Chapter Eight

John woke up and groaned as he forced himself out of bed. He got dressed and stumbled over to the mess tent to eat. When he got there he saw Sam and Camille sitting at a table so he joined them.

“How are you guys holding up? I’m not sure how many more days of Bjorns training I can take.”

Sam joined in saying “I think I’ve been sleeping for twelve hours a day. If we do much more training I’ll probably end up sleeping more than cats.”

“Come on guys, don’t complain. I’ve gotten way better control over wind mana since we started training. As soon as the supply ship gets here I’m going to break through. Then we will be able to explore the canopy and get tons of blood river flowers.”

“Can’t you let us commiserate in peace? We know the training is good for us, but damn if it isn’t rough. It seems like a joke when I remember that I used to think that the guild's training for new adventurers was hard.” Said John

“ Fine I’ll let you two grumble. Just make sure that Bjorn doesn’t hear about it or all three of us will suffer in the next training session” responded Camille.

After that they just made small talk for the rest of breakfast until it was time for them to go meet up with Olivia. They headed to her office and knocked on her door before entering. They sat down and then John asked

“So what job do you have for us today? If you give us one we can finish before sunset I promise to arrange a nice dinner for us”

“I would love to, but unfortunately I don’t think we’ll have time for that today. Our scouts that are observing the new settlement are pretty sure that it is from the Sanguine Empire. We want you all to go and capture one of their patrols and bring them back here for interrogation. Any questions?”

Sam asked “Why us? Most of our experience is fighting dungeon monsters. Is there not a group that is better suited for it?”

“I placed Bjorn in charge of this mission for that exact reason. From what I know he has more experience fighting against humans than the rest of the camp combined. He thought that you were the team that he would be able to work with best so he asked that you join him.”

“Alright. Any other instructions before we go?” Sam asked

Olivia shook her head “Bjorn will tell you anything else you need to know. Just get your gear and meet him at the adventurers guild.”

As the three of them walked out the door John waved goodbye to Olivia and then said “Let’s get going. It’s a long hike out to their settlement.”

After a five minute walk the three of them found Bjorn sitting outside the front of the adventurers guild. As they approached he stood up and said “ Let's get going.”

They had hiked around halfway to the enemy settlement when John thought of a question that seemed rather important.

“So why are we just capturing scouts instead of a full on attack? Olivia said the scouts were pretty sure it was a Sanguine empire settlement and it would be confirmed real quick in the fight.”

“We missed our chance for that. The scouts saw that there were a good number of armored men in camp and they were setting up wards to protect themselves. Now we have to let those fuckers prepare themselves until our reinforcements come, and they aren’t going to send anyone until we are one hundred percent sure it’s an enemy settlement. Unless we are willing to lose a whole lot of our adventurers taking out some of their scouts and making sure we get reinforcements is the best we can do.” Bjorn said

“Speaking of that, how are we going to take out their scouts without the whole settlement coming after us? If I remember right you two said the area around their settlement doesn’t have tree cover or anything for us to hide in.” asked Sam

When Sam asked that Bjorn stopped hiking and put his bag on the ground. “I actually have a few things for that.” he said while pulling small vials out of his bag. “This is blood river extract. Drinking a bit will make it so their blood control won’t work on us. On top of that we can use it to coat our weapons and interfere with them using blood magic on themselves. That combined with the element of surprise should keep our fights short enough that no one notices.”

He handed a bottle to John and Sam and then started to hike until Camille asked

“What about a weapon for me?”

“If they get close enough that you need it something will have gone seriously wrong. Your job is to use your wind rune to prevent their cries from being heard by the settlement. Not to be stabbing them.” Bjorn said

After that the four of them hiked in relative silence until they got close to their target. They hunkered down below the hill line and watched the patrol go through one lap around the settlement to confirm that it was the same as what the scouts reported. They saw that it was and then started their preparations to ambush the next patrol that passed by their location. John, Sam, and Bjorn all oiled their weapons while Camille held her wind rune and went over the procedure to make a wall of wind in her head. Then they all waited in total silence.

After a half hour that felt like an eternity they heard the patrol moving on the hilltop above them. Bjorn looked at Camille and gestured to her runes to make sure she was ready. When she nodded he turned to Sam and whispered “Shoot em as soon as you have the shot. Then John and I will follow up.”

