Chapter 66 - Skirmish

Max ran back to the dwarves. He was halfway explaining to Torguk that they need to fall back when the arrows started flying. Giant harpoons with fletchings made of giant feathers shot out of the darkness, making the people they hit fly. One struck Max on the side and it pushed him back on the floor for two yards. Over 100 Health lost.

“RUN!” Max yelled and got up and turned tail. Only the aide could understand him, but maybe that was enough. Every fiber of Max’s instincts was telling him to run and hide.

Max had to trust it.

Even when it meant leaving these people to fend for themselves and die. Some old part of his brain told him it was morally wrong and disloyal. It was overridden by new connections in Max’s brain. The ones that would ensure survival and victory. And so he ran.

He could hear the war cries of the lizards and dwarves as they crashed into each other. A part of him wanted to observe and learn. And to fight for the dwarves.

But he did not know if he could escape if he fought. And he would reveal his abilities if he helped. It was possible that this was the best chance for him to fight the enemy. But if he was wrong, he would die and that would be that. He had to trust his instinct.

And so Max ran back to the intersection and went right. He moved as fast as he could to avoid running into traps. He found several, but not nearly as much as there had been on the straight path forward. Regardless, all sounds stopped barring his careful footsteps.

Max took another right and started hearing the sounds of battle. A little bit closer and he saw the ongoing battle. He could separate the shapes of the tall and slender enemy and the stout dwarves. But they were far away, thirty yards or so. Quite a distance for a pistol, no matter how impractically long the barrel. An idea struck Max

“Mav,” he whispered. “Can you see them?”

“Don’t…” The gun sighed. “No, I can’t see them. Better. I can sense them.”

“How does that work?”

“You really think this is the time, dunderhead?” Maverick asked with uncharacteristic seriousness.

“Okay, good point,” Max whispered. “I point, you shoot, yeah?”

“Finally, I get to show you how it's done,” Maverick said. “Do you know how personally offensive it is to me when you miss an easy shot?”

“Just focus,” Max said and hefted up his companion.

Max aimed in the general direction of the enemy and Maverick let it loose. He shot far faster than Max could tap the trigger. Two shots, the other one tailing the other. They both struck their target and took someone down.

Defeated Level 14 [Ishkarassi]

You gained 390 experience points

A volley of shots followed another. Two more enemies fell. But there were plenty. At least fifteen. And they were killing the dwarves with ease. Max kept shooting. Maverick was way more accurate than he was.

Defeated Level 15 [Ishkarassi]

You gained 420 experience points

The lizards had noticed him by now. Two of them sprinted towards Max. he aimed at them and let Maverick. They were running fast. Clearly these two were physical types. One of them held a mace and another one had elaborate brass knuckles with spikes pointing at Max. When they got close enough, Max whispered [Tether] and targeted both the enemies legs when they got close enough. It worked like a charm.

The enemies were running towards him at an unbelievable speed, and they had no way of reacting or anticipating the spell. They tripped and Max let Maverick’s fire sing through the dark corridor.

Defeated Level 16 [Ishkarassi]

You gained 460 experience points

Defeated Level 17 [Ishkarassi]

You gained 530 experience points

Max was pleased. He could feel Maverick’s excitement and glee too. But they weren’t done. Max kept shooting into the darkness at the fighting shapes.

It made the enemy finally back down. Slowly they trickled out of the intersection shouting and hissing. A few massive harpoon-like arrows shot towards the dwarves. The dwarves also took all of this as a cue to retreat. Soon the corridor quieted, only a mess of bodies as evidence of a mortal conflict.

Max had to choose. Would he go back to the dwarves or continue alone?

Easy choice. He would go on alone. The enemy would know where the dwarves were. And as wrong as it felt on some level, Max wanted to use the dwarves as bait. He was still an unknown factor to the enemy. Now they would be certain that something dangerous was lurking here.

Most likely they would know Max was part of an enemy species. But they didn’t know anything other than that he had a gun. He had kept his abilities hidden and now that he was on the move again, delving deeper into the ruins, his location was hidden as well.

Max would need to be stealthy in the upcoming days. He hated that he didn’t have any food on him. He still had almost a full waterskin, so there wasn’t an immediate concern. He could be hungry for a day or two. Few days would start sapping his energy. He didn’t really have all that much fat left to burn. Max wished he could go back to loot and inspect the bodies, but that was too risky. The enemy would also surely return there.

On one hand it would be a good place to strike at the enemy again. But on the other hand, the enemy would be wary of him there. They would expect him to do just that.

And Max would need to be as unpredictable as a ghost. He needed to stay one step ahead and prepare for every eventuality.

If they have a stealth based fighter in their group, I’m pretty much screwed, aren’t I?

Well, it was what it was. If there was one thing Max had learned, it was that fighting and survival is chaos. And you needed every advantage that you could take in that chaos.

To do that, there was a clear first step to take.

“We need to find out where their base is.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Maverick said.