Chapter 33

When I raise the woodcutting axe over my head, I put strength into my weak arms and swing down with all my diminished might, putting a decent cut into the log in front of me. Sweat drips down my face and as I take a short break to catch my breath, I can see my breath in the air. Although the June weather is usually warm and pleasant, it’s still early in the morning, just after dawn. I can’t rest for too long and get back to chopping the log in front of me. My cuts don’t need to be perfect, I just need this log small enough to carry over to the dungeon entrance without draining my energy too badly. Wraine and I are working as hard as we can because with the amount of noise we’re making right now, we’ll get caught immediately if anyone comes near us. We need to make all the noise now while there’s no one around and when Alister’s crew arrives, we’ll need everything to already be ready. I don’t know how long we chopped wood for, but soon enough we have two large piles that reach up to our waists. This should be enough.

We’re both drenched in sweat and need to sit down as we try to regain our breaths. When we think we’ve rested enough, we hide all our tools in the bush we sat in yesterday as we watched Alister’s crew. The axes have served their purpose but we don’t want anyone seeing them and hide them in another bush nearby. The swords, the shovels, my shield, the crossbow, and its bolts are ready. The crossbow is even prepped and as soon as a bolt is loaded into it, it’ll be ready to shoot. Based on what Nestor told us yesterday, we shouldn’t be shooting at anything further away than 30 yards which should be good enough. It’s a narrow, cramped hole in the wall, even if I fire blindly into it, I should hit someone every time I fire. Taking a look at the valley in front of us, the distance between where we are right now in the treeline and where the valley starts should be about 30 yards. The valley itself should add another 15 yards give or take. 45 yards is not an easy distance but it’s possible. Once they’re inside the dungeon, we’ll need to sprint back and forth ferrying the firewood across and stack it all up at the dungeon entrance. Sprinting 45 yards while carrying firewood already sounds tiring. But once any trace of doubt enters my mind, I immediately smother it and tell myself this will work. We’ve watched them for an entire day, we’ve spent nearly 30 silver coins to get everything we need, we spent hours chopping wood just to make sure we have enough to keep the fire going, this is gonna work. It has to.

When it’s closer to noon, we head back to the dirt path we followed from the city while staying inside the treeline and keep our bodies lowered. We find the exact same bush we used to watch them from yesterday and hop back into it. It’s a waiting game now. Before long, Alister’s group comes walking down the dirt path and it looks like the exact same group as yesterday, all eight of them, albeit a bit more bruised up than yesterday. This time it’s the blond bandit who’s walking in front and he has the same lackadaisical attitude as before, not a single care in the world. Alister’s following a few steps behind him, his face looking worse for wear. Based on the way he’s treated by the blond bandit and the rest of his crew, there’s a discrepancy here that doesn’t make sense. But it’s not my job to figure it out. I’ve known what my job is ever since I killed Kayman. I spent countless hours in that dark tunnel imagining, planning for today and it’s up to me now to realize that effort.

When Alister’s crew enters the dungeon, it takes me a herculean amount of restraint to not immediately rush over with a log in my hands. Patience here is paramount. I want them as far in that dungeon as possible before we start hauling logs over. The further they’re in, the further they’ll need to run back to the entrance and the more time we’ll have. This won’t be the same as what we did with the goblins. The goblins killed themselves when they put out their own fire and scrambled around in the darkness. Alister’s crew isn’t on the same level of intelligence as goblins and mistaking this will get us killed. But we won’t treat them the same. The smoke will just be something that forces them to try and leave the dungeon while at the same time it will sting their eyes and choke their lungs. I’d be surprised if any of them actually died from the smoke itself. No, the real core of this plan is the crossbow. When I saw it last night, everything clicked into place and I knew I had a real, feasible plan brewing inside my head.

