Finding an opening in the defense of the camp after eliminating one of the guards was an easy task, all Arath had to do was climb to the position from where his enemy had spotted him from before. Having done that not even a mouse could escape form his sight. Even though the enemy himself wasn't very strong Arath couldn't help but appreciate his ability to find perfect spots for scouting. After making sure no one could notice his hideout he started to asses the situation. The camp was guarded by 4 more scouts each equipped with a bow and a short sword and another dozen men were standing or sitting in the middle either drinking or talking spitting horrendous amounts of saliva. Eight tents were surrounding the Guiding Lantern around which were the bandits sitting. Right next to the tents were few cages with both human slaves and beasts trapped inside. Altogether there were 6 slaves, four women and two men, the men looked beaten up yet their clothes were decent and gave the impression of being well fed, probably captured recently whereas the women looked as if they had lost all hope and all they had were very light rags that obviously didn't protect them from the cold of the cave well enough. This sight made Arath's blood boil, if he had been any less vigilant he would end up just like them. There was no way he would let slavers be, he had seen too many of their victims on the black market and almost been sold for at least few times in his life.
'There is no way I can defeat all without a plan. A damn good one to be precise. The slaves could help me if I released them but how do I do it without being noticed?' He took up his new bow, put an arrow on the string and kept looking for an opportunity.
After few minutes that felt like hours finally something noteworthy happened. Another bandit came out of a tent and following him a female slave in such a pitiable state that Arath could not help but be angry at himself fot not taking action earlier.
'Alright fuckers let's see how will you feel while being as helpless as those poor souls.' A plan finally formed in his mind. 'My best bet is to release the beasts and let them roam free. That should create a chaos big enough for me to take down most of the guards and if I'm lucky maybe few of those drunk guys will die by the animals' hands.' Before he finished the thought he already shot the first arrow.
This kind of aim and precision would be called impossible for many, but thanks to ablities granted to him by Space Element it was not much for Arath. The arrow landed in the middle of a lock blocking the door of the cage. If not for the rust covering most of the lock this manouver would never work. But somehow it worked and the chain fell down with a loud clang waking up everybody. Another arrow followed piercing shallowly the biggest beast. This weird combination of a giant rat and a mole called blestol was one and a half meters long and about one meter high. It let out a ear-piercing screech and rushed out of the cage ramming everything on it's way. Seeing their leader running away caused a big commotion among the rest. The remaining blestols quickly got up and and rushed outside. The situation could be described with only on word - mess. The first few bandits were run over resulting in a very unpleasent sound of broken bones and spines. Arath using this massacre as a distraction immediately got behind the bandit who was still leaving the tent and put his sword in the enemies back.
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'That's what you get for playing with lives.' He then turned around to the slave caught her hand and led to his hideout, but to his surprise the girl fainted from exhaustion after few steps and he had to drag her on the floor. Making sure she was safe and sound he took out his bow once again and started targeting the guards. One arrow after another pierced their heads and only after getting rid of 3 enemies did the last one hide looking for the culpirt. In the same time guards down in the camp finally started to get the situation under conrol. Only three small beasts were still remaining, but at the cost of four dead and three heavily injured comrades. Then something unexpected happened. The whole cave strarted to rumble and some loose stones started falling from the ceiling.
"Blood worms!" The scout that just a moment ago was hiding trying to find Arath started to shout while running in a random direction.
'Ah shit, that was not part of the plan, they must have been lured by the smell of blood.' Arath hid his bow, picked up his sword and ran back to the camp. According to his prediction he had no more than two minutes to finish his businnes here unless he wanted to become dinner for those hungry vermin.
In a matter of seconds he reached the second cage and tried to break the lock. Unfortunately this time the construct was solid and couldn't be broken easily. After a minute of struggling it finally broke and landed onthe floor with another loud clang. Once again abilities granted to him by Space Element came in handy allowing him to sense the inner mechanism which made the lock picking process much easier. He threw aside the piece of metal he found on his way that he picked the lock with and to the slaves surprise opened the cage.
"Get the hell out of this cage! You've got about 30 seconds before this place turns into a slaughterhouse!" He shouted.
The two men and one girl quickly ran out without even looking back but then other three girls stayed behind. Arath wanted to shout at them to hurry up when he noticed taht only one of them was on her feet while the rest had been beaten up so badly they either couldn't move or were unconscious. That complicated things. After a second of hesitation he grabbed arm of the standing girl and pushed her outside and closed back the cage.
"Let me in! I won't leave them, they are my sisters! Let me go!" She kept screaming while trying to break free from his grip. Even after giving it her all her weakened body couldn't contend wtih him.
"Shut up. I don't like this either but I value my life and safety above theirs and so should you. You can't help them, but they can help us. They will keep the blood worms busy for few seconds. Few seconds that we really need if we want to live!"
The moment he finished speaking the first few worms broke through the ceiling and started to gather at their feet. The girl looked at the floor and after realizing the grave danger they were in she finally gave up and followed her rescuer. The two ran to Arath's hideout picked up the unconcious girl from before and resumed the run for their lives.