The Drakonai base was more fortress than city. It was divided into four quarters with each quarter having a specific purpose. They were commerce, housing, administration, and military. Outside of the defensive structures, water was irrigated to flow into mushroom farms on the outskirts of the huge cavern. A large crystal shone from the top of the cavern, forming an imposter sun. The people walked rigidly in the streets, and guards in heavy armor stood at almost every corner. Even with Ryu’s talents, he had been hard pressed to enter the city undetected.

It was a few days after he was dismissed to scout the Drakonai outposts, and he was already done with his assignment. His report would have to be delayed, however. Lucius was intelligent. Many of the Urodela had already been paid to be his informants, if Ryu had to guess. It would be… inadvisable to allow Lucius to gather information from his side without doing some reconnaissance of his own. Winning this game wasn’t a challenge. The challenge was winning without revealing his trump cards to Lucius. Without losing control. Which was why he found himself on this rooftop, scouting the city.

The Drakonai believed in the power of their draconic ancestors, and due to this, they spent time in closed meditation for an hour each day to reconnect with their dragon blood. Ryu’s original plan was to attack during this hour, but the longer he spent in the city, the more he realized it would not work. The Drakonai were fanatics. An attack during their holy hour was just giving Lucius evidence to persecute the Urodela. Right now, the conflict between the tribes was one of succession. It was not civil, but there was a shared heritage and mutual respect between the two sides. If he allowed Lucius to make it a religious conflict, things would escalate beyond Ryu’s control. He would not be able to convince the Urodela to adopt guerilla tactics with such a personal vendetta at stake, even with the dungeon’s assistance.

His second plan was to simply kill the Drakonai leaders himself, but the System was restricting how much he could interfere directly. This was not a Quest about individual power: it was about conquest using the forces presented. Shin would be useful for the battle strategy aspects of the Quest, but the Urodela leader stood no chance before both Lucius and the Drakonai chief. Ryu’s guidance would have to be the deciding factor, tipping the scales in his side's favor.

As he thought, Ryu abandoned his scouting of the Drakonai people. That was Lucius’s game. He would never be able to understand the psychology of these people as well as the spy. Instead, he switched his inspection to the actual cavern. He discounted a cave-in. It would be too difficult to sneak a force of Urodela in to plant the necessary explosives. He wanted to curse. Everything would be much easier if he could act on his own.

The Urodela still needed to learn to fight in a new way. He spent the next few days in seclusion, preparing small tricks for the Drakonai. Direct action was limited, but he could still do small things. Such as making false tracks in Drakonai tunnels and spoiling rations. Lucius was devious and unpredictable, but he was politically minded. It was clear from the way he handled the expedition. Whether it was actually him or the character he was playing was up for debate, but his tendencies weren’t. This cutthroat style of warfare was not his strength. It was Ryu’s.

He came back to the Urodela city to find it swirling with controversy. Some of the criers on the streets were yelling about replacing Shin and his ineptitude as Speaker. Others questioned the military’s new actions. People gathered in groups, rumors spreading like an infectious disease. He could sense Lucius’s hand in it. This was the area in which he had the clear advantage over Ryu. Drakonai society was too strict for bribes and rumours to be effective. Ryu hurried through the town, heading straight for Shin’s office.

“Glad to see you back,” Shin said, looking up from a desk covered in papers. Ryu was glad to have dodged that. Bureaucracy was far from his strength.

“I see my… colleague has already made some moves.”

“Indeed, he has. Which is why I’m glad you’re back. I need you to assist the strike teams, so I can put out the fires at home.” The salamander’s voice was strained. The stress of the past few days was wearing on the leader.

Ryu grunted his assent. It was better this way. He couldn’t handle political machinations. He could, however, assist the Urodela Classers in their new tactics. They talked for a while longer, discussing further potential moves by Lucius, but it was clear Shin needed a sounding board more than an actual contribution to his plans, which was fine with Ryu. The less talking he had to do, the better. He eventually excused himself. There were some things he needed to accomplish, the first of which was sleep.

---

“So you’re joining us today?” a hoarse voice said. It came from a husky Urodela in worn armor. Pale scars crisscrossed his snout. His name was Roth, Ryu remembered from Shin’s briefing. In the room with the Urodela, three others stood in the standard dark mail of their military.

“I suppose so.” Ryu stood in the doorway of the barracks, his mottled green cloak switched for one of reddish brown. This was his first day trying to assist the Urodela in their new tactics. His reception so far had been less than warm. He understood it in a way. The dungeon enforced their compliance, but it did nothing for how they felt about him. He was still an outsider, just an important one.

“Fine, just try not to be a burden, you hear? I’ve got a family to come home to,” the scarred Urodela said, his smooth skin wrinkling at the brow.

Ryu almost smirked. How little the salamander knew. “I understand completely, sir. I’m just here to aid in anyway I can with the new changes,” he said. With his limited social skills, this was the best he was going to do in pacifying the aging salamander. The soldier was clearly a veteran, his cynicism and distaste for the government hallmarks of a long career spent fighting in pointless combat. From his perspective, Ryu was just a new face to the same inept upper brass he’d served under for countless years.

The group made its way into the nearby tunnels. On paper, this was typical guard duty. They would sweep the tunnels, check for new excavation, and make their way to a nearby outpost. This was a smoke screen for their true duties, however.

