Mikael and Jordan moved faster than Alan, but only slightly. Taking the last few silent steps, he positioned himself next to Miakel. Pixel pointed, but none of them needed the direction. They were currently standing in a valley between a small hill on their right and a much broader one on the left.

  It was on the backside of the larger hill that they spotted the enemy. It wasn’t their base, instead it was a mass of soldiers, at least five hundred. This had to be at least two separate units, possibly three. They must be getting ready to make a major push.

  Pixel had told him that there were only three ways to win a battle between two Armies. One side could surrender or retreat, or the other way was to kill every opponent. This was far less common as usually the battle was a gradual grind, until one side finally realized it had no hope of winning and withdrew.

  Part of that grind was moving the ‘frontline’ demarcating the two sides. This again was something the Network regulated according to many rules, but a simple way of getting it to shift was by pushing it with troops.

  There was nothing physical to act on, but if you could position enough soldiers on the opposing side of the line for long enough, the imaginary line would automatically shift in their favor. This caused the pushing side to now control more area for the battle. Having a larger portion of the battlefield did mean that their troops could end up more spread out defending that area, but the benefits far outweighed the negatives.

  There are buffs and bonuses that troops received on their own side of the battle, in addition to debuffs that affected the enemy. Thankfully, as a scout squad, Pixel’s group was immune to the debuffs. Having the buffs work over a larger area was a nice benefit, but the most important factor was that the Army Array drew its strength from the mana of the battlefield.

  This meant that the more of the battlefield you controlled, the more mana there was to power your side’s Array. If you could push the frontline far enough, your Army would gain an insurmountable advantage and the other Army would be forced to withdraw or be slaughtered.

  It looked like the Untar general had decided to try and shift the line. However, this battlefield had another issue that the enemy had to account for. A push in the Ashford Hills would be no easy feat.

  While positioned over the line, any soldiers would be exposed and left vulnerable to bombardment from the sky. They could try and hide, but it wouldn’t be difficult to find them once they knew to look. And unfortunately for them, the Protians would get a message when the line was contested.

  Pixel was the first to point out their solution. “Do you see those mages who are spread out around the group?”

  Even Alan could pick them out. Almost all of the soldiers were wearing their own gear, but it had all been colored in grey, black, and red. These were the color designators for the Untar Republic. The Protian colors were more green and brown. The Untar mages, however, wore solid blue robes. It was a dark blue, but easy to distinguish from the crowd.

  While he could see them, he couldn’t tell why they were significant. Surely any fighting group would include magic users. Their position was intriguing, since they were spread out almost uniformly around the assembled troops, instead of located on the interior where they would be more protected.

  “I am betting that they specialize in protective shields and defensive magics. Once the soldiers are in position, they will put up shields and disrupt any lightning strikes. There aren’t enough of them to keep it up forever, but they can probably manage it long enough to push the line.”

  As far as their current mission went, this was not the squad’s problem. However, plans never survive contact with the enemy, and as Pixel had said, they had contact. Even if they were able to locate the HQ now, the siege mages would be too busy trying to deal with this attack to do anything about it. Alan was curious to see what Pixel would decide, try and deal with this threat, or continue on to discover the base.

  With this many troops in one place, there were probably fewer guarding the base. It would leave an opening for them to complete their primary objective. But was that more important than dealing with this new threat? If Alan had to make the decision, he wasn’t sure which way he would go. Fortunately for his squad leader, Pixel didn’t have to decide on her own.

  This was another benefit to the Army chat. She could contact her General from here and let him decide. Not everyone could so casually contact the top brass, but unit leaders could.

  It wasn’t long before she got her answer, and it seemed to please her. The decision came just in time, too. The Untar troops had started their march, and they were headed down the valley that Alan’s squad was currently standing in. They would have to do something, and soon.

  “Ok boys, today we earn our rent. Since we located them so far from the line, the boss man thinks we can break this assault if the siege guys start hitting them now. Even if they have enough mages to cover this group long enough for the push to work, they shouldn’t be able to keep it up the whole way there and maintain it long enough for the line to shift.”

  Jordan was the first to respond. “Sounds good, Pixel, but how will they get a fix on them? We can’t set off a flare, we’ll be cut to ribbons if they find us.”

