Sleeping in the stable wasn"t luxurious but it was better than sleeping outside. Their group had the entire building to themselves and there were only two entrances so they only needed four people to keep watch at a time during the night. Everybody was able to get enough rest for the trip ahead of them. "We"re going to be heading on foot from here so we"re only going to be bringing the metal wagon with us. Troels, do you think that you can pull it by yourself?""Those horses didn"t struggle with it so I should be fine." His horse half was larger than those draft horses so he did seem stronger. After pulling it for a bit, Troels confirmed that it was light enough for him.
Their pace was slower this time around so it took two days to reach the abandoned village. There was nothing they could find in the village that would help them. The mercenaries stayed the night in the houses that belonged to the victims of the bandits. After getting rest, it was time to go once more.
"We"re not getting the cart through these trees. Everybody, either carry your gear or give it to Gren. We"re going on foot. Kuroa, fly up real quick and see if you can see the fort." After Kuroa flew up, Annie turned to Gren. "Those walls of yours won"t work with the trees in this forest. Do you have anything else that might work?"
Gren thought about it and remembered the metal tent-like structure he created for Jasmine. "I"ve got something, yeah." He"d just need to create small metal buildings for people to stay in. They"d be portable bunkers(Gren required: Gren not included with purchase of portable bunkers).
Kuroa flew back down and gave Annie her report. "Fort spotted on top of a hill in that direction. It looked a bit beaten up." Annie thanked her and rallied the mercenaries to march forward.
Most of the smaller animals and monsters were scared away by the size of their group and the ones that weren"t didn"t survive for long before being picked off by their archers. "I"m starting to see signs of larger monsters. They"re a bit old but there are claw marks on this tree. They"re too degraded to tell what type of monster made them." Annie decided to guide them to an area further away from the marks.
Gren learned a lot from watching Annie guide them through the forest. Mostly, he learned that he didn"t know anything about tracking animals. How could she tell the difference between deer tracks and boar tracks in the mud? How did she know that a wolf"s call was actually just a smaller animal mimicking it? Gren didn"t know. Gren didn"t even know how to begin to learn.
"Everybody, stay quiet." Annie seemed focused on something. "Gren, can you store just my armor?" Gren nodded so Annie had him remove it. Underneath the armor was a suit of tight clothes made from a flexible fabric. "I"ll be back soon. You all stay here."
Annie rushed off with Mimi attached to her back. There was the smell of blood in the air. Her hair was too noticable so she had Mimi cover it with her black slimy body. {The enemy is just up ahead. Don"t say anything.}
Annie hid behind the flora and listened for a while. There were voices but it wasn"t in the common tongue. The only people she knew of that didn"t use the common tongue were from the far west. They wouldn"t be able to make it to Seka Kingdom without knowing the language so that didn"t make sense.
They were three of them cutting up a deer and talking over it. Their armor was odd; it looked like it was made out of wood. It resembled the Elven armor used during the war long ago. There was no way that they weren"t involved with the bandits that took over the Elven fort.
{Get ready to grab them when I strike. Try not to kill them if possible.}
Annie climbed up a nearby tree as silently as possible. Mimi had already added the dryad"s properties to herself long ago so she was able to make Annie look like she was part of the tree. {You get the two on the right.}
The three of them were standing close so Annie leapt from the tree. Mimi separated from Annie and covered the other two men while Annie landed on the guy on the left, knocking him out with her elbows. Mimi solidified over them, making sure that they couldn"t move.
"Ohhh, these guys think they"re part of some revolution. Let"s bring them to Gren. He needs their points." Mimi was the only person that knew about the system since she could read his thoughts. "Right, you can"t move far without my help. After these guys pa.s.s out we can re-combine."
"What were you talking about earlier? Points?" Annie knew that it was easier to get information from Mimi.
"Ah, it"s the thing he uses to unlock cool stuff. If he gets enough then he"ll make me the cool harvester." Annie couldn"t understand what Mimi was talking about but she was able to figure out that Gren was still holding secrets. "He hasn"t promised it yet but he"s a pushover."
Annie had Mimi fill in for her leg again as Mimi pulled the men behind her. It took longer to get back to the group but it seems like Gren was being productive in the time that they were away. There were several square buildings set up that were made of metal. "Gren, Mimi has a present for you."
Gren didn"t know when he"d get used to seeing tentacles coming from Annie"s body. It was technically Mimi"s body that they were coming from but he couldn"t see Mimi"s core from this angle. "What kind of present do you have for me?" It had to be whatever they were dragging behind them.
"Three men for you to kill." Mimi"s words made the conversations around them die down. "These three are pretty bad villains, you know. They"re part of the group that we"re currently going after." She seemed excited about it. "Come on, kill them."
Gren didn"t expect this but he could understand what she wanted to accomplish. It was just a bit odd since she wanted him to execute them. "It"s not chivalrous to kill a defenseless man, even if he"s a monster." Osmond couldn"t agree to him executing others.
