Irregular - Chapter 16

Night was starting to fall as the mercenaries sat between the trees ,checking blades and each others armor. They were going to attempt a night-time ambush, Jer explained to them how they would sneak up to the bandits and attack an hour after midnight. The men were familiar with similar tactics, they put pieces of cloth between armour parts that would otherwise smash together. They used soot from the fireplace to darken the shining steel of their weapons, shields and armour. They even went so far as to cover some of their face with it. Jer swept his eyes over the mercenaries nodding to himself.

He addressed the group. “The bandits are over the next bluff, it will take a few hours to reach, I want us to slowly and silently move up to their base of operations. Once we get close I want both Red’s and Leila’s squads to search and take care of any look-outs. The other groups with me will get as close as we can to their main camp. Silent rush, as little sound as possible, if we can kill them without them waking up, all the better.”

The mercenaries nodded, the lax atmosphere evaporating in the night air. Red and Leila took point with their squads, he told Red about Valana’s excellent night vision. Red nodded and grumbled that being able to see in the dark would help, they carefully yet swiftly made their way through the underbrush. Climbing up the mountain, they crossed the bluff and the way they moved changed. They slowed down, their movement barely noticeable against the gentle sway of the tree branches and bushes. Red signed that they had found and taken care of a look-out, a few minutes later Leila signaled they had done the same. He would be surprised if the bandits had more than a couple look-outs but made sure to stay diligent as they made their way forward.

They snuck closer, a bandit made his way out of the cave to the bush Jer and his squad were hiding in. The bandit was sleepily struggling with his belt, Jer signed that he would take care of it. The bandit yawned as he finally managed to get his belt undone, he stepped closer to the bush, Jer tensed. He took a small deep breath and shot forward, he covered the mans nose and mouth with one hand, he used a leg to swipe his feet from under him, pushing him off balance with his shoulder. He guided the bandit to the ground softly letting him fall, he pinned one of the bandits arms with a knee. The bandit was panicking, struggling with wide eyes as he tried to get free. Jer’s eyes hardened, he liquefied the hand he he held over the bandits nose and mouth. Water gushed forward from his wrist as the bandit struggled to breath, the man flailed, eyes nearly popping out of his head, face turning purple from the lack of oxygen. After what felt like ages he finally stopped struggling. He kept going for an extra ten seconds to be sure before he stood back up, he glanced at his squad, they were wide eyed but otherwise showed no concern for his… odd body.

He gave the signal to the other squads to move forward, the squads converged at the cave entrance. Jer asked Valana and a short man named Kipper, to scout. The two nodded and silently made their way forward and entered the cavern, once in a while they would exchange hand signs before one of them would disappear from sight. Only to return moments later, nodding and moving further, they went deeper into the dark cave, Jer frowned. Valana and Kipper had taken out more people on look-out duty than there should have been. Had his information been wrong, had the bandits been warned of their approach? He signaled Kipper and Valana to be extra careful for traps and noise makers. Noise makers where small enchanted stones that when touched made a high squealing sound. Jer breathed in as he debated with himself on returning. Rinor walked up next to him and looked him in the eye then whispered, “Faulty or incomplete intel is part of the job, deal with it.”

Jer frowned but nodded. He took a deep breath and focused. Valana and Kipper signed that they had indeed found a few Noise makers, he was glad he picked Kipper for the job, Valana had great night-vision, but Kipper could see remnants of magic with one of his skills. After nearly five minutes of walking they entered a cavern, only to be greeted by over two dozen fully armed bandits, showing their crooked yellow teeth in a murderous grin. He heard their amused chuckles and snarled, how had they known?

“We was waitin for ya, we can use em weapons much better than ya can! Why not just give em to us eh?” One of the the bandits said, chuckling.

“Shield wall, double line.” Jer swept his gaze over the bandits and remained cool, even as inside he was in turmoil, he hated when carefully crafted plans fell through. Had they found his plant?

The mercenaries moved into a row two thick, connecting their shields, calmly staring down the bandits, a few of the unclean scum nervous now.

“Boss! They wanna fight!” The bandit that spoke up earlier yelled.

