Chapter 25

Arc 2 -War-

"Day 25" 

 The raid we have been looking for for so long is unfolding unusually quickly, we are more than fifty bloodthirsty elves, we are accompanied by at least a hundred mercenary humans, to top it off a contingent of paladins is on the way with the purpose of eliminating all evil in the Alcazar, everyone has their reasons, most do it for money, we do it for power.

 As I walk through the dark forest in front of the meadows I look everywhere for those elusive creatures that according to the dumpsters inhabit, I am very curious to meet them, but the group is so large that I do not think any of them will come close, anyway those dumpsters have a purpose, to arm all these low level mercenaries, they are not evil, most are people who would easily use iron armor, but I see them with miserable bronze armor mostly or with only an occasional piece of iron and even silver, But I attribute this to their vices that they pay by pawning pieces of their means of subsistence and not to a uselessness in weapons, proof of this is the large number of anonymous corpses thrown in the ditches of the city for offending these very fine people, same that here they took advantage, spitting, looking for protection, because if something did not sell were their weapons, maces bristling with spikes, several long bows, swords and greatswords, axes and even a few cutlasses that give the appearance of what they are. ... mercenaries in search of booty.

 As we went deeper into the forest I managed to make some contact with what I thought were extinct forest elves, most of them did not like us, however, as with everything there is a group that is impressed by the colorful clothing and signs that our expedition could wipe them out, by the time we reached the center of their civilization most had fled, but some of the more sensible ones remained, they gave us details of everything that was cooking in this forest of darkness, They assured us that there were treasures in abundance, that the enemies attacked one by one, that they fled at the touch of cold steel, in short they told us everything we told them, the bait that would make the mercenaries people with a purpose, they would not accompany us into battle, but they contributed with enchanted leather armor that only the elves used, not because humans could not, it was simply too expensive for mere humans to use such items, we left a small regiment and set out.

"Day 26" 

 We arrived at the plains, the mercenaries were a little restless and went out looking for fun, all afternoon we saw them searching caves looking for goblins or any creature threatening enough or failing that seemed to contain something to annihilate him, while the horses rested I saw them eliminate lizards, The only thing worth mentioning was when one of them discovered a spider queen in a cave, when he asked me for permission to destroy it, I could say nothing but go ahead.

 The battle was fierce, but there was not much I could do, the spider of two and a half meters, originally designed as a curiosity by the elves, this animal catches any enemy that is food for her and her young, it is not very dangerous, but its fur is very hard and cushions the arrows and any other weapon from a hand, Its legs end in claws that originally manipulated the spider's thread, the poison in its jaws could be injected when biting or otherwise launched in small and accurate, for the little you get from this animal is not worth attacking it, but it was important to know the performance of this company of warriors.

 The badly called tanks were warriors with enormous shields, with a mace they deflected the small blows or those of the small spiders, with their shield they blocked the legs, the warriors with two-handed swords hit with force in the whole body, legs, abdomen, eyes, it did not matter, the thing was to reduce the monster, The archers, seeing that their projectiles did not penetrate the queen spider's fur, devoted themselves to riddling her young, each dead hatchling seemed to infuriate the bug, which began to jump, trying to fall on the slowest attackers, but even when they were hit, they got up ready to continue the fight, it was obvious that they were professionals, they resisted pain like few in all of Storm Hammer, they were a good choice.

 The battle lasted for an hour, most of them came out unharmed, and when one of the warriors buried his weapon deep into the arachnid's head, which only closed its eyes, the feast began, everyone took out bags and reached into the entrails of the beast and its young, the most powerful entered the cave and came out with eggs of this spider, which are highly prized in magic shops for their magical properties, The ichor, the poison bags and the spider legs would end up in the tannery, the potion store and the armory respectively, a small part of them wrote everything down in lists and left that same night to the city, it is a prize of category c enough to earn about 5 gold for each one plus everything they sent with the merchant warriors, in short it was a great day for the tidy looters.

"Day 27"

 Finally I can see the woods in the distance, they are a blur, so even on horseback we expect a journey of at least two or three days, but I do not want to take the risks of my predecessors, if the magic that moves in these places is indeed demonic, we need the power of the heroic body of paladins in the service of their god and the king of BloodyCoin, at least that is what is written on the parchment that I send with messengers, It is important that they come, that they witness the evil, at least for me they are not messengers of justice, they are rather "cannon fodder" muscles that we will use thanks to their fanaticism while the mercenaries attack from the other sector, so I just have to sit and wait, or rather sit down to recover as much strength as possible before collecting the corpses and the loot.