Banished Pt. 19

"Hey; calm down," Nolan said. "Or this will end badly for you."

The man fell to his knees, and after a moment of indecision, locked his gaze onto Lucia.

"Watch out!" I called out just as he charged, but she evaded his sloppy attack, nicking him on the foot as she did, and as he fell over Jeannie moved in and aimed a spear at his throat.

But as he desperately flicked away the spearpoint, it grazed his neck, and Nolan moved in, stabbing him in the exposed part of his neck from the side.

He grimaced, and as I eyed my own quarry, I could see a similar look of desperation in his eyes.

"Jesus Christ," I said. "We won't even kill you if we don't have to."

The man's expression quickly shifted from desperation to despair, and as we rounded up the survivors; the warrior I had disarmed, the one Francesca took down, as well as the man from the earlier group, I continued to study him.

There was a look there, as if he wanted to say something, but even as I extracted his pledge, he remained silent.

As I sent them off, however, he turned to me.

He gestured to his eyes, then pointed at me, then himself.

"What the fuck-?" Blair began, but I raised a finger, cutting her off.

"Watch you?" I asked, and the man nodded.

He turned to leave, I took a look around, then made a judgement call.

"Francesca; lead the lines. Fight to kill if you have to," I said, and she tilted her head.

"You're leaving?"

I nodded, as Casey moved closer, a disbelieving look on her face.

"What the fuck, Nate?"

"I'm gonna get some answers; just lead them along. Northwards, sometimes westwards. Mix it up, but keep moving. Conceal the bodies as best as you can and strip the armor, nothing else."

"Nate!" she called out.

"I'll find you using the tokens; less than an hour," I promised, and Casey ran her hands through her hair.

"Wait. Take Lucia," she said, and I eyed her.

"Lucia?"

"She can see better than you can," she reasoned, but before I could reply, Lucia had already darted to my side.

I swallowed, then nodded.

"Alright," I said, and we set off, following on the tail of the two men.

"I'll keep my eyes on them; you look out for other enemies," I whispered to Lucia, and she nodded.

Following them proved to be fairly simple, given that they kept to a rather pedestrian walking pace and their pledges made it impossible for me to lose them; but given the uncertainty of running into trouble, we had to move stealthily through the woods in any case.

As we walked, however, I began to pay attention to Lucia's movements, which I noted, with some interest, seemed to be much, much quieter than my own.

But I had little time to ruminate on the matter, when the group up ahead suddenly began to run.

I had a split second to make a decision, but I quickly settled on trailing the otherworlder who had signaled to me.

He ran a short way south east of where they had gotten to by that point, before ducking into some bushes, but with his pledge, it was easy enough to keep track of.

Instead of looking for him, I circled the area, trying to get as close to him as I could, while finding a place to remain hidden.

Eventually we settled on a bush, and we waited for what felt like about fifteen minutes, when Lucia tapped me, and gestured, indicating the direction from which three otherworlders were approaching.

"Are you hiding? Seriously," a man said out loud.

"I don't think he understands the rules~," a girl sang, laughing as she did.

I swallowed uncomfortably as they were just a short way to our left, but as I grasped my halberd and readied myself, the man darted out of the bushes, only to be caught by one of the three, and thrown to the ground at the feet of the first man who'd spoken.

"So pathetic. Look at you," the man said. "They took your armor and your weapons but not your life, huh?"

"Because his life is worth less than his armor!" the girl exclaimed, and the two laughed a bit.

The third man, however, had a more serious expression on his face.

"Can I just kill him already? You two got your kills," the third man said, and the girl frowned.

"Gosh. Would it kill ya to just lighten up a bit?" the girl asked, and the man scowled in response.

"Look; I'm not into this thing of getting off on murdering people, a'ight? I just want to buy my fuckin' ticket out of this mess."

"Come on, Lester. Lighten up," the girl said. "The more we kill the stronger we get, remember? We just need to let them thin through enough so that we can pound 'em ourselves!"

"Look, I told you. I don't give a fuck about that shit. I don't want the credits; I just want my freedom."

"Easy, Les. We're a team here; you don't leave until I decide we're done," the first man said, and Lester sighed.

"Look, whatever. We just need to kill one of them anyway, right? I'll stick around that long, but as soon as my chains are off, I am getting the fuck outta here!"

