RSTUM 97 (Patreon)

97: Infiltrating Fort Marth

"Haha! This has come out perfectly." Leon said as he put his knife aside and tied the last knot.

It was a few straight branches gathered together in equal lengths and a piece of cloth tied to them tightly. Leon used branches, tree fibers, and feathers from a few birds he shot down.

"It looks like a bird."

"It's a kite."

Rhyme could tell that it was a kit but Leon tied no strings to the kite, rather, he made it stringless but gave it the ability to move its sides and bend upward and downward with a tail. All that is left is for the Will o' Wisp to possess it.

"Let's go. A magical undead drone for our cute little Wisp." Leon said as he pointed for the Wisp to possess it.

He felt a strange shake in the Wisp's wavelengths and it seemed to be resisting his orders.

"It doesn't like being called cute or little." Rhyme explained.

"Figures." Leon laughed, "Alright, soldier. Your duty is to take to the sky."

The Wisp seemed a bit hesitant and Leon could feel like forcing it to enter but he left it for the Wisp to come by itself. As it possessed the bird like kite, Leon discovered that the Wisp can still float by the kite without him having to worry about the wind and all that.

It was a good gain but the kite composition would be of help later on. Thus Leon let the Wisp take to the sky and do experimental flying. This turned out to be good and the Kite was holding well against the air currents up in the sky.

————————————————————

[ Shambles ] < Animated Undead - Junk Item >

Made of mundane materials. This particular Shambles takes the shape of a bird.

Creator: Leon Dark.

————————————————————

"Look at that, our boy is flying." Leon said, "Go on! Go ahead! This is so exciting."

Leon looked at his kite like a child as it flew across the sky using not even a string which made Rhyme look at him while wondering. She recognized him as the Ring Bearer but she has no recollection of what that means. Maybe she forgot but she knew it was something important.

Still, for that important person to use Death Magic to create a Kite, only time could tell how this turns out to be.

As for Leon, he was immersed in merging his senses with the Wisp in order to feel what's going around him. It acted like a Radar with an excellent ability to sense all the auras surrounding it this high in the sky. Leon could even send it ahead for 200 meters and receive clear feedback in his mind.

It felt as if he required the Reconnaissance Drone he used to have during operations preps. He still has to maintain Rhyme around him when he focuses on the senses of the Wisp because it feels like he loses track of his own senses. He may be scouting the direction he is heading towards and his other directions are currently exposed, thus he must move fast.

As soon as he started to return to the edges of the woodland back to the main roads, he started to pick up the signals of living humans going through the road. They were divided into loose groups of three and kept circling a wide range of the roads.

He could take his chances and try to evade them back by traveling through the woods but as soon as night falls, beasts will start roaming the area and it will be dangerous. He needed to focus on his main objective, which is to cross the Marth Bridge and enter the territory of Godfrey that is not hostile to him.

Sunset time came over and the woods became dark but Leon had managed to trace the patrols to the Marth Bridge by then. Vadim didn't tell Leon much but the bridge was the only possible way to cross to the other side and there was no natural way to travel except through it.

The bridge… it left Leon in awe.

It can be said that the bridge is the main settlement and capital point of the entire Marth Barony. It was a first class military base and an impenetrable fortress.

The whole bridge was extremely wide and it crossed over a bottomless ravine that seemed to have separated the entire landmass in half. The width of the bridge allowed the royals to build a central Fort in the middle of the bridge which extends by the whole width of the bridge. Even more, there was a fortified wall at the other side of the bridge to keep any invader from the other side at bay.

"This side is too exposed, the other side is impossible to cross casually. The Baron himself came out in the open which means he is confident he doesn't need to defend his place and it can hold anyone out on its own."

The flying shambles in the sky detected too many signals coming and going. He could even see many pilgrim caravans that seemed to have camped outside the bridge and were kept under inspection. In one of them, he could see his Bison, Diesel, but found no Vadim on it.

Leon could tell that the Dwarf escaped in the other direction.

Right now, he needs a plan and a good one at that. One that involves him accounting for all known and unknown variables and that's why he decided to stalk till nightfall. He wore his Ebonthread light armor and donned the Chameleon Cloak to keep out of sight then continued toying with the bird-like Kite to see how to cross the bridge.

He was tempted to go beneath the bridge but this would need a lot of tools that he doesn't have. The other strategy was to pose as a guard and infiltrate the Fort but this would be complicated since border passes like this have a strict system of sorting out their members. Also, the moment he starts killing, he'll draw attention.

The other problem is that no one was passing through the keep, to begin with. Still, he saw the weakness he was looking for this entire time.

"Cargo!"