The squad was actually going to set up dead-man tunnels, a trap Ryu had remembered from a particular dungeon run. They would weaken points in select tunnels, and when the Drakonai and Urodela forces engaged, the Shapers would cave-in the tunnels on top of the Drakonai. Previously, this strategy had been frowned upon. Tunnels were almost a commodity of their own to the Urodela. Controlling the tunnels meant trade, wealth, and mobility. Caving those tunnels in was almost taboo, and Shin was unwilling to break it. That’s why other squads would be undertaking the remodeling of the tunnels. The deadman tunnels would be dead ends, and the retreating Urodela forces would have escape routes to avoid the cave-ins. This was just the first of their ideas, the one he was best suited to aid with.

Ryu kept his hood up, concealing his identity. Lucius had paid members of the Urodela to feed him information, and a squad containing his rival would draw interest. They soon made it to the first tunnel of interest. Oash and Ess, the two melee fighters in the squad, were posted on either end as lookouts, leaving only Ryu, Roth, and Syl, the female Shaper of the squad.

“Ever built anything like this?” Ryu asked the robed Urodela. She shook her head. “Well, the basic idea is that you’ll need to undermine key parts in the tunnel’s structure. Not enough to make it fall, but enough to… Enough that the tunnel could be collapsed quickly,” he finished, losing himself in his train of thought.

Syl nodded at this. She was quiet, but Ryu knew she was an expert Shaper. Shin wouldn’t have placed him with this squad otherwise. Even with his lame explanation, she would figure it out. He sat against a tunnel wall, watching the woman touch places in the tunnel’s structure. From here on, it’d be quiet, boring work. Roth sat next to him.

“You think this’ll work?” the Urodela asked in a grunt, twisting the ring on his finger.

Ryu looked away as if he hadn’t noticed the salamander’s fidgeting. “In theory,” he said softly. His mind was far away. Family. Why had he never thought about having one himself? Many of the men he’d known bragged about fatherhood, yet he’d barely spared a thought for it.

“Theory? Don’t you need a bit more than that to risk lives.” A hint of anger had bled into Roth’s voice.

“Probably,” Ryu said, morose. Why was he thinking of family now? He had a goal, a mission.

A smooth hand snatched his wrist up. “Listen, son. What I said earlier was true. Myself. Ess. Syl. Oash. We have families to get home to. As do our comrades. Don’t tell me you’re risking our fucking lives on some theory.”

“Are you listening to yourself?” Ryu asked. “Why would I risk my own plans on some shitty idea. I only say in theory because it has yet to be put into use. There’s nothing actually complicated about dropping a ton of stone on the enemy’s head, is there Roth? If there’s one thing you should trust my expertise in, it’s making corpses.” Ryu pulled his hand from the salamander’s grip. He hadn’t meant to lose his temper. He shouldn’t have.

So much for having idle thoughts, he mused. His mind was like an animal on a leash. If he let it wander too much, it never ended well. Family? He didn’t need that. He was alone, and he liked it that way. There was nothing to be sullen over.

A commotion came from the end of the tunnel where Ess was. “Sir, I can’t let you past here. Please wait until our survey is finished.” The Urodela Dancer sounded nervous. Roth and Ryu exchanged looks before standing.

Ryu pulled his cloak closer, creeping into the shadows. If any Urodela were to get too close, his identity would be revealed. The difference in anatomy was just too obvious.

“I said let me through, worm! I am part of the council. If I want through, I will go through,” a voice growled from around the corner. Ryu waved Roth forward, hoping the grizzled Urodela could help the situation.

Ryu threw a piece of stone at the ground near Syl, the team’s Shaper. She jerked her head away from the section of the wall she was working on. “Stop working and act normal. There’s someone close,” he said curtly.

Roth walked past the corner, heading to the disturbance. “Mr. Oni? What are you doing at my survey sight?” the Urodela soldier called.

“Doing some surveillance of my own, not that it’s any of your business. Speaker Shin and that human’s policies have been less than popular. It’s part of my duty as a councilman to investigate some of the ah… claims made about the actions of our militant force,” the silky voice returned.

“That’s well and good, but couldn’t you have sent someone to do that on your behalf?”

“I pride myself on my own work. To leave such a duty in the hands of a subordinate would be inappropriate. Now, step aside.”

“I am afraid I can’t do that, sir. My orders say this is a restricted zone until the full survey has been completed,” Roth said. Gods, but the soldier seemed to be enjoying this.

“I am a councilman. I’m the one who gives the orders,” Mr. Oni said, his voice holding a hint of anger.

Roth sighed. “Seems we have a problem then. I can’t let you pass without papers signed by the Speaker.”

“I tire of this. Guards, remove these grunts from my way.” The words were accompanied by a short clash.

Ryu strung his bow with weary movements. Nothing could ever be easy. He made his way down the tunnel, peeking around the corner. Roth and Ess were being bound by two Urodela in heavy armor. Behind them, a tall Urodela in a robe of gold and red watched over their work, nodding. His first arrow took one of the guards in the gap in its armor near the knee. The next took the other in the throat, his Skill [Cripple] making a crater in the guard’s neck. At this point, the robed Urodela, Mr. Oni, was already turning, but it was too late. Ryu’s bow was stored, and his hatchets were out, flashing in the dim light of the tunnel. When he was done, the Urodela were left with one less councilman. It turned out his Skills were not limited when dealing with the Urodela like they were with the Drakonai. Strange, that.

He walked over to the guard with the wasted knee. The heavily armored Urodela backed up in fear, raising an arm to ward Ryu away. “I used to be an adventurer like you until-” the guard’s cry was cut off as Ryu’s hatchets descended like a scythe cutting wheat.