The elder gave the signal and everyone quickly finished anything they were still doing and got into position. I had been messing with my Nercon Heart. On the one hand it was a dangerous thing that basically controlled my body temporarily, but on the other hand it essentially made me have a massively larger health and mana pool as well as making me more powerful. I had been contemplating on whether or not to use it and decided I would leave it in my inventory and would fuze with it mid-fight if shit hit the fan. I was still rattled by the whole mind control incident but got myself together and got in position with everyone else. Our partys objective during the raid was to make chaos within enemy lines and to help clear a path to the captured villagers, who we would then free and escort to safety. We had 30 other moon elves with us for this part of the mission as well so that would make things easier.
"Alright, we need to be quick about this, lets finish this within the hour." said the elder. With that the rescue mission began. I watched as the moon elves who were in position strugn their bow and let loose on the bandits patrolling the outskirts of the camp. 15 bandits collapsed without a sound, with arrows protruding from their necks. The camp was none the wiser and everyone moved closer to the camp but still out of line of sight of the bandits in the watchtowers outside the camp. The camp had some wooden walls that were hastilly made with 4 shoddyguard towers giving a line of sight out of the camp.
The moon elves prepped another volley and let loose. Our group had found where the villagers were held, it was in the back corner of the camp inside a large building. We heard whimpering and crying from the building but it was guarded by a few bandits, preventing escape. The bandits seemed to have 3 mages that were eating some food near the campfire while other bandits were making merry and drinking alcohol.
I looked back to the guard towers in time to see the second volley The arrows whistled through the air and found their marks and 4 other bandits collapsed soundlessly. Unfortunately one bandit had heard the thump of the body collapsing and went to check. When he saw the body he pulled out a horn. He managed to blow the horn before an arrow struck him in the chest.
"Well shit, there goes any stealth we had." I mumbled and moved with our group to the section of wall we would be getting through. I heard the bandits making noise and shouting "Enemies!, How come the patrols didn't let us know earlier?!" along with other people yelling instructions to the bandits. More arrows flew through the air into the camp, causing some screams but the bandits were prepared now and retaliated. They fired arrows into the surrounding woods and missed everyone, but halted the next volley of arrows for a few seconds. That was apparently enough time for their mages to make some light spells and launch them into the air above the camp and surrounding the woods.
One person who had stood on top of the shoddy wooden walls yelled "Moon elves! Shit, why are they here?!" Another one yelled "Did someone hire them to attack us?! Who had that kind of money in that village?!" The bandits let loose more arrows at the moon elves in the trees around the camp, but now they were far more accurate since they could actually see some of them. The arrows thudded into the trunks of trees but I still heard a few cries of pain from the trees.
"Lets get the villagers and get out, the other groups will distract the bandits long enough for us to get the villagers out, but lets still be quick and not get noticed." With that she motioned to one of the moon elves, who pulled his greatsword out and head to the wall. Another elf cast some spell to reduce sound and I just sat and watched as he swung that massive sword and cleaved a chunk out of the wooden wall while barely making a sound thanks the spell. A dozen more strikes and he cut a hole in the wall large enough for us to pass through. Ronia nodded at him and we moved through the gap.
In the camp there was dead bodies strewn here and there with arrows in their bodies. I heard a massive crashing sound followed by a glass shattering noise and wood breaking. I looked towards the gate and saw that there was a large ice chunk slammed into the gate, but the gate didn't break instantly. The battle sounded and looked intense. Arrows were flying over the wall accurately towards bandits while they retaliated. I saw several moon elves just appear on top of the 4 metre high wall as if they jumped up there, and proceeded to clash with the bandits on the walls. Sounds of swords were now ringing out as the battle continued. The bandits were losing but still putting up a better fight than I expected so we needed to hurry.
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We got near the building with the villagers in it but to our dismay there were still bandits near the building, guarding it. I overheard one of them say "Why the hell do we have to guard this building during an attack on the camp? It's not like these weaklings can get anywhere, the only way in the camp is through the gate, where the fights going on." Ronia nocked an arrow and a few more moon elves did the same. She took a deep breath and said "Loose!" They let their arrows fly and they struck true, taking out 4 of the bandits guarding the building. Unfortunately one of the bandits got lucky and the arrow struck his arm. "Shit, theres people in the back of the camp!"
He screamed for help but the din of battle drowned out his voice for the most part. A few people heard him and head over to see the commotion which was bad, "Ronia, we need to leave and fast. They already noticed us and it won't be long before they bring more people to defend the villagers." She nodded her head in agreement and looked towards the others. "We got to be quick now so lets cut through them and free the villagers fast. Mages to the front, we'll be needing you soon."
We head towards the building and I fired an ice shard at the bandit nearest, he blocked the shard with his shield and held his sword out. Some arrows started to fly towards us but I made a barrier to stop them. After we loosed our own arrows in retaliation Ronia gave the signal to charge. Everyone rushed forward with the same speed as when we were travelling. I managed to keep up thanks to buffs some of the moon elves had given me and together we rushed forward. We moved far faster than a regular human sprinting moved so that threw off the aim of the archers and struck panic into the bandits. Most of the arrows that flew towards us missed and strick the dirt behind us or to the side. By the time we got the building there was a total of 9 bandits there, with 1 mage. I saw one of the better armed bandits also there.
The mage was had finished chanting and let loose an inferno of flames, the wave of fire roared towards us and forced us to scatter. We dove behind cover and avoided the flames. The mage seemed far too powerful for a group of small time bandits. That was no weak spell afterall. The flames had scorched the ground and burned the ground without any fuel, probably thanks to magic. The mage was prepping another spell but Ronia then called out "Mages, loose your spells!" I had already prepped my chilling shardblast beforehand and let it loose once the signal was given. Lumps of rock, fireballs, scorching beams of fire and my shards of ice flew towards the bandits. The bandits ducked for cover as the spells wreaked havoc, but this was taking too long. We were behind schedule already and needed to hurry. I heard several massive cracking sounds at the gates as well as the roar of flames. The battle over there was also getting more intense.
The bandits hadn't come out unscathed by the spells as 6 of them had been riddled with shards of ice, and pummeled by large rocks. The mage had made it out alive and was ready to let loose another spell when an arrow slammed into his chest. He coughed blood but let loose the spell regardless. The flames were blue this time and the massive cyclone of flames tore its way towards us. The flames instantly consumed a moon elf who started to burn but vanished in a streak of light after a few seconds. Four other moon elves met the same fate and vanished in streaks of light that flew towards the sky.
I looked at Ronia confused and she quickly spoke up as if she knew my question. "They're fine, its just a spell the elder gave everyone while we were preparing. They are back outside where some people will be ready to heal them. Now focus on the battle!" With my question answered I turned back to the battle while finishing my second Chilling Shardblast. This next volley should finish the bandits and let us get out of here quickly. As if I had jinxed myself I heard horns in the distance. It seemed the bandits had reinforcements arriving soon. "Well shit, this night is getting worse by the minute." I grumbled as I wondered how many more bandits were arriving.