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Chapter 105: Cliffside Camouflage

“Six,” Index’s voice said to me. “According to what you saw, that group had six Infernals in it.”

“Hm,” I nodded. “Thanks. So if there are just six…”

“Arlan?” Erani interrupted me. “You good?”

“Oh, right, yeah,” I said. “Time Loop. Uh, so that Dragon’s coming down the mountain in a few hours to kill us, and also some Infernals are coming up the mountain to kill us. In the same number of hours.”

She just took a breath. I could tell that, at this point, revelations like those must’ve gotten pretty routine to her. “Okay. Tell me what happened?”

“And then, once we thought we’d reached an agreement with Astintash, the Infernals came in. So they’re apparently hunting for us on the mountain.”

“How’d they find us?”

“No clue. I mean, the Dragon wasn’t exactly subtle when it flew down to talk to us. They probably just noticed that it landed in a different spot this time and went to check it out.”

“But there were only six of them? Why would six Infernals think they could take on a Dragon in a fair fight? I mean, it’s not like they knew our relations with it were so uneasy – for all they knew, it’d just help us kill them and then we’d carry on talking.”

I just shrugged. “Infernals haven’t exactly proven to be the smartest of Demons in the past. More of a brawn type than brains, I guess.”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “So what’s the plan then? If we don’t get an offering, Astintash kills us. But if we spend time preparing an offering for the Dragon, we won’t have time to prepare for the fight against the Infernals and they’ll kill us.”

“I think we might be able to do this,” I said. “If we go down the mountain, the Dragon probably won’t search the whole base just to find a few people it saw out of the corner of its eye hours ago. It’ll only come searching for us if we’re still up near its home.”

“Probably. Not sure that I like staking my life on those odds.”

“Not sure if we have any way of getting better odds.”

She sighed. “So we go down the mountain and run. And then, I guess we can just try to move around those Infernals?”

“Yeah. I don’t doubt that there are more squads moving around on the mountain, but if they’re all that small, it shouldn’t be an issue to maneuver around them and stay hidden. I mean, we’ve avoided their little squads before. Shouldn’t be any different, especially now that we’ve got Index to keep an eye out for us.”

“Still, not sure that I like traveling down a mountain that we know

is infested with Infernals. Especially when a Dragon might be looking for us in a few hours, too. It could see us and attack, even if we’re further down the mountain.”

“Well, that’s where these come in.” I fished through my pockets until I found what I was looking for – the six invisibility rings we’d gotten from the scout our enemies had sent a couple days ago. Each ring, when activated, would offer fifteen minutes of invisibility, but would then become inert – it was a one-time use Enchantment.

“Hm. So if we each get two, then it’s thirty total minutes for each person, split over two periods of fifteen. And if you ever take damage, the invisibility ends, right?”

“Yeah. I know, it isn’t the best solution, but we can use them in a pinch. Ideally, though, we can get down from here without having to rely on them.”

“When do we talk to Dragon?” The Dryad asked me. I’d been keeping her up to date with what we planned to do as we spoke. Not telling her about Time Loop, of course, but just sticking with my previous story that I had a skill which was giving me information – again, not technically a lie.

“Probably tomorrow,” I responded. No way I’d try and intentionally negotiate with it without at least one buffer of Time Loop to keep me safe. “For now, we just need to avoid the bad guys. There are too many to kill.”

She frowned, visibly irritated at our constantly-shifting plans. “There are always too many to kill. Haven’t killed bad guys in long time.”

“Yeah, but there’s not much we can do about that, can we? They’re becoming more cautious as we prove ourselves more dangerous.”

“I just kill one bad guy? As a treat?”

I closed my eyes and tried not to laugh. The Dryad’s sense of reality was so warped, she clearly didn’t get the humor in what she’d just said. Really, it was half-funny, half-sad that she didn’t get that committing murder wasn’t normally considered to be a ‘treat’ by kids her age. “If it’s possible, sure. But probably not. We’ll see.”

She looked down dejectedly. If it weren’t for the context of what she’d just said, I’d have thought the childlike pouting was almost cute.