Lester withdrew his dagger as he leaned down and stabbed the man through the neck, then tearing the blade out of him, he turned and flicked the blade.

"Oh, did you see that? He tried to do that whole badass flick the blood off of his blade thing, but it doesn't work like that in real life, moron! Ahahaha!"

The girl was cackling, while Lester shot her a nasty look.

"Whatever; are we trailing them, or are we just gonna camp out waiting for the next deserter?"

"Camping; obviously," the first man said.

Lucia had a hand on her dagger, and seemed to be waiting on my signal, but I placed a hand over hers and shook my head, as my sensory skills were picking up more skills than usual on these, which was odd, given that they were wearing what seemed to me to be fairly basic tier-one armor.

He did say that the more they killed, the stronger they get, didn't he?

I bit my lip a bit, as I considered whether or not trailing them was a good idea, though truthfully; I knew it wasn't.

It just pained me to lose sight of a group like that, when every instinct I had told me that I needed to get together a team and hunt them down as soon as possible.

"Nathan," Lucia whispered, tugging at my shirt. "Lucia can pledge. Lucia follow, then Nathan find her."

I stared at the girl in shock.

Truthfully, Lucia's intelligence for her age never ceased to amaze me, but sometimes, she did things that just completely blew me away.

I smiled at her, ruffling her hair as I did.

"You're amazing, but over my dead body," I said, and Lucia frowned a bit.

She took my hand and brought it to her face, then nuzzling the back of my hand, she brought it to her forehead, and I smiled a little at the gesture.

I picked her up, and after waiting for a bit to make sure that the otherworlders had moved off some way, we stole off into the forest, making a beeline for the main group.

"Nate!" Casey greeted me as soon as she saw me, and as I set Lucia down, she actually hugged me, and gave me a quick kiss to my surprise.

"Jesus. How many girls are sickeningly obsessed with you?" Blair asked, smirking a bit as Bianca shot daggers out of her eyes at me.

"Hey, Nathan. I killed someone. I'm fine. Thanks for asking," Bianca said, as she turned and stomped off to the other side of the group.

"You encountered another group?" I asked, and Casey nodded.

"Two," she clarified. "Both groups of three."

"Who got the kills?" I asked, and Blair grinned.

"I got three," she announced proudly, and I shook my head at her.

"You need to work on that camouflage," I said, and she shrugged.

"If they're fine with you, they're bound to be fine with me," she replied offhandedly, which prompted Molly to scowl at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Molly asked, and Blair's expression suddenly shifted a bit, as she registered Molly's intonation, and caught the worried look on Casey's face.

"People who rock harder than you plebs could possibly comprehend," Blair said, correcting her tone into that more teasing delivery that thankfully just prompted Molly to sigh, before moving off.

Blair shot me a look that said, 'you owe me', and I nodded subtly before returning my attention to Casey.

"Uh, Bianca got one, and Francesca got the other two," she said.

"How did Bianca react?" I asked, and she bit her lip a little.

"She said she was fine, but uh... she was crying," Casey said, and I nodded.

"Let's take a little break, then; let them eat, drink, rest a little," I said, and Casey nodded, as I made my way over to Bianca.

"Hey," I said, and she frowned.

"Hey yourself, man-whore," she shot, folding her arms crossly.

I moved closer, letting my hand just hang a few inches from her hips, and she eyed me for a bit, before letting one hand drop, and brushing the sides of her fingers just against mine, but I waited until her body relaxed a bit, before moving closer, and trying to take her in for a hug.

She pouted a bit as she reluctantly moved into my arms, but when she rested her head against my chest, I ruffled her hair a bit, before hugging her properly.

"I hate this. Why do they even attack us?" she asked, and I sighed.

"Well, it seems they have been ordered to."

"So, they might not even be bad people?" she asked, and I shrugged.

"I saw the people we spared get murdered by some otherworlders who looked like fairly bad people; but no, in all likelihood, most of them probably aren't..."

Bianca sighed, and as I studied her, I could see her body language slowly sinking towards complete resignation.

I wasn't really sure what to do, until-

"Byaka's a little bitch!"

I spun around, tilting my head at Lucia.

"What?" Bianca asked.

"Byaka's a little bitch! Lucia killed. Lucia doesn't cry like little bitch!" Lucia said, goading Bianca a bit with her expression.

