Dia and Espa had been scouting the river for the past few weeks, and they’d found several potential targets which travelled the Strach at regular intervals.

While Raktoe was the major city in the region, the Strach did flow to several smaller towns. Most of the shipments ended at Acoria, which was three days’ travel downriver from Rakote. From Acoria, there was a road which lead to the steppes West of the great desert. On the far end of the steppe, near the great open sea, was another city, nearly as large as Rakote, named Sarisan.

One of the rafts which travelled between Rakote and Acoria was from a bookseller, and Elrick had convinced Elise that this was the first target they needed to hit. She hadn’t really agreed, but Dia and Espa badly wanted to start training with Yaraka, and they needed spell books to make that happen.

Dia had noticed a second raft full of “farmers” was always close behind the raft of the booksellers. The farmers looked too big, and too vigilant—according to Dia—to actually be farmers.

“Why not just make it obvious they are well protected?” Jocha asked.

“So that unprepared idiots like us,” Elise said, “think we can take them out easily, and we reveal ourselves and get slaughtered.”

“We are overprepared,” Elrick said, pointing at everything they’d built over the last few months.

They had a fully functioning forge and foundry, a half dozen kegs full of potions, which was enough for hundreds of potions.

Unfortunately, they had a very limited supply of glass bottles to hold the potions in. For the attack on the Miner’s and Coppersmith’s Guild, Elise’s crew had been equipped with several potions each. Most of those potions had been consumed prior to the attack, and the glass bottles and vials discarded on the shore of the Strach. Each member of Elise’s original crew had not used all of their potions during the attack, and those who were killed ended up dying with their unconsumed potions still on their bodies. There had been no time to recover them, especially as Elise had originally planned to go escape straight through Rakote. All of the bottles they had left were from the potions that Durka, Dia, Espa, Yorius, Nefa, and Elise had not consumed during the attack. In total they had twelve medium-sized empty bottles with cork stoppers, and twenty smaller vials.

They had five full suits of slippery bronze armor, eight slippery bronze shields, and Elrick had also crafted new swords, spears, and arrowheads for everyone. He’d made Elise a dagger, which had required a custom mold.

“We’re just sitting around here, ready to go,” he said, “so let’s go.”

It wasn’t the most inspiring speech he could give, but it didn’t need to be. Everyone was antsy. You didn’t prepare like they had just to sit around and do nothing.

They set out for the raid in the late evening, travelling from their cave toward the river. Only Yorius and Nefa stayed behind to guard their stuff. The remaining six of them reached the Strach just after sunset, and in the cover of darkness they began preparations.

They’d brought empty chests—the chests which had held the slippery bronze ingots—with them to carry off whatever they managed to loot, but they buried the chests in the sand just off the shore. The idea was that if they needed to run quickly—like they had needed to last time—they could stash loot, quickly bury it, and retreat at full speed while unencumbered. If things went really well and they didn’t need to make a hasty exit, they could just carry the loot back with them.

The next step was to hide. There was enough grass and trees and foliage on the banks of the Strach to easily hide in. They’d selected an area with thicker than average tree cover, but not too thick. The areas with the thickest vegetation were known ambush locations.

The location they camped out in was just barely enough to keep them hidden, but it was between two patches of thicker forest and tree cover. Elrick knew from his crossbow shifts on the rafts that he usually just focused on the heavily forested areas, assuming no one would be stupid enough to take cover in a place that was easier to be spotted in.

Elise had made dyes of various dark green and brown colors, and they’d stained their cloaks in the dyes. When they all laid down among the vegetation, no one could see them from the water unless they looked right at them with a spyglass, and even then the scout would have to be very alert and have sharp eyes to see them at all.

They waited as the sun rose. Elise was about ten paces to his left. It suddenly reminded him of when they’d hid in the woods together outside Antia. Elise had looked a lot younger then, and he’d been much less afraid of her than he was now. He knew he’d changed too since then, but it was easier to see changes in other people than it was to see changes in himself.

They waited a long time, and they watched dozens of other rafts go by. Elrick had felt nervous the first few times rafts floated past them, especially when a scout had been actively scanning the shore. After four or five rafts having scouts not see them, Elrick let his guard down some.

Eventually Elise signalled Elrick, and he looked over toward his right and saw Dia squatting low. Her bow was out, and she had an arrow in her hand, but she hadn’t nocked it yet.

