novelraw Chapter 54: Chosen Camp
Chapter 54: Chosen Camp
Once Talia chose her target, she turned to her brother and father. She gave them a general idea of her plan.
They listened and asked a few questions then they made their way to where Jensen was laid on the tree.
He was still on the branch with one leg hanging and his eyes were half closed. He looked like he was resting but Talia knew he had been listening to everything.
She bowed and Roden and Jim bowed beside her.
"My Lord," Talia said. "I am done choosing our target and we are ready to get going."
Jensen slowly sat up on the tree branch and looked down at them.
"How do you plan to get there?"
Talia did not answer with words. She activated her vampyre transformation and wings appeared from her back.
Roden did the same... then Jim.
Jensen nodded in approval before jumping down from the tree, landing softly on the ground.
He activated his own transformation, and his wings came out wider than theirs and obviously stronger.
"Lead the way," he said.
Talia took off into the air with a beat of her wings once and Roden and Jim followed right behind.
Jensen watched them for a few seconds then he looked around the camp before his eyes settled on a particular direction.
A small smile appeared on his lips before turning around and taking off after Talia.
***
Wolfe’s eyes widened in shock.
The odd young man had stared directly at him.
Right through the darkness.
Right through his stealth... directly at him before he smiled and took off.
’He found me,’ Wolfe thought.
He slowly backed away, his feet moving carefully and as quietly as possible.
It seemed like the young man didn’t care enough to come after him, so he decided to leave while he was still ahead.
He had only come out to snoop and maybe gain some insight into what was going on in the camp.
It was not just Galvin who had realized something was wrong, Wolfe had felt it too the instant he saw the Level 3... nothing seemed to make sense.
He was in his fifties and had spent the last ten to twenty years in decadence after realising he had no chance of advancing further after reaching High-Level 1.
But that did not mean he was stupid.
He took a step back ready and his back hit something that wasn’t supposed to be there.
He turned around and stared up... Right in front of him was the 6 foot plus hunk of metal at Level 3.
The cold mechanical figure just stood there staring down at him without a sound or aura.
’Wait... where is the bloody unstable aura he had been emitting before?’ Wolfe thought in horror.
The reason he thought something was wrong before was because something felt off with the Level 3.
From his movement to the unstable aura around him to even the way he spoke... everything seemed off.
Now the same visor was staring right at him "What are you doing?" The same flat, cold and mechanical voice came from behind the visor.
Wolfe’s mouth opened as his brain scrambled for words.
"Nothing, sire," he said. "I was just out here to get some fresh air... I could not sleep."
The silence that followed was worse than any threat.
Wolfe felt his knees ready to go weak... he did not think he could fight a Level 3. He did not think he could even run... not in a million years.
The only reason he had the confidence to try to snoop was because he had a way of tracking the unstable aura the masked man was emitting.
Just to be sure he studied the odd man’s routine ever since they had arrived here before deciding to take the risk.
But now it seemed like he might have gotten some of it wrong.
"...Sir?"
"Get back to your tent." The voice flatly said. "Next time I find you snooping around, I will remove your legs."
Wolfe nodded with his head moving up and down like a broken toy.
He turned and ran the moment the armoured man let him leave.
***
It took less than an hour for the Morvath group to reach the location.
When they finally landed, Talia was completely out of breath.
She bent over with her hands on her knees as her chest heaved before her wings retracted and vanished.
Roden was tired too, but he was still holding on, however, his breathing was just as heavy, but his back was straight.
Jim was in a better state than his children but not by much. His face was flushed and sweat was running down his temples.
Jensen just watched them as his own wings retracted as well and vanished. Unlike the other three his breathing was calm and stable, and he did not seem tired.
Once they were stable enough, he finally spoke.
"So... Get to work."
Talia nodded before turning to survey the camp below.
From the information Posey had gathered, there were almost two hundred and fifty men in this camp not counting the women and children.
Unlike Posey’s camp, where the main tent was at the end, this one had its main tent in the centre surrounded by slightly smaller tent used by the lieutenants as well as supplies.
With their current strength a frontal assault was not an option. If they failed, Lord Jensen might need to rescue them, or he might even leave them to die.
So, she focused on sabotage.
Most of the supplies were in the tents surrounding the bandit leader tent and there was no way to sneak in without been detected.
However, the source of water for the camp was in a corner of the valley.
It was a spring that emerged from the rocks and flowed into a shallow pool where the bandits had built a wooden cover over it.
There were always at least five men guarding it to prevent exactly what Talia was planning.
She did not plan to eliminate those five men... that would just be painting a warning sign on the well.
Her plan was simpler.
Her brother was going to fly over the well and drop the poison into the water.
But a regular poison was a bad idea for several reasons.
If someone died from obvious poisoning, the entire camp would be on alert within minutes.
It could be solved if everyone drank the water at the same time but there was no way to make sure of that.
Not to mention that some of the bandits might have skills that could sense danger, making lethal poison easy to detect for those with the right skills.
So, she opted for a different approach.
A slow-acting poison but still not a lethal one but a sedative.
Many people could sense danger to their lives but skills like that were typically useless against simple sleeping medicine after all the body did not register sleep as a threat.
Unfortunately, she only had Grade 2 sedative pills, and she wasn’t sure they would work on the Level 3.
But it was still worth a try not to mention she could not come up with another plan that would be ready in such a short time.
Talia reached into her spatial ring and pulled out two small glass bottles with two pills in each. She pulled a pill from one bottle and added it to the other.
She shook the bottle with three pills before handing it to her brother.
"You know what to do."
Roden nodded, he reached into his own ring and pulled out a Grade 1 stamina potion and a Grade 1 mana replenishing potion.
He uncorked them and drank both.
The energy from the liquid flowed into his body and his tiredness faded with his muscles relaxing.
He activated his vampyre transformation and his wings spread wide then he took off into the night sky.