Chapter 274 - Going with the flow
Deep inside the forest as the party was getting closer and closer to the Harpies base, more trees had been uprooted and taken down. Rick knew this was a sign that they were only getting closer. And eventually, up ahead the Harpies base was spotted.
Trees from one part of the forest had been completely removed and chucked out a distance away from the base. The harpies instead filled the ground with sticks and twigs, branches from the trees to create a type of flooring.
This left a fairly large circular area complete void of trees and this was what the harpies used as a base.
Rick commanded the group to remain a safe distance away and sent up to a.s.sa.s.sin typed cla.s.s adventuress, up ahead to do some scouting. These people were great at making their footsteps silent as possible and knew the right places to be seen to avoid detection.
"Good thing he didn"t make you go, huh Jack." Martha said, "You probably would have brought the whole group of harpies back with you."
Jack felt slightly embarra.s.sed and wanted to argue his case but then remembered the time when he was at Kelberg, he thought it was easy to do these types of things. He had seen Ray and Gary do it all the time but it really wasn"t.
After waiting a few moments, the two scouts came back and made a report to Rick, his facial expression didn"t change though, so it was hard for the others to tell if it was good news or bad news.
The group then formed a small huddle as Rick explained his plan of action.
"It was as I expected." Said Rick. "The harpies are aware that their scout has been taken down and are now on alert. There around a hundred of them at least, if we go in attacking like this, one of us will possibly die."
The others knew Rick was experienced and the words he spoke were words of truth. Rick had seen it happen many times before and although people were selfish, no one liked seeing someone else die.
"What do we do?" Someone asked, "Should we turn around and come back another day."
people in the crowd started to mumble at the suggestion, it had taken them a long time to enter the forest and make preparations. It would also mean that they had earnt no coin for the day. A lot of people weren"t so wealthy that they could afford not to complete quests for a day.
They lived earning on a day by day basis. These feelings soon started to turn into anger and frustration and was all pointed towards one person. They looked at the man who now stood by Lenny"s side.
The man named Roy who had shot down the Harpy earlier.
Lenny seeing this decided to do something.
"Worry not people for I have a suggestion." Lenny then went into the bag that Jack had been carrying on his back the whole time. Since Jack was the strongest usually Jack was asked to carry the provisions. When they travelled with Ray, he would use his endless void.
Lenny then pulled out three small b.a.l.l.s that had been wrapped in string and had a small piece of cloth on top.
"This here is what I call a gas bomb, once it makes an impact with the ground it will realise a deadly chemical. This chemical will sting and burn their eyes as if they were on fire. The Harpies will then be disorientated and that is when we would attack."
"I"ve never heard of such a thing." An adventurer said.
"Of course not, as I said, it"s my own invention," Lenny replied.
Knowing what they would be going up against, Lenny had made preparations beforehand, even if the Harpies weren"t on high alert it was an effective method to use when dealing with a large group of beasts like this one.
A lot of the adventures in the group were sceptical of Lenny"s words but there was one thing that made him trusted more than others. It was the fact that he was a mage. In their eyes, Mage"s done all sorts of crazy things that just seemed impossible for humans to do.
"Let"s say those little b.a.l.l.s of yours work." Rick said, "How would we get close enough to use them, if the a.s.sa.s.sins were to throw them, I fear they too would get hurt by the same weapon."
The group mumbled and talked about it once again then a grin appeared on Rick"s face.
"Why don"t we let the person who caused the trouble for us in the first place. Roy was it, why don"t you go and throw these at their base for us." Rick suggested.
The flow of the group was starting to change and it seemed like they were going with what Rick was suggesting. Rick was a mastermind when it came to understanding the thoughts of people, Roy had already caused them trouble and as long as it wasn"t them, people were fine with the chance of one of them getting hurt.
Then an unexpected voice joined the discussion.
"I"ll do it," Martha said.
The group turned at looked at the young girl who looked around seventeen years of age.
"Why should you risk your own life, don"t try to be a hero girl." Said Rick, "If Roy hadn"t attacked the scout, then we would have been able to go in their fighting by now."
Martha looked at the man and remained calm, she wanted to say something back but decided not to. She knew he was a representative of a large guild and if she was to cause problems for her guild, she would hate it.
"I am not trying to be a hero, we can deal with this without anyone needing to go in close, I can just use my arrow to shoot away from a distance."
The adventures in the group started to laugh. Of course, Martha wasn"t the only one in the group who knew how to wield a bow and arrow, even Roy could use them. The problem was the distance between the base and here was a great one.
An insane amount of strength would be needed and also there were many obstacles in the way, such as branches and trees.
Martha didn"t say anything else, but just took out her bow, drew her arrow and allowed Lenny to tie one of the b.a.l.l.s onto it.
"Ready?" She asked.