  “With this.” She held up a dark black shaft, approximately twenty centimeters long. This was the location marker she was supposed to plant near the base. Even if it wasn’t planted in the ground, the mages would be able to use it to direct their attacks. “All we need to do is maintain our position, about two hundred meters south of the enemy.”

  The squad was already moving as she explained. The Untar detachment was marching fast and they needed to be out of their way before the soldiers got there. It was Mikael who had the next objection.

  “That’s awful close when they’re aiming for a moving target, sarge. We gonna get a bonus for this?”

  “If we pull this off, then we get to go back to finding the base. How’s that for a bonus?”

  Alan found himself responding, “best news all day, mam.”

  Her chuckle came over the chat, “back to mam am I?”

  The group’s spirits appeared high, but each of them knew this wasn’t going to be that easy. Two hundred meters should keep them separated enough that they weren’t discovered. The small army they saw didn’t seem to have a screening element, so the forest should be plenty of protection at that range.

  However, maintaining that distance would be hard in the hills and valleys they would pass through. The scout squad wouldn’t be able to stay in the relative safety of the lowlands, they would have to brave the summit of some of the hills. That would leave them partially exposed and if they were spotted, their only notice would be a lightning bolt exploding their bodies.

  The topography at the moment benefitted them. In order to stay at the specified range it meant positioning themselves on the far side of the small hill they had been next to. They weren’t able to keep eyes on the enemy, but they were also given some cover in case the first few bolts were off target. It should also be easy to reestablish contact on the far side of the hill. They had just traveled that way so they knew where to go next.

  It was while they were behind the hill that the first bolt hit. They couldn’t see the result, but they saw it flash down from above. It was soon followed by a second and then a third. There was a lull after that. Apparently a strike at such a distance was more draining than one on their own side of the field, and so it took multiple mages to light it off.

  They managed to reacquire visual contact after moving past that first hill, but the next stretch would require them moving over the top of another. It was at least a minute before the next batch of bolts rained down. For this batch they got to see the results.

  Each time a bolt came at them, two of the mages sent bolts of their own to intercept. It was only because of their improved perception, and the Networks assistance, that this could work. Otherwise, there would be no way to aim at something traveling at the speed of light.

  However the physics worked, it was effective. It seemed like the two counterattacks were a measure of redundancy, because if even one hit, it caused a massive explosion of electricity. This was similar to what would have happened had the bolt continued to the ground. However, it happened a hundred feet in the air, instead of amongst the troops, and any residual energy was bled off by a shimmering field over top of the marching soldiers.

  Their path was about to take them behind a hill again when Jordan spoke up. “Boss, this isn’t going to work. There’s a fork up ahead, and we won’t know which way they take until after we’ve lost sight of them.”

  Pixel took in the situation with a series of glances and grimaced. “You’re right. One of us will have to move closer and keep an eye on them.”

  Jordan knew his Sergeant well, “It can’t be you, Pixel, you’re the only one of us who can power that beacon while we’re on the move. I’ll go.”

  Mikael wasn’t about to let his partner go alone, either. “Alan can stay here and watch your back, I’ll go with Jordan and keep an eye on his.”

  Pixel didn’t look happy, but it was the obvious choice, and the two broke off and headed off to keep a closer watch. This would also put them closer to the descending bolts. It was a risk, but one they were willing to take.

  The next several minutes saw strike after strike fail to penetrate the enemy’s defenses. Alan knew that they weren’t trying to actually take out the target, only wear it down so they were forced to give up. Every time the mages were forced to defend, they were using up energy they wouldn’t have when it was time for their push. Still it was hard not to feel like they should do more.

  Mikael and Jordan must have felt the same way, and they had come up with a plan. They didn’t tell their squad leader, though, because they knew she would object. While Alan and Pixel were making their way carefully over a hilltop, they both saw a wooden shaft fly out the trees and impale one of the figures in a dark blue mage robe.

  From this distance it was hard to tell, but it didn’t appear to be fatal. However, he wouldn’t be casting spells anytime soon. The loss of one mage had no effect on their defense, the next series of bolts were intercepted with ease. But then another arrow, from a different position, took out another mage.

