Martin woke up to David dangling a dead snake in front of him. He had his pistol out and pointed at the snake, even before he was fully awake. David looked fairly happy with himself, “I caught breakfast you can remove any sort of taint can’t you”. Martin shrugged it was worth a try, the lamia ate their own, so what did it matter if they ate them. He use his “purify” blessing on the snake to remove any trace of poison or disease.

Alice clung to her blanket like a drowning man attached to some driftwood. Vivian left her, she went and gathered a little fire wood. Martin soon had a fire going using some rocks as a crude fire place. The snake was make into breakfast, cooked with the spear over fire like a spit roast. They pulled it apart and ate the slightly overcooked meat with great a fever, a little cheese and bread followed it down.

Alice looked about, “I always thought that it would be next to suicide or desperation to be outside a city walls after night, but apart from the hard ground it is-ant to bad”. Martin looked through his little monster guide, “it Depends on the area, I don't think the locals tracking abilities are exemplary, but we still need to be cautious”. David made a dismissive gesture, “those sorts of regulations are aimed at people below veteran status, even individually we are quite powerful now.”

“I see what you mean, about desperation but it not, it’s a gamble of balancing risk and reward, it’s a necessity to get the job done.” Vivian looked around for any threat as she spoke. Martin looked at the bag of alchemical supplies that they were collecting it was quite full. “Honestly this assignment has gone quite quickly so far, we were only expecting a bit of scouting one or two of the serpent men at the edge of their territory.”

David picked up his sword, “anything else we should know about them”? Martin looked through his book, “they are better climbers and swimmers than humans, but they can’t stand the extreme cold and can’t outrun us on flat ground, they have a lot more body mass that slows them down”. They finished off there breakfast and packed up the camp. They were soon moving towards the main lamia nest, they kept to the high ground keeping a look out. The lamia preferred to keep to the lower ground the trails where they would not have to pass over so many rocks.

Vivian spotted something quite a way away, Martin used his monocle to get an idea of what they were facing, and it was a large group of serpent men. The group became clear to Vivian as she used the enhanced perception from her ring of the eagle to view out to that distance. She murmured, “this is the bulk of their numbers” she checked around for a pincer movement or ambush, “certainly there main force”.

At a closer range Martins monocle could read them, “There are about ten serpent men that ranked up into lamia, they are level 30. They have a more intelligent face stronger arms, better to swing a weapon, these have shields clubs spears and bows. Note the armoured scales the almost black dark green arrow, it pattern marks them out they are tougher and harder to kill”. He looked at the rest of the group. “The bulk of their forces are serpent men, the last ones we fought were around level 20 these are around level 25 and there are fifty or sixty of them. They are better equipped, with more uniform shields, no gaps if they form up they have a few better weapons, some large clubs armour crackers.”

He tried to focus deeper into the formation, eventually he got to the heart of the oncoming group. “The worst part is the three in the middle of the lamia, I can see the leader a lamia alpha probably level 35, he has a great big two handed club. He is probably a veteran of a few extermination quests, so he has seen our tactics before. There is worse they seem to have two snake men Sharman's, so they have magical support, that needs to be our first priority”.

Alice wondered, “Sharman what level”? Martin looked at his book, “technically it’s a rare rank up, it is possible. It’s more likely they probably killed and ate a druid between them some time ago. So imagine a breakdown of 10 levels of Sharman and 20 levels of serpent man”.

Vivian handed out orders, “we need to attack them soften them up. Alice take the back row and slings fire balls, Martin you have two more shrapnel grenades right”? He nodded “you can shut down the magic users if necessary get close to them, David you run distraction. I pop up from the other side and kill the Sharman”.

They got into position higher up on ground that would be hard for the serpent men to climb. They waited for the group to get within their trap, Alice was the first one to begin. She threw two fire balls into the main group of snake men, this immediately sent some of them into a panic. Several ducked down. The alpha hissed orders, one of the Sharman's started to use healing spells on the wounded. The second created some sort of barrier spell. The lamia formed shield walls between the Sharman and Alice's spells.

David started moving from cover. He was banging on his shield as he marched forwards. The front ranks of serpent men started to form up, keeping him at bay with spears while archers and javelin throwers started to send projectiles bounding of his heavy plate. A few sling shots were added to the rain of projectiles they did little.

