Tristan slowly went fire to fire explaining what had happened to everyone and answering their questions. They had decided that it was best to sleep here for the night, rugged up as much as possible not wanting to walk into an ambush in the dark of night. Approaching in the dark would have been an acceptable strategy if the deserters were not aware of them being on the way but they didn't know what the guard had told them since the rally in the square the previous day. Once he had explained to everyone Zalia stopped getting slightly confused and hostile glances and started receiving appreciative ones instead, mostly. Somehow, that unnerved her even more. She shouldn’t be seen in a better light in these peoples eyes after killing someone, no matter the circumstances. They put out the fires a short time later and slowly went to sleep, a small watch rotation organised by Tristan as well. Zalia would be the last watch for an hour towards the end of the night. Her watch came and went without issue, morning arriving soon after.
They stood in a small group talking about what they were going to do now,
“I think we should still go find them,” a man said.
“I agree but we need to be real careful about this now, they could know we are coming,” Tristan replied.
“We don’t even know if what that woman is telling us is the truth, for all we know Harold could have found her sneaking away to rat us out and she killed him!” the man argued, pointing at Zalia.
There was a moment of silence as a few people looked at her and back at the man.
“Question me all you want but even if you were right, in either situation they could know we are coming,” Zalia retorted, not bothering to defend herself.
These were townspeople from a quite small town and Zalia was the outsider here. She was more surprised that more of them weren’t questioning her story out loud, though she was sure they were internally. The support of Tristan was probably what kept her from great suspicion on anyone's part.
“Exactly, so what we should do is send out some people to scout out the forest ahead. We know they are camped in there somewhere, of that I’m sure. Either waiting to ambush us or just enjoying their unearned comforts I don't know,” Tristan said, taking the initiative in the conversation once again.
“I would probably be the best at this from the group but if any of you are uncomfortable with me doing so then I’ll stay behind with the rest,” Zalia said, looking around the group.
“You’re damn right I’m uncomfortable with you going,” the man from earlier spoke up.
“Then go scout them out yourself,” Zalia replied, holding eye contact with the man.
“Fine, I will,” the man replied.
Zalia just rolled her eyes, hoping that his stubbornness wouldn’t get him killed.
“Great, anyone else want to volunteer?” Tristan asked.
Only one other person put their hand up,
“I used to go running through the forests as a kid, I reckon I can still remember how to move quietly,” a woman said.
“Alright then, we’ll move a little closer to the forest edge and you two can go in and have a look,” Tristan said, looking for any disagreement.
No one spoke up and they packed up what little they had left laying around. They moved closer, into the forest a short way and the two who had volunteered moved away as quietly as they could manage. The woman was a bit quieter than the man but both were pretty bad in Zalia’s eyes and ears.
“I really hope this doesn't go badly,” Zalia thought
About forty minutes later, the woman returned. She was running as quickly as she could while remaining somewhat quiet. She ran up to where Zalia and Tristan were talking in hushed tones,
“We need to hurry, they caught Arthur,” the woman said quickly.
“Shit,” Tristan and Zalia said in unison.
They were all already equipped with armour and weapons, ready for the two scouts to come back but this just complicated the situation further. Zalia strung her bow, still not having used the thing yet but expecting she might need to in the close future.
“We need to be careful,” Zalia said.
Tristan nodded,
“Aye, but these fuckers are getting on my nerves,” he replied.
They started pushing through the forest, led by the woman who had scouted out earlier.
They arrived at the edge of a clearing, trying to keep out of sight. Zalia had pre-poisoned her arrows and dagger, using a tiny bit of the venom on the dagger and her normal mixture on her arrows. She could quickly dip an arrow into the pouch if she needed to but didn't really want to outright kill anyone unless they were close enough to do her harm. She quickly used a Dodge-vine ritual on the townspeople as they grouped up behind a section of thick underbrush,
“This should help protect you, a tiny bit,” Zalia explained, at receiving a few odd looks.
Zalia only had twelve arrows, six hers and six scavenged from that first battlefield she had come across. It didn't seem like many but if it came to battle and she landed each shot, the poison and damage the seemingly small amount of arrows could affect on a battle of this scale could be enormous.
They looked into the small clearing. It had tents in the central area with wooden spikes and a ditch along the perimeter. Guards were walking along the edge or just sitting in high chairs designed to look over the spikes. In the middle of the circle of tents, Arthur was tied to a post as someone was lashing him with a whip,
“Those fuckers,” Tristan whispered.
Zalia put a restraining hand on his arm, not letting him charge off just yet. She spotted a large tree nearby that had a good vantage point for her and gestured to herself then up,
“If you really need me to shoot someone, point at them. If a battle starts out I’ll take things into my own hands,” she whispered, moving away in the direction of the tree.
