Ten minutes, that's how long he ended up waiting. The time seemed to drag on at first, Sivly and Brad itching to storm out, but after a few minutes he told them the wait would be at least ten minutes and they finally relaxed. Brad had plopped down on the chest that held their gear, while Sivly held a small ball of water and manipulated its shape. Around the nine-minute mark, the two stopped relaxing and moved back up to join him by the door.

  “The plan is still to run out and start killing, right?” Brad asked.

  “The plan is to sneak into the camp area and then start killing. I want us to try to stay as stealthy as possible, so try to kill quietly or quickly. There are still a few Treants out there and I'd rather thin out as many humans as possible before we have to deal with them.”

  “I am not exactly stealthy, my friend.”

  “Doesn't matter. If we time this right, we won't have to be so stealthy. Once we reach their camp, we should be good to go. They expect those two guards and your chains to be enough to hold you back, and they are looking out, not in, for enemy forces. With the element of surprise, we should be able to do some damage before anyone notices.”

  Sivly cocked her head.

  “My magic is not stealthy.”

  “That's why I'm going to ask you not to use magic at first. While we can, use your trident staff; once we're loud, feel free to go full tidal wave for all I care.”

  She nodded, spinning her trident staff and miming a few quick blows.

  “Brad, you mentioned something about a hammer. Do you need one or is this a magic situation?”

  He chuckled and tapped the hammer disk on his chest. It disappeared, and in his hands he held a sturdy, dark silver two-handed war hammer. Its head was broad and flat, with a spike on top and a pick on the back. It was clearly a well-maintained weapon of war.

  “It is a magic situation. Like my shield, my hammer can be summoned and is unbreakable.”

  “Good to know, I'm in a similar situation.”

  He summoned his axe, having put it away prior to the long wait.

  “I must say, my friend, this is a glorious weapon. I was so caught up in just being free that I didn't pay much attention to it, but now I can see that was a mistake.”

  Jaeger agreed with the man. His axe had been a scarred battle-axe, its steel darkened by years of use. Now, though it was a thing of beauty, the scars on its handle had been transformed into runes and filigree. It had a single-bladed head made of a metal he could barely describe; it seemed to reflect light by day and absorb it by night. Holding it felt more natural than not, and though Lorcan had completely redesigned it, the axe had somehow retained the grip and grooves he had worn into it over the years.

  “Let's move.”

  Jaeger pushed the door open a crack and peered out. He didn't see anyone, nor did he hear any alarms or calls. He hadn't been in the adventurer's prison for more than twenty-five minutes, so there was a good chance that the guards hadn't been noticed as missing yet. Waving over his shoulder, he slipped out the door and headed toward the camp.

  Sivly and Brad were on his heels as he reached the edge of the camp, just out of direct firelight. The fire pits here had dimmed considerably and it seemed that most of the Swords were in their tents. Looking around, he saw a few moving about, either on patrol or off duty. He knew they would have to go first.

  He watched as two of them moved away from the tents and toward the fire closest to his position. For a moment, he was sure they would continue on and come towards him, but they didn't. Instead, they plopped down near the fire and shared a bottle.

  He motioned for Sivly to take the right and for him to take the left. In sync, the two crept forward, crouching with weapons at the ready. When they were within a few feet of the targets, he held up three fingers to Sivly, lowering one until he reached one, and then he struck.

  Raising his axe, he brought it down in a diagonal slash through his target's spine. He met little resistance as the axe head sliced through his neck, spine, and torso. He yanked the axe free and pulled the body back toward him. He turned to Sivly and saw her trident pierce her target's neck, and with a wrench she pulled it, and his head, free from the body. With that, he motioned to leave the bodies and waved Brad forward; the nearest person was at a distant fire, maybe eight tents down.

  When Brad reached them, he motioned for them to move to the nearest tent; each one seemed to hold anywhere from three to five people. The trio moved as a unit to the tent, Jaeger lifted the flap and they slipped inside. There were six bunks laid out, but only two were occupied. With both people in deep sleep, Jaeger motioned for Sivly to watch the front. He and Brad moved to the bunks.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Again his axe rose and fell with deadly results, leaving a decapitated body in the bunk. He heard a sound he recognized, a cross between a juicy melon splattering and a pot breaking, and turned to see Brad moving away from his crushed target.

  Then they slipped out of the tent and moved on to the next. This routine went smoothly for another three tents, taking out seven more bandits. It wasn't until they reached the fifth tent, the fourth being empty, that things got out of hand; bad luck, really. Brad opened the tent flap, and whether it was the sound of the flap opening, an errant breeze, or just light sleep, one of the Swords inside woke up.

  The man awoke quickly, as if he knew that intruders were responsible for his interrupted slumber. He shot out of bed, wide-eyed and completely naked.

  “Intruders! Intruders in the ca-urggh!”

  As fast as Jaeger was able to cut him down, he still managed to scream an alarm. The other four people in the tent woke up dazed and confused, and we managed to kill them before they could do anything. Rushing to the back of the tent, Jaeger used his axe to make an exit.

