Chapter 4: Infiltration
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The next hour was spent carefully holding her severed forearm against the rest of her arm. Thankfully, with the nerves closest to the severing point wiped away by water, the pain dimmed considerably as time passed. It was still extremely painful, however, and she couldn’t help but wince every time she held them together a bit too tightly.
In the meanwhile, her thoughts wandered to the Nightmare. More specifically, what the condition was to complete it. She remembered seeing the fortress in ruins, the stones blackened by soot and scorch marks. Did the Spell want the fortress destroyed? That would be a pyrrhic victory for the resistance. Should one side win over the other?
‘Damn it all. They probably covered this in school. What if the Nightmare doesn’t end after the battle?’
Considering it, Robin came to the conclusion that she should try her damndest to make sure the resistance forces won. If the boss wasn’t exaggerating, she would probably die to the Imperials if they didn’t take the fortress. As much as the boss seemed to detest her, he surely wouldn’t try to kill her, not after she would’ve helped them.
More issues jumped out at her as she thought about them. Firstly, what the hell collapsed the fortress like that? Sure, a stray Nightmare Creature afterwards might’ve been able to knock some stones around, but as far as Robin was aware, they’d have preferred an intact structure. The fortress seemed too sturdy to collapse from that alone. Besides, the fortress rebuilt itself moments before the sped up reverse time ended, strongly hinting that the battle itself caused catastrophic damage to the building. She suspected it had to do with whatever scorched a large portion of the stones, and the brief fire that flared before the fortress reformed.
There were simply too many unknowns. She knew she had to involve herself in it in order to beat the Nightmare, so into the lion’s mouth she would go.
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The man whose blanket she had stolen turned out to be one of the Awakened. He seemed to have some rudimentary shaping ability thanks to his Aspect, which he used to fashion ladders out of earth and wood. She didn’t see anything else, so she clocked him as a Sleeper.
A commotion tore her attention away from the man. It seemed that the boss and the tattooed woman were going to spar. The other members called their support for whoever they thought would win.
Getting closer, Robin barely managed to hear the boss as he said to the woman, “No second abilities. We want to conserve essence.”
“I know,” she replied. “I just need a warm up before we fight for real.”
That seemed to be the cue for them both, as they launched into battle right after. Their speed was… frankly terrifying. The tattooed woman did not seem to be using any external abilities. Her speed and strength were just monstrous, each hit of her shortsword ringing loudly against the boss’ sword.
The boss, though outmatched in strength and speed, had the woman on the ropes. He seemed to predict her every move, capitalizing on any attack the woman committed too heavily to. He pulled many strikes that would have obviously connected.
Eventually, the woman stepped back, letting her shortsword disintegrate into sparks. “You have me beat as always, Galim. And I thought I’d be able to get you to activate your ability this time.”
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“We’ve been sparring for years. I know your patterns, and you know mine. Besides, there is no reason to risk harming you with the mission coming up by using my Aspect.” He looked around at the gathered crowd. “Would anyone else like to spar? Nothing too intense, obviously. Save your energy for later.”
A few challengers stepped up. Galim toned down his attacks for these people, and even then, he won every time. No wonder the bastard was so heartless — even Robin could tell he only got this level of prowess from lots and lots of combat.
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The rest of the day passed by rather uneventfully. Just sitting around as the tension in the camp rose. People did their preparations. The ladders were delegated to be carried by certain people. Robin was given a rag to breathe through while in the sewers. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of it, but her survival was on the line here. Besides, it would be rather heartless of her to let a Nightmare Creature into the waking world just because she couldn’t handle some stench.
Eventually, the fated hour arrived. The sun had set, and the moon was nowhere to be seen. Perfect for a stealth mission. She could barely make out the people around her in the dim starlight, what with them being underneath a canopy of trees and all.
At the last minute, Galim approached her and transferred her a Memory that would marginally improve her stealth. He made it exceptionally clear that doing anything to attract attention to herself would immediately nullify its effect. It was a cloudy mirror that never seemed to reflect exactly what it was pointed at.
The side of the fortress the resistance would attack was opposite the side of the sewage exit (or entrance in her case). Accompanied by a mundane soldier to the other side of the tree line to ensure she wouldn’t run off, she found herself at the point of no return. She summoned both the [Back Alley Dagger] and [Spectre’s Mirror], — the Memory she had been given — checked that the vial with water was full, and that she had her gloves before setting off.
She would take no chances. Painfully slow as it was, she crawled on her stomach, hoping that the guards on the battlement wouldn’t notice her. So far so go-
Raised voices sounded from the wall. Shit. She stood still for a few seconds, praying, hoping that they wouldn’t put an arrow into her back. Her prayer proved unnecessary, as the voices receded. They weren’t targeting her. Perhaps the resistance had begun their attack?
Regardless, she wouldn’t complain about good luck. She got up, and ran as quickly as she could while still maintaining a low profile. No one called out or threw anything at her, and, before long, she had made it to the entrance of the sewer. This was her first time seeing it up close.
Claustrophobically small. Did they have an Awakened to maintain it and thus didn’t need to make it accessible to adults? Shaking her head, she dismissed such pointless thoughts and tied the rag around her mouth and nose and got to crawling inside.
To say it reeked would be a vast understatement. Her eyes watered, and she had to breathe through her mouth in order to stop herself from gagging, and even that barely stopped it. To add insult to injury, the water content of the waste also removed her flesh, forcing herself to kind of shimmy using her hands and legs against the upper walls of the circular passage over puddles and clumps. With the battle going on above, she figured she didn’t have to worry about any incoming waste surprising her at least.
Then came the hard part. She had to scale the near vertical passage up that led into the restrooms. This would be… unpleasant.
She climbed, slowly but surely, using the dagger to find chinks in the stone and gaining purchase as she crawled up the walls like some sort of insect. Her gloves stopped her from losing her fingers in the process to the slick walls.
‘Did it have to be the god damn sewers?’ she thought with a note of bitterness. Everyone must have been rushing to the other side to fight the resistance forces. Surely she could've climbed one of the walls or something on this side. Wouldn't be the first time she climbed stone bricks.
Using some acrobatic skills she didn’t know she had, she finally escaped the cramped passage and the seating area that drained to it. She had suffered little in the way of water removing her flesh.
More than a little exhausted from the climb, she quietly walked to the door and peeked outside.
‘Damnit!’
Quickly withdrawing from the doorway, she cursed her luck. A pair of guards on high alert, weapons at the ready, were patrolling far away from the combat.