The Axe Falls 2 -ch 14-

“I see no-mm-magical foes,” croaked Rahak. “I sense no magic either.”

“That’s odd,” Julie murmured, tapping a fingertip against her lower lip. “Then again, the group that left clearly had six casters in it of the ten. The first group we killed had two in it.

“That’s already eight in number. The one I fought was fairly high-level. It left me feeling like they were perhaps in charge of that patrol.

“Jessie, you said the one you fought wasn’t too bad?”

“I mean, they probably would have been if I hadn’t shot them in the damn heart as they came out of the cloud,” Jessie remarked. “But you know how it goes.”

“Ah, yes. Good point,” Julie said with a slow shake of her head.

“If there’s no casters, that leaves only physical things. Right?” Claudia asked. “If that’s the case, do we go for the fort rather than the patrol? The patrol will just end up going into that trap you laid for them. It’ll take them some time to get to that point, too.”

“Yes, I’d say attacking the camp is the best choice,” Sara agreed. “But how many are there? Fourteen I think you said?”

“Yes, there is… fourteen,” confirmed Rahak. Her vocabularly was finally full, despite each word sounding as if it came from someone else at times. “I think my bone-carvings could take one or two. That is all. They are better than normal, but they are now spent.

“It would not be-mm-cost effective to get more, when this is the end. Detrimental in fact.”

“Well, they set their camp up in a way that we can use poison on them, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work. They could have a physical healer in there,” Julie offered. “No reason not to try though. Worst case scenario they try to push out through that gate of theirs.”

“Nick and I can hold the gate,” insisted Sara. “They screwed up giving it that one entrance. Can you keep the poison penned into their fort? As well as them?”

“Yes, that shouldn’t be an issue. Though it’ll make it so I can’t do much in the fight,” answered Julie.

“That’s fine,” Jessie said before Sara could reply. “I think with Bright Tits and Nicky at the gate they can keep most things there.

“I can act as a goalie. If anyone tries to squirt past and pick them up. Ker would help me. Won’t you, Ker?”

Jessie had turned and looked to the Fisher.

He was currently gnawing at a fish Nick had given him.

Ker grumbled, but nodded his head. Letting out a snuffle as well.

“I’ll make sure to give you a fish from me specifically if you do real good,” Jessie offered. “As your Queen, you’re a subject of mine, too.”

Ker grunted, then nodded it’s head again. Only to lean to the side and bite a chunk off the fish’s head. Tearing off the top part of it as well as an eye.

“I’ll remain in the back as support,” Claudia stated. “Rahak can use her carvings next to me and I’ll keep an eye out.

“Though, I do feel like if we do things like this in the future, we should bring on more people. This is rather dangerous, is it not?”

“It is, yes,” Nick agreed. He’d been thinking about that very thing himself. That maybe this was a bit too much for them to just break off and gnaw at. “Maybe I should look into seeing how much it would cost to hire some mercenaries for us to utilize on retainer or something.

“Hiring them outright was just far too expensive after seeing the costs for the Dukes.”

“Quite expensive, Sire,” Lucian warned him. “It’s one of the reasons we haven’t done it yet. Hiring cheaply defeats the purpose of hiring people who could handle the problem.

“A waste of money since you can’t even collect their gear if they die and hiring cheaply nearly insures they will die for what we’re doing.”

“I doubt that,” Julie offered as a counter with a short sigh. “Based on the prices for levels you and I went through, nothing would be affordable for us. Not for what we’re doing.

“Not unless you’re looking just to have them stomp things out for us but then we’d have an experience point deficit that wouldn’t be that helpful.

“No, if we’re going to get more people. We’re going to get more followers. Those we can depend on rather than those we pay.”

“No more women, please,” Sara stated with a smile, looking between Julie, Jessie, and Claudia. “There is enough competition. Yes?”

“Yes, enough female,” Rahak agreed. “It’s odd that Nick is the only male in the group.”

Blinking, Nick looked to Rahak.

“Any kids, Rahak?” Nick asked as he considered her words. “Or have you not… uhm… made a nest… yet?”

Rahak let out a croaking laugh.

“No nest. No hatchlings. Don’t want any,” Rahak croaked out. “Happy to be Steward and nothing else. Can I be aunt Rahak?”

“Yes!” Jessie said and reached out to grab Rahak’s clawed hands. “Most definitely Auntie Rahak. I didn’t realize though, but then again, I never asked and… and… what’s… what’s that?”

Nick didn’t hear anything but both Jessie and Sara were staring off to the east. As if there was something out that direction that they could hear.

“Bright Tits?” Jessie asked in a quiet voice.

“Sounds like… something rhythmic? Like someone breathing in time?” murmured Sara. “Maybe… maybe wings? Jessie?”

“Wings? I … yeah, maybe. Yeah,” muttered Sara. “Julie, could you put up some type of concealment shield around us? Something? Anything? I’m feeling a lot like a mouse feeling like a predator is coming.”

