The three of them walked through the forest for ten minutes before reaching the western edge. There, two men waited. Kaiz recognized one of them as Code’s premier drinking partner, but he'd never met the man as Kaizer so the recognition wasn't reciprocated. They discreetly led the trio to a quiet set of safehouses nestled in between a cluster of trees. Three sand chameleons lounged outside of them while a change of clothes and backpack full of supplies rested inside.

Glad to see we haven’t completely lost our dedication to preparation.

They got fitted and kitted fairly quickly. Kaiz found a new, improved enchanted mask next to his boots, which surprised him, but otherwise getting ready was a swift process. Without uttering a single word, they hopped on the sand chameleons and Viz led them north west. Once the mini forest faded into the background, Viz finally explained the run.

“There are around one hundred to two hundred of them. The bulk of them will be untitleds, we’re unsure how many are tilted but we know for sure their leader is. Calls himself the ‘Duke of the Dunes’. Quite inventive, it’s always kings or emperors with these types. Alas, they went with Doomers as their group name. Can you believe that? Doomers. You’d think a guy with the brains to come up with ‘Duke of the Dunes’ would make a better group name than Doomers.”

“Who said he m—no. Can you get back to the important details please?”

Viz scowled, “These are the important details. Who wants to go down in history as the leader of the Doomers? You’d be laughed at for decades.”

“Conquer a kingdom and who cares what your name is? Accomplishments matter more than titles.”

Red snickered at that. She made no effort to conceal her smile even as both of them turned to stare at her.

“Whatever. The Doomers have been raiding a few villages in Struleren for months. Recently, they got cocky and attacked Silberg, the biggest town up there. Lost more than half their crew, but they more or less won in the end. The town surrendered, and they made off with everything they could. Our target, Thomas Emmrich, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Emmrich?" Kaiz repeated, "Like Count Emmrich? You didn’t think that was pertinent information before?”

“Don’t fret about the past. Anyway, they planned to ransom him. Sent a letter asking for some exuberant amount of money for his release.”

Kaiz shook his head, “Idiots.”

It was a remark at both the bandits and himself.

Viz chuckled, “How could they know? The Emmrich family is fairly new and their land is to the south. Their information network would have to be immaculate for them to truly understand who they were dealing with.”

“Who we’re dealing with as well. This suddenly went from dangerous to lethal.”

“Oh relax. Worst case scenario, we fail and the army picks him up.”

“Or. We succeed and he offs our heads for interrupting some grand scheme he made. Does he know we’re doing this or are we supposed to just drop his kid off like 'Hey, just found this guy hanging out in the desert. He was lost. So were we. Craziest of coincidences. Have a great day!’.”

Red giggled this time, but she immediately moved to a blank expression as they turned to look at her.

Lord, you’re beautiful. Shame.

Kaiz peeked at Viz, unsure if he felt the same way. He definitely found her attractive, he had eyes after all, but whether he understood that she wasn’t someone to try and get involved with was another matter.

He coughed, “Anyway. Does he know?”

“Uh. Yes and no. Does he know another team of specialists are also moving to retrieve his son? Yes. Does he know it’s a completely legitimate but frowned upon organization? No.”

“Completely legitimate, you say.”

Viz smiled, “There’s much to catch you up on.”

Kaiz looked skeptical, "Right… Well. Where would we find these Doomers? Do we know what level 'The Duke' is?"

"We'll find out when we get to Silberg."

Kaiz damn near stopped his sand chameleon, "What do you mean, 'we'll find out'?"

"They're in Struleren! That's as far from civilization as it gets. Any further out and you're basically in Storn. What do you want from me?"

"I want you to prepare better when you send me off to my death."

"Our deaths. I'm right here with you."

Kaiz groaned.

"Fine. So we'll have to do a bit of reconnaissance once we're there. Sure, it's a trial run. Have to test everything. How are we moving Emmrich from wherever they have him holed up back down to Walddaun though?"

"We—"

Kaiz did stop his chameleon this time, "Don't you dare say 'we'll find out'."

