RD 5 Ch 30

I watched her strategy, once she started throwing sonic enchanted boulders she hadn’t slowed down in the slightest. Not that it mattered, I had come to kick her out of the Citadel, and that was exactly what I was going to do. Watching her hurl boulders that hurt these women who supported Simone was extra motivation.

Realistically, the ammunition could only go for so long. While Princess Almeria was spending it quickly, waiting her out wasn’t going to be in our best interest even if the Mul Branova could weather the attacks. The other two forces would take a substantial loss in strength by the time she had run her stores empty. Not to mention, I wanted to complete this as fast as possible, and waiting for her to run out of boulders was simply not in line with that.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Simone asked.

“I’m trying to understand what her goal is at the moment.” I squinted at the citadel in front of me and decided to bounce my thoughts off of Simone, after all her intuition was often terrifyingly good. “She’s taken the fortress and brought with her ammunition suitable for weakening anyone waiting for her outside. That’s all well and good to delay how long she can hold it, but it isn’t a tactic that’s going to truly solve the situation at large.”

Simone noted along. “You’re right it’s just another delay, but what is she delaying us for?” Simone asked the very question I was asking myself.

“Is there anything inside the Citadel of blood?” I probed.

Simone tapped at her lips thoughtfully as her eyes gazed into the distance, her mind elsewhere. “Maybe. When I had held the Citadel before, we had searched high and low for our Lord Bran. Actually, that’s the whole reason we had taken the citadel in the first place. We had wanted to see if there wasn’t anything you had left behind for us.”

I stared at her, waiting for more as she let silence play between us and enjoyed holding my attention.

Simone just smiled for a moment longer before continuing. “We raided everything that we could, and that’s where we found your heart for the blood pool. Thankfully, the Mul Branova were able to return that to my palace as part of our retreat from the Citadel. That doesn’t mean that we got everything, though. Perhaps there may be something connected to princess Almeria that we overlooked. After all, the place is a little bit of a mess on the inside.”

I frowned. It wasn’t as if I had left things for each of them yet in the same way I likely had or the system had if it were to make this trial fair for each of them. If Simone got a heart able to bolster her own forces, I could only assume whatever princess Almeria would find would also improve her forces too. Perhaps that was the entire reason she was there, but my gut told me that she was making a play far larger than just scouting the abandoned Citadel for rewards.

“Was there anything you didn’t recognize within the citadel? Enchantments or anything? Given that you three are actively using scouts and no one is claiming the citadel, I assume before you went, you had managed to scout it for you?” I said, thinking things through.

“We all have scouts checking it regularly.” Simone nodded along.

“Then why didn’t anyone find the heart before you?” I asked, this whole thing was fabricated by the system, why couldn’t it create unique opportunities for each of the trial takers?

Simone wiggled her nose and bit her lip. “Now that you mention it, I had taken it for granted, but it did seem rather odd that no one else had discovered your heart and pool of blood before us. We had been regularly sending scouts into the citadel. The one who rushed back and informed us at Circe’s was likely informed by one of her own scouts.”

“Then we’re going to assume that Princess Almeria found something within the citadel that she absolutely must have. After all, committing to something on this scale was going to net her a loss, whatever was inside needed to be well worth it.” I thought aloud.

Simone was already one step ahead of me. “Then if they are taking the risk and bringing stall tactics with them, whatever it is she is after is going to take time for her to retrieve.”

I nodded along, coming to a similar conclusion. “In fact, she and some of her strongest fighters might be inside right now trying to recover whatever she is after." A massive grin spread across my face at the thought, only for the look to be mirrored by Simone.

“Her fortress outside the Citadel might be left wide open." Simone said with a murderous glee in her eyes.

“Get word to Circe and Winnie's camp. Princess Almeria won’t be able to hold the citadel forever, and if we leave enough of our three forces here to keep her boxed in, we might be able to cut off her retreats by giving her nowhere to return to when she’s done with the Citadel of Blood." It was a cheap tactic, but everything was fair in war. If the princess didn’t plan for the three of us to be working together, then she likely hoped that we would keep each other in check and prevent a strike back at her main camp. After all, splitting forces between the siege and a raid would create an easy target for the two remaining forces.

However, by working together, we would easily be able to keep up the siege and raid her while her own forces were busy.

“At once" Simone bowed and stepped away, not far enough to lose sight of me, but enough that she could have a quick conversation with a runner that could deliver the message.

Left to my own thoughts for a moment, I considered our new strategy. The plan was simple enough and certainly would be able to catch the princess off guard. Even if she had caught wind of the three groups working together, I doubted she would believe that they could all trust each other. There was enough animosity in the past that she would expect alliances with many cracks of distrust running through them.

Besides, she was likely planning this takeover of the citadel for a while now and contingencies were in place, she couldn’t have prepared for the worst case scenario of the other three forces all working in harmony.

