My pulse quickened as the words settled in: bandits. I strained my ears and stretched a neck around the corner, but the thick underbrush gave away no secrets. Lenya crouched beside me, the knees of her lush silk-velvet robe sinking into the mud. She tilted her head slightly as if listening to some far-off sound only she could hear. By the starlight, I’m certain I saw a half-inch of smile curl across her full lips, though if it did, it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Waiting on the far ridge to the left, I heard at least four.”

I swallowed. My fingers tightened around my spear and a little of that ugly violence sparked into the muscles in my shoulders. I tried to force myself to see reason, glancing between reticent Alator and the unreadable Lenya.

“How do you know they are bandits? Could just be camping out here before they —”

“I felt the bloodlust on them, and their greed,” he said simply.

My eyes fell from his and I stared at the ground.

“Well, we have to avoid them, then. We’re in no state to —”

“No chance. They heard us, too.”

I pulled up some leaves from the ground, trying to think of another way.

“They’re expecting night-merchants and traders; poor, defenceless souls,” Lenya murmured, her tongue dancing deliberately slowly over the syllables. There was some music in her tone I hadn’t heard before.

Turning away from her, heartbeat continuing to quicken, I poked a hand into my pouch and found the Analysis Card, just in case. In the direction Alator had pointed, three boxes popped up for a fraction of a second, then one disappeared — clearly leaving my eyeline. Before it had disappeared, however, I’d pulsed a frantic [Battle Tactics] into my blood, and even though I’d only seen a flash of their Stats, with closed eyes I could recall them perfectly as plans and opportunities swarmed my mind’s eye.

Name :

Ba’ram, Bandit Underling, Level 4

Stats :

Str 4, Dex 9, Con 4, Mnd 4

Skills :

Shadowcraft Lvl 1

Special :

Brother Bond

Inventory :

2 Bronze Daggers, Signal Mirror, Desert Amulet, 6 Copper Coins

Weakness :

Fearful of heights

Home :

Breathing Sands, Barbican

Name :

Ja’ram, Bandit Underling, Level 5

Stats :

Str 5, Dex 8, Con 5, Mnd 4

Skills :

Shadowcraft Lvl 1

Weapon Mastery Lvl 1

Special :

Brother Bond

Inventory :

Bronze Sword, Bone Javelin, Signal Mirror, Desert Amulet, 11 Copper Coins

Weakness :

Fearful for his brother

Home :

Breathing Sands, Barbican

Name :

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Keth, Bandit Enforcer, Level 6

Stats :

Str 4, Dex 12, Con 8, Mnd 5

Skills :

Shadowcraft Lvl 1

Survivalism Lvl 1

Vigour Lvl 1

Special :

Tree Cimb

Inventory :

Vine Whip, Blowpipe, 3 Poison Darts, Vine Rope, 20 Copper Coins

Weakness :

Reckless in pursuit

Home :

Ith-Korr, Barbican

“Here’s the plan,” I said levelly, eyes still closed. “There are three that I could see, a fourth might make themselves known. I guess two of them are desert-folk and another is jungle-folk. The two desert-folk look to be brothers. Lenya, do you have magic you can send to their position, to light it up and give them a fright?”

“I do,” her eyes took on a sparkling that matched the music playing on her lips. But it no longer worried me — perhaps because of the Skill, I only saw in her excitement and eagerness.

“After she does that, at least one, maybe two of them, will leap down the embankment. I’ll take out the one left up there. After that, the other desert-folk will probably freak out, giving us, Alator and I, a chance to get close. If we can overpower him, I’m going to head into the trees and goad the jungle-folk to follow. I’ll . . . try to capture him, if . . .”

I faded away. A sudden knot in my stomach furled up as I realised I was calmly talking about killing three people. . . . No time to dwell on that, I thought as I felt Alator hype up beside me.

“Sounds good to me,” Alator growled. Trust became his eyes, and despite the awful situation I felt my chest rising chest showing a quick, short-lived pride.

I nodded to them both, then crept forwards to the edge of the trees, just around the bend, still hidden by ferns and the darkness. It was perhaps a little while after midnight at this point — sunsrise was still hours away.

Lenya took to my side wordlessly. I put a hand on her shoulder and she didn’t flinch. I felt taut and ready muscles over the thin, delicate bones. I reached out a hand to where the Analysis Card had thrown up the boxes and she followed my gaze.

“The third tall tree along. Light it up.”