Viz swiftly wrapped up the briefing, dodging Kaiz's many questions in the process. Kaiz eventually accepted he wouldn’t get anywhere and settled on planning how to get Viz back for this.

They spent the rest of the ride to the first stopping point making occasional small talk. It ended up being an eleven hour trip to that village, much longer than Kaiz was mentally or physically prepared for. He was supposed to be chin deep in the science of runes, but he was in the middle of nowhere and nothingness instead.

Walddaun was the most northern major city in Goldfrucht, a two week ride from the nearest major city to the south. In every other direction, kilometers of barren desert awaited. Sand stretched out all around them as they rode. They passed a few villages, but the route they took didn’t allow for much more than a glimpse from a distance. To avoid running into the military convoy and beat them to the target, they took a straight path from Walddaun to Silberg.

Kaiz fell into his bed like a corpse being tossed in a hole, haphazardly and lifelessly.

Why didn’t I just BRING the books?! I’m an idiot! That’s why.

Viz and Red were already sound asleep, but Kaiz had the unfortunate role of chameleon whisperer. Viz was terrible with animals and Red didn’t seem to know about anything that wasn’t lined with gold or laced with silk. Though her accent suggested otherwise.

Sand chameleons were fairly docile creatures, but they hated long rides. They started getting rowdy and agitated after the five-hour mark. It wasn’t much of a problem while actively riding them, a constant feed of jerky usually placated them. Now, they would be left to their own devices. A certain amount of coddling was necessary to keep them calm. Unhappy chameleons breaking free from their stable and disappearing into the desert was a common tale.

Their distaste for long distance running was an odd quirk considering their aptitude for them. Few animals could cover so much sand so quickly. They were reptiles, but they had none of the stamina issues their cousins did. Three meters long and a meter tall, they were packed with lean muscle.

Their endurance wasn’t even their main selling point. It was their extreme sensitivity to mana. They could sense when threats were nearby, human or otherwise. Even tanlars didn’t escape their senses. They could also feel if the sand below their feet was stable enough to continue walking on. How that worked, Kaiz didn't have the time to study, but those two things, without question, caused the most deaths in the desert. That made having happy chameleons a must.

There was also their proficiency at camouflage, but unless you could camouflage as well you’d attract more attention as a human seemingly floating around.

Two more days of this.

The first day went by much like the previous, monotonously. This time without the infrequent sights of a few villages here and there. Just sand. They did stumble upon a sand pit, an inexplicable, circular hole in the sand. There wasn’t much excitement to be found looking down at a pit of darkness though. Kaiz noted that there were traces of mana in that darkness, but there was nothing he could do with that information.

The second day was far more interesting.

Kaiz groaned, narrowly dodging another arrow aimed at his neck, “They still haven't run out of arrows.”

The spearman in front of him used the opening to thrust at him, but he casually glided away. Saber wielding shield-bearers flanked him on both sides. He’d been trying to bait one of them out of formation, but they were disciplined. He’d already killed one spearman, but he’d simply caught them off guard. Now that they were aware of his threat, they operated as a tightly knit unit. Taking any of them on individually wasn’t an issue, but fighting all three of them was proving difficult. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time. Viz was holding his own, but Red was sorely unfit for direct combat.

Didn’t want to have to waste this now, but fuck it.

He couldn’t afford to hold back anymore. No point conserving mana if you lost the fight. He kicked off the ground at full speed and barreled towards the spearman. Like clockwork, the two shield-bearers moved to intercept him.

Hmph.

One stride away, he activated the spell laced into his boots. The winds roared, and Kaiz moved with them. He leapt over their formation, spinning. His left foot caught the spearman in the face. Their neck immediately cracked, the weight of the kick proving monstrous. Before their corpse could fall to the ground, Kaiz landed and moved on to the next. He raised his foot and kicked the shield-bearer’s back. He couldn’t hear their spine break, the wind from the spell blocked out most sound, but the unnatural way their body keeled over told him what needed to know. Two were down. The last shield-bearer hadn’t recovered from the shock of two of his mates deaths before Kaiz was on him. A kick to his shield shattered it, a follow up kick shattered his skull.

