Butcher of Buki. (Part 5)

"I am already here." - said calm voice of a young man and a figure with two swords stepped out of the valley.

"Tch." - Ves snorted with clear displeasure, while playing with her daggers. Alan looked at her and can't help surprise appearing deep within his gaze. Currently she didn't wear any clothes of a fighter, but an outfit one can find on a local whore.

It was a very short black leather dress, that barely covered most private parts and outlined the curves of her well trained body. One must admit, if anything, Ves was hot in looks and fiery in temper, like a raging volcano.

Even her body language changed and showed not well trained fighter, but a woman of allure, ready to do anything.

'One must admit... she has her charming side.' - though Alan, observing the girl in revealing clothing from top to bottom with clear gaze.

"Look any more and I will gouge your eyes out!" - she hissed, portraying pure displeasure, but deeper there her attitude was actually more playful than raging.

"Lisa, stand down." - ordered Vernon with cold and strict tone, to which she just shrugged, clearly not very impressed. Never the less, her lips remained sealed for some time. - "Plan is simple. We attack at the first ray of dusk from three directions. Main force will come from the side of the forest. Weasel, place traps in case they try to escape."

"Yes, sir." - shouted overly enthusiastic youth. He was as old as Ves, with slightly zealous eyes, full of patriotic passion. Alan didn't like him right from the start.

Fanatics are trouble. Especially when they are young.

"Witcher, as agreed, your part will arrive only when monster steps in. Just stay within the forest group and attack at will." - continued Roche, to which Alan gave a simple nod, leaning against the wall in a dark corner of this abandoned road between shacks. - "Lisa, your task is to disrupt the sorcerer. Take this." - he gave her some pink powder and the girl nodded with bitter expression.

"Don't worry, we will arrive earlier. And even if not, you will have fun." - smirked Kron and received a kick to the gut.

"Shut it. If not for necessity to avoid mind reading will I even drug myself with this aphrodisiac shit? Lyrt, if I loose my virginity there, I will rip you apart!" - said Ves and ate the whole doze in one gulp.

"It will take effect in half an hour. Prepare to go." - said Vernon clearly unimpressed with her plead. To him woman's virginity was a meager price for successful completion of the mission.

In total Vernon Roche has around a dozen blue stripes under his command for this operation. Naturally it can't be their full force, just the main one. Alan can vouch, that others are either somewhere deeper within mountain range, or left near Temerian border. Good thing they are in Kaedwen. This particular country is known as the largest in the North, but doesn't have strong secret service division.

If it was Redania, they would have already had some trouble with Dijkstra.

Alan watched how commando assembled and prepared themselves for the bloody occasion and frowned, when uneven footsteps entered his line of hearing. He knew that the man was already noticed by Roche's people and could tell what will happen next.

Still, before he can even do anything, a sound crossbow was heard and a body slumped to the ground somewhere in the alley.

"Was that necessary? We could have moved away." - he said to Vernon. That man has literally no regard for life. He might not do this to Temerian citizen, but it seems others didn't even register in his vision as living beings at all.

"He could have revealed our position witcher. I don't take any chances."

"He was drunk. Drunk to the point of losing consciousness soon."

"I don't take any chances, witcher." - repeated Vernon himself again, staring into lilac eyes that shone with dangerous glint. He shifted his line of sight somewhere else not long after.

"Knocked out drunkard, who can't even remember the face of his mother properly, will cause less trouble than dead one." - finally said Alan and looked away to the horizon. In his acute vision sky started to get a bit brighter. It was time for the assault.

"Yeah, dead one won't disappear on his own. Kron, clean up this mess." - said Vernon with disregard. He stood in silence for a brief moment, looking at the young witcher with contemplating gaze.

"You can try." - simply said Alan to him with a smirk, to which Vernon cringed with dark look. That young man made him very uncomfortable from the start. Perhaps it is due to blatant and fearless attitude, or maybe because Vernon is smart enough to recognize a deadly threat any man of witcher occupation can be.

"Lisa, you go straight to the caravan. Others, move out covertly." - finally Roche commanded to his men.

