31. Cave Ambush
You consider your options before replying. “Lead us to that cave. Hopefully we can make it before anyone catches up to us.”
Amanda nods, copper curls bouncing lightly, and she sets off with a determined stride. Mercy keeps pace easily enough, but your own, shorter, legs force you to break into a mild trot. Non of you speak as you move. Amanda looks absorbed by thought, but every so often that hard edge you noticed comes back and she glances around just often enough to be sure that your pursuers have yet to catch you. Mercy, by contrast, looks almost skittish with her constantly moving head. It's only after a few minutes that you realise that the half demon is spending as much time scanning the sky as she is the path behind.
You yourself just focus on moving, keeping yourself relaxed and ready for a confrontation to start at any time.
You've been walking for some time when the trees around you suddenly shudder and Mercy speaks. “They're close.”
“So are we,” Amanda retorts.
“How far?” you ask both of them. Amanda responds first.
“Just around that tree,” pointing to a large oak a dozen yards ahead.
Mercy sounds almost put upon as she answered. “Closer than that.”
As if to underline her statement, an angry buzz whips past the three of you, resolving itself with a thunk as a crossbow bolt, vibrating to a stop in the oak Amanda had just pointed out. You let out a curse and wheel around, ready to fight, but Mercy sweeps you up. Considering you're a lot bigger than you used to be, you can only assume she's stronger than she appears.
She hisses in your ear “No, make for the cave,” and waves a hand at your pursuers. You hear a sound like creaking wood, and a short scream. Mercy smiles, with too many teeth. You worm around so that when she drops you, you resume running without missing a step, Amanda only a few paces in front of the two of you.
Before the adventurers behind you can make any more trouble for you, you turn around the large oak, only to see Amanda apparently vanish into a boulder. Trusting her, you move to follow, and are pleasantly surprised to see that the boulder is actually several, with a narrow track that cuts down into the earth at a sharp angle. In the dappled light under the oak's boughs, the thin entranceway is difficult to spot. You have little time to relax however.
The small underground cavern is roofed with the oak's roots, and the floor is packed dirt. A few long-mouldered wooden shards that may have once been crates lie off to one side, and a thin rock forms a ledge at head height on the other. You take up position on the ledge, ready to pounce at any who enter, and Mercy reaches up to the dangling roots. At her touch, wood begins to pool and twist, slowly growing into her familiar armour. Amanda takes a position behind Mercy. You take a second to look everyone over.
With Mercy to act as a frontline fighter and distraction to whoever came down the tunnel, you to attack the flanks and Amanda to heal you both, you think you will be able to hold here near indefinitely, at least against similarly levelled opponents. It does not take long for your theory to be put to the test
“Spread out! They can't have gone far!”
The voice that echoes from above is female, with a roughness to it that you can't remember hearing before. A hacking cough follows, and then footsteps. You can track their owner's progress towards your hidden entrance as motes of dust fall from the ceiling.
All three of you seem to hold your breath as the heavy footfalls sounds, closer and closer to the passageway though the stones. Mercy lowers her arm, her armour only half complete, leaving her with large wooden claws attached to spiked arm guards. Her toned stomach and the hints of breasts are still uncovered, as are her legs, but she crouches, seemingly able to support the added weight without issue. Her horns are twisting into wicked points once more, her hair slowly darkening.
“What the...” the voice comes from the passage, rather than through the dirt above. You call your inherent flames to the back of your throat, smoke leaking from your nose as you tense.
“Over here! I think I've found them!”
Luckily, for the three of you at least, the apparent leader of the group above didn't like waiting for backup. Her hurried, almost excited footsteps gave plenty of warning for Mercy to move to the side of the entranceway. When the woman appeared, clad in scale armour with no helm and wielding a sword and shield, she was met by a wooden arm to the throat. The woman's legs didn't get the message for a few moments, by which time she'd landed on her back with a resounding crash. Mercy went for the kill, raising her claws high in preparation, only to be stymied by a cry from the passage.
“Kara!”
The close proximity to the entranceway, which let Mercy pull off her ambush in the first place, turned to bite her when a second figure blind-sides her from the same direction. A man, armed and armoured similarly to the fallen woman, body checks Mercy off of, presumably, Kara's body. They fell to the floor in a tumble of limbs.