She climbed up and waited, hidden by the leaves as she watched the group of townspeople move out of the clearing edge, approaching the camp,
“At least they weren’t waiting for us to ambush us,” Zalia thought, watching the guards move about.
There was something off about the way they moved about, almost robotically. She couldn't put a pin on what felt strange about the people but there was definitely something. She spotted around twelve people, putting them at a disadvantage compared to the townspeople's group of about twenty. It wasn't overwhelming odds like Zalia wished for but definitely better than some alternatives.
She watched Tristan and his group approach the deserters, marking out two archers that would be her first targets if it came to battle. She knew Tristan was Bronze rank while most of the townspeople were Tin with a few Iron. The soldiers were most likely Iron and Bronze, she doubted there was a single Tin rank amongst them.
One of the guards ran to the man who was whipping Arthur and whispered to him. The man turned to Tristan's group with an eerie smile on his blood spattered face,
“He will be next,” Zalia thought.
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The man yelled out to the deserters, getting them to group up on the side of the barricade Tristan’s group was approaching from. Zalia saw the two archers take positions to the side and she nocked an arrow, getting ready to act.
_________________________________________________________________________
Tristan looked at the blood spattered man he remembered from his time in the army. This had been his commanding officer, a once honourable man,
“Vidar,” Tristan said.
“Tristan,” the man replied, a dark grin on his face.
The man was silver ranked, something past what Tristan had expected to find out here. He had thought the group just some mere deserters, probably Iron and Bronze but this was something different.
“I hear you’re going around, extorting, blackmailing, robbing and murdering people,” Tristan said.
“That I am,” Vidar replied calmly.
“You don't deny it?” Tristan asked.
“No point denying the truth, Tristan,” he replied.
Tristan saw a brief flash of red behind the man’s eyes,
“What the hell is that,” he thought.
“Come back and face trial Vidar, you can right some of the wrongs you’ve done in this place,” he pleaded.
Tristan saw the man's face contort as if in pain for a moment before taking a relaxed expression again,
“What the fuck,” he thought.
“You know that isn’t going to happen Tristan,” he replied.
Tristan gripped his double bladed axe, pulling it slightly from its band at his side.
“We are only going to ask this one time,” Tristan said.
“And I’m only going to refuse one time,” Vidar said, his grin widening into a visage of mania.
“What happened to you, my friend,” Tristan whispered.
The man whistled and Tristan saw the two archers draw back their arrows. One of the archers dropped with an arrow through the side of his head as the tense field exploded into motion.
_________________________________________________________________________
Zalia quickly released a second arrow but the second archer ducked back behind a chair using the thick wooden construction as cover. One of the villagers had caught an arrow through the leg and fallen, most likely alive or so Zalia hoped. The first archer had gone down and not gotten up, definitely not going to survive an arrow through the skull. Applying Hunter’s mark, Zalia carefully aimed and shot a third arrow, getting a light cut across the second archer's arm as a result. If the man was iron rank, it was all she needed as she let the poison and Hunter’s mark combination go to work. At her side she had the arming sword she had taken from the guard who had tried to kill her, not planning on using it until she ran out of arrows.
The townspeople and deserters clashed in a mess of flashing swords and shields, axes and hammers. The deserters were keeping a well formed line with shield, sword and spear, using the rough but sturdy defenses of their camp to keep from being completely surrounded. Tristan and the person Zalia thought to be the captain of the deserters had engaged in an incredibly fast combat, striking, parrying and dodging at a speed Zalia could barely keep up with. The villagers were kept at bay due to the spear and shield wall erected by the deserters as Tristan and the captain fought just in front of it. No one seemed to want to interfere in the fight and focused instead on each other.
Zalia let off three more arrows in quick succession, hitting an arm and a chest of two of the spear wielding backline deserters. The archer who Zalia had shot second was writhing on the ground screaming at that moment, contributing no more to the battle. Zalia quickly released another four arrows, leaving two in her quiver, turning the tide of the somewhat stalemate battle in favour of the townspeople. She hopped down from her tree and ran up to the one villager who had taken the arrow and pushed it out through the other side, trying to do less damage. Her Healing presence quickly began healing the wound as she drew her sword and stood over the man. The townspeople were quickly disarming and tying up the soldiers who lay screaming due to her poison and killing those who still fought back. She wasn't sure any of them would survive but if they were of a higher rank it was possible. The one part of the battle she was unsure of was the fight between Tristan and the captain. The captain had started to let off a weird energy, red and decaying. Zalia’s aura was countering it with healing for now but there was definitely something wrong with it. One of the villagers tried to intervene with the fight but was almost decapitated for his efforts. Those two fighters were on an entirely different level to the likes of the townspeople. Zalia got one remaining arrow and dipped it into the silver rank venom, nocking it and carefully taking aim and applying her Hunter’s mark. She released the arrow as the two fights disengaged for a moment but to her shock the captain simply caught the arrow with his hand. It would have been impressive and a singularly incredible moment except for the slight cut he received on his hand for the display. The venom had less of an effect on the man than she expected but realised why when she saw his aura,
? (Corrupted) - Silver rank
“Corrupted?” she thought.
