SB: Chapter 223 – Hostile Towns

“The guards are watching for us. They have extra elves on this side of the town,” I reported back to our small group.

“You sure?”

“Yes. If we just walked up we would have been turned into pincushions by all the arrows shot in our direction. I might be able to survive, same with your guard, but without armor and spell skills, it would a quick death for the rest of you,” I said.

I had been lucky the legend hadn’t brought along extra archers. In fact, I had gotten really lucky for that entire confrontation, including the escape.

“We can move around them,” Garth said.

“How many more towns are there between us and the coast?” I asked.

“Three of notable size. We can fight our way through. How many are there?” he asked

“There are 6 elves by the main entrance and 1 by each of the other 2 dirt paths. Around another 20 civilians. Only one of the guards is a professional, the rest are greybeards or children,” I replied.

“Then we cut our way through. Use the element of surprise, smash our way right through the town,” Garth said.

“Killing civilians?” I asked with surprise. He was surprisingly bloodthirsty for a merchant. Well, he was a weapon’s merchant.

“Yes. We rush in, kill them all. And keep rushing towards the coast,” he replied.

“We have the moral high ground for when we get back. We start killing civilians and town guards like this, we can be labeled criminals,” I countered.

“We need to survive, first and foremost. We can’t head back. The war front is closing in on Moonwood City, if can call a place like that a city. Get lost in the Moonwood and hunted down by patrolling elves as they fallback using the terrain as cover for their battle lines, or go forward towards the coast,” he declared. I had seen the maps myself, there really was only three choices.

I was regretting not trying to get back to the College through the dungeon at the moment. We had been traveling through the night into this morning on foot. Ozy had finally caught back up with us.

“What about going around?” Wild Tail asked. I let out a sigh and rubbed my temples while Garth sent the beastkin a glare. Despite being from a race with strong tracking and sensing skills, he clearly didn’t understand the finer nuances of the issue.

“Because, it will leave us exposed to a pincer attack,” Garth said. The dwarf was also being an idiot.

“No. The elves use bird messengers and scouts. These birds follow the dirt roads. Ozy has already killed several before catching up with us. But that was why I had us move off the road once we got near the town. And the elves will have sentries at bridges and key points. Like the bridge that passes over the river we need to cross,” I said.

“Couldn’t we find another place to cross and then travel through the woods?” Wild Tail asked.

“No. They have bird scouts flying along the streams. The elves would have prepared such measures in preparation for the war to catch any infiltrators heading behind their lines. We kill any more birds, we will be found. And they use the streams and roads, since they are easy to fly over,” I explained, my Elven Lore coming in handy.

“What do you suggest then?” Garth asked me.

“We can either go fast or slow. Fast is your way. We cut our way through. Slow, we move off into the Moonwood and travel through the forest itself, taking our time crossing any streams or roads to make sure we aren’t spotted,” I replied.

“This is elven territory. There are towns scattered all over the place. The coast would have been a day by magical carriage. We went through two towns leaving Moonwood City and there are another four more, and then we will reach the port town, which has a mixed population we can blend into, unlike this forest,” Garth said.

“Then we murder our way through,” I said with a sigh.

“They tried to kill us first. We move fast. All their good fighters are at the warfront. That legend has likely stopped chasing us. They also don’t have more magical carriages to catch up with us. We fight and die on our feet,” Garth said.

He did have a point. This wasn’t our fault. “We will be heading into an ambush. They send messages by these birds. They will let the town ahead of us know to be ready,” I said.

“Then let them. We just need to move faster than they can mobilize. This is how you properly break out of an encirclement, with a group. Maybe your stealth skills are good enough for hiding, but the rest of us will be caught and killed,” the dwarf said.

“How long if we keep running till we reach the port town and the defenses there?” I asked.

“A solid day. With the fighting, probably show up the middle of the night. Ports off limits to conflict, technically. Since no one wants to break maritime trade. But the elves manage the port. With my name I can secure us passage on a dwarven ship and I know there are at least 3 docked in the harbor. The crews will defend us, once I rally them,” Garth said.

I closed my eyes. I wanted to shed tears for what was about to happen. But I was too tired and stressed. My heart was too hardened after everything I had endured.

