SS - Chapter 3 (rewrite) - Unexpected Encounters

I'm exceptionally tired today after pushing myself to get a TBoB chapter out yesterday, so I'm not sure if I want to do another chapter of TBoB today, or if I'm going to revamp the previous chapter 4 of SS to better fit the current story.

I think the next arc may benefit of having a few extra days to plan, but I'm not great at planning so... IDK, I'll decide after lunch. Either way, enjoy.

As soon as I stepped into the square the crowd parted, allowing Camille and me to quickly reach the injured people. Ezra stood over the small group, hands wrapped around the haft of a massive sledgehammer, her wild red hair free from the usually ever present headscarf.

“It’s my fault, I should have ordered a retreat the moment we noticed them approaching. This never should have happened,” the muscular woman muttered as she paced back and forth.

“Instead of blaming yourself, make yourself useful and go get me some clean water so I can clean these wounds,” the young grey haired girl at her feet snarled. “I can’t magically heal your people, so I need help treating their wounds before they become infected.”

“Ezra, Deirdra, what’s going on? What happened?” I yelled, storming into the square.

The big bear of a woman finally paused, and looked my way. “It’s my fault! Jarren found a new stone deposit, so I took my team out to investigate. When we arrived, we heard the sound of combat nearby, and I stupidly decided that we should investigate.”

“We chose this area because there weren’t any settlements anywhere near us, and the nearest kingdoms were on the other side of the Razor’s Edge mountain,” I said quietly, trying to calm the woman down. “I would have wanted to investigate too. What happened next?”

“We snuck closer, and found two groups fighting in the canyon, one group looked like refugees, while the others looked like some sort of kingdom patrol. They even had constructs with them. When I ordered everyone to retreat, someone in the patrol must have noticed us, because they sent one of the constructs after us. The thing cut us up pretty bad before I finally managed to cave it’s head in with my hammer,” Ezra explained.

“Can you describe what the constructs looked like?” Camille asked gently. “Every kingdom’s constructs are unique, so it would help us identify who attacked you.”

Ezra let out a long, low breath, then nodded. “They were twisted things, nearly twice my height, but unnaturally thin. Their bodies weren’t metal, or flesh, but appeared to be made of colored glass, and they had long knife-like fingers.”

“Skylians,” Camille whispered.

“Can you remember anything else?” I asked.

“Just that the other side wasn’t doing well. They didn’t appear to have very good weapons, and the remaining two constructs were closing in fast,” Ezra muttered.

“You did well to protect your people,” I said quietly, patting Ezra on her arm. “Help Deirdre look after your team, and leave the rest to me.”

After the big woman nodded, and bent down to confer with our healer, I stepped past the pair. “Siegward! We need to talk.”

The steward slipped through the crowd, like a ghost, to appear next to me. “How can I help, my lady?”

“Open the armory and distribute weapons to the knights, the good ones, and distribute rifles to anyone that’s confident in their shooting skills,” I ordered.

“Do you really think that’s necessary? If we charge the magical weapons it’ll put a strain on our store of magical stones,” the old man asked.

“We don’t have much of a choice, the kingdoms don’t like allowing people to live outside of their influence. They’ll crush any independent settlements that don’t bend the knee, and bind themselves to their will,” I growled. “Iskel can’t attack us, due to the oaths, but that doesn’t prevent anyone else from trying to wipe us out.”

I raised a hand and rested it against my scar. The stress was causing it to throb. “It was unfortunate that Ezra and her team ran into them, now they know we’re here. Once they deal with those refugees, they’ll either try and find the village, or report our existence back to the Skylian council. We can’t let that happen.”

“So, what’s the plan then?” Camille asked as she slid up next to me.

“You and I are going to keep an eye on the Skylians, and if we get a chance we’ll ambush them and wipe them out. I want the rest of the village to take cover in the village hall, it’s the most defensible building in the entire village,” I said.

“Take at least one of the knights with you,” Siegward pleaded. “If anything happens to you, the village might not be able to survive.”

“If we take a knight that would leave the village vulnerable if the Skylians somehow managed to find their way here. I’m not willing to compromise the village's safety in exchange for my own,” I growled.

“Besides, Medea and I are some of the most skilled fighters in the entire village,” Camille chirped. “We’ll be fine.”

The old man frowned, but didn’t argue.

“Ezra!” I shouted over my shoulder. “Which way to the canyon where you fought that construct?”

“To the east, it shouldn’t be hard to find. We left a path of broken brush and blood behind us,” Ezra said, with a shudder.

“And how many soldiers did you see at the canyon?”

“Probably around a dozen, although some had died in the fight with the refugees, and there were four constructs,” the stonesmith replied after a couple seconds.

“That's not great, but manageable,” Camille mumbled.

“Hopefully the refugees manage to knock those numbers down a little bit more before we get there,” I said cooly. “Even if they don’t, we don’t have the time to sit around. If they finish that fight before we get there the Skylians may wander off, and we’ll lose them.” 

I rested a hand on the hilt of my blade, and bit my lip as I quickly went over the situation in my head. “Camille, go with Siegward and get stones for your bow, and my rapier, we’ll need them against the constructs. I’m going to go retrieve my rifle. I’ll meet you near the start of the eastern hunting path.”

Camille nodded quickly.

“Siegward, you’re in charge of organizing the village's defenses. Once you’ve passed out the weapons, get everyone inside, and keep them calm.”

This time the old man nodded, more hesitantly.

“Now go, we don’t have any time to lose,” I barked, before turning on my heel and storming off towards the town hall. My expression must have been exceptionally bad, because the crowd not only parted, but people threw themselves out of my way. Instead of a narrow path to the hall, I was left with a large corridor all the way to my destination.

After barging through the front door I jogged to the back and threw open the rifle storage cabinet. I carefully checked the weapon over, before loading it and grabbing an extra couple shots. Chances were I’d only get a single shot with how long it took to reload, but the rifle was my best chance of taking down the constructs from range. If I had the time to take a second shot, I’d take it.

Once I’d secured the weapon over my shoulder I sprinted out of the building and immediately headed towards the east side of town. 

Siegward was already back in the square, calmly organizing people into groups. The old man was reliable, as long as he was in charge I didn’t have to worry, and I could concentrate on the matter at hand.

I grabbed the rough log corner of the hunting lodge to help me bleed momentum, and turn down the path along the east side of town. Camille was already waiting for me, a subtle smirk on her face.

“Took you long enough,” she said lightly as she tossed a small gemstone my way. I effortlessly snatched it out of the air with one hand, while drawing my rapier with another. With a single smooth motion, which came from years of practice, I slid the gem into the pommel of my sword. As the magic stone locked into place the sword began to hum with power. 

While the blade was exceptionally strong and sharp, without a stone it was just a regular blade. When it was imbued with magic however, either through inserting a magic stone, or a mage channeling through it, the blade became ten times as strong. Instead of bouncing off armor, or the shell of a construct, it would penetrate them as easily as it would flesh.

The only downside is magic stones only lasted a couple hours, and couldn’t be refilled without magic. That meant we had to hunt monsters to replenish our supplies, a long and dangerous process. It would take us a long time to recover from this encounter.

“Did you find the path?” I asked as I resheathed the weapon.

“It wasn’t that hard, Ezra wasn’t joking when she said they left a trail,” Camille replied, pointing into the forest.

Now that I looked, there was a trail of broken branches, crushed brush, and blood, clear as day.

I pulled my hair back, tying it tightly so it wouldn’t get in my way before pulling up my hood. “Time to go hunting.”