Far out, Kayd could see small spots of red.

More fires, must be the settlements. They attack both day and night it seems.

Along the route, Kayd helped clean the clothes of the others, both out of order and because they really needed a wash after a long while. He was glad that at least the lingering stench of the rats and blood of bandits was gone.

“You sure you aren’t a mage? You practically removed everything from my cloak, this is shinier than a silk dress!” Ikari laughed, twirling around to show off.

“Let it dry for a bit, and yes I did spend a while learning how to clean clothes. Comes with the business of fighting notorious targets I guess.” Kayd replied.

“Shame I’ll dirty it later. There should be a cleaner title just for you!” Ikari replied.

Everyone stood around the edges of the structure, observing the specks of fire far out. Along the way, they could vaguely see the outlines of more destroyed caravans.

Looks like the reinforcements didn’t reach those in time.

“I must say, not only are you good at killing, but also good at slicing someone without killing them,” Ishmael remarked, a smirk flashed on her face before looking out, hatchet in hand.

“At least we got the information, they have someone above a bandit captain huh?” Kayd asked.

“Bandits run on strict might makes right hierarchies. That guy though was rather easy to break. Just a pair of broken hands and knees, and he started ratting his leader out. Guess loyalty wasn’t a big thing with his group.” Ishmael laughs.

“Do you know how many more bandits there maybe?” Ishmael laughed again, louder this time.

“That’s like asking how many rats there are in the forest. Hundreds to thousands, what we’re fighting can just be a thin branch of the bandit tree. That’s why we need to find the leader quickly. The soldiers will clean up after us once they start reclaiming the outer settlements.” She explained.

“Thanks also for cleaning my coat, maybe I should task you with cleaning our clothes, and even Pip.”

“I prefer not to have cleaner as part of my daily routine.” Kayd laughed.

A bright full moon loomed overhead, but its light did little to reveal the path ahead, barely showing anything other than more sand mounds. Good for stealth, terrible for navigation.

How does she even manage to go through this place, hell how does she know where to go? I just hope we reach that camp.

Further down the unseen path, Kayd saw the destroyed wagons on the side less and less as they moved closer to the destination.

Odd

—------

The rhythm of Pip’s legs stopped as it came to a halt, waking Kayd from a quick nap.

“We’re here, the camp is larger. And pretty well fortified, but just do the same as before and we can get this over with.” They followed Ishmael down the crab, their boots slamming onto the sand.

Even at night, the warmth from the sun still lingered.

Beats being cold I guess.

“Stay close, we can’t light something up. Have to stay hidden, just head towards that camp.” Ishmael pointed at an ominous black structure in the distance, a fire from the inside partially illuminating the top of the walls but not much else.

Their bodies brushed up against each other, moving with Ishmael towards the camp. The closer they got, the larger it became, the walls double the height of what Kayd saw on the last camp. Its construction was less ramshackle and even looked stable.

Ishmael suddenly halted everyone.

“Stop, look at the wall.” Perched on the wall, a pair of bandits holding crossbows, their silhouettes illuminated by the fire.

“Same as before, but at least we have the dark. Kayd, you’re with me. The rest of you stay until we reach the wall.” Kayd drew his blade and moved with Ishmael.

His arms were tensed up, and jolts of excitement at the prospect of ending more of these criminals filled his mind, alongside the joy of hopefully finding more captives and getting closer to the title rewards.

The night was dead silent, and even his boots pushing sand away as he moved could be heard. Kayd slowed his movements, looking up periodically at the guards as they advanced.

The conversation of the pair became audible as they got close enough to the wall. But unlike the camp bandits from before, these ones shared a similar tongue and way of talking as the bandit captain.

No matter how much Kayd tried to understand the string of bizarre slang and accent, he couldn’t understand it.

Even some of those outlaws were at least understandable. This is just psychobabble at this point.

At the base of the wall, Kayd’s eyes couldn’t spot a thing to grip on the wall, or even the wall itself as the entire thing was sealed in that same blanket of darkness.

Great, now we can’t even climb up the wall.

Kayd helplessly touched parts of the wall, hoping to find a crack or hole he could hold onto, but found none.

At least their walls are not shoddy like before.

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“Psst, Kayd,” Ishmael whispered next to him, with the tiny glimmer of light that came from the moon, he could see Ishmael crouched down next to him, scooping up sand from in front of the wall.

“Same as before, alright? Just this time we have a new way in. Help me with this.” Ishmael ordered. The two knelt together, digging a hole into the sand hastily.

Smart thinking from her, shame my clothes would get sand on them again.

Kayd sighed, but it was either this or spending hours trying to find a way to climb the well-built wall.

Minutes passed, and they managed to create a hole below the wall, just big enough to crawl through.

Kayd pushed his body through the tight hole, emerging on the other side.

“We’re in, remember. Let’s just kill everyone and find anyone or anything important looking.” Her order gave Kayd a smile.

“Understood Captain.” Together they crept into the interior of the camp. Unlike the one before, it was more spacious and even contained small wooden houses, one of which looked well-maintained compared to the others.

Yeah, that is definitely the home of the big boss here. Just need to kill these guys first before checking that out.

