ooc: Don’t worry too much about it. One of my posts in Olimandias had the 3000-strong Coalition Domain force beat up 15000 Alliance ones with only 200 casualties; I then realized how stupid it was when Steel sent me a PM.
After Synile made his little speech about experience, knelt down in front of Rhiannon, swore an oath, and quickly left, Leo was still trying to contemplate the fact that a Loddie had just walked away from a potential fight, even if he was outnumbered 2 to 1. Soon after that, Jordan headed back to the castle, Rhiannon left as well, and Turtlelot guided the wounded guard to the medical ward.
That leaves me last again, grimaced the dwarf as he put his axe away. The battle had seemed rather imminent from the moment he had pointed the gun at Synile; Leo knew he was lucky not to have been decapitated before firing the weapon.
Why didn’t I shoot him? he pondered.
It would have made things a lot simpler. Oh yeah, that would have been dishonourable. My ass. Taking his rifle back from one of the Snakeheads, he gestured down the hallway they had come from. “You’re all dismissed. Get some rest, we’ll be leaving for Korento sometime soon after everything is settled down.”
Taking a different path as each of the Snakeheads headed to their own rooms, the general trudged down the empty hall, his loaded rifle held loosely in his right hand. Now that he thought about it, maybe challenging Synile to a fight in an open area was one of the stupidest things he had ever done.
A Lost Woods guerrilla that’s 20 years old versus a former Labyrinth champion who’s hundreds of years old…not exactly the kind of matchup you’d want. Ever since he set up the Snakeheads, or the Special Ops Division, as they were formally known, Leo had reverted back to the old combat methods of the Woodies, which was essentially a type of guerilla warfare in forests. Problem was, the soldiers were terrible in open combat, as the dwarf witnessed in Olimandias.
If Jordan hadn’t shown up, Synile could have cut me to pieces. The battleaxe he had wielded for more than 10 years was light, efficient, and strong, but hardly a match for a powerful blade.
Lucky for me, both Jordan and Rhiannon showed up at the same time. The former pirate’s skill could have made it a great battle, but the princess’s authority pretty much…saved the castle from being demolished.
Opening the door to his office, which was connected to his living quarters, Leo placed the rifle in the corner, set the battleaxe on a holder on the wall, and sat down in his chair. Leaning back and forth in it, he was wondering what to do next when he hard a loud knock on his door. “Come in,” he said.
A moment later, Mellish walked in, holding his spear. “General, we’ve followed your orders and searched the entire castle for the suspect.” The rest of the Baker Team soon filed in.
“What did you find?” asked the dwarf.
“There’s no sign of a man with a golden staff anywhere in Snowpeak, sir,” concluded Simkins. “What’s more, we questioned more than a few guards in the castle: nobody’s ever seen anyone with that kind of description. We checked every room; prison cells, library, fighting rooms. The guards have sworn nobody with a staff left either; all of the Calatian mages are still tending to our wounded. There’s no way any of them could be involved in Horace Jenkins’s death.”
“Hmm, interesting.”
Was the guard lying about the mage, then? Could he be a part of the plot? Pushing the curtains aside and looking through his window to see if the big man was still on duty, Leo was surprised to see him talking to someone and making strange gestures at the same time.
At this time? It’s almost midnight. Examining the guard’s companion, he was just as equally surprised to see that the unknown man was wearing a cloak, with the large hood covering his face.
Is that one of Jordan’s friends? As he was about to leave, the man moved into the moonlight, and the dwarf saw something that froze him in place.
What the-? The man’s cloak was not gray. It was red, the dark red of Koridai. The guard was passing on information to the Empire.
Snatching up his battleaxe, Leo literally sprinted down the hallway towards the main hall, cursing under his breath; quick to realize what was going on, the soldiers of the Baker Team were quick on his heels, ready to apprehend the spy and traitor.
How did I not see it before, thought Leo.
He obviously made the story up to throw us off the track of the Maes guy, and then fed all the info he had to this Koridaian. Who whoever the guard is reporting to right now, he must have one hell of a cloak. Nearing the front doors, he skidded to a halt and turned to his 6 men. “Be very silent,” he whispered. “Take out the guard first; I’ll deal with the spy. Wait for my cue.”
As they exited through a side door rather than the front gates, the dwarf silently treaded through the snow, axe at the ready. Kneeling down behind a boulder no more than 10 feet away from the duo, he pulled out his combat knife to make it a silent kill. Closing his eyes, Leo tried to hear everything that the 2 of them were saying. When he realized it would be impossible without moving closer and revealing his position, he decided to go for the kill. Glancing at Jurgensen, whom was also nearby, he mouthed, “Go.”
Suddenly, several arrows shot out of nowhere, 3 of them hitting the guard and knocking him to the ground. Scrambling to his feet, the general sprinted towards the Koridaian contact, who had already begun running away.
Oh no, you’re not. Hurling the knife, he nailed him deep in the right calf and made a swift tackle. Getting to his feet, Leo snapped the man’s neck, and then retrieved his knife.
Sighing, the dwarf snapped his fingers before heading off. “Dispose of the bodies,” was all he said.
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