The fire crackled and snapped, wisps of smoke drifting up into the night sky.

Loch wasn’t worried about the fire being seen by the Silver Bark camp. Their own people would have needed to light one. Not having one would probably have been more suspicious.

He stared out into the forest, his senses spreading. There was nothing hiding, not even any nocturnal animals. Not that he could sense. His group was keeping them away. It made for an eerily silent night. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a couple people laying down in sleeping bags, with blankets to help keep out the chill. There had been no tents. He didn’t want to take the time to set it up, or more importantly take them down. As soon as Drew and the others were out of the Dungeon, they were leaving. Middle of the night or not.

Piper and Harper were laying next to each other, close to the fire. Harper’s arm was out, hand toward Piper, who had a finger wrapped around one of Harpers. Loch smiled. The girls had always been close. They had their fights, what siblings didn’t, but it never lasted long and they were back together soon. It wasn’t just the closeness in age, but a bond they’d always had. It had only gotten stronger since the Connection.

And the disappearance of Kelly.

Loch pulled up the Ranking Board, searching until he found her name. He smiled. They still didn’t know where she was, but she was alive. He hated the competitive nature of the Connection, what the Connected System wanted them to do with the Ranking Board, but at least they could use it to check on Kelly, as she was most likely doing with them since all of them were in the top hundred of the world. Loch chuckled, wondering what all those others on the Ranking Board would think if they found out that two spots were claimed by fifteen and thirteen year olds.

Julia and Brian were sleeping, leaving the watch for Loch and Elora. He looked around the clearing, not able to see the elf. He knew she was there, able to feel her presence thanks to the Bannerman bond, but not able to physically see her. She didn’t have Harper’s shadow powers, just her own skill. He wondered what she was thinking. Elora was still closed off, not sharing much. It was hard, being the only elf in a crowd of humans. Her knowledge was invaluable. Together with what Cerie told them, Loch felt that he knew the Silver Bark. He knew what to expect.

At least he hoped so.

He was no tactician. People were relying on him to come up with a great plan. He had one, but it wasn’t a great one. It was risky, a good chance of failure.

Sighing, Loch moved around the clearing, eyes searching the shadows between the trees. He stayed on the front side of the clearing, where the entrance was, Elora taking the back. From one end of the perimeter to the other. The fire burned behind him, casting odd shadows. Loch was able to ignore those, having grown used to what the flickering fire did to the night.

They’d fought Mutated Coyotes and Chipmunks on the way to the Dungeon. Even a small band of Redcaps. Loch had thought they’d found signs of the strange frogmen creatures but wasn’t sure. There were new ponds and brooks. So much had changed with the world’s growth. Loch wanted to explore it all. Hopefully after the Silver Bark were dealt with.

And the winter.

Turning around, starting another circuit, Loch felt a pulse of Spirit come from the Dungeon.He rushed to the entrance, staying back to make sure the entrance was clear.

Drew climbed out, ducking to avoid hitting his head on the stone mantle. He was followed by the rest of his team and the two harvesters. It was hard to tell in the firelight, but Loch thought he saw a couple new pieces of equipment. The two harvesters looked happy.

“That place is incredible,” Dan Fields said, a pickaxe over his shoulder.

The Clan’s first official miner, he’d received an Uncommon Prospector Class. Dan had spent a lot of time in the mine near the Clanhold working to get the Class. It had paid off. He’d volunteered to work the mine, wanting to do something to help out the Clan and not having prior skills that translated to anything else. All the time had paid off, earning him the Uncommon Class. He’d been Leveling rapidly, in the mine every chance he got.

At Level Eight, Loch had been hesitant about taking him this deep into the woods and hostile territory, especially as a non-combatant. But they needed Dan, along with Cheryl Greene. She was one of the Clan’s Herbalists. Also Level Eight.

She wasn’t as happy as Dan.

They hadn’t known what kind of Dungeon it would be. Either a Mine or a Garden, possibly a forest, so they had brought a Miner and Herbalist, hoping at least one of them would be able to harvest the Dungeon. The two had taken bets on who would be the lucky one. It appeared Dan had won.

“It’s better than the Clan’s mine,” Dan continued, holding out his hand.

In it was a lump of ore, about the size of a closed fist. In the firelight Loch could see specks of something catching the light, but there wasn’t enough to see what Dan was holding. The man realized that, pulling his arm away and looking embarrassed.

“Uhm.. uh… it’s a piece of an ore called verite,” Dan explained. “Not something I’ve ever seen before.”

