He wrenched his bootlaces together and tied them, making sure everything fit. There was a dull pain on his sides. Maybe he should have worn his single Growing Boot after all, but questions of appearance aside or why he should care, he needed even footing for his run.
The hollow sound of Kyle and Lisa brushing their teeth echoed from the corner, all of them doing morning stuff in their own orders. She kept on checking with him as if making a game out of who could brush longer.
Kyle gave up eventually and spat in the corner, rinsing onto the foam. She followed suit.
“It’ll be gone in before we are,” Micah scoffed. “Mostly.”
“I hope not,” Kyle said.
“Micah, I’m not that worried about making a mess,” Jason said, sounding somewhat exasperated. “Just … argh.”
“Argh,” Micah echoed him. Awkward but smiling. Either endearing or annoying as all hell.
Ryan pushed up and felt a tight knot in his neck, a strain in his back. He rolled his shoulders and paced, but seven hours of often interrupted sleep on stone had its toll on the body.
Damn.
He wanted to try some stretches of the more embarrassing kind, but he also wanted to be gone five minutes ago and someone was bound to make a stupid comment. Probably Kyle. As if he knew anything about stretches. Being him had to feel as shit as he looked.
Ryan addressed the group, “Are you people ready yet? Or do you want to sit around for another half hour?”
It didn’t help that Lea, with her change of clothes, bedroll, and extensive time taken to wash up this morning, stood packed and ready at the entrance before them.
“Two minutes,” Micah said, rearranging stuff in his backpack. Of course, he would be the last one done, but he also had the most luggage so it was hard to fault him.
Two minutes from him meant three as he rushed to keep his word. Ryan could try a few stretches … but the others had nothing to do. Maybe not.
Really, the back pain fit his ‘morning’ in these timeless, sweltering halls. He must’ve slept wrong. With any luck, [Lesser Vitality] would take care of it. He wouldn’t get his hopes up.
They stood around and watched as Micah finished up, yanked the pack up, and fitted the straps over his shoulders. He smiled at them and said, “Done.”
“Alright. Let’s go.”
They met up at the border to the Kobold territory. It was early enough Ryan felt like the halls should have been covered in cold dew. They were damp, but damp like the small dorm bathrooms after waves of students had taken too-hot showers.
If his [Enhanced Senses] did influence how he felt temperature—magic Salamanders and birds had been his inspiration after all—it was so subtle, it threw his perception off rather than add any meaningful effect. Or maybe not, and [Hot Skin] had screwed him over either way.
Unlike the Teacups, he did not enjoy this place was his point. He had laid his breeze potion on thick and tried to ignore the smells, aches, and itches.
Parker yawned at the end of the tunnel, and Ryan slapped on a smile. He thought for a second, then sped up past the others to slap the guy on the back when he got there.
“Not awake yet?”
“Screw you,” he grumbled, then held his breath and clenched his jaw to suppress the rest of the yawn.
His teammates were gathered left and right, keeping a lazy look out: Jean, Adrian, Parker, Silas, and … Damn. He’d told himself to remember their names for at least one day, while they worked together, but it was hard to remember someone who barely said a word.
The fifth guy looked like another [Scout], about his own height, brown hair, and quiet. It wasn’t that he was mute, Ryan knew, he just hung back and watched … like a weirdo. Why else would he get to enjoy his peace without anyone bothering him?
The others didn’t react too strongly to their arrival. They shifted stances and glanced, keeping their weapons where they were. Parker had just let him walk up …
“Getting lazy?” Ryan asked. “A good scout would have kept better watch.”
“We knew you were coming.”
“Ah.” He raised his chin up. “Sure.”
It was a good thing they would have a slow start to this, to give everyone a chance to warm up.
Jason walked by on his way in, waving hellos to the others, and glanced at him. Ryan detached himself from Parker to keep close while the others found their way to their own groups.
They had put their teams together after all—or he had—and split them into groups with a more multi-layered approach to the assault.
Three groups: a distraction group of two to head past the Kobolds and draw their attention since they had to send someone to keep an eye on them; a large group of five to attack them head-on and occupy, rushing in before they had a chance to harass or prepare; and a group of four to sneak around and surprise the camp, overwhelming them to secure the loot.
