"You're hurt," Sildra said, her voice almost accusatory.
"It's nothing," Velik said. He was surprised she'd even noticed.
"Doesn't look like nothing."
"It'll be healed up by tomorrow, and the cuts aren't that deep."
Giller, Torwin, and Jensen were questioning the bandits, having divided the group into thirds and pulled them far enough apart that they wouldn't overhear each other. That left Aria, whose hair was tousled and eyes still gritty from interrupted sleep, along in the camp with Sildra and Velik. They'd been given the task of straightening things up. Everything was in disarray from a dozen people fighting in a small space, and soone's bedroll had gotten kicked into the small campfire they'd been arrayed around. Velik idly wondered if whoever it was could convince Jensen to return to King's Crossroad for replacent supplies.
"Co here and sit down," Sildra ordered. "We'll get it cleaned up and then I'll see what I can do."
"You have healing magic?" Aria asked, surprised.
"A… bit. It's complicated."
Velik hadn't been aware of any such skill himself, though admittedly he hadn't talked to Sildra back at the frontier outside of their one eting when he'd killed an elite that was going after her and her escort. Jensen would be the one who'd know, and he hadn't said anything. Either she hadn't had the ability for long, or he'd been keeping it secret for so reason.
His clothes were already starting to nd themselves and the blood had dried and sloughed off like old snakeskin, but his body had no [nding] enchantnt to clean it, so he was forced to strip down and splash a bit of water on himself, then scrub at the wounds with a scrap of cloth. It was barbarism, as far as any healer was concerned, more saring the filth around than cleaning it up.
"Ugh. Good enough," Sildra pronounced. She reached toward Velik, her hands glowing softly in the night as they brushed up against the wound.
It didn't magically vanish, but sothing happened. The sensation was odd, almost like stretching stiff muscles after a long, cold night of inactivity, but it was the cut skin doing it instead of the muscles beneath. It strained and pulled, knitting itself back together over a few seconds and leaving pale, moonlight-colored scars in place of bloody injuries.
"Those should fade soon enough," Sildra told him as she healed the hundred or so cuts. So places took more work than others, especially where he'd been raked in the sa spot multiple tis, but a few minutes later, he was patched up and able to put his clothes back on.
"Thanks," he said. It hadn't been critical or anything, but he appreciated the fact that she'd expended so of her ti and energy to accomplish nothing more than easing his pain.
"We're a team now, right? You and . The Black Fang himself and… the leatherworker's daughter who had a seamstress class until a few months ago."
"Don't overthink it," Velik advised her.
"Not that I haven't enjoyed the show," Aria said while eyeing Velik suggestively, "but perhaps the two of you could resu your actual assignnts and help clean the camp up."
"Considering that I've yet to see you straighten a single thing outside your own little corner, it seems like you could be a bit more useful yourself," Velik said.
"That's a simple division of labor!"
"In that you take up half the camp by yourself, sure."
Everyone else was using bedrolls, or in the Velik's and Torwin's case, their cloaks and nothing else. Only Aria had an actual tent set up, sothing that she claid was enchanted for safety and comfort. It had been knocked down when Giller had thrown a man through it using a skill she called [Ferrokinesis]. There'd been a brief argunt over whether the action had been a deliberate act of vandalism.
Personally, Velik agreed with Aria that Giller had done it on purpose. He also agreed with Giller that, intentional or not, it was funny and that Aria had no need for the tent, regardless. Either way, while Velik and Sildra had been picking up the scattered cooking equipnt, piling up the half-charred logs of the fire to relight, and dividing up whatever loose personal possessions were lying around to be reclaid later, Aria had done nothing but get her tent back upright.
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She was saved from further scolding when Torwin returned to camp, his line of prisoners in tow. None of them were in good shape, but if they received dical attention, they'd live. Personally, Velik wouldn't bother with it, but he wasn't in charge and it wasn't his responsibility to do anything about it. So if Torwin or Jensen or whoever decided they wanted to turn the bandits over to the guards at King's Crossroad, that was fine by him.
"Good news and bad news," Torwin said. "Let's wait to get everyone back together before we get into it."
"Or you could just tell us instead of trying to be dramatic. I don't need the gory details of your interrogation session; just give the broad overview of what you learned."
"Good news is that there won't be any more of them. They're a rcenary company and we got all of them. Bad news is that they're a hired rcenary company, which ans soone paid them to try to kill us."