"They"d kill us if we were defenseless. What"s the problem?" Dill didn"t really deal with bandits when patrolling the cities as a soldier but as a mercenary he got to see the damage they caused with his own eyes. "If they escape then they"ll just alert their friends."
Gren didn"t like the idea of killing someone that they had captive but there was an easy way to change that. "Mimi. Tell me what this man has done." Gren pointed towards the bandit closest to him.
Mimi was already in contact with the three bandits. "This man lived his life robbing people as part of a small gang. Their group found out about the bandits in this forest and tried to join them; only he and one other from their gang had Elven blood and were able to live." Being spared wasn"t a crime so that part seemed unnecessary but at least Gren knew something new about the bandits. "After joining the bandits, he started capturing the men with Elven blood and killing the rest. The women are used to help create an Elven army to get revenge against the humans."
"And the rest of them?" Gren wanted to make sure that they were all monsters. "Did they do the same things?"
"Yes, but this man was a slave before joining them and the last would con people out of money." Mimi pointed towards each man with a tentacle while talking about them.
"I"m sorry, Osmond, but I can"t let people like that live." If they survived then they"d infect others with their messed up ideology. "What would be a chivalrous way to kill them?" If he just executed them then it might cause Osmond to be disillusioned with their guild. It wouldn"t be a good idea right now before they fought a large group of enemies.
Osmond was relieved to hear Gren"s words. "We give them a chance to fight, one on one. If they try to escape then our archers take them out. If they win then they"re enslaved and get a chance to win their freedom in the arena."
This was the first time that Gren had heard someone mention an arena. He"d have to ask about it later but right now there was something more important to deal with. "Form a ring so that they can"t escape." This felt like a stupid idea but it would be a good test of his skills.
The bandits were bound in a way that left only their heads exposed so Gren created a ball of water to splash on the former gang member"s head. That didn"t wake him so Gren poked him with the b.u.t.t of one of Kuroa"s javelins. Finally, the guy seemed to be recovering. "Who are you!?" The man didn"t know what happened to him. One moment he was talking with his friends and the next he was covered by something; it was dark and he couldn"t breathe.
Gren decided that Osmond was more used to these situations and had him talk to the bandits after waking the other two. "You three are guilty of breaking the laws of Seka Kingdom; ****, murder, burglary, theft, illegal slavery, and revolting against the crown. The punishment for these crimes is death." Panic was on the faces of the three bandits. "However, you will be given a second chance."
"We"re not going to tell you nothing!" The former slave miscalculated what Osmond was going to say next.
"You don"t need to say anything. Each of you will be given a trial by combat. If you defeat our champion then you get to keep your life. If you lose then you"re dead." Osmond presented Gren before continuing, "This is our champion."
The weapons that the bandits used were too nice so Gren decided that he"d give them a dull iron sword from his pocket dimension. It was one of the training swords that he used while the knights taught him how to fight. After tossing the dull sword on the ground in front of where the bandits were bound, Gren pa.s.sed his shield and helmet to Jasmine for safekeeping. "Give me the former gang member first." He seemed the toughest so Gren wanted to get him out of the way.
{He"s still a kid. They"re basically asking for me to kill him.} The bandit was confident in his fighting skills. He grew up in a rough environment and their champion looked like some sheltered rich kid that wanted to play soldier. That armor would be tough to get through but the kid took his helmet off so there was still a weakness.
After being released, the former gang member leapt towards the sword and grabbed it before backing away. {As long as his friends don"t do anything then I can do this. The sword is a bit dull but it"ll work as a club.} The kid just sat there with his sword ready and it didn"t look like he"d make the first move.
Gren was looking at the gang member"s form. He didn"t seem to have any proper training. The sword was kept to his side, away from his body. That would be fine if he had a shield but his defense was lacking. The man suddenly charged with his sword arm raised up high; the long sustained yelling was only going to tire him out.
Gren used the armor on his right wrist to redirect the blade"s trajectory while jabbing at the side of the man"s hip with his sword. The blade only penetrated the skin and muscle but the man didn"t seem used to getting hurt. The man swung his sword back towards Gren but wasn"t going to hit anything by swinging blindly; Gren stepped back and circled around the man while switching his sword to the other hand.
Gren slowly stepped forward before stabbing forward with the sword repeatedly, causing the man to keep using his injured hip. The man finally had enough of Gren"s hara.s.sment and lunged forward with a stab of his own. Gren allowed the blade to glance off his armor as he stepped towards him and stabbed the man through his chest. The man"s armor was tougher than Gren expected but he still managed to pierce through it and the man"s ribs thanks to their combined momentum.
"As I thought, humans are much easier to take down than animals. Training with the knights didn"t prepare me for boars." Gren realized his weakness in the fight against the boar; stabbing it only angered it and didn"t slow it down at all. The knights had him experience being stabbed several times so he knew how the opponent would react to it but that was only true for human opponents. "If we have young mercenaries training under us then we"ll need to teach them for more than three months. Six months should be the minimum."
