James crouched down and examined the bodies.
“These cuts look fresh,” He explained. Grey raised an eyebrow.
“How many dead bodies have you seen to confirm that?” They asked.
“I’ve played enough VR games, I’m used to it at this point. Whoever did this may still be here.”
“How come the guards outside haven’t noticed this?” Delarius asked. “They should have easily caught anyone breaking in.”
“I can’t imagine any creature of the Dark Lords would make it past the guards,” Delarius said proudly.
“You really place too much faith in the people of this city,” Amelia responded.
“This was an inside job,” Grey added. “The guards out there may be in on this. It’s got to be a trap.”
Amelia advanced forward, her sword raised, before shouting into the emptiness, “Come out and play, you cowards!”
They heard no response.
“Well, that was lucky,” Patrick sighed. “Could have gotten us killed there.”
James stood up and walked forward, running his hand along the floor.
“I can’t see any traps,” He said. “Shame this game doesn’t have some kind of thief class.”
After that, they heard the other door getting smashed open.
“Shit!” Grey shouted. “We need to get moving.”
The party rushed along the corridor and took another turn. A few at the back caught sight of several men in guard uniforms turning the corner to see them leave.
“Yup, those guards got replaced alright,” Patrick said. “These are barracks, right? Could we hide in the bedrooms?”
As they said this, Amelia opened a door that led into another hallway with several doors on each side.
“Well done on producing an idea,” She said. “Everyone, split up and hide.”
She kicked down the door to her right and yanked Delarius with her, slamming it behind her. James opened the door opposite and the rest of them filed into the room. It was a small room with two bunk beds and barely enough room for the soldiers to put all of their belongings. The three plastered themselves to the door, hoping if the fake guards tried it they would assume it was locked. Amelia pulled Delarius down and skidded under one of the beds in her room, just as the fake guards ran past them.
“We should leap out now and try and ambush them,” Patrick suggested.
“Maybe if we could surround them,” Grey said, “but we’re in no position to do that right now, especially without Amelia. Your magic is strong, but it is certainly not subtle.”
“So we just run? We have to clear this dungeon to progress, right?”
As they heard the guards reach the end of the corridor, they heard some talking.
“I think I heard something. The dorms are locked, right?”
“Yeah, they shouldn’t be able to get in. Might wanna check anyway.”
The group went deadly silent as two of the guards turned back and walked down the hallway, lightly pushing in the doors to check if they were unlocked, one taking the left side, the other the right. It wasn’t long before they were checking on the doors the party were hidden in. As the guard pushed on the door James was blocking, he swung the door open, grabbed the guard’s outstretched arm and yanked them inside, slamming the door. The other guard turned to see what the commotion was. Amelia leapt out of the door behind him, grabbing him in a chokehold and putting a hand over his mouth, dragging him back inside.
“Shut the damn door!” She told Delarius, who climbed out from under the bed and closed it carefully. Amelia pinned the guard up against the closed door.
“Who the hell are you?” She asked.
“W-We’re just some hired thugs, honest!” He replied.
“Hired thugs who managed to storm a garrison? Who the hell hired you?”
“Some rich woman from the Capital. S-She gave us the equipment and the costumes and told us to take control of the garrison and wait for you guys. We killed ’em easy, they seemed really out of it.”
“Did you get your employer’s name?”
The fake guard shook his head as best he could. “C-Captain Pagen was the only one who met her.”
“Guessing that’s your leader.”
“Yup, and he’s going to kick your ass! Y-You ain’t gonna stand a chance against the Exhaust Sabre!”
“I’ll be fine,” Amelia said. She bashed the guard’s head against the door, easily knocking him out and letting him fall to the floor. She turned to the rather shocked Delarius.
“Rich woman in the capital. Ring any bells?”
Delarius shook his head. “That was not a very accurate description.”
“Yeah, I thought so,” Amelia pulled the door open to see the others leaving their dormitory as well. “Did you get anything out of him?”
“Hired by a woman in the capital, asked them to take over the garrison as a trap for us,” Grey repeated.
Amelia sighed, “Same here. I knocked him out in case we need him to confirm stuff later, and so we don’t get this pinned on us.”
“Oh, our guy is dead,” James said. “He broke free after we pinned him and tried to kill us, so I stabbed him. These guys must have, like, 20 hit points at most.”
“I’m sure that will help our case. At least the other guards are gone. Are we gonna fight them?”
“I feel like there’s more to this than just them,” Grey said. “Maybe we just keep an eye on them, see if they lead us to anything.”
Amelia started walking down the corridor. “I don’t know if it’s going to be easy to spy on them while they’re actively hunting us.”
“You just want to beat them up.” James deduced.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Yes, bu-“
“Besides, they sent two people to check on all of the rooms, they don’t seem that bright to me.”
“Which makes the idea they took over the garrison by themselves even less likely,” Grey said, “which is why we shouldn’t rush in and murder everything. We’re going to play this one slow.”
>>>
Nolan Pagen, the glorious captain of the Haelshire Raiders, was having a very good day. He was now in control of the Haelshire Garrison, the guards having been pathetically easy to take down. He now sat at the end of what was once the mess hall, but was now his throne room. It was essentially the centre of the building, with doors leading off of it to the various facilities around the rest of the building. The door he was looking straight at led to the dorm rooms and the entrance, and it was where his victory would enter from. All he had to do now was wait for his minions to come back and inform him they had apprehended the future ‘heroes’ of Sable, and he could rest easy with the massive payout the Duchess would give him.
