Chương 158: 155. A Silent Approach

Calubo didn't have to think long before replying.

"Two of us should be more than enough. The pit of the quarry is huge, but as you saw, all the huts are located on the path which goes down towards the pit from the surrounding ground of the forest, to prevent them from flooding in case of another thunderstorm. And there is no other entrance to the pit. So we should be fine with just two men." Hudan nodded.

"Alright. We are going to keep a watch on that entrance of the quarry in turns. Two of us will go closer to the edge of the ground surroun ding the pit. That will be Calubo and me in the first shift, since I need to ask more details from him about the terrain of the pit. That leaves six of you here. You all will take our supplies and the horses somewhere nearby and tie them there. But there'll be no fire for us tonight, as you can guess."

Some of the guards grunted in displeasure, but everyone knew the importance of staying undetected here, so none of them opposed the order. Hudan continued, "You all should eat some dried meat so you will have energy for the battle later. Calubo and I will just eat later on after our shift is over."

He added, "And try to take some good rest in turns, with five men sleeping at a time, and one of you awake to keep an eye on the horses as well as your surroundings - just in case there is another bandit who's already outside and wanders there for some reason." After the guards nodded in reply, the guard captain continued, "We will change our watch shifts after every two hours or so.

While we don't have the temple bells to tell time here like in our village, whoever amongst you is going to be awake should just wake up another two men after roughly that time. Then those two of you should come to relieve us so we can get some rest as well." The guards gave grunts of acknowledgements. After telling them to move on to their tasks, Hudan beckoned Calubo to follow him towards that thicket again. It was going to be a long night.

"Wake up, Calubo."

"Wake up man! You can't keep sleeping now. It's time." Calubo blinked open his eyes, and saw that it was another guard who was trying to wake him up. He gave a nod in reply, and sat up slowly while trying to look around him. He noticed that it was still completely dark, but it must be getting close to morning now, since that guard was the one who was selected for the last shift to keep an eye on the bandit camp.

Taking a deep breath, he remembered that he had gone to sleep a few hours earlier when his shift was over. He looked around him again and in the faint light of the moon which was still hidden behind the clouds, he saw that all of the guards were already up, and they were checking their weapons and tightening their leather armors to get ready for battle. It seemed he was the last one to wake up.

Rubbing a hand over his cropped black hair, he stood up quickly and looked around for a water skin, since he was already feeling thirsty. Once he had taken a few big gulps, he made the necessary checks for his gear as well. He saw another guard offering pieces of dried meat jerky to others, and with a nod of thanks, he took a few of them as well. Soon he noticed that Hudan was calling up the guards to gather closer, so he walked towards them while chewing on the salted jerky.

"This is the situation," the guard captain began.

"All the guards who were on watch have told me that at most three of the bandits are awake at any time, while the last one seems to be sleeping. They also haven't been moving much, and around every hour they just go for a cursory check of their camp, and return back near the fire." Hudan continued, "The good news is that no other bandit came to the quarry until now, which means we only have to deal with those four bastards.

And even if there was another lowlife or Nokozal coming here, they will only start moving after sunrise - which should be around an hour away from now - so we have until then to take the quarry from these lowlifes." The huge guard captain gazed at each of them once before he pointed to a new guard.

"You will stay here to keep an eye on the horses. Stay alert." Once the guard nodded in reply, Hudan gave a savage grin.

"Now let's go and send these bastards to the Goddess!" The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. One of the guards raised a fist upward, and spoke their newfound rallying cry in a low voice, "For Lord Kivamus we fight!" Immediately others repeated the same with confident grins, and the rescue plan was in motion. Hudan beckoned them to follow him towards the quarry again. Once they were closer, he sent a guard to the edge of the pit to see the current state.

The guard nodded and crawled towards the edge to take a look. And before long, he returned back and gave his report.

"Nothing's changed so far," the guard described.

"One bandit seems to be sleeping near the fire, and most of the stonecutters also seem to be huddled inside those huts for now."

"Good," Hudan nodded.

"Let's move then. We don't have time to waste." He looked at Calubo.

"Lead us towards the entrance of the pit." Calubo gave a quick nod, and with his hand on the hilt of his sword, he turned around, trying to remember the terrain from his time in the quarry. But thankfully, he remembered enough that it didn't take him long to lead everyone to the start of that path going down into the pit, while making sure to stop at a place where the bandits couldn't see them yet. He whispered to others, "We are here.

On the right side of this path, which slopes downwards slowly, is the edge of the quarry, and on the left side is the pit itself. Everyone make sure not to slip over on that side." Hudan gave a nod, and after crouching low, he moved a few steps further. Once he had taken a quick look, he returned back.

"Be mentally ready for an immediate battle," the guard captain ordered, "but keep your sword sheathed for now. The good thing is that we don't have to worry about any archers or being flanked right now since this is the only path here." Hudan jerked his thumb towards the bandit camp.

"And those idiots are staring into the fire right now, so they wouldn't be able to see well in the dark. But even though we outnumber them seven to four, I want to avoid any serious injuries amongst us, so we will crawl on the ground to move undetected as close as we can to them." Then he dropped down to the ground, and after beckoning others to follow him, he started crawling slowly downwards on that path.

This was the moment of truth, Calubo thought as he also started crawling behind the guard captain, with other guards following as well. He just hoped that Hyola would be okay. Before long, they reached the makeshift barricade which had acted like a gate for the quarry when he lived here, mainly to prevent any wild beasts from going down on that path in the night.

But he easily noticed that this barricade looked much smaller than earlier, probably because the bandits had taken some of the branches from here to burn them for heat. It seemed that being so low on manpower here was already working against the bandits before the fight had even started. He had to wait for a while until Hudan figured out an easy way through that barricade, so they could keep moving without having to move any branches, since that would make unnecessary sounds.

But soon, Hudan looked towards them and grinned, while pointing at a gap in the barricade which was big enough for a person to crawl through. Then the guard captain was the first to cross the barricade, and others followed behind him one by one. Once Calubo reached the other side, he saw that Hudan had stopped maybe a dozen feet ahead of him. Slowly he and the other guards crawled next to the guard captain, who was looking towards the bandits.

When Calubo looked towards the fire, which was not far from the dilapidated huts, he saw that a few stonecutters were still sitting around the fire. The fire was probably just around thirty or forty feet away from them at this point by his estimate. Hudan looked towards the guards, and gestured to them to stand up, before slowly rising up to a crouch as well and pulling out his sword.

But right at that moment, one of the stonecutters who was probably still awake, turned his head and looked directly towards him, making everyone freeze right where they were. Calubo thought that the stonecutter was going to shout immediately, but he put a finger on his own lips to indicate to him to stay quiet. It was probably only a short moment, but it felt like an eternity to him as he waited for the stonecutter's reaction.

If the man alerted the bandits, they might just take someone hostage when they realized they were outnumbered, and he wanted to avoid that possibility. He didn't know if the stonecutter recognized him as someone who had lived with them, or if he understood that they had come to kill the bandits and not them, but thankfully he kept quiet and the moment passed.

Giving a sigh of relief, he stood up into a crouch as well, and formed up in a broken line with the other guards side-by-side, all of them facing the bandits now. The stonecutter was still looking at them with wide eyes, but he hadn't made any sound so far. They kept moving quietly towards the bandits with their swords ready in their hands, but as they came closer to within a dozen feet of the fire, suddenly, one of the bandits sneezed loudly.

As the man wiped his face on his sleeves, he turned his head towards the guards, and looked directly at them with his eyes opened wide in surprise.