"Oh please; I saw you crying, you stupid little runt! You cried way more!"

"Lucia cried. Lucia is okay now. Lucia is better than Byaka!"

Bianca stomped her foot on the ground, snarling almost at the little girl.

"Yeah! Well, let's see who cries after the next one, you little fucking piece of-"

"Alright," I said, grabbing ahold of Bianca and reeling her back a bit. "Let's do the talking on the battlefield, shall we?"

I shot Lucia an appreciative nod, however, as her intervention seemed to have perked Bianca up significantly, and as we moved to rejoin the main group, I noted that her mood seemed to be much improved.

"We need to have a small meeting," I said to Casey, as soon as I moved to her side. "You, Francesca, and Bianca."

Casey eyed me carefully.

"What is that? Your new council?" she asked, and I shrugged.

I waved Francesca over, and with the ladies' full attention, I explained to them what I observed on my reconnaissance side-quest.

"So, they get stronger when they kill each other?" Francesca asked.

"That's what they said, but I didn't see any difference after they killed our guy," I explained.

"The change could be incremental; or not immediate," Casey suggested.

"Do you know of any mechanism like that, though?" I asked, and Casey shook her head.

"No, but I don't expect that my knowledge covers everything that might be at play here."

She thought for a while, when Bianca spoke:

"So, what's stopping them from just going out and hunting each other?"

"That's... a good question, actually," Casey replied, and Bianca rolled her eyes.

"Surprised much?"

Casey shot her an apologetic look, and I rubbed my chin as something occurred to me.

"I just realized something. When those guys attacked the three we'd spared, one of them ran off and hid in some bushes, and it took a while before they caught up to him."

"So, they hunted the other guys first?" Casey asked.

"Yeah... but as soon as they got to the bushes where he was hiding, they went right up to him and called him out. Like they knew he was there. They called him a 'deserter', too."

Casey pondered the situation.

"So, deserters might be the only ones they're able to kill?" Casey asked. "If they can track them down those who 'desert', that could be problematic though."

"Wait, do you think they get stronger when we kill off their allies as well?" Francesca asked, and I frowned.

"I think he said something about letting us 'thin' their ranks... so maybe? Or he could have been talking about us setting their friends free..."

"So, either we kill everyone we encounter, or we don't kill them or set them loose?" Francesca asked.

"Killing seems to be the only option," Casey replied. "If we don't set them loose, what would we do? Walk around with them while they're being tracked? They'd lead the others straight to us."

"And what if they keep getting stronger the more we kill? How long until we're fighting groups of tier-three fighters?" Francesca asked.

"I think I might have a plan," I said, and Casey eyed me as I continued, "but let's move this discussion to the whole group first."

Casey nodded, as Nolan seemed to be shooting annoyed glances in our direction.

We gave the group a brief rundown of the situation, which seemed to weaken morale a bit.

"Great; so, we've been killing our way to creating enemy super soldiers without even getting within range of this 'fort' of theirs," Nolan shot.

"And Nate was supposed to know that, how?" Jordan asked him, and Nolan shook his head, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

Molly, however, cracked a smile, as she turned her attention to me.

"You have a plan, don't you?" she asked, smiling at me as she did, and I returned the smile, nodding.

"I have two plans, actually. A long-term plan, and a short-term plan."

"I'll take short-term plans for two hundred, Alex," Molly said, and I chuckled a little.

"We find ourselves an ambush point; capture a smaller team, then use them as bait to lure in and capture more otherworlders."

Casey bit her lip.

"And when they start detecting more and more otherworlders in the same spot?"

"Then we switch to the long-term plan," I said, smirking a bit, and she rolled her eyes.

"Which is?"

"Move the captives to a more defensible location, then hunker down for an onslaught," I explained.

Casey studied me.

"You have two locations in mind already?" she asked, and I nodded, aiming my finger at her and clicking my tongue.

"Danica's cave, and the campgrounds where we fought off the geisterung onslaught," I said, and she nodded.

"They're close enough. And far enough out of Ethan's way. But if we do this, we're not gonna be able to hit that fort for at least two days," Casey said. "Are you sure you're fine with that?"

"We have three days to his deadline anyway, right?"

"What if they don't attack us, though?" Jeannie asked. "I mean, they don't really have to, right? They still have what we're after."

I nodded.

