ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm
Wolfe headed North into the Frozen Wastes in search of the remainder of the unit that Priya was certain was nearby, creeping through the trees on the same path that he took yesterday.
The idea was that he would retrace their steps in the snow and follow them back to the camp. Failing that, he would follow the tracks left by their vehicles, which were impossible to miss, but also much easier to track him along since the ground had been churned and softened.
The army wasn’t the only danger around, and in Wolfe’s estimation, they might not even be the biggest danger in the area, so he had to be careful not to let anything else track his movement while he hunted.
He stopped at the same stand of trees where he had fired from last night to check the site and see if anyone had come to check on the missing soldiers this morning but found only ash piled on the dirt and mostly undisturbed snow.
He could still see where the woman had fallen, with no extra footprints around it, so it was almost guaranteed that nobody had been to the location since she left.
Wolfe was searching the area for clues using [Detect Hidden] and the scope on his rifle at maximum resolution when he spotted something strange in the distance. Five hundred meters from the scene of last night’s attack, off to the west, a man who was dressed much like him but in mundane camouflage was buried in snow and branches, watching the location of the burnt bodies with a pair of high-tech-looking binoculars.
There was a large fallen tree between them that Wolfe was looking through with magic, so Wolfe adjusted his position until he had a clear view, but was still in a location that would still keep him out of sight of the soldier in the distance.
Fifty meters closer and without the obstacles in the way, Wolfe was within range for [Detect Hidden] to tell that the sniper wasn’t alone. There was a whole group of soldiers and five tanks hidden behind him.
That was why nobody searched the site. They could see it from their camp. They just couldn’t see where Wolfe was shooting from.
Carefully, Wolfe backed out of sight into a low spot and wondered what he should do next. They were very close to the cave, and they didn’t look like they planned to move. At least not today.
He would have to warn Priya as well. The enemy position was close enough that their patrols might come across her while she hunted. She was a professional, but so were they, and there were a lot of them. Plus, they had come here to hunt witches, so they would most likely have brought a way to deal with her armour spell, even if it was just by using a lot of bullets.
He had been lying there for two hours, working on learning their routine, when something unexpected happened. An alarm began to blare in their camp, and suddenly everyone was scrambling to get into position around the clearing they were hidden in.
They were in defensive positions and on high alert, ready for whatever was coming and looking around nervously like it might appear from anywhere at any moment. They were even scanning the sky, so they hadn’t ruled out an attack by flying creatures yet.
At first, their actions didn’t make sense, there wasn’t anything around them, but after a few minutes, Wolfe heard engines approaching at a high rate of speed.
Misshapen forms on motorcycles flew past Wolfe’s hiding spot, howling and reeking of death and burnt fuel.
Their course would take them between him and the soldiers, so Wolfe didn’t move and just waited in the snow for the mutants to pass. The teachers in the Fortress City said that the mutants were the unnatural descendants of men and beasts who were driven crazy by the fractured magic of the wastes, and Wolfe believed every word now that he had seen them.
They had just passed the mundane soldiers’ position when suddenly, the whole group stopped their bikes and sniffed the air. Then they turned around, dropped their rides and crashed into the woods, throwing [Fireballs] from their hands as they charged into the camp.
The soldiers were prepared for the attack, and though they took some casualties, they quickly killed half of the mutants before they reached the clearing.
But within seconds, the snarling attackers did get to the defenders, and all hell broke loose. The mutants were surrounded in a defensive spell that Wolfe decided must be a crude application of [Flame Armour], and they were so fast that the soldiers were unable to evade the strikes or otherwise save themselves from the flurry of claws and blades.
The sound of automatic weapons fire filled the air, punctuated by an explosion that shook the ground even half a kilometre away where Wolfe was hidden. Wolfe refined his sensory spell to see through the slowly clearing smoke and found only rubble and bodies, plus a few werewolves. If his guess was right, the mutants had accidentally detonated a tank’s ammunition storage.
The magical armour saved most of them, but the only human left alive was the sniper closest to Wolfe.
As the crackle and pop of burning ammunition drowned out anything else, the sniper made a run for it, running out into the open and toward the trees where last night’s attack had happened.
He never made it.
From behind him, a shot rang out, and the sniper crumpled to the ground, only a few dozen meters short of his goal and the relative safety of being able to blend his ghillie suit’s shaggy outer camouflage into the stand of trees.
Once the flames of the camp began to burn down, the victorious attackers packed up everything they could carry and took off back past Wolfe, returning the way they came but leaving one man behind to stake their claim on the rest of the goods.
If they were intending to return, Wolfe would be sure he was gone from the trees before they could get close enough to sense one more person hiding in the vicinity of their loot.
The project for the day was done, and even more, the soldiers had been eliminated, so it was time for him to return to his bunker and work on strengthening the bond with his Familiars.
An exhausted-looking Priya was already back at the bunker when Wolfe made his way through the hidden crack in the rock and into the cave below. There was quite a bit of fresh meat, but it evidently didn’t come easy.
Priya waved off his concern when he was about to ask if she needed assistance with her injuries. “Don’t ask. I did get ahold of the remnant of our unit, and they’re safely away from the battle and on their way to the camp outside Sylvan Fortress, but most of them took heavy damage from the gas, and they are still healing.
It destroys their ability to restore their aura and doesn’t just suppress it. Anyone whose armour spell was broken took a lot of damage from it before they could get clear of the camp. Your Familiars are all safe, but the other five are in the infirmary.
They got ambushed while playing hero to rescue more stragglers from our unit on the way to the secondary lines, but they’re still alive.
According to Command, our orders are the same, scout and report enemy movement in front of the defensive line. Did you find the mundane army’s camp?”
Wolfe gave a bitter laugh before responding. “I did, but so did a group of mutants. They could use fire magic, including armour, and they tore the camp up in minutes, even with the tanks on site.”
“And they didn’t come for you?” She asked.
“They either didn’t notice me, or they didn’t care. I made a few loops before coming inside, though, so my trail won’t end at the entrance if they do track me later.”