Freeday, 3rd of Febrinna, 5662 AE, 468th Year of the 5th Era
I had walked out of my tent as the first rays of sunlight hit my face. It was bright, but it was pleasant. The warmth I felt balanced out the cold night air that had permeated the area during the hours of dusk. As I was walking around the encampment, I could see Ivan already sitting on the edge of the encampment’s cliff, looking out towards the ruined ancient fort as he took in a puff from a cigar before blowing out the smoke onto the air.
“Pass me some of that…” I said as I held my hand out in front of Ivan as he scoffed before shaking his head and handing me a cigar. I quickly got up and went to one of the nearest campfires as I lit my blunt before inhaling it and walking back to sit next to Ivan.
“Y’know, I think I should actually start charging you for those cigars, Carl.” Ivan said while looking at me with squinted eyes as he continued smoking.
“Bloody cheap miser. And I thought I was German.” I replied nonchalantly, returning a scoff.
“Oy, before you start calling me cheap, you should consider that these things cost me a fortune in this accursed economy. These things are imported from far off lands so you know. Just a single pack of these things would cost you four silver nobles, and that’s for the cheap ones!”
“Yes, yes… I’ll pay you back after we’re done with this mission. Surely there’d be some loot in that Godforsaken fort…”
“Pfft. You better keep your word, Carl. If what Philip’s told me about you is right, you have a penchant to leave behind massive debts for other people to take care of.”
“Uncool, man.”
“Anyways, what’s our plan for today, Carl?”
“What makes you think I had any plans for today?”
Ivan didn’t even bother answering me before giving me a suspiciously tired look. “The day you don’t have any plans is the day that lobsters have learned to whistle in the mountains.”
I snorted as I recoiled my head back at the colourful idiom Ivan used, but regardless, I took a deep inhalation from the cigar before I answered back, “I know the men here need good rest to replenish themselves and to get them back into optimal condition since they don’t have the benefit of a system like we do, but doing nothing and sitting on our arses all day would allow those mutts to do the same and perhaps replenish their forces too. I intend to go have a word with Hunt to allow us to infiltrate the fort and see what we can find out. You know, do what we do best…”
“Wreaking havoc among our enemies with reckless abandon?”
“What? No! I mean… sorta-... look, what I meant to say was reconnaissance, Ivan.”
“Mhmm, sure. ‘Reconnaissance’. You, my dear comrade, are a walking magnet of unexpected twists and turns and saying it like that doesn’t change the fact that infiltrating the fort especially in broad daylight won’t be as easy as you make it sound.”
“Don’t worry, man. Weren’t you the one who said this life’s going to be an adventure of a lifetime? Also, you don’t need to think about any unexpected twists and turns, so long as you’re by my side, I’m sure the plot armour would rub off on you somehow.”
“Pffftt..!! BWAHAHAHA!! Errk-!! *cough* *cough*-... hahahaha!!” Ivan was practically pissing himself laughing as he choked a little on the cigar smoke he was inhaling “блять! Pfft… I know I made the joke first, but holy hell hearing you actually say that is both hilarious and slightly makes your face ever more punchable!”
“Well, know that I’m only joking.” I chuckled along with Ivan before I put out the light of my cigar and pocketed it for later use as I got up “Anyways, we should freshen up and inform Hunt of our plans. That is if you want to come along… I don’t want to force you or anything…”
“Shut up, pretty boy. You’d only get yourself killed out there without me. Let’s go.”
And with that, we had gone to freshen up ourselves before we donned our gear and weaponry. Hunt didn't seem to be up yet even though he's usually one of the first ones to wake up in the morning. He must not have drank in a long while for the amount of drinks he had last night to be enough to get himself pissed drunk like this. Well, I figured it was better for me to wake him up rather than Mother Margaret. Just as Ivan and I were about to wake Hunt up, he had gotten out of his tent as he pulled up the flaps whilst rubbing his eyes, yawning. It wasn't all the time that I'd get to see Hunt in such an undisciplined state but regardless I chose to give the man a slight bow before greeting the veteran adventurer.
“Good morning, Sir Hunt. I hope you had a restful sleep last night.” I said to which Hunt only raised one hand in front of him and nodded wh;st his other hand was massaging the temples of his head.
“Good morning to you too, Charles, Ivan… I hope you’d forgive me for my rather unsightly appearance this morning… Last night was a blur and I’m deeply ashamed if I’ve caused myself any embarrassment…”
“Oh it’s fine, Sir. Last night was rather the enjoyable experience for all of us here. Besides, it isn’t everyday that we would be graced by stories of our branchmaster’s glory days.”
Hunt only sighed and turned his head a bit as he realised he might have done things he would rather wish everyone would forget. Regardless of that, Hunt took sight of me and Ivan,all geared up and looking like we were ready to go somewhere.
“I see you boys have already geared yourselves up for something. If you may enlighten me as to what it is you are planning to do, I would be greatly interested.” Hunt raised an eyebrow as he smiled inquisitively while his arms were crossed.”
