44 The Dog

The night passed without incident.

Cadiwynn in her bat form returned just as the new day's sun was rising. Garrett took her clothes and a large blanket off to one side of the camp; she returned to her human form and quickly dressed under cover of the blanket her husband held up for her.

Once dressed, the rest of the party huddled around her as she gave her report.

"The cave has about fifty prisoners inside of it; most of them were our people, but there were about fifteen others that I didn't recognize. I didn't spot any guards inside, but I couldn't pass the note to anyone."

She paused as she wolfed down some hard bread, she was starving after all her effort last night.

"Most of them are tied up with enchanted manacles to prevent spellwork or Ability use. And the others, mostly the lower leveled ones, had special gloves on to prevent gestures as well as gags; they can't cast anything with those on," she finished as she took another bite.

"And what of Lord Wei Jin, is he there? Any magical wards that you could detect" Captain Xinyi pressed.

"He's in there and seems to be hale, but delirious from mana deprivation. I didn't sense any wards on the prisoners or the cave itself, and the guards don't check on the prisoners very often."

The questioning and reporting stretched out for some time; detailing the guard rotation, what she overheard, the camp layout, and many other smaller details. During the entire discussion, the couple leaned into each other as they relished their reunion after such a dangerous mission.

The group also learned that The Dog was going to be personally leading a reinforced patrol in an attempt to locate the two missing parties; this would be their best time to try to stage a jailbreak.

Callum was quickly brought up to speed on who The Dog was; he was one of Count Yonge's most loyal men and no one knew his real name. He was a high leveled Slave Hunter; an Advanced Prestige class that excelled in capturing their opponents and in hunting their quarry down.

He was the main reason as to why the Baron's party could never elude their pursuers; he was also personally responsible for capturing Baron Wei Jin as well as most of the others held in the cave.

He normally stayed in the camp unless his patrols either lost all trace of their prey or they found the Baron's main party. His departure from the camp was something that they needed to take advantage of as they weren't likely to get a better shot.

"This is the last one we have left, but I need you to sneak back into the cave and free the prisoners. Give them all the mana potions, if needed, and arm them as best you can with the items inside."

Captain Xinyi pulled several potions and scrolls out of her ring which she placed in a small pouch that she also retrieved from the ring. She then pulled out one last potion then gave both the potion and the ring to Cadiwynn.

Cooldown Begone (Rare) (Durability: 1/1)

Upon consuming, instantly resets all cooldown from Abilities or spells. Maximum use of one per day.

_____

Callum and the rest of the party constantly glanced at Cadiwynn's party icon as they impatiently waited for the signal to begin their own part in the breakout; she had departed hours ago and they were starting to worry that something was wrong.

Cadiwynn had transformed into a tiny winter stoat and hitched a ride on Amarok's back long ago; he could run faster and could likely get closer to the enemy camp without giving away their nearby presence.

Eventually, they saw the long awaited sign, a buff appeared on her icon. Instantly, the remaining party members all rushed forward and got in range to attack one of the small six man patrols outside of the enemies' camp.

They had been trailing the patrol from a distance, using Amarok and Terrel to keep tabs on the enemy without giving their proximity away. The enemy patrol noticed them just as a couple of arrows and spells rocketed towards their healer.

Unfortunately, the healer was able to erect a weak magical shield in time to block those first attacks. By then though, the party's melee fighters were able to close the distance and start their own attacks.

Callum swung his axe down at the closest enemy, only to have the strike deflected to the side. The two of them traded blows for several intense moments without either gaining an advantage; Callum's lower level was partly offset by his better attribute growth from the Prestige Class.

Both failed to significantly damage the other by blocking or evading their opponent's strikes. However, Callum's inexperience with fighting led him to taking several hits; <<Spirit Armor>> absorbed most of that damage.

All along the short battle line, the two forces pitted skill at arms against each other. Callum's party was short handed with Cadiwynn's absence; the party especially missed all of her buffs and healing.

Their side slowly started to lose the fight, in spite of Captain Xinyi's tier advantage; the other side had a dedicated healer while their party only had a Paladin to provide some healing. They also heard cries of alarm come from the camp as their attack was noticed.

Then Amarok burst out of the brush and attacked the distracted healer from behind; he had circled around the fight in stealth before making his sneak attack. His attack almost killed the healer in one attack.

However, it did leave Amarok standing over the half dead Priest as the enemy's other backline individuals, an Arbalest and a Mage, turned their attacks towards the Dire Wolf in a desperate bid to save their healer.

With half the party distracted, momentum in the melee fight swiftly swung back the other way. Without the Priest's healing and constant attacks from the Mage, Captain Xinyi was finally able to finish off her opponent; she charged at the Mage while Amarok finished off the Priest.

Frustrated by his opponent's constant evasion of his strikes, Callum took advantage of Terrel's next attack on his enemy to tackle him to the ground. He then used his greater Strength to wrestle his opponent flat on his back.

"Let's see you dance around now!" Callum roared as he straddled his opponent and moved his grip up on the axe haft in order to be able to make a swing from such a close range.

He brought his axe crashing down towards his opponent's head. Without the ability to evade the attack, his opponent tried to deflect the attack to the side; he was only partially successful and the axe bit deep into his shoulder. The second strike ended things for good.

Callum picked himself up and glanced around to see Garrett finish off his last opponent. He used <Clean> on himself a couple of times as they all gathered up whatever easy to carry loot they could find; Cadiwynn had their only storage ring.

The fight had been bitter and dragged out for a while, but that's exactly what they wanted. They needed a loud distraction to get the enemy camp's attention on them; hopefully most of the enemies in the camp would come after them.

Besides, they had all refrained from using their Abilities or spells with the longest cooldowns; they were saving those for emergencies. Just then all their attention was grabbed by a thunderous peal of trumpets and a bright flash of red high up in the air.

"Looks like we can't take out the camp after all. Time for us to execute the plan 'run for our gods damned lives'," Callum muttered as they all stared up at the lingering ball of red that floated hundreds of feet over the camp.

"Let's wrap it up people, we expected this. The rest of the patrols will be returning soon and we don't want to be in the area when they get here," Captain Xinyi calmly ordered as they finished looting what they could before they moved out.

They had been hoping that the camp didn't have a way to signal distress to the outlying patrols; if that was the case, they would have been able to take on the camp with all of the newly freed prisoners. Now, they couldn't risk being tied up in a fight with incoming enemy reinforcements.