Chapter 53: The search party and ambush plans

With the enemy approaching Ethan had only one possible way, a decisive victory to scare them off forever. He would crush their spirit, break their bones and send them away with a bloody nose and a lesson for life. At Least that was what he wanted to do but he knew how unprepared he was for a fight.

With his staff in hand he summoned a cloud of snow under his feet and floated up to the nearest tree. It was one of the giant trees that held the outpost in the air and thanks to his staff, the flight speed had increased significantly. In barely a minute he was at the top of the tree. The branches as thick as his entire body, the leaves big and round that they could cover his entire head.

The cloud vanished when he stepped on one of the branches, his feet glueing him to the slick bark, the humidity up here was even worse than on the ground. He carefully walked away from the trunk and tried to find a spot where he could watch the ground.

Crawling around in a tree wasn’t something he expected to do today, he thought when he finally found a spot where the leaves didn’t limit his vision to a few centimeters. He laid down flat on the branch and looked towards his little burrow hideout.

It seems Nora’s warning came just in time, around twenty of those pesky elves were gathered around his ritual circle, one of them slipped into the burrow while others held bows or spears in hand, scanning the forest for any movement.

This was also the first time he could actually see them and he suppressed an annoyed groan, there were only women down there. His first thought was, did he really stumble over a civilization where a man was the inferior being? Did it bother him? No not really but hurting or even killing women was something he learned was a very bad thing.

His mother, may she rest in peace, would turn in her grave when she knew what Ethan would possibly do in the future. Now that he thought about it, she wouldn’t really approve of his exploits in the tutorial. He took a deep breath, existential crisis could be dealt with another day, he was gathering them like trading cards anyway.

Shaking his head he focused back on the group below him. They were discussing something based on the smaller circle of women gesturing to each other, he really needed to increase his perception some. Looking at them he noticed they were agitated by something.

Ethan was sure Nora was listening to them but he didn’t dare to connect to her telepathically so he waited. One of the women was performing some sort of magic, green energy spread out from her and to Ethan’s surprise, showed his footsteps in such a radiant green even he could see them clearly but to his luck and their misfortune, his footsteps ended where he stepped on the cloud and rose into the air.
A stupid grin on his face as he looked down at them, their faces turning left and right when they shared glances, it seems he won this round, for now. After waiting a bit longer the first group vanished, leaving only five women standing there talking but then they split up and four of them left the burrow.

The last one was left behind, a bow in hand she jumped up to one of the smaller trees and got ready to ambush him, at least that was his best guess. He could only see her dark red hair for a moment and then she was almost invisible to him, it seems like she used some magic to camouflage herself.

First he thought she must leave after another hour, but when he approached the third hour she was still there. Ethan saw no movement, no rustling of leaves or any animals that smelled her and ran away. She was invisible to the world.

When the fourth hour drew closer he risked it and sent his thoughts out to find Nora. Finding her was quite easy actually because she was right underneath him, it seems she managed to find his thoughts a bit earlier.

Nora, did you manage to hear what they said? From up here I could just make out some hand gestures.

I heard them, yes. In short, they sensed your magic and heard your tree murder. Turns out destroying trees makes a lot of noise, you idiot. This group was on patrol or something, and after discussing what to do, they decided to get to the bottom of it. Before they got here, I rushed back to warn you.

As you already know they searched the area here and used some magic I haven’t seen before but my best guess is something nature related. When they couldn’t find you they made a plan to ambush you, the archer in that tree was to stay back and when you appeared she would make the noise of some bird that is pretty common here and the others would rush back and kill you.

Ethan raised an eyebrow and asked. Kill me? That seems pretty harsh, don’t they capture prisoners to interrogate them first or something? Maybe exile but straight up killing?

Nope, kill you for sure. They said it was the will of the great mother, whatever that means. I would guess it’s their goddess or some sort of nature spirit. So Ethan do you have any more bright ideas? Blowing up a mountain next for example?

He rolled his eyes and stifled a sigh. Yes, yes, mock me all you want but I experimented with magic and got some pretty good results so it was worth it in the end. But to be more serious, I would try to capture the archer and get some answers out of her.

His companion was nearly at his side, they were only separated by a few more meters up the tree trunk. I hope you mean interrogate when you say it. Not those nasty things you humans do with each other, and yes I saw that in your memories. Your people should really find something more productive to do, snakes would never do such a thing, especially not wear the skin of some other being like you wear leather.

Ethan’s face turned a darker shade of red, which was a lot compared to his pale skin. Don’t throw me in with those people and could please focus on our predicament? I don’t know how we could reach the tree without alerting her to our presence, do you have an idea or would you rather continue to mock me? I know I fucked up so please, lets change the subject.

When Nora slithered over his leg and found her place on his shoulder and down his arm she answered him. I do have a plan, believe it or not it sounds stupid but I believe it could work if we pull it off. So the archer is waiting for you and will keep an eye out for as long as she needs. But I believe I could distract her long enough for you to jump her. What you need to do is wait for my signal and then float down to her and freeze her mouth shut at the very least. My guess is the others are far away to not alarm you so it’s our best shot. If she makes any noise it’s over.

Are you sure that will work? I mean just now I have a dozen things in mind that could go wrong with your plan. From her detecting my magic up to you getting killed with bare hands by some angry elven archer. They skinned the panther I killed right after it’s death, that’s fucked up in my opinion. He looked at her, worry written all over his face.

Trust me Ethan, I know it’s not the best plan but it’s a plan that might work and if not, well we can still run away right? Ethan wasn’t so sure but agreed to her plan. Even if he thought it was stupid.

Both of them decided to wait for the evening, even when the elf has night vision as a skill it would still be better than to ambush her in broad daylight. As soon as the sun went down, Nora made her way to the elf, slithering with her long body around the tree, using vines and thick carpets of moss as stairs she slowly closed the distance between them. Once the branches of other trees were close enough she coiled her body like a spring and jumped over to another branch.

In absolute silence she glided through the treetops until she found the right one. Making her way down she spotted the elf but continued on her way, only to turn around and approach her from below, hoping to catch the elf’s attention.

Meanwhile Ethan fidgeted with his staff and followed Nora with his spirit. Feeling her thoughts as she moved around. Then finally, barely a whisper in his mind.

Wait…wait…now Ethan!