Martin was suddenly out of cover, his remaining shrapnel grenades and the rest of the medium thermite were hurled into the lamia's formations. It was utter chaos, chunks of steel and burning molten metal flew everywhere. Destroying shields injuring monsters and causing the shamans to pull back. This put them in a perfect position for Vivian to snipe them. Vivian used her mitral tipped enchanted arrows, combined with a power shot. Before they could react one Sharman who was trying to heal the wounded dropped his staff. An arrow sticking out from his neck, he was dead before he realised it.

The second Sharman had a barrier spell up, it was weakened by thermite. It shattered like glass as the force from the second arrow struck it. The third enchanted arrow skewered the Sharman through the chest. He was able to use a healing spell on himself, then two lamia with shields blocked Vivian's line of sight.

With the Sharman dead or wounded there was no magical support, Alice could fling her fire balls without the casters stopping them. She aimed for the middle of the group. Two fire balls detonated taking out 5 of the snake men and wounding many more. David closed in on the group, he was probably over confident in his heavy armour. Though the enemy, spears had trouble reaching anything. His power attacks cut down two more opponents, while the rest of the serpent men considered there best course of action.

Martin activated his blessing “martyrs sacrifice” and charged in. The spear he had procured from the dead serpent man earlier flashed in his hands. Two serpent men, fell dead. With, the blessing active he was fighting closer to level 60, his spear shattered with the force he used on the third opponent killing it, but breaking his concentration ending the blessing. He retreated quickly so that he was not overwhelmed by the snake men's numbers.

The alpha tried to regain the advantage and pull the situation together. He threw some healing medicine to the Sharman, he ordered five snake men to peel off and go for the mage. He ordered five more to head off and go for the archer. He sent two to run back to the nest to warn the queen. He tried to nail the vampire hunter with a jar of burning pepper dust, but the hunter jumped back avoiding it.

Martin could see, with multiple threats the snake men were splitting there forces. That including sending some off to either get help of warn their comrades. He needed to shut that down now, he was going to stop them escaping. He pulled his pistols using focused aimed head shots and two uses of the blessing “divine retribution”, a faint glow and the serpent men dropped dead. Vivian could see the group that split off to deal with her. She send several iron arrows into them killing three.

Alice noted the same thing catching the group in the radius of a duel cast fire ball, before they could react, leaving just one survivor desperately trying to close the gap on her. David went on the attack using his adrenalin strikes to shatter shields and split skulls. The front ranks of serpent men were starting to waver, there courage flagging two more fell to his blade.

The lamia alpha could see his people falling, was he facing masters was it hopeless? He hissed orders quickly, half the lamia went with the recovered Sharman and attacked the vampire hunter. The other half joined him and went for David. He sent another ten serpent men to kill Alice she was just too dangerous to ignore with her fire balls. These were archers this time they could at least fire back at her. He swallowed a basic tonic that improved his resistances, then gripped his war club with determination.

Alice had developed a force of habit, a preservation instinct to remain behind cover when she cast her spells. It served her well as a volley of arrows smacked against the tree stump she was using as cover. She had homing spells, they didn't have homing arrows. Her acid strike spells hit two of the archers and killed them. The serpent Spearman was getting closer though. Vivian finished off the last two spear men heading towards her, power attacks with iron broad heads doing the job before they could get within throwing distance. The first might have gotten further but he stopped to check on his comrade, before they too suffered the same fate.

David cut through one more snake man, his reserves of adrenaline were low. He only had one potion of minor adrenalin for replenishment. It was a vulnerable situation he needed the edge fighting tired he could make a mistake. He jumped back then partially raised his visor and gulped it down. It tasted like rancid mushroom soup filtered through his socks, but it invigorated his body allowing him to keep swinging.

He threw the empty vial at the snakes, they jumped thinking it was a grenade. The alpha was suddenly at the front of the line, right there preparing to hit him with a two handed over head strike. David interrupted it with an adrenalin block, pre-empting the attack and sending the alpha reeling backwards. The other lamia pushed forwards striking against David's armour with spears, doing a little bruising damage.

