Basi took the point position, guiding them on the trail he’d followed to the attackers. Saul could feel the reptile’s anticipation through their bond. Basi had a primal excitement at the battle that was sure to come. The lizard slunk through the forest just ahead of them, his crimson scales somehow blending into the lush greenery.

Saul followed him close behind, his bow in hand. He could hear birds chirping out joyous songs overhead, the sounds contrasting with the mood that radiated off of the group. He could hear the sounds of animals wandering through the forest. He thought about each sound as he heard them, considering whether the source was an animal, monster, or potential ambusher.

His muscles were tense as he crept forward. He stayed as low as he could, his steps falling silent on the forest floor. He was alert, his eyes darting around the greenery. The landscape, as lush and bountiful as it was, provided ample opportunities for ambushers to lurk undetected. He had no intention of being caught unaware.

Saul turned to check on his companions behind him from time to time. He could see them, a hundred or so paces behind. Ishan walked along with Liza next to him. Saul could see the firm set of her jaw, her determination, from where he was. Part of him almost felt bad for the attackers. He knew that they wouldn’t receive any mercy from her.

As they moved along, the sounds of the forest began to fade away. Saul heard rushing water up ahead, and through the bond with Basi, he felt an impression that they were near their destination. He lifted up his hand, fingers curled into a fist as a sign for the others to stop.

He moved back to stand by the others and sent a command, ‘Basi, come back here.’ When they were all gathered, he leaned in close to them and whispered, “We’re here. I’m going to scout the area. I want to see what we’re up against.”

Liza nodded, summoning her weapon she placed the tip of her sword in the ground and leaned on it. “Sounds good. Just let me know how many, and we’ll figure out the best plan of attack.”

“Be careful, Saul,” said Ishan. The wizard went to take a seat against one of the tree trunks, closing his eyes. It seemed to Saul as if he were focusing his energies - Perhaps one of the new techniques he’d learned? He shook his head and began to focus on the task at hand. He looked around the forest and saw the faint hints of a trail that they’d followed.

He crept forward. Quiet as a mouse. Just past the spot where Basi had stopped, the signs of humanoid life began to grow clearer. He was able to make out the faint hints of tracks in the ground. They were dampened with age, but as he continued forward they began to grow more defined. More recent.

When he was close enough to fear being spotted, he slipped behind one of the massive trees. He crouched in the shadows, low and hard to see, as he began to look for enemies. The landscape in the area seemed to be flat. He looked up. He could tell that the best vantage point was in one of those tremendous trees.

He could see the massive grooves in the bark, so large that he could fit his booted feet in between them. His hands fit comfortably around the edges of those grooves - This could work. He took a firm hold of the bark and lodged his foot in the crevice. Drawing in a deep breath, he began to ascend.

Pulling himself upward was easy as could be since his strength increased by a large margin since he’d entered the Dungeon. I was fit before, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I can do a thousand pull-ups now! I feel light as a feather. For someone who thrived on self-improvement, it was an exciting discovery.

Perhaps fifty meters up from the ground, he encountered a massive branch that stretched out in the direction of the trail. He clambered onto it and stood up. The branch was thick enough that it seemed more like a bridge than a living thing. He could see other branches around this height.

Someone confident in their ability to jump could use these as a means of getting around the forest… He moved ahead to the edge of the branch, laying down there so that he could peer over the edge without risking a fall.

He focused inward and channeled his Qi through those familiar channels, up through his neck into the pools surrounding his eyes. He opened them. The Qi surging through them granted him incredible clarity and depth of vision. He could see individual leaves on the ferns down below with perfect clarity, if he focused he could even make out the bugs on the forest floor. He began to scan the area, following the tracks until he laid eyes upon the first enemy.

The figure was wearing a black cowl and sat leaning against a tree, their head moving from left to right as they scanned the forest in a lazy fashion. He could see a bow sitting on the ground next to them, as well as some sort of whistle. A sentry. Once he’d laid eyes on them, he could find them all.

He focused his sight on the target, then focused his energy as he thought, Track Humanoid! Awareness dawned in his mind. He could feel them. He could feel the one he was looking at. Off to their right, perhaps three hundred meters, he could feel another solitary figure. Further back, he could feel more. It was difficult for him to determine how many enemies there were, as the further back he tried to scan the denser their signals grew, but he estimated about fifteen enemies in total.

He figured that taking out the sentries using stealth would be their best bet. He could make the upcoming fight easier, and if he played his cards right, they’d remain undetected. But first… He needed to gather some information.

He looked towards the closest signal, his eyes landing on a branch perhaps five meters from his own. He could see that the branch seemed to lead to the tree that the sentry was leaning against. If I make that jump, I’ll be able to drop down and I may even be able to take him alive.