“So, we’re going down the mountains, avoiding the Demons, and trying again with the Dragon tomorrow,” I confirmed with Erani. “Sound good?”

“Yeah,” she said. “A bit frustrating, though. I was going through so much mental preparation to talk with it today.”

“Well now you’ll get a bit more time to do more of that preparation,” I shrugged. Though I did agree with her, if just a bit. It’d take a while to figure out a new way to safely converse with Astintash, and in that time, I had no doubt the Demons would only fortify their position more. Time was of the essence here, and even if we escaped with our lives, we were only giving them more of it.

But there wasn’t much we could do about that, so we started heading down the mountain face, retracing our old steps.

It took a couple hours before Index warned us of the first group. I was still using Expedite on all of us, though this time it was less to allow us to move quickly, and more to ensure nobody tripped while scaling down the steep terrain. We needed it, too, since as we moved around a cliff face, Index’s voice came in telling me about nearby Infernals and startling me so much I almost slipped and fell on the spot.

Six Infernals, like I’d seen before, were heading up the mountain and checking around rocks and bushes in obvious search for us. They were speaking with each other, but unfortunately I didn’t understand their language, and Index couldn’t translate for me. So we just hid around the cliff face with Index’s guidance, staying completely out of sight of the group as they passed us by. After they were gone, we kept moving.

And then we encountered another group. Another six Infernals, moving up the mountain and still scouring the land. Again, we were able to avoid them. With an invisible scout to keep an eye out for us, we were effectively one step ahead of the groups at all times. And because the Demons had no idea I had it, they couldn’t plan around our foreknowledge.

If they did know, I had no doubt they’d send much, much larger groups, thoroughly checking every area, rechecking them, and rechecking them again before moving on. At the end of the day, even perfect knowledge of what was a dozen paces ahead of you wouldn’t do anything if they made sure they looked in every hiding spot. But for now, it seemed like the Infernals were enacting more of a quantity over quality plan. A plan that obviously wasn’t working for them.

Over the next hour, we passed by group after group, safely hiding from each gang of six Infernals as they failed to find us sneaking by them. Really, it helped my confidence quite a bit, and my mood slowly but surely scaled upward as we scaled down the mountain. We never needed to use the rings, either, meaning we could save them for later. Maybe it was actually possible to just get by safely and just deal with this tomorrow.

Though, someone with us was still trying to drag my mood back down.

“Could have killed those bad guys,” the Dryad said to me. It seemed like she’d fully embraced me as the authority figure and Erani as the friendly, nurturing figure. So what that meant was that whenever she just wanted to have a nice conversation, she went to Erani. But when she wanted to complain, she went to me. “Only six of them, no others nearby. Isolated enemy. Terrain was good for ambush.”

“I’ve already explained this to you,” I responded, completely exasperated. “If we fight them, even if we win, we’ll just draw more attention to ourselves. They could have communication methods, ways to get back to the other squads if they’re attacked. Or they could just yell for help. And even if we beat them with no trouble, the next squad that comes across them will see the dead bodies and know we’re near.”

“But would be reducing bad guy numbers. Getting attention of more bad guys would just mean more fighting and more killing bad guys.”

“And getting the attention of enough bad guys would mean you die. Alongside me and Erani.”

She paused to think. “Have not died yet from battle. Bad guys have never killed us, we have only ever killed bad guys. Never lost a fight.”

I had to remind myself not to tell the Dryad that no, we actually had lost quite a few fights, but I’d just gone back to save us afterward. “Just because it hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it won’t happen now. We haven’t died yet because we’ve been cautious. Not because we’re invincible.”

She just pouted and turned to Erani, no doubt complaining that I told her she couldn’t kill anyone. I just sighed and kept moving, keeping an ear out for more of Index’s warnings. And Erani rolled her eyes as the grievances from the Dryad flooded in.

After another hour, it seemed like we’d gotten past the squads of Infernals. We hadn’t seen any of them for a while now, so we were at least past the bulk of them. We’d probably keep moving for a bit longer, just to make sure we were out of sight of the Dragon, then move somewhere out of the way and rest. All we’d need to do would just be hole up in some cave or something, wait until the next day, and try again.