A hulking giant of a man, nearly as tall as Kolstum walked out of a cavern, he was bare chested, showing a multitude of scars. What worried Jer more than the bandit chief was the two dozen men he brought with him.

Outnumbered about three to one, Jer would have worried if it wasn’t for the complete calm and ready for battle expression of the mercenaries. It seemed men forged in the flames of war did not fear a few dirt covered bandits, even if they did outnumber them three to one.

The hulking giant stepped forward, he grinned at the group, showing of his yellowed teeth. “Well hbout ya surrender eh? I see ya have two lasses ya brought with ya, we can make good use of em!”

The bandits chuckled, a few of them eagerly licking their lips. “I’d love to bed ya.” Leila grinned and stared him down, “But ya smell like a pig, an you look like one too, Ya sure ya mum didn’t mistake a farm animal fer ya pa?”

The mercenaries laughed at the retort, the bandit chief turning red, he grabbed a large ax from one of the bandits. “We be seein how ya like havin yer face cut in half! I’ll still be able to fock yer corpse!”

Leila rolled her eyes, “Seems ye aint even smart enuf fer sum banter, dun matter anywho, I prefer stickin me blade in an ugly mug like yers any day!”

The bandits roared, as their chief pointed his weapon and charged the shield line, Jer had the mercenaries pull back slightly so they stood in the entrance to the cave, it was wide enough that they could stand shoulder to shoulder with the eight of them. They heaved their shields forward and smashed them into the first wave of bandits, a quick stab from the row behind them killed about half a dozen. The mercenaries held their line as the bandits smashed and pushed against the shields hoping to break through by using sheer numbers.

Jer was in the second row and having no weapon of his own focused on shooting drops of his liquid into the eyes of any bandit he could, giving many of the mercenaries the slight opening they needed to end a life. The mercenaries made quick work of the bandits, every time a blade headed for one of their own their would be a weapon or shield to block it, the one attacked wouldn’t even flinch and strike down the offender. Soon enough the bandits started backing away, having caused only minor injuries among Jer’s men. The bandit chief was still alive and looked a noticeably less happy to be here, he rallied his men to him and stared viciously at those who had decimated his men.

“Is yer commander such a craven that he cant fight! I challenge him to a duel!” He roared.

Leila stepped forward, glaring at the giant. “If yer want to be challengin our cap, then ye should be more than happy to met me blade first!”

Jer stepped up next to her, he put a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for the offer Leila, but I still need to prove myself so if you don’t mind I will be taking this challenge.”

Leila stared at him for a bit, then nodded. Jer smiled thankfully at her and stepped forward to meet the giant.

“Well here I am, I assume you want a fight to the death?”

“Bet yer ass I do! Stinkin wet under the nose kid, thinkin he be a captain, ill chop yer up into bite sized pieces.”

“That was actually a clever use of the term, wet under the nose, since I actually AM wet. Decent pun, maybe you aren’t that pig headed after all.” Leila chuckled, he heard some of the mercenaries snickering as well.

The giant stepped forward roaring in anger, He swung his axe Jer taking his head off. Everyone paused in silence, the mercenaries inhaled when the axe passed through his neck. Like a burst of a bubble his head popped, drops of liquid flying through-out the room.

“HA! Yer boss is weak! I bet he” The giants word faltered as the drops around the cavern started converging back to the body, the water flowing up his body building his face back to how it was a drop at a time. He stared at the process slack jawed. He stood there silently for a moment.

“WHAT ARE YE!” He roared with wide eyes.

Jer smiled, his bloodthirst nearly palpable in the air. “I am simply the man who was payed to kill you.”

He calmly walked forward, the bandit chief slashing at him in panic, taking off limbs, his head, cutting him in half. Nothing worked as his opponent reappeared undamaged before his very eyes. Jer lunged forward, the bandit tripping over his own feet in an attempt to dodge, he put his hand over the chiefs mouth and nose and began calmly drowning him, smiling down at his opponent. The chief struggled and flailed trying to escape, from the corner of his eyes he saw the cave brightening as a bandit in a tattered robe began chanting a spell with a glance he noticed the incantation for a fireball, a low level wizard then. Unlike simple physical attacks, magic could actually hurt and perhaps kill him, yet he wasn’t worried.

