With Alric awake, they were able to pick up the pace a bit. Nidra didn’t bolt and force them into a sprint, but they were able to set a much better pace. Hirrus guessed they would arrive outside Shemil within the hour.

Unfortunately, it also meant that Alric was awake.

It took the man a bit to ramp back up. He started with relatively quiet complaints about his sore back, and then started talking about his poor diet. It was a terribly one-sided conversation, as neither Hirrus nor Nidra made any response, but that didn’t slow him down. For Hirrus’s part, it was because he could barely understand what Alric was talking about.

Nidra’s behavior was slightly alarming, though. Hirrus didn’t believe that she was likely to just turn and kill Alric unprovoked, but the way she reacted to him was a little odd. She didn’t flinch every time he spoke, but whenever he fell silent for a few seconds, Hirrus could see the sudden tension twinge her shoulders the next time he spoke.

They were moving just shy of a sprint, and even though she could clearly hear Alric, she still glanced back every few moments to confirm that Hirrus was still there. Hirrus noticed the strange mixture of contempt and discomfort in her eyes when she glanced at Alric.

As long as she didn’t lash out unexpectedly, her discomfort was lower on his list of priorities. His focus would remain on the battle to come. Nidra’s dislike for adventurers was nowhere near as important as killing Rumi and saving them both from oblivion.

After a time, they emerged from the wilderness into a sudden open corridor. Four steps from the trees, and they were standing on a road. The Hari Path.

“What happened?” Hirrus asked as the trio drew to a stop. “Where are we?”

“Shemil is around the next bend,” Nidra said, pointing ahead of them. The trees closed in close around the Hari Path here, and when the road went around a corner, it was immediately obscured. “We’re nearly there.”

“Hm,” Hirrus tried to figure out if that made sense. Shemil was quite far from where they’d been. Traveling through wilderness on an indirect path had slowed them down, hadn’t it? Regardless, it didn’t benefit him to question a situation that had worked to his advantage.

“Don’t wait around for me,” Alric said. As soon as they’d stopped, he’d nearly collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. “I’m doing great. Just… Holding the ground down so we don’t lose it.”

Nidra didn’t give him a moment’s attention, turning and heading up the road towards Shemil, where the fight would truly begin.

Hirrus only paused for a moment before following after, wanting to be sure that Alric wasn’t actually in distress. Despite his obvious fatigue, he seemed fine. He would only take a moment to catch up.

The Hari Path curved gently to the left - turning from north-by-northwest to just barely shy of true west - right before reaching Shemil. And when it did, Hirrus could see what awaited them.

The town of Shemil was just shy of a city - though it was still a small dot on the map compared to Inoha. Hirrus had vague memories of his mercenary career bringing him here when the citadel was under construction, but it was now complete. On the southeast corner of the town there were high crenellated walls surrounding a stone tower that would act as a regional base of operations for the military. When it was under construction, the people of Shemil had never stopped talking about what it meant for them. Jobs in plenty, both building it and supporting the forces that would be stationed there. The tax money that the kingdom would invest in the town’s infrastructure. The security that would come from the citadel’s presence here.

It seemed like it was all for naught.

The town was in ruins.

The northern half of Shemil was nearly flattened, with just a few half-broken walls still standing. The southern half was a burnt-out husk, with many buildings still standing, but all covered in soot of a fire long since gone cold. Even the stone citadel bore the scars of whatever had happened here, with huge scratches running along the side of the stone structure, and there was a great blackened hole in one of the defensive walls where it had been blasted open.

That wasn’t to say that there were no signs of life. In the middle of town - in an area Hirrus remembered being called New Shemil - there was a courtyard. Amidst all the flattened buildings in that area, it looked like an outpost of sorts had been erected, and a few dozen figures milled about. From here, Hirrus couldn’t accurately assess their numbers or disposition, but some of them were wearing masks like Fire’s, and others were not. There were no giant monsters visible, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t one somewhere near at hand.

“I thought Shemil was Rumi’s base of operations,” Hirrus said quietly to Nidra, even though they were still way too far away for even the sharpest ears to hear them. “There’s just a token force here. That’s no army.”

“He was here originally,” Nidra said, guiding him off of the Hari Path and towards the trees, where they wouldn’t be visible as silhouettes on the road. “But those of us who turned against him started to use the ruins as cover for operations against them. To escape our efforts, he moved everyone northeast of town, just over that rise.” She pointed past the town, towards a hill just a few hundred yards past the edge of town. “And he stationed a force here to watch for intruders.”

“So stealth isn’t optional on this mission,” Alric said as he joined them. “We have to get to the main camp without being seen by the outpost.”

“Yes,” Nidra said, giving Alric an uncertain glance. “Though I suspect that some small mistakes may be forgivable. With Fire gone, I don’t know how good communication is between the remaining members of Fire’s group and Rumi’s army. They may be unable to raise a proper alarm, if we move quickly.”

“We won’t be able to move quickly enough,” Hirrus warned. “If Rumi has the true army, we will need time to come up with a plan of attack against them.” He slowly cracked his knuckles one at a time. “The only reasonable course is to wipe this force out. If we’re to fight an army, we can’t have this force at our back.”

“Are you fucking nuts?” Alric said, giving a nervous laugh. “Look down there! There’s at least fifty fucking dudes down there. Even if I thought you could take that many guys at once, I would also have to believe that you could keep them from running away to alert the camp.”

“The adventurer is right,” Nidra said, though she paused and furrowed her brow, seemingly surprised at herself for saying it. “A direct attack is doomed, and nothing here is our objective. This is the time to do things my way, not yours.”

“I hate to suggest it,” Alric said, “but are there sewers here? I know there’s a questline that takes you beneath the streets of Inoha, but could this city have them, too?”

“Shemil isn’t quite-” Nidra began and then stopped herself with a wince. “Shemil wasn’t quite that large. But there is something in the same vein.” She leaned closer to Alric and pointed, guiding his eyes towards the northeastern corner of the Citadel’s wall. “When the citadel was built, security measures were included in case the King ever visited and needed a place to stay. There are security tunnels that run from the outside of town to the interior of the citadel. From there, we can move into the ruins that are still standing, and pick our way around the outpost.”

“You said you had allies there, didn’t you?” Alric asked. “Are they still there? Do we need to join up with them?”

Nidra shook her head. “Long gone, I’m afraid. We scattered when it was clear our efforts were only wasting our own time, and not slowing Rumi down in the slightest.”

“But do Rumi’s forces know that?” Alric asked, suddenly growing visibly excited. “We can use that. If the outpost is afraid of something lurking out there, we can try and fuck with them a bit. Draw their attention on purpose, and they might spend the rest of the day combing the ruins instead of being ready to help when we hit the main camp.”

Hirrus let them talk. It was an unexpected twist that Nidra’s standoffishness was waning, but he found himself less and less interested in their plotting.

They were talking about deception and manipulation. Underhanded tactics that relied on too many factors.

He had no faith in such plans.

What if Rumi’s guards were halfway competent, and sent word of disturbance to Rumi immediately? What if they were entirely incompetent and didn’t even see whatever bait Nidra and Alric planned to lay? What if the weather changed, and an unexpected flurry of snow left a trail of footprints to undo all their stealth?

No. Hirrus knew the only way to deal with this threat. He would deal with this as he had everything else. Hirrus would face the enemy head-on. Every foe that fell before him in this battle was another foe taken off the field in the war to come.

He moved away from Nidra and Alric while they were distracted with their plotting, and started down the Hari Path towards Shemil, weapons ready.