110. Second Date: Tabitha

We moved out. Wiremu headed in a different direction as he was going to the Land Entrance and would be entering with the Pack Rats that were stationed there. Ruku and Tait headed directly to the coast. I didn’t ask if they had a boat or were swimming. I probably should have. Tāoke was currently travelling with Skavt. He would split off and be our scout and ambusher. Myself, Modrica, Mutalil, Rotte and two of the Pack Rats' best fighters were the quick reaction force. The remaining Pack Rats were for containment, mopping up those left behind and guarding prisoners. I was hoping that with the weakened state, they should be in, I would have a number of prisoners to question.

Of the twenty-eight people in the cave, Rotte figured nineteen were Seadogs, including their leader Mrož. These were no easy kills like most of the gang. These were his top fighters, the sort of fighters that injured the Canine Queens in the street fight. We didn’t know anything about the other nine people in the cave. We did know Wiremu had five people near his entrance, and the rest will be near this end of the cave. We assume there will be at least two watching the boats, and between two and four watching the entrance, we will be attacking from. The rest will probably be in the main cavern.

On top of that, there were traps. Master traps, were concentrated around this wagon entrance. Getting caught in a trap will mean being disabled, poisoned, loss of limbs or dying, depending on the type of trap. Some were alarm traps, and I am guessing at least one rockfall trap was ready to block this entrance at least partially, as this was the most vulnerable entrance. The traps were one of my key responsibilities, along with the Rat Pack’s top burglar, Felle. My Spatial Awareness should find them, and between the two of us, we will disarm or trigger them depending on what is the quickest and least harmful. Speed is important.

We met with the remaining Pack Rats that were joining us. We waited for the right time, so everything worked together. The main assault was to go first, as we were the least likely to remain undetected. This could give Ruku’s and Wiremu’s groups the opportunity to come in from the rear. If when we were noticed, and they decided to do a runner instead of fight, then that could be serious trouble for either of the other groups. Hence we needed speed. Wiremu could block the narrow landward entrance, and Ruku should disable the boats, making running difficult, but they wouldn’t know that until they tried.

Nyx was already up ahead with the outer two guards. She has been syphoning energy for the last two hours. They were feeling unwell anyway and were having trouble staying awake. Preferably we will get through the first layer of traps and neutralise those two before they can raise the alarm. This will allow us to make significant progress on the next traps before the second pair of guards inevitably raises the alarm.

Felle and I stealthed up to the first traps to examine them. Mutalil and Rotte came as our immediate backup. Modrica would normally be my backup, but stealth was not her strong point. I could see the first two layers of traps before the watching guards. They were not complicated. Felle and I planned a route through and prepared what we needed while we waited for the right timing.

Felle disarmed the alarm trap, and I triggered the Arrow trap using Shadow manipulation, although no one would be able to see that. Then we moved forward, laid a plank over the pit trap, and sprinted toward the guards. The pit trap was obvious as the cart's wheel tracks stopped suddenly, and then there was a smooth section before they started again. I didn’t even need my Spatial Awareness for that one. The guards were still aware enough to react before we reached them, so I had Nyx muffle the area with Engulfing Shadows and keep them in place with Binding Shadows. Rotte and I were first there and dispatched them. High-level people don’t tend to be on guard duty.

The rest of the Assault squad was moving forward as we moved into the tunnel toward the main cave. My Spatial Awareness noticed several things. Firstly, Eluf moved into position at my back with his shield. His stooges were lined up behind him. I gave Eluf a quick thumbs-up in acknowledgement, just because.

Secondly, Skavt was behind Felle, and Tāoke slipped off her shoulder and melted into the rock. That was a cool trick. I could sense into the rock, just not as far as normal, so I could see him moving through it. He wasn’t fast, maybe about walking pace, but he was bypassing the next traps and heading to the next guard position.

Thirdly there was a trip wire a few meters in front of us connected to an acid container. I pointed it out to Felle as the acid was on his side of the tunnel, and he disconnected the wire from the acid. Over half the trick to disarming traps is seeing them first, and that was my speciality.

Around the next bend were the rockfall trap and the final guard station, which was on the final bend before the main cavern. As we came around the corner, several things happened. Firstly an arrow came straight for my chest. I had time to duck, and the arrow slammed into Eluf’s shield. Felle couldn’t get out of the way and went down with an arrow in his chest. I don’t know whether it was fatal, but it definitely put him out of this fight.

Then the rockfall trap triggered. We did not trigger it, so the guards must have had a trigger. How did they know we were coming? My Spatial sense finally found a small mirror above our bend, not easily noticeable, but somebody with Farsight at the guard station would be able to see around the corner. They had at least one good person on this station.

The Guards then turned to run to the main cavern to raise the alarm. Although the rockfall was pretty loud, so maybe they just didn’t want to face us alone. Only one of them made it as Tāoke dropped from the stone ceiling onto one of them, wrapped himself around his neck and triggered his Grow Skill. The guy's neck just snapped. Tāoke is very large now. He spat at the fleeing one, but I didn’t see the effect as he was around the corner from my view, and I had dust everywhere in the tunnel. Behind me, I heard Eluf swear, “Shit, whose bond is that?” Nobody replied to him.

The rockfall didn’t completely block the tunnel. It made cart traffic impassible and filled half the tunnel's height. It slowed us down as we had to clamber over loose rock. I think they triggered it too early, but I will not complain. Our shield walls would now take the lead. As Eluf climbed past me, I said quietly, “Pre-dinner drinks are over. Now the date is really starting.” I caught his grin in my Spatial sense.