It seemed like the best option. He’d have to practice first, though. He didn’t know how capable he would be. He could tell his strength had increased exponentially, but better to see just what his capabilities were before he went plummeting to his death. It’s kind of like The Matrix… He stood and turned to face the trunk of the tree he was on, figuring that the branch extended perhaps twenty meters out.

He took two steps and jumped as hard as he could. He kicked his legs as if he were running as he soared through the air. Wind whipped past his ears as he covered close to half the distance, his long hair flying behind him. He landed with as little noise as possible, but it was still a loud thud to his ears. He turned to look in the direction of the sentry, but they didn’t seem to know he was there.

So, he decided to leap across from one branch to another, climb down and grab the sentry. It was a perfect plan. All he had to do was avoid falling to his death, not tip the sentry off to his location, somehow take them out without killing them, and avoid any detection by the other sentries. Easy, right?

He moved close to the end of the branch. Even knowing he could make the jump didn’t give him comfort. It was close to straight on, but he could still imagine overshooting, or undershooting the jump, and plummeting to his untimely death.

He drew in a deep breath to steel his nerves and with two quick steps he leaped from his branch. The air rushed past him as he began to rise, his gaze locked on the branch ahead of him as he told himself purposefully, Don’t look down, don’t look down. He reached the height of his arc at the halfway point between the two branches. So far so good.

The whole process only took a second or two at most, but as he grew closer to the next branch, he realized he’d undershot his jump a bit. He wasn’t going to land -on- the other branch on his feet like intended. He leaned forward as much as possible in the air, his arms outstretched as he managed to catch ahold of the branch.

His skin protested the sharp grooves that cut into his palms, but he managed to keep a firm grip as his momentum died. His heart pounded in his chest as he pulled himself onto the branch. He collapsed to catch his breath as he felt the solid wood beneath him. Saul took a few moments to try and put his near-death experience out of his head. It wasn’t the first one, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Shaking himself free from his thoughts, he made his way to the trunk of the tree, snagging a large pine cone from one of the boughs. It was massive compared to anything he’d seen on Earth. He tucked it into his shirt and then reached out to grab the grooves of the trunk.

He began to climb down. The bark stung against his hands, raw from gripping onto the branch, but he bore the pain without a sound. As he climbed down, he focused on the signals of the enemies he was tracking. He could tell that none of them were anywhere nearby.

That was a good sign. When he was perhaps five meters above the sentry below, he reached into his shirt and withdrew the pine cone. He threw it in front of the sentry, and when they stood and took a step forward towards the noise it created space between them and the trunk. He had all the space he needed to work.

He pushed off from the trunk, spinning in air so that he was facing the same direction as the sentry. He landed silently behind them and brought his left arm between their chest and chin. He brought his right arm against his left at a 90-degree angle with his hand against their mouth as he choked the sentry to unconsciousness.

They fought against him. They grabbed at his arms and tried to bite his hands. They even had the presence of mind to give him a solid elbow in the ribs - That one hurt - before they fell limp in his arms. Let’s see what we can find out.

He carried the unconscious sentry through the woods a short distance until he reached his companions. “I figured we could find out more information from one of them.” He said softly as he set them down against a tree trunk. “Anyone have anything we can use to tie them up?”

He looked from Liza to Ishan. The wizard shook his head, but Liza was silent as she manifested a coil of rope. There was a fire in her eyes that he’d never seen before. It was a little scary if he were honest with himself. “Tie them up. I’ll find out what they know.”

As Saul moved to tie the prisoner’s hands behind their back, the cowl of their cloak slipped down to reveal their soft, feminine features. Another human. He bound her hands as requested, but he looked back to Liza, saw her fury, saw the tight grip she held on her blade. “Let’s just make sure we don’t do anything we regret. If she’s a human, there’s a good chance the rest of them are too… They could be from Earth, just like us. I don’t want to kill anyone, and I’m sure nobody else does either.”

“I do.” Liza was quick to respond. Cold. Her features were set, jaw tight, eyes blazing with fury.

Ishan looked uncomfortable. “I won’t be party to any undue violence. If these people are from Earth, they have rights, just like we all do…”

“Did that stop them from capturing Edwin? Possibly killing him?” She practically spat in response.

“We don’t know what they’ve done. All I’m saying is, let’s start with questions. Torture isn’t going to get us anywhere.” He maintained a level tone, his hands raised up with his open palms facing her, his expression open and understanding.

Her eyes flashed as she looked at him. Saul could tell she was fighting to hold herself back. Finally, she spoke, “Fine. I’ll play nice for you. I’ll find out what the bitch knows.”

