Chapter 12: Night Raid

Sitting in his sparsely decorated room, Odysseus lay on his soft bed, reading a book about monsters and plantlife by candlelight when he should have been asleep.

He paused for a moment, eyeing his surroundings that were more than he ever had in his former life, letting out a small smile before going back to the text he understood.

His eyes traced over the words below an image of an animal called a wolf, a creature that was as large as it was majestic, a four legged beast, one that came in various colors with sharp fangs that spoke of its wild viciousness.

So cool….

Odysseus said to himself, his boyish wonder, pondering what it would be like to ride one in battle.

“AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Suddenly a cry sounded in the night, one that Odysseus was well acquainted with that sent alarm bells through his body.

Odysseus shot out of the bed, his jaw clenched as his heart raced.

“AWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOO!”

More cries, sounds calling out into the night that made Odysseus stop his breath.

“ATTACK! ATTACK!” Chiron’s voice called out, a loud bell ringing to alert those in the camp.

Odysseus hurriedly opened his cabin door, making eye contact with Claire who was already coming out, draping her bow over her shoulder before moving to button up her opened leather jacket.

“GATHER UP!” Chiron yelled, the two chosen rushing out to the mentor in his centaur form who held a torch in his hands.

“What’s going on?!” Odysseus exclaimed, the sounds of the Gnolls on the prowl flooding the moonless night air.

Chiron narrowed his eyes, the man placing his torch on a nearby sconce.

“Someone is unhappy with you.” Chiron said, eyeing Odysseus. “Every masking rune protecting the camp has been deactivated, the magic disrupting the tracking debuff on the both of you has been dispelled.”

Immediately Claire took off, the huntress racing off with bow in hand.

“Then-”

“Yes, we must prepare for battle.”

“We? I thought you wouldn’t interfere.”

“This is different, a sacred rite has been disrupted. The rules are no longer applicable I fear.” Chiron replied, his face broken with a sharp grin unseen before by Odysseus. “Here, take this and go join Clair, she has dark vision as a skill. I will take a vantage point and deal with the bulk of the monsters while you two defend the camp.”

“We’re digging in?” Odysseus asked, taking the bow and quiver of arrows as he looked around at the small campsite that had little to no fortifications to speak of besides the large log walls.

“Of course. The gnolls possess true darkvision and keen sense of smell. In the bitter black of night, we stand no chance against their numbers without the torches to illuminate our foes.” Chiron explained, taking off and leaving no room for Odysseus to argue.

“Shit.” Odysseus whispered, another cry of the gnolls sounding out before he spun to join Claire on the parapet that was lined with torches and bundles of arrows.

“Nice of you to join me.” Claire said, her eyes narrowed as she scanned the treeline.

“Uh, yeah.” Odysseus replied, his jaw clenching and unclenching before he turned and grabbed Claire’s quiver of arrows, dumping them on the floor.

“Hey! What are you doing!?" Claire snapped, "Are you insane?!”

“What a second!” Odysseus replied, reaching into his pocket and taking out the red and blue berries he kept on hand at all times. He crushed them in his hands, rubbing the paralytic jelly across the arrow tips and taking extra care not to cut himself.

“Huh, smart.” Claire said, watching Odysseus work before her attention was caught by rustling.

Immediately her bow went up, loosing an arrow that struck true it’s target.

“Damn it they’re already here!”

Odysseus acted quickly, grabbing Claire’s arrows and placing them into the quiver as he grabbed his own arrows and the woman began firing.

Coating his own weapons, Odysseus shot up, his own bow at the ready and willing to shoot. There was just one problem however,

He couldn’t see!

“Shit I can’t see them.” Odysseus muttered in frustration.

“How's your math?”

“Ok I guess?”

“Then fire where I direct you.” Claire ordered, loosing another arrow that resulted in a beastail yelp. “Twenty degrees, fifty feet.”

Odysseus fired his arrow into the night, no sound of a monster being hit.

“Adjust two degrees, thirty-two meters, fire now!” Claire ordered with Odysseus doing so, this time his arrow striking something that squealed.

The two worked in concert, both archers firing their bows at hidden forces converging on their position.

“Fuck me…” Claire whispered, her eyes wide, her bow drooping as she stared blankly into the forest.

“Twelve arrows left!” Odysseus called out, grabbing another bundle tied up and left on the wall where he began hastily smearing them in what berries he had left.

Odysseus repeated his words, eliciting no response from the archer frozen in place.

“What? What are you looking at?!”

Claire took a step back before blinking. “Go! Go to the training yard and grab more arrows! Go!”

Odysseus nodded, grabbing a torch and leaping off the platform to rush through the camp towards the training yard.

He quickly reached it, grabbing bundles and buckets of arrows off tables to bring back when suddenly Claire screamed.

Odysseus spun, his eyes wide to see Claire knocked off the wall with a gnoll atop her, the beast, the bipedal wolf-like monster attempting to rip out her neck with its jaw stopped by two hands.

Immediately Odysseus dropped the buckets in his hands, grabbing a short bow and firing an arrow that struck the beast.

It reeled, releasing a roar at its aggressor before abandoning Claire and charging Odysseus.

