Confrontation

"W-what do you mean he's not back yet?" Calix asked Zed.

"Exactly what I said," Zed said flatly.

The path Bates and the non-combatants had taken put a decent amount of distance between them and the ants. By the time they made it to the campsite, Alexx and Zed had finished their fights against the Iron Ants and had arrived before the others. The two were rather surprised when Bates' group got appeared before Loran did.

"What's taking him so long?" Alexx asked, straining his eyes towards the woods.

"You guys don't think he could be dead, do you?" One of the builders asked nervously.

"I told him we should've been the ones to go," Bates said flippantly, "see what it got him?"

"Can you shut up," Alexx glared at Bates.

"Seriously," Zed said, laying back against a tree. "Besides, there's no way he's dead."

"Oh yeah?" Bates smirked. "What makes you so sure?"

Zed shrugged. "Call it a hunch."

"Oh please," Bates scoffed. "You guys were able to handle them so easily, but he's still not back yet? The bastard's dead."

The two stared confidently at each other for a moment. Everyone else silently looked between the two. Tension rising as the others began to wonder how far things would escalate.

"Don't go killing me off that easily!" A shout came from the woods. "I'm almost there!"

Bates' smirk quickly turned into a scowl as the others began trying to see where Loran's voice came from. Because of the difference in PER stats, Loran was still too far for the others to see through the trees. It took a few minutes, but eventually, he made it back to the camp with his kills. Although the others were still worried about what had kept Loran away for so long, the fact that he came back helped everyone calm down.

"Took your sweet time didn't you?" Zed asked jokingly.

"Yeah yeah," Loran said, dropping his backpack once he was inside the barrier of wooden spikes. "Look I'm really not in the mood right now."

"I guess you got jumped after killing the ant?" Zed asked, a bit more seriously.

"Basically," Loran began removing his armor, "also I have good news and bad news."

The mood returned to worry, and Loran was quickly bombarded with more questions than he could process.

"What, did you discover some other new and dangerous monster?" Bates shouted over the others.

"I wish. Everyone calm down, the bad news is more for me than any of you."

"So what happened?"

"Good news, Wolf's Boon can be used to reattach limbs," Loran said with a sarcastic cheerfulness.

"Well, that's good to..." the crafter started to say before he realized the implications.

"Yeah, the bad news is I had to learn that the hard way." Loran removed the damaged bracer from his left arm, revealing the messy scaring underneath.

The campsite was silent for a moment, just staring at Loran's injury.

Then Calix collapsed.

~~~~~

After taking a moment to wake Calix and make sure she wasn't hurt, the group began preparing to settle down for the evening. Loran had brought back plenty of fresh meat, which Calix and the crafter were now preparing. The builders didn't see much reason in starting any major construction with only a few more hours of sunlight left in the day, but they did take the time to adjust the spike barrier to better accommodate the larger group.

Loran, Alexx, Zed, and a few from Bates' team were resting while the rest stood watch. Even the village had players standing guard during the night, and that was going to be even more important for the much smaller campsite.

Unfortunately for Loran, sleep would not come. Every time he felt like he was just about to slip away he would accidentally move his hand in some way that sent a twinge of pain through his arm.

'As if crippling me wasn't enough, now that ant won't even let me sleep.' Loran thought as he stared up at the sky.

"Dinner's ready," Calix called out. She had butchered one of the wolves and there were now several skewers of meat and wild vegetables around the campfire.

Although the other resting hunters either ignored the call or were fully asleep, Loran decided to get up and eat, happy to be distracted from his current frustrations.

"Weren't you going to take your watch later?" Bates asked as he grabbed a skewer from Calix.

"My arm won't let me sleep, I'll try again when I'm more tired," he said, stretching. "If anyone wants they can take my place."

"Sounds good to me," said one of Bates' teammates. "Is that alright boss?"

"Go ahead," Bates said, gesturing to the other sleeping hunters. He turned his gaze back to Loran. More specifically, Loran's arm. He started to get a smug grin. "So about your arm-"

"You're still not the scouting team," Loran said, cutting him off and wiping the grin off his face.

"Oh screw you," said one of Bates' teammates.

Bates' face was calm but his eyes were staring daggers at Loran. "Why not? You already got your ass kicked by a single ant, and now you're weaker than before. What's your excuse now?"

"Oh don't get me wrong, I will never fight those things one-on-one ever again. But I can still defend myself; and besides, that was never the plan." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the sleeping Zed and Alexx. "Those two are the ones who will deal with the ants, I'm just here to offer support and make the map. I'm still perfectly capable of doing my job."

"Oh please," Bates scoffed.

"He's right though," Zed said, sitting up suddenly.

"You're still awake?" Loran asked.

"I slept for a bit, but I'm hungry and dinner smells delicious," he said, reaching for one of Calix's skewers.

"Th-thank you," she stuttered out as she handed him some food.

"You're seriously going to look me in the eye and tell me that you don't have a problem bringing a cripple along?" Bates asked his expression somewhere between amusement and mockery.

Zed shrugged. "He's still more reliable than you and your guys."

The campsite became silent as the rest of Bates' team all turned to glare at Zed.

Bates' eyes narrowed. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Your job, that you agreed to, was to protect the others, and when it was time for you to do just that you tried to start shit. I won't comment on your actual capabilities, but based on how things went earlier I'd half expect you to stab us in the back if you found it convenient."

"Ha, that's pretty rich coming from you."

Zed quirked an eyebrow questioningly. "Oh?"

"Everyone in the village knows you're crazy, you can't even get anyone to spar with you anymore since everyone who tried got torn to shreds while you were having 'fun.' If you were stuck with this stupid guard duty you would do the same things I did. That would be more fun right?"

"No, because I wouldn't be on guard duty." Zed slowly stood up. "I wouldn't even be a part of the expedition. If I was told to either stand guard or stay at the village, I would've just come out here by myself. I might be crazy, but I don't go around making empty promises, that's too boring. Now, look at you."

Zed was suddenly in front of Bates with a condescending smile. His [SPRINT] boosted movements were too sudden for Bates or his teammates to even react before the two players were practically nose to nose. Bates didn't flinch, but his eyes widened and the hand moved towards his knife.

"Too much of a child to stand by his word, too afraid to take a risk." Zed's eyes trailed down to Bates's hand, hovering over his knife. Zed's smile became manic. "So, are we going to have some fun?"

The two simply stared at each other for a moment while the rest of the camp watched with worry. A fight breaking out now could easily get them all killed, either by attracting predators or by leaving them too injured for the next encounter.

Loran was certain that if the fight started, not only would Bates' entire party join in but Zed wouldn't hesitate to take them all on. He was about to step in if only to put a body between the two of them when Bates lowered his hand and stepped back. Taking his food, Bates went outside the spike barrier to continue his watch.

As the tension in the camp returned to normal, Loran was about to confront Zed about nearly starting a fight on the very first night. However, Loran was surprised to see that when Zed turned around he was wearing a satisfied grin.

'Weird, usually when people back down from his confrontations he looks disappointed.'

Zed walked over to sit next to Loran. "There, situation handled."

Loran stared at him as he realized Zed's meaning. "You knew he would back off?"

He shrugged. "He's a coward. He's never been willing to fight me, and he knows that fighting out here would be even more dangerous. Bates is a lot of things but he isn't suicidal."

Loran shook his head in disbelief. "Honestly, when I saw you get in his face like that I was expecting the worst."

"I told you didn't I?"

"Yeah yeah, a man of your word."

It certainly took Loran off guard. 'To think that the most insane person in the village would be one of the more reliable ones.'