Saul spoke up at that point, “Thank you. All we ask is that we consider these people are just like us.” He could see from the set of her jaw that she didn’t have much compassion for these people.

She ended the discussion as she said, “I’m going to warn you: If they’ve hurt, or killed my Edwin, then I’m going to murder every last one of them.” Saul couldn’t think of a good response. Instead, he just nodded to her as he finished tying the girl’s hands behind her back.

He straightened and took a few steps back, his gaze locked on the girl’s face, still slack from her lack of consciousness. He looked between Liza and Ishan in askance. Liza stepped forward. “Step aside. I’ll take care of this.”

She held out her hand with her open palm facing the sky. A heavy waterskin dropped into her empty palm with a soft sloshing sound. She pulled on the drawstring, loosening it so that she could dump it on the girl’s head.

As the water touched the girl’s face, she jerked and drew in a deep, heaving breath. Her eyes were wild and unfocused, but they showed recognition of her poor circumstances as her gaze flitted from Saul to Ishan, and finally to Liza. Light seemed to dawn in them at that point and she opened her mouth as if to scream. “None of that, now,” Liza growled, moving forward to slap her gauntleted hand against the girl’s mouth, probably rougher than was necessary.

“You scream, and it gets a lot worse for you than you can imagine. Understand?” She asked the girl, her words dripping with venom. The girl nodded and slowly Liza removed her hand. “Who are you?” She demanded.

The girl swallowed, looking between the three of them with wide eyes as she answered, “Please… I’m just a girl from the city. I don’t know how I wound up in this place. These people helped me! I don’t kn-” Her words ended in a choked gasp as Liza’s hand came crashing across her face.

“Not good enough. Nobody’s buying that crap. Tell me who you are.” Liza’s hand hovered near the girl’s face, ready to come back across it. Fury blazed in her eyes. “And why are you attacking travelers?”

The girl’s face grew more serious. “Worth a try.” She turned her head to the side and spat. Her spittle landed on the grown, thick and tinged red. “I’m Rhea. I work with that group. As for why we’re attacking anyone? Come on. It’s a dog eat dog world. We’re trying to get everything we can from this place.” She looked up, her eyes catching Liza’s smoldering gaze. She let out a small laugh. “Were you one of the ones we hit, then?”

Liza answered her by bringing her booted foot up and swiftly burying it in the woman’s gut. The woman coughed powerfully as the breath was driven from her body, hunched over as she tried to recover her breath. Liza cocked her foot back to deliver another kick but stopped on a frantic look from Saul. “I am.” She said. “You took someone important to me. I need to know what you do with prisoners.”

The girl - Rhea - Was doubled over for a few moments, her breath coming in short wheezes as she attempted to get things under control. Eventually she straightened up, leaning back against the trunk and spitting out more blood. “Not very friendly, are ya? I don’t really know what happens with prisoners. They’re taken back to the caves. Humans give pretty awesome XP, apparently.”

Saul stepped forward, an arm raised to catch Liza’s hand before she could hit the girl again. “Awesome XP? You mean that you guys have been killing people to gain levels? That’s horrible!” He did his best to control his volume, but his horror at her suggestion had him talking louder than he intended.

The girl shrugged. “I haven’t been with the group long, but I think that’s what the leaders do. We’re not exactly in Kansas anymore… Who cares what happens now? What are they going to do, throw us in jail?” She asked.

Saul turned to Liza, “Have any more of that rope?” He asked her, his voice flat to his own ears. He held out his hand as she wordlessly produced a large length and offered it to him. “We won’t be throwing you in jail, but I’ll be giving you to the locals to do what they want with you. I can’t condone this.” He stepped forward as she opened her mouth to protest, shoving the thick cord into her mouth.

He tied it around the back of her head, then pushed her down onto the ground, binding the rope to the piece tied around her hands. He then looped it around her feet, pulling it tight so that she was hog-tied and helpless. He looked to the others, “We should subdue those we can. We’re not murderers… If they’ve done something with Edwin, well… I won’t stop you, but I won’t help either.”

Liza nodded. Ishan still looked uncomfortable, but he nodded as well. “You can track them, eh Saul? You and I can sneak up on the ones who are alone, and when we’ve taken them all out we can assault the main position as long as it’s been softened up enough. Sound good?”

“I can agree with that plan. It’s not that I want to kill anyone or anything. I just can’t promise I’ll be able to help myself if I see they’ve done something to him.” Her words were met with silence. With one last shared look, Saul and Ishan turned to begin the process of taking out the scouts, leaving Liza and Basi behind with Rhea who engaged in a futile struggle against her bonds.