Still, seeing Dia up like this meant that it was almost time. He signalled further down the chain. Jocha got up into a crouching position at his signal, gripping his hammer in both hands, and then Jocha signalled down to Espa, who readied her bow.

The next raft would be the one.

Elrick was nervous. They had planned everything meticulously, but there was a lot that could still go wrong.

Yaraka was with them, but she’d convinced everyone that it was best to save her as a last resort. If they used Red Magic to attack the raft, she argued, it would immediately attract the fury of the Rakotan guilds. A regular raid with no magic involved wouldn’t be welcomed, but it wouldn’t be seen as a crisis that required immediate retribution.

It helped to know that Yaraka would step in if needed, but there was a lot riding on this. The raids had been his idea, and a large part of the planning had been his as well. If this went off the rails, he would be the one they blamed, and rightly so.

On the other hand, if this raid succeeded, they’d know exactly who to thank.

Durka was holding a spyglass, and he gave a hand signal when he caught sight of the raft. This first signal meant it was time to drink the potions.

Elise had prepared a series of potions to buff them during the raid. Elrick had asked if she couldn’t just mix several of them together into a cocktail to make it easier to drink and to conserve bottles and vials, but she said it didn’t work like that. He opened his satchel and looked at the potions. There was a clear one, a blue one, a red one, and one tiny orange one in a small vial.

He’d recognized the red one. It was similar to what he’d been addicted to when he was still working for Owen. He didn’t plan to get addicted again, but if he needed the extra jolt at some point during or after the raid, he wouldn’t hesitate to drink it.

The clear potion—according to Elise—would make him stronger, while the blue one would make him have faster reactions. At Durka’s first signal, they were all meant to drink their clear and blue potions in preparation for the raid. These potions took a few minutes to fully kick in, and they didn’t last long either. They drank now in hopes that they would fully activate just as the raid began, and not wear off until after it was over.

The orange potion was a healing potion. Elise had told them to use this only if they were hurt so bad they couldn’t move, or thought they were going to pass out or die. Apparently it was best to let an alchemist dose you with healing potions. Elise had told them she hoped any injuries could be dealt with by her personally, after the raid had finished. Still, she’d given the potions to everyone rather than hold them herself so that they could be chugged in extreme circumstances.

The invisibility potions Elise had used when she attacked the Coppersmiths was something she’d stolen from the alchemists, and it was beyond her ability or knowledge to replicate. So they’d have to settle with these potions that Elise could make from their cave in the desert, with the ingredients that she could find in the immediate vicinity.

Everyone except for Yaraka was wearing slippery bronze. Their guild had kept Yaraka on the raft, and there were rumors that more mages were arriving in Rakote. It seemed wise to wear the armor.

Everyone drank except for Yaraka. Potions—as well as heavy armor—made meditation impossible.

He watched on either side of himself as Dia and Espa took out additional potions. These were purple, and they each carefully dipped their arrow into the purple concoction. The purple potions would allow the arrows to ignite the raft.

At Durka’s second signal, the archers brought their arrows to their bowstrings. They crept slowly forward, still crouched low to the ground. He focused on Dia, as she was closer to him. She reached the far end of the foliage. She stopped just as a white ray of sunlight slashed across her dark green cloak.

Elrick couldn’t see the raft, but from the way Dia’s eyes focused, and from the confidence with which she nocked her bow, he knew she could see it.

The moment she let go of the arrow, Elrick and Durka both gave signals, and everyone began creeping toward the river.

Elrick reached the edge of the trees and brush just in time to see the raft before it happened. It was floating peacefully on the Strach, though one of the men aboard was shouting. The others quickly jumped up, and just as they did, both arrows exploded into flame.

Elise had explained that the fire from the purple potions would flare hot enough to immediately ignite the logs. The fire consumed half of the raft in the first few seconds, and one of the men aboard jumped off straight away. Two more men worked quickly to start fighting the fire by splashing water from the river, while two of them grabbed the oars and started paddling toward the shore. The remaining bookmakers grabbed their chests of precious cargo and moved them to the side of the raft that was not yet engulfed in flames. Elrick sighed relief. If they had let the cargo burn, this would all have been for nothing.

Elrick’s party waited just on the edge of the brush. The bookmakers had seen the arrows, and they knew what was happening, but if their choice was to burn or drown or risk whatever waited for them on shore, they were clearly risking the shore.