Martin faced off against the Sharman and five lamia ready with shield and spear. Martin stopped a shock bite spell with his holy symbol. Then he dropped a divine retaliation with, “wrath of the almighty” this assault of holy energy fire frost and shock killed the Sharman dead. The lamia counter attacked striking at Martin as one burying their spears into him.

Alice waited for the arrows to hit the stump then returned fire, hitting the group of archers with a fire ball killing all but two. Even those two at the edge of the group were heavily injured and out of the fight. The last serpent man sent against her was ready with his spear, the spear went for Alice, on instinct she dived backwards. Its tip jammed into her shoulder, but she was wearing armour and several magical items, it was not yet a fatal wound. The serpent man had one chance to kill the mage, but had underestimated her armour and her reaction speed.

One of the lamia pulled one of the mitral arrows out of the fallen Sharman. He pulled back his own bow and took aim at David. The strike was the first real wound that David had taken. Even with the layers of armour, the projectile glanced of the shield but the magic still did a lot of damage. He pressed on, he did have a healing potion to use if it became that bad. The lamia tried to get a second one of Vivian's high end arrows. Vivian acted fast and skewered him through the brain first. She used the last of her regular arrows killing two more wounded serpent men. She would give those bleed arrows a try.

David hit the lamia alpha with an adrenalin strike, giving him a deep wound to his side. Even though he tried to block with his massive club the blow had enough force to push it out of the way. David tried to deliver a second strike, but one of the other lamia got in the way. Blocking the blow sacrificing their own life for their leader. The Alpha poured something that must have been a diluted healing potion down his throat as he tried to recover.

Martin had just under 450 hit points, the lamia's spears wouldn't do that much damage on their own. His flesh and muscle was now so hard and dense, he was more of a monster than the lamia. He activated his blessing, “sphere of consecration”. The holy energy burnt away at the lamia forcing them to move back. Martin pulled the few remaining spears from his flesh and used the blessing “divine favour” to heal the damage. He pulled out his triple barrelled pistol and shot down three of the wounded lamia. The remaining two looked on, not liking their chances they hissed something to each other it sounded almost like resignation to their fate.

Alice cast an acid strike straight into the face of the serpent man as he tried to pull his spear back for a second thrust. He screamed as his eyes and skin melted under the corrosive spell. Alice was not even flinching, she had been wounded and then healed herself enough times to keep a clear head. The serpent man’s shrieks of pain became a horse whistle as his tong and throat melted away as the spell ended. He slumped back quite dead. Alice pulled the spear out gritting her teeth, then checked the wound. She pulled several scraps of cloth out of it, then healed herself. Her teeth gritted, “I am definitely getting more armour”.

Vivian aimed for one of the lamia targeting David, hitting it with a bleed arrow. It was taken out of the fight as it tried desperately to stem the tide of blood from its side. Martin used one of his blessings, “smite” to kill off another of the lamia facing off against him. It could not hope to take the damage and folded to the ground, a chunk burnt out of its chest were the lightning bolt struck home. David cut down the last few lamia defending the alpha, as its protection was cut away it fault all the more fiercely. Its comrades desperately tried to help, but they couldn't really do much against David's layered armour.

Alice started to rain fire bite and acid strike spells down on the remaining serpent men. Vivian used up her last silver arrows to Finnish off the Alpha lamia. Prematurely ending the epic duel with David. Martin finished off the last lamia with a focus throw empowered with his, “wrath” blessing it screamed hissed and died tying itself in knots as it writhed in agony. Vivian drew her poisoned dagger and started to approach the battle, she was all out of arrows. Martin pulled out his trusty mallet and waded into combat activating a few of his defensive blessings. David cut left and right Alice rained down more spells. They finished off the main serpent man force after a few more seconds. Vivian got to finish a few injured opponents off with her dagger, but it was an afterthought to the battle.

Alice slowly walked down the hill, Vivian looked at her damaged padded armour “A close call”? She nodded, “next time I will be more careful and have more armour”. She healed David, “I am pretty much out of magic” Vivian recovered her arrows. Martin reloaded his pistol the level up hit. Martin gained another two levels. He chose pistol specialisation gaining extra armour piercing abilities. He was one level away from level 40. Then he would get a class level that would improve his focus efficiency, he would need to concentrate less to use his holy blessings.