A grey flash of fur raced through the cavern, a growl echoing through the open space, as a claw tore through the bandits throat. The grey furred beast started tearing the bandit completely apart, muffled cries of panic managed to escape the mages lips. The remaining bandits backed away from the pair of them in wide eyed horror. The chief eventually stopped moving, Jer stood up from the corpse and glanced around. The bandits had backed up to the wall, they had dropped their weapons and stood there with their hands raised.

Jer glanced over at Rinor, “What do you want to do with them?”

Rinor frowned, “We should decide after taking a look in that there cavern, who knows what the bandit chief got up to.”

Jer nodded, he appointed Hark and his squad, along with the men from Rinor’s squad to watch over the captives. He took Rinor and the rest with him into the cave, only to be greeted by a sight that would be carved into his memory. Women had been tied and chained to crude contraptions, clothes, if they even had any, torn to pieces. Bloodied and bruised, these people gzed with lifeless eyes, chained to a wall on the far end were men that had most likely been used as stress relief. Some had weapon wounds, others were simply beaten an inch from death. Various races were represented in the room, Jer trembled, fists clenched as still fresh memories bubbled below the surface.

“Release them and bring them to the center of the room. Treat them as best as you can.”

Jer looked around the room as the mercenaries spread throughout the room with grim looks on their faces. They gently released the prisoners, reassuring them every few seconds. The mercenaries treated those that were heavily injured to the best of their abilities, some of the mercenaries looked over to Jer, shaking their heads indicating that the person in question would not survive the day. Jer clenched his teeth as both he and the mercenaries did what they could to ease their pain.

Some of the new captives still had a sliver of hope in their eyes, one beastwoman stepped forward, clutching a broken arm. “What do you intend to do with us.”

Jer looked at the woman, he turned to his mercenary, “Give me your knife,” He turned to Rinor, the man raised an eyebrow but handed him his knife. Jer went around to all the mercenaries asking for their knives, they looked at him in confusion but handed over their knives none the less. He made a stack of them in the center of the room, his actions closely followed by the Beastwoman, other prisoners were paying rapt attention to his movements as he worked. He took the knife he had received from Allorin out of the pile and walked over to the beastwoman.

He twirled the knife and held it out to her hilt first, “We captured some of the bandits, they surrendered in the cavern we came from.” The beastwoman growled as she stared at the knife then looked up at him. “Take the knife.” He let his gaze travel over the other prisoners. “Take the knives and inflict upon them what has been inflicted upon you, carve out your own justice.” He handed the knife to the beastwoman and turned his back to her, he walked out of the cave. Hearing the scratch and scuffle of prisoners as they picked up a knife and stumbled after him. Those too injured to move were helped by fellow prisoners, or in a few cases, one of the mercenaries.

The procession made their way to the cavern, Hark and the mercenaries keeping watch stared wide eyed at the battered prisoners as they marched out ffrom the dark hall. The beastwoman and the prisoners froze as they stared at the bandits that were nervously sitting, backs to the wall, eyeing their former prisoners. With an unearthly screech the beastwoman charged the prisoners with her knife, the people behind her roared in anger as they charged the bandits, Hark moved to stop them but with a signal from Jer he and his men backed off.

The bandits screamed and struggled in panic as they tried to crawl away from the furious prisoners, begging for mercy that they would never find. Knives penetrated skin, the walls of the cave dyed in blood. The screaming went on for longer than it had any right to, Jer watched in grim resolution as the prisoners took the lives of those that oppressed them.

As the screaming died out and the former prisoners stood above what remained of the bandits, they faced him, covered in blood.

Jer stepped forward. “You have seen and witnessed cruelty, you have survived it, you will become all the stronger for it.” He softly spoke, the prisoners stood their quietly, taking his words to heart. “You have bathed in blood, your enemies dead at your feet. You have shown yourselves to posses the heart of a warrior.”

Jer raised his chin and straightened his back. “I am Jer Summalfren, Captain of the Black Iron Covenant. Me and mine will shake this world to its very core.” He stretched a hand out towards the beastwoman, “But we need those of courage to join us, I offer food, shelter, allies.” He gazed into her eyes, “But most importantly I offer strength.”

The beastwoman stared into his eyes, stepped forward and took his hand.