“It’s a System ore,” Elora said. “Fairly rare and excellent for making lightning resistant armor or weapons that can conduct lightning.”

“How does that work,” Drew asked, shifting to stand closer to Elora. She didn’t move, glancing at him and hiding a smile. “How does something resistant to lightning make a good conductor?”

“Maybe the fairy could answer that as I do not know,” Elora said, shrugging.

Cerie had gone back into the Codex Band, wanting to recharge her energy as it had been days since she had last been in the Band. Loch made a mental note to ask her, adding it to one of his many lists.

“How much was there?,” Loch asked.

“Not that much verite,” Dan answered. “Two nodes worth. The rest was a mix of iron, bronze and copper. But there was a lot of it.”

“The monsters were armadillo-like things called Pangodillo,” Drew answered. “Had long claws for digging. They were pretty vicious and moved in packs. They weren’t too tough if we were careful. The boss was a mean son of a..,” he stopped, glancing at the fire where Harper and Piper were waking up. “It was a larger Pangodillo. The armor was thicker, the claws sharper and it was faster. Got some decent loot off it though.”

Loch walked closer to the entrance. He could feel the pulse of Spirit coming from the Dungeon was weaker. It felt like the Dungeon wouldn’t be active again for a couple of days. Good, Loch thought, as it would render it useless for the Silver Bark and let them know his Clan had claimed and looted it.

“Let’s get back to the school,” he said, looking around the campsite to see that the others had already started packing up, Julia working to put out the fire. Loch smiled.

***

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“We couldn’t secure the Dungeon,” Roger grated out, standing in the council room. He looked uncomfortable with all the Clan’s important and powerful people all staring at him.

Except Loch, he was looking at the map of the area.

Another red X had been marked, the location Roger and his team had just returned from.

“There were four Silver Bark guards when we arrived,” he continued, fists closed tightly. Loch looked up, seeing the older man looking more embarrassed than angry. Loch could understand why. Roger was always bragging about how strong his team was, how quickly they were progressing. And they were the only team to fail so far. “We engaged them, had one left, when the dungeon delving team emerged. They were a little worse for wear but managed to get the drop on us from behind.”

Roger hung his head, shaking it slowly, unclenching his fists.

“Is everyone all right?,” Ed Turner asked.

Loch already knew the answer. He’d gotten a quick briefing as soon as Roger’s team had returned, the meeting taking place an hour or two after when everyone could be gathered.

“We managed to get away,” he said, looking up. “And managed to kill one of the dungeon team. Four elves dead,” he growled, stealing a glare at Elora who stood in her customary spot behind Loch.

“Good job,” Loch said. “Claiming and clearing Dungeons is a bonus, but more importantly is eliminating Silver Bark Clanmembers.”

Loch hated how casual he made killing people sound. But that’s what they were doing. That was his plan and his directives.

“Get some rest,” he said.

Roger grumbled something quietly, looking around the room, glancing at a couple of people before opening the door and walking out. He closed it a little more forcefully than he had to. The man probably figured he deserved to be in the meeting.

“The total is now twenty-seven Silver Bark dead,” Kristin said, her tone lacking the usual life it had, not happy to be adding up the dead, even if it was enemies.

Only the people that had been soldiers didn’t seem as affected. They had shifted their mindset from civilian to soldier. The Silver Bark were enemies. Clan Brady was at war with the Silver Bark. That made it easier for them to deal with.

For people that had been civilians their whole lives, going to war was harder to grasp.

“With the ones killed at the Wendigo battle, that brings the total to thirty-nine.”

“They would have lost some from fighting monsters and Dungeon runs,” Elora said. “I knew of three scouts killed and another five from monsters.”

“How many did they begin with”,” Darren asked.

“One hundred and seventy-five,” Elora replied. “A mix of melee and casting with a shaman and two Crones.”

Loch didn’t have to look around the room to know how worried the numbers made the people there. They’d all heard the total before, and each time the reaction was the same. Clan Brady outnumbered the Silver Bark but the majority of the Clan were essentially civilians. Workers and crafters. The guards and adventurers made up a little less than half of Clan Brady’s numbers where that’s all that the Silver Bark were. There might have been some workers to keep the camp organized and build their structures, but not as many as Clan Brady had. Elora had estimated only two dozen.

The Silver Bark’s fighting force far outnumbered Clan Bradys.