  Since Mikael and Jordan didn’t have the location beacon, they didn’t have to maintain any kind of positioning. They were able to move around in the space between Pixel and the enemy, and since they were so close anyway, Mikael was trying to weaken their defense. If he took out enough mages, they might not even make it to the frontline.

  The first arrow hadn’t drawn a reaction, but the second one saw a group of twenty break off and head out toward the location of the shot. Another group of twenty left cover and was moving to where they must think the next shot was going to come from.

  “Bloody idiots, they're going to get themselves killed.” Pixel grumbled, but she had a proud smile on her face.

  That smile disappeared as the next series of bolts hit. Two of them were right on target, but were sadly blasted apart. The third was way off target, it had happened before, and ended up hitting off to the side. The mages never bothered intercepting the ones that were going to miss anyway.

  This miss, though, hit right in the zone where Mikael and Jordan should be hiding. Alan panicked for a moment, but then realized that both of their silhouettes still showed the grey of normal status. The next arrow was released not too far from there, however, and he realized how close they must have come to being hit.

  Pixel did as well, “give it up guys, that was too close. Pull back a bit.”

  “It’s fine boss, that was a freak accident, it just as well could have hit us if we were farther back.”

  There was something wrong with that logic, but Alan understood their sentiment. Their job right now was simply to make the defending mages tire themselves out before they set up for their push. The General didn’t need for them to do anything more.

  However, the group in front of them had plenty more mages, and maybe they would be able to carry through and protect the column after all. But if Mikael kept knocking them out, they would definitely have to break off at some point.

  The enemy commander must realize this as well, because another forty soldiers broke off and started scouring the area. It was too bad Mikael couldn’t move to the other side of the column easily. If the enemy had to send units to search on two sides of their march, they would end up with half of the army outside of the shielded area and susceptible to lightning attacks.

  Alan realized a solution a moment after his Sergeant did. As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off. “No Alan, you can’t redeploy on the far side. I understand how useful it could be, but not only is it too dangerous, but you won’t be able to accomplish anything with that hand crossbow.”

  He wasn’t going to give up without pleading his case, “I may have to get a little closer, but I can still hit my target.”

  She shut him down instantly, “You would have to get too close, but that’s not even the problem. Those mages are defense experts, many of them are probably protected by personal shields. Mikael’s bow has the enchantments and the power to break through that. Your’s does not.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Now it was Alan’s turn to feel useless. It wasn’t a fair emotion, he and Pixel were doing important work, making sure their siege mages could keep hitting the enemy troop, in comparison, Mikael’s attacks were pinpricks. With all of the lightning being intercepted so far, it sure didn’t feel that way, though.

  Because of the large number of enemy groups scouring the area, Mikael’s attacks slowed way down. Still, after another fifteen minutes he had hit six more mages. There were still plenty more, but the frontline was still about a kilometer away and the enemy commander must have come to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to work.

  If Mikael continued to pick off defenders and the lightning kept coming, there was no way they could last long enough to move the line. The army briefly halted, then they started marching away from the frontline at double time.

  It looked like Mikael and Pixel had won the field. The enemy soldiers who had been searching for Mikael broke off and returned to the column. There had only been one incident where an off target blast had hit one of the detached units, but there was no point in risking further incidents anymore, since they were headed back. Now that they were moving faster, and away from the Protian side of the field, their stealthy archer stopped his attacks.

  He may still be able to hit the mages, but it wasn’t worth the risk now that the attack was over. Pixel’s squad still maintained their positions, however. They were going to let the siege mages pound away on them as long as they could. Eventually they would need to break off to resume their search for the base, but for now they could try and wear out the remaining mages. Maybe they would get lucky and some lightning would finally get through.

  It had taken about half an hour to get to their current position, at the increased pace the Untarians were setting, they should arrive back at their rallying point in no more than twenty. For the most part it was a much more relaxed trip back, at least if you weren’t the ones under constant assault from the sky.

