Walther was hunkered down, careful to avoid making noise as he waited for the order to proceed. He was in a sea of green fauna, a faint scent of honey was in the air. Broken patches of dirt were visible here and there, covered in a layer of forest litter. The canopy overhead was a thick healthy green, supported by towering tree trunks coloured with varying shades of teak brown. Spots of light tried to break through the dense canopy, speckling the leaves with shades of silver and white as they slowly danced in the winds breeze. In places where the sun was victorious, proud rays of light shone down to the ground.

Then a gunshot broke the serenity, heralding the start of battle.

Walther’s hands tightened around his weapon. With every gunshot that rang out his heart began to pump just a bit faster. His muscles tensed as he heard the cries of men in the distance. They were cries of alarm and warning, not those of pain. The battle had only just begun. To calm himself Walther inspected his weapon.

Grenzau 2A

Damage

22

Accuracy

C

Range

40

Condition

Average

Rarity

Common

Description

Standard issue Regus rifle.

It was a long, single shot breech-loaded rifle. It wasn't the newest rifle the Empire had, but it was reliable. Walther had been taught by his squad leader, Hans, to always put faith in his weapon. So long as Walther kept it in good condition it wouldn’t fail him.

“Frieda, Walther, get over here.”

A low and gravelly voice pulled Walther back into the moment. He looked in the direction it came from and saw his commander, Hans, beckoning him over. A stern look was etched on the mans face. Walther worked his way through the underbrush to the crouching knight, passing by other hunched figures. Hans was positioned with one knee on the ground, leaning against a tree for support while trying to stay low. He looked uncomfortable, like a circus bear doing its best to crouch down on hind legs. Until the path to the camp was scouted for enemies he needed his squad to avoid detection.

His dark grey uniform was trimmed with red around the cuffs as well as along the bottom and middle edges of the uniform. Decorative white lace stitched around the jacket’s collar displayed his officer status. A white rectangular badge sewn below each shoulder indicated his rank, knight.

Walther normally found the knight to be a formidable figure, often making him nervous when singled out by the squad leader. Walther was still the squads green horn and Hans was reliable at reminding him. Today though, Walther was already tensed up. He only paid half a mind to the knight, distracted by the increasing amount of gunshots ringing out in the distance. As he approached the knight he could see that Frieda was already there. While her back was facing him, she was one of the few women in the squadron, and the only one with dirty red hair. She had short messy hair, and smooth, pale, milky skin.

Frieda turned to head to look at Walther. Her face betrayed little emotion. Her blue, almond-shaped eyes connected with Walther’s for a moment before she turned her attention back to Hans. Walther was often paired up with Frieda for scouting assignments. Hans found his perception skills to compliment Frieda’s ranged combat skills amiably. Despite the time they had spent together though, and Walther’s best efforts, he had yet to win her respect. To her he was little more than an unproven green horn that can track a target through the woods. She wore the same uniform as the knight, however, like Walther’s own uniform, hers lacked the decorative red trimming and white lace. Theirs also had no rank indicators on the arms, a sign that they were common soldiers.

“About time you joined us rookie,” Hans spoke as Walther took a knee beside him. “I want the two of you to push up to the bandit’s camp. Scout for any guards looking our way and eliminate them if you can without making noise. One of you come back and alert us when it’s safe for to move up.”

“Yessir,” Walther and Frieda replied in unison.

Together they set off north towards the camp. Squads One and Two had already engaged the north side of the camp. Squad Three’s mission, Walther’s squad, was to attack the camp from the south after the battle was underway. Walther and Frieda just had to make sure no bandits would see their squad coming before the surprise attack could occur.

The woods were devoid of life. It seemed the evolving battle had driven away all of the forest’s inhabitants. No birdsong was in the sky, no scratching in the trees. Only the sounds of combat could be heard. The cracks of firing rifles were a distant warning, like thunderclaps cautioning a coming storm. The sound of the wounded was a soft undertone. Muffled, anguished moans were their epithets.

In his heightened sense of awareness, Walther realized that he could detect two distinct gun sounds. He guessed the bandits must be using Grenzau Mark I muskets, while the others squads were outfitted with the same Mark II he had.

“Congratulations! Perception increased to level 19.”