The first two and optionally two to three people from the main group could adjust as needed.
Ryan and Jason were the first. Because even though another [Scout] might have been better, people wanted to be grouped with their allies after all and Jason had drawn the short straw. Like always.
It suited him just fine.
Lisa, Adrian, Parker, and the other guy would surprise them because Lisa had the best chance at overwhelming the camp and the scouts had insisted on being the ones to do it.
She was the only one who didn’t find her way to her group right away. Instead, a red glow alighted on her glove and skitted over onto Micah’s when he held his hand up. Then a second one she carried elsewhere.
Summons.
That left the [Witch], Silas, Micah, Kyle, and Lea for the main group. Lisa would leave two lizards with them, one for tracking their location and the other to squash for a signal. The [Witch] could scry after all and even if there was a delay, he would command the attack.
He held his lizard up on his wrist to look at and led it to his shoulder with a smile. Did he miss his familiar?
The moment his hands were free, Parker shoved a sack in them. The quiet guy did the same, and Adrian gave him an apologetic look before dropping a third on top. They were filled with their non-essentials to lighten their load. Their team had already shuffled theirs this morning.
Micah and Silas came to his aid.
“Ugh, this is going to be such a hassle to handle,” he complained and, when his face was free, said, “Thank you.”
“It’ll only be for a short while,” Silas told him.
Micah nodded in agreement.
“You signed up for this,” Adrian added, “you said it yourself, you’re best suited to this from who was left.”
“I know.”
“It’s not that bad,” Micah said.
He had drawn another kind of short straw, or maybe he’d volunteered because he felt bad about the last exam, but now he was stuck with luggage duty. Kyle, Silas, and Lea could split off from the main group if they had to. He and Jean would stay back and defend their stuff.
“I don’t know,” Silas said, “I think you would have been pretty suited to [Scout] duty, what with your magic and alchemy sight.”
He looked up. “Really?”
“Yeah. You know, you could detect magic traps and your alchemy knowledge is useful.”
“Hey, I’m an actual [Scout]?” Jean complained.
“Hush. I’m spreading the good word.”
“You don’t need magic sight to detect traps,” Adrian said, “all of us can do that just fine.”
“And if not, they have me,” Lisa said.
Adrian pointedly did not react, not acknowledging her. They had pushed hard to have a second member of their team help them in the attack, and the scouts had pushed back.
Ryan was a little worried about them, even though he knew he shouldn’t, but Parker and Adrian seemed headstrong, the types to steal the limelight, and the third guy wouldn’t exactly go against them. Their pride might cause problems, and that was without considering Lisa’s pride.
If she noticed, she seemed unfazed. She had been speaking at Micah and their team after all.
“I guess we’re going to have you all to ourselves then,” Silas said, slinging an arm across his shoulders, “to detect traps for our group. But think about it. Everyone should be a [Scout]. Scouts are great!”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We can do everything. Hey, Nick.” He snapped at him. “What’s that one Skill our friend with the Path has?”
Micah shot him a helpless look. Ryan felt for him. Silas was far too energetic for this early in the morning.
“Yeah, that’s why you need our help,” Kyle grumbled, earning himself glares from all sides. “Can we get a move on already?”
Right.
Ryan checked with Lisa, but she seemed fine, so he stepped closer to Micah’s group and asked, “You okay? Got everything?”
“Yep.” He lifted Silas’ arm and turned to show the giant pack on his back.
“Good.”
“Not going to ask us?” Kyle sneered. “I’m hurt.”
Ryan gave him a look and nudged his chin at his waist, asking, “What’s under the glove?”
The sneer vanished. Kyle drew back and gave him a tired look, jaw clenched, nostrils widening in a look like Ryan had insulted his mother.
The scouts looked confused.
“Fuck you.”
Ryan shrugged. “If you’re going to be cranky, so am I. Play nice.”
“Fuck you.”
It must have been a while since the last time someone had asked him, if he had been caught so off-guard.
“Hey,” Micah said, stepping between them as he looked around the group, “hey, hey. We’re all going to play nice. Right?”
“Yeah,” Silas said.
Ryan wondered. It was a good plan, considering they had only spent a few frustrating hours of uncooperative planning on it. But they had only gone through it a few times because half of the people couldn’t be bothered to recite it as a study group might. Because, ‘They got it.’
