Azalea dashed madly between two large rocks, her heart hammering loudly in her ears as the bandit charged after her. The man cackled as he gave chase, amused by the young girl who didn’t seem to have any way of standing against him. She thrust clumsily with the point of her spear, but he swayed to the side, dodging it easily, then cutting down with his chipped sword. But Azalea had already run off again, so he dashed after her.

By the time the bandit made it out of the narrow tunnel and saw his quarry, it was too late. A length of wood smashed into his shins, tripping him and sending him rolling down the steep slope leading to the main cavern. Before he could regain his feet, a blue-haired warrior stepped forward, ramming the point of his blade down into the bandit’s body.

“Nice work, Azalea,” Caius said, taking a step back from the dead bandit. “You’re an even better lure than we are.”

“Thanks,” she said half-heartedly, not sure how she felt about being used as bait. “It’s not just him, either. There were at least a dozen of them, and they had a mage. He gave me an agility debuff. Nearly couldn’t get out in time.”

She twirled her free hand in the air over her head, creating a shower of magic that drifted down over her body. As it did, an invisible weight seemed to lift from her shoulders, and she stood a little straighter. She brushed some dirt off of her skirt where she’d bounced off a tunnel wall, and cast another net of bright magic over Caius, giving him a strength buff.

“They don’t seem to be chasing after you,” Caius noted with a thoughtful frown. “Of course, they’re probably smarter than your average monster.”

It had come as a great shock to them to find a group of humans as their enemies for this raid. There wasn’t a sign of a single monster ever having lived in this set of caves, but bandit Terrians had attacked as soon as they started the raid. Despite the fact that this was also a D-Rank raid, the difficulty seemed much higher than the last raid they’d completed.

“It has to be the fact that they know how to fight,” Oscar offered. “They're smarter than the monsters, and they can use tactics.”

Caius nodded in agreement. “Even if they are rather simple tactics.”

“I wonder if this raid is even worth it,” Riley said, gesturing around the main cavern. “There’s no mines or special materials here. If we don’t get anything special from this, I’m not gonna be happy.”

“There’s got to be a reward,” Caius assured him. “Just because we haven’t seen it yet doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

“If all the enemies in this raid are humans, maybe they cleared out the mines,” Azalea guessed. “So they’re probably holding it wherever the boss is, right?”

“If they didn’t already move the loot out of the caverns,” Caius added. Then, catching the scowl on Riley’s face, he was quick to add, “I don’t think they did, though. This raid couldn’t have existed for that long. Besides, if there was no loot to defend, they wouldn’t have any reason to guard these caverns.”

“But what if this is their base?” Oscar asked, walking closer. “Then there might not be that much loot, but they’d still have a reason to defend it.”

“If it’s a base, then it has to have loot,” Caius corrected. “Bases need supplies. Just think about how much stuff we have at Farmer’s Rest. You think we could operate without supplies, stuff that costs Yemon?”

“That’s a good point,” Oscar said, sounding convinced by this last round of arguments. “Still, getting through this raid won’t be easy. They’re more crafty than any monsters we’ve faced yet.”

“Actually, I think this might just be easier,” Caius corrected again. “Monsters don’t feel fear when they’re outmatched. Humans do.”

“And you think we’re going to be able to outmatch them?” Riley asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice. “Caius, the only bandits we’ve managed to kill so far have been by surprise or trickery. They’re not all going to fall for stuff like that. The boss certainly won’t.”

Caius held up a hand to forestall any further complaints or arguments. “We don’t have to use trickery for all of them. Sneak attacks are still viable. If we can attack in a way they’re not expecting, even their numbers won’t mean much.”

“There’s something to that,” Oscar added thoughtfully. “But let’s be honest, you three aren’t that good at stealth.”

“Exactly,” Caius said. “That’s why you should stick to stealth. We can form up ourselves and distract them while you get off some good shots at a range. Now that Azalea’s able to at least keep herself alive in melee combat, we could manage to survive long enough for you to have an effect.”

Oscar opened his mouth to add something else to the conversation, but Caius knew what he was going to say and beat him to it. “Yes, I’m sure they’d catch on to the plan eventually, and you wouldn’t be able to hide as easily. But if it comes to that, we can just attack harder, giving you a chance to get back to hiding. Rinse and repeat that, and we should be fine.”