Alan tailed them to the outside of Buki and followed further after blue stripes blended into the forest and made a run through it to the caravan encampment. As expected, the early morning shift of guards was the most inattentive one. They were tired and wanted to sleep.

Blue stripes moved like the wind to their attacking positions and shooting points. They were efficient as any perfectly trained war squad.

"Ten minutes readiness." - commanded Roche, arching closer to the edge of the camp.

Alan hid himself behind the trees and surveyed surrounding area, spotting a huge covered crate. But more accurately it was a cage.

'This is some monster alright. The space itself is big enough to accommodate an elephant.'

Also he smelled blood and saw residual aura of spells. Healing ones to be precise. It was a good sign, as mage seemed to exhaust no small effort on the caged monster and as such can't pose much of a threat.

'Still, it is really a manticore. Not that big, a regular one, not royal or with special bloodlines, but it seems mages of Ban Ard did a great work in enhancing it with spells. Tough nut to crack.'

He sat on the ground and took out special oil meant to use against hybrids.

Every witcher oil has special effect. One used against necrophages prevents their tremendous regeneration capabilities and helps to sped up the decomposing of their bodies. Oil against cursed creatures like werewolves will make them feel tremendous amounts of pain, thus making a battle way easier.

As for the hybrids, it creates conflicts among different bloodlines inside the creature making it harder to control the body. Manticore is exactly that kind of beast – a hybrid, like griffin or cockatrice.

Alan smeared the oil on the sword several times, seeing gazes of nearby blue stripes on him.

He then took out elixirs.

And they were the true jewel of his collection. These are not regular witcher battle potions and flasks, but remodeled and enhanced version after all the studying with Triss and using knowledge of previous world alchemy. Firstly, because normal witcher elixirs were to unrefined and poisonous for Alan to take without side effects.

Perhaps he can adapt to them, but what is all the knowledge he learned there for in that case? So he used witcher recipes as a base and created new ones for himself. What is more, they actually can be fed to regular people. But no one needs to know it.

He named his creations differently.

The first one was orange with red tinge glowing here and there. It was a replacement of witcher Swallow.

Alan called it Hydra.

It greatly enhanced regular regeneration and also provided necessary nutrients for it prolonged use. The elixir worked for an hour and was even capable of helping in regrowing eyes and limbs. Naturally he can use magic for the same effect, but the core point here – autonomous regeneration without the need to waste mana and concentration.

Strangely enough, the more Alan learned about magic, the more reluctant he was to rely on it. During witcher training he firmly came to a thought, that it is imperative to be able to cope with most things without becoming reliant on spells and magic on every turn.

Second elixir he opted to drink was known as Burst.

It was a special concoction that after drinking heightened perception speed and effectiveness of the brain. It was somewhat similar to his battle trance, however didn't conflict with one as it also helped body to be strengthened to keep up with the changes. If both potion and trance overlapped, the effect will exceed any expectations.

However Burst had a side effect. It turned Alan a bit dull on perception for a couple of hours afterwards.

The third and the last elixir was named as Petal. A completely original creation, because it worked with inner composition of mana, making it more condensed for a period of time and thus deadlier. It also had an ability to lighten the body movements, thus got such a name. Alan had a hunch that it can help to enhance ones own magic with wind element, but he was never able to properly notice such effect.

Alan drunk three little bottles one after another and closed his eyes to regulate the breathing while getting used to changes. From experience he knew, that drinking more will only cause conflict between alchemical concoctions and result in not so great wellbeing.

Suddenly in the middle of the camp a figure moved out of the tent and easily attacked the nearest lone guard, breaking his neck and dragging him inside.

"Move out. Lisa took care of the mage." - it was a signal from Vernon.

However that all turned out to be unnecessary, as cage was immediately shred in pieces from within and huge beast roared in anger and pain while becoming free from control.

Alan opened his eyes and grabbed a sword.

It might be an illusion, but Vernon could have vowed that he saw lilac eyes burn with strange force and tremendous bloodlust, while staring at the monster.