Merlin was fuming when they left the hills behind them, their group all looked down after what could only be called a defeat. Well besides Morris who had his bow back and did not care about anything else.
“Can we go to town and ask if they have any blacksmiths that can forge me some deadbolts? He has all my ammo.”
“Later Morris, first lets make sure this bastard is going nowhere with our shards.”
“You should not have given him our group funds.” Melia said for what felt like the tenth time and Merlin snapped at her, feeling his face heat up in his embarrassment.
“He saw me hide the pouch, what was I supposed to do? Let Khatrak die?”
“He almost killed him anyways. He broke a leg and a few ribs. We can’t let him get away with this.”
“No, we can’t, we won’t. I know, I know okay?! But we need to adjust our tactics. We can’t be surprised by him, not again, not ever.”
Merlin had grown used to be able to sense his surroundings with his innate manasense, but the cultivator did not disturb the mana at all. It was like he wasn’t even there. He had not sensed him until his bloody boot had hit him almost in the face. The feeling of loss was eerily familiar to him, it felt just like running against the beasts of the 15th and coming home with nothing to show for their troubles.
He saw people move in between the trees in front of him and straightened. He might feel defeated, he might have been defeated and outfoxed, but they did not know that.
Merlin could sense the group leaders and sought eye contact with them as they came closer to the forest. Obediently they stepped out from their respective groups and bowed. As was proper when facing a senior mage.
Even though Merlin was only senior to them by a bit.
“We encountered the Cultivator just 15 minutes ago. He ambushed us, but we were able to fend him off and he fled deeper into the hills towards the wall.”
There were 5 leaders present, all mages like him and Merlin could sense by the depth of their mana reserves and how nervous they seemed, how much experience they had. Most were decent, not high enough to walk past the 5th, but almost there. Two of them were quite green and those groups were a problem if his plan was to succeed.
Merlin didn’t really have a plan in mind yet, just a tactic for now. But as he looked from leader to leader he decided quickly on what to do next.
“I propose we siege these hills. They are only like what 3-4 miles? How many groups answered the call?”
“34, senior magus.” A small man said with a bow and a smile that made Merlin almost squirm in discomfort. He hated sycophants, even if the man was decent strength wise.
“We’ll cordon off these hills, each group has to stay within sight and have a rotation of ranged combatants stand guard. Make sure they look up, the Cultivator has a strong movement technique and can vault over trees, rocks, you name it. Open ground is your friend. Those groups who have more experience, especially if they have been beyond the 5th level should take up positions in the areas where the forest touches the hills.”
The leaders stood there staring at him and Merlin frowned.
“This is a siege Aspirants, we make sure he can’t run and then we force him to come out, with fire if we have to.” Merlin smirked and saw a few of the mages grin back. Every mage loved to blow shit up, especially fire mages.
“My group will be stationed more or less central and if, no, once he comes out, we will respond and kill him while he tries to get past you. Does anyone have a map?”
One of the men, a fellow with a beard and a fairly deep manapool nodded and pulled out a map of the first floor.
Merlin held out his hand and the man reluctantly gave it to him. The map was extensive in its topographical display, the 4 passages to the second floor and the Symbol of the summoning chambers were also marked. Merlin nodded and quickly found the hills that stretched a good 4 or 5 miles from this stairway towards the summoning chamber. A small river had its origin in the hills and flowed eventually in the bigger one that crossed through the Town of Beginnings.
It wasn’t exactly clear where the forest began or not, but Merlin could guess.
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“Okay, my team will take up position close to the river that runs through the center of these hills. That will be the terrain closest to the forest if I were to guess. Keep line of sight between you and the other teams at all times. Be sure to have a camp with 2 teams of 10 at least.” He looked each of the leaders in the eyes to make the point.
“Why?” a woman asked clad a dark robe, while she peered on the map curiously, one of her fingers curled around a short lock of her hair.
“The cultivator is durable, has high regeneration, but his speed and his ambushes are what get people killed. If we take that away from him, if we force him to fight head on. He will die. Make sure you fight together, never be isolated against him. That might be your death. Fight together as a group. He is just like a magical beast, corner him, smoke him out, overwhelm him with good teamwork and numbers.”
The woman nodded slowly, but by the length of her hair he guessed she wasn’t long enough in the tower yet to have faced the beasts on the 5th floor.
“Questions?” he asked and one of the men sneered, his hair was short, his eyes hard and he glowered up to Merlin.