Caius fell silent then, letting the others digest what he’d said. Riley was nodding to himself, apparently liking the sound of it. Oscar looked less certain. “You sure you can handle those odds long enough? It might be as long as two minutes in between shots if I’m doing my best to stay hidden.”

“I can handle the challenge,” Caius said with a smirk. “They’re only humans. They’re not even that good at fighting, from what I saw.”

In any other person, it might have sounded like overconfidence. But Caius was the only one of their group who’d taken any of the bandits on personally and won. Not only that, but he’d seemed to do it without any real struggle. Finally, Oscar let out a long sigh, and they knew he agreed to the plan.

“Alright,” he said, stowing away his crossbows and unslinging his longbow. “I’ll do my best. If you’re forced to retreat, don’t worry about me. I’ll slip away easily enough on my own.”

And without another word, he trotted up into the tunnel that Azalea had just escaped from, melding with the shadows and vanishing from sight. Caius turned to the other two. “We’ll give him a three-minute head-start. Azalea, you sure you’re ready for this?”

She nodded. “I have an aglity buff. As long as you’re taking the lead, I can handle it.”

He smiled down at her, then raised an eyebrow at Riley, who grinned. “Oh, I’ll be fine. My practice has been paying off, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“You’ve definitely gotten better,” Caius admitted. “But you’ve still got a lot of room to improve.”

“Oh sorry, Master Caius,” the monk replied with a snort. “You know, eventually people are going to catch up to you on fighting.”

“Your point being?”

“You might want to develop a personality other than battle fanatic by then.”

“No thanks,” Caius said, turning his head in mock-offense. “I like fighting. Even if we were evenly matched, I’d still trounce you.”

“Uh, shouldn’t we get going?” Azalea asked, distracting them from their friendly bickering. “It’s been three minutes now.”

Caius looked around in mild surprise as if he hadn’t noticed how much time had passed. “Right, sorry. Let’s get going.”

It didn’t take them long to find the party that Azalea had fled from. Minus the one bandit that had chased after her, all the members were still there. Judging by the fact that they were all facing the tunnel as the three raiders arrived, they likely hadn’t noticed Oscar slip into the cavern. Hopefully, the rogue was inside the cave somewhere, waiting to attack as soon as he had an opening. The mage of the group attacked as soon as he saw his enemies, firing a blast of mana right at Caius. He blocked that attack with his shield, grunting as he was rocked slightly. The rest of the bandits charged forward.

“Don’t let them pin us or keep us in the hallway!” Caius shouted, charging forward in spite of the large number of enemies rushing his position. Riley and Azalea were quick to follow, letting only a small gap appear between themselves and Caius before catching up. There was virtually no window for the bandits to exploit as they began to clash. At least, that was until the mage fired a bolt at Azalea. With no shield to block the spell, she was forced to dive to the side to avoid it, leaving a gap on Caius’ flank.

She was quick to recover and fix her mistake, however. As soon as one of the bandits took the place she’d previously occupied, he found her spear jabbing into his back. He fell with a choked cry of pain, and she quickly resumed her position. Caius turned to deflect a sword stroke from a bandit, then twisted as the mage fired again, protecting Azalea from a second strike. So far, they were managing to keep their formation well. All that remained of their plan was…

An arrow flashed out of the darkness at the edge of the cave and slammed into the arm of the bandit that had swung at Caius. The man let out a screech of agony, quickly cut off as Riley slammed one end of his staff into his head. Another bandit, stepping forward to take the place of Azalea’s victim, fell without a noise as another arrow slammed into his back.

“He’s there!” The bandit mage shouted, pointing at something even Azalea couldn’t see. She assumed it was Oscar. There was a scuffle of movement as two of the bandits broke off to charge toward the rogue, but the others stuck with their attack, pressing against Caius and Riley and forcing them back a few steps if only to avoid being surrounded. Then the mage’s voice called again. “Take out the one with the shield first!”

Caius’s face split into a wide, slightly cocky grin. “Come on and try. I’ll give you the first-”

His words were cut off with a faint grunt, and he stumbled slightly, his face full of surprise. “What the-”

Then Azalea saw the thick, black-shafted arrow that stuck out between his shoulder blades. She hadn’t even heard it hit him! This was bad, she thought, glancing over her shoulder in the direction from which the arrow had come. She saw not one, but two archers there, each with longbows held and another arrow knocked each. One of them was aiming directly at Azalea. Uh oh.

C_P_Tuck

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