he had been required to overflow into the ship’s cold storage. It would stay that way until he had found a way to get rid of that many bodies. All he had left behind was the ornate brass key laying on the floor of one of the caves they were certain to search. It wasn’t anything special. It went to a box that had been amongst the noble’s furniture in the Aetherworks Foundry, which was both completely empty, and entirely decorative.
It made Ander laugh to think of their reaction when instead of their missing army, they found a key. Which was not the one they wanted, but an obvious allusion to it. It was enough to tweak their noses, but not enough to get the pit leadership involved. At least, Ander hoped it wasn’t enough to get the leadership involved. He didn’t want to have to deal with men levels 40 through 50. He was having enough problems with Cormal.
Ander dashed along the edge of the pit, cave entrances flashing by until he found the one he wanted. He had needed to find a route through Crimson Stars territory that did not encounter one of their main routes through the caves. Lucky enough, Ander could make it through far more difficult terrain than most could with the help of his wind, and he had chosen a route nearly impossible for a normal Exodar to traverse. When he finally came to the cave he needed, Ander ducked inside.
The other reason Ander had chosen this route was because of treasure rooms. Not only did it give him a good path toward the treasure room Cormal was trying to crack, there was an old treasure room along the way with an undamaged door if Ander understood the notes correctly. Ander couldn’t think of a better place to hole up if he could figure out how to lock and unlock the door.