As soon as Hirrus closed the distance, Ben started talking, and he didn’t stop until Hirrus gave him the swift end he promised. Ben claimed to be the leader of the trio, but Hirrus suspected that any of the three would have said so, if they were the last one standing. Despite that, he didn’t know much. He bemoaned how cliquey the “in-crowd” of Battle Orders was, which meant that he only knew that they were going, but not exactly where.

All Hirrus was able to learn was that Cerberus had taken all of the “in-crowd” of the guild’s primary raid team with her. Ben started rambling that one of the raid team’s “DPS” players had convinced himself that eventually some manner of battle content would eventually be added to the housing system, besides guild-to-guild PvP. In anticipation of that, he’d prepared his home to be an impenetrable fortress. But being on the outside of the “in-crowd” meant Ben didn’t even know the man’s name, let alone where his estate was located.

Hirrus would just have to hope that it was enough information for Nidra’s forces to be able to work with. Otherwise, he was returning to the warehouse with bad news.

Not that he was empty-handed otherwise. He was bringing news of the successful attack against Intricacy. While he hadn’t had time to recover any gear from that fight, these three adventurers were shockingly well-geared for having been sacrifices to stalling Hirrus’s advance. Each one wore more Legendary armor pieces than even Fidelis had, not to mention the powerful legendary ability on the woman’s strange headband. If it weren’t a head slot item - and therefore competing with his Cosmic Barrette - he would have put it on immediately. Instead, he could deliver it to Nidra, and let her figure out the best use for its information-gathering capabilities.

He had gained a number of Arcana options as well, which now populated his inactive list. Most of what he’d learned from the fighters from Intricacy were too weak to be worth giving any attention. Buff spells that were weaker with shorter durations than his current arsenal. A few negligibly weak attacks. Some of them offered passive stat bonuses that were marginally better than some of his other unused Arcana, and so were an easy choice to swap around. Only one of them seemed worthwhile.

Voracious Strike

+5 TEN, +25 Cleave Rating

Utility

Cast time: 0.125 seconds

Cooldown: 120 seconds

Effect: Steal one buff from the target. Buffs with longer duration than 2 minutes will have their duration set to 2 minutes.

Hirrus had been lucky that Ontario had used this Arcana to only steal X’ruhn’s Balance. A more important buff, like Pumped Kicks or Fleetness of Tonner, may have turned him into a legitimate threat, while denying Hirrus the speed to keep up.

In terms of Arcana, though, the real prizes came from the three most recently dead at his feet, which made him anxious for how large a threat was awaiting him from the remaining members of Battle Orders. As he examined the Arcana, he immediately made room for them on his active list.

Jettatura

+15 GLE, +125 Cleave Rating

Damage: 1.25xATT + 1.25xRES

Cast time: 0.5 seconds

Cooldown: 50 seconds

Added Effect: Gaze Attack. Targets are affected by Paralytic for 25 seconds, reduced by enemy GLE. If the damage would kill the target, reduce them to 1 Hit Point and and inflict Paralytic for 2 minutes.

Polar Bulwark

+8 BUR, +35 Cleave Rating

Utility

Cast time: 0.125 second

Cooldown: 25 seconds

Effect: Increase BUR by 25% for 25 seconds. While active, you cannot become encumbered by carried items.

Nectarous Deluge

+15 TEN, +120 Cleave Rating

Damage: 2xATT + 2xRES

Cast time: 1 second

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Added effect: Applies to a poison pool created on cast. Damage is applied as poison damage over 60 seconds. Also applies the Encumbered debuff to targets inside the pool, reducing movement speed by 90% and negating movement speed buffs for the duration.

Drenched Breath

+1 TEN, +30 Double Strike Rating

Damage: 2xBUR + 1xSUP

Cast time: 0.25 seconds

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Added effect: Affected enemies are afflicted with Drown (debuffID 1621) dealing an additional 10% damage and reducing BUR by 5% for 30 seconds.

Saurian Slide

+8 SUP, +86 Critical Chance Rating

Damage: 1.75xBUR + 1.75xSUP

Cast time: 0.5 seconds

Cooldown: 90 seconds

Added effect: Unit collision disabled during casting. Reduce targets’ TEN and GLE by 25% for 18 seconds.

Each Arcana seemed incredibly useful and potent. The only thing that bothered him was how fast he had killed them so quickly. How many more Arcana did they have that went unused? How much more power could he have amassed from them? Once more, he feared how much power he was going to face when he had to contend with Battle Orders on their guard and with their defenses in place.

Hirrus’s instincts warned him to take his time to walk around before heading to the warehouse. The adventurers had taken their time to try and shake him before leading him to their manor, and he knew he was capable of more discipline than they were. But in the end, they’d only wasted a bunch of time, and hadn’t actually lost him. With the imminent reset looming large in his mind, he didn’t think he could afford to waste more time.

“Battle Orders are on the move,” Hirrus announced as soon as the warehouse door closed behind him. “They’ve relocated to the home of one of their raiders, to better defend Cerberus.”

