Ezra ducked down and grabbed Dumrivil. The arrows zipped through the air overhead. Ezra breathed a sigh of relief and looked over at the entrance. He recalled Filamenta out of storage and into his hand.
“That should take care of them,” Malin said from outside the tent. The drapes of the entrance opened up and he stepped forward.
Ezra lunged, Filamenta already expanded in size. His needle sank into Malin’s chest with a wet squelching sound.
556/1100
Ezra pulled out his weapon from the man’s body and then stomped on his head. An audible crack echoed out and Malin went limp. Dumrivil stepped right in front of the entrance.
Ezra gripped Filamenta tightly. “I have a plan. When I use it, just run like hell, got it?”
Dumrivil tightened his scarf and nodded.
“Got it,” he said.
Ezra sucked in a deep breath, then ran out of the tent. Dozens of archers and even more spearmen had already surrounded them. The archers raised their bows.
Ezra jumped forward, grabbed one archer’s wrist, and slammed him onto the ground with an awkward throw.
[Basic Grappling Unlocked!]
A boom echoed out and something snapped inside the archer’s arm. The ability of [Titan’s Grasp I] kicked in and a shockwave ripped through the ground, tossing almost everyone off their foot. Ezra shot off like a bullet toward the part of the canyon they’d come from.
Dumrivil raced behind Ezra, pumping his arms back and forth. Behind them, a few of the guards had already gotten up and chased them.
“Stop them!” someone yelled. “They killed Malin, Stop them!”
Two guards up ahead pulled out their spears and pointed them toward Ezra and Dumrivil. Ezra leaped into the air and threw his needle into one’s head, killing the man instantly. Dumrivil ducked underneath the other one’s spear and slammed the man from below, sending him flying to the ground.
Dumrivil raced up to Ezra’s side and the two continued running. Ezra looked behind himself. Three of the soldiers were gaining on Ezra and Dumrivil. Ezra looked back forward. There was a monster cage containing a whole herd of bunnies with kangaroo legs—Unibbits. They were getting riled up, bouncing against the cage.
Ezra raced ahead and stopped in front of the cage. Behind him, the two guards were already within a few seconds of him. Ezra reached into the lock with a telekinetic hand.
It wasn’t nearly as secure as Villscha’s lock. Ezra ripped the pins out with a psychic tug, and the door swung open. A single Unibbit dashed out and jumped onto one of the soldiers, digging its teeth into his neck. Another one used its powerful legs to kick in the chest of one of the other soldiers and shattered the ribs with a loud crunch.
Ezra took a step back, then ran toward Dumrivil. They raced to the spot where they’d hidden their clothes and quickly gathered their items. Ezra shoved his bundle into the crook of his arm.
The two of them continued running, the sounds of screaming and fighting raging behind them. Before long, they were out of the canyon and several minutes away from the camp.
Ezra glanced behind himself and let out a sigh. They’d been lucky. If those locks hadn’t been so poorly made, Ezra wouldn’t have been able to let the animals loose. He put his hands on his knees and sucked in a few long breaths. He wasn’t quite as exhausted as he’d been expecting—perhaps his Constitution stat at work? Dumrivil looked back at the direction they’d run from.
“What a total mess,” he said. “Villscha will know that we were responsible and he’s going to double down on his little ‘investigation’. Not only that, but we didn’t even get anything out of it. I grabbed some of the documents, but no one’s going to believe us.”
“Not only that, but now, we’ve learned that if we fail, Cortia’s probably going to fall apart,” Ezra said. “But no pressure or anything.”
Dumrivil shot Ezra a glare before he slumped over.
“I seriously don’t know what to do, One-Eye,” he said. “Villscha’s covered his tracks too well. I don’t think we’ll be able to convince anyone. Not unless the damn town’s attacked and Villscha’s leading the charge.”
Ezra glanced back at the canyon. A fire had started at some point. Most likely, the soldiers’s last stand had failed.
“Who says we need to convince anyone?” Ezra said.
Dumrivil furrowed his eyebrows, then looked up toward Ezra. “What do you mean?”
“These overseas mercenaries aren’t that strong, especially if we catch them by surprise. Do we need anyone else?” Ezra said. “Who’s to say we couldn’t do what we did here at every single one of these camps? What if we just dismantle this whole operation on our own? And if we’re lucky enough to come across the evidence you’re looking for, then we’ll just change back to the old plan.”
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Dumrivil glanced back at the burning canyon and narrowed his eyes.
“Ignoring that it would be incredibly risky,” he said. “And that Villscha would definitely try to put a kill order on us—not just an arrest—what about the collateral damage? We’d be letting those monsters loose in the countryside.”
“True, but I don’t see a lot of other options. As you said yourself, our options are running low. Besides, we can take care of those monsters ourselves once they disperse.”
“But there’s going to be casualties.”
“That’s just the price we’ll have to pay.”
Dumrivil was quiet for several long seconds.
“We don’t even know where the other camps are,” he said.
Ezra smirked and reached into his cloak, revealing several sheets of paper.
“Do we?” Ezra said.
Dumrivil bit the bottom of his lip. He stepped away and paced the ground for several seconds. He stopped and then pulled out his coin.
“Goddess of wisdom, guide my path,” he said.