Some of them jumped off the raft as it neared the shore, beginning to swim the rest of the way. Elrick was tempted to go after them, but he waited until the raft itself made landfall. Just as the bookmakers were throwing their valuable cargo onto the shore to save it from the flames, Elise gave a new signal, and they all rushed out from the trees, weapons drawn.

Dia and Espa had nocked new arrows, and they fired straight away at bookmakers who attempted to flee.

Elrick went for the one who was wearing the most colorful and ornate clothing. He was a heavyset man with a bright purple and orange tunic and hat.

He drew a sword as Elrick came at him, and just then the potions’ effects kicked in. It was like adrenaline flowing through him, but ten times more intense. His muscles twitched with anticipation, and he felt like he could crush the entire world beneath his sword. Maybe that was a dangerous side effect of this potion, that he felt overly confident, but this realization did nothing to slow him down as he charged the bookmaker.

As the bookmaker’s hands trembled, the sword wobbled in his hand, Elrick saw that his Swordsmanship skill was only 32.3.

Without hesitation, and knowing that he was no match, Elrick ran even faster.

The bookmaker held his sword forward, as if hoping Elrick would simply impale himself on it. Elrick slashed his sword, aiming for the bookkeeper hand on the hilt. The flat of Elrick’s sword slammed against the bookmaker’s hand, and he dropped the sword, yelping in pain.

Elrick rammed the pommel up against his head, knocking him flat on his back. The bookmaker writhed in pain on the ground, but started laughing.

“You’re all dead,” the bookmaker cackled.

Elrick knew not to kill him. The plan was to hold them hostage. In Antium, it was worse to hold someone captive than to kill them. If Elrick killed him, he’d simply be resurrected on his guild’s dime.

Elrick kicked him in the ribs. “Order the second raft away.” His kick hit harder than he expected. The potion was potent. He heard the bookmaker’s ribs crack against his boot.

The bookkeeper laughed, though his laugh was mixed with pained wheezing. “You know about the second raft, and still you’re stupid enough to attack us?”

Durka and Jocha dragged two more bookmakers up beside the leader, while Elise slapped another in the face repeatedly, and then kicked him in the balls.

“Call it off!” she shouted.

The man whose balls she kicked trembled in fear and pointed at the one in front of Elrick, “Only he can call it off! Please call it off! I don’t want to be a dune rat prisoner!”

“I will not call it off,” he said, then he rose his voice for his guildmates, “we will likely die here, but we will come back. When the pain of death is overwhelming you, just remember that these filthy dune rats will die a true death while we will live on.”

The bookmaker cowering beneath Elise had his wrists up to guard his face, but Elise slashed her dagger gently against his wrist, drawing a thin line of blood. Her dagger was coated with the same potion they’d used to subdue Yaraka.

She walked through all the prisoners, knocking them out one at a time, before finally stopping at Elrick’s prisoner.

“Last chance to call it off,” she said, looking down the river and squinting. “We have a very dark and smelly hole to keep you in if you don’t send the raft away.”

Elrick risked a look over his shoulder. The second raft was in view. Time was almost up.

“You’re all dead,” he said, and Elise slashed across his hand, knocking him out.

“We have the advantage,” Elrick said. “They have to make landfall first, and the numbers are even.”

While planning this raid, they’d discussed the option of simply running off with the loot before the second raft could make landfall. They’d remembered how that had worked out before though, and there was a risk of exposing their base’s location if they were followed. There were four chests full of books, paper, pens, ink, and other supplies. Jocha tried to lift one, but barely managed it. If they wanted to run and get away with it, they’d have to leave almost everything behind. They also didn’t have time to stash everything in the chests in the sand. If they wanted to make this raid profitable, they had to stand their ground and fight.

As the raft grew nearer, Yaraka stepped out of the treeline.

“There’s a mage on that raft,” she said.

Elise’s eyes widened at Elrick, while Dia and Espa dipped fresh arrows into their purple potions and nocked their bows.

“I advise cutting our losses,” Yaraka said.

“No,” Elrick said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “We can do this. We have the slippery armor and shields. What color is the mage?”

Yaraka shook her head. “I can’t tell yet, not until they cast a spell.”

He remembered the first mining run he’d gone on. Yaraka had advised Gotha to call it off. He’d ignored her advice, and she’d been proven right. Was he making the same mistake? If he called this raid off, he’d never be able to convince them to try another time. They’d be stuck in a cave forever.

“Spread out,” Elrick ordered.

