Chương 85: Chapter 86: Hunting Scouts

Armed with a new bow and new quests, I head back out of Elmspire about an hour after we arrived. I'm not the only one heading out to deal with the oncoming army, either; there are several groups that I see heading out with the intent of harrying the army on the way. Personally, I think that's a bad idea. If they start to harry the enemy, then the other army is going to know that we know they're coming.

Right now, as far as I'm aware, the mountain army is operating under the understanding that their attack is secret. They haven't sent anyone ahead to try to negotiate or set terms or threaten or anything like that. They're just moving four to five thousand troops through the forest to the city, with plans on how to attack. They've obviously got scouts and spies, and as of right now, they think that they have the element of surprise.

As soon as Elmspire starts to engage them in the woods, they'll know that the element of surprise is gone. They'll know that Elmspire is waiting for them, readying their forces, and preparing for a fight. They'll know that the advantage of surprise is gone. It might make them change their tactics. Maybe they'll send for reinforcements. Maybe they'll plan more of a siege strategy. Though that would be tough to do; Elmspire is pretty self sufficient and it would be really hard to lay siege to the entire city.

Especially with only four or five thousand troops. On the other hand, if the mountain army has spies, they might already know that their surprise is gone. I guess my real concern is that sending small groups to harry the main army is just going to result in the people doing the harrying dying, in all likelihood. What I really have to wonder about, as I outpace those other groups, following my own trail back to the army, is the orcs.

It wasn't that long ago that the orcs were starting to build up their own army to invade Elmspire. They only had a hundred soldiers at the time, and the five of us killed those hundred soldiers, but they were clearly just a vanguard. They were clearing out space for the rest of their army. An army that could very easily have arrived while we were level cycling with Wrax. An army that could very well be on its way from the opposite direction. I almost turn around to find out.

I almost head the opposite direction of the army to see if there's another army also coming our way. It's possible that the orcs and the dwarves have made an alliance, and are both attacking Elmspire at the same time from opposite directions. That would make it much harder to hold the wall, and would leave the city heavily outnumbered. I don't know if Elmspire can stand up to two armies at its gates at the same time. I almost head back towards the orcs, but it's just a hunch.

Just a worst case scenario kind of thought. What would be worse than an army of humans, elves, and dwarves coming to Elmspire? Another army of orcs also coming from another direction. If we wanted to make it really bad, there could be a third army that none of us have heard of. Three armies all trying to destroy Elmspire, and they might manage. They might kill the great tree that is a city.

I send Gigi a message warning her about the orcs, reminding her that they might have recommitted to the battle, that they might be coming as well. She promises that they are sending scouts in that direction, implores me to be careful, and reminds me not to bite of more than I can chew. That's so sweet of her. I take a quick nap up in a tree about halfway between Elmspire and the invading army. It's the only sleep I've gotten in the last two days, and it's likely the only sleep I'm going to get for a while.

I have to keep moving, keep working, if I'm going to have any impact on this war. I know that I don't have to. I could just let things play out the way they're going to play out. I could've stayed back at Elmspire and taken part in the battle there. Or I could've just gone off in another direction and ignored the war in its entirety. But there's more going on here than what I can see. I can just feel it. There's something else, something none of us have considered.

I dream about dragons raining down fire on Elmspire, about the canopy of the enormous tree burning. I don't have much connection to the city or to its inhabitants, but it is the closest thing I have to a home turf, to a city where I come from. I do feel a connection to it, even if I haven't spent all that much time fostering said connection. When I come to, I climb out of my tree and start towards the army again, on the lookout for tracks and trails that don't belong.

I know that the mountain elves move differently than the forest elves. They leave different trails, enough so that I can tell who left which trail just by looking at the footprints. They're more used to moving in a rocky terrain rather than a forest one, and it shows. I understand; I'm sure I leave different tracks among the mountains. I keep an eye out as I travel. I've made it maybe seventy miles from Elmspire before I catch the first hint of the army.

They should be another fifty miles out still, which means that this hint is one of their scouts, one of their spies. They're scouting the path into the forest, to try to give the most possible warning about things to the army. They'll spot the array of traps, once the traps are laid down, and lead the army around them as much as possible. The traps might buy us a day, but less so if the army just moves around it. If I stop the scouts from reporting in, though, that might be something different.

That might meant that the army runs into the traps and gets slowed down even more. That might mean that we can set more traps. It might mean that the groups coming out to skirmish with the army will be better able to do so. Basically, if I kill the scouts, I blind the army. In all likelihood, the scouts are going to be players.

There might be some native scouts, but this seems like the kind of thing that would be attached to a quest for a player, or that a player might want to do on their own, because of the experience they'd get for doing it. Scouting brings experience without combat; there isn't all that much out there that does that. The question, really, is how carefully they'll be moving. They might be using something like Blur or Camouflage to keep themselves hidden, or they might just rely on their natural levels of sneak.

The question is, how many levels are they going to have? Are they going to have more than I do? Will my awareness be able to spot them anyway? The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I do my best to keep aware of what's going on in the forest around me. I track the beasts that are going about their days, the snakes and the badgers and the wolves and the bears. They aren't acting strange yet. Nor are the foxes, the rabbits, the deer, or the birds.

So the army isn't close to where we are yet. The animals will definitely act strangely when the army is getting close. We can probably measure the distance to the army by when the animals start to freak out. I follow the trail that I found. It's not an old trail. I can tell because where it crosses over with other animal tracks, the trail I'm following is always pressed onto the other animal tracks, not the other way around. It's fresh.