"Then we send out hit squads and whittle away at their forces."

"But what if they hole up in that fort of theirs instead?" Nolan asked.

"Then they'd be playing right into our hands," Casey answered. "If that fort was that defensible, they wouldn't be trying to delay our movement across the forest to that spot."

I nodded in agreement.

"If they don't attack, we're hitting that fort during the second night. Hopefully by then, we'd have been able to at least get a team over there to take a look at it."

Just as I'd finished speaking, Iduma signaled to me, and I nodded at him.

"Looks like we have company," I said, gesturing to the group, as we quickly moved to prepare for a fight.

"Nathan," Lucia said, pulling at my finger. "Bad guys don't see yet."

I nodded at her.

"Well then, let's prepare an ambush."

At my direction, the group quickly scattered, hiding behind tree stumps or in bushes, and soon enough, the sound of voices came towards us.

"Elle, I have a bad feeling about this. They've taken out like four groups now, right?" a woman said.

"Yeah, but those guys probably just sucked," a man replied.

"Besides, we only have to kill one of them. How hard could that be?" a third voice added.

"Pretty hard," I said, as I stepped out from behind a tree.

The three went on alert, glancing around, but as they spotted no-one else, the first man smirked.

"Just one? Must be our lucky day," he said.

"Elle. What if it's a trap," the woman said.

"Let's just kill him," the third man said, drawing a sword and advancing on me.

I withdrew my halberd, then raised a hand as I engaged with the man.

He slashed at me several times, and I deflected the blows, smiling a bit, as his speed was definitely no more than t-one.

I darted in towards him while the others emerged from their hiding places, and he took a step back, trying to slash at me, but I easily parried before jabbing at him with the butt end of my halberd.

Nolan's boot came down on his sword, trapping it into place, and as I advanced on him, he released the weapon, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Fuck, we're dead," he moaned, and I shook my head.

"Not yet. And if you behave, then maybe we can keep it that way."

He seemed about to respond, then stopped himself, covering his mouth, and even as the woman began to whimper, their other ally shot her a stern look, and she quickly covered her mouth as well.

Tears were streaming down her face nonetheless.

"What now?" Nolan asked, and I nodded.

"We move; and quick. Disarm them," I ordered.

We tied them up with the rope that we'd brought along, then began to move at a jog towards the cave that we'd passed on our way into this neck of the forest.

"We need to be on alert," I said to Casey. "That group that was hunting deserters might be close by."

We ended up spreading out a bit, with a few of the Accalians accompanying the group members on the outer perimeter while we moved, pushing our captives to move along as fast as they could manage.

As we made it to the cave without incident, however, I couldn't help but feel slightly unsettled.

"Let's not waste time. We'll put a sentry there; west of this entryway; Bianca, that'll be you."

"Got it."

"One of the Accalians will stick with you; Lucia, you as well."

Lucia nodded, as I turned to Bianca.

"Send me a thought message as soon as your group senses an approach. But stay clear of them. We want them to come in here," I said. "Francesca. You, Casey, Nolan, Jordan. You'll stay inside with the captives. When someone comes in, you keep the captives alive; the rest of the group will be outside with me; we'll close in on them from the rear and subdue them as best as we can. Remember, we're not killing anymore unless it absolutely cannot be helped," I added, directing the statement towards Blair, and she raised a hand in surrender.

"Say no more, boss," she replied.

We got set up as soon as I was done talking, and not a moment too late, as Bianca's message came less than five minutes later:

Three approaching. All men; Lucia says tier one.

"Dude, this is so far out of the way. How the hell did they make it here?"

"Fuck if I know. Looks like they're up ahead."

"What is that? A cave?"

The men paused for a bit there, scoping out the area, and looking around.

"What if they set up like an ambush for us or something?"

The man speaking had a spear in his hand, but his expression was cautious.

"With what? You don't get marked for termination unless you get disarmed."

This one looked like the leader, but the third man was quite large, and strapped to his back was a pretty big axe, and as I gazed into his core, I noted he had a few skills beyond tier one.

We'd need to look out for him.

"Let's just get this over with," the third man said, picking his way through the bushy path towards the cave, and we kept low, moving as soon as they were far enough down the path, and I smiled, as our timing was perfect, as we appeared behind them at the cave entrance just as they were standing before Francesca and the others inside.