“Wild Tail. You will carry Lanner. Lanner, use your wands only if you need to. I will clear a path. Yor, guard everyone while I cut a path forward,” I said. There really was no other choice. I hated this. I cursed the elves for making me do something that shouldn’t be done.

“I have your back,” the dwarven guard said with nod. At least he didn’t say some nonsense about only protecting his kin, Garth.

I pulled out stamina potions and handed them out. There was no point in conserving them going forward. Either I would be able to purchase more, or I would be dead. We had to keep running once we started this plan. Yor pulled out two of his own and handed one to Garth who took it with a frown. Lanner didn’t get one, since Wild Tail would be carrying him.

“Let’s go,” I said. We turned back to the road. Ozy was on my shoulder. While he could fly faster than I could run, he could only do that for a short time since that used up Mana. He was annoyingly heavy, resting on my shoulders. But I needed him ready to slow down any pursuit and to watch my back.

Running out onto the road, I reached into my spatial pouch I had moved to my side. I had adjusted my gear since there was no need to hide it anymore. I pulled out a stone plate I had carved. I began pushing Mana into the runes.

As we cleared a small crest of the dirt road, the town came into view. I through the runic plate head. It erupted into a massive burst of flames.

“Lightning Beam. Lightning Beam.”

Ozy forced the flames to spread outwards as I rushed ahead. I made sure to target the two guards who had been standing at their posts. They let out horrific screams as I reached their burning bodies as the paralyzation from my Lightning Beams wore off.

An arrow came at me, but Ozy raised up his tail to deflect the bolt using his scales. The elven archer was taken out with a bang from a wand as I kept moving forward.

Elven towns were a collective of houses with gardens and simple dirt paths. There were no walls or defenses. No gates or moats I needed to cross. There was a bridge through the center of the town.

An older elven woman was in front of me carrying a basket of laundry. I twisted my blade and struck her with the flat of my weapon. She let out a scream as she went tumbling away, but she would likely live if her neck or spine didn’t break.

We rushed over the stone bridge. A young elven boy was in front of us, wide eye and clearly not fully processing what was happening. I didn’t slow down or alter my course that much. I grazed him with my leg armor, he went tumbling away. The guard at the other end of the town turned towards us and shakily released an arrow.

The archer was level 20 at most. Probably some civilian they gave a bow and called a guard when all the real fighters went to fight off in the far. But he had a weapon. The arrow completely missed as he was clearly panicking.

“Lightning Beam.”

The guard was struck and swung my blade as I ran past him, cutting off his head with a single slash. I exited the town and there was no ambush waiting for us. Ozy let me know everyone was keeping up, but Lanner had used his wands four more time, setting two elves on fire and blowing apart the center of the bridge.

I hadn’t told him to do that last part, but that was smart thinking. It would need to be repaired. And the elves clearly didn’t have a lot of people with stone shaping spell skills based on what their towns looked like. A magical carriage would have to stop and be lifted over, or wooden planks placed down.

There were screams and crying as we ran away, but there was nothing that could be done. The time for talking and diplomacy had passed. Now it was kill or be killed. The most I could do was not cut down elves who were clearly civilians that were in my path.

“The trees, get one of the trees,” I heard Garth call out. Ozy let me know that the dwarven guard swung and used a skill to chop down a smallish size tree on the side of the road. It fell behind us with a crash.

Another way to slow down any pursuit. It was a good idea. I had been too caught up in my distaste of what needed to be done to think about everything we needed to do. My grip tightened on my sword as I continued to jog forward.

I had a feeling this was only going to get worse before it got better. There were three more towns in our path. Targeting civilians was something that wasn’t done. Even my mother tried to avoid civilian casualties where possible. Unfortunately, once one of these elves picked up a weapon and stood in my way, they were my enemy and a target I was willing to kill.

Even though it was far too easy, I didn’t let that slow my blade.

Ozy focused and a bird fell from the sky and then caught fire. A messenger or a scout. They would have an idea where we were, but we wouldn’t make it easy for them. The fact that they were on guard against us was all the proof I needed that all these elves were hostile.

The fact that the legend could still be in pursuit was what pushed me to agree to this plan, even though I hated it. There was no other choice.

I now knew in my heart why most legends wanted nothing to do with the surface. With monsters and the dungeons, their was an honest and brutal truth that wasn’t present on the surface.