Fucking Kyle.
And there was a large difference between planning something and actually pulling it off.
He didn’t know what to think. Maybe he was just being cranky in general, this morning.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Parker looked confident rather than insulted. Or not confident—smug. He saw their friction and used the chance to make his own team look better, “We’re not going to screw up.”
“Sure.”
“Relax,” Micah said to all of them with a smile.
“In a few hours, we’ll be basking in loot,” Lea added. “Focus on that and doing a good job.”
He liked that imagery.
“Alright,” Ryan said, loosening up with a sigh. “Give us fifteen; warm up in the meantime?”
He got a few nods from Parker, Lisa, and Micah. Jason next to him took a step down the tunnel, waving at the others. “Be safe,” he said.
Ryan bent down to check the straps around his legs—the ones all of them wore—but paused to jerk a thumb at him and echo, “What he said.” The straps seemed fine. He stood. “See you then.”
The send-off was subdued, aside from Micah, as they turned the corner. Not that he had expected more. They had the safest job to start with and wouldn’t be gone long.
Ryan started with a slow jog. He was still groggy himself and after the first few steps, his body forced out a yawn. Stretches could only do so much to wake one up.
He sped up.
It wasn’t long before his boot sucked as it pulled out of a patch of mud, and then it was that for each step. It wasn’t long after that before he spotted the first dart traps.
“Hey,” Jason said as he reached a corner, and Ryan paused to look. He scraped at the wall with one finger and a bit of stone came away to reveal another dart trap.
They weren’t that had to find, once he knew what to look for. They’d still spent far too long walking past them without noticing. Some scout he was.
“They have to come out to replace those eventually,” Ryan mused, glancing around. “Where do they come from?”
“Good question.” Jason joined him, searching the walls.
“A bit late.”
“Yeah.”
He shook his head—it didn’t matter—and jogged on. Any opening a Kobold snuck out of would likely be too small for them to fit inside, and Lisa was with the surprise group. They would flood their tunnels from the camp outward if everything went right.
If.
The next tunnel was trapped and Ryan ran ahead of Jason through them, listening with one ear before he even turned back, but there was no plicking sound of bone against stone.
“Anything?” Jason asked with a labored breath.
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
They upped the pace. The sooner they got their attention, the better. They could still slow down after.
He kept an ear out for the others, past the sucking sounds of boots in the mud, his pulse in his neck, the rustling of their armor and packs, his own hot breath.
He almost imagined he heard someone speaking, but there was an odd silence on the floor. No monsters, no insects, no people. That was good, in a way. The others should stay quiet, lest they drew the Kobolds’ attention too soon and Jason and he did this for nothing.
They were bait. Fishing, Ryan thought. He had only done that twice, once before and once after he had gotten his Path, with his dad and some of his dads’ friends. The bait was the only thing to disturb the waters, the fishers remained silent.
It was nice enough. Peaceful. A promise of nice food. But only if you had the right people with you.
He glanced at Jason as he turned a corner and at the same time, turned questions over in his mind. He couldn’t think of a polite way to ask, Is your God real?
A muffled sound ripped his attention away. A low sound like a muffled yap. Then a shuffle.
“Head’s up,” he said and ran. He sprinted through the second half of the tunnel and there were the plicks he had been expecting. And there, he could hear it: a muffled shuffling sound, not quite the same as the scraping he had heard yesterday.
Tools and pitons, yesterday. Now, it was just bodies moving through dirt around them, unseen beyond stone.
Over that distance, the Kobolds’ tunnels only connected to theirs through tiny holes, it was a miracle he could hear them at all. Suddenly, he felt much less alone on this floor and the thought was a push that woke him up.
If there were no scraping sounds … was this ‘old’ territory? No need for work in these halls. Did that mean they were expanding in the direction they had come from, yesterday?
All valuable knowledge to put in a report.
Jason slipped through the safety in his wake while Kobolds reloaded or left to give chase.
There was a quiet command and then more shuffling. They weren’t trying to be as quiet as yesterday.
“Mage,” Ryan said, “and Kobolds. Now.”
There was a smile in Jason’s voice when he answered, “Yeah. I know.”