A few hours pass since Alister’s crew enters the dungeon and it’s time to get to work. When we did this the first time, we carried our weapons on us as we hauled the logs to the cave’s entrance because we were confident we could handle a few straggler goblins. But we don’t have that confidence this time and we have to risk carrying these logs without any weapons. Without the weapons, we’re lighter, we can carry more, and each trip isn’t as draining. But the tradeoff is we’re terrified the entire time we ferry the logs across. I can’t help but imagine a bandit randomly coming outside to take a piss and when he sees us, he shouts at the top of his lungs and before a minute passes, every single one of them comes barreling out ready to rip our throats out. But nothing happens. We were able to haul every log we chopped a few yards away from the dungeon entrance without anyone noticing us. Looking over, Wraine’s covered in sweat and his shirt is drenched but there’s a look of excitement in his eyes. We’re not ready yet. This time we ran back to the treeline for all our weapons, swords, shield, crossbow, and bolts. The shovels come later if everything goes well. If not, well, some lucky passerby will find two free shovels there someday.

With our weapons on the ground next to us, ready to be grabbed at a moment’s notice, we start stacking the logs a few steps into the dungeon. Now that we’re standing right in front of it, we’re able to see inside a bit more than what we could see from the treeline. It only looks like a dark, narrow passage which is perfect for us. We make the log barricade wide enough to block off the entire passage and thick enough to serve as a blockade if necessary. We also place the logs in a way that there’s a makeshift window near the upper center of the barricade for the crossbow bolts. We’ll be able to shoot through the window at anyone who approaches this barricade and there isn’t anything they can do about it. Every member of Alister’s crew was carrying a sword and some of them had shields, there wasn’t a single bow in sight. When we’re finished, we take a drink from our waterskins and get ready to begin. Wraine takes a handful of tinder from his pockets and puts it under the barricade before he takes out a twig and gets to work. I can tell he’s nervous judging by his trembling hands and that he’s taking longer than usual to get the fire started. But I don’t say a word. All I can do right now is trust him and believe in him. Fortunately, he takes a breath to calm himself and the shaking stops, his hands as motionless as a corpse. The fire sparks and roars into life as it spreads all over the barricade, consuming the wooden structure instantly. We take a few steps back and I grab a bolt from the ground before loading it into the crossbow while Wraine picks up his longsword and gets ready. Time to play.

Smoke billows from the burning barricade and only a small amount escapes out of the dungeon. I can’t really tell how this passage slopes past the few yards I can see but it looks like the smoke is filtering inside smoothly. We don’t know how long this passage is, we don’t even know if there's another exit inside, we could be wasting our time here, and we could be risking our lives for nothing. These thoughts hammer at my confidence and make me waver slightly as the seconds turn to minutes. Maybe this whole thing is an awful idea in the first place. It probably is but it’s too late anyway because about 15 minutes after we lit the fire, we heard shouting coming from the passage.

We hear voices shouting from deeper in the passage but we can’t make out what they’re saying. The voices are getting louder and sweat drips down my face, not only due to the heat from the fire, but because of my heart pounding inside my chest. Any second now. The anticipation is killing me and I can’t help but imagine anything and everything going wrong as the seconds go by. Wraine couldn’t take the anticipation anymore and instead of standing there doing nothing, he tossed a few more logs into the fire, fueling it as the both of us waited. Finally, the first person appears in the dark passage and unbelievably, it’s the blond bandit.

There’s only a sword with a black hilt in his right hand as he dashes down the passage, not a shield in sight. There’s a look of unbridled rage on his face as he approaches the fiery barricade and spittle flies his mouth as he screams, “Who the fuck is it!? Who the fuck do you think you’re fucking with!? When I find out who you are, I’ll skin your entire family alive in front of you!”

Surprisingly, when I see his face, all the nervousness from before disappears and instead, I’m back in the tunnel. Kayman’s body is right in front of me and he’s missing his right hand. I know what happened to that hand. I couldn’t take the hunger anymore. It was killing me. I’m not proud of what I did and even thinking about it disgusts me to the point of vomiting but it’s something I had to do. Who was the one who robbed us? Him. Who was the one who massacred that village and tortured those poor people? Him. And who is the cause of all of this? Him. As long as I kill him, everything will go back to normal.