He soon dropped the arrow and reengaged the fight with Tristan, who looked like he was wearing down a lot quicker than the enemy was. Zalia drew her dagger and watched the man closely, hoping for a moment to be able to intervene in relative safety.
The townspeople all stood back, not intervening in the dangerous fight but securing the remaining deserters who had not succumbed to the poison. Zalia circled the fight, dagger in hand as Tristan and the captain fought. In a flash, Tristan’s weapon was smashed from his hand and a kick to the stomach dropped him to his knees. The captain raised his sword to finish the job but stumbled, gasping,
“Pleeassseee, killl meeeee,” the man said, gasping and coughing, the red aura subdued for a moment.
Zalia took the moment to act, running up and slamming the dagger into his armpit and his heart. The second she did so, she was backhanded with such force she flew through the air, smashed through a tent rolling to a stop with a thud against a chair as a leg shattered on her impact. She lay there gasping as she could feel the few broken bones on her body grinding back into place as her healing worked very, very slowly, the pain immense. She watched through tearful eyes in denial as the man continued to fight. Tristan had gotten his weapon back and fought on as the captain, dagger still lodged in his heart, smashed against his defenses. The captain slowed down in his movement as the bleeding and venom took effect. He started looking more and more emaciated as the water was dissolved from his body by the venom until eventually getting the upper hand, Tristan struck out, his axe cutting half into the man's neck. With a second strike, the head came off and silence fell upon the camp.
Zalia had used her Protection of the wild’s to heal everyone up quickly, closing gashes and stab wounds, the remaining living deserters now tied up also received healing. Four had remained alive, the second archer actually surviving the poison though still unconscious despite the healing. Tristan and Zalia were now sat numbly next to each other amongst the group of townspeople as they recovered from the extended battle,
“That was one hell of a fight you just took part in,” Zalia said to Tristan.
“A lot of fancy footwork that wouldn't work in a real war,” Tristan replied, “and don't think I didn’t see that first shot. Took the man out before he even reacted to Vidar’s order.”
“Vidar? Was that the captain?” she asked.
Tristan nodded,
“Yep, old captain of mine from back in my army days. Had no idea he was the one leading this group and he was… different,” he responded.
“I noticed something weird with his aura reading. It told me he was corrupted,” Zalia said, looking at Tristan.
“Don't ask me, I have no idea what was going on there,” he replied.
“And that red aura coming from him, it was like it was trying to suck the life out of the land around us. Luckily my healing presence could counteract it for the most part but have you ever felt something like it?” she asked.
“Ahh so that was you who was healing everyone. No, no idea what that was. He never used to have anything like it but whatever it was he was obviously not used to it being counteracted like that. His fighting style led me to believe he usually plays it safe, aiming for drawn out battles that are won more by that aura than anything else,” Tristan said, “probably saved my life since if he went for an aggressive style he probably could have done me in… though maybe that was part of him still in there…”
He trailed off, looking thoughtful and not a little upset.
“Maybe he was still in there but I don't know that we could have gotten whatever corrupted him out, Tristan. Don't overthink it, you put a friend to rest,” Zalia said, trying to console him.
She collected all of her arrows once more, finding one broken. She also read all of the messages she had received during the fight,
Congratulations! Hunter’s mark has reached Tin 20.
Congratulations! Hunter’s mark has reached Iron 1. This skill will not rank up any further until all your classes have reached Iron 1.
Congratulations! Herbal magic has reached Tin 15.
Congratulations! Protection of the wilds has gained two levels reaching Tin 15.
Hunter's mark - spell - targeted - channel
Tin - Marked by the hunter, there is no escape. This ability marks a creature you can see. Marked creature takes a small amount of extra damage when damaged by you. You know the general direction of the marked enemy. Marking a second creature removes the first mark.
Iron - you may apply hunter's mark to three creatures at once, consecutive marks now removing the earliest applied mark past three.
Mana - very low/s
Cooldown - n/a
“Damn, three creatures now. That will only really help in larger combats like these but I’ve ended up in quite a few more than I would like so I won't complain,” Zalia thought.
She went back and found Tristan once more, holding out her hand to help him up,
“Let’s get you back home, to the town you saved,” she said, giving him a smile.