Chapter 188 – Winter Ambush

Phosi

Winter was affecting her worse than she had assumed. Phosi wasn't used to the cold and she needed to swim. This was something she had discovered while exploring under the Sakhrart, as Pockets of Quiet were properly called. That was the first time she had been out of the water for such a long period of time, and if it wasn't for the flooded Service Corridor, she would have needed to call for retreat as she feared she would die. That was barely enough to keep her going for a little more, but the news about the retreat came as a very welcome surprise to her.

That way she didn't need to show her weakness at the time.

And if there was anything, creatures like her hated to be seen as weak.

The morsels were very understanding when she told them she wouldn't be joining them on the trip to Altal-Gyl, but that was a further source of shame to her. Understanding someone's weakness meant acknowledging it.

And that just wouldn't do.

The remnants of her old rational self told her that what she was doing was very stupid. That she should ask Persephone to take her to Varlia from where she would be able to swim to warmer seas.

But that would be admitting another weakness, and if Phosi was to be feared, she couldn't appear weak.

Luckily, water near the lake’s and river’s bottoms was at the lower end of her “acceptable temperature range”, so while uncomfortable Phosi could pretend she was fine.

It also allowed her to monitor the entrance to the caves beneath the Murdergrove. Phosi wanted to ensure that nobody tried to excavate the entrance. It took her some thinking to figure out how to get there, but then she realised she could hide furs and warm boots in one of her soulbound bags and summon it whenever she was getting out of the water.

Usually, no one was at the entrance; however, around three weeks after the coming of Winter, something changed. As Phosi was approaching the entrance to the caves, she heard voices in the distance and a very familiar scent reached her. It was one she was dying to smell again.

Ssssssstrickland!

Unfortunately, her prey wasn’t alone and she was at a major disadvantage.

But… she wasn't alone now either. She had a pack. And they wanted to get their teeth into the bastards too.

She grinned, as she began to retreat back to the river.

Yes. This will be a good day.

Strickland

He wasn't sure whether this assignment was a punishment or not. On one hand, looking for artefacts that the “Heroes” of Mer-Cas could have missed was an important task, but on the other, it meant spending days just looking for the source of the Sakhrart, and now they would need to spend even more time digging through the rubble because those bitches collapsed the entrance.

He wouldn't mind it that much if it wasn't the middle of the fucking Winter. As it stood he would have preferred to be one of the men assigned to the actual digging. At least those lucky SOBs were moving. He just stood there, overseeing them, bored out of his mind and freezing his balls off.

At least in fucking Syria, Winters were reasonably warm.

Not for the first time he had wondered how his fellow “Musicians” were doing. Did they finally manage to end that bloody war? He doubted it. At the time he was unceremoniously ripped away to this shitty world, there were murmurs about an upcoming operation back in Russia, they were going to be redeployed to. Some quick in and out.

Of course, things were never that simple. For one, this time around they likely wouldn't be fighting unwashed insurgents, and an actual standing army, even if dogshits, would be a far greater challenge.

His reminiscing was interrupted by one of the pickets contacting him via the radio.

‘Sir, I have found tracks in the snow coming from the direction of the river. They are… weird.’

‘Details, Jienyr!’ he spat back. ‘“Weird” is not enough for me.’

‘Sorry, sir. They start as… feet at the river, and then it looks as if the person put on boots, started approaching the cave, and then suddenly retraced their steps, took off the boots and went back into the water.

What?

His thoughts immediately went to the acid bitch. There was no way she could have survived, wasn't it? If only Ra-Halli actually lived long enough to report on his findings. But no, fucker had to get himself caught immediately.

Stupid motherfucker.

No. She couldn't be alive. Right?

Right?

Still… he wasn't in charge there. It was Major Vehlor.

‘Roger that, Jienyr,’ he responded. ‘Vesper, out.’

They struck them at two in the morning and Strickland was awoken by the sounds of gunfire and screams.

Single-fire guns, at least two of them,’ he quickly surmised as he grabbed his carbine and jumped to his feet.

It was just shortly after the end of the second watch, and so the watchmen were likely more concerned with the prospect of getting back into his warmed tent than actually paying attention to the dead forest.

Assuming they lived through the ambush, he would have a word with them.

Strickland would also have his reckoning with Major Vehlor, as the stupid bastard decided not to double all the watches, opting to add an extra man to observe the river instead. His reasoning had been sound, citing the distance to Mer-Cas and their massive numerical advantage. There were twenty of them, whatever emerged from the river got scared off, and if it had been the acid bitch it would be days before her friends got there. That and men needed all the rest they needed to get for the excavation.

As Strickland was about to exit his tent, the barking of rifles was joined by characteristic blasts of Magitek weapons… and were those spell strikes?