They waited another minute with bated breath, and then Sam took her shot. As soon as it was loosed John and Bjorn leapt forward. They felt the wind blow past them as Camille took control and used it to block the screams that were about to take place. Then Sam’s arrow struck the lead patroller in the gap in his armor under his arm and the man dropped like a stone. The other two patrollers tried to draw their weapons but before they could get them John and Bjorn were on them. They each slashed one of the remaining patrollers. John managed to embed his sword straight into the throat of the man he was targeting and dropped him for good. Bjorn cleaved straight through the hand that was reaching for the weapon and then kicked the man in the chest to knock him down. He went to knock the man unconscious but then saw that he had hit his head on a rock when he fell down.

“Let’s drag these three over the ridge so we don’t have to worry about being spotted while we check their gear.” Bjorn said

They dragged all three of the bodies over the ridge and confirmed that they had blood runes and weapons from the Sanguine empire before they started discussing what to do next.

“We have two options here. We can give up on capturing one of them and take confirmation that blood mages are here as good enough, or we can wait for the group that is supposed to relieve these three fellows and take them out as well. I’m in favor of the second.” Bjorn said

“Why didn’t we take one alive from this group?” John asked

Bjorn gestured towards the man he had been fighting and said “I tried to take him alive, but he took a nasty blow to the head when he fell.”

Sam looked at the three bodies before asking “So we are sure these guys won’t be missed before the next patrol passes through here? I didn’t sign up for fighting a whole settlement.”

“The only people who will miss them are the ones relieving them, and we should be able to deal with them before they can raise the alarm.” Bjorn replied

Sam thought for a second and then said “Let’s do it then. The last time blood mages got the drop on us it was pretty bad. Maybe we can avoid that if we get one of em’ alive.”

With Sam and Bjorn already on board John and Camille nodded in agreement, and then they started waiting once more. After nearly two hours the sun had started to fall. John had to hold back a yawn as he forced himself to remain vigilant. Then they saw the next patrol approaching. The fight was nearly a mirror image of the first, except this time instead of kicking his target to the ground Bjorn disarmed him and then picked him up by the throat. After just thirty seconds of grunts and struggles the man went limp. Bjorn held his throat tight for another fifteen seconds to be sure he was unconscious before dropping the man to the ground.

“Move the bodies over the ridge and then loot any weapons. I’ll be prepping this guy for transport.” Bjorn said

Soon the bodies had no weapons or runes left for the enemy to recover, and Bjorn had the man they had left alive hogtied and thrown over his shoulder. They took one last glance towards the settlement to make sure that no one was following them, and then they hiked off into the darkness back to their settlement. Luckily there was a full moon so they weren’t hiking in complete darkness. Twice during the hike they had to stop and knock out the prisoner. They kept steadily hiking and managed to make it back to the settlement before the sun rose.

There wasn’t an oficial jail for them to interrogate him in, so they took him to the adventurers guild and tied him to a chair. Next they went and got Olivia, Adrian, and Lou. Once they were all there Bjorn got a bucket of freezing cold water and threw it on the prisoner. That was enough for him to wake up with a jerk. At first he was looking around confused, but soon he got a cold glint in his eyes and pursed his lips.

“Now that you’re awake we have a few questions for you. If you answer them then everything will be fine for you. You’ll get to spend a few months eating free of charge in one of our luxury cells, and then we will ransom you back to the empire where you can live happily ever after. Understand?” Bjorn said.

The man glared at Bjorn and stayed silent.

“Let’s start with an easy question then. What is your name?”

The man still didn’t talk

“Here’s another easy one. What is your settlement here for. We already know but I’d like to hear you say it.”

Bjorn waited to give the man a chance to talk, but silence just filled the room.

“Fine. How about this one then. Do you have a wife? Kids? Maybe parents that need someone to take care of them. If you don’t start answering our questions then you won’t have the chance to worry about any of them anymore.”

The man's glare intensified, and then he spat at Bjorn before he finally started to talk. “Fine. You want to know why we are here right? We are here to stop your heartless fucks from sending poison back so that your military can assassinate entire clans! We’ve brought plenty of allies and everyone of us is willing to die . We’re going to destroy you and that dungeon even if the only way to do it is to drown you in our blood.”