"What do you see?" Alex asked as he lay his back against a tree.

Li Wen lay with her rifle resting on a root. The barrel pointed out into the ruins down below. Erin, Sayed, Jean, and Artur all had their backs to trees down the line, mainly because Alex didn't want to reveal their position before everything kicked off. However, he also needed a lay of the land to make a plan. Mari was left behind with James. With the entire tribe on alert, Alex was sure she would be safe.

"They're talking at the temple," Li Wen said, her scope roving over the area. "I still only count five of them."

"Can I see?" Alex asked, and Li Wen handed up the rifle to him.

He leaned around from behind the tree and looked through the scope. The entire rifle was uncomfortable in his hands. Alex never really liked guns. They reminded him too much of things he would rather not remember. He pushed that aside and lined the scope on the temple's top.

"You said they were a crew," Alex said. "Do you know them?"

"The leader's Benbeck, he's the one in the suit," Li Wen said. "The big muscly one with the mustache is Armstrong. The one with the sword is Siegreid, while the one with the knife is Manfred. Their archer is Athena."

Alex ran the scop over each of them one by one. "They have bounties?"

"'Hothands' Manfred, 'Darkblade' Seigfried, 'Eagle Eyes' Athena, 'Strong Arm' Armstrong." Li Wen counted them off one by one. "Only Benbeck hadn't done anything to earn a bounty that I know of anyways."

"Then how did he come to lead so many?" Sayed asked, his whisper-level voice not really a whisper.

Alex held a finger up to his lips as he looked over to Sayed, and Sayed ducked his head a little in a bow. Stealth was key until they knew what they were getting into, and Alex still didn't have a plan. All the pieces were here, as near as he could tell, but he just needed to know a little bit more.

"He could just be paying them." Li Wen shrugged. "That would be my first guess. If you're a small-time operator and need some quick muscle, paying a few outlaws is an easy way to get a crew."

"Not like we can out-pay them." Alex sighed, handing the rifle back.

"I'm surprised you don't have a gun," Li Wen said, taking it from him. "With your curse, there has to be a few things that it would help with."

"I'm not big into guns." Alex sighed, squinting as he looked back over to the pyramid. "Besides, it hasn't been as useful of an idea since I got my curse to second grade. I can just generate the metal I need."

"It sounds like it fixed a lot of problems for you," Li Wen said, shaking her head and leaning her rifle against her shoulder.

"I don't think it's going to help here, though," Alex said as he looked over everyone else.

Jean was good for close combats, and Eliza could be used to scout. She also might be able to fight from a distance, though he had never seen Jean do it, so he assumed he had some sort of range limitation on his curse. Sayed was in close combat, and his power was tied to his swords. He and Erin were both mid-range combatants and could go close range, though Erin obviously preferred not to deal with close range while he preferred close range. That left Li Wen. She was primarily a long-range fighter with her rifle, though she could use her pistols as needed.

While they all had their strengths, none of them could take out all five of Benbeck's crew in a few seconds. Every one of them left up was a person who could respond, whether they killed Ikal in the process or were able to escape, and Alex didn't want either to happen. Benbeck needed to pay in pain for attacking the Zoan.

He couldn't just use the ship to bombard the area. While it did work to amplify his curse, stone, and metal would make good cover for Benbeck and his crew. That would give them a chance to counterattack or kill Ikal. Destroying it would also destroy the Zoan's sacred grounds. While Alex was selfish, that didn't mean he was a jerk. There was no reason to destroy the area just to handle a group of rowdy outlaws.

What he needed was an extra set of hands. He had asked the Zoan to stay back because he didn't know them that well and didn't know how they would handle the fight. They could easily have had one hothead who would have already revealed the crew's location and required him to plan on the go.

"They are so well fortified and have the cover of night," Artur said, leaning against his tree as he peered over the area. "It will be a difficult trial for us to prevail against this blight."

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Alex looked at him and blinked a few times. There was an option he hadn't considered yet, though he had seen Artur's abilities in action twice now. Artur could generate a protective barrier from his shield. Alex thought about the two times he had seen Artur's curse. How far away had the shield been from his body? Could he generate it like a bubble? Could he use it to protect someone else entirely? If he could get Arutr around the area where Ikal was, Artur could shield Ikal until the fight was over. It would allow his crew to fight without worrying about anything else.

It would also solve Alex's other problem. At the moment, they had the other crew matched one-to-one. However, with Artur, they had a slight numbers advantage. That meant if Artur got Ikal out, they could still fight on equal terms with Benbeck's crew.

"I know that look." Erin sighed, looking between him and Artur. "That means you have a crazy plan."

