Banished Pt. 03

"Where are we going?" the girl asked.

"You talk a lot, don't you?" I asked, and she quickly fidgeted. "It's fine, I'm just not used to the company. By the way- keep an eye out... there's some nasty fiefers in these woods."

"Fiefers?"

The pretend look of fear quickly turned into a real one, and I turned away to hide a smirk.

"Yeah... wait, you haven't seen any yet?"

The girl shook her head, and I tilted my head in confusion.

"The traders say this place is crawling with them... I only saw one, but sheesh; talk about stuff of nightmares."

"W-what are they?" she asked, moving closer to me.

"Uh... I guess a kind of bat-creature? They do hang upside down... wait no; bats don't have venomous claws. I guess, flying, clawed, monster bats? Yeah, that sounds accurate. Except waay bigger than a bat. You can hear the trees creaking under their weight sometimes, if you listen carefully."

I paused, just as a little wind picked up, and at the first sound of a 'creak', Candice jumped, grasping my hand.

"You got a weapon, Candy?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"That kind of makes you the designated 'food'. Don't worry, you can pick something up at the guild hall."

"But I used my credits already," she said, and I shot her a look that said, 'was a pleasure knowing you, rest in peace'.

"Please don't let me die," she exclaimed, as I started walking again.

"Then keep up!"

I moved more quickly now.

Were Gisela and the others following me?

Hopefully they'd listened when I told them to stay put, because it would be bad if they ran into whoever Vanessa sent to follow us.

We walked for something like ten minutes, when suddenly, I froze.

"Don't. Move," I whispered.

I took a step away from her, and as she made to move towards me, I quickly raised my hands.

"Stop, stop. Stop. He's watching me... not you."

I waved a hand, then gulped.

"I'm going to have to draw him away... you need to stay very still, do you understand?"

Candace nodded; her eyes wide with fear.

"On three. One. Two-"

And I took off at a sprint, trying to put as many trees between us as I could.

I needed to obscure any line of sight she could have on me, and I stopped just as I rounded a large-ish trunk.

I stooped down, and panted, trying to regain my breath.

Was I clear?

I waited for a few minutes, and after looking around to make sure Candace was nowhere in sight, I raised my hand, my forefinger sticking up and my thumb pointed outwards, and I let out a sigh as Gisela appeared from a nearby brush, and quickly approached.

"Are you unhurt, Auslander?" she asked, and I nodded.

"I'm fine. I thought I told you to stay put?" I asked, and she looked away, timidly.

"I just couldn't bear to leave you like that," she replied.

"It's fine. Was anyone following us? That girl and me, I mean."

Gisela nodded.

"There was another goddess. A small one, with a black hooded robe."

"Perfect," I breathed, as I continued to catch my breath. "Where are the others?"

Gisela signaled, as I had, and I shot her a disapproving stare as Gunter came over from some bushes off to the left, accompanied by not only the other Kobalt man, but three others.

"I'm sorry, Auslander," Gisela began, but I shook my head.

"It's fine. This is perfect, actually."

I quickly relayed my plan to Gisela, and she nodded, despite a slightly worried look on her face.

I offered a silent prayer to the powers that be, that the Kobalt would be able to perform as I hoped, before putting our plan into action.

***

"Are you sure it's this way?" Candace asked her comrade.

The two walked noisily, seeming quite oblivious to the group tracking them from a distance.

I signaled to Gunter, and he nodded, moving with two of the other Kobalt men to the other side of where the two girls walked.

These robes sure came in handy, I thought.

The two Kobalt guards accompanying Gunter wore some of the robes from my set, while I switched into another robe myself.

The other two guards just covered themselves up as roughly as they could with whatever we had available, while Gunter and Gisela thankfully, already wore robes which allowed them to conceal themselves.

"I'm sure. Sheesh," the girl responded.

"If you're so sure, then how come you didn't see what happened?" Candice asked, and the girl sighed.

"I wasn't the one cowering in fear and pissing myself," the girl replied.

"Ugh. I told you. There was something there!"

"And where is it now?" the girl asked, and Candice stomped her feet angrily.

"Doesn't matter if we're fucking lost!"

I smiled, feeling quite proud of myself for executing my plan so perfectly.

"On my mark," I whispered, and Gisela nodded.

The first step was making sure the smaller girl didn't have a weapon concealed within her robes.

For that, I'd have to engage her.