David cursed as he only gained one level, despite all the fighting he had been doing he was mostly bogging down the enemy. He chose a level in the duellist ability, making him more efficient at fighting single targets. In the future targets like the lamia alpha would die much faster, he would not lose a kill to Vivian again, he was determined.

Vivian gained another level, getting the second rank of the better criticals perk. Alice did really well she had killed a lot of the serpent men, gaining three levels, including a class level. Her general abilities improved, her mana efficiency improved to where her base spell casting was now 3 points of mana rather than 4. She mastered her healing aura spell and learnt her first defensive spell. The physical shield spell, which temporarily gave her a lot of extra armour. It would only last five seconds but in that time she could emerge from cover fire and retreat, the duration of the spell would become far better as she improved it.

Martin looked around, “well I used up a lot of grenades but I think we broke the back of their forces”. David nodded, “I had to use that adrenalin potion we got in vine garden, I will need a replacement back in town, we got them pretty good”. Alice pointed to her slashed padded armour “when we get back to town I am getting something heavier dam the weight”. Vivian had collected her arrows, she held up one of the new arrows, “the bleed arrows are surprisingly effective, I still ran out of arrows I might need to carry a backpack full of them”.

They started to harvest alchemical ingredients from there slain foes. A lot of the remains were not usable due to shrapnel thermite of acidic magic. They still collected something saleable form a half of the lamia and snake men. David Martin and Vivian piled the bodies up on the trail, away from the tree line. They were through especially with the alpha and the two Sharman. They didn't want to have to face them if they were brought back as the undead. They had very little useable equipment but there were some items.

Martin salvaged a few pots of the burning black pepper, it might be useful against the rest of the serpent nest. Alice searched the remains of the two serpent men Sharman, if they had killed an adventurer they might have some of their stuff. One had a magic bracelet, a bracelet of plus five to healing. It worked adding + 5 to any ranged healing ability, so it amplified two of Alice's spells marginally. She was the only one that could use it so she added it onto her equipment. Even a small margin it could still be the difference between life and death. She wore it round her left wrist, it looked like a red copper and dull bronze wire wrapped together, almost like a torque.

There were two magic staffs, one was a basic apprentice’s staff, probably some druid had fallen providing them with this equipment. The second was even worse an enchanting experiment that yielded only + 5 to a magic users mana reserves, it was not worth selling so onto the pile of corpses she threw it.

They would sell the other staff later on back at forge hold, Vivian hung it from her backpack. They used oil and tinder to set the pile of sixty odd corpses alight. They moved on, it was not a good idea to remain with the pillar of smoke advertising their presence. But things like this needed to be done to stop necromancy. As a side benefit it would be seen from forge hold so they would know the group was making progress. It would also attract any sentient monster that would check it out to see what was going on the lamia might still have a scout or two.

Vivian looked back at the pillar of smoke, “we are really moving quickly that plan worked well, perhaps we should have planned to hit them hard then retreat, but in the end we were victorious”. Martin shrugged. “We had tools to scout them out, if they had a telescope or some far seeing magic then they could have avoided the trap. We were lucky they didn't, we picked the terrain that they could not easily traverse. We hit them when they were bunched up, if they had been able to protect their magical support it would not have gone so well.”

Alice looked back, “they had a few weak supplies, but in the end we had much better equipment. It gave us a massive edge, also the fact that we are more specialised. I focus on a few heavy hitting spells and Vivian focuses on her critical strikes, we can really do a lot of damage fast.” Martin nodded “The same with my grenades, when I get the chance they can turn the tide of a fight”.

They had a rough map they would rest that night at an abandoned loggers camp, they ate rations without a fire to attract enemies it was not pleasant but necessary. They took turns keeping look out, they would attack the lamia's nest by the hot springs very soon. Their progress was rapid and enormous, so was the danger and so would be the reward.

Alice had to wonder, the serpent men and lamia seemed intelligent, smart enough to use magic brew very basic potions and use tactics. Could there ever be a dialogue between them, or was it inevitable that the snakes would be wiped out, from the face of the earth whenever the two species met?