Even these guerilla tactics weren’t making a dent and came with great risk. Roger’s entire team could have very easily been killed by the Silver Bark and that would have eliminated one of Clan Brady’s strongest assets.

Loch hated thinking in those terms but it was how he had to now.

It was almost a week and while they hadn’t lost any of their own, they hadn’t killed that many Silver Bark. They’d been lucky so far but he knew it wouldn’t last forever. Soon enough, one of theirs would make a mistake and they’d lose lives. The number of survivors coming to the Clan had dwindled. Either they had gone in different directions, fallen to monsters or even the Silver Bark. That limited how fast Clan Brady could replace their fallen. The Silver Bark couldn’t replace theirs but their greater experience would win out in the end if the numbers got that close. It was a war of attrition for both sides and whichever killed the most the fastest would win.

Clan Brady hadn’t taken any real risks yet. Everything was a risk in the Connected System, but they were being as careful as they could, choosing targets they thought they had good chances of defeating and surviving.

For their part, the Silver Bark weren’t going far out of their territory. They weren’t crossing deep into Clan Brady territory, staying away from the known Dungeons Loch’s Clan controlled. For now, they were holding onto what they controlled, which forced Clan Brady deeper into their territory and away from the school

Hoskia Silver Bark wasn’t stupid, that was obvious. Elora had said that while he wasn’t a renowned tactician, Hoskia was still a main branch Silver Bark and would have received all the training that came with that position. As the leader of the raiding force, he would have been given more training on the strategies he’d need to conquer territory in the newly Connected world. Holding back his forces, making Clan Brady come to him, wasn’t the boldest move and would only work for so long with the aggressive Clan Silver Bark.

At some point, Hoskia would strike at Clan Brady. It would be swift, overpowering and deadly.

The original plan had been to bleed the Silver Bark, whittle away at them. Hoping that Hoskia would send more of his people out and Clan Brady could eliminate them group by group. That wasn’t working.

They’d have to do more of what they’d been doing, but not go too deep into Silver Bark territory. Maybe they could reach a kind of stalemate and just leave each other alone? If he could get the Silver Bark to turn their attention more west and north around that side of Bow Lake and Clan Brady could have the south and more toward the east.

Why couldn’t that work?

He knew why. The Silver Bark wouldn’t settle for just that and the Connection wouldn’t want it. The Connected System wanted them to fight.

Looking over the map, there were a couple of Dungeons not that deep into Silver Bark territory but were close to the lake, putting them further away from the school. They were the only ones that Clan Brady hadn’t attacked yet. He was sure there were more Dungeons out there, some would be unclaimed by either Clan, but it would take time to find them.

But did he risk sending teams to the two they knew about?

He heard noises from outside in the hallway, everyone turning to look at the door. Elora was there quickly, putting herself between the door and the people, hand on her sword. It burst open, a panting guard standing there, looking for Loch. Beyond was Piper, who had been hanging out in the hallway so Cerie could be in the meeting. She held her sketchbook, looking at the guard concerned.

“Lord Lochlan,” the guard said, a newcomer, Loch not recognizing him. “The Lady Harper, she needs you outside at the gate.”

The guard didn’t look concerned or worried, almost excited. Loch didn’t bother declaring the meeting over, he headed straight for the door. Harper knew he was in a meeting, she wouldn’t have summoned him if it wasn’t important.

Walking quickly into the hall, passing the guard, Piper rushing alongside, Loch didn’t see anyone in the halls or lobby panicking. Most went about their day, as if nothing was wrong. If there was an attack, there were standing orders for the civilians. Where they were to go, what they were to do.

Reaching the doors, he saw the two guards just outside, standing on either side. They were looking down into the yard, toward the gate, but weren’t standing defensively. They were alert, watching, but not preparing for an attack.

Loch stepped out, seeing Harper almost jogging up the hill toward the school. She was holding hands with someone, pulling them along. Two women behind walked slower. They wore mismatched armor, some Dungeon pieces, and each carried a spear. They were smiling. Focusing on who Harper was dragging, Loch felt his knees go weak.

She wore armor like the other two, but more Dungeon than anything else. She carried a short spear, the wood smooth with a sharp metal point that was covered in runes. As if sensing she was being looked at, she lifted her head. Blond hair and a face that he could never forget.

Loch rushed down the stairs, somehow not falling as he felt like he had no control. He felt tears streaming down his face. The woman let go of Harper’s hand, racing past. She was crying too.

“MOMMY!!,” Piper yelled.

Kelly.

It was Kelly.