"Coo! Coo!" I called, and Gunter's hooting call came back to me.

"Oyeoyeyeaaaaah!"

I charged out just as Gunter and his two accompanying Kobalt did, and the two others quickly surrounded the girls from the other side.

"Aaahhhh!" Candace screamed, holding onto the smaller girl, to her annoyance.

"Let go of me; I have the dagger."

She pulled a dagger out from somewhere in her robe, and I shot Gisela a quick look.

The others backed up a bit, while still doing their best to act menacingly towards the two, as I charged in.

The small girl caught sight of me as I moved in, but as she swung her blade, my own armored forearm crashed into her wrist, and the blade went flying from her hand.

For a moment, the quickness of my strike left me feeling somewhat perplexed, but I shook off the feeling, as the fight was not yet over.

I quickly kicked at her stomach as hard as I could, and her eyes went wide as she fell to the floor, writhing in agony.

"Don't hurt me!" Candace screamed, but as she made a run for it, I grabbed her, then grasping her by the ponytail, I threw her over to her slumped companion.

She was sobbing, and as Gisela quickly retrieved the knife, I signaled to the others to approach.

"Tie them," I ordered in German, and one of the Kobalt guards quickly produced some woven reed rope.

We secured their hands, then bound their legs and placed the two girls, backs together, sitting on the floor.

"Well, what do we have?" Gisela began, as she inspected each of the girls. "You will make good slave for the Khal," she continued, watching me to make sure that she'd gotten the pronunciation right, as she moved to Candace. "You... maybe food?"

"Please don't hurt us," Candace sobbed, and Gisela looked to me.

"Do it," I mouthed, as I gestured with my fist.

She balled her hand up, looking to me again, and at my silent prodding, she took a deep breath, then struck Candance; hard.

"You speak when I tell you, little girl. Gag them," Gisela ordered, and as the other Kobalt moved in, and the girls kicked and whimpered in fright, I hung back and Gisela moved to join me.

"I cannot believe I struck a goddess."

Her hands were shaking, and I took them into mine.

"Look at me. She is not a god."

Her hands steadied a little, and she nodded.

"What do we do now?"

"I'll tell you what to say in German."

"German?"

"That's what we call that language," I answered, and she nodded.

We walked over to the two girls, and I whispered to Gisela.

She approached Candace and moved the bit of cloth from over her mouth.

"I ask. You answer. Got it?" she said, and the girl nodded.

"We're looking for a man. Long, blonde hair in a ponytail. This tall. Carrying a sword."

"Are you talking about Caleb?" Candace began, and the other girl nudged her with her elbow.

"Don't tell them anything," she mumbled through her gag, and I sighed.

I walked over to her, and slapped her across the face.

"No one spoke to you," I said, trying my best to make my voice sound low and gruff.

I nodded at Gisela, and as she raised her hand to strike Candace, the girl began to speak.

"We saw him! We don't know where he is, but he passed by us."

I walked over to Gisela, and whispered to her.

"Who is this 'us'?" she asked. "Is that the little group down by the river?"

She stared at Gisela, hesitantly, but as she raised a hand, poised to strike; Candace quickly nodded.

"Yes."

"When?" I pressed.

"Yesterday. It was late. He had some people with him, tied up."

I whispered to Gisela.

"How many people?" she asked.

"I dunno. I wasn't there... I was inside a tent."

I grasped her by the hem of her shirt, and Candace whimpered, closing her eyes shut tight.

"I swear!" she cried, and I paused, studying her intently.

"How late was it?" I asked.

"I dunno... like the sun was setting?" she said, and I pondered the info.

"And he just left? With the captives?" I asked, and she quickly nodded.

If it was that late, he couldn't possibly be going far... and why was he even stopping there at all.

It didn't make sense.

My eyes moved to the other girl.

I walked over, and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her up roughly, then dragged her away from Candace.

I pushed her up against a tree, and took off my hood, revealing my face.

"Look, I don't care to play games with you people. I just want my friends back," I said, as I pinned her gruffly.

"Bullshit. If you care so much about them, then why did you leave them?" she asked.

"In my assessment, at the time; the hall was the safest place to stay. When that changed, I headed out to find somewhere else that we could use."

"Good luck with that. Nowhere is safe," she said, and I scoffed.

"Yeah? Well there are better places than here at least. Now, where are they? Where did Caleb take them?"

