Chapter 149 The Day Before

"This is the first place on our list, right?" Cain asked.

"Yes, sir. It's the closest of the towns that's been harassed by the bandits." Tia, Cain's Lieutenant, replied.

"Alright, let's find a place for our horses and go speak to the mayor." Cain said as he and his squad entered the village through the front gates.

Typically people would be questioned upon entering a town or village, but Cain and his squad were clearly from Infernum and as such they were let in without question.

'Its a good thing Clay told me what to do once I got here. Outside of combat and training I have no idea what I'm doing when leading this squad.' Cain thought to himself with a relieved feeling.

While most villages were around the same size as Grove village, being a collection of four or five 100 meter roads, this town was at least four times that size.

"The great thing about towns is that the mayor is far easier to find. Most of the time you have to look for them or ask around but in towns they have a town hall that the mayor uses for work." Tia commented as she pointed to a large building close to the center of town.

" All of you spread out and ask the towns people what they know about the bandits and the ability user with them. The Captain and I will talk to the mayor." Tia ordered before she and Cain entered the town hall.

There was a middle aged woman sitting at the front desk. She was busy writing something when they entered and didn't even look up to see who had come in.

"We're here to see the mayor." Tia said as she and Cain stopped at the woman's desk.

"The mayor is busy right now, you'll have to come back another time." The woman replied with monotonous tone as she continued to write.

"It wasn't a request. Take us to the mayor." Tia said with a stern voice, a hint of annoyance finding its way into her tone.

The woman stopped writing and let out a deep sigh. "Look if you want to see the mayor then you need to make an appointment in ad..." For the first time during their conversation the woman looked up from her work.

Upon seeing the uniforms, as well as noticing they were higher ranked Infernai, her words got caught in her throat and her face went white from fright.

" I-I didn't realize... I'll take you to the mayor immediately." The woman nervously said as she stood up and lead the way.

The ranks within the military, or Infernum, wasn't common knowledge. Most people knee that the more ropes a uniform had the higher the ranking of the soldier was, but that was the extent of their knowledge.

~Knock~ ~Knock~

The woman front the front desk knocked a set of doors that had the nameplate 'Mayor Garone' on it. From inside the office, a loud feminine sounding voice shouted.

"What is it!? I said I didn't want to be bothered until I was done with the reports on those bandits!"

"I know I... there's..." The woman stuttered and couldn't formulate a reply, luckily she didn't need to.

Hearing that the woman was currently writing the reports for the bandit attacks, Cain decided it would be best to just walk in. He walked into the room without saying anything and was immediately surprised by what he saw.

Mayor Garone was a young woman, possibly 18 years old at most. She had pale skin, light blue eyes and brown curly hair that was tied up in a bun.

"Who said you could... Oh..." Mayor Garone initially had an angry expression, an understandable reaction to someone barging into your office.

Once she saw the uniforms that Cain and Tia were wearing she lost all her anger and immediately had a surprised expression appear on her face.

"You're from Infernum... Right? The new military group for people with abilities?"

"That's right. I'm Captain Cain and this my Lieutenant, Tia." Cain said as he and Tia walked towards the mayor's desk.

"Well it's about time someone showed up. I know you're a newly created group but I've been requesting help for days now." Mayor Garone said in a relieved but annoyed tone of voice.

"Im sorry to hear that but right now we need to know everything you can tell us about these bandits, especially the ability user." Tia said in a sympathetic tone.

"Yes, of course. They come every second night and take whatever they want. They killed the only guards our town has the first time they raided us and now we have no defenses." Mayor Garone had a defeated look on her face.

"What about the ability user?" Cain asked.

"After killing the guards they took the armour from the corpses. The armour was damaged during the fight but one of their people placed a hand on the armour and it was instantly repaired. I don't know the extent of the ability but it seemed worthy of mentioning in one of my previous reports."

"Reparing the armour? It's not a combat type ability from what I'm hearing..." Tia said.

"Yeah, if it's just a supporter along with some regular bandits, we can deal with them easily." Cain said with a confident tone.

"Really? It won't be difficult to take care of them? There's at least twenty of them!" Mayor Garone said, trying to make sure they understood the threat.

"You don't need to worry, our abilities more Tha make up for a difference in numbers. We'll handle the bandits the next time they show up." Tia said, matching Cain's confident tone.

"Alright... If you say so. They should come back tomorrow night so you'll only have to wait one day."

"That's not a problem, I'll have my squad spread around the town for security in the meantime." Cain said.

He left the mayor's office with Tia following behind them. The rest of the squad eventually returned, not having learned anything more than what the mayor told them.

They were ordered to patrol the town in shifts throughout the night and be ready for a battle towards the end of the following day.

'All that's left now is to wait.' Cain thought as he headed to the nearest Inn to get a room.

***

"Another day has come to an end and still nothing has happened." Connor said as he and Rene once again met on the wall of the city as the sun went down.

"That's a good thing. If the attack never comes then I'd say that we won by default." Rene replied.

"Yeah." Connor said. There was silence for a while before Connor spoke again "There was one monster that approached the city earlier today but it was alone and was dealt with."

"That's pretty normal for a large city like this, unless it was a higher tier monster." Rene said.

"It was only a common tier, nothing unusual. It was described as looking like a monkey and apparently our people approached it thinking it was a regular animal. It was only after if shot a stream of water from its mouth that they realized it was a monster, luckily nobody was hurt." Connor explained with a smile.

Rene laughed softly" It would have been funny to see the surprise on their faces. It would be nice if we had a way of knowing whether or not something was a monster."

"Knowing somethings tier before fighting it would also be helpful." Connor added.

"If the Elite tier that Leo fought shows up again, do you think our people will be able to kill it?" Rene asked with a worried expression.

"Yes. Leo fought that thing on his own, that's why he couldn't land a hit. We have a lot more people and although it wouldn't be easy, it should be possible." Connor answered.

Rene was about to say something when she noticed something. There was something moving around near the tree line of the forest just outside the city. It was currently night time so it was too dark to make out anything beyond the shape.

"There's something moving over there..." She pointed to the spot she had seen the shape.

It took a few seconds but Connor eventually saw what Rene was referring to "It looks like it might be an animal... Or monster. It definently isn't a human."

Connor was doing his best to squint his eyes and try to make out some more details but it was just too dark.

"Should we do something?" Rene asked.

"No its just one. It could be a monster but even so, it's alone. The guards we have patrolling the perimeter should see it soon anyways." Connor replied.

Just as they were about to dismiss the creature, several more shapes appeared along side it. There was now at least ten creatures, with more coming out from the forest every few seconds.

Connor shouted as loud as he could, making sure as many people as possible could hear him.

"They're here! Everyone prepare for battle!"