“I have good reason to believe that the most recent of our enemy’s failed attempts to crush our small force has greatly depleted their resources and not to mention manpower. A failure to follow through with another attack proves at the very least that they lack either the will or the means to deal with us. Or better yet, both. However, with all that being said, attempting any sort of siege upon a fort, regardless of the fact that it is literally a bunch of ruins in a state of severe disrepair and ruins, would still prove to be quite the challenge to our meagre forces. It is because of that reason that I believe it would be in our best interest to allow me and Ivan to do preliminary infiltration of Anteron to assess the situation and gather intelligence on-!”
“I assume you two have already calculated the risk?”
“...Yes?”
“If you two don’t make it back here by nightfall and don’t send us any messages, I swear I will storm the fort myself if need be, do you understand me?”
“Of course!”
“I won’t lie, I wasn’t expecting you to let us go as easily as that, Hunt.” Ivan said as he scratched the back of his head while chuckling, “I expected at least half an hour of back and forth debating the merits and risks of scouting out the fort…”
“As if me debating you two would make you any more inclined to stop what you’re already planning on doing. No, I won’t stop you. I just pray that you two would refrain from doing anything too reckless.”
“Thank you for understanding, Sir Hunt!” I said as I gave a slight bow to the veteran adventurer. We left to set out for our excursion shortly after that.
As we were passing by the encampments' palisade gates, I could see Harry sitting down on a log, sulking away with a drink in his hands. He looked like shit as he gave me and Ivan the stink eye, though unlike the usual he said nothing else to provoke us first so I let him be.
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“It’s not that I don’t trust in our own abilities, but shouldn’t we try and bring another person with us on this?” Ivan asked the question as we walked past the final sentries of our encampment. “I mean, we’ve worked together with Jen before and she’s capable of holding her own and providing support. I think she’s recovered enough.”
I only shook my head at Ivan’s questioning. “I admit that Jen would be a great help to us in providing support, but she still needs some more rest to fully recover her mana reserves. Normal folks don’t recover as freakishly fast as we do. Well at least not Jenny to my knowledge. She’s powerful enough as it is not losing consciousness after repeatedly draining her mana reserves supporting us yesterday. Besides, if things were to go south at the fort, I’d be glad to have all of our aid to be at full power. And besides, the less people we have, the easier it is to conceal ourselves with stealth and you don’t need to expend any excess mana to cover for others.”
Ivan merely nodded as he shrugged at my explanation and soon enough we had made a great distance from the encampment. In doing so we had passed through the rotting corpses of the wolfbeasts and werewolves we had earlier slain the day before. Their bodies were now being picked apart by the carrion crows as the process of decomposition was starting. Suffice to say, the smell of the area was not to be envied.
The woods were once again eerily quiet as we were walking towards the old ruined fort at the top of the high hill. Save for perhaps the occasional sound of leaves rustling on their branches and perhaps some small critters crawling around somewhere, there wasn’t much life to be found within the forest. The trail that we were trekking on was severely unmaintained to the point that it could hardly even still be called a road.. More of a dirt trail with some semblance of perhaps corduroy.
After a few hours of walking along the trail we had finally closed our distance enough from the fort that we could clearly see the gates and the ruinous walls. We were lucky enough to have had a safe trek so far as there was not a single sign of any wolfbeast or werewolf scouting parties outside of the fort which suggests that their numbers were still somewhat depleted. Finally getting a look at Anteron, I could see that the ruins of the fort weren't particularly big. It had a typical roman fort design from my previous world. Although I say it's in ruins, a good part of the wall structure was still holding up at around 3 to 4 meters in height regardless of some other parts which were basically a pile of stone rubble. But again, what would you expect from a bunch of crazed cultists? I would actually be surprised if they had engineering required to repair and properly maintain a fort like this.
Ivan and I knelt and behind some trees and bushes as we were observing the fort and formulating a plan of attack.
“I can see several people on some sections of the battlements, but nothing too serious…” Ivan said as he was looking through the pair of binoculars Percy had lent us. “Maybe a couple of cultists in addition to the other werewolves, though they don’t seem to be in their beast form.”
“I’m not surprised as it’d be a complete waste of mana for them to be in beast form every waking hour of the day. And lack of a clear supply of food would prove to be quite the problem for these bastards.” I replied back to Ivan
“Alright, Carl, so how’re we going to do this?”
“Okay, I know I said we were going to do some reconnaissance here but seeing as how there seems to be so few of these mutts left, we might as well take down all we can… Do you wanna do this the sneaky way or the flashy way?” I gave a smirk to my friend
“Pfft, I thought you said we were going to be stealthy about this…”
“Whichever way is more efficient, really, but sneaky way it is then… If you would be so kind as to provide a distraction, I can run up to the walls through that rubbled section over there…”
“Why do I have to be the distraction?”
“Oh, come on, if I ran out now in broad daylight, they could see me from a mile away. Besides, didn’t you always have a flair for theatrics.”
Ivan only scoffed before he activated his skills and seemingly vanished into a smoke of shadows. There was a trail of trees leading up to the gates providing for there to be a trail of shadows up to the walls of the fort. After seeing Ivan utilising his skills for this long, I could start to get a feel for how it worked. Everytime he ‘vanishes’ into the darkness, his only mode of travel is through adjacently connected shadows.