"You don't have to add 'crazy' in front of it," Alex said, a smile cracking his face. "I might have a plan."

"Well, give it to us." Sayed smiled, shining in the darkness around them. "The suspense is killing me."

"Well, all that hinges on a few questions." Alex shook his head as he turned to Artur. "Your barrier curse, how far can you extend it around a person?"

"Me? You wish to know about my ability?" Artur placed a hand on his chest. "My barrier can extend a good distance. However, there are limits to the resistance."

He held out his hand as he said it, and a blue barrier appeared around a distant tree. The distance was about ten meters away. Alex nodded as he thought about the distance. Would it be enough if Artur could get close to shield Ikal and protect him while they handled the rest of the crew?

"And it'll hold against bullets and other things, right?"

"Its durability is much to be praised," Artur said, raising one finger. "But the greater the distance or attack, the less it will stay raised."

Alex frowned. It wasn't going to be enough. He would need some additional crowd control with Artur so that they could get Ikal away. His hope that the barriers could just tank the hits was pretty much gone. He closed his eyes and sighed. He would need to adjust the plan.

"This would be so much easier if I weren't planning around Ikal." Alex sighed, shaking his head.

"But you will plan around him?" Jean chuckled. "We certainly aren't going to leave him out to dry?"

"Of course." Alex smiled back. "The problem's here because of us. It would be rude not to help out people who took us in for the night."

"For a bunch of outlaws, you all never want to look out for yourselves." Erin sighed. "All your reputations are lies. Lies."

"Why would they not be lies?" Artur asked. "For in dire times, heroes always arise."

"Hero is a strong word," Alex said. "I just don't want to leave Ikal hanging. I'm sure everyone here feels the same way."

He looked through each of them, and even though Erin had a stained smile, even she wouldn't just leave a kid to die. While none of them were hardened criminals, even some of the most hardened ones Alex had met out in Erth wouldn't just leave a kid to die if they could help it. Outlaws were people wanted by the government—that didn't make them monsters.

"So, what do we do?" Artur asked. "Help will not fall upon us out of the blue."

Despite Artur's insistence on rhyming, he was right. Alex couldn't expect someone else to run in and solve all his problems. He had the people in front of him, their skills, and nothing else. He could only make the best plan he could and roll with that. Everything else, as Jean would say, would be up to fate.

"Alright," Alex said, turning to Li Wen first. "You're our eyes. From what I can see, their sniper is out of commission because you hit her back in the village. So you're going to mop up anyone you can when you have an open shot."

"Easy enough." Li Wen nodded, holding her rifle against her shoulder.

"Sayed and Jean." Alex turned in on the other two next. "Once we have Ikal safe, you're backing me up. Sayed will prefer the swordsman, and Jean, you handle whoever is left over. I'm going to go in alone first to be the distractions."

"Naturally." Sayed smiled. "That swordsman will be no trouble for me."

"I will do my best, but fate will decide the outcome." Jean sighed.

That left the last two. Alex gazed at Erin and Artur, still unsure about his plan. He didn't like leaving such an important part up to anyone but himself, but the reality was that Benbeck had told him to show up alone. He needed to be the distraction. That left Erin and Artur to do something that he would rather do himself.

"What about us?" Erin asked, looking between herself and Artur.

"You two have a special job." Alex smiled, and Erin's face went white. "It's one worthy of a master spy and a shining knight."

"Why do I feel like you chose the worst one for us?" she asked.

"Erin, you're better than any of us at being stealthy," Alex said, raising an eyebrow at her. "I want you to use that to our advantage."

"Keep going." Erin motioned with her hand for him to continue.

"I want you to take Artur behind the temple. Once you're there, you'll get him to shield Ikal and get him away from the fight. You're there to support that. Anything you can do to get Ikal out of there. Just don't stop running until you're sure he's safe."

Erin frowned, looking down at the ground. Alex already knew what she was feeling. She thought he didn't have confidence in her. Out of all of them, she was the most willing to run instead of fight. It wasn't a bad instinct to have out in the night, but everyone else on the crew was more likely to fight than run.

"Once Ikal is safe, we'll come back to help," Erin said. "As it is now, that'll leave you all a person down in the fight."

Now that, Alex hadn't expected. He had thought Erin would accept the plan as it was and just stay out of the fight. However, there were times, and this was one, where she would also show courage. It made him question how much he really knew about her.

At their core, who a person really was was revealed when their back was up against the wall. People would often say who they were and what they would do, but until they were in the real situation, until they had their face against the grind, that was all just talk.

"Now, that can work." Alex smiled.