"This is such a stupid idea." Rybrus complained as we marched down the selfsame road the mercs arrived from last evening. "Explain the reasoning to me again."
"Simple. The bandit mercenaries are still a threat - lots of them stayed at the camp. Mostly wounded, but still. I'll walk up to them, explain why they're missing their leader and essentially half of their army, and offer them an ultimatum. Fight the two of us who wiped their main fighting force, or be turned over to the law." I rephrased my idea for the third time, still riding the high of this new power.
"You seriously expect that to just-" Rybrus waved his hand in the air in frustration. "-work? Like that? Come on, I thought you're smarter than that, the plan is completely stupid!"
"You're the one following me into this completely stupid plan Rybrus."
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Roughly half an hour later, we've reached the mercenary encampment. Rybrus categorically refused to go any further than this, citing his lack of 'suicidal desires', so I simply shrugged him off and walked in on my own. I didn't even make it few steps beyond the tree line before being spotted and having a bow pointed at me.
"Identify yourself!" shouted bow guy - and while I was feeling quite cocky, I wasn't completely moronic. I ceased my advance and shouted back. "I noticed you're missing roughly half of all your people, and most who're left here are wounded."
"That's none of your business, identify yourself or I'll shoot!" Bow guy shouted back with much more threatening tone - and frankly I could do nothing but laugh at the situation. Meanwhile several other emerged from the tents around him - all with bows, but alas none of the rest of their equipment. The few who bothered reading their bows only had minor injuries, the rest? Moral support it seemed.
"I'm here to tell you what happened to your missing detachment, as well as your lead." I simply stood there in a casual pose - and even through the dimmed sense of danger of this power it was starting to dawn on me just how ridiculous this situation was. "They're not coming back. Reason? They fucked with the wrong hunter." I pointed at myself with a thumb and watched for their reactions. Well trained men, the little provocations weren't enough to get them to attack. "So now they're all ash and soot in the town you guys raided earlier." I followed my instincts and put on the widest grin I could.
"Bullshit! They're... they're just late!" Bow guy struggled to come up with some retort, though clearly failed. He knew that the fact they weren't back yet was abnormal. My instincts told me that the casual disregard for danger I was showing was also quite intimidating. "This is all some sort of bluff." He narrowed his eyes.
"Ain't no bluff." I retorted with a shrug. "Pack up your shit, we're going to visit the torched remain of the settlement so you can feast your eyes on their bodies. After which, you'll all surrender like the good non-suicidal ex-mercs you are, and be handed over to the law."
The silence after my comment was only challenged by the rising tension in the air. Then a quiet hushed discussion began amongst the gathered few. Finally, about a minute later a response came. "You'll surrender and be walked over as a prisoner. If you're telling the trut-" I did not even bother letting them finish as my instincts screamed at me. They weren't the ones in charge here, and if I let them dictate conditions it would weaken my position and my attempt at intimidation too much.
"Touch me and all of you are fucking dead. I'm doing this because I want to give you people a chance to live, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. However, I can't just walk away 'cause you slaughtered an entire settlement - that's not something I can forgive. Pack up your shit, or get ready to die scum." I was surprised at the ferocity in my own voice - and the threats. Despite the posing and acting, I wasn't exactly feeling the sheer level of confidence I acted out.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"She's just one girl!" One in their huddle complained loudly enough for me to overhear. "She's just one Hunter you dumbfuck." Another retorted, stressing the word hunter to my utter delight. "One that's cocky enough to walk towards an armed and hostile enemies in their own camp. You really think we're going to win this?! Think for fuck's sake!" Same guy continued - what a useful person. The others appeared to be significantly more shaken than before after his words - plus the other still wounded mercs started streaming in, clearly wondering what the commotion is about.
Their chatter devolved into a straight up accusations of cowardice, so much so that bow guy even lowered his weapon in order to break up a fight behind him. I took the opportunity to get closer and eventually stopped only about a few seconds of brisk walking away from the gathered group. "Stop fucking around, I don't have all day."
My instinct urged me to add more, and at this point I was so hopelessly out of my own depth so I just blindly followed what it told me to do. "You-" I pointed at the guy who took my side earlier. "-Round everybody up. Tell them to pack their shit, you're leaving in 15. If someone's too wounded, get stretchers." I only blinked my eyes in surprise when the guy saluted and proceeded to do exactly as I told him. At this point, the situation devolved too much for bow guy to struggle against the flow. With a sigh he turned towards me. "Fine, guess you're in charge now. Fuckin' unbelievable."
A response in the form of a terse nod was enough for him. "Pack up the tents, like I said, you're leaving in 15. If you can't pack it in 15, you're leaving it behind."
As the camp erupted with activity, I simply stood there and observed - with a particularly annoyed face as per my new instinct's guidance. Not even a minute later Rybrus showed up and joined me in glaring at any merc who wasn't doing what I asked them to. "There is no reason this should have worked. In fact, this shouldn't have worked. They should have shot you when they first spotted you." He seemed genuinely annoyed, and I couldn't help but finally allow a hint of my own true emotions through.
"Yup. I have no idea what I'm doing." My voice was low to make sure the mercs running by wouldn't pick up on it. "But at this point I've got a feeling that if I let this confidence slip anytime soon, we're screwed." I nodded at him, keeping my face as neutral as I could.
"Then for the sake of everyone who ever cared for you, don't let it slip." He retorted before we both quieted and merely did out best to look as intimidating as possible. A truly hard work for someone of my stature, though I felt I was doing a pretty good job thanks to the still running power.
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To my utter surprise, the mercs managed to pack up most of their camp in the allotted 15 minutes. It took almost an hour to get back to the scorched town as our travelling pace was significantly lower due to the many wounded in our new entourage - though seeing the soot and ash surrounding the singular stone fort standing near the center of it all served to cull any notion of rebellion that had spread through the ranks.
After all, it was nigh impossible to deny the validity of my story when the evidence - or rather what remained of it after incineration - was right there. This even got bow guy to cooperate with me unlike his previous reticent approach.
"You... weren't kidding. The whole town's reduced to ash..." He seemed in awe of the sheer magnitude of destruction in front of him, but I only gave an uninvested shrug in response under the guidance of Titan's instincts. "Told you so. Got no interested in murdering more people this week."
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It's been almost ten days of travelling with this crowd behind us, and frankly I wasn't handling things well. Titan's power went dormant somewhen during the night and I had to improvise my way through keeping the large gang mostly organized. There even were several cases of a few of them running off on their own.
A quick reminder of what lurks out there - torments - was enough to keep most of them from running off, but even if few ran off I'd still prefer doing things this way. The lack of bloodshed felt nice.
Despite all of the trouble I ran into with travelling with the small horde at my back, we arrived at the next settlement with very few injuries. After many, MANY pointed questions the local captain acquiesced and took the ex-bandits in, though not without complaining about lackluster space for housing prisoners.
Finally, after it all, I felt like I could just be myself again. So I decided to use my one day in the town in the most productive way possible.
Getting some good shuteye without having to worry about an upset merc trying to shank me.