Artax was in a foul mood. They had been following the trail of their prey for over a week now and had already lost a quarter of their men. He knew he shouldn’t have agreed to go on the mission but the pay had been too good.

  That and he had beef with Lux. The old mercenary had caused him plenty of problems in the past and now he finally got an opportunity to repay the old bastard. With luck he would be able to have his way with Lux’s daughters while the old man watched before killing him nice and slow.

  From the small village it had been easy to find the trail that Lux’s party had made but that is where their luck ended. Their employer had not been generous with the equipment for the expedition and most of the ward stones had stopped working after half a week.

  Their large party was like a magnet, drawing in monsters from all over. They were under almost constant attack. Without enough ward stones, they were hardly able to rest during the night either. Watch rotations were set but they weren’t able to handle the number of monsters so usually everyone had to pitch in to defend the camp.

  To speed their journey, they followed the narrow trail left by Lux’s group which meant they couldn’t use their numbers to an advantage. They were strung out in a long line down the trail, only two or three people abreast.

  With only a few hours of sleep if they were lucky and constant fighting, morale was low and the men were exhausted. Every man lost meant the survivors had to work that much harder. They were starting to run low on medical supplies and potions as well.

  Their stingy employer had only packed the bare minimum thought necessary which they had already gone through within a week. Their quarry had a big head start on them and there was no telling how much longer it was until they reached the fabled ruins that Lux’s team was hunting for.

  Not only that but during the night men just disappeared. More than likely dragged into the forest to be devoured although there were mutterings about desertion that had grown as time went on. Artax had put a stop to that with cold hard facts. No one would survive the trip back to the village without the rest of the party.

  After that had been dealt with more rumblings started up. This time it was about how their prey must already be dead and they were wasting their time and risking their lives for nothing. This one was harder to quash as Artax had these same feelings.

  With their difficulties it was hard to imagine Lux’s group surviving. They were still following a path though so it was clear Lux had made it at least this far. There was nothing for them to do but continue to follow until the path ended.

  Artax thought that they would find the end of the path any day now but he doubted they would find any bodies. If they were lucky, they would be able to locate some weapons or armor to bring back as proof but he doubted they would even find that.

  Their employer wanted Lux and his group dead with no survivors but he also wanted them to find the ruins if possible. Artax didn’t hold out much hope of finding anything in the cursed jungle. It was easy enough to follow the trail Lux had left but if you got off the trail the thick jungle was almost impenetrable.

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  Days passed and by the end of the second week they were down half their men to the monsters of the jungle. The survivors were all wounded to some extent. Even so the trail they were following kept going. Artax could do nothing but curse Lux once again.

  If they turned back in their weakened condition, they would likely never make it back to the village. Artax was afraid that continuing would result in the same fate. To make matters worse they were also running low on water. There were plenty of monsters so food wasn’t a problem.

  Even with fewer men, constant fighting in the high heat and humidity of the jungle had depleted their supply. Unfortunately they hadn’t found any stream or lake to replenish their water. Artax was starting to accept the fact that they would die in the cursed jungle when a shout from the front caught his attention.

  It seemed the jungle was starting to thin out and ruins were starting to be seen scattered among the trees. The men quickened their pace and soon found themselves out in the open. Many dropped to the ground in relief.

  Artax continued on to a small hill which looked over a magnificent city. The sight took his breath away. They had actually found it, the lost city. Somewhere in that city Lux and his party were busy exploring. Artax would give them quite the surprise. His grin turned feral at the thought.

  That would have to wait however as they were all exhausted. They would need time to recover. It was decided to make camp outside the city walls and send a small group inside to locate a well or some other source of water.

  Out of 40 men that had started the expedition, they were down to 16. Once they recovered it would still be more than enough to finish off Lux and his group. There would be no one to save them this time. After killing Lux, they would explore the city and loot its treasures.

  They would all be rich men if they could survive the trek back to the village. Now that they knew exactly how long it would take, they could plan accordingly. The city should have everything they need to make the trip back safely.

  With these thoughts in mind, they got to work. Seeing the city had given the men a boost of energy and their morale was finally improving. The camp was prepared and a group of five men were selected to scout for water in the city.

  After waiting for more than an hour Artax was getting angry. What was taking those fools so long. He was about to send another group in when finally the first group showed up or what was left of them. It seemed only three had returned from the mission.

  Luckily, they had managed to find a well fairly close to the gates of the city but they had also found a nest of spiders. Two men had been captured by the spiders and another man had been poisoned. Artax had to rally the men and secure the well. If the two men weren’t dead already, they would be rescued as well but that was a secondary concern.

  The hours rest had helped the beleaguered group but they were still not in very good shape. They would need to use their numbers to overwhelm the spiders. The uninjured scouts guided them to the location of the well which was in the middle of a small courtyard covered in spiderwebs.

  Upon entering the gates of the city, he had been impressed by how intact everything was. Artax was now sure they would be rich. A greedy smile appeared on his face and a quick glance showed that he wasn’t the only one that realized the potential profit.

  The spiders were still stirred up and immediately started attacking. There were more than Artax had expected but they were still able to secure the area and kill the swarm of giant spiders. One more man had been poisoned and they had found the cocoons of the two missing scouts.

  Both were still alive but injured and poisoned. They didn’t have any cure potions left so it was a toss up on whether or not any of the poisoned men would survive. They did have a healing mage but he didn’t know any cure poison spells and was always reluctant to heal anyone unless it was a severe injury.

  It was possible they might find some potions in one of the stores but Artax thought if they did it would be too late for most of the poisoned men. At least they had secured a viable water source and the men were currently drinking their fill.

  After the men recovered, they would start hunting for Lux. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on the bastard. This was going to be fun.