“Already doing it. Claudia, can you flick me just a smidgen of your power source? Just a speck,” Julia asked, several balls of magic forming directly in front of her.

Claudia had a strangely panicked look on her face, as if she had no idea what to do with such a request.

In the end, she made a tiny glowing thumnail sized ball of golden power, then held it out to Julie. As if it were a grape she were offering to the other woman.

Julie smirked, then carefully guided one of the spheres to intersect the golden pebble.

Once she did, she then pushed all four spheres together into one spot. The colors and magic swirling around and around, faster and faster.

Only for it to blow outward, creating a dome around the party and then settling over them. There was a strange rainbow like sheen to it as it hung around them.

“Best I can manage,” Julie mumbled and then fell heavily on her rear end. The skin rapidly draining out of her face. All the way to the point that faint blue veins could be seen through her skin as if she were translucent. “That-that took everything out of me.”

Jessie grimaced as she looked at the dome around them while Claudia dropped down to one knee. She laid a hand to the woman’s brow and then gently put her hands to each side of her throat. Staring into her eyes.

“You seem okay physically, I don’t see or sense anything I could do anything about. I think I saw a few mana potions in Nick’s pack,” Claudia said and pulled his backpack off her shoulders and set it down. “Are you just out of mana?”

“Yes,” whispered Julie, not really looking at Claudia anymore.

Digging into the backpack Claudia found whatever she was looking for quickly. Her hand coming right back out and holding out a potion to Julie

Now I’m kinda glad I bought those. They were earmarked as being specially tuned for casters rather than healers.

“Apparently it’s supposed to work specifically for damage dealing magic users,” said Claudia, parroting off what was likely in the description box.

Julie took it, took the top off it, and knocked it back without even a word. Loud chugging gulps gave Nick a momentary pause and he deliberately pushed his mind to something else.

Julie drained it down till it was empty then put the cap back on. She held the bottle out to Claudia who put it back into the back pack.

Jessie and Sara both had a very strange look on their face. One part fear and something else that he just couldn’t identify.

Nick just didn’t have the type of mentality that would let him do so. He was no great identifier of people and lacked the tools to do so.

“They’re frustrated, Sire,” Lucian murmured.

Frustrated?

“Yes. That potion would only work for Julie,” explained Lucian. “They will now likely wonder if you bought it specifically for her.”

Oh.

So… don’t tell them that I did buy it for her and if it comes up, tell them I bought them Health potions for them, instead?

“That’d be the wise answer, Sire,” advised Lucian.

I’ll give Jessie that short-sword tonight, as well.

She’s an insecure thing.

But I don’t… don’t… do you hear that?

“I hear something,” whispered Nick and instinctively got low to the ground. He could hear it coming from above him and it made him want to crouch low and hide.

The feeling he got back from Ker was nearly identical to his own emotions. He wanted to get into some shrubs and get completely out of view.

Then Nick saw it.

Or them.

Several massive monsters flying through the air.

“Gryphons,” murmured Lucian.

“Gryphons,” Sara stated at the same time. “But… why are they here? This isn’t their natural habitat. They nest in mountains and hills. There are very few in number in country.

“Very few. So few in fact that it’s only a handful of nobles and a zoo or two.”

“Agreed with Sara, Sire,” confirmed Lucian. “This is incredibly outside of expectation. They should not be here.”

“They’re tamed,” whispered Sara, who was crouched low to the ground next to Nick. “They have to be. Don’t they?”

All three Gryphon’s began circling above an area.

Thankfully it wasn’t directly above them.

However, it did appear as if it were directly above the camp.

The same place Nick had wanted to spearhead an attack into and dump poison all over it. Except that didn’t make much sense that Gryphons would be interested in it.

What kind of levels are they? Are they something we could actually fight?

“Somewhat, Sire,” began Lucian with what sounded like concern in his voice. “They would likely be in their thirties given their size. They tend to keep growing and directly proportional to their strength.

“Then again, given the distance, and some odd feathering, they could be in their forties. I wouldn’t want to tangle with one of them unless we had no choice.”

“The camp?” Claudia mused aloud. “Is that where they’re going? That’s what it looks like to me.”

“I’d agree. Maybe it’s time for us to change positions and go get a better look at this,” Jessie agreed, then looked to Nick.

Everyone, in fact, turned to look at him.

“We move slowly and carefully,” he ordered. “If Julie can bring this little camoflauge bubble with us that is.”

“I can. It’s an active concentration spell,” she said, still sat on the ground. “I’m holding it right now and it isn’t that big of a problem. I can probably manage it if we walk slowly.”

“If I carry you, would we be able to move more swiftly?” Nick asked.

“Yes, if you carried me we could move with as much speed as you were willing to risk,” Julie confirmed for him.

“Great,” Nick said then put his poleaxe behind his back, got down in a squat in front of her, and looked over his shoulder to her. “Then clamber on. Rear on the haft, legs on each side of my waist. Lean forward or hold on beyond that.”

“I’d like to ride his pole?” Jessie said lightly.

