Wild Dragon of Rome 22 (Patreon)

“ … Now, we have the last stage of our plan,” I said as I returned to Lillian’s side. I had circled around the island for the last hour, and searched for any sentries they might have placed. Luckily, there was no sentry. They assumed that they were safe after driving the pirates away.

That, or they chose to keep their forces together, assuming Lillian had no chance of escaping even if she was alive.

Our destination was their sole camp, and if most of the mages were as exhausted as I assumed after spending hours fighting against the third-order beasts, I would cause a distraction that would make people at the camp use their magic.

Which, in turn, would allow Lillian to use the presence of the other spells to cast a water spell, and drag one of the boats that had been pulled to the beach with an errant wave.

Simple.

As simple as my plans to get away from Britannia or the pirate ship had been… Therefore, I was already running several other plans in my mind as I did my best to prepare some contingencies. The first one was finding Lillian the perfect place to cast a spell rather than dragging her with me.

“I think you should wait here,” I said as I pointed a rock at the shore that was large enough for her to hide. “Then, get into the sea once you feel the first spell being used. Then, use the wave to drag the boat away. But if—”

“Yes, Marcus, you have explained it five times already,” she whispered back, frustrated. “I know you’re used to working solo, but trust me.”

I sighed. She was right. I was nervous enough to lecture her, which was pointless. She had some serious deficiencies in her battle approach, but none of them could be fixed by a simple lecture. “Be careful,” I still said before I turned and went back to the forest, the darkness comforting.

With my new senses, traversing the forest was as easy during the night as it was during the day. So, as I crawled toward the camp, there was no errant broken branch that made a crunch sound, no accidental stumbling on a nocturnal beast on the prowl for prey.

Not that there had been many of those around in the first place. The camp had a huge bonfire, making the camp comfortable and driving away smaller beasts that might be encouraged by the larger beasts at the same time. While it created the risk of drawing the stronger beasts, the kidnappers clearly thought it to be an acceptable tradeoff.

The layout of the camp was simple. They had six sentries watching the forest, each in the field of view of at least two others as they created a large semi-circle, each about two hundred feet away from the bonfire. It was a simple yet effective layout, especially since none of the sentries had been drinking or dozing off, showing admirable discipline.

The first real problem was the two sentries that were standing next to the beached boats. One of them was an apprentice mage, who was watching the sea carefully. Not all beasts were smart enough to target the empty boats, but there were some that had learned that trick. It was a good way to hunt careless sailors, forcing them to swim back to their ships where they would be vulnerable in the water.

The other problem was the solo mage right next to the bonfire, eating and drinking, showing no signs of exhaustion. His attitude confirmed my decision not to attack the ships during the day, assuming that such a group wouldn’t have committed all their forces to the fight against the beasts — not when the pirates might have been lurking around for revenge.

I wished that I had more of my usual gear. I wasn’t a qualified apothecary, but caring for my grandfather for the last few years forced me to learn some specialized medicines. One of them had been a sleeping powder, one that worked on an old man with serious pain problems. It would have worked on a careless mage as well.

Unfortunately, when I boarded the pirate ship under the guise of a forced recruit, I didn’t dare to smuggle anything but the dragon heart and some money, afraid of triggering a search.

I sighed. There was no point wasting time on plans that I couldn’t complete. I needed a better distraction. I went deeper into the forest, searching for a fitting tool. “It’s ironic that I’m relying on you,” I muttered as I put my fingers on my heart, listening to my own heartbeat.

One that felt subtly different. Stronger, but more rigid.

Like I had a crystal lodged in the center of my heart…

Even though it scared me for the future, the present benefits were hard to argue. Thanks to my advanced senses, I moved around the forest almost at a running pace, far faster than I could have moved even under the sunlight before the accident. It felt good.

Too bad mere physical improvements weren’t enough to take a force of multiple mages. I had thought about drawing them into the forest, and dealing with them one by one … but they didn’t look stupid enough to follow me deeper into the forest while losing their comrades one by one. They would just go back to their ships, surround the island, and wait for their leader.

Their sorcerer leader.

Ten minutes later, I had found the perfect target. A second-order snake, giving me the impression that it was a beast of air, wrapping itself around a mana plant of the same quality, trying to defend it while it bore fruit.

I didn’t recognize the plant, but the snake seemed to be determined to keep an eye on it, making it a good target. Snakes, particularly the venomous kind, were vicious ambush predators, but they were also relatively stupid with one track of mind. Even as a second-order beast, they were easy to mislead.

The trick was to survive their vicious reaction.

Catching a small, ordinary rat was easy with my physical improvements. I kept it alive as I went near the snake, and threw it several feet away from it. The snake lacked the capacity to question the sudden appearance of easy prey. Instead, it darted toward it with a dangerous speed, and swallowed it.

Eating didn’t slow down a second-order snake like it would slow down an ordinary snake, but it still distracted it enough for me to dart forward and uproot the plant. From there, I ran, and the snake followed with a furious hiss.

As the wind caressed my face, I appreciated my new improvements even more. Not only I was far faster, enough to leave a second-order beast behind — albeit one that wasn’t known for their speed — but also I was able to run with a shocking agility, like a tiger cutting through the forest.

Fast, deadly.

Yet, utterly silent.

My own performance surprised me. When I tested my limits earlier — as much as I could without alerting the mages — I didn’t expect it to act this smoothly. Therefore, I modified some of my plans on the fly.

I approached the camp a bit more than I expected while I squeezed the plant, making its smell spread.

And, threw it next to the nearest sentry with a tall arc. It plopped the ground with a wet sound, several feet away from the sentry. He didn’t miss it. He tapped a small drum that was with him with a specific pattern before he started moving forward to check what it was. The other two sentries moved close to the space he had just vacated.

Another show of their impressive discipline.

Too bad that didn’t save him from the fury of the snake blinded by anger after losing its bounty. The snake was simple-minded enough to follow the trajectory of the plant, and saw a man poking the suspicious plant with a stick.

The cries of the sentry were pitiful, but they stopped in seconds. The venom of a second-order beast was far more effective than an ordinary snake, which was a mercy. I pulled back three hundred feet into the forest, watching as the two sentries went to help.

The second one had experienced a similar fate, but before the third one could do so, the mage finally reacted, flaring his mana as flames danced around him threateningly. The area turned bright, enough for me to see one of the boats being caught by an errant wave.

The sentry responsible for boats missed it until it was too late, their attention caught by the reaction of the fire mage, but I could see that he would eventually react to it. I decided to distract them further.

I grabbed a stone, weighed it, and threw it. It cut through the darkness with a sharp whistle, moving toward the fire mage only to meet with a blast of fire. The fire mage reacted on time, and the heat wave that accompanied the blast was enough to change the direction of the small rock.

“Attackers, to arms!” he shouted, which gave all sentries, including the two that were responsible for the boats, something to do. Their reaction was slower than what I would have expected from such an impressive group, showing that the last thing they expected was to be attacked. And, now, the fire mage was setting several fires at the edge of the forest, overcompensating for it, unaware that it was creating the perfect distraction for us.

I slinked away and went to our meeting spot, where Lillian was waiting for me, drenched with water that made her ragged clothing stick to her body dangerously, with a proud smile on her face.

Behind her, was a small boat, designed for nothing more than to move between the ship and the shore.

Our best hope of escaping.