Lillene
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Chapter 713 - Treefall
🕑 Added 2023-04-24 22:39:50 +0000 UTCEnjoy!
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The trap was far more effective than anyone expected.
The flashes were seen soon after the soldiers moved into the forest the next morning. The scout who found it stayed out of range of the trap; the moment he saw it, he turned around and headed back to the soldier waiting with a squad in the clearing.
The entire squad headed to the tree to investigate. Like lemmings, they headed directly for the light without considering anything more than that it might be a hint of where Amily had gone. Serenity watched the scout try to warn them and be told to shut up.
At least, that was what Serenity thought happened from the body language. It was frustrating not to be able to hear what was going on.
Either way, the entire eight-man group clustered as they moved toward the blinking light. Only the scout stayed separated; even that much seemed to annoy the squad leader, but once he saw the light, he had eyes only for it.
It was a blatant enough switch that if Serenity hadn’t set the spell up himself, he’d have thought there was a mental component. There wasn’t; it was literally just a little light sent out in a pattern using his Energy Affinity.
Serenity watched the squad approach it like moths to a flame. When they were about ten feet away, Raz said. “Now, trigger the trap now.”
Ita triggered the trap, which also set off Serenity’s light spell. When the light passed and they could see the scene again, they were looking at the bark of a tree with half the viewpoint; the other half pointed at an open spot in the tree cover.
“Argh. Looks like the token was shifted by the collapse. It didn’t fall but this isn’t much more helpful. Let me find … there we go.” Ita flipped quickly through viewpoints until she found one that showed the aftermath. It wasn’t as good a view, but it was good enough; they’d scattered a lot of tokens for her to use, since she had by far the best Skill for scrying in the group.
The tree was on the ground. It’d started out shorter than many of the trees around it, but now that it was down that wasn’t obvious. What was obvious was the fact that only one person stood nearby: the scout. He stared at the fallen tree for a long moment even after Ita found a viewpoint where he could be seen, then scurried back towards the clearing.
Ita checked a number of other viewpoints before she found one that still showed some of what was under the tree. It wasn’t obvious how many were dead, but it was clear that some weren’t; they were still moving. Serenity hoped they had good healers; otherwise the one with a branch through his chest just below the clavicle probably wouldn’t make it.
Or maybe he should hope they didn’t have good healers? It was hard to make that wish; he didn’t actually hate them. He was sure that Raz wanted them all dead, but Serenity didn’t really care as long as they were no longer a threat to his friends.
It took longer than it should have for reinforcements to arrive in response to the scout’s report. It was obvious the Imperials were either already short on manpower or the squad leader hadn’t bothered to let anyone know he was leaving the clearing. Serenity was more inclined to believe the second option; he’d probably thought eight people was overkill since “Amily” ran from two to get out of the base.
Serenity was certain the Viper knew better; in fact, the Viper’s knowledge was probably the reason they were in a group of eight and might well be the reason they stuck together instead of spreading out. Amily was an assassin; while Serenity didn’t remember her skill set anymore, that meant that having people cover each others’ backs was a huge help. It was entirely the wrong choice against the trap they’d walked into, but it would have been reasonable if they were truly facing Amily.
The group watched the recovery effort for a while, but it wasn’t long before conversation turned to what to do next. Raz opened the discussion after the third person (and first dead body) was pulled out from under the tree. “We should set more traps. We could take out a lot more of them, especially if we set off a trap on the rescuers.”
“They’re not the people we need to be worried about,” Serenity countered. “We need to pull the Viper out of his nest. We’ve shown we can attack in the base and are willing to attack outside as well, but he doesn’t know how much of a threat we really are. I’m hoping that this will draw him out, but it could just as easily make him run. We’ve made it impossible for him to do his job here, after all; why wouldn’t he pull his people out and leave?”
“That would be giving up.” Zanzital didn’t even have to stop to think to answer Serenity’s question. “Imperial nobles can’t be seen as weak. That’s probably why he has the fallback he does; if everyone else is dead, there’s no one to say he ran like a coward. It doesn’t matter if he does it himself or not.”
Zanzital paused and looked down. “I’d bet he’s done it before, so he’s ready to do it again. You don’t travel with a premade spell like that if you’re not prepared to use it.” Under his breath, he added, “I hoped I’d never see Hollow Ones again.”