"I'm not telling you shit. Anything you do to me; Caleb will do a thousand times worse."

"Vanessa's in league with him?" I asked, and the girl looked away.

Guess it's time to pay Vanessa another visit.

I took the girl back to where Candace was, then pulled Gisela aside to speak.

"The Kobalt with us. Can they fight?" I asked.

From what I'd seen, they carried no weapons; just tools and light packs.

I imagined they were something like scouts, but I needed to know exactly what they were capable of.

"They are no hunters, Auslander; just runners. But for you, they would die."

I shook my head.

"I don't want them to die. What I mean is; do they have experience fighting?"

"It is not their first skill, but they can."

"Do they have weapons?" I asked, and she nodded, waving one of them over.

She spoke to the man, and he produced a little dagger from his pack for my examination.

I took the weapon into my hand; it consisted of some kind of bone tied roughly to a piece of wood.

I frowned, handing the weapon back to him.

If I was going to take Vanessa on, it would help to know what they had; but I'd pushed my captives as far as I was willing to. After all, they were just being manipulated by Vanessa.

I began a quick calculation in my mind. Vanessa's group consisted of eight girls, so four hundred starting credits?

So far, I'd seen two spears in Vanessa's camp, plus the dagger I'd taken from the smaller captive girl.

That would add up to sixty credits.

Then there was Vanessa's breastplate, and bracers; so... thirty more?

There were also four tents, which I think belonged to the camping sets, which cost twenty credits each; so that was another hundred.

That left two hundred and ten unaccounted for credits, which could mean up to a maximum of ten concealed or otherwise existing weapons in their encampment.

So, what could I count on?

Their position was vulnerable for sure; but we weren't launching an all-out attack. Our objective was subduing them, and the less violence we could do it with, the better.

Then there was also the weak-willed nature that it took for these girls to follow a person like Vanessa... I mean, she was hardly a convincing leader, and if my current two captives were anything to go by, then that was certainly an advantage I could count on.

Maybe they would fold if I took her down?

I called Gisela over.

"I want to storm their camp," I said, and she nodded, as she bit her lip nervously.

"They are gods like you, no?"

"They are."

"Then it may be dangerous. You sit back; the Kobalt will try to take them."

I shook my head.

"She has at least two weapons. God's weapons," I clarified, and she shifted nervously. "Here's the plan. I think I can disarm or immobilize them one by one; I need the Kobalt to restrain them as I take them down."

"You risk yourself, Auslander. Just let us handle it," she countered, and I shook my head.

"My armor will protect me. No-one has to die. The others who were tracking the axe wielding God. Are they runners too?"

She nodded.

"How many?"

"Four," she answered, and I nodded.

"We'll meet up with them, then carry out the attack together. I want you and Gunter to take two of the Kobalt with each of you. Gather some stones, and climb the hills on either side of the camp; but don't attack unless I give the signal. I don't want to do too much damage to them."

Gisela nodded, apprehensively.

"You take much risk, trying to let all live. It is... unlike what I know of the gods," she said, studying me.

"Our ways all differ," I offered, and she nodded.

"I like your way," she said, and as I smiled, she suddenly seemed flustered.

She quickly headed off to relay the plan to the Kobalt, and we gathered Candace and her friend up, gagging them again as we set off.

We met up with the four runners who were tracking Caleb's friend, but it seems they'd lost track of him pretty early on, and were laying low until the time to meet up.

Gisela relayed the plan to them, and we headed to Vanessa's camp.

When we got to the camp, I signaled to Gisela, and she and Gunter headed off, and made their way around the camp to get into position.

I waited for a bit, then set off.

We got to within fifty feet of the first camp, where I'd stopped the first time, and I threw my captives down onto the floor.

"Come out, Vanessa!" I called. "And anyone who doesn't want to fight, throw down your weapons."

"Right... so you could disarm us and have your way with us? No thanks!" Vanessa called, and I scoffed.

"Just tell me where Caleb took my group, Vanessa!"

"Bite me," she yelled, and I sighed.

I advanced on her, handing my halberd to one of the Kobalt as I did, and two of the girls charged out of the bushes towards me; one wielding a spear, and the other, a dagger.

I dashed toward the girl with the spear, and easily evading her thrust, I grabbed the weapon, and slammed my fist into her face, sending her sprawling. But the other girl stabbed at me with her dagger, and as I swung my other hand toward her, I deflected the blow and drove my knee into her stomach.

