8/27 - Anti-bandit army camp - afternoon

Today a strategy meeting is being held about our current dilemma. So far, we are gaining more and more supplies from villages that have enough to spare. We have caravans coming in and out nowadays.

Bandit activity in the area is dropping but it's not gone yet, so Alex is out there leading a big ass force of people to finish the remaining ones in this area.

Marie is left in charge of managing the camp, so she was the one to call the meeting. Since Richard is out and Nunnalé is tasting sweets and reading a book on flowers, I decided to join in on the meeting. Though, I can’t say I'm not sleeping here and there about some of the other menial things. Asides from that, we seem to be doing okay, although, there is a problem that we're talking about now.

“. . .We still have no means of transportation,” Marie says. “That’s the problem we’ve encountered so far. We need the means to travel with equipment and people in mind. Wagons with Yaguars, but it still seems to be dangerous with the fact of our enemies using vehicles to travel."

A quick thing about Yaguars, they're animals that are big, sturdy, probably good for pulling big wagons. As for riding on them, well, they're slow, so I got bored quickly.

"Plus, if we were to lose the Yaguars then we lose our only means to transport our equipment and supplies. However, considering we lack the means to acquire a vehicle it seems likely that we will have to use them,” Marie ends her explanation on our current situation.

“Then why haven’t we yet?” I ask her.

“Because before we do I want to view all our options. If we have no choice then we’ll use wagons, but if we can somehow secure a vehicle big enough to fit an army and transport our goods that would be preferable. So, who has an idea? Gilhart?”

“No, I don’t have anyone who can help with that.”

“Proxy?”

“We could steal a ride from the kingdom!?”

“I mean anything that isn’t gonna get us a bounty. Chip, any ideas?”

“Huh?” Chip others out, his mind seemingly elsewhere.

“Do you have any ideas as to getting a vehicle?”

“That’s. . .”

“Come on, don’t be keeping secrets from the rest of the class, Chip,” I tease.

He sighs to himself, seemingly vexed. He seems a bit cagier than usual.

“I might be able to. I know someone who’s able to make vehicles.”

“That’s fantastic! Can you get them to come here,” Marie's excitement overtakes her.

“Might not be all that simple. . .But I guess I could try. Gonna need to go at less than ideal place far from here.”

“Thank you so much! Gilhart, will you go with him?”

“Okay, I'll protect him with my life.”

" don't go too hard out there, Gil," I tell him, we give each other a fist-bump.

"Course, you be careful too."

“So it’s you and me, huh. Aight. Come on, we need to hit up the Kingdom for a bit.”

“Why?”

“Because we're gonna need snacks for the trip.”

"No unnecessary detours!" Marie interjects.

Chip sucks his teeth. "Damn, guess we'll just go without making any detours whatsoever."

He's going to.

The two of them head for the exit of the camp. Man, why can’t I go? Actually, what do I do? Alex isn’t here to train me, Richard is out learning about his powers at Selena’s castle. Damnit, what am I gonna do?

“Proxy, I got something for you to do," Marie says to me.

“What is it, is it important?”

“This is an important job indeed.”

“Sweet, what is it?”

…

“I hate laundry day!”

I traverse a small pocket of forest with a basket full of clothes. By no means is this all the clothes that have to be washed. There’s a couple more that I have to go and pick up after dropping this batch off. In this forest, there’s a pool of clean water that we use to clean the clothes; well, I don't know if it's so clean anymore. I have to wait until they’re nice and soaked to take them out. We dry them off back at camp. Overall: it’s pretty tedious for the guy who has the basket.

“Why do I have to do this stuff? This is just a waste of my talents.”

As I walk through the forest, a strong breeze hits me. Kind of cold, it must be turning to winter. I should buy a thicker jacket.

“Huh!”

An instantaneous feeling in me goes off in my brain, something is coming at me from behind! I drop the basket to move out of the way. A sword is stuck in a tree, past where I was standing. I get up, my eyes scan the area.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Who’s there!?”

I draw the sword on my hip, readying myself for whatever comes next. . .

“Hm!”

My senses just went off again, something is coming from behind me again! I swing my sword to attack them! The sound of two blades clashing echoes through the small forest.

“Damn, it looks like ya noticed me.”

A person is behind me. I break away from him to gain some distance.

“Nice move, boy, pretty good. Thought I was gonna get dis over with too soon, ya feel me?”

“I’m too good to get killed in such a way. So who the hell are you?”

“Me, I’m nobody.”

“Everyone is somebody, and you sure as shit are somebody.”

“Guess ya got a point. Willy, that what people know me by. I’m also the guy who’s takin’ ya in, dead or alive. But dead works for me.”

“Well, Willy, sorry to disappoint you but I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“I wasn’t askin’.”

“And I wasn't begging.”

Without another word, we both lunge at each other, our weapons clash as soon as we are in reach of the other. He’s using a knife against my sword. It seems like I have a bigger advantage over him, but if anything, he has a chance to slip past my sword and put that thing in my back or brain. So I need to be mindful of our distance and positions. My opponents' moves are slick, tricky, and as fast as Cade’s knife attacks. I match my swing to where his knife is going. I swing hard enough to knock the knife out of his hand. Good, now I can go for the knockout!

