Both the Skyborne harekins and the Anti-Rogue Operatives found each other on the other side of the morass, and had been traveling East for the last two days. With the iron bound fortress of Aric City looming in sight, only a small, rocky pass lay in their way.

Timber sniffed in the cool air as she spotted the silhouette of a falcon flying overhead. With lightning reflexes, she nocked an arrow, aimed, and let it fly. The bird fell dead to the ground.

Corso turned his head and shuffled over to the kanis. “You getting tired of the same rations too, Tim?”

Timber ignored the silly question and removed a small scroll from the falcon’s talons.

Corso’s eyes widened. “A messenger falcon!” he gasped.

Timber nodded and signaled for Mave and Elucard to come over.

Rebels of Valleyhorn,

We have heard of your town’s capture and will be sending you reinforcements and supplies to reclaim your home and secure a vital position in resisting the Cypress Alliance. We regret that we cannot send you a full brigade, for our valiant soldiers are needed to fortify the capital city, but we shall send you a force of fifty P.C. men with the necessary supplies and weapons that will allow you to hold Valleyhorn until reinforcements can be spared.

In the Div’Rah’s grace we are blessed. Fight on brethren!

-Cpt. Jericho Gunther, Royal High Command

Elucard read over the scroll one more time before sticking it into one of his pouches. He turned to Corso. “No-Hops, get to the cliffs and tell me how far away this caravan is.”

“Aye,” replied Corso. He skipped into a quick sprint and scrambled up the high walls of the ravine.

Elucard took out his knife and etched a crude illustration of the mountain pass in the dirt. He then placed several pebbles and three small leaves onto his “road”.

“Fifty men, I figure maybe three wagons of supplies and arms. What would be the quickest and most effective way of disrupting their route?” Elucard asked the squad.

Essie took a stick and marked several X’s on either side of the road. “Dig trenches and ambush them?”

Mave shook her head. “There’s nine of us, Essie, fifty men would rip us apart, surprise attack or not. It would be a suicide mission. Besides, we’re not sappers. Proper trenches would take days, and bad trenches would be useless.”

Elucard nodded. “Normally, an ambush from a fortified position would be perfect if our numbers were on par with the enemy, but Mave’s right, fifty men is too many.”

Quinn sifted through his demolition supplies. “Ah yes, I have enough of this beautifully potent dragon powder to blow a small crater into the mountain top. We could cause a landslide.”

“How might that affect our mens’ march?” asked Bruce.

“No one would be using the bloody mountain pass then,” chuckled Quinn, “but they have engineers. I’m sure it would only delay them another day.”

Elucard folded his arms and raised an eyebrow to Mave. The harekin smiled back.

“Alright, little brother. Let’s jolly-well blow up a mountain!” laughed Mave.

Corso returned in a brisk jog back to his superiors. The black-furred harekin huffed and panted before making his report.

“Out with it, No-Hops,” spat Elucard.

“I spotted a large dust cloud about eight miles east of us. No doubt it would be the supply caravan.”

“Eight miles would give us about two hours to set up our trap,” calculated Mave. She scanned the faces of her squad. “Right, atten-tion!”

The squad snapped straight, clicking their heels together.

Mave smirked and continued. “We’ve been burned, bitten, beaten, and blown up. But we keep on trudging! We are the Devil Jumpers. Borne on the backs of dragons and always ready for a scrap!”

The squad flashed smiles and howled with pride.

“Now we have the chance to give our hardship back ten fold! After that, we are heading to the blooming city and taking back Long Whisper’s king!” shouted Mave. “Now let’s let go bury some Estinians in a couple tons of rubble!”

***

Elucard hid behind a large granite boulder on the far end of the mountain. He watched the mountain pass diligently as Quinn and Mave placed sticks of dynamite in strategic parts of the cliff. Quinn assured him and the rest of the squad that they were reasonably safe from the blast range.

Reasonably. What, exactly, constituted a reasonably safe range in an explosion so large that it could fill in a small canyon? Elucard rolled his eyes. There might have been a reason why Ryjin had Black Rabbits trained in poisons instead of explosives.

Quinn uncoiled a detonation cord and led it back to the squad’s hiding spot. In his hand was a small detonator box with a pump and handle ready to blow the sky in half.

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Elucard peeked over the ridge of his boulder as the Estinian caravan marched through the mountain pass, unaware of their encroaching doom.

“Wait for it, wait for it,” whispered Elucard.

Quinn licked his lips, doing his best to stifle a cruel snicker.

“A little closer, a little closer,” Elucard continued.

Quinn clenched his teeth.

Elucard’s eyes grew big as the caravan reached the center of the kill zone.

“Now!” Elucard cried.

Quinn shut his eyes and pushed down the handle. Within seconds the fuse ignited, exploding the dynamite and releasing a monstrous boom!

As if a titan had awoken beneath the mountain, boulders and rocks erupted, hurling and sliding down the mountain face at a devastating rate. Screams and wails from horses and soldiers were snuffed out from the rumbling earth as the avalanche buried the Estinian soldiers under its crushing weight.

Elucard dusted off his head and walked to the remainder of the cliff to get a gander at Quinn’s handy work. The road was now impassable and the platoon of fifty men were no more.

“Fan out, look for survivors!” Elucard commanded.

“Survivors?” questioned Elisa, rubbing her temples from a splitting headache.

“We just need one, I have some questions about Aric City.”

Elucard grunted as he shifted the rubble searching for anyone that was still breathing after their assault.

“Elucard! Over here!” Bruce shouted as he dragged an officer from the debris. The Estinian’s legs were badly mangled.