So as we marched down the steep mountain face and no warning from Index came through, I felt more and more relaxed. It was a nice change of pace from the constant on-edge hiding before, though I still wasn’t totally off-guard – we could’ve just wandered into a gap of their forces crawling all over the mountain like a swarm of ants. They could also start moving back down once they didn’t find us up there, and we’d have to deal with all the groups we’d evaded once again.

Still, my confidence was high as we approached the bottom of the mountain and it started evening out and getting a bit less steep.

But then, I heard something that alarmed me.

Not Index’s voice, warning me of another squad of Infernals. No, whatever this was, it wasn’t close enough for Index to see it. But the fact that it was far away and I still heard it only made me more afraid.

It was the roar of a crowd’s march.

The unmistakable cacophony of jingling armor, hundreds of plated steps impacting the dirt, voices of people making idle conversation. All mixed together into the same swarm of sound.

And it was getting closer.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I muttered, instantly moving back up. Erani and the Dryad heard it too – and this time, the Dryad retreated alongside us without complaint. Anyone who heard how many people there were would know they were outmatched.

Even with Expedite boosting our Dexterity, though, it was much more difficult moving up the mountain than it was moving down. I clumsily slipped over loose stones and my legs burnt from the effort of bounding upward after working to move me as quickly as possible all day long.

“Rings?” Erani asked. We already each had two rings on our hands, ready to be activated.

I tried to calm my mind and think. “No, not yet. They aren’t in view. It only lasts fifteen minutes, and the army still sounds like it's a few minutes away. We can activate them once they’re closer, that way we have the full amount of time to sneak by.”

Though I still had no idea how we’d sneak by – hence the fact that we were currently fleeing, trying to buy some time. The soldiers would almost certainly be too tightly packed-together for us to slip through their ranks. And if the crowd was large enough, we’d also be unable to move around them within the maximum thirty minutes of invisibility we’d get.

“Arlan, group behind you to the left,” Index’s voice warned in my ear.

I glanced over, and sure enough, saw another one of those groups of six Infernals – what I now realized must’ve been splintered-off scouting groups sent ahead of the main army that was climbing the mountain. They marched forward, ahead of the army that was still out of sight, toward us. Compared to the still minutes-away crowd of soldiers, they were an in-view immediate threat.

I pointed them out to Erani, and we all instantly tried to veer off to the side, away from the Infernals as they moved up the mountain behind us. We hid behind rocks and bushes when possible, but unlike the other times we hid from the Infernal groups, we couldn’t just find a good hidden area and stay there until the group passed. We had to keep moving up the mountain or risk being overtaken by the army.

My mind raced, trying to figure out the optimal path forward. Obviously we still had the rings. Worst-case scenario, we could all pop them and run, hoping for the best and that we wouldn’t need them later. For now, though, using them still wasn’t strictly necessary. The immediate threat was a simple six Infernals. A while back, that would’ve been an unbeatable threat. But all three of us had gotten quite a bit stronger since then, and a few Infernals wasn’t the certain-death fight it once was.

“Arlan, they’re getting closer,” Erani whispered to me. “Fight?”

“Yeah,” I whispered back. “Agree. Using the rings is too wasteful. We take them out quickly and cleanly and keep moving before the army gets here. If they get too close, then we can use them.”

“Alright, sounds good. Let’s–”

Erani was interrupted by the roar of one of the Infernals. Seemed like one of them had spotted us. I snapped my head over to see the six Infernals rushing over to us, growling and shouting in anger.

This was a fight we’d have to get through fast. Not only did we have the army coming from below, but we also had more Infernal groups around that might hear the commotion, too. And, of course, I still wasn’t confident we were far down enough from the mountain to be safe from Astintash’s rage.

Effectively, we were cornered on all sides.

But, of course, as I knew, there was one thing cornered animals could always do.

“Dryad.”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to kill some bad guys?”

She grinned, eyes lighting up in a childlike expression of pure joy. “Finally!”