Kaiz didn’t celebrate. His boots had less than a fifth of their mana now. If they had another fight today he’d be at a serious disadvantage. There was no time to dwell on that though, Red needed help.

All that talk about monkeys an—

Kaiz tried to evade, but it was too late. The arrow lodged itself directly into his collarbone. He was grateful it didn’t land in his neck, but he may feel different about that in a few hours. In true marauder fashion, the arrow was poisoned. He hastily pulled it out of his collarbone and examined the tip. Where there wasn’t blood, there was a light green sheen. That told him nothing, he could name a dozen poisons that were green. He glared at the archer in the distance.

You’re dead!

They were on top of the tallest sand dune in the area, overlooking the battle. Not a long distance horizontally, but a bit of a walk vertically. Kaiz used the last few drops of mana left in his boots to charge at them. He’d be too slow otherwise. To their credit, they didn’t run. They glared back and released another arrow. Kaiz easily dodged, rapidly making ground on them. They upped their pace in response. Arrow after arrow flew as he approached. Their shots, though accurate, weren't enough to overcome the speed boost Kaiz enjoyed. With each step he took, the archer became more aware of that. Before he could get into point blank range, where his speed boost may not have been enough, they ran out of arrows. They resorted to throwing something else instead.

Is that a javelin?! Who are these guys?

As shocking as the javelins were, they proved to be a minuscule threat. Few landed within one meter of him. The rest flew all over the place. For as talented a bowmen as the marauder was, they were pisspoor with a javelin. It wasn’t long before they ran out of those as well. They didn’t have time to manifest a different ranged weapon either, Kaiz was on them.

They pulled out a dagger and immediately thrust for his eyes He jerked his head to the side, just clearing the edge of the blade. Without the ability to effortlessly glide away from strikes, he had to rely on his body control more. Fortunately, his opponent wasn’t a master with a knife. They were a suicidal archer, and he’d make quick work of them.

He ducked under the follow up thrust then swatted their outstretched arm away. Using the opening, he planted a boot on their chest. It wasn’t quite as effective without the extra force, but it knocked them off their feet and down the side of the dune. He’d hoped they’d drop their weapon as they tumbled down, but again he was irked by their resilience.

What kind of marauders are this well trained?

The opposite side of the dune didn’t have as long of a vertical drop. They rolled fifteen meters and immediately got to their feet, attempting to ward off a second strike with random swings of their knife. They failed. Kaiz caught their hand and twisted it sharply. Only grunting, they swung their free hand. There was no speed behind it. Kaiz easily dodged, releasing their hand and kicking them in the groin instead. He didn't know if they were a man or a woman, their light brown attire completely covered their appearance, but their response gave him an idea.

The bowman yelped in pain, immediately reaching for his balls. Kaiz greeted their yelp with a punch to the throat. That staggered him, causing him to stumble backwards a few strides. This time he left his weapon behind. Without his blade and with his legs buckling, he wasn't even a worthy practice dummy. Kaiz raised his fists and effortlessly picked him apart. Three punches were all it took to lay him in the sand unconscious. Kaiz retrieved his weapon and slit his throat just to be sure.

He searched his body for a possible antidote and was both relieved and frustrated at what he found. Inside a pouch, there were several antidotes and several poisons. Each was perfectly labeled with their contents. Unfortunately, there were three different green poisons and he didn’t recognize any of them. If he didn't know which had been used on him,, having the antidotes meant nothing. They were often poisons themselves and using the wrong one would likely exacerbate the problem.

Shit!

He already gathered that it wasn’t fast acting, but that just increased the chances it was highly lethal. It had been two to three minutes since he was shot. He had no idea how many more minutes he had until his body shutdown. Some poisons took ten minutes, some took an hour. He couldn’t imagine they’d carry around such slow acting poison, but they carried around javelins so what did he know? He could only hope he had enough time.

Turning back towards his party, he ran. He couldn’t see them from where he and the archer fought, but he could still hear the ongoing fight. The sounds weren't particularly encouraging. He sprinted back towards the top of the dune. Once there, he panicked.

Somehow, things were even worse than they sounded.