He almost smiled himself, but speaking had slowed him down for that one step and a bone dart glanced harmlessly off his side and fell to the mud.
He’d only seen it because he’d tilted his head down before running again, he hadn’t even felt it. The raincoat.
Two more tunnels in, Jason did when he cursed, “Argh. Damnit.”
Ryan glanced back.
“I was hoping not to get hit.”
He tried to think of something to say, couldn’t find anything, and turned ahead as he kept on running. He probably would have made an ass out himself anyway, no matter what he said.
Here I am, he thought, the most protected person doing the safest job. Some fighter he was.
“How many?” Jason gasped. Not that he was out of breath, but running made talking hard. “Do you know?”
“Kobolds?”
“Aha.”
He listened and had no idea. Half a dozen? A dozen? More? It really was a miracle he could hear them here. How much were they actually helping? How many were they distracting?
The traps fired and yesterday, he had made an estimate on how many Kobolds there were based on that alone, but today the numbers eluded him.
How long had it been since they had left the others anyway? Five minutes? Close to ten?
He wanted to check his watch but that was in his backpack. He tried to listen past the noise but the others were too far away. Unless they screamed, there was no way he would hear them. And they would only do that if something went wrong …
Ryan reached the end of a tunnel and had to choose left or right. He knew he should choose right, lead them further away, no matter how many there were, but if he went left he might have a better chance of hearing them …
Halfway down the tunnel, Jason didn’t say anything. Had he even noticed? Did any of this matter?
Ryan wanted to run to feel like he was doing something but that would be against the point. Bait. They wanted the Kobolds to keep up. That was the argument they’d used to put Jason on his team because it ultimately didn’t matter how fast he could run, Kobolds could only run so far.
That argument fell apart when it came to the return trip, though; how far they could get back to the others. But he nor anybody else had pushed enough.
Now, the others would attack the camp, they would fight, and he wouldn’t be there to make sure everything was alright.
“Ryan,” Jason gasped, “you’re going too fast. Slow down.”
Surprised, he stumbled to a stop at the next corner, caught his breath, and waited for him.
Jason ran up and did the same, saying, “Everything okay? You look worried.”
Did he? Was he? Nothing had even happened yet. He was getting stuck in his head at the worst time. Old habits, they died so fucking hard. There was no need to worry about them.
He shook his head and tried to shake off the thought. “No, everything’s fine,” he said. He needed to focus. Distract himself. He needed— “Hey, Jason?”
“Huh?”
“Can I talk to you about something?”
He frowned. “Now?”
The Kobolds were getting restless around them. Some of them flooded past to prepare traps ahead. Others stayed and yapped in low tones at each other. Similar sounds. Mixed commands?
Dammit. He couldn’t let them consider heading back. Ryan ran into the tunnel and the sounds stopped as dart erupted around him. He let himself be hit. His armor caught them with ease.
“No,” he called back, “later.”
Obviously.
Ryan hesitated two more bends in, again given the choice to head closer to the camp or away.
“Are you alright?” Jason asked. “Did you hear something?”
Did he? Ryan closed his eyes and tilted his head away, trying to listen. Jason must have recognized the look because he tried to breathe quieter.
He did hear something then. Screams of a different kind, bestial, faint in the distance but getting louder. But they weren’t running toward them, Ryan knew. The others.
“They attacked.”
“What, already?”
“Yeah.” Ryan frowned and swung his backpack around. “How long—”
Jason slipped a watch out a side pocket. Of course. Ryan had seen him put it there earlier. He just could have asked.
“Twelve minutes.”
Already?
“What did you hear—”
“Screaming. Cavern Prowlers. They’re headed toward them right now. The Kobolds must have led with them or they’ve been fighting for a while.”
“Either way, it’s early,” Jason said.
Yeah, no shit. Ryan was willing to bet it was the later. Why did they have to be so impatient?
He mulled it over for a second, but then had no other choice but to run. They had to finish their job and make it easier on the others; lead these Kobolds away and divide their forces. They couldn’t even help before Lisa’s group attacked for fear of tipping the Kobolds off, but …
Ryan had his doubts. How many Kobolds were they even distracting here? Wouldn’t it be better to head back now to get there on time, to help?
