062. Establishment - 09

062. Establishment - 09

I expected them to rush toward me immediately, as the two hangers-on seemed confident in their newly empowered friend. The sense of invincibility they were supposed to feel made that a quick bet.

Which was why it was interesting to see them hesitantly, and looked at their leader. They were tense, which was only interesting because they weren't looking at me in fear, but toward the camp. I didn't interrupt as they walked toward their leader, and one of them whispered, thinking it was hidden from me.

"Are you sure, they said we should wait" he started, only to be interrupted by their leader.

Much louder.

"Yes, but they also said that they will have a reward for his head. Do you want another skill, or not?" he asked.

"But what if they get angry and " the other said, attempting to stop his friend, but that was useless. My earlier push of anger did its job, and their leader charged toward me.

Pity, I would have loved listening to their argument for a while, to see if they would reveal more. But I didn't bother much. The mention of another skill suggested that they had been subverted by a competent group, and I doubted they revealed their identity to them.

Instead, I dodged as the leader stabbed at me. Once again, it was a skill, smooth complete, and easy to dodge. I prepared myself to retaliate with a kick. Raised my leg

Only to jump back hurriedly to avoid a dangerous cut on the artery. Even then, it left a deep cut with a stinging sensation. My attacker didn't let go, his blow immediately turning into a low swing, forcing me to jump back.

This time, I managed to avoid the blow completely. "You see, old man. You're nothing against my new skill," he bragged as he paused for a moment.

I used the moment to cure my wound, frowning as I did so. It wasn't a deep wound. I had received much worse wounds while trying to put on a show.

[-2 Health]

I was frustrated by my own arrogance. I had been in this world for several days, and yet I was confident I could handle everything easily. I had assumed that skills were easy to handle, just because I was able to beat down a bunch of non-combat classes.

My young opponent had better skills. One that allowed him to deliver combined attack patterns that reacted to my position, rather than one or two repetitive perfect moves.

No wonder I could goad him into attacking that easily. He was confident of his new strength.

"Why don't you show me just how good your skill then, traitor," I shouted loudly, trying to sound serious and distressed. More as a show to others than a genuine feeling, of course. He was good enough to deliver a surprise blow and nothing more.

The gulf between our stats left no other result.

I moved to the right, and hit his ankle with the blunt side of my halberd, tripping him. He toppled even easier than I expected, showing another problem in their skill. It was weak to handle counter-attacks that weren't targeting their upper body.

"Enough playing," I declared as I swung my halberd again, this time the sharp side, leaving a deep cut on their weakest member. Not enough to kill instantly, but enough to waste a lot of Health. While he recovered that, I attacked the second one, then their leader slowly dismantling their attack by draining their health.

However, as I worked on destroying their unfair assault, I made sure to balance what I revealed. I still acted like I was using a skill, but a more competent one. Ironically, their attack allowed me to fake a skill with much more confidence than before.

I doubt that they would appreciate it. I continued to attack them until they were drained of Health, and actually started to bleed. "We we surrender," their leader gasped, finally realizing the depth of his mistake.

"Tie them up, and we will bring them to Zolast," I said to two of them. I didn't want to spend half a day dealing with them. From what I had seen they were just cannon fodder, and wouldn't know many useful things. Still, they were participants in a conspiracy, and killing them would look suspicious.

Luckily, as the Quartermaster, it was not my responsibility. Not officially.

I looked around, and at a distance, I saw Terma rushing toward me, with Jertann and Silas quite a bit behind him. They would have been here if they noticed what had been going on when it started, meaning it took a while for them to notice another sign that the defensive line needed some work. They should have been alerted about what had been going faster.

I would have written it off as incompetence, but as my little altercation showed, malice was equally likely, as the enemies were already putting their pieces into the mix.

It seemed that I underestimated the altercation I was in. I had been planning to wait until the dungeon was established before I started digging for mana stones, hoping that it would be enough. But it seemed that I needed to act faster.

Speaking of faster.

"Euon, is everything okay?" Terma said as he looked at the three downed men, the first to arrive with his enhanced speed.

"Nothing much," I said, even as I realized the opportunity. I needed to check other breaches if I wanted to explore other opportunities and to do that, I needed to be faster. "I just caught some traitors, and will bring them to Zolast. Why don't you accompany me?"

"Do you think it's necessary?" Terma asked. "You seem to have things well in hand."

"Just in case I need someone I could trust in a fight, we don't know if they have accomplices," I said, and he smiled proudly. They had accomplices, of course. That was a given. However, I was sure they wouldn't bother trying to save them.

It was easier to cut them off.

"Now, why don't you go and tell your brother there's nothing to worry about, and then join me."

"Of course," he said, dashing away.