They’d tested the slippery bronze armor extensively. He’d wondered if putting a lot of slippery bronze close together would expand the null-magic field, like a growing bubble. If that were the case, grouping up close together could create a massive null-magic field that would completely protect them.

It hadn’t worked like that though. Each set of armor and shield had its own null-magic field, which extended out ten or fifteen feet in all directions from the wearer. Getting closer together did expand the bubble, but barely. Grouping all of them up together gave them an extra foot or so of null-magic field. Elrick remembered how the violet mages had worked around the null-magic fields: using scatter shots to go for AOE rather than direct targeting.

Grouping up would simply give the mage on the raft a better opportunity to take them out with some kind of AOE spell.

Dia and Espa loosed their arrows, but the wooden shafts of the arrows fell to pieces in mid-flight, and the arrowheads tumbled uselessly down into the water.

“It’s a green mage,” Yaraka said.

And before Elrick could even ask, he saw a small sphere of ore blast through the air, whizzing a few inches past his ear.

He lost track of it since it was too small, but a few moments later the raft was on fire.

Arrows flew skyward from the raft. Elrick and his party fell to their knees and held their shields up at an angle to block the arrows.

An arrow pierced through his shield. The sharp point stopped a few inches short of his shoulder. Sunlight spilled through his shield. Shit, slippery bronze was nearly useless as actual armor.

He reached around his shield and pushed the arrow all the way through, but it got stuck at the end. He had to rip it through from the inside of his shield, and when the arrow was finally out, his shield had a hole in it twice the circumference of a quarter.

Your skill in Shields has increased by 0.2. It is now 38.9.

He held onto his shield though, hoping the null-magic field wouldn’t be too affected by the hole.

When he looked back up at the raft, he had to blink a few times to make sense of what he was seeing.

The logs that comprised the raft were flying around one by one, any that were on fire plunged deep into the water, then came back up with the flames extinguished. Vines and algae were wrapping all around the remaining rafts, soaking them in water and expanding the size of the raft.

The shadows in front of Elrick shifted, and when he turned around he saw trees beside and behind him ripping up from their roots.

One tree, which was already uprooted and floating up into the air, swung like a baseball bat, hitting Yaraka in the back and knocking her flat just as she fired another pellet of ore. Another log from the raft flew up and absorbed the shot, exploding into flames, then dropping suddenly lifeless and inanimate into the water.

Elise ran to Yaraka and slide up next to her on her knees. She poured a yellow potion into her mouth, then a red. Yaraka gasped and breathed heavily, but she didn’t get up.

The logs of the raft began splintering and reforming, and more green seaweed and other underwater plants and roots rose up from the water, wrapping around the logs of the raft as they began to form a bridge straight to the shore. There weren’t enough logs to form a bridge all the way to the shore, as the raft was still over 100 feet away. The seaweed and other roots that rose up formed thick connective tissue between the logs, and soon the logs themselves started splintering, and the wood from the logs strengthened the roots. The wood and roots and seaweed all mixed together until the bridge looked like a wood-studded tangle of plant life that had risen from the sea.

Even as the bridge formed, the men from the raft were walking confidently across it and toward Elrick’s crew. The archers—four in total—walked behind an equal number of spearmen equipped with bronze shields. Not slippery bronze shields, but actual polished bronze that wouldn’t fold like paper when hit with an arrow or sword.

Behind those eight was the green mage. He was close enough that Elrick could see his face now, he had boyish features, though could have been at least thirty years old. His green robes whipped behind him as the growing bridge and shifting logs splashed foam and spray from the river up along the bridge. Beneath his robes he wore a full suit of leather armor, which was very well worn and looked like it had been caked in dirt for some reason.

It was too late to retreat now. Yaraka had been swatted out of the fight with a tree, but she had been the only one of them not wearing slippery bronze. Elrick and the rest of his crew had to trust that the slippery bronze would prevent most of the damage the green mage would be able to do to them.

Dia and Espa loosed more arrows, but the green mage erased their arrows again in mid flight.

The archers in front of the Green Mage stopped, and the spearmen stopped too, raising their shields atop the bridge. They had stopped maybe twenty feet from the shore. The Green Mage rose his hand, and Elrick noticed a flicker of annoyance on his face. He must have been trying to cast something, but was stopped by the null-magic fields surrounding each remaining member of Elrick’s crew. He might not have been certain that there was a null-magic field further away, but now he’d realized it for sure.

The archers began nocking arrows.

“Fall back to the woods!” Dia shouted.