Kathren crouched at the edge of the chamber, her eyes tracking over the ridges of stone tiers exposed by the glowing mushrooms. She strained her eyes to pierce the shadows around the rims of the giant stone steps, but in the end, she couldn't make out any more details than she already noted. There just wasn't enough illumination for her to make out anything more at this distance.
"You know where we need you to be positioned, correct?" Redgenald rumbled from where he squatted beside her. "And you have a path to get there?"
"Yes, I know where I need to be, and I think I have the path, but I won't know for sure until I'm there. It's just too dark to make anything out properly." Kathren said flatly, not looking at him. If she had any other option, she wouldn't have answered him at all, but proper communication was essential at the moment as their lives depended on it. She heard the faint scraping of his shoes on the stone, and she knew he had turned to face her, but she didn't acknowledge it.
Letting out a disappointed sigh, he said, "Look, I didn't mean to—
"I don't think this is the time for that Reaper." Then, turning her head to the opposite side the bastard was on as she mentally dismissed him, she ordered, "Follow me as best as you can while remaining silent." The one legionary, two brawny gangsters who were surprisingly quiet, and one wiry knight — who she was starting to suspect was a mercenary — nodded at her as they all started exiting the tunnel.
"If the alarm is raised before you're in position, we'll come running," Redgenald whispered as Kathren and her team passed him. She didn't respond, as there was nothing to say.
Their plan had changed slightly as they arrived at the cave mouth. It wasn't a significant change, but the benefits were worth the risk if it worked out. Instead of them all going together, Kathren and her team would move out before the others to get into a closer position between the pillars and the switchback ramp on the right before everything kicked off.
In the worst case, Kathren and her team were spotted early and would act as a distraction for the others as they descended into the cavern. Best case, they would arrive in position before they slunk forward and started cutting down all the goblins they could before acting as a distraction for the others as they charged down.
It really came down to how no one among them could see a plausible circumstance in which over a hundred equipped legionaries could traverse rough terrain in the dark, echoing cavern without being noticed by its inhabitants. There was a certain level of noise in the chamber, but not enough to completely conceal the legionaries' passage. So the question was, how far could they make it before being spotted?
As for Kathren and her team… well, that was another entirely different story. If they were a team of scouts, she would give them a real chance to make it down the side of the cavern. As they were, she gave them even odds to make it halfway.
It's gonna be less, She thought with a grimace. The legionary hasn't been trained properly, and the street toughs don't have experience over rough terrain outside a city. At least the knight can handle himself, but the others couldn't cover the first five feet and the drop without making a noise. And that just makes it all more annoying that my team has to consist primarily of his people. Smashing down on the flare of irritation, Kathren focused on her mission.
As she hopped down the first three tiers into the cavern, Kathren counted eight scrapes of leather against stone and clinks from steel tapping together. It wasn't like she had a hoard of floundering children chasing after her, but at the moment, it kind of seemed like it as she flinched at every sound.
When the shouts and clattering of stones from the construction on her left picked up to fill the chamber, it was easy to miss the sound of a foot scraping against stone, but the closer they got to their objective, the more likely someone was going to notice the noise and turn to look.
Worst of all, she couldn't even berate them for their mistakes, as at this point, anything that she said to them about their fuckups would only make them more nervous, causing more mistakes. It was a vicious circle that would lead to their discovery, leaving Kathren with no other option but to keep her head down while moving forward, hoping for the best.
Moving across the mostly level rock, Kathren kept up a slow pace as she felt out each step in a crouch. The stone levels that each looked to be between five and ten feet wide, while generally flat, had plenty of small ridges and divots of stone missing that would make it easy to twist an ankle. Not to mention that those behind her — well, all but the knight silently slinking along at the back of the group — had neither the experience nor muscles to stalk forward for long periods.
It left them in something of an ironic position. They had to keep up a brisk enough pace so the legionary's legs weren't entirely shot by the time they reached the bottom of the cavern. However, at the same time, they didn't have the skill to move quickly and remain silent, forcing them to slow down.
Kathran would have been cracking up at the situation and the Poor Bastard leading the formation if she wasn't said, 'Poor Bastard.' From her position in the front of the group, her eyes frantically jumped from the base of one pillar to the other, scouring every inch of the trench in between. Only the pillar far to her left had goblins visible to her, not that it meant shit.
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Any moment, one of them could pop around the corner, giving them only a few seconds to act. Not that Kathren was overflowing with options, as she could only choose between freezing, dropping to the ground, or charging.
Her options might have been simple and limited, but their lives still depended on her making them. Kathren had learned long ago that if you wanted to live, it wasn't so much about making one of the limited options available. What mattered more was how, but specifically when you executed the choice.