Sitting near the campfire were four other guards talking to one another, their armor less damaged and a tad bit maintained, Kayd could see patches of leather covering some cuts on the back along with leather wrappings to keep it together.

Their weapons were of similar quality, a major step up from what Kayd saw before.

At least this feels more like a fair fight

The two slowly approached the group, they both had to kill two of them before a peep of their mouth, crept up to them while thinking up how to end them.

The bandits just a step in front of them, they rushed forward at the same time.

As Ishmael cleaved the man’s head, Kayd cut the bandit’s head off, darting towards the second soldier and piercing his chest. Behind him, Ishmael removed her hatchet and threw it towards the fourth bandit just as she opened her mouth to shout.

They fell with loud thuds on the sand, their bodies rapidly turning to dust and dropping pouches of gold and their armor.

“Quick and clean, nice,” Ishmael smirked.

“Better than brutish and slow.” She chuckled at his reply.

“Either way, it got the job done.” The two went up the stairs towards the wall.

The bandits were still talking, unaware of the fate of their fellow comrades.

They stood side by side, chatting away into the pitch-black night, looking at the far-off settlements still burning.

Kayd approached them with Ishmael, and within a second, gave the two a swift end.

“Damn bandits” Kayd grumbled, behind one of them with his sword piercing through his chest with a hand covering his mouth. Next to them, Ishmael tore off the hatchet from his back.

With the two guards gone, they started waving off, signaling the others to start heading in.

“I’ll help them get in, you start cleaning out the buildings, make sure to not kill anyone leader looking got it?” With a nod, Kayd left Ishmael and jumped back down.

Wood on the fire crackled away, giving sound to the dead silence that surrounded the camp. With nobody in sight, Kayd approached the fire, putting his hands near it.

He sighed deeply, for a moment trying to get some better form of relaxation.

Hmmm campfire, been a while since I had this. All I’m missing are marshmallows and wood cup hot cocoa.

Kayd chuckled to himself while rubbing his hands and silently stood by the flame while Ishmael headed for the hole.

As a minute passed, Kayd suddenly shook his head, remembering his task and turning to the nearest tent. A few quick wipes with his rag cleaned off the blood, quickly reaching the entrance of the tent.

He slowly stepped inside and looked around. Rather than more bandits, it was just boxes and open crates, filled with gear of varying quality.

Storage room, with even more loot. Their greed knows no bounds it seems, why hoard so much? For selling to another unfortunate schmuck?

Kayd looked around but saw nothing of value within the tent apart from new things to haul onto Pip, his shoulders and arms ached for a moment just remembering it.

—----

Towards a larger tent, Kayd stopped. Just next to it, a row of wagons, he could see the jury-rigged repairs on the wheels and sections of them with planks of wood and nail. Oddlyt the horses meant to draw them were gone, leaving the reins on the ground.

So that’s where the wagons went, I guess they wanted the horses more.

He walked inside, and immediately the smell of wood and rotten food assaulted his nose.

God, what is that?

Cages stood in front of him, the same ones used to capture settlers. Strangely all were empty, doors wide open, some on the floor and others leaning to the side.

The sand beneath was disturbed as if something was dragged out. In his observations, another thought crossed his mind.

No captives, and the guards here are concerningly low….Did they leave?

Kayd walked out the tent, apart from the cages he saw nothing else of use. Ishmael and the others were already searching the large wooden building at the center of the camp, the door left wide open and the noise of drawers and boxes being pulled open could be heard from the inside.

Inside, Kayd immediately spotted Ikari and Quellin ransacking drawers and tables, grabbing bundles of letters and papers with little care.

“So many letters, do we need all of this? We already have the crates, do we still need to bring the letters?” She complained.

“Ishmael gave an order, it is our duty to follow it. Stop talking and start finding more papers and anything of value.” Quellin spoke back with a cold voice.

Ishmael descended the stairs with a frustrated and disappointed expression, pocketing some of the letters while stomping her way out.

“Found anything?” She stopped at the doorway, looking at Kayd. He began relaying everything he managed to find.

“Hmm, this doesn’t add up one bit. They’re all gone with just a few bandits. I guess we caught them at a bad time. They’re probably out raiding another settlement. I guess we will start hauling this cargo and hopefully wait for them to return.” Kayd sighed, sharing the same annoyance as Ishmael and kicked the sand beneath him.

—----

Kayd crashed to the floor after dropping the last crate onto the structure, they spent an hour hastily grabbing the gear and papers, practically leaving the entire camp barren. Still no sign of the bandits in sight. Then spent three more hours just standing around hoping that the bandits return for them to kill the superior.

Ikari stood up near the edge, focusing intently on the camp and the fire that illuminated it.

Kayd closed his eyes, unable to handle the fatigue and taking in the moment of possible peaceful rest.

Ikari stretched her arms with a yawn. “Alright, I need to lay on the hay for now.” She plopped to the floor and Ishmael turned to Mono and Lia.

“Mono, your turn. I hope you’re good at sentry duty, especially in the dark. Wake us up if you see any shadows entering the camp.” She ordered before closing her eyes again.

Mono stood up alongside Lia, both taking up position and looking out at the camp.