Elucard crouched over the officer and inspected his broken body. Bones poked through his blood-soaked trousers and his ankle was twisted in a way no human leg was supposed to bend.

“Looks like you are in bad shape, captain. We have a medic that can numb your pain, provided you can answer a few simple questions.”

The enemy captain’s face shivered and faded pale from the sheer agony he was in, but he kept quiet. He didn’t even let out a scream.

Essie placed her medicine bag next to the officer, but Elucard held out his hand to stop her. He turned back to his captor.

“Two simple questions, my good friend. One, what is the status of the Dawnedge king? Two, where can we find him?” asked Elucard with a calm and friendly voice.

The officer’s eyes darted to Essie and then back to Elucard. He whispered in an inaudible tone to Elucard.

Elucard wrinkled his brow as he tried to listen carefully, but whether the officer’s accent was too thick or his voice was too faint, he couldn’t understand him.

Elucard brought himself closer to the officer and to his surprise, a wad of dry spit splattered on his cheek. The officer let out a roar of laughter between dusty coughs.

Elucard stood and wiped the spit with his sleeve. He looked at Essie and sighed.

“Es, I tried to be gentle, but if we want to find Koda, we have to do it my way.”

Essie nodded and took away her medical bag.

Elucard turned his attention back to the prisoner. He lifted up his hood and raised his mask over the brim of his nose. Within the shadow of assassin cowl, only his ominous violet eyes could be seen. He put his foot down carefully and stepped on the officer’s right leg. Slowly he added more weight to it, nodding as the officer contorted his face in anguish with each pound of force.

“I imagine you Estinians went through similar pain resistance training that we Black Rabbits had. For the purposes of not cracking under the pressure of an interrogation.”

Elucard had his entire body’s weight on the leg at this point, but the captain only grit his teeth harder. The elf lifted his foot up and his victim gave a sigh of relief.

“We have discovered that the average White Cloak will give up his secrets and unit after three hours of Rabbit torture. I have personally found a Lost Dawn soldier not to be as tough.” Elucard picked up a jagged stone from the ground and hovered it over the captain’s shoulder. “You are handling this extraordinarily well. How long will you last?”

The Estinian flinched as Elucard gave him a cruel wink. Then the elf repeatedly bashed his rock into the captain’s shoulder. The harekins hid away from the ghastly screams of the Estinian.

“There are two hundred and six bones in the human body.” Elucard moved the rock away from the pulverized shoulder and held it over the other one. “How many bones do I need to break before you talk?”

The captain rolled back his eyes but Elucard slapped his face to keep him from passing out.

“We’re far from finished, captain. You can end this and my medic will even give you some dullweed for your cooperation, but only if you answer my questions.”

The captain nodded feverishly and swallowed hard. “Ve killed your king.”

A series of gasps came from behind Elucard, but he was not satisfied. Elucard slammed his rock down on the shoulder. “Lie to me again! I dare you!” Elucard growled through his teeth. Saliva seeped through his mask down his lips.

“It is the truth! I svear!” wailed the Estianian officer. “He vas publicly executed three days ago!”

Elucard took a hold of the prisoner’s wrist and hovered the rock over his shaky hand. “Repeat that! Before you lose it!”

The captain screamed in anguish, his body trembling under the excessive pain.

“Don’t take me for an idiot! Calm down and tell me again!” Elucard commanded once more.

“What are you trying to do?” asked Mave.

“Normally, a Black Rabbit can tell if a prisoner is lying. We look for speech patterns, eye direction, or they could sweat more. He is speaking too clearly, too precisely for the truth.”

“You obviously traumatized him. Of course he is going to bloody sweat and fidget more! You’ve been bludgeoning him to death with a stone!”

Elucard dropped the crude weapon and rose to his feet. “One more time, captain. Then you can have the dullweed.”

The officer took in a deep breath and repeated himself. “He vas publicly executed three days ago! Now for the love of Father, give me the damn dullweed!”

Elucard lowered his mask and hood and gave Mave a smart grin. “You still can’t tell that he is lying?”

Essie approached with a clump of dullweed clutched in her hand but Mave stopped her short. “Explain, Elucard. Explain to me how you know for sure that he is lying.”

Elucard pulled out his sword. “Vhere is his accent, Mave?” Elucard said in his best Estinian voice. He held his sword over his victim’s chest. “New Estinia must be growing desperate. P.C. The Estinians had to call for foreigners from Phoenix Company to transport their goods because they didn’t have enough men to spare.

“Phoenix Company were the Black Rabbit equivalent of Dragon Realm Blight,” Elucard explained to Mave. He turned back to the half dead officer. ”You have no idea about where our king is because you’ve only been in this country for two weeks, isn’t that right? Less? If I asked you where our queen was you would’ve said the same damn thing to save your hide. I admit, your will is very strong, but I have no more time to waste on you, captain.”

“You will burn in the darkest recesses of Dahlemar’s real—” Elucard cut off the captain’s threat with a sharp plunge of his blade.

“So Koda is alive?” asked Mave.

“I think he is… for now,” Elucard said. “Let’s head to Aric City and find a way into the dungeons. I think that would be our best bet to locate him.” Elucard wiped his blade before sheathing it. He motioned for the two archers to come to his side. “Timber, Corso, wait for Wiccer here. Report to him that we have made our way into the city to rescue the king.”

“Good thinking Elucard, I don’t think my crossbow would be much use in close quarter combat.” Corso gave Elucard a smart salute and a playful wink.

Timber shouldered her bow and patted Elucard’s shoulder. “If we don’t meet again… for what it’s worth, you are a good leader.”

Elucard grew a short grin and hugged the wolf before she could salute him. “Thank you, Timber. Thank you.”