Claudia snorted at that and then pushed at the Dark Elf’s shoulder gently.

“Your mind is eternally in the gutter. Please lead the way? You’re our best scout and you just have better senses,” Claudia asked.

Jessie grinned at her and nodded her head.

As the two spoke, Julie had gotten up, clambered up onto Nick, and got comfortable.

Given how small and slight she was, holding her like this wouldn’t be an issue. Nor was he considered with her breaking the shaft.

Thankfully, she said nothing, pushed up against his back, then grabbed hold of his sides. If it had been Sara or Jessie, he would likely be given some sort of quip to contend with.

The group moved back toward the camp which they’d spied on several times.

As they walked, the Gryphons dove out of the sky and went streaking to the ground. Blurring behind the few trees that were near and a roll in the land that broke line of sight with the camp.

It’d been where they’d watched the patrol leave earlier.

“Oh shit, oh fuck, oh fuck, fuck me,” whispered Jessie as everyone began hurrying.

Julie didn’t seem bothered by it and just remained seated on his poleaxe as he jogged along.

Reaching the small rise, everyone got down, though Nick got stayed further back and dropped to a knee. He’d be able to see almost as well as them without having to put Julie down.

All three Gryphons were in the process of attacking the camp as most of the patrol rushed back into the camp.

It looked as if they’d discovered the remains of their comrades and experienced the booby traps Julie had left behind, as their numbers didn’t match the same amount that they’d gone out with.

A great many mines of poison and flame that would go off no sooner than the bodies were disturbed.

The timing didn’t make sense to Nick though.

If they’d made it to the corpses and back they’d have to have done it at such a speed that it was incredible.

Or maybe they just saw the Gryphon’s and came back.

Two of the Gryphon’s were flying over the camp and taking turns diving into it. Slashing with claws or beak at those inside. The third was sat down at the gate and keeping everyone penned in.

It was more or less a similar strategy to what Nick and his party had planned to do. Just without the poison.

“Gods preserve us,” mumbled Sara, the visor on her plate helmet pulled up as she stared out at the camp.

Nick felt a momentary agreement with her as he watched a Gryphon come back out of the camp with someone squirming in one of their claws.

Only for it to land not far outside of the camp, giving Nick a really good look at it.

It essentially boiled down to the hind quarters of a lion, it’s front half having large taloned hands similar to a birds, a broad body, and two massive wings.

The head of it was that of an eagles with a sharp and nasty looking hooked beak.

This creature was easily the size of a full sized wagon.

Lifting it’s front paw up, which held a squirming gnome, it casually stuffed the person into it’s beak, threw it’s head back, and swallowed the individual whole.

After it’s snack, the monster stood up again, shook itself out, then launched back into the air. Hovering above the camp as the other in the pair suddenly dove down into the ranks.

“It… it ate the gnome,” hissed Claudia. “It could eat us. Couldn’t it?”

“Probably,” Julie agreed from behind Nick. “They look big enough to do so. Just… make sure you don’t get eaten. Unless it’s had it’s wings hacked off, that way we can at least bring you back with a resurrection after we cut you out of it’s guts.”

“How about we just don’t fight them and let them do the job for us,” Nick suggested. “There’s no reason for us to get into that at all. This no longer concerns us and we’ll pick over the corpses when they’re done.

“Maybe a pile of shit if the Gryphon sticks around long enough for that gnome to get digested. But yeah, not our fight at all.”

“Not our fight,” Jessie hissed as the Gryphon’s continued to dive and attack the camp.

“Ah… no. Not our fight,” Rahak said, sounding akin to Jessie. “This is good information, however.

“This is not… to feed. The gnome was-mm-convenience. They are clearly looking to exterminate the entirety of the camp.

“Why would they exterminate it, now, but not earlier? Why only after we showed up? Only after a bounty assigned?

“This is wrong. Too… coincidental.

“The nest is raided when it’s likely someone else will raid the nest. They’re hiding things from us. Hiding those people and what they knew.

“This is… wrong and curious. Much to consider. Much to think about.”

Blinking, Nick realized Rahak was absolutely correct.

This was far more than Gryphon’s attacking randomly.

They were most certainly tamed, certainly here for a purpose, and genuinely looking to exterminate this camp. Leaving no one behind.

But what about the patrol that left earlier? There’s people missing.

Do they know the exact numbers?

Do Gryphon’s think?

Or… or were the people missing from the patrol why those Gryphons are coming? Is that also why the Gryphons are here?

Called in to knock it down after we started in on it?

Nick shook his head.

This was too much for him.

He didn’t have a mind for this kind of politics and that was fine. He had limitations and he didn’t have any false ideas that he could be the best at everything.

It was literally why positions, such as a Royal Steward, a Royal Chamberlain, existed.

I’ll need to make sure Rahak gets all the books they’d need to really understand everything that’s going on here.

Because I sure as hell don’t.

Just empower those who know what’s going on, give them more than enough support and agency to do what they want to do.

They’ll become enthusiastic and… and express that.

I hope.