Two of the Kobalt were quickly at my side, restraining and tying up the two girls, and I tossed the spear in my hand to one of the others, advancing now on Vanessa.

"Stop him," she yelled, but the other girls were rooted to the ground in panic.

She bared her teeth, seething with anger as I advanced on her, and she stood her ground, raising her spear. She jabbed as soon as I stepped into range, and I evaded, grabbing the spear just below the blade as I did.

I yanked, pulling her toward me, and as she fell onto her knee, I reached for her; but she had a dagger concealed on her leg, and she swung the blade, grazing a piece of exposed skin at my right shoulder.

I grimaced, then smacked her across the face with the back of my hand, and she fell over with a scream.

As she tried to crawl away, I pulled her back, and as she fell flat on her back, I reached for the neckline of her breastplate, and to my surprise; a strange glow filled my hand.

It felt as if an electric current was flowing between me and the piece of armor, and as I pulled at it, almost instinctively, I could feel the armor coming apart in my hand, and I stared in surprise as I ripped the piece right off of her, along with the cotton shirt she wore underneath.

Her breasts spilled out, and my jaw dropped as gasps broke out all around me.

She quickly covered herself up with her hands, her eyes wide with fright; but her expression quickly changed to one of anger.

"See? This is what they will do to you if you don't fight!" she screamed, but as I looked around, no one moved.

The rest of the Kobalt converged, bringing all of our captives together to the center of the camp.

We quickly searched them for weapons, before leaving them in a heap, surrounded by Kobalt armed now with the confiscated spears and daggers.

"Where did Caleb take my group, Vanessa?" I asked, when suddenly, a call came from one of the Kobalt, as they searched through the tents.

"He says Gods are here, tied," Gisela translated, and I rushed over.

"Fucking hell," I cursed, as I peeked into the tent, and spotted Francesca, tied and gagged, along with Casey.

I quickly untied them, and Francesca hugged me.

"I fucking love you right now," she exclaimed, and I held her as she squeezed me tightly.

"Did they hurt you?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"No, but..." her words trailed off as she shot a quick glance towards Casey, who was staring angrily at me.

"You came?" she said, and I nodded.

"Yeah. You're my group. Of course, I'd come."

"Not for me," she spat, her eyes moving to Francesca, and I sighed.

"You're right. I came for her. But... she never tried to kill me, so can you blame me?" I asked, and Francesca shot me a questioning look.

"You're a psychopath, Nate. I'll never trust you. I know what your kind is capable of," she responded venomously, and I sighed, but Francesca walked over to her, and to my surprise, put an arm around her.

"Casey... Caleb and Vanessa weren't psychopaths," Francesca said, and Casey's eyes teared up, and her knees began to shake.

She collapsed, sobbing, and Francesca consoled her, patting her back reassuringly.

There was a pitying look in Francesca's eyes, and as I studied her as I began to suspect what happened.

As Casey calmed down, I quickly spoke to Gisela.

"How long do we have before night falls?" I asked.

"Five, maybe six hours," she answered, and I nodded.

"We should set up a lookout. I have a feeling the 'God' your people were tracking is coming here sometime before then."

Gisela nodded, then headed outside to carry out my instructions.

"Francesca. Where's Jordan and Nolan? And the other guy."

"Caleb took them with his group."

"They're coming back here, aren't they?" I asked, and she nodded.

"We need to leave before he comes back. He has a full suit of armor, Nate. We can't beat him."

Fuck.

Well isn't that just fucking great.

"I'm not leaving without Jordan and Nolan," I said, and Francesca bit her lip nervously.

"You don't understand, Nate. The armor is resistant to the blades. Maybe we can come back for them when we're better equipped," she said, and I pulled off my robe.

"He's not the only one with armor," I said.

Casey was now staring at me.

She studied me for a while, before speaking.

"I wanna talk to him. Alone," she said, and Francesca cast me a quick look, and I nodded.

She headed outside, casting a furtive look back, before disappearing outside of the tent.

"I'm sorry about what happened," I began, and she cut me off.

"Save it. I'm still not buying your act; but I'm willing to cut a deal. Even with armor, a fight against someone else in full armor is difficult. I know things that can raise your odds."

"I'm listening," I said.

"I want. Fucking. Revenge," she said, her teeth clenched tight as she spoke.

"We could organize a trial. Punish them," I began, and she shook her head emphatically.