Chương 88: Chapter 89: Suicidal ideas

I've got an idea. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but it's an idea. If I can't get ahead of the army and set enough traps to help slow them down, maybe I can slow them down by activating Mab's Rage and killing a whole bunch of them. Mab's Rage will do 14, 400 damage over its two minute duration, at a range of 113 feet. I could get a huge chunk of their army with that. I may not kill thousands or even hundreds, but I bet I could take out dozens.

All I have to do is get in their midst and hide before I activate the spell. I could do that at night, when they actually camp. They'll find me eventually. And they'll definitely kill me. No way I can take on odds that ridiculous. But I can take out a whole lot of them in the time it takes to kill me. And then I can respawn with Wrax and maybe convince him to do a strafing run with his breath weapon through the other army.

I bet he could kill a lot of them, and that would get him more experience while we were at it. It would probably also propel me back up to this level without any real trouble. Let's see if I can set the traps first. If I can't, then I'll do the suicidal assault. If I can, then maybe I won't. I have to remember that I'm not the only one fighting this army. There's more than just me and my friends, too. We're not five against fifteen thousand. We're more like six thousand against fifteen thousand.

That's still not good odds, but I have to remember that there are other people fighting as well. This does not all fall on my shoulders alone. I could just dip out, abandon the whole thing. I could avoid the war altogether. I've already done a lot. I've killed seven enemy soldiers. If everyone on our side did that, we'd long defeat both armies coming at Elmspire. I could go to Marketplace and see what the demon city is like. I could go looking for the god slayer.

Or I could go looking for the dragon that the orcs were talking about. Their marches speak of blood for the dragon, which suggests that they worship said dragon. Wrax said, or at least implied, that the minor gods are all dragons. Maybe the dragon is a god that the orcs worship, or at least pay fealty to. If I could find that dragon, maybe I could convince them to abandon the war, to pull the orcs back, something like that. Or I could, maybe, in theory, potentially slay the dragon. I don't think I can do that.

Maybe with all four of my friends at my side. But almost definitely not alone. It doesn't matter that I have 8700 hit points. If the dragon in question is already a minor god, it's probably more powerful than Wrax, who is just aspiring to become a minor god. No, that's a bad idea. I circle around the orc army, killing two more scouts while I go, and put a few miles of distance between me and the army. They're probably only making it about twenty miles a day, so I go twenty miles out from the army.

And twenty miles out from Elmspire. Yeah, two days. Once I'm there, I start laying traps. I make trees ready to fall, I dig pits, I cut spikes from the trees and use them to fill the pits. I make sure that the traps are spread out, hoping that some of them will catch the army unaware even if they find others. Digging pits is hard work. I can really only dig short pits before the soil gets too hard to shovel away. Mostly, I set snare traps and a sort of caltrop trap.

I basically make a few little spikes and then bury them just below the surface, so that someone will step on them and impale their feet. Those pits are barely an inch deep, so I can make a lot of those really quickly. Over the next several hours, my Trap Making skill goes from 9 to 14, and I lay out probably three dozen traps along the army's path. I use saplings to make snare traps, I carefully cover up a bee hive that they will probably walk right over, and I just put rocks in the path for them to trip over.

My survival increases to 17, and I feel like I'm doing a good job of trying to stop an army by myself. I know, I'm not by myself. But it feels that way. I don't spot anyone else from Elmspire, despite Ash assuring me that they were sending out a unit to do exactly what I've spent the last nine hours doing. I don't know how many traps I've set, though my quest log tells me that I've set 53, qualifying me for that war quest. That's good; I'll need the experience.

By the time I'm done with the traps, the vanguard scouts are starting to make an appearance. I kill four of them, which gets me another level. Level 30. Damn. I should've thought of that before I came up with this plan. Now I'm going to lose 20 points from every attribute if I die. I won't be able to make up that deficit until I hit level 28 again. I don't know if I'll be able to level up much more before it's too late to do anything to the army. I'd need 64, 000 experience to get one level.

That means killing another eight scouts at least. I don't know if there's time for that. I guess I should put my plan on hold for now. Or try to do it and escape alive somehow. That would be impressive if I could manage it. Could I stay hidden for two whole minutes while an entire army tries to find me? Could I stay hidden for long enough after that to get out of there? You know, I might be able to. It's a possibility. It would be a risk, but possibly a risk worth taking. This is crazy.

I can't believe I'm even trying this. Like last time, I put my weapons, my bracers, and my boots into my spatial bag. I still wear the scout armor for the mountain army and my ring of the assassin, but everything else is in the spatial bag. I'm not going to be able to gain any levels before they kill me, but if I pull this off and get out of the camp alive, that won't much matter. This could be worth several levels if I pull it off. But don't think about that right now.

Focus on what you're doing, not on the possibility of surviving such a suicidally stupid idea. I move towards the camp on bare feet, careful and stealthy as I move past the perimeter guards. I activate Blur and sneak into camp, moving past tent after tent, trying to get somewhere central. I can't be sure when we hit 113 feet from the edge of the camp, but I want to make sure that I have as many of them included in the area of Mab's Rage.

I want to stay somewhat close to the edge of camp, but I need to make sure that every possible foot of the area covers some orcs. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Once I'm sure that I'm at least a hundred and twenty feet from the edge of camp, I start looking for a good place to hide. The first idea I have is to repeat what I did in the other camp, and climb into a tent and hide there.

If I had the time, I'd dig myself into a bit of a pit, even to the point of burying myself. Maybe I should try to climb a tree. The problem with climbing a tree in the middle of an army encampment is that it's almost impossible to do without at least someone noticing you. I can't afford to have anyone notice. So climbing the tree is a no go. The problem with climbing into a tent is that the tents might be populated. Several of them have the sounds of snoring orcs coming from inside them.