She put her hand to her heart and a subtle, warm glow emanated from it, lighting her chest and neck. I felt the quiet pull of energy towards her and a few of the sodden leaves at her feet turned over and stuck to her boots. Her lips moved with an inaudible incantation, then after perhaps half a minute she pointed out her reddening hand.

“[Flicker : Spark],” she whispered.

The effect was instant. There was a rush of steam as heavy air was displaced in a line between us and the target, then the base of the dark crackled and lit up like a Christmas tree, red and pink sparks erupted from the roots and three figures were illuminated below. Three manic shrieks reached our ears.

“Now!” I yelled.

We ran forwards as two of the figures, one tall and one almost child-sized, leapt and began sliding and tumbling down the embankment, while one turned to the sparks and backed up away from the tree, but refused to drop down.

[Weapon Mastery] was pulled easily from the stream of my inner power, I gripped the haft of my spear and rose it to my shoulder, then with a painful, stunted burst of [Vigour], wrenched it forwards and let it fly with every ounce of my improved Strength. It screamed pitilessly through the air as a streak of bronze and found its mark nearly fifty yards away: caught the lone figure still silhouetted by the sparks hard and deep in the middle of his back. Ba’ram dropped with a cry and a burst of blood.

Beneath them, Ja’ram shouted panicked back up to his brother in a language I didn’t understand. The moment’s confusion gave Alator more than enough time. He roared as his eyes lit up golden and bright, giving a momentary glow like daylight to the wheel-rutted trade route, and in two arrow-straight leaps met the bandits. As he landed, in one cruel movement, he sent a fist into Ja’ram’s jaw and knocked him skidding down to the floor, out cold.

Then I was on them both. I threw another one of the Chitin Fragments at the jungle-folk. It hit him hard enough that he turned to me, a barbed whip unfurling in his hand. Then I turned heel and leapt into the trees. He barked madness, forgot the rest of the scene, and made after me as fast as his little legs could sprint.

After making it under the canopy I leapt up to a high branch and pulled myself up. It took a short while, my muscles aching and complaining, but managed to raise up my legs a moment before Keth came shouting and stamping after me, crashing through the thick vines.

He stopped for a moment for his eyes to adjust, then his ears twitched and with a fitful shriek glanced up to see me perched. That moment I dropped down hard behind him and got him in a headlock. Curly, soft fur brushed against my chin and arms as I lifted him off the floor, and I felt a tail pressing into my hip and slapping against my back.

Instantly, the whip was forgotten on the floor and he reached up with fingernails like talons and started scratching and scraping at my forearms, leaving broken skin and red-beading lines.

“Bastard little monkey-hobbit!” my voice grunted out almost unbidden as I tightened the grip around his neck. After what felt like a very long struggle, his fingers slowed their frantic effort, then stopped, and he went limp in my arms.

I carried him back out of the jungle to the others. Alator had collected Ba’ram’s body, stiffening and growing cold, and left it at the bottom of the embankment.

Dropping the jungle-folk onto the dirt I went through his pack and withdrew the rope, made of scratchy, tight-woven vines. Alator tossed me the Bronze Spear of Blinding and I cut the rope in half, then passed one half to Alator. We tied up Keth and Ja’ram and sat heavily on the ground, panting.

Lenya came quickly over to us, her eyes taken by absolutely indiscernible movement.

“That was incredible,” she breathed, caught between impressed warmth and harsh judgement. “So brutal, so efficient. So cruel.”

I ignored her, but she kept on:

“The way you picked out their vulnerabilities and set about in horrible savagery to use them against them! Is that due to the ability to see into people’s souls that your Woretion gave you?”

Forgot I’d said that to her.

“You see into people’s souls?” Alator asked.

“Yes, something that’s been happening recently,” I mumbled noncommittally. I still had a heavy pulse in my heart when I thought about divulging everything, even to Alator. Couldn’t quite explain why, but I kept it vague, “I can get a feel for people’s abilities and weaknesses.”

“What do you see in my soul?”

“Almost nothing, it is hidden to me.”

Alator seemed pleased enough with that, then without a moment’s pause, he breathed out and smiled:

“That’s incredible — a great gift of foresight and analysis. I suppose that System of yours can do some good. But to be able to use it so effectively — I understand why you were chosen.”

I smile aside, looked back into the trees to where they had come from and touched the Analysis Card in my pouch. If they had had another person with them, they were long gone.

// SYS : You gained 42 XP for defeating Ba’ram. You now have 125 and need 115 total for the next Level. //

I’m in no mood, SYS.

Bzz.

Sick in the stomach, bile stinging the back of my throat, I couldn’t help but think:

By Jove, that’s a lot of Experience for such an easy kill.