Walther dismissed the prompt as he and Frieda approached the edge of the bandit camp. While he wanted to celebrate for progressing in skill level, he had to stay focused on their task. Nevertheless, he couldn’t prevent a grin from cracking as he silently celebrated his minor accomplishment. Leveling a skill was something to be happy about. While it wasn’t extraordinarily hard to up a skill at his level, it wasn’t something that occured constantly either. At the very least, he was earning XP far faster with the army then he did back home.

The pair didn't come across any bandit scouts in the forest while on their way to the camp. All that remained was for them to check for guards in the camp looking south. After that they could signal the rest of their squad to advance.

Careful to stay hidden, the duo inspected the fortifications before them. A waist high wooden wall formed the outer perimeter of the camp’s defenses, wrapping all the way around the clearing the camp was built on. The wall was in sad repair, it appeared to be breaking down in many places, and with its closeness to the clearing edge it may prove to help the attackers more than the defenders.

A number of one story structures were built inside the camp. They were in a similarly sorry state of disrepair as the wall was. Some had chunks of roof missing; others consisted of lumber so weathered you could see through the grooves between each plank. A couple of the structures had collapsed on themselves, fatally weakened by years of neglect. A large fire pit was burning in the center of camp, logs strewn around it in a circle for seating.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Frieda snuck up to the edge of the wall, taking a peek over its edge before scurrying back to Walther’s position, a twinkle in her green eyes.

“Hey rookie, just hit level 10 in Sneaking, guess who’s picking up the Surprise perk,” Frieda said, smug satisfaction written all over her face.

“Congratulations Frieda, any bandits near the wall to test out your new ability on?”

“I spotted three of them near the wall, all of them facing the north towards the action. One of them was even a Subhuman. A brenner. They won’t see our squad coming, not sure I want to risk trying to take them out ourselves. There’s also bandits guarding the buildings and others waiting as reserves near the fire. Most are on the far wall in combat,” Frieda gave her account, a twinkle still in her eye. Walther figured she must be playing with her character page. Her eyes were partially glazed with a semi-transparent white laminate.

“What does a brenner look like?” Walther inquired, cutting off Frieda’s report. He had never seen one before. Subhumans were banned from entering Regus, and the country had driven out all the Subhumans that lived within its territory before Walther had been born.

“They look pretty similiar to one of us, the main difference is that instead of hair they have… crests on their heads. Protective plate things. They’ve also got bright golden eyes. Also, there was some women sleeping against the western wall,” Frieda reported, clearly distracted.

“How do you sleep during a siege.”

“No idea but my perk point is spent; Sneak Attack ability unlocked. I can’t get Surprise II until level 20 though which kinda sucks. Not to mention it costs three perk points instead of one.”

Walther willed Frieda’s character page to open. Normally he would have to perform Inspect but in this case she was in a party with him and the other members of Squad 3.

Frieda

Level 10 - No Title

80 HP

50 MP

90 SP

Combat

Trade

Aspect

Block 6

Light Armour 11

Marksman 18

Small Blades 3

Swords 6

Cooking 3

Crafting 4

Provisioning 6

Athletics 16

Perception 18

Security 2

Speechcraft 4

Stealth 10

“At least you can get easy crits now, don’t whine too much,” Walther said, a genuine smile on his face. By focusing on Stealth a pop up appeared in Walther’s vision showing him Frieda’s stealth perks.

Stealth Perks

Sneak I

Grants a 10% stealth bonus while crouched.

Surprise

Grants the ability Surprise Attack. Damage is tied to Stealth level.

Walther had considered a few times before about getting the Surprise Attack ability for himself. He had always decided though that something else was more important.

Frieda returned his smile before settling into a more serious expression. Her brow furrowed as her gaze sharpened, eyes narrowing. Walther could see that she was ready to get started.

“I’m going to go alert the squad it’s time to join the fight. Wait here and fall back only if the situation changes and you need to report it,” Frieda said a slight nod in Walther’s direction. Gripping her Grenzau tightly in both hands, she turned to the south and disappeared deeper into the forest.

Walther ran a hand through his unkempt hair, shifting nervously as he decided what to do next. He could feel a desire to see the Brenner for himself rising within him, fighting against his innate sense of caution.