  “Out the back. We’ll ambush them.”

  Brad smiled but didn’t move.

  “Go, take Sivly. I will meet them here and take the fun outside.”

  Jaeger nodded and hurried Sivly through the opening. Once outside, they moved to the side and watched as eight people arrived, two wearing heavy cloaks with bows on their shoulders, two more in ornate metal armor, probably returning from a patrol, while the other four were in their varying states of undress and looked like they had just woken up.

  “Tis this one. I recognized James’ voice,” said one of the barely dressed bandits, pointing his spear at the tent where Brad was. One of the elaborately dressed swordsmen pushed him back and stepped forward.

  “All right, anyone alive in there has exactly ten seconds to get out before I set the tent on fire.” As he spoke, he uncorked a flask and motioned for one of the barely clothed men to grab a torch.

  It seemed that Brad's plan wasn't going to work too well, he must have had the same thought because he came charging out.

  “Fortify my fury!”

  With a raging battle cry and a blur of movement, he collided with the ornate speaker, slamming shield first into the man. The ornate armor crumpled under Brad's force, and the man went flying, crashing through one of the tents. Jaeger patted Sivly's arm as the enemy turned on Brad. Getting the message, she winked and moved to get a better look before casting.

  “Wraith of the waves.”

  With a sweep of her trident, waves were summoned from the ground, rushing through and extinguishing the nearest fire before running across the closet to the two bandits. The two didn't stand a chance and were immediately caught by the wave and swept away. Sivly wasn't done yet, though, and when she saw the others scattering, she swung her trident staff into a figure eight before slamming it down. In turn, the magical wave rose, getting thinner as it got higher, and then collapsed in on itself, crushing the two bandits inside.

  Jaeger was about to make his own move when the two cloaked bandits dropped their cloaks and bows to reveal themselves as Troy and Emilia.

  Troy drew his sword with a flourish that left a trail of stars in its wake. These seemed to draw the attention of the four barely clad bandits, who stopped in their tracks, dazzled by his move. Not wasting a second, Troy lunged forward, cutting down two of them in a flurry of slices. As he moved to the third, they began to shake awake, swords in hand. They met his slash with a parry and pressed their advantage, Jaeger watching as the last of the blinded bandits regained their senses and advanced on Troy as well. Just as Jaeger stepped forward when Troy acted.

  He quickly grabbed a dagger and threw it at the farthest bandit.

  “Night’s Sky!”

  With the call, the dagger was joined by dozens of star-bright daggers that shot toward the bandit. The bandit had only seconds to act, but he was too slow and the daggers pierced him. As he fell, all but the original dagger disappeared, causing the wounds they left to bleed profusely. In the seconds that had passed, Troy had met the other bandit again, sword to sword. Jaeger expected to see more star magic, but instead Troy took a hand off his sword, losing ground in the standoff, and reached into his pocket. It came out and threw something in the bandit's face.

  “Pocket sand!”

  Cursing, the bandit stepped back, swinging wildly with one hand as the other tried to clear his eyes. Troy ducked and weaved around the flailing, stabbing the bandit again and again, bleeding his opponent. After a while, the bandit slid to his knees and Troy ripped out his throat.

  “Do not worry your boss will be joining you in Hell soon enough.”

  The phrase was followed by the crack of metal, a painful squeal, and a fleshy ripping sound. Jaeger turned his focus to the sound and saw Emilia with her hand deep in the cracked breastplate of the ornate guard. The man struggled weakly for her arm as she dispassionately pulled out his heart. She looked at it and carefully placed it on the ground beside her before pulling her arms back. She slammed her hands into the man's head, crushing it beyond recognition. She ripped a chain from his neck and stepped back.

  Jaeger moved forward, Brad, Sivly, and Troy joining him as they stood a few paces from Emilia.

  “Why?”

  “He was a traitor to the guild and had something that did not belong to him.”

  She revealed a necklace with four adventurer's insignia. He recognized it.

  “He had a Killers Chain.”

  She nodded.

  “Yes, one of the badges is his. The others belong to solo adventurers who have gone missing. Their whereabouts are part of the reason we were out here.”

  “Fair enough.” Jaeger turned so he could see Troy as well. “How did you two get along?”

  “Well enough. We split up and took opposite sides of the camp. I got five.” Troy said.

  “I counted seven on my end.” Emilia turned to us. “As soon as we heard the scream, I decided to disguise ourselves as patrollers; the tent I was in provided the cloaks and bows.”

  “Smart thinking. I'm guessing from what you told this guy,” Jaeger motioned at the heartless man. “You didn’t meet the leader?”

  Emilia shook her head.

  “I saw a tent that was better decorated, but we didn't get close enough before the screaming started.”

  An earthshaking rumble rolled across the camp, followed by an unnatural howl; a hollow, echoing sound. This was followed by heavy trampling towards the camp. Brad laughed and rolled his shoulders.

  “My friends, I have been looking forward to this. I imagine the leader has called for reinforcements from the only beings he has left.”

  “Treants.”