My tracking increases to 28 and my survival goes up to 15 as I move through the forest, being stealthy enough to keep my footsteps silent without wasting my MP on Blur. I'll use Blur when I get closer, when the tracks are fresh enough that I can actually smell the scout. When that happens, I activate Blur and nock an arrow. I can smell his sweat as he moves through the forest. I slow down a little bit in my movement, to keep Blur active, and eventually, I catch up to him.

He's taking a short break, eating something. He's looking around, being aware of his surroundings. But apparently not aware enough to conquer an effective sneak of 84. Kyle. Mountain elf scout, level 41. HP: 2, 050/2, 050. I sneak slowly closer and closer. I'm not sure I can get a Rapid Shot off without him seeing me. I'm not sure a Sniper Shot will kill him. I need to kill him with the first shot, or at least wound him enough that he can't just turn and run. I have to be ready for him to do exactly that.

If he's smart, he'll run as soon as he sees trouble. His job isn't to engage in threats; his job is to identify them. Maybe a Power Shot will do it. Mathing it out, I think that it will. If I'm careful. I take the five seconds to take careful aim, and I loose the arrow with a release of breath. The arrow swells to several times its natural size as it flies through the forest, slamming into him like a tree trunk before returning to normal size.

I get the sneak attack, and it deals 2, 560 damage, putting him down before he can make a sound. He must have had a high defense. I move close to see if he left anything behind that I could loot, but there's nothing there. The body just decays and disintegrates in a manner of minutes, leaving no equipment behind. Damn. Well, it's one less scout that the army has going for it. You have defeated Scout. Level difference modifier engaged. You gain 5, 000 experience. That's enough to get me to level twenty eight.

I put two points each into strength, agility, and vigor, then one point each into manipulation, presence, and willpower. That boosts my hit points to 8288, my MP to 3080, and my stamina to 3360. Solid pools which I will probably need when dealing with the next scout. The next scout I find is not a player. Which makes them much more dangerous. Cobber. Rare elite mountain elf scout. Level 50. HP: 12, 500/12, 500. I can't kill that with one shot. Not unless I get really lucky with killing blow.

The best chance I have is to shoot him and then charge at him, forcing him into melee rather than letting him flee. To do that, I need to get close to him. As close as possible before I shoot. Rapid Shot is going to do the most damage. I cast Blur and start sneaking my way towards him. He is inspecting a camp site, so he's a little bit preoccupied. That's good. That means it's more likely that I can get close. I get within fifty feet of him, and he's still working his way around the campsite.

But it looks like he's finishing up. If I'm not quick, he's going to move on. I need to get close to him before he starts moving on. He might head right back to the army. He might head right towards where I am hiding. I can't take the chance that he's going to go in the wrong direction, though. I have to stop him from heading back to the army. I take a breath and prepare to fire Rapid Shot. I'm still forty feet away, which is a lot farther than I'd like to be.

I risk a few steps closer, padding through the forest as fast and as quietly as I can. Maybe I should just draw my sword and sneak up to him and engage him in melee right away. No, I need this sneak attack to be as powerful as possible, and shooting him with five arrows is more likely to hurt him enough that he won't be able to run away immediately. When I'm within about thirty feet, I activate the ability and let loose a volley of arrows.

They slam into him, and he screams in surprise as the arrows do 5, 460 damage with sneak attack. He looks to the source of the attack, coughing up blood, and raises his own bow to attack me. He looses the arrow with a scream, and it comes flying at me too fast for me to catch or even dodge. It slams into my chest, doing 108 damage to my Shell.

He shoots rapidly after that, hitting me another time for 18 damage before I close the gap and hit him with my sword, dealing another 450 damage on top of the bleed from the arrows. He pulls his own sword, looking around to see if there is a way for him to escape. I understand the desire to run. He isn't meant to be a front line fighter. I've done enough damage to him that one more Bleeding Strike will probably kill him. He's probably trying to decide if he even wants to fight. If he surrenders, what do I do?

If he surrenders, I have to accept the surrender, right? I can't just kill him. That would be wrong. But what do I do with him? Do I march him all the way back to Elmspire? That'll take days. Days that he could use to escape at any time. I have the rope to tie his hands, but that doesn't mean anything. Do I question him and get information from him? Maybe he can give me a more accurate number of the army, which would complete that quest. But he doesn't surrender. He lunges at me, trying to stab me with his sword.

I get a notification as he does 52 damage to my Shell. I slash him with Bleeding Strike, slicing across his neck. He gurgles a few times and falls down, dead. I look at the notification. Poison 50 is prevented by Shell. Poison 50? As in fifty points of damage every second? For how long? If it's three minutes or longer, that's enough to kill me. No wonder he was willing to fight. If he thought he could kill me with one strike of his sword, even if it meant his own death, I can see him making that choice.

I can see him willing to risk it. I strip the corpse, taking what looks like the uniform of the scouts. I'd put it on, but the arrows I blasted through it might ruin the illusion. Still, if I take the time to repair the damage, I might be able to pass as one of their scouts. That would give me free rein in their camp or among their number, letting me get a more accurate count. In his pocket is a crude map of the forest, with the route that the army is planning to take marked clear as day.

I could take this back to Elmspire and probably get rewarded for it. It's a useful bit of intelligence. I put his pack in its entirety into my spatial bag. I almost put his body in there too. It'll fit; the spatial bag right now is ninety cubic feet, and it would mean that the scout disappeared without a trace. That would be good. But I know that the other scout I killed is probably reporting his death right now, so they know that someone is out killing scouts.

When a second scout doesn't report back in, they'll be sure of it. I don't need to hide the body. I can just leave it where it is and let the creatures of the forest do their thing with it. They'll eat most of it, and the remains will apparently just be in this campsite for the next group of people who decides to camp here.