There were a number of mutants waiting outside the den for them to return, needing someone to talk to, not just pass messages with, so Wolfe waved Ella inside with both bikes while he stopped to catch up on the morning’s news.
“Good, you made it back. Our scout says that there is anti-human magic at the landing strip now. They sent more scouts not long ago to see what happened to the others.
We assumed that it must have been you, so we came to see if you had found a good way of dealing with them for a longer time than random ambushes.
They have been going crazy with the bombings lately, and it’s becoming dangerous for the people of the wastes to go out looking for the earliest spring root vegetables, and we’re almost down to just the food that we took from the humans.”
“Are the human rations as unsatisfying for you as they are for me? It’s like they are lacking something essential.” Wolfe asked.
“Exactly. Their food is not from the Wastes. The energy content is too low, and we just get bloated trying to eat enough. It will keep us alive without a problem, but the scouts need more energy to hunt.” The relatively human-looking representative informed him.
“I can help you hunt if you need. Or I could enchant you some different ammunition that won’t explode and ruin the meat so that you can hunt with the humans’ rifles. But as far as magic to deal with whole human units, I would have to cast it myself. It’s too much to put into a single object, as far as I know.
“Oh, that would be great. If we could just hit them hard enough with the bullets, it would be fine. Or maybe a blade that cut them without burning. If hunting were easier, we would have more manpower available to target more supply convoys and starve out the humans from the Sylvan Woods.
Once they give up on that, they should leave us alone for the summer, according to the Oracles.”
“Give me a minute to make you some hunting ammunition. I have just the thing for it. How are the attacks going today? I heard that one of the units near human territory had great success last night.”
The mutant representative nodded. “They did. They captured a lot of armoured vehicles, and they’re requesting that we have some extra ammunition made for them as well since their scouts saw how well our raids have been going. We gave them one magazine for their attack, and it changed everything.”
Wolfe considered that. “I don’t know them like I do your village. I will give you more for your attacks and hunting missions, and then you can decide how it gets spread out. I trust you not to give it to anyone who will turn on us.”
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“We won’t let you down. Also, we have an update on the front lines. The humans have stopped using the gas that damages witches, but the Witches have started using rifles. I think that they’re running short on magic users outside the city.
The lack of supplies is hurting both sides since the Witches steal their gear from the humans just like we do, but they have been slowly pushing the humans back for the last day and a half.
If they can keep it up, we expect the human army to retreat in under two months. Less if we can stop them from getting supplies and reinforcements.” The representative told him with a smile.
“What about the Beast Tide?” Wolfe asked.
“They’ve moved east and away from the border, back into the Wastes. Most of the villages are in hiding there now, but it is moving all the mundane army’s supply runs our way, which is making things easier. The big attack this morning was as far out as we have seen them lately. With the bikes, you should be able to get to most of the routes within two hours.”
“I happened upon some knowledge from before the war, and I need a few days to master it. How much ammunition and explosives do you need to make sure that no supplies get to the human army for the next three days? Recruit as many as you can trust and starve the army out for me while I prepare to go after them with more force.” Wolfe asked.
“We estimate ten convoys over the next three days. So twenty magazines of ammunition and a couple of those grenade launchers if you want us to keep crippling them as we have been.
We’re not ready to lose a lot of our hunters just before spring, though, so we don’t intend to launch full-out battles unless we’re desperate.”
They should still have that much ammunition prepared inside, so Wolfe would just need to make the hunting rounds.
“Give me a few minutes, and I will be back out.” He agreed, then ducked inside to the supply rooms.
They looked just like they had when he left yesterday, so even if the Mutants had needed supplies, they hadn’t gone in and taken anything. He grabbed a case full of enchanted ammunition, which would be able to reload more than enough rounds for their attacks over the next few days, and then picked up a box to enchant for hunting.
It was a smaller box, only a hundred rounds, but for hunting purposes, it should last a long time. He enchanted it with a strong gravity enhancement and then added [Wind Blades] to create a cross pattern around the bullet that would cut a wound the size of a human torso.
If that didn’t kill whatever it hit, they had no business hunting it with a rifle—or at all. Anything that survived that hit was seriously scary.
“This is what you asked for. The smaller case is for hunting, don’t waste them. They should take down almost anything that you can hunt with a rifle, and a hundred shots should keep a lot of people fed.” He informed the leader of the scout group.
“Sweet, we will go find those Antler Beasts again. They can’t have gotten far, and even one of them is enough to feed the village for weeks.” A small, furry scout cheered in a squeaky voice, like the chipmunks from Wolfe’s favourite kids’ cartoon.
She seemed to be highly respected among her peers, as they all followed her lead, but Wolfe could see why she wasn’t the chosen spokesperson for the scouts. That voice was just too adorable, and they likely wanted to keep it to themselves.