Did it even matter, either way? Probably not, because their plan was shit, his team was shit, impatient, and he was a screw-up who was just as impatient as them and was probably going to make a mistake anyway so …
“Ryan!” Jason called again as he was running too fast without meaning to. Some part of him wanted to.
Ryan stumbled to a stop and made a decision drawing on what he knew. He closed his eyes and tilted his head as if listening, then lied, “Dammit.”
Jason asked, “What?”
He hesitated, but went through with it, “More screams. From another direction. More Cavern Prowlers, headed for us.”
His eyes went wide. “What do we—”
“We could fight them,” Ryan said and it was stupid, the wrong thing to say. He rushed to fix his mistake, “We could. But uh, the other side sounds pretty bad, too. They have a lot of Cavern Prowlers fighting our guys.”
“They must have captured them over the night,” Jason said.
Yeah, sure. Let’s go with that.
As if admitting something he didn't want to, Ryan said, “I am worried. I want to go—”
“We can’t lead them back,” Jason said and glanced past him down the tunnel as if expecting monsters to burst around the corner at any second.
“Right. And we won’t,” Ryan told him and began to tear his outer armor off.
“Wha— What are you doing?”
“We are going to split up,” he said.
“What? Why?”
“Because I can run faster than them.”
Faster than you. Any of you. And because I’m going to go insane if I have to spend another second stuck under this stupid jacket.
By the look on his face, Jason caught on to his plan. His fake plan to deal with this fake threat. Although, the screams did sound numerous near his teammates.
Before he could say anything, Ryan rushed to convince him, “You’re going to go back to help them. Take the raincoat. I’ll lead the Prowlers away, loop around, and come back to meet you and the others.”
“You’ll get yourself killed—”
Ryan vehemently shook his head. “Nope.”
“Shouldn’t you keep the raincoat, then?” he changed tacts.
“No. You’ll head into a fray and help attack the camp. That's far more dangerous. I don’t plan on letting them get anyway near me.”
He could see Jason hesitate and glance at the yellow fleece as Ryan wrenched it over his head, not bothering with the buttons, and he remembered seeing him glance at it time and time again. Jason wanted to wear it.
So Ryan shoved it in his hands and glanced down the tunnel for good measure to make it seem urgent.
Looking back to the jacket rather than him, Jason still didn’t seem convinced, so Ryan pointed at the bottle at his hip, in his field of vision. “Here, give me your stamina potion. That will help me; make sure they can’t keep up.”
That seemed to do the trick, because his hand gripped the yellow jacket in a fist while the other rushed to give him the bottle.
At the last moment, Jason seemed to get over his adventurer's greed and have a moment of clarity. “But— Rules.”
“Run in that direction.” Ryan pointed and pulled the jacket up for him, to cover his vision. “You’ll only be away from them for a short while. Five minutes, if you hurry. Barely any time at all. And I already broke the rules once, so I don’t care if I do it again.”
The rain jacket was large enough someone could probably wear it over a full plate of armor. Ryan didn’t expect him to fit it underneath his armor in their hurry, so he threw it over his head.
Jason looked down at himself once it draped over him and Ryan’s feet urged him to run, but he had to do one last thing for his own peace of mind.
He put a hand on the guy’s shoulder and pulled a page out of his parents’ book in his tone and posture. He looked him in the eye and said, “Jason. You protect them, you hear me?”
He seemed surprised, then said, “Yeah. Of course. I promise.”
“Good.” Ryan nodded, fitting one of his arm guards on again.
He ran off and didn’t look back.
There were no Cavern Prowlers, just shitty Kobolds with shitty darts. And when the first one of those hit him, Ryan felt the sting, delighted, and wanted to scream.
Finally, he had that stupid jacket off inside the Tower. Finally, he was free.
He ran, sprinted faster than he had before and faster than probably even the others knew he could. His [Enhanced Traction] gave him the control he needed to take these corners and run through the mud. He had to make it there in time, into the enemy camp, to take out the Guardians on his own and make it out again before anyone was the wiser. That way, he could help.
Because if everything was going to be shit anyway, he wanted to do what was best, what would make him happy, and push that day when everything crumbled just a little bit further away.
Ryan wanted to make sure he would level.