Shit.

He emerged into a scene of pure chaos. Several of his men were dead with bullet wounds in their chests and heads. Two men ran out from another tent only for one to be hit by a fiery projectile and the other to begin rotting away. Realising how fucked he was, Strickland immediately dove onto the ground, which was just in time, as a bullet flew right through where his head had just been.

FUCK!

Something gave him pause then. The shots weren't coming from the direction of the river, but from the road.

How the fuck…

No… There was no time for that.

‘Retreat!' Strickland shouted to the survivors.

‘To arms!’ Major Vehlor, having finally bothered to join the fight, immediately overrode him. ‘Let’s show th-’

The ending to this definitely rousing speech ended up on the ground after the officer's brain was splattered all over it by a magic arrow.

His men finally began to mount something of a resistance, but it was too little and too late, and even that was put an end to after the Kitsune, her fur now cloudy, landed in the middle of the camp.

And if she is alive…

‘Greetings, Fuckos!’ she snarled, and three shadow projectiles materialised over her head.

‘Retreat!’ Strickland shouted again, scrambling to his feet and breaking into a dead run.

He didn't even bother to look back to see if any of his men were following him, as he was more occupied with bullets whistling past him.

Lilyth

Four of the fuckers got away from the initial battle. We managed to chase down two of them. The other two, one of them that cunt Strickland, opened a portal and escaped.

At least Phosi will still have her chance to hunt him down.

The poor Sconryoll was devastated that she couldn't join us, but the temperature said “no”. I also had a bone to grind with the man, but I was more than happy to leave his ass to Phosi.

The definite MVPs of the fight were the sniper squad of Ren, Anika, Caei and Deirdee. They did most of the work, with me, Aki, and Persephone handling the clean-up. Sav directed the fight from the rear, ready to provide medical attention when needed.

Anika, getting stir-crazy, immediately accepted after we offered to take her along. The ghûl only became more eager once she heard we would be taking down the fuckers who bombed Ror-Bhyk.

‘Oh, yeah! Let’s get those cunts!’

While looting the field, we found a real treasure trove. Carbines, ammo, explosives, several functional radios, armour, drones, you name it. The officer that Rennie killed also had a true Jackpot in his tent - four portal prisms. Savri immediately shot down the idea of using those to strike back at the fuckers.

‘We have no clue where those actually lead and if Strickland reported the attack, the destination prisms were likely already deactivated. Doesn't mean we can’t program them for our own use.

Even with the help of Phosi Express, it took us until the late morning to take everything back to Mer-Cas and store it in Phosi's cave, which has become our impromptu “Tenebral Order Storage”.

After that, we had another stop to make. I have no idea what the people of Ror-Bhyk must have thought as our band strode through the city using Caei’s [Floating Disk] as a corpse cart.

They see us rolling. They hatin’

The guards gave us no trouble, as they recognised us and after we explained who the deaders were, they were more than happy to give us an escort.

Persephone wanted to opt out, but we told her that by taking part in that battle, she officially became one of us, and we would protect her from Malika. The meeting was also inevitable, and we might as well handle it when we were bearing gifts. Even Sav agreed.

‘You know,’ the Viscount sighed after coming to meet us in the courtyard of his keep, ‘I wish that for once your arrival wasn’t immediately headache-inducing. Why exactly did you bring me this pile of corpses?’

His tune changed after we explained how exactly said pile was procured.

‘Well… you could have just brought me their heads, but at least I can see they are wearing the same uniforms as the man that infiltrated my keep, so at least I know those aren't random people you just murdered. I imagine people will be happy to see their heads on spikes. Always a crowd pleaser. Just leave those wherever, I’ll have someone attend to that. Anyway, I imagine you must be hungry, come on in for dinner and I’ll have someone prepare rooms for you.’

Malika was much harder to convince, but eventually she stood down, saying that she would be watching Persephone closely.

‘Still, if Savvie vouches for you I guess I will have to give you a chance,’ she conceded. ‘And as that annoying furball pointed out, Persephone was given a chance to redeem herself.’

‘She still murdered Kirsee,’ The Viscount sighed. ‘And I can’t just let that slide. Since holding you prisoner is a non-starter, as I understand the last time it took encasing you in a pillar of iron and since you are too useful to execute, I mean you already helped defeat these bastards… The Children of Elements did ask for volunteers to help them with the Winter influx of patients. You hereby volunteer.’

Persephone took that shockingly well. She has been looking for ways to atone for that particular sin. There was also the irony of a Rot mage working in a clinic, but I don’t think the Viscount got it.

Still, we went to bed that day elated that we had won our first battle against Strickland and his ilk.

The war was far from over.