Serenity shook his head. He’d seen it many times before, but he’d never understood what led to that attitude. It was common enough that clearly something did, but it didn’t make sense to him. “So how do we bring him out? I thought a set of growing provocations might do it, but it sounds like you’re saying that’ll just make him turn his people into abominations.”
Zanzital laughed, but it didn’t sound cheerful. “I see you’ve fought them. As for the Viper, it’s hard to say. He needs to think we’re too tough for his people but weak enough that he could easily win, especially if he brings a few distractions along. He’ll only come out if it’s a sure thing, at least that’s how most Imperial nobles act. That’s what made the tree trap perfect; it could easily be set by one person with the right skills and they don’t even have to be all that high in Tier. We just got lucky when it fell, that’s all. The fact that we haven’t followed up with more attacks only adds to it; we’re clearly weak because we have to use traps and don’t have the power to attack people who might fight back.”
That wasn’t weak, that was smart.
Serenity had to admit Zanzital’s point, however; many people did think that way. After all, weaker people couldn’t take things on head-on; they had to be clever or they just lost. “Are you saying we should set more traps then? Maybe some less effective ones? I don’t want to repeat the tree trap.”
Raz grinned broadly at that.
“Another trap or two won’t hurt, but we need to give him an idea of who’s actually up here and we need to do it soon. A false view, I mean.” Zanzital looked at the group. “What would you think about setting up a fake campsite?”
“You mean … one that was used for a few days but had to be abandoned quickly because they were getting too close?” Raz leaned forward eagerly. “One for only one person but with traps everywhere so they have a hard time figuring the site out without getting hurt?”
Zanzital blinked. He seemed surprised about that. “I wasn’t thinking about trapping the campsite, but sure. The point is that they need to know there’s just one person here.”
Serenity nodded. He liked this idea; if they could tell a story about someone who didn’t want to fight but was a terror when hidden, it might well draw out the Viper. He’d think it was safe; after all, at Tier Ten he ought to have an excellent shield. Serenity didn’t have one at all yet, but then he didn’t really need one. They’d need disposable camping supplies and Serenity knew just where to get them. They might look a little odd, but odd was fine.
“Rissa? Do you have that list of what we packed before we left Earth? I think there was some stuff we could use for this.” These days, Serenity had Aide keeping a list of what was in his Rift, but back on Earth it was Rissa who kept track. Serenity was far better integrated with Aide now than he had been.
“Sure, let me go grab it.” There was a smile in Rissa’s voice, too.
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Iyesinah Sen Vara stared at the small tent before glancing over at the banked fire. The tent was made of a material Iyesinah didn’t recognize; the color looked like dyed cloth, but it seemed far too insubstantial for that. Perhaps some kind of silk? That would make it easier to pack than a normal leather tent, though it wouldn’t work as well in a heavy rain. Iyesinah didn’t know why anyone would want it in suck an oddly bright blue, however; it was very visible in the forest. That was how he’d found it so easily, after all.
He’d thought something was odd in this direction ever since he found the filled-in hole, but he hadn’t expected an actual campsite. He certainly hadn’t expected one that had clearly had a fire at some point; fires were too easy to see.
Not that anyone was looking for fires before the past few days. After the events of two days earlier, Iyesinah would just as soon not be looking, himself. One of the branches had whipped less than a foot in front of his face; if he’d been any closer to that idiot, he’d have died. Really, who didn’t listen to the scout when he said it felt too obvious?
That memory made Iyesinah pause. As good as finding the saboteur’s camp was, this also seemed too obvious. Just as importantly, this time he was close enough to have Scout’s Intuition tell him something. He closed his eyes and tried to reach out for the campsite.
There was no way he was entering that camp. Iyesinah couldn’t tell if it was simply the bad memory of the tree falling or if there was something actually there; that was the problem with Intuition skills, after all. You could easily fool yourself into thinking you felt something.
He still wasn’t going to enter the camp. He wanted to return home to his younger brother. Of course, by the time he made it home, even on leave, his brother would probably already be in the Scouts, himself. Iyesinah sometimes wished he’d stayed; at least in the Scouts, leaders believed what scouts saw.
Iyesinah turned around and headed back to the clearing. Maybe this time someone would believe him when he told them to be careful. The tree had made an emphatic point, even for people who weren’t there when it fell.
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Author's Note: It took a couple days to set up the camp ... then have it be found. This isn't a fast process.