“Gotcha,” he declares with a smug expression forms on his face.

He slips another knife from his sleeve. Noticing this, I barely block it in time as it aimed for my heart. Willy put some distance between us.

“Shoot, thought I had ya for a second there.”

“Kidding me, that was nothing!”

He nearly nailed me there, if I was a second slower I would’ve bit the dust. I need to stay on my toes, or else he will get me.

“Not a lot of people managed to dodge that attack. Good on ya, kid."

“Thanks, I’m real honored!”

“No need, da fact ya did makes dis all the sweeter.”

He charges for me. I dodge as he makes an attack. He’s quick to come after me after finishing an attack. His attacks are getting faster, he’s trying to slip past my defense, luckily, this isn’t my first rodeo with knives and weapons in general. I’m used to anticipating and blocking against blades. I’m able to keep up with my opponent. Despite that, I'm still taking a few cuts from minor mistakes. He pulls out a second knife and begins to slash at me with both of them. One was enough but two is more than a challenge. I have to keep up with two blades at the same time.

“Too easy!” Willy yells. He moves his hands below my sword, hitting it from below with his knives, knocking it out of my hand. “Left yerself wide open!”

“So did you!”

My hand swiftly takes out the knife in my pocket. The blade slides against his face. The knife is covered in blood as the side of his face is cut open. I can tell it wasn’t a deep cut but it was enough. Willy hurries away from me. He traces the wound with his finger.

“Not bad, I underestimated ya, boy!”

“Damn, you dodged it.”

I meant to hit his eye but he must’ve seen the blade coming at the last moment.

“Sorry ‘bout that, yer blade just wasn’t good ‘nough.”

He drops the knife and reaches in his cape. He pulls out two machete-looking weapons.

“You have to be kidding me!”

“Dat was a good attack. I’ll admit, but they only work once!”

He dashes towards me with his new, bigger weapons. This isn’t good, I only have this pocket knife on me. I have to dodge the moment he gets me near me. He probably knows I’m going to dodge but I have no choice!

“Hm!”

Something catches Willy’s attention. A purple blur comes between me and Willy. A clashing sound is made between swords. Willy is thrown backward after the clash. Nunnalé is the one who arrived to save me.

“Are you harmed?”

“I’m alright. Why are you here?”

“I was told to keep an eye on you by my master.”

“Seriously, what does Richard think I am, a child!?”

My eyes focus back on my opponent, who hasn’t lost his composure. I can’t see his eyes but I can tell he’s watching us with keener eyes now.

“Well now, ain’t this just a delight. You got a good swing there, girly. “

“Who are you?”

“Sorry, but I don’t think talkin’ like dis is gonna benefit me. Hate to do this, but I’m gonna have to retreat!”

“Running away?”

“Don’t you worry, boy. I’ll be back to collect.”

“Why do you want to fight me?”

“The king has a bounty for Ya, and another person. I was able to track ya down yesterday. Of course, I waited until ya were alone to come and fight ya.”

“Damn, I must’ve really pissed him off.”

“Maybe, but dat’s enough of that, I’ll be goin’ now.”

“Wait, you aren’t getting away from me!”

Willy takes out something from his cape just to throw it to the ground; it's a smokescreen! Nunnalé and I rush towards him before he can get away. Reaching his position he's nowhere to be found, even outside the smokescreen.

“He has escaped us,” Nunnalé determines.

“I can see that. Damnit!”

“Why did he come after you?”

“The king has it out for me. He put a bounty on my head.”

Nunnalé looks at my head, circling me as she does so. “I don’t see one.”

“It’s just an expression, but this might be a bad thing.”

“We shall head back to camp then.”

“Yeah, I might want to tell Marie about this.”

“Then let us carefully be on our way back.”

“'Kay. . .Hold on, I have to go get the laundry.”

To my surprise, the laundry is still in the basket, still as wet as when I pulled them out of the water. Sweet, at least I don’t need to wash them again! Though, I don’t think that I have to do the other baskets since what just happened. Maybe laundry day is good, once in a while.

Willy's temporary base of operations - afternoon

“That kid put up a better fight than I thought he would, and that girl. . .Some good ass bounty is. Well, I better just cool out for the time bein’.”

Dressing his wounds, Willy sits in a small cavern that was inhabited by vicious predators, but he had cleared them out to make it a temporary base of operations. He lost three weapons today, one survival knife and twin machetes. He’s taken one hit from Proxy. However, he did get some information out of the fight.

1. Proxy’s ability with the sword is amateur at best

2. He has a powerful ally on his side.

3. He can handle himself in a fight, even if his sword skills are amateur he was able to keep up with Willy’s attacks, to an extent.

4. His senses are good. He was able to dodge Willy’s surprise attack, even when he gave him no indication that something was thrown. And when he snuck up on him as quietly as possible, he still failed to ambush him.

5. Finally, he's quite aggressive in his approach. An easy mind-set to manipulate while fighting.

These ted bits of information give him everything he needs to know on how to handle him. A dry laugh comes out of Willy, despite the pain surging from his face, he can’t help but laugh.

As he continues to treat his wound, he wonders about the next encounter he and Proxy will have - and in the fashion - how he will kill him.