Like much in life, timing was everything, and she would not be caught flat-footed by these little black-skinned monsters if she could help it. Putting the small herd of cows clomping along behind her and all the distance they still had to cover out of her mind, Kathren focused solely on the hurdle before her. Covering the last of the uneven surface of the ledge, she arrived at the latest ringed lip, forming the outer layers of the cavern.
As to not appear like she was standing at the top of a mountain, outlining herself against the sky while waving her arms to draw the attention of everyone around, Kathren crouched low and slipped over the ledge, dropping six feet to the next layer. The others quickly followed, and she felt a slight loosening of the nerves in her gut.
They might have only traversed the fourth tier and still had at least forty more to go, but now it all seemed more manageable. Like there was nothing more to worry about, and they would soon arrive. It was probably just a delusion on Kathren's part, but she found she wasn't as stiff as a moment before while she moved along the next ledge.
Some of the shelves were more of a steep slope with a short hop and a skip at the end. In other sections, Kathren chose to hang over the side before dropping, as they were so tall. There was even one place where they happened across a crevice in the ground that dropped them down five or more levels while proving them a perfect hiding spot from the goblins.
To Kathren's surprise, after what felt like a matter of minutes, they had made it lower than the crevices placed to either side of the long room. In the back of her mind, she really didn't expect to make it even this far, and now that she had, the back of her neck prickled as if hundreds of people were watching her.
The intense feeling caused her to stop momentarily and look around, but when no shouts of challenge or alarms were raised, she shrugged and continued downward. However, now, every step she took was one with the intention of bursting into a run. When her eyes weren't flicking to the incompetent goblins 'guarding' the columns, she was picking out the path she would take them along. Time flowed by, and the only thing marking its passing was the many times when Kathren's heart leapt into her throat as the legionary fell to the ground with a clatter or one of the gang members kicked a large stone or one of the many equally idiotic errors they made.
And yet, Kathren blinked and found they made it into position with none of the goblins the wiser. Well, maybe it wasn't the precise position the bastard pointed out, but it was close enough that the difference would only matter to a puffed-up blowhard. This definitely meant Redgenald's eyebrow was twitching, and his jaw was clenched as he held back his annoyance. Then again, imagining it brought a smile to Kathren's lips, so that was only a bonus.
Curling her body and arms around a mushroom to block it from sight at every side except the one she wanted, she picked up and wiggled a mushroom before interposing her hand between it and where the tunnel should be a few times. For a few seconds, Kathren thought she had the wrong location and started searching the massive side of the cavern for where the fucking tunnel mouth was. Then her eyes leapt back to lock on a jiggling fungus wiggling where she first thought the tunnel should be, proving once again her great sense of direction. Why do I doubt myself?
As the light stopped moving, it vanished two times in quick succession before appearing again and seeming to freeze in place. Long seconds passed when nothing happened, and Kathren shifted from side to side, suddenly growing anxious as everything was coming to a head. Taking a moment to glance to her sides, Kathren took in those around her.
Her team's heads were constantly moving, taking in the area around them. She couldn't see their eyes with the dim light, but Kathren didn't need to. There was enough light for her to make out the stiff tension in their bodies and movements, and she could infer their eyes were cold and hard in preparation for the blood about to be spilled. Maybe a little too prepared, if she was honest. At their current stress level, Kathren was half surprised they weren't jumping and lashing out with their swords at the shadows around them.
It was a drastic contrast to the older man crouched to the side, his head fixated down the last twenty feet to the bottom of the cavern. It was like he was a statue, and the world passed by around him without ever affecting him. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn he couldn't move as he blended into the shadows so seamlessly that it was like he was one of them.
Turning to look back up the steps of the underground pit they were in, Kathren noticed that the green light was flickering again. Signaling back that she understood they were advancing, she carefully turned around and crept forward slowly to the lip of the level they were on.
Ignoring her body's complaints, Kathren held herself in place, her head slightly turned to the left. Like she was a hawk high in the sky, she watched the four forms scattered around the base of the closest column.
Three of the small figures were sprawled out on the ground, not even pretending to be awake as they snored into the darkness. The last one was leaning against the base of the pillar itself, slumping to the side in a way that yelled he had managed to fall asleep while remaining standing. Given how easy their descent was, Kathren shouldn't have been surprised and even excited at the lack of discipline in their enemy. And yet a small part of her was insulted by how much effort and emotions she wasted worrying that she would be discovered by these… imbeciles.
The only thing that lessened the blow was that at least one of them dedicated what had to be a not insignificant part of their life to perfecting standing on guard duty while asleep. Honestly, Kathren was kind of impressed at the well-practiced skill.
And it would only make slitting his throat with her knife easier, she thought with a vicious curling of her lips. All she had to do now was wait for Redgenald and the others to be discovered.