Gren was going to pull the sword out of the man"s chest but realized something important. Storing the man"s body away to drain the blood from it later, Gren prepared for his second fight. "The former con-man. His type really annoys me." Gren tossed the dull iron sword back in front of where their prisoners were held.
After the man was released, he tried running but was knocked back by Gallia"s large shield. "Pick up the sword and fight. You"re not going to be able to run away." The former con-man was trying to crawl away from Gren in a different direction but there was only a giant hoof waiting there for him. Ahk pushed him back into the ring with her leg.
"Please don"t kill me. I have kids to feed." Gren was surprised to hear that; villains actually said things like that in real life?
"He abandoned all of his kids except the ones he made after joining the bandits." Mimi spilled the beans about what she learned when peeking into the bandit"s mind. "Their mothers were his **** victims and they"re not even toddlers yet. They"d be better off with him dead."
The man was only going to keep running so Gren stopped him with earth magic. His screaming was annoying so Gren drowned him with his water magic. Using magic still counted as Gren killing him in the system so there was no need to waste any physical effort killing this guy with his sword. Drowning took a while so Gren decided to warn the former slave as they waited. "You"ve got two options. Fight me or I"ll roast you to death. I don"t want you wasting all of our time."
Seeing that Gren could use magic and was currently killing a man in such a slow way, the former slave believed that Gren would really do that. The man was unconscious but Gren couldn"t store the body. "He"s still alive? This is taking too long." It took nearly six minutes before the man was completely dead and he could store the body away.
"Sorry. Here I am talking about wasting time and I take several minutes to kill some bandit." Gren got up and stretched. "Don"t worry, I"ll give you time to stretch so it"s fair." The sword was still in front of the former slave so he didn"t have to go far to pick it up. He took Gren"s words seriously and cracked his own neck before stretching his arms and legs.
The former slave seemed more determined than the other bandits. He raised his sword and nodded, letting Gren know that he was ready. At least this one was going to fight. {Decent form. Having two hands on such a short sword isn"t necessary though.}
The bandit slashed towards Gren but the sword was easy to dodge by sidestepping. He was faster than the former gang member but it was much slower than the knights. He wasn"t going to hit with speeds like that. Gren suddenly felt something pulling on the back of his leg and pushing on his chest so started falling backwards. {Ah, I was too focused on the sword. The knights kept warning me about that.}
Gren landed on his back and rolled down the ramp he made with magic before the former slave could hit him with the sword. At the end of his roll, Gren used the earth magic to spring himself up before flattening the ring. The roll made him a little dizzy so he got some distance to help him recover. The man didn"t want to give him time to recover and charged forward with the sword.
Gren"s reflexes were slightly off and he took a hit on his side. After hitting Gren, the man stepped forward and grabbed Gren"s arm that was holding the sword. The man would get his sword at this rate so Gren smashed his own forehead against the former slave"s head, causing the both of them intense pain.
Gren was able to recover quickly with his healing spell but his opponent wasn"t as lucky. His head had been split open and he didn"t seem capable of fighting anymore since he was twitching on the ground. Gren decided to put him out of his misery by decapitating him with a sharpened greataxe from his pocket dimension. He at least tried to fight so he deserved a quick death.
"I knew you could be hard-headed at times but I didn"t think you"d be able to do that. The poor guy"s skull cracked against your own." Mimi felt Gren"s head to check the spot that he hit the bandit with. "You"ve got a bit of a b.u.mp. You might want to make some ice to put on that."
"Mimi, stop leaving my armor without letting me sit down first." Annie was being held up by Nina who just happened to be the person next to her.
"Ah, sorry, I was just wondering what his head was made of." Mimi crawled back to Annie and entered the hatch. It took less than a minute for Annie to be able to stand straight. "Fusion: complete!"
Mimi"s silliness was good at dispelling the mood caused by the executions. After storing away the shelters that he had created, Gren continued the journey towards the Elven fort. The information that Mimi had gathered made the mercenaries worried about what they were going to face. The reports of there being at least thirty archers weren"t incorrect; they were just misleading.
The fort had close to one hundred and fifty combatants in it and each of them was trained to be an archer; their bows and armor made of ent wood. If that was it then they would be fine with their large shields but the leader had enchanted arrows and there was a beast tamer on their side. They would need to be careful of explosive arrows and a wolf rider.
———————————
MERCENARY FORCES
Melee:
Zell, Krieger, Dill, Rory, Tokala, Osmond, Buthi, Gallia, Sachi, Ahk, Korra, Luna, Midna, Tahloh, Jasmine, Shenzi, Noir, Choco, Livi.
19 Total
Ranged:
Chase, Nina, Cammie, Erling, Troels, Dhalra, Kuroa, Letta, Annie.
9 Total
Magic/Support:
Suze, Nadia, Nalia, Gren, Mimi.
5 Total
Useless Weight:
Vampire(No Name)
1 Total