Within the warehouse was a flurry of activity. Crates had been moved around and stacked to act as makeshift tables, and many of them bore maps of the different districts. Nidra appeared to have split their forces to have them watch specific regions, even though half of the districts in denstad were largely irrelevant to the tasks at hand. Hirrus would have questioned the efficiency of such a move, but with Battle Orders on the run, and with no idea of where they went, having eyes all over the city made the most sense.

“When?” Nidra asked. She was standing near the group for the Rock District, stepping away from the map to approach Hirrus. “And how do you know that? We lost track of you after the Rock District lockdown.”

“GM Dave needed me for something,” Hirrus said, “but that’s not important. Battle Orders knew I was coming. They lured me off so that Cerberus could escape our reach.”

“Of course they did,” Nidra snapped. She pressed her lips together for a moment, rubbing her temple. “I am glad that you dealt with Ontario and escaped alive. Truly. But the utter lack of discretion you displayed meant the entire country knows where you are and what you’re doing.”

“I’m sorry,” Hirrus said. It was true that he hadn’t considered the consequences of his approach, but he wasn’t sure he would have had the opportunity to do anything differently if he’d known. “But Intricacy is behind us. Battle Orders is the challenge at hand. What can we do to find them?”

Nidra clapped her hands, getting the attention of everyone in the warehouse - as if all eyes hadn’t been on them already when Hirrus walked in. “Cerberus is on the move. We need to figure out where. We start with the raid team.”

The flurry of activity redoubled as Nidra gathered her inner circle, giving them directions for the search to come. Hirrus tried to think of how he could help, but this wasn’t what he was here for. He was here to fight, not to lead searches.

“Hirrus,” Nidra said as her lieutenants spread through the room to coordinate their squads. “I need to discuss with you. The end of this is fast approaching. We will need to assault the castle, and we need to take the time to plan for that, if we hope to succeed.”

“Of course,” Hirrus said, “but we don’t have a lot of time. If Battle Orders was able to plan for my arrival, I can only assume that Silent Partners is already doing the same. We can’t spread ourselves so thin that-”

Hirrus heard something in the dull background noise of the searchers that drew his attention, stopping him mid-sentence. He moved towards the southwest corner of the warehouse, where the group with the map of the Timberrock district were working.

“You,” Hirrus said, pointing to the lieutenant here - the red-headed child, Ten - and asking: “say that again?

“Sorry, sir,” Ten said quickly, looking over Hirrus’s shoulder anxiously at Nidra as she followed. “I was just trying to be realistic. I didn’t mean-”

“What did you say?” Nidra demanded.

Ten winced, flinching in a way that spoke volumes about the child’s experiences with authority figures. “I said that there’s no chance that the adventurers would come to this district, so we shouldn’t worry about the search here.”

Nidra started to step forward to scold the kid, but Hirrus held up a hand stopping her. Ten had repeated what they thought Hirrus had overheard, but hadn’t said the whole story.

“No,” Hirrus said, “before that.”

“I was just saying that there aren’t any services in the district,” Ten said quickly, hoping that this was going in a better direction than it had seemed at first. “Adventures wouldn’t strand themselves in a district without easy access to food, repairs, and junkmongers. Not to mention all the other comforts those people demand.”

“Unless they were bringing them,” Hirrus said with a grin. “They’re here. In Timberrock.”

“How?” Nidra asked, her attention taken off of Ten for a moment.

“GM Dave spoke to me about kidnappings in town,” Hirrus said to her as he stepped up to the map of the district and leaned over it. “Complaints of missing persons. Battle Orders was behind it. I caught them with a pair of bakers and a fence.”

“The sort of services they would need to be comfortable,” Ten said with a grimace, “in the specific district we were about to ignore checking.”

“The others must have been useful services as well,” Nidra added, “or else GM Dave would not have been getting so many complaints about them.”

“I believed it was an effort to flush me out,” Hirrus said, “but the true intent is clear now. They were gathering resources for a siege.”

“There’s only one place in the district that could work for that,” Ten said quickly, giving a sidelong glance at Nidra. They pointed at a specific building on the edge of town, along the road that led southeast away from Denstad. “There’s a manor here. Or there was, when I was trying to work this district. That was a while ago. Pickpockets in Denstad always end up in the Cloud Road, it’s just-”

“Focus,” Nidra said sharply.

“The manor here is an absolute fortress,” Ten said, flushing with embarrassment. “Tall walls, not made of stone or wood, but metal. The grounds are cleared as if intentionally as a battle pitch. No decoration. No windows, even. Just a squat stone box on an empty field surrounded by an iron bulwark.”

“The work of a paranoiac,” Nidra said. She tapped the map there. “We’ll need to proceed carefully, if they’re ready for a siege.”

“No time,” Hirrus said. “If they’re ready for a siege, I must give them one.” He looked to Nidra. “Focus your efforts on the tasks to come. The final guild, and then the castle. You and GM Dave needed me for a reason. This is that reason.” He cracked his knuckles slowly. “Let us see if your faith was well-placed.”