(Artax’s Perspective)

  Artax was frustrated. Two of the poisoned men died and the other two would likely join them. The rest of his men were useless at the moment. They hadn’t fully recovered from the march before battling the giant spiders which left them even more exhausted.

  He wanted to hurry up and enter the city. He knew it would take time to discover the whereabouts of that bastard Lux so the sooner they started the better. Unfortunately, his hands were tied at the moment.

  In the meantime, he had the area around the gate and the well secured. He let half the men rest while the rest were forced to tough it out. One of the men wondered if they should try and be more stealthy, worried that Lux would discover them.

  Artax scoffed at the idea. If anything, getting Lux to come to them would make their job much easier. He smacked the idiot upside the head and told him to get back to work. Their boss had really been scraping the bottom of the barrel with some of these guys he thought to himself.

  He was still cursing their stingy boss about how everything had turned out. If more of the men had survived the trip it would have made the task trivial. Artax still thought it would be relatively easy to finish off Lux and his party but if they lost too many more men to monsters then things would get dicey.

  From the various howls and cries coming from the city, it was evident that giant spiders weren’t the only monsters they needed to worry about. Artax decided to keep the base camp outside the city for now and just send in teams to scour the city.

  Today they would rest and start fresh in the morning. By then his worthless men should be able to function effectively. He even had a couple of them with hunting experience kill some of the wildlife for a feast. With extra food in their bellies, they should recover faster.

  Toward evening they had a huge bonfire going and some of the men were even singing. Their mood had improved greatly after the spider battle and the loss of even more comrades. Artax was no fool and still had some of the men patrolling and keeping watch.

  His mood had also been slowly improving. Thoughts of exploring the city and plundering its riches put a smile on his face. Thoughts of him plunging a sword through Lux’s heart made his lips turn upwards as well. Artax even started laughing which made some of the men look at him strangely.

  Monster activity always increased at night. The cleared area between them and the jungle in addition to the large fire helped keep most monsters away. Plenty of roars could still be heard from both the jungle and city though. It was way better than being in the middle of the jungle that was for sure.

  He would have liked to close the city gates so nothing could surprise them coming out of the city but they hadn’t been able to determine how they functioned. They were too massive to move by hand and the limited exploring they had done hadn’t found anything that looked like controls.

  Of course, if they did manage to shut them, he would have to station someone inside the city to open them back up again. Once again, he lamented not having more men. He wouldn’t let that fact sour his mood though. He just wished they had some alcohol. Hopefully they would find some in the city.

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  (Matt’s Perspective)

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  We managed to traverse the city before nightfall without any problems largely thanks to Emily. Shadow had gone missing again so we left without her. We were now crouched atop the wall surveying our foe. I wasn’t terribly impressed with what I saw. They seemed very unorganized and in rough shape.

  They did have some men patrolling the area but they seemed to be just wandering around. Lin had informed us they had found a well and had guarded it during the day. We checked before climbing the wall and it seemed they wisely kept all their men outside the city when it got dark.

  Even now Nix was keeping an eye out for stray monsters while the rest of us surveyed the situation. The top of the wall was wide enough that three people could walk side by side comfortably. There were medieval looking crenelations along the top of the wall that we were currently hiding behind.

  The wall was so high that hitting anything with spells from that distance would be extremely hard. Lin and Nix thought they would be able to hit their targets with their archery skills but the rest of us would need to go down and through the gate before we could attack.

  After observing them for a while we backed away from the edge of the wall to plan our attack. It was decided that we would wait until after midnight when most of the men would be asleep. Our archers would stay on the wall and wait for our signal to begin firing.

  There was no moonlight but the giant bonfire provided enough illumination for them to pick out targets. We would also be firing off one of our flares as the signal to begin which should help illuminate things. Emily voiced some concerns about all the fighting drawing in monsters but there wasn’t much we could do about that.

  The fallback position would be back to the top of the wall. A set of narrow stairs led to the top which would make anyone or anything following us easier to stop. So far, we hadn’t seen any monsters prowling along the top of the wall so it seemed like a good spot.

  We sat in silence, waiting for the right time when finally Lux gave us the signal. Lux, Torg, Ann, Emily, and I headed down to the gate. To say I was nervous was an understatement. There was no backup or reinforcements. If something went wrong some of us could die.

  I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind and took a few deep breaths. Emily looked nervous as well. This was probably the first time she had fought against people. She was calm when it came to monsters but people were another thing altogether.

  We had already explained to her what happened between the Red Fang and us. She had been shocked that something like that would go on as she was still getting used to how things worked in this world. We had become good friends so she didn’t have any qualms about helping us even though she probably found it distasteful.

  Silently, we made it to the open gates with no problems. The camp was mostly quiet now with the mercenaries either asleep or on guard duty. The guards would be the first target before switching to the tents. If all went well, we would get them all before they could counterattack. There were only a couple guards which was a little odd but maybe it was because they were short on manpower.

  We readied ourselves and Lux gave the signal by firing off the flare. The girls on the wall immediately started firing arrows while Ann, Emily, and I fired off spells. Lux and Torg charged in behind the spells. Us mages spread out in front of the gate so we didn’t get into each other’s way.

  We quickly picked off the guards but the sleeping men reacted faster than I was expecting. They started streaming out of the tents but we did manage to set one tent on fire before the occupants could get out. Their dying screams mixed with the yelling and sounds of battle.

  The enemy had been smart and slept in their armor but most were still groggy from sleep and confused. It was clear they hadn’t expected anyone to attack them so soon after arriving. One brute of a man was trying to rally them but Torg had other ideas.

  The brute and Torg seemed to be yelling at each other but I couldn’t make out the words. They soon began to circle around in some kind of duel. I didn’t know what was going on but had to concentrate on the remaining enemies.

  The area outside the gates was relatively flat with no real shelter to hide behind. At this point all the tents were on fire so the enemy had nowhere to go. Our archers picked another one off while a group of them decided to charge us. Lux was busy fighting another large warrior so couldn’t help.

  Not that we really needed help. Our spells made quick work of the fools charging at us. Soon after Torg finished his fight and then Lux managed to beat the head honcho, cutting his head from his shoulders. The last remaining saw this and decided to flee into the jungle.

  We just let him go. The monsters of the jungle would finish them off. Speaking of monsters, the howls from the nearby jungle were growing by the minute. Emily glared at me as if to say “I told you so.” I just shrugged and yelled at Torg and Lux that it was time to go.