There was a lot of cargo lined up on the bridge's side and it seemed like halted imports. The common thing about them was that they were wooden barrels and crates covered with sheets to protect them from rain and humidity. All Leon needed now was camouflage and he had one on his back.

The next step was to infiltrate the sealed castle. Since the security was thinned out on the roads, not all the guards were posted on the walls of the Fort and most of them were focused around the gates in case of an emergency. Thankfully, the castle had too many arrow slits and Leon had not one but multiple grappling hooks and a lot of rope.

Finally, Leon needed to cross the Fort then the rest of the bridge to the wall. This will put him into a lot of exposure since the road was empty and so he needed the bridge to work. Travelers must cross for him to create the right amount of confusion.

This was a plan that was based on a lot of ifs. Still, he chose a tree to climb on and concealed himself with his Chameleon Cloak then to not alert guards or predators. He decided to sleep until the middle of the night when the enemy is tired the most.

***

By midnight, the cards started to play in Leon's hand and the bridge seemed quiet. Leon regained all his Mana and sent the Shambles Drone to fly above and seek him the best route possible.

Leon immediately used the "Shadow Cloak" spell to move like the darkness of night and crossed a quarter of a mile like the wind. Until he stepped on the bridge. Immediately and before anyone sees him, he stuck to the nearest cargo and made the Chameleon Cloak take the same color as the sheets covering the cargo.

The Shambles Drone above him a feedback that all was good and no abnormal movements happened on the walls or the bridge. Just like that, he moved from one cargo to another and got to the part where it is closest to the Fort's wall. This caused him to take another Shadow Cloak rush until he got right next to the wall.

No wall is unscalable, that's what Shady always said and this one was particularly easy. He had his grappling hooks and ropes which with the right precision, they can latch to the arrow slits on the walls. The Shambles Drone kept a close watch on this second on the wall and made sure it was clear for him.

Leon threw the first grappling hook after changing the appearance of his Chameleon Cloak to mimic the Fort's wall. After a few tries, Leon was successful to land the grappling hook at the first arrow slit without drawing attention.

The drone kept watch over him and he scaled the first part of the wall skillfully. From the first arrow slot to the second was a lesser distance than between the first and the ground. Leon positioned himself right before finally managing to make it all the way up to the battlements of the Fort.

Looking left and right, Leon realized that he was safe as the guards were all focused and concentrated in different areas. He guided his drone up and sent it to scout the remaining part of the Fort's roof which was relatively easy to evade the guards on thanks to the many scattered barrels of weapons and ammunition.

Finally, Leon could see the other side of the Fort but as he thought, it was impossible to pass through quietly. The Baron seemed to have rallied a lot of men between this side of the bridge and the side of the Godfrey duchy as if he was anticipating any military attack from the other side.

Even the famous Black Cobra will have trouble facing an army on his own.

Leon had to look for an opportunity somewhere else and the night was still young. Still, now that he is in the stronghold of his enemy, he can do a lot of sabotaging while he's at it.

By letting the Shambles Drone fly across the Fort's courtyard, Leon could figure that around a 100 people are currently in the Fort with him. The two sides of the Fort were directly overlooking a very deep ravine which gave him quite the terrible idea.

Power Leveling!

With a rough headcount, there were 18 guards on the roof with him all of which were focused around the gates and roughly patrolling the sides. The area which the roof spans across is quite big and he was willing to do some shenanigans of his own.

First, catching a stray guard was easy, taking him down was even easier. Once he had him under his dagger, he made the guard tell him all he needed to know about the Fort and where the important people live. He broke the guard's neck, took his outer garment, and wore it after tossing the guard down to the ravine from the side of the Fort.

As no one felt the dead guard fall, it was all a matter of how fast he could wipe out all those who were on the roof.

Catching most of the lone guards would make it problematic if the other guards were to discover them missing but thanks to the night, most of these guards were already sleepy from overworking since the Fort was short on hands.

Leon didn't hesitate and killed 5 more guards before moving at the gate overlooking the eastern side of the Fort which leads to the Godfrey duchy. He walked in casually and greeted the guards, acting as if he was about to remove his helmet in order to keep his face covered long enough before.

Stabbing the first at his neck, shooting the second with a crossbow, shooting the third with another crossbow, kicking the fourth against a wall, jumping on the fifth and stabbing him in the neck before returning to the fourth before strangling and killing him.

Quickly, he sealed the two doorways leading to the roof from this gate's side, dragged the corpses away before their blood started falling from the battlements, and tossed them in the ravine.

He even took the time to familiarize himself with the gate mechanisms to do something cool with them later.

Just like that, he took the opportunity to head towards the other side of the Fort and took out the remaining 5 guards with speed and precision and sealed the doorways to the roof from that direction too.

What remained for him was going downstairs and doing all the dirty deeds he can before the next dawn.