Lives to fight another day...

A few minutes later Perfect showed up, jumping down from a tree at the edge of the forest and striding toward them.

"Where's Mercy?" Perfect asked.

"Here," the assassin said as she appeared from stealth close behind Perfect, so close they were almost touching.

Perfect startled and yelped at her sudden appearance, the assassin smirked like a cat who'd just scored a bowl full of cream.

Ralph chuckled at Mercy's antics then turned back to Dave.

"So, let's talk. We need to figure out our next move. What do you want to do, bring in more manpower?"

Dave thought for a moment, "I want to send Perfect out to scout for a way around the orcs.".

"Sure, I can do that. But I'd like to borrow Spike," Perfect said, nodding toward the fiend.

"Okay, but why? He's not exactly what I'd call inconspicuous."

"It's safer to do a fast recon from the back of a mount. It's better to run away fast than to try to hide if we bump into anything we can't handle."