This whole wartime scenario was a delicate balance between the four forces only for myself to be dropped in and destroy everything that could be expected, though it seemed almost too good to be true that I could deal with such a decisive blow to the princess. If she was somehow thinking several steps ahead, I could end up losing the forces that we left at the siege.

A bit my lip as I thought through the rest. I considered whether my anxiousness to be done with the trial was causing me to hurry and take too many risks. But the princess was taking her own risk, pushing for whatever was inside. And at the moment, she had no reason to anticipate our current level of cooperation, which would give us an advantage.

“Is everything okay?” Simone asked.

“Only a fool doesn’t worry before making a decision that affects so many people." I said, flashing what I hope was a reassuring smile.

***

Decision made and plans formed, I found myself rushing through ruins and woods to the north, toward Princess Almeria’s base.

“I assume your scouts know roughly where we are going,” I asked, glancing over my shoulder at Simone with two dozen Mul Branova, Winnie with thirty of her best and Circe with another two dozen elites. Each group had brought several scouts.

“The lake up ahead,” Winnie pointed with her chin. “The princess expanded the lake. Watch out, it has a sheer drop. Her fortress is underwater.”

I stared at the lake ahead. Its surface was rough and rippled by the fine mist of rain. Otherwise, there was no sign of movement.

Even if Almeria was relying on some level of concealment, it was ridiculous that there wasn’t anyone coming and going. Five hundred years of war prickled the back of my neck like an arrow aimed straight at me. My senses went sharp as I scanned our surroundings.

“Send a scout in to check it out. Something doesn’t feel right,” I said, stepping back into the tree line for at least a little cover from whatever might come next.

Circe made a few gestures to her people, but I held a hand up.

“How about we send her? She’s tough. Even if it’s a trap, she can just jump free,” I said, pointing toward the woman from Circe’s troop who’d let Winnie’s soldier through to me during the battle.

The woman shot a nervous glance at me, then at Circe. Whatever expression Circe wore left no room for argument.

The woman ducked her head and sprinted out from the tree line into the falling rain  before diving into the lake. She swam nearly parallel with the shore and surfaced a moment later. “There’s nothing here,” she called, treading water and looking far too relaxed.

Water was always a dangerous place filled with many things you couldn’t see at first glance.

“Take another look,” Circe ordered without missing a beat.

The woman dove again and stayed under longer this time.

Simone turned to me. “If they’re not here, what do you think that means?” she asked.

“A trap,” I said, even as I already scanned the tree line with Soul Gaze, trying to pick up anything out of the ordinary. But I found no illusions or enchantments.

But when my gaze settled back on the lake, a prompt came up.

[Myriad Poisoned Water Rank A]

“Nobody gets in this water,” I said quickly, my eyes fixed on the prompt. Immediately, I could tell everyone was activating their own inspect to check it for themselves

“Mine came up empty.” a Mul Branova said, however those with stronger skills saw the same thing I did.

“If we had let our force in there…” Winnie trailed off, leaving the rest to our imaginations.

I was already spinning and drawing my weapon. “If I’d just poisoned the forces, I’d follow that up with an ambush,” I said, and I didn’t stop swinging my blade in wide arcs, singling crimson slashes that ripped through the surrounding trees.

My act was picked up by the others, and quickly the entire forest around us was leveled to little more than stumps and fallen trunks. There had been no ambush lying in wait.

“There’s nothing here,” Circe said, sounding spooked.

A moment later, the scout breached the water, gasping and struggling to reach the shore. That poison must be getting to her.

“Ladies, heal her,” Simone ordered. The Mul Branova didn’t waste a second, several red tethers shot from their hands and latched onto the scout, pumping her full of life.

Inspecting her sheet showed the truth. The Myriad Poisoned Water was aptly named. Over twenty different debuffs were crippling the scout. Even through the healing, blotches crept across her skin in purple, green, and in places a necrotic black that began to slough away.

Though she fought to reach shore, it wasn’t going to do her any good. The scout nearly dissolved in the water like cotton candy dropped in a puddle.

“Well, that’s why they didn’t send an ambush,” Circe said dryly. “They didn’t need one.”

“We need to get back as soon as possible,” I said, turning to the rest of the group.

My mind raced to catch up with Princess Almeria’s plan. She had left the fortress and headed for the Citadel of Blood, leaving behind poisoned waters. She’d given her people no retreat.

Whatever she was planning, it wasn’t a gambit to wear down a siege. Almeria had already set her endgame. A leader did not give up their retreat if they were not ready to fight it out to the end.

My feet moving without thought, the group surged back through the trees toward the Citadel and the reserve forces we’d left to keep the siege. My thoughts matched the others’: if the princess’s forces weren’t here, then our own were in incredible danger.