As Kara movs to get up, you pounce at her, colliding with her shoulder with your claws and letting loose your building flame point blank into her face. She screams and flails, giving you a moment to bring up her name and level.
Doable, you decide, and go for her throat with your teeth. You underestimate her speed however, and a shield collides with your head, forcing you off her and leaving your ear ringing. She staggers to her feet as you recover. One half of her head is singed, but it's cosmetic damage. You hadn't been aiming for anything in particular, after all. She grins at you.
You answer her smile with one of your own, before puffing another sheet of flame at her. She curses and staggers, allowing you to leap forward and, like a cat, rake her belly with your rear claws. You're there for but a second before you leap away. You have no wish to get caught in a protracted battle with a fighter of a higher level than you. She glares at you, and you answer with another smile and fireball.
This time, she ducks behind her shield, which parts the flame easily. Her sword licks out, nearly catching you mid aborted leap, and the only thing sharper than the chunk of steel that just missed your snout is her smile. You answer her with another of your own as she steps forward to retaliate.
Behind you, a resounding thunk sounds as the man's blade is caught in Mercy's armour, and despite his puling, is stuck fast. She doesn't smile as she wraps a hand around his neck and slams him into the earth, wrenching the blade from his hands and leaving him dazed. Amanda, having thus far stayed out of the fight, shouts a warning as a third member of the party storms down the passage – yet another sword and board user, this one at least half orc from the look of his fangs and greenish brown skin. For the second time, Mercy is full body rushed, and although she manages to dodge, her disarmed opponent finds his feet, leaving her facing against two shields boxing her in as a sword dances around, looking for an opening.
Your opponent lunges at you, confident, her shield half raised as if daring you to fall back on the same tactics.
You hate to disappoint.
This time however, as her face vanishes behind her aegis and her sword flicks through your expected arc, you aren't there. As soon as her eyes were hidden, you leapt straight up, rotating around your spine so that you hit the ceiling claws first. The looser earth nearly causes you to fall, but a thick root gives you enough grip for three limbs, and you scamper over her before she realises where you've gone. Your first plan had been to drop down onto her back and resume savaging her exposed neck, but you note that Mercy is having difficulty and change direction. You ignore the bellow of rage from behind you as you scamper out of reach of your first opponent, and with another flap of your wings you cannon ball into the back of the latest arrival, sending him staggering forwards a half step.
It's all that's needed, as Mercy's wooden claws appear at both edges of his shield and, while you hold on for dear life, yanks the shield and attached half orc forwards and downwards. There's an audible popping noise and all of you register a small pop up.
The half orc howls with pain, and you take the opportunity to jump from his back to a position next to Mercy. She flashes you a small smile and then with a heave, hurls the adventurer at the charging woman you'd all but forgotten about. They both go flying with a clang that shakes more dirt from the roof, and leave you and Mercy facing off against the swordless last man. He took a look at each of you, gulps, and then goes cross eyed with a hollow 'conk' sound. He crumbled to the ground and reveals Amanda stood behind him, eyes bright, her staff clenched in both hands.
The two remaining adventurers, both still moaning on the floor, did not last much longer. Mercy finishes off the woman with a savage strike to the chin, and you merely cook the orc. The triple kill goes a long way towards your next level up. Three small loot bags are left behind as they vanish. Neither Mercy nor Amanda make any move towards them, so you scan their contents.
You are elated to find that they must have been on some sort of resource gathering trip – several logs of varying types are quickly claimed for your dungeon, and a small pile of coins vanishes just as quickly, leaving you with several hundred of the shiny disks. The sword lodged in Mercy's armour is discarded into a corner – none of you capable of using it effectively, and Amanda is quite vehement in her insistence that it wouldn't be safe for her to return to town and sell it. Before long it's joined by a handful of miscellaneous items: a mouth organ, a cheap woodcut-illustrated book of erotica and a cracked drinking horn.
You turn to Amanda, after everything is sorted, and attempt to ignore Mercy's poor attempt to subtly taking the book.
“I think we're probably good for now. Should we have that talk?”