He flipped the coin into the air. It spun around for several seconds before landing in the palm of Dumrivil’s hand. He smashed the coin into the top of his other hand, then slowly allowed himself to see what the coin said.
“Heads,” he said. “Looks like we’ll be going with your plan, One-Eye. I’ll try to look for a cleaner route where Villscha is simply arrested… but until then, we’ll do things your way.”
----------------------------------------
The two made it back to the guild in one piece. Once again, they agreed to meet up soon—a few days, Dumrivil had said—but for now, they’d need to recover and Dumrivil needed to plan the next attack. Ezra took the opportunity to work on some of his new skills—in particular, [Basic Grappling] and [Exotic Weaponry].
[Basic Grappling] - Lv. 1
A foundational combat skill designed for close-quarters engagements, [Basic Grappling] allows the user to initiate and maintain physical control over opponents. With this skill, the user can perform holds, throws, and joint locks to restrain enemies, pin them to the ground, or disarm them in melee combat. As the user’s proficiency increases, they gain greater control over their opponent’s movements and can adapt grapples to different combat situations.
The way he practiced was perhaps a tad sadistic—he went after easy monsters and just used various holds on them until [Basic Grappling] went up. He did something similar with [Exotic Weaponry], carrying around a rope to chokehold monsters.
There was something distinctly satisfying about killing in this manner. Ezra was starting to understand the appeal—it was a pure expression of power, very different from the precise movements he used with Filamenta. In the end, his [Basic Grappling] had gone up by 7 levels while [Exotic Weaponry] had gone up by 6.
[Hunt] had also leveled up by 2 as well, and he ended up getting enough materials from his monster kills to sell them to the guild for a pretty penny.
Speaking of the guild, Villscha discovered what they’d done, of course. But thanks to Prise working in the background, Villscha was being tied down by legal processes to issue a bounty on One-Eye and Dumrivil.
Prise herself had been informed of how the mission went. She understood Ezra and Dumrivil’s reasoning for their plans but still felt uncomfortable with it. As someone who worked on the logistical side of things, she knew exactly how much of an effect dangerous monsters wandering the countryside would have. Nonetheless, she ended up agreeing to Ezra’s plans.
Ezra also grinded [Bind] up to Lv. 18, though he knew it would take some time before he would be able to do any of the more… unusual ideas he had in store. Filamenta had lectured him after the battle, pointing out that he could’ve used [Bind] at multiple points—such as to release the monsters. Ezra, despite being irritated by her lecture, agreed. [Bind] would’ve been a far safer option than using [Telekinesis] in such a high-stakes situation.
Though it was still kind of cool that he’d managed to rip the lock apart. Filamenta admitted that she agreed.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
Thanks to all the monster killing, Ezra had gained 2 levels, as well. Those stat points went directly into Consitution, raising it to 26.
Eventually, Dumrivil finally got back to Ezra with a meeting place. They planned out a carefully designed attack where they’d sneak in, release the monsters, and tear the operation to shreds. Of course, they were spotted within ten minutes, which made their mission another frantic retreat.
The camp was still torn to shreds, of course. The next morning, Ezra and Dumrivil repeated this for another camp before calling it a day. Dumrivil had gotten a large gash on his arm, and though [Stitch Wound] was unexpectedly effective at stemming the blood, Dumrivil was still too exhausted to go for another attack.
The reason Dumrivil had gotten hurt was because Villscha had doubled down on security. New patrols, new schedules, new everything. The first two were easy, the next several would probably require extensive planning and intel gathering.
Hell, Ezra was half-worried that they might move the camps. He was hoping they wouldn’t do that, because if they covered their tracks well enough—and Villscha had proven he could at least do that—then their plan of destroying the camps one by one would go up in flames.
Which led them to their next step.
“What do you mean I have to go to some damn cheese festival?”
Dumrivil and Prise were staring at Ezra, their arms crossed.
“I know what you’re thinking, One-Eye,” Prise said. “But I promise this is essential to slowing the legal proceedings against you. The more engaged you are with the town, the more normal you seem, and that’ll make it harder to convince everyone that you need to have a bounty put on you.”
“When will this be?”
“Tomorrow night,” Dumrivil said.
Ugh. He didn’t even have time to prepare.
Ezra’s nose twitched. “Still, a festival? Surely there’s got to be a better option.”
“This is a good opportunity, Ezra,” Dumrivil said. “Seriously, just do it. It’ll just be for one night, you won’t have to ever do it again.”
He supposed that they were somewhat right—he’d never do this again. But still, the principle of the matter demanded that he didn’t give in to their demands.
“It’s not a demand,” Filamenta said in his mind. “They’ll give way if you press, but they’re trying to help you, Ezra. Don’t you see that?”
Why would they want to do that? Well, it was in their best interests if Ezra stayed alive, given how much firepower he was providing.
“Fine,” Ezra said. “Let’s go to this… festival.”
Prise bounced on the heel of her foot. “Awesome! Alright, fair warning, so you’re going to need to find a date, by the way. It’ll help you look more normal.”
What.
She stepped away and opened the door.
“Good luck!” she said.
She shut the door.
Ezra looked up at the ceiling. God, why did you do this to him? He just wanted to kill monsters, damn it!