He listened closer to the sounds of the battle as he heard a group of Mark II rifles open fire. His friendly forces had a distinct advantage in firepower. The Mark II fired a larger round, at a higher velocity than the Mark I rifles he suspected the bandits had. The wood wall though, even in its state, would be thick enough that the rounds wouldn't be able to penetrate in most places. That combined with the forest in the north being a fair bit less dense than the southern woods Squad 3 would approach from was an advantage for the bandits in the current engagement.

Once his squad joined the fight, they would have a solid numbers advantage while also nullifying the enemies defensive advantage and removing the defense modifier the bandits would get for being in cover.

Walther knew it would be stupid to potentially expose himself to the enemy just to satisfy his curiosity. He could wait couldn’t he?

I do have the Mark ability. It would helpful to my squad if I could have the bandits near the south wall marked for when they arrive.

Walther had purchased the Mark perk in order to get the associated skill. When he hit level 10 in Stealth he had also picked up Mark II. He didn’t care much about the 10% better stealth that came with the Sneak perk Frieda had opted to get, and as nice as the bonus damage from Surprise Attack sounded, he was already pretty good at aiming for critical points. While it’s true the damage would stack up for what was effectively a double crit, that was overkill for the game he normally hunted.

Walther hadn’t been in the Regus Army long. His father had died a year earlier. Not knowing what to do with himself Walther had enlisted. He had grown up in the North-East forests of the Empire. His mother had died when he was young, too young to remember her, and he had lived with his father in a small cabin. His father was a hunter by profession who had begun teaching him the art as soon as he could. Walther had been tracking creatures through the woods as long as he could remember.

His father had taught him to use a bow and arrow. While his dad had kept basic rifles in the cabin, he never used them for hunting. Walther could remember him lecturing about how the loud noise of the weapons would scare away game. That the shot from a musket would cause more damage to an animal's meat and pelt than an arrow would, while at the same time not being reusable or self-producible. The army however, had forced him to learn the rifle. Even though he possessed a number of abilities based on the bow, including how to imbue an arrowhead with raw power, the army saw such abilities as outdated.

Walther decided to try and mark the enemies, as Frieda had suggested. He figured that if he ever wanted to lose his title of green horn, he would need to go the extra mile. Plus it never hurts to earn extra XP. Gliding across the half-dozen meters separating the forest from the wall, Walther tried to stay low to the ground to avoid entering the potential line of sight of the bandits. He used his right hand almost like a third leg, running it lightly along the ground to keep his balance, his other hand carrying his trusty Grenzau. As he arrived at the wall he nestled into its protection, gathering his wits before peeking over.

After a moment he heard a hissing voice coming from his mind, Get on with it, mark them already. The squad should almost be here.

Walther slowly rose his head up from the security of the wall to gaze at his foes. The brenner stood out right away. A man of average height with a somewhat muscular build, Walther could see the plate-like crest going down the back of the Brenner’s head and disappearing into his clothing. He realized then that he had no idea how many people he could mark at once. He had only ever used the ability for hunting, or for marking 1 or 2 enemy scouts at a time. He willed open his ability screen and focused on Mark.

Mark

A floating red triangle visible to all party members will appear above up to three targets. Bonus from Mark II: Mark is visible through foliage. +2 to max targets

With new found confidence in his ability, Walther willed a mark to appear on the three bandits closest to the south wall. Little did they know they now had floating red triangles over their head. At least, that’s what Walther thought until the brenner turned around and locked eyes his golden eyes onto Walther.

Walther just stayed crouched, head and shoulders poking over the wall while leaning against it for support. Ice froze his veins. The brenner hadn’t appeared to cast any spells, yet Walther was helpless in his gaze. He could do little more than cower with ever growing uncertainty visible in his eyes as he watched the brenner bandit take two steps towards him and raise his rifle. That motion prompted the other two bandits to turn around as well.

Walther wanted to call for help. He wanted to raise his own rifle or lower his head back into the safety of the wall, but he couldn't. Sweat formed on his brow, he could a feel a lump rising in the back of his throat. The bandit raised his rifle up to his face, the guns iron sight sitting below the man's right eye, Walther could just picture the aiming reticle that the bandit was almost certainly activating. Perhaps he was even taking the time to zoom in on Walthers head, a desire to make the most of what was looking like a perfect opportunity for the bandit. Earn as much XP as possible.

Walther knew it then. He was going to die.