Raiding Party 5

Chapter 61

Reskeme idly wonder where on Laurentia his familiar was, he hadn't seen the creepy demon ever since they left the fortress, Pushing the demon familiar from his mind he decided the demon could fend for itself and was probably relaxing in a dark corner somewhere sleeping while reskeme did all this hard work.

He sat in the dirt, feeling the shock fading from his body, sighing he watches as the army formed a camp on the edge of the blood-soaked clearing, the army appeared to be avoiding the field with the remaining corpses of the Darva.

Reskeme walked towards the edge of the camp, He could see Carley sitting on a log, she had a sword over her knees and was running her blade over a long flat stone. Reskeme stopped in front of her his feet squishing, displacing the soft mud under his feet.

Carley glanced up, before running the blade over her stone in a slow smooth motion, Reskeme said," what are you doing?" Carley said," I'm sharpening my sword, obviously." Reskeme said," Really, how does rubbing a rock on your weapon make it sharp?"

Carley frowned, She said," Sometimes I wonder about you." Reskemes brow furrowed, He said," it doesn't make sense, how does stone make it sharper?" She replied," This is a wet stone, it slowly removes the steel and makes a thinner sharper edge."

Reskeme looked around finding a palm-sized rock, he picked it up and looked from her sharpening stone to the rock he was holding. Carley said," don't even try to sharpen your naginata with that rock, you need a wet stone, If you haven't cleaned your blade you should, or it will rust." Reskeme let the muddy stone slip from his hand, it squished onto the mud, wiping his hand on his pants reskeme put sharpening a weapon out of his mind. Reskeme said," I don't think it will matter if my weapon rusts, it's metal and will kill just fine!"

Reskeme wasn't sure why rusting did to steel, but surely it wouldn't affect something as strong as metal. Carley looked him in the eyes, She said," clean your weapon and put the sheath back on it, or one of these fights it might break when you need it most." Reskeme pulled his naginata from his case the wooden shaft felt smooth in his hands, He looked at the wet blood-stained blade. The blade curved slightly and extended the length from his elbow to the tips of his fingers.

The wooden shaft came up to his chin, with the blade protruding all the way over his head. He used his sleeve to try and remove the blood on the weapon. Carley sighed at his futile attempts, She sheathed her sword carefully, paying close attention so as not to cut herself.

Carley held out her hand, Reskeme protectively held his weapon. Carley said," hand it over, ill make that chunk of wood and steel useful again." Reskeme said," alright, but you have to give it back," Carley rolled her eyes. She leaned forward and gently took the naginata, Reskeme watched her face as her brow furrowed.

Carley said," when was the last time you cleaned this?" Reskeme said," I didn't know I needed to keep it cleaned." Carley scowled at him, She said," you are really that ignorant?" Reskeme said," don't look at me like that, How was I supposed to know I need to clean and sharpen my weapon?" Carley dug in her pack at her feet pulling out a thick cotton strip of cloth.

Reskeme watched with wrapped attention, Carley held up the long cloth, she pressed it hard dragging the cloth along the edge. Reskeme watched the cloth separate only a little after travelling the entire weapon, He smiled proudly, it wasn't to dull if it could cut that thick fabric like that.

He changed his mind when Carley frowned down at the weapon, She said," I'm surprised you killed anything with this weapon, Its duller that my fork is." Reskeme crossed his arms, He said, "it's not that bad, I haven't cleaned or sharpened my throwing knives either and they are just fine." Carley held out her hand again, Grumbling reskeme proffered the damaged throwing knives.

Carley tried to cut the cloth with one of his well-used knives, He had been practicing whenever he could trying to get the hang of sticking trees, he was rather proud of his progress, he could actually stick the tree sometimes. Carley pulled out a leather pouch and sprinkled something on the long blade before soaking her cloth in some thick substance she had in a leather container and scrubbed the blade with the gritty rag.

Reskeme watched the woman take off all the dirt and blood with the rag, He was surprised when the weapon began to show the gleam of clean steel after only a minute. Carley placed 3 long stones of different colours in front of her and held the naginata in her right hand, she held right under the blade before performing a complicated maneuver.

He stares in fascination, He said," what on Laurentia does rubbing the blade on that stone do?" Carley said," First you need to start with the gritty stone to take of more steel this is to speed the sharpening process and to take out nicks and scratches that are on the blade as you need to remover more metal.

She began dragging the steel along the stone with the blade against the rock in a cutting motion away from her. She held one hand on the handle and the other on the back of the blade. After running both sides of the blade along the stone 10 times she looked over the blade with a keen eye before she changed the stone and repeated the process.

Reskeme watched as she wiped off the blade with the oiled rag and placed The third stone in front of her on the log. she took out her canteen and wet the stone before doing the same thing gently running the blade down the stone on each side ten times.

Reskeme waited until she finished he said," it looks nice and clean now but what is the difference?" Carley took out the same cloth she had already tested the weapon on before dragging the stretched fabric across the blade. The fabric parted after only travelling half the blade falling into two pieces.

Reskeme pursed his lips in confusion, Carley held out her hand taking the proffered sheath for the naginata. She passed the weapon back to him and gave him a cocky smirk, Reskeme decided he needed to get his throwing knives sharpened those stones must be magical to do that. He said," can you sharpen my throwing knives as well?" she said," I doubt you will even use them in this fight but sure I will sharpen those mostly useless pieces of cutlery."

Somewhat offended for his throwing knives Reskeme said," They are actually quite useful, I can stick trees sometimes." Carley laughed as she used her magic rocks to sharpen the knives. Reskeme wonder if he could sneak them from her pack when she wasn't looking. He pushed the thought from his mind, he could find his own magic sharpening stones later, It totally wasn't because he thought she might be a friend, What were friends anyway? he didn't have those.

Reskeme pushed aside his thoughts, He resheathed his throwing knives checking each of their runes to confirm to himself they were still active, Each of the glowing runes shimmering faintly carved into the steel with his mana waiting to be activated. The rain began to fall the deluge of water drowning out the sound of soldiers shifting about starting into the forest towards the enemy fortress.

Reskeme and his squad lead the way ahead of the army, they passed through the thick foliage, he shivered as the rainwater covering the branches found its way onto his skin. How on Laurentia did that always happen? the rain always got in places he didn't want it. He crept through the forest even though he knew there was an army only hours behind that wouldn't help him if he was caught, as usual, Reskeme Dusty and Carley lead the group scouting.

Keeping to the trees they follow a river, Reskeme knew this was the right track as they had fled along this path on their first mission. They came to a sharp rise after hours of slow tedious hiking along the swift-flowing river. The patter of rain and the rush of the river began to fade as a sharp rumbling became audible in the distance.

His hearing became limited as the thunder of the waterfall cut off all sound. The waterfall rose in front of them, Reskmee shivered at least the waterfall would help disguise any sound they might make. His nerves were beginning to fray, he told himself the enemy would also have their sound dampened by the water, as they crested the rise he immediately spotted a patrol of 5 warriors and 2 scouts following the trail ahead of them seemingly in a hurry.

Reskeme slipped catching himself before he fell down the sharp cliff face below, the sharp clatter of a large rock hitting the ground reverberated over the falling water. one scout's ears twitched it glanced back, fear evident on its face as its companions hastily pulled a wooden stretcher with a darvan warrior bloodied but clearly still alive. The Darvan scout yipped and the group hastened their pace. Reskeme cursed himself for being sloppy, Carley said," they must be the Darvan basterds that escaped our assault."