I find a spot between two of those tents. I can hear and smell four orcs in each tent, and I hope that they are heavy sleepers. I don't know who I would say a prayer to, but I can use all the help I can get. I lay down between the tents, pressed against one wall of one of the tents, hoping that it will cover me from a casual glance. Then I cast Mab's Rage. The icy wind immediately picks up, shards of ice pounding against the tents from the inside and the out.

I hear orcs scream almost immediately, and the camp erupts into movement. It's maybe ten seconds later that the tents empty out, everyone running around looking for the source of the attack. They're shouting about a mage, standing their ground, watching for the larger assault. They think that this is just the first stage of the attack. That's good. I wriggle under the wall of the tent, and under the cot inside.

They don't have a rug on the floor, so I can't use that to hide, but I'm pretty sure I'm all but invisible. Just in case, I keep Blur up. I can keep Blur running for another twenty minutes if I want to. So I can keep my sneak at 84 and hope that it's high enough that they can't find the source of the magic. I keep listening to the shouts they make as they run around. About a minute into the spell, I hear the thing that I most wanted to not hear.

"Find the center! The mage is in the camp!" They've figured out that I'm in the camp, and they know that I'm in the center of the spell. That's very bad. I contemplate pulling my slayer's blade out of the spatial bag so I at least have a weapon to die fighting with. I move slowly, trying not to ruffle the tent walls as I pull the sword out of my spatial bag, holding it tight against my chest. I close my eyes so that I can listen better.

There are footsteps all around me, and I hear the sound of ice clanging off steel and of pieces of armor grinding against one another It's just a matter of time. The only question is whether they can find me within the next sixty seconds before the spell ends. I'm so tempted to jump up and start fighting. There are a few footsteps getting closer, moving carefully, almost as if measuring their steps.

If they've figured out how big the total area is, they might be walking towards the center, knowing that's where I'll be. Five seconds pass as the ice storm continues. The orcs grunt in pain and frustration.

"He should be right here." One of them says. They're close enough that I can smell them individually, even over the lingering scent of the orcs who were sleeping in this tent. I take a breath, willing myself to be still. The steps come closer.

"I don't see nobody!" fifty seconds left.

"They has to be here!" forty five.

"In the tents!" forty seconds left. They start ripping the tents out of the ground, chopping into them like there's someone hiding inside. Their first attempt is just two tents away. One tent away. They smash the other tent that made this hiding place worthwhile. Thirty seconds left.

"Up the trees!" another one shouts. Then they collapse the tent that I'm hiding under, slashing through the crossbar and dropping the two poles down onto themselves, making a huge pile with me underneath. I don't move. I don't even breathe. I ready myself, telling myself not to make any noise if they step on me or if they stab through the tent. No way they'll do enough damage to matter. I just have to stay quiet for twenty more seconds. I hear coughing, bodies hitting the ground.

"Get out!" says one voice, and I hear more footsteps, this time receding from where I am. The noise dies down, and soon enough the spell ends. I still don't move. I don't know how many actually died. It's possible that they all made it out of the area of effect before dying. They had to stay for almost the entirety of the spell to be killed by it, and they seemed pretty well organized. But they were searching for me. They probably will continue searching for me. I have to get out of here.

I slowly and carefully extract myself from the pile of tent all around me, then wriggle down the way until I come to a tent that's still set up, not getting off the ground until then. Blur will still last another fifteen minutes. And my sneak goes up, meaning that Blur is that much more effective. The orcs are moving through the camp, still searching for an enemy. They're on alert. I look at one that is searching with his back to me. He only has about 500 hit points left.

They'll regenerate about one point per minute, but this is a very important chance for me. I pull out the slayer's blade and sneak up to him, putting one hand on a shoulder and then plunging my sword through his back. He coughs and falls silently, giving me a little gap I can move through. From the looks of it, there are a lot of other orcs around here that are wounded just as badly as the one I was able to slay with a single strike. And the temptation arises. I can't help it. But the thought is clear.

I could start fighting my way free, killing every orc between me and freedom. They might overpower me, and reinforcements might arrive in time, but there's also a chance that I'll be able to just get free, to sprint off into the night like a wolf that just finished eating the sheep. There's a much better chance if I just continue the way I'm going, moving directly out of camp until I can find a safe place to put my boots back on. Maybe I should do that now. No, that'll increase the chances that I get caught.

The idea is to not get caught. Weird that I'm not that concerned about fighting to my death. I don't think that I'd actually survive. And I don't really care. I don't need to survive. I've done a lot of damage already, and the added damage I would do killing them before they killed me would be potentially even worse. I could kill another twenty of them, maybe. And then they'd kill me. And I don't care. I force myself not to leave the path that I've found, not to search out any more orcs and not to make any noise.

I force myself not to start the fight that would kill me. It bothers me that the idea of death doesn't bother me. That's something for me to think about on my way back to Elmspire. Which I should be able to make before dawn, if I stop and put my boots on. When I do finally put enough distance between myself and the camp, I get two notifications. You have successfully infiltrated and escaped from an enemy camp. You gain 10, 000 experience. You have slain orc soldier x31. You receive 387, 500 experience.

You have gained several levels. You are now level 35, You have 51 points to distribute. I put eight points each into strength, dexterity, and vigor. Then I put five points each into manipulation, presence, and willpower. Then I split the other twelve points evenly between charisma and awareness. That gets me my second to last secret quest for getting a stat up to 100, giving me 10, 000 experience. Now I just need another hundred and six thousand if I want to level up again.

Which, if today is any indication, is definitely going to happen during this war.