The haul was smaller today, but the mutants had dropped off an assortment of supplies over the course of the afternoon, coming and going silently, only noticed by Stephanie most of the time.
They had seen Wolfe attack and had donated a large number of weapons to his supply, including a pair of belt-fed anti-aircraft guns in 10mm. They were excessive, but the mutants were certain he could find a use for them eventually.
As soon as they were done for the day, the fox demon had rushed off to take care of something in one of the villages, but she had sent a small group of sick and injured over for Priya to take care of.
Normally, this would be an annoyance and not her problem, but they brought gifts, and that made it impossible for her to send all those pleading faces away.
“At least we will eat well. They’re pretty good cooks, and they brought us lots of good stuff. I will find a way to return all the extra dishes tomorrow or whenever we’re done with these ones.” Wolfe offered as he tried to identify the vegetables in a casserole.
“Don’t forget. We can’t stay here forever. The mundane army is going to attack Sylvan in the next few days, and we will need to scout the area to keep everyone safe.” She informed him with a frown.
“We are two people. We’re not the only scouts in the region, and I even met flying ones on eagles today. If anything, they will want us in position just in case there is a second wave. The chance that anyone values the combat power of one witch and a demon is pretty low.” Wolfe reminded her.
After they finished eating, Wolfe set up the external antenna for the new radio in the front cavern, so they could transmit without going outside and set up a comfortable spot to meditate while he listened for important messages.
Just after midnight, the order came to begin evacuating the quarantine camp, as an imminent sign of the enemy’s advance had been spotted.
There was no direct message for them or any other scout group, but Wolfe could feel that the witches were on the move, heading back toward Morgana Coven and the Academy, which was where most of the injured were going, according to the radio.
Just after dawn, the battle began, and the mutants were back with a morning report. They had found five more units that hadn’t crossed the border yet, and one had null stone weapons.
The Sylvan command took that report very seriously and was about to send a unit to intercept when another scout reported that a larger number of undead were headed that way, drawn by the stones and the promise of true death.
Waiting while they knew their friends were in combat wasn’t an easy task for Priya or Wolfe, especially after Wolfe felt the mana being drawn through him rapidly increase.
As he focused on the connection to increase the mana flow, he began to sense more of what was going on at their end. The group they were in was engaged in a fighting retreat, and it wasn’t going well.
Panic, grief and loss spiked in every mind every few minutes, and exhaustion was beginning to set in already, as they had been running on foot.
The bond allowed [Fast Travel] so he could rescue them, but that would leave their unit in an even worse position.
The only real answer was to use [Fast Travel] to go to them. If he left Stephanie with Priya, he could likely travel back just as easily as he left once the battle was finished, but the problem was that he didn’t know what they were facing.
The 10mm flak gun would be great, but setting it up would take too long, and he couldn’t carry it. Instead, he focused on enchanting every bullet in two cases of heavy machine gun ammunition. With the belts prepared in advance, instead of enchanting the rifle to grant a spell effect to the bullets as they were fired, he could use his mana for defence once he arrived.
At this distance, the witches could not draw much of his mana, so he had some to spare until he left, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do that would increase his odds of successfully extracting them from their situation.
“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” Priya asked as Wolfe fed an ammunition belt through a gunner’s backpack and armed the big gun.
“My Bond Ability is [Fast Travel]. I am going to go rescue our people and then come back with as many as I can.” He assured her with a smile.
“And you’re leaving me here?”
“With Stephanie. If you’re both here, I can use it as an anchor to return. Just be safe until then and tell the mutants I will be back. Well, write it down or something since they can’t understand you with that curse in place.”
ƥαṇdαηθνε|
“Close the entrance if you have to, but I don’t think there will be anything coming this way for a while. If all goes well, we will be back tomorrow with reinforcements.” He added before picking up the two backpacks and the heavy rifles attached to them.
“I’ve got your other rifle here. It should give me enough long-range attacks to chase away small things, and with Stephanie here; hopefully, they won’t bother us. The monsters don’t seem to have the same aggressive hate for the two of you that they do for witches.” Priya agreed, doing her best to hide her disappointment and worry at being left behind, even if it was theoretically for a good cause and obeying orders.
“Stephanie, take good care of her, and I’ll bring you back treats.” Wolfe teased.
[Sure, leave me here in the middle of nowhere while you go out to have fun again, why don’t you? Yeah, yeah. I’ll be here waiting, but it had better be a good treat, or I will claw your legs while you sleep.]