Shit.

Odysseus fired another arrow, only for it to strike the monster in the stomach and do little to slow its advance.

Shitshitshitshit! MY hands won't stop shaking! Odysseus inwardly spat before attempting to fire another.

Yet it was too late, the creature was nearly upon him.

It leaped, Odysseus’s body tensing up, preparing to dodge. But his actions were for naught as an arrow entered the skull of the beast and sent it flying sideways.

“Huh?!” Odysseus let out, before he recovered and drew his bow to fire at the half dozen gnolls climbing the wooden walls of the encampment.

In the distance, perched on a hill, Chiron frowned as he surveyed the situation below. There were close to a hundred gnolls, dozens of the humanoid monsters encroaching on his slice of paradise, one that had once been protected by his magic and a haven to challengers.

Now it was being sieged, his magic undone by a deity that could afford to defy the rules set in place.

“CLAIRE! COME ON!” Odysseus called out, the woman driving her knife into the eye of a gnoll before kicking it away, ducking beneath the claws of another, and embedding her steel knife into the chest of her attacker.

“ONE MOMENT!” Claire screamed, straddling the body of her recent kill as Odysseus did his best to ward off the invaders. “Damn it! My blade is stuck!”

“LEAVE IT!” Odysseus spat, firing his bow at another gnoll, this time the arrow lodging into the eye socket of the monster. “LEAVE IT!”

“NO!” Claire snapped, struggling to remove her treasured blade that’s serrated edge had been caught on the creature’s ribcage. “Buy me time! I can’t leave it!”

“Damn it!” Odysseus hissed, his eyes darting left and right at the dozens of gnolls now in their encampment and beginning to encircle the pair.

Acting quickly, Odysseus spun, grabbing the torch Chiron had placed in a scone and took off to the nearby wall.

He clenched his jaw, stabbing the flaming item into the wooden structure where it caught on fire.

Seeing this, Claire went wide eyed, her hand in the midst of forcing an arrow into a gnoll’s eye.

“What are you doing?!”

“My best!” Odysseus shot back as the flames began to spread. Acting quickly, he rushed to increase the surging flames around their campsite, moving the torch two and fro.

The dried log walls quickly immolated, the temperature rapidly rising as the flames from one log began jumping to the next.

“Let's go!” Odysseus yelled, finally running up and grabbing Claire by the forearm as he threw the torch towards the snarling horde of gnolls racing towards them.

“My dad's knife!”

“Leave it! COME ON!”

Around the pair the camp walls had immolated, creating a barrier of fire that was beginning to spread into the forest, igniting trees and darkening the air as arrows flew into the camp from the countryside.

“Oh. Oh great. When you said I was gonna die by fire, you meant you were gonna kill me.” Claire said, paling at how quickly the camp was going up in flames.

“The smoke will distract their smell, while the fire and heat keeps them away.” Odysseus explained, taking off his clothes to strip nude.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Claire demanded, looking away before firing an arrow that killed an approaching gnoll.

“Strip!”

“What?!”

“Give me your clothes to dampen them!” Odysseus tugging at the woman's shirt as she resisted, ending in him getting slapped as he mistakenly grabbed her boob.

“Ok.” Odysseus said before calmly walking around the archer and kicking her into the pond.

“Fuck you!” Claire screamed upon breaking the surface of the water.

“In hindsight, I should have just jumped in as well.” Odysseus said before climbing into the cool water and grabbing his clothes, hastily putting them on as Claire climbed out.

“You! I'm so going to shank you in your sleep when we get out of this!” Claire hissed, wiping her drenched face.

“IF we get out of this you’re more than welcome to!” Odysseus replied, climbing out as the fire coupled with winds had now created a ring of flames around the camp with the cabins beginning to burn.

“You know Chiron is going to kill you right?” Claire said, picking up her bow and watching the gnolls retreating thanks to the blaze. “Especially since you burned his garden and books. You know he likes his garden right?”

“Well, we'll cross that rusty beam when we get there.” Odysseus replied, bow in hand and scanning the area as Chiron in the far distance watched with jaw agape.

“Is it just me or is it getting harder to breathe?”

“Maybe if you stopped running your mouth and wasting air you'd be able to breathe better.” Odysseus quipped, causing Claire to cock her head.

“Well don't you have a mouth.”

“Yeah, I think I’m picking up bad habits.” Odysseus groaned. “We need to move. The grass is catching fire and burning its way to us. Fortunately, grass burns quickly, so we only need to run through the flames and get to the other side then double back to the pond.”

“How sure are you that this is going to work? How do you even know it’s going to work?”

“I… read it in a book.”

"A book..."

"Yup." Odysseus lied as the flames kept closer to them. In truth, he just knew. As if it were knowledge he had tried and tested before. “Alright, I’ll go first. If everything works out-”

Suddenly thunder, angry lightning crackling across the sky that shook the world with its sound and power.

Odysseus blinked, a sense of danger forcing his head skyward where ominous black clouds had gathered to blot out the starlight.

“Shit.” Odysseus said, frowning as droplets of water fell from the heavens and touched his face.