Through the tears in my eyes, I take a step to the left, bringing me into full view in the makeshift window we made. When he sees me, there’s a look of surprise on his face and then there’s a look of familiarity as he seems to recognize me before it all disappears as a crossbow bolt pierces his right eye. 30 yards, even if I’m a novice, as long as it’s within 30 yards, I’ll hit something. His head jerks backwards from the force of the bolt and his body falls backwards, skidding across the ground a few inches before coming to a stop. I let out the breath I didn’t even know I was holding in and I immediately started to wind the crossbow string back to get another shot ready as I saw Alister a few steps behind the blond bandit pause in his steps. There’s a look of horror on his face before it’s replaced by rage and he rushes towards the barricade. When the crossbow’s ready, I put another bolt into the groove and I fire at Alister’s chest. Fuck. He brings up a shield he was hiding behind him and blocks the shot, knocking the bolt to the ground and reaches the barricade. I need to ready the crossbow again but it looks like Alister isn’t sure how to get past the barricade without getting burned. Before I’m able to ready the crossbow again, he bashes the barricade with his shield, knocking a lot of the burning logs to the ground and widens our makeshift window enough to step over it. When he attempts to step over the remaining burning barricade, Wraine dashes into the passage, carefully avoiding the scattered burning logs, and stabs forward with his sword, stabbing into Alister’s thigh which forces Alister to step down onto the fire. The fire burns his foot and as Alister tries to pull it away from the fire, he trips over his other leg and falls onto his ass. As he’s sitting on the floor screaming, trying to smother the fire climbing his leg, I’m ready for another shot and send it straight into his chest. The bolt lodges itself in the center of his body and with a look of disbelief on his face, he reaches his right hand, still holding onto his sword, toward the bolt in his chest and confirms it’s real. When he realizes this, he tips backwards and falls onto his back, motionless as the fire slowly spreads from his foot to the rest of his body and before long, it consumes him entirely.

As I ready the crossbow for another shot, Wraine frantically hauls the remaining logs from our reserve pile to try and block the opening in the barricade as best as he can. While all this was happening, the remaining bandits seem lost when they see two of the people in front of them die painfully. One of them shouts, “Hey! We’re with Alira! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let us go unharmed right this instant! We’ll forget about what happened here tod-” He doesn’t get to finish what he’s saying because he’s within 30 yards of me and my crossbow. Hey, three for three shots, not too bad. The one standing directly behind him is horrified and tries to run back but he’s stopped by the one behind him. At swordpoint, two bandits are forced to serve as meat shields for two other bandits behind them as they march forward towards what remains of our barricade. Not good. I do my best and ready another shot, firing it the moment it’s ready and I miss, the bolt flying over all their heads. Fuck me and my big mouth. I frantically ready the crossbow again and the bandits take this opportunity to make a mad dash at the fiery barricade. Wraine was able to stack the barricade up a little again, at least none of them can step over it without getting burned. When the shot’s ready, I fire it and impale a bolt into the leftmost meat shield’s chest, his body collapsing forward and the person directly behind him trips over the body, landing on his face. You glorious bastard, you. When I bury your body, I might not strip you naked. The pair on the rightmost side make it to the barricade but neither of them have a shield they can use. The shield’s on the one who tripped over the body. Both of them try to use their swords to hack at the barricade but it isn’t doing much and becoming disgruntled with his worsening situation, the remaining meat shield grabs the person who forced him into his role in the first place and pushes him onto the barricade, the man screaming at the top of his lungs as his face burns in the fire. The meat shield tries to clamber over the burning man, using him as a momentary safeguard from the fire, but before he can climb his way past the barricade, a bolt pierces into his face, right under his left eye and he goes limp. The man underneath the meat shield went silent seconds ago and the only noise I can hear right now is the crackling of the fire. But I know there’s two left.

When the bandit who tripped over his meat shield sees what happened to his two companions, he loses his mind and roars at the top of his lungs before charging at the barricade, his shield covering most of his chest and midsection. Before he can even reach it, a bolt lodges itself into his throat, his lifeblood spilling out instantly. But he doesn’t go down immediately. Instead, he looks me directly in my eyes, a look of defiance on his face before his eyes become blank and his body slumps to the ground. One left. One left, but we haven’t seen the last one. Where is he? It’s worrying because even with seven of his companions dying, we still haven’t seen a sign of him.