This made the arrival of his Raiders without the targets even more annoying.
“We lost them, sir,” one of them said.
“Correct,” Nolan growled in response. “When did you lose them?”
“Around the dorm rooms,” another one said. “Jake and Nathan went to check them, but didn’t come back.”
“And you never thought, maybe, that the targets were hiding in the dorm rooms and killed Jake and Nathan?”
The group looked at each other in surprise and confusion. Nolan sighed, hefted his slab-like Exhaust Sabre over his shoulder and stood up, walking down the corridor to the dorm rooms as the rest of the Raiders staggered after him. They reached the dorms to discover two of them open.
“We found them!” The only female Raider exclaimed. The rest of them cheered.
“Of course we haven’t, you idiots!” Nolan shouted. “They’ve left, haven’t they!? They wouldn’t keep the door open if they were still here?”
The rest of the Raiders mumbled in agreement and disappointment. Nolan thought for a moment, thinking something was very unusual here, before he finally realised what was wrong.
“There were never any women in the Raiders.”
Amelia swore under her breath as the Raiders turned on her, pointing their spears at her throat. She held up her hands in surrender. Nolan smirked.
“I’ve got you now, hero,” He spat out the word like he’d just eaten rotten meat. He held up his massive sword and the rest of the raiders plastered themselves against the sideboards. Steam started to gush out of the flat of the blade, and a moment later Amelia was hit in the chest by a high pressure burst of air, being thrown down the corridor and slamming against the wall.
GlassAngel
100/150 HP
“This is my greatest creation!” Nolan gloated “The Exhaust Sabre uses pressurized air canisters to fire wind blasts at my enemy. It’s got hers at the top, at the back and at the front, letting me unleash its power whichever way I want. I don’t need fancy magic to control the winds: just my sword!”
“That’s great sir!” Another guard ran up to Nolan and hugged him. He pushed the guard away only for the guard to throw a fireball in his face.
Trident743
Firebolt
----
Nolan Pagen
240/300 HP
----
Trident743
130/150 Mana
“What kind of dumbass would tell us how it worked anyway?” Patrick asked as he legged it down the hallway, pulling Amelia up with him. The Raiders drew their weapons and began to chase after them as Nolan wiped the soot from his face. A canister was ejected from his sword and he replaced it.
“They only took out two of my men,” Nolan thought out loud, “and we know there’s five of them...so they must be hiding somewhere…and if they were in the dorm rooms they would just ambush us...” He shrugged. “Oh well, we’ll flush them out eventually.”
Meanwhile, Amelia and Patrick were still running down the hallway, keeping just ahead of the other guards as they rapidly re-equipped their normal gear. Patrick pulled out his staff and sprayed the hallway in daggers, and the guards skidded to a halt.
Trident743
Dancing Daggers
----
Trident743
120/150 Mana
The guards quickly plastered themselves against the walls, and Patrick and Amelia immediately picked up on what was going on. They threw themselves to the floor as Nolan skidded around the corner and fired a blast of air straight over their heads. The daggers went flying, imbedding themselves into the wood. They nearly hit Patrick and Amelia, but she drew her sword and slashed some of them out of the air as she pulled the two of them to her feet.
“Thanks for the save,” Patrick said as they kept running, the guards once again on their tail. “I would hate to be stabbed by my own daggers.”
“Then stop creating daggers,” Amelia told him. They flung open the door to the canteen and ran in.
“I can stop anytime I want.”
“Shut up already!” Nolan shouted, replacing the canister in his sword and firing again. The guards threw themselves at the floor again, but before the two players could be hit James ran in from the side and held up his shield, easily blocking the attack. He smirked.
“This thing isn’t as special as you seem to think it is. I didn’t even take damage from this.”
Nolan growled as he reloaded once more, leading his raiders into the mess hall.
“How the hell did you get past us?” He asked.
“We got more guard uniforms,” Grey said. They were leaning against a wall, with a very worried Delarius standing in the corner. “Wasn’t hard to grab your rearguard. I was hoping that you’d try to showcase whatever skills you had in the hallways where you’d accidentally get in the way of your comrades, or vice versa, but you apparently saw through our ruse. At the very least we got to draw you out and got a good hit in.”
“So you killed even more of my men? You disgust me.”
“I’m sure the real guards of Haelshire Garrison said something similar.”
Nolan climbed up onto one of the long tables that ran the length of the dining room, and his raiders went into formation, ready to charge forward. James climbed up onto the same table as Nolan, challenging him.
“You guys take out the thugs,” He said “You’ll cleave through them quicker than I will, and I can take his sword head on no problem.”
The others nodded, but Nolan just smiled.
“You really think you can take me on alone?” He smirked as he pointed his sword at James. “I am Nolan Pagen, leader of the Haelshire Raiders, wielder of the greatest weapon this city has ever conceived! This domain belongs to me, and who are you to take it from me?”
James raised his sword in turn. “My name is James Marlow, and me and my friends are the heroes of Sable.”
Nolan snarled and let out a battle cry as both sides rushed forward.
James Stats: Level: 3 HP: 300/300 STR: 10 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 15 INT: 1
Grey stats: Level: 3 HP: 150/150 STR: 5 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 10 INT: 0 Healing Pool:200/200
Amelia Stats: Level: 3 HP: 100/150 STR: 25 DEF: 5 DEX: 10 SPL: 5 INT: 0
Patrick stats: Level: 3 HP: 100/100 STR: 20 DEF: 5 DEX: 15 SPL: 15 INT: 0 Mana: 120/150