“I know he is a senior mage and all, but who made him boss? Isn’t it clear? This is a test. We are still being tested by Lord Emnu. The cultivator is in there, we have the quest to kill him. My group will go after him and hunt him down like the dog he is and I’ll claim the bounty for myself, while all of you cowards are waiting around.” the man declared sneering at his peers. He even puffed out his chest like a peacock. Merlin sighed. Another idiot.
“Please, go ahead and try. But I have to warn you right now, my group could not get him and we are based in Ambition, we have killed beasts on the 15th floor and we could not kill him before he fled. If you really think you can do it better than us, go ahead. But don’t drag down other teams with you.”
“Fuck you man, so what if you have been here longer…”
Merlin sent one of his daggers flying out of it’s sheath and scored a thin red line on the mans cheek. The mage flinched back and raised a hand to summon magic, but Merlin’s dagger returned and hovered in front of the mages eyes like a literal sword of Damocles.
“Don’t underestimate the tower and don’t underestimate this cultivator. I could kill you in the blink of an eye, hell probably all of you. So if I try to tell you something for your own damn good, for your own survival, then you listen.” The man had blanched as he stared at the hovering throwing knife that was doing lazy loops around the mans head now and he nodded quickly.
“Alright man, chill. No need to get angry.” he said, but Merlin ignored him and turned to the rest of the leaders. “Go, spread the word. Don’t give him the time to escape.”
Merlin gave the map back to the bearded mage who nodded seriously and jogged of with his team towards the distant forest. Everyone was moving suddenly, shouting for their teams to assemble and Merlin gestured his group to follow him.
“Khatrak.”
“What is it, boss?”
“Did you see the cultivators face?”
The healer stopped, frowned and then shrugged.
“I did, not sure if it will help though, why do you ask?”
“Can you draw a sketch of him, or better make a sketch with an artist in Town?” Khatrak hesitated, he opened and closed his mouth and then frowned at Merlin.
“You want me to go to the Town while you prepare to get revenge? No way, I want to be there…” Merlin raised a hand and stopped the protests before they really started.
“And you will be there, we will need you in the fight to come for sure.” He inched closer to the man and whispered.
“You did use it though, right?”
Khatrak flinched again and avoided Merlin’s gaze, but he nodded eventually. Damn. Khatrak’s rare class was primarily healing and one offensive spell that mostly blinded and did not do much damage. But in return he had gotten what most healers in the tower wanted more than anything else. He had a cheat death skill that would revive him after he basically had died. But there was a caveat, the skill had a 7 day cooldown and required some manastone sacrifices to recharge.
Merlin gave Khatrak a meaningful gaze and put a hand on the mans shoulder.
“You know I promised your clan to keep you safe, right? Come on, play it safe for my sake as much as yours.” he whispered and Khatrak clicked his tongue, but nodded.
“If I can’t keep myself safe on the first floor of the tower, then what is the point.” he grumbled to himself but Merlin ignored that and turned to the rest of his team.
“I’ll head to Town with Khatrak, you guys set up a camp from where we can play quick relief force and catch the bastard. Morris you are on watch until I get back.”
The archer nodded and frowned down at his bow.
“I only have some standard arrows I mooched of one of the archers. I need a new quiver and at best some new deadbolts.”
“I’ll see what I can do, but nor promises, I doubt the smiths here can make them.” Merlin straightened and spat out into the snow.
“You know, the Cultivator was right with one thing.”
“What?” Melia asked tersely, clearly still irritated by the situation they had found themselves in.
“We are not getting paid enough for our efforts. I think it is time we renegotiate with Aurix and get ourselves a nice chunk of manastones to replace the ones we just lost.”
Atris shook his head and scowled.
“Men like Aurix are not used to new terms.”
“We’ll see. It is worth a try either way. I doubt he wants to be out of town and hunt down the cultivator himself. If he did, he would have done so already.”
Merlin stopped half a mile out from where he guessed was the river and turned to his group.
“Don’t take chances till I am back with Khatrak. Atris you have lead, if he comes out and tries to flee, just harry him, don’t engage if you don’t have to and never do it alone.”
“Got it, Captain.”
Merlin nodded and turned towards the center of the first floor. He regretted his decision to take the seemingly easy money now. But he would make the best out of it. If his plan succeeded then the cultivator was basically already dead, he just did not know it yet. If not, he would still make sure their team at least would be compensated for their time. But he vowed in his heart that next time he would be ready and he would not underestimate the Cultivator again.