In only a few minutes, I saw Ivan’s axe reappear first on top of the gatehouse’s battlements through the shadows there before the man uncloaked himself as a whole. Without any notice, the heads of the two werewolf guards on the gatehouse section of the walls were sent flying off the walls to the side. Not long after that, the other sentries on the walls took notice and immediately rushed towards Ivan as the man was climbing higher atop the walls.
*You have gained 400XP!*
*You have gained 800XP!*
“Come at me all you bastard sons of bitches! HAHAHAHA..!! Get it, mutts?! You’re all dogs so it only means the sorry whores who bred your pitiful lives here are nothing but bitches, hahahah!!” Fuck me, Ivan was giving the cultists some very scathing taunts. What happened to ‘stealth’. I could honestly just give out a chuckle before I sighed and began running up towards the walls.
I had used a fallen watch tower as a ramp as I ran up on it and jumped towards the top of the battlements and landed behind several guards who were up to that point focused on Ivan’s attacks. I immediately unleashed my own flurry of slashes, summoning a torrent of winds carrying green-coloured blade-like energy slashes, cutting up the werewolves in front of me with them being none-the-wiser.
*You have gained 800XP!*
*You have gained 1000XP!*
…
*You have gained 400XP!*
And with that, we had cleared the battlements of the guard sentries there. Looking down at the other side of the wall I could see up to perhaps a couple dozen cultists and a dozen more wolfbeasts of varying levels scurrying about at our sudden attack. Ivan had let out a massive slash towards the gathering crowd, summoning in its trail a huge wall of ice spikes slaying many of the mutts before he vanished again into the shade.
*You have gained 300XP!*
*You have gained 600XP!*
…
*You have gained 1000XP!*
*You have gained 600XP!*
*You have leveled up!*
Ivan was insane as he practically leveled the field of the fort with his ice spikes. I was beginning to get worried that he was expending himself too much but I figured he had also levelled up and had juiced himself back up to full power. No longer needing to worry about the man, I wasted little time jumping into the fray with my whirlwinds as I decided to make short work of these few remaining bastards.
Having leveled up as well, I too had recovered the mana I had spent which allowed me to send out another hail of flurries towards the remaining beasts. I had instinctively divided my stat points into agility and strength which gave me the extra bit of speed I needed to weave through the remaining enemies and attack them at their vital points. Just as I was having a field day with these monsters, Ivan had reappeared from the shadows and gave another massive slash as he slayed his fair share of beasts along with me.
It was only after several more minutes of the slaughter did the situation calmed and I had seen that around us only remained a pile of bodies, bloodied, beaten, torn apart, with some even being frozen or had shards of ice spikes sticking out from them. It was a messy business indeed, but with that, it had seemed that we had cleared up the fort’s courtyard at the very least. As the last cultist was bleeding from my Galesword stuck into his throat, Ivan had called out to me.
“Carl! Looks like this one’s still breathing…” Ivan said as he was poking one of the bodies on the ground with his axe and when he did that, I could hear some very pained moans and groans coming from it. It was then that Ivan dragged the poor bastard by his collar and raised him up in front of him as he inspected the cultist like a tiger would it's prey.
“Please… spare me…” the Cultist said weakly as he had the slightest bit of will to live left in his eyes.
“Well my friend, that depends on what you have to say for yourself and whether I find it useful…” Ivan said with a sinister smile plastered upon his face
The cultist only pointed at the main building at the center of the fort before saying weakly, “In the praetorian headquarters… they're preparing for the ritual sacrifice…”
Ivan and I exchanged glances as we heard the words ‘ritual sacrifice’ being mentioned. Neither of those words being used next to each other was good news and hearing that, I could only think of the worst happening as I signalled towards Ivan to let the poor bastard go so that we can quickly get to the bottom of whatever ritual or sacrifice is going on here.
“You are in luck, my friend, for I have decided to be merciful today…” Ivan said with a smile as he let the men drop to the ground on his belly.
As I had turned around to head to the main building, all of a sudden I heard a slicing sound before a blade crashed to the ground as I turned around to what had happened.
*You have gained 900XP!*
Ivan had lopped off the cultist’s head with his Berdiche slammed to the ground. I had a look of shock as I stared at Ivan.
"Спасибо." Ivan said to the now headless corpse.
“Ivan, what the hell?! I thought you said you'd spare him!” I said “That seems like unnecessary cruelty…”
“On the contrary, Carl. I promised mercy and I granted exactly that.” Ivan said “Mercy to the victims over there for getting rid of these monsters…”
As Ivan said that, he had pointed to the pile of bloodied corpses at the edge of the corpse where I could see the bodies of men, women, and even children piled up atop of one another. It was a gruesome sight which only made my mouth feel bitter before I shrugged and focused my sights back to the main building.
I breathed out to calm myself. “Whatever. Let's just get this over with. Whatever profane ritual is being carried out there must be stopped at all costs else I fear what would be in store for us…”
“You got that right…”
I don't know what sort of infernal thing I would have to witness there but I'm not looking forward to find out.