The tunnel was four shields wide. Skavt and Najprej were on one side, and Eluf and Smiley were on the other as we rounded the last bend with shields up. Four arrows slammed into them, and there were others in the cave scrambling into armour and grabbing weapons. We advanced steadily, and Then I heard Skavt say, “Charge in Three, Two, One, Go!” They all shot forward. Shorty, Rotte, Drugič and I were in the next line back and then Modrica and Mutalil and the rest. The aim was to bust past the entrance to let everybody into the cavern. Otherwise, it would be too easy for them to hold us in the tunnel. Fortunately, the defenders were still scrambling, and they only had a partial shield wall up. The advantage of surprise added to the fact they weren’t feeling well.

The shield charge pushed them back from the entrance, and we started pouring into the cavern. As soon as I entered the cavern, I stepped to the side and let Modrica through. This was now her area of speciality. I took a moment to look around. Both shield teams were held up keeping the tunnel open, so nobody was free to go and assist Ruku. I was a little concerned he wasn’t here already.

Then I saw a massive Orc coming from the back of the cavern. There was a Mer on one side and a human on the other; they all looked well-armed and competent. The will be Orc will be Mrož, the leader of the Seadogs. Rotte confirmed this by heading toward him as soon as she saw him. Rotte was fighting with a knife in one hand, which had a greenish paste smeared on it, and now and then, she would throw a liquid on people with her other hand. I don’t think I wanted to know either of those substances. Blood Alchemist, indeed.

As soon as Modrica saw the Orc, she started bashing her way toward him as well. Mutalil was fighting by her side, which looked very strange as he only appeared to come up to her waist. I could see Mutalil had made good use of the rings with the Sharpen enchantment, as his claws were dripping blood. I was going to head over there, but I was concerned that Ruku wasn’t here yet. Wiremu had a long way to come, but Ruku should be less than a hundred meters away. Something has gone wrong. Then I heard a muffled explosion from the water entrance. I hope that was Ruku and not whoever else was there.

A different Mer suddenly came at me. This one had tentacles instead of hair and fingers. I switched my knife to my off-hand, drew my sword and moved forward to engage her. She had a club in one tentacled hand and a knife in the other. As she neared, the tentacles on her head suddenly flung forward and flung an inky liquid at me. I didn’t have much skin exposed, but I didn’t want to get it in my eyes, so I turned my head to the side. This is the distraction she used to attack me. Unfortunately for her, my eyes are not my main sensing organ. I was still fully aware of everything through my Spatial Awareness, and I caught her club on my sword and her knife with my knife. My knife, however, was Blacksteel, and I put a lot of power into that block. Her steel blade cracked. I moved on to the offensive, moving fast with my Duel Wielding, Small Blades and Sleight of Hand synergy. She was down to one weapon, and while she was good, I was getting some good cuts in. Two can play the distract card, and my Shadow Manipulation flicked pepper into her eyes from my Spatial Pocket. I ducked her club and pierced my sword through her heart. Her heart was lower than mine, about equivalent to where my stomach was. I wouldn’t have known that without Spatial Awareness. I also put my knife into her brain to make sure she was dead.

I took another quick look around the cavern. Several Pack Rats had subdued some of the sicker Seadogs, and they were tying them up. Modrica was going full-out against Mrož. It looks like she had been disarmed, but she was wearing her gloves with spiritually enhanced knuckles and was not holding back. I had seen her kill with one punch without the gloves on. As I watched, she punched Mrož’s sword arm, and his sword went flying. He wasn’t phased either, and they were lying into each other with hits I could almost feel from here across the cavern. The hits could be heard over the noise of the battle.

Rotte was close to finishing the human she was fighting. I saw her take a cut on her arm and saw the blood on the blade of the human. Her arm did not bleed, though. She definitely has a Blood Affinity.

I started to head over there as Mutalil had engaged the Mer and was heavily overmatched and on the defensive. He was bleeding from several strikes from the Mer’s trident and was only alive because of some clever shield work. The Mer was much larger with a longer reach, and the trident compounded this. Mutalil could not get close enough to strike. He was much faster than the Mer and had great shield work, but unless something changed fast, he was going to die. I hadn’t taken more than two steps before that happened. Tāoke dropped from the ceiling again, wrapped himself around the neck of the Mer, and triggered Grow. This time it didn’t work. This Mer was definitely stressed, but there was no neck-snapping going on. He was much more robust than the previous human, and he was covered in scales. I saw Tāoke try a Quick Strike to inject his Venom, and he couldn't pierce the scales. Luckily for Tāoke, Mutalil was fast, and he knew to strike with his sword against the flow of the scales while the Mer was trying to deal with Tāoke. Mutalil was short, so he struck from the floor, aiming up, and his sword stripped the scales off and bit into the flesh of the Mer’s leg. Tāoke let go of his unsuccessful strangle and dropped to the floor narrowly, avoiding a stomp from the Mer. Mutalil was now inside the trident’s reach, and he wasn’t letting go of the initiative. It was now the Mer’s turn, to try to back up and create some space. Mutalil then hit an artery in the leg, and blood was spurting out. The Mer would be dead before I got there.

I looked around again, but there was still no sign of Ruku. Eluf was finished and was just turning to head to the ocean entrance, so I moved to join him. Smiley was limping, but I swear he was still smiling. Shorty was in the lead, and he was stomping, shield-bashing and stabbing anyone who came close.

Eluf greeted me, “A very physically enjoyable second date, my lady.” He was smiling as well.

“I thought you were not supposed to finish before the lady?” I said.

“I watched you finish in a very climatic way,” he riposted as he nodded to the dead Mer I had killed.

“Well, before bringing this date to its grand climax, we need to find out what has happened to Ruku.” I fell into step with him.

“We will follow Shorty. He is unhappy because he is lagging behind in today’s headcount.” With that comment, we rounded the bend and discovered what had happened to Ruku.