"Not us," Giller said as she marched her group back in. "Or rather, not all of us. They're specifically looking for one person."
"Jensen?" Torwin guessed. He looked to where his forr apprentice was still speaking with the last group of subdued rcenaries.
"No. Him."
"?" Velik asked when Giller pointed a finger his way. "What did I do?"
"You tell , kid. What have you been getting yourself up to when no one's looking? rcenary companies this strong don't co cheap, so soone was willing to part with a lot of coin to take you out."
The coliseum, maybe? I was pretty heavy-handed getting information out of Ned, but if that's the case, why wait so long? I've been around town for weeks since then. Maybe it's so enemy of Blendstin's who knows how big a fan he is of my fighting persona trying to strike at him through . Or, I guess, it could be Pevril just being himself. Never could make sense of what his deal was.
Once he thought about it, it was kind of surprising just how many enemies he'd managed to make in such a short amount of ti. Jensen might have been right about him applying himself harder in those social etiquette classes he'd tried out. Of course, it was also reasonable to say that trying to have him killed was an overreaction on the offended party's side, so maybe Velik wasn't the only one who needed to learn how to behave in polite society.
"I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything worthy of being assassinated," Velik said.
"The fact that you had to think about it for a while does not fill with confidence," Aria told him dryly.
"Either way, this ans more work and probably delaying this trip. We can't just ignore a threat on Velik's life," Torwin said.
Velik shrugged. "Why not? It's not like it was a particularly good one. Other than that monster, there were no real threats here."
"Maybe not to you or , but what about Sildra? One of those arrows could have killed her. Jensen's only got a few levels on her, too. And Aria's stat spread doesn't lean into physical."
"I'll thank you not to lump in with the irons," Aria said primly. "Those scrub rcenaries could never have touched ."
"Is Jensen part of the guild?" Velik asked. "I thought…"
"Not officially. She just ans people around that level bracket," Torwin explained.
Usually iron-ranked monster hunters were around level 15 or 20, so the descriptor made sense once Velik understood that it didn't necessarily reflect any sort of affiliation with the guild. He'd been the anomaly, coming in over level 40. As a loose approximation, bronzes usually encompassed levels 20 to 30, with silvers taking 31 to 45, golds taking 46-60, and platinums sitting at the top of the heap past that.
As far as Velik was aware, there were only a handful of platinums in the country, and none of them hanging around Cravel's guild hall. Most of the senior administration staff were composed of retired silvers or golds, with maybe a bronze here and there who'd taken a non-combat class.
Maybe if they let the people with administrative classes actually run the guild, things would go a lot smoother. Then again, they probably tried that and found that no one would listen to so paper stacking clerk, especially over an unpopular decision.
"There's one other thing," Torwin said. "None of them will admit it, but a bonded monster ans so sort of class like [Beast Tar] or [Pack Runner], which none of these rcs have. There's soone else out there that we missed. I didn't sense that cat until it was already on Velik, so we know it's got so sort of powerful stealth skill, probably not sothing as basic as actual [Stealth] either. If it's bonded, its partner might be sharing skills with it and hiding nearby right now."
Involuntarily, everyone turned to look out into the darkness. Velik and Torwin could see just fine, and he suspected Sildra's class revolving around the moon probably lent itself so sort of night vision as well, but he wasn't sure what Giller or Aria were hoping to spot. Maybe she's looking for mana or sothing. That seems to fit with whatever her class is. And Giller is… I guess looking for tal?
"Well, that's a problem, but it's hardly insurmountable," Aria said. "I'm quite good at flushing out quarry for the hounds to run down."
"Aria," Torwin said, his voice strained. "Please do not destroy the countryside. People live around here."
"Ugh. You were a lot more fun ten years ago, you know that?"
"How have you not gotten kicked out of the guild yet?" Giller asked, flashing her a disgusted glance.
"Because I'm so damn good at what I do."
"Jensen's coming back," Velik told them, cutting off the argunt before it could get started.
A minute later, he marched his group of prisoners into the camp. There were a few new arrows sticking out of so of them. At Torwin's questioning look, he shrugged and said, "A few of them tried to run."
The old [Ranger] just grunted thoughtfully and eyed the group up.
"So, what do we do with the prisoners?" Velik asked.
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