  The defensive mages were showing signs of fatigue now. After a few close calls from bolts that were barely intercepted, they started sending three shots to block each incoming attack. This resulted in them tiring at an even faster pace, but they must have been counting on reaching the safety of home soon and were giving their all to get there. If Alan and his group were lucky, they wouldn’t stop at the rallying point, they would take them all the way back to the base.

  It had been obvious to both sides, from the beginning, that there was a parasite on the back of the army. Someone had to be following and reporting back to the siege mages, otherwise there was no way they could maintain such an accurate bombardment. What had been less clear, at least to Alan and presumably Pixel, was what they could do about it.

  In hindsight, the counter was obvious. The army hadn’t retreated because they were breaking off their attack, or at least not only because of that. They were pulling back to allow support to catch up. The enemy had sent their own scouts and other elite units to search the area around their main force.

  The detachments of regular soldiers they had sent out had proven ineffective in locating their hidden enemy. So they had brought in units who specialized in finding and dealing with such stealthy problems. It had taken some time to get them in position, but now the army was retreating through these additional forces.

  The first Pixel’s squad knew of this was when Mikael and Jordan blundered into a group of four scouts. Thankfully, since they were no longer trying to harry the marching soldiers, they were more focused on the area around them. When the first enemy scout broke through the foliage, Mikael reacted right away, and raising his bow, sent a feathered shaft into their chest.

  This gave Jordan time to draw his sword, and he met the other three members of the enemy squad as they too emerged. With Jordan keeping them busy, Mikael was able to pick them off, and in no time at all they had killed the squad. When they reported the attack, Pixel knew they were in trouble.

  “Forget about shadowing the Untar army, come back to my position. I fear we have more enemies incoming.”

  “On our way.” Jordan sounded a little out of breath.

  It took them only a couple of minutes to reconnect with Alan and Pixel. When they did, it was time for another strategy session. Whether the withdrawal was entirely a feint or not, it had become one in actuality. Many of the Untar mages required healing to bring them back to combat readiness, and the others were clearly flagging. There was no way for them to protect the army long enough to move the line.

  That meant their squad was once again free to pursue their main mission, finding the enemy base. They were pretty sure they had the general region, so it shouldn’t be too difficult, if they could get out of their current predicament.

  Pixel didn’t know for sure that there were other groups looking for them, but it made sense. Not only would killing her squad eliminate a group of scouts, a high value commodity if they were skilled, but Pixel and her boys had been a thorn in the Untarian’s paw for a while. They were recognized as one of the most effective units on the field.

  Together, the group decided that they would stop trying to get around behind the base, which would keep them close to the army and the expected search parties, and instead head directly to the region they thought contained the headquarters. Pixel had already called off the bombardment, so maybe the enemy squads would give up, figuring that they had gone home.

  It took them a little out of their way, but they had to loop around the army that had slowed their pace once the lighting attacks had stopped. Everything seemed to be smooth sailing, until they got to the far side. Pixel was once again in the lead and she held up her hand again, halting their progress.

  “I can hear a group moving in front of us, maybe ten people. Find cover and we’ll see if we can ambush them.”

  Alan was a little concerned about the number disparity, but so far he had seen his squadmates dominate the opposition. It was only himself who had fared poorly in any of the fighting. It was time to put up or shut up. He found a small depression next to a trunk that was sheltered by a bush and he settled in.

  Pixel was apparently still not over his last screw up, because she reminded him over chat, “no identify this time.”

  The first Alan actually saw of their quarry was two people creeping low through the bushes. Their stealth wasn’t bad, but Alan was already alerted and knew where to look. These two definitely seemed like scouts. They wore light armor and carried shortswords. They paused briefly, checking their surroundings. Pixel’s squad knew their jobs, and the opposition caught no sight of them.

  The next group to break through consisted of four members. Two were of the mage type, but another was a swordsman and the final member made Alan’s blood run cold. He hadn’t seen the face after healing, but the remaining scars and the eyes told him that he had seen this man before. It was the leader of the group who had ambushed them previously.

  Alan must have made a noise that their chat registered, because Pixel’s voice came through again. “What is it Alan?”

  “I recognize the scarred man. He was the one who ambushed us before.”

  There was a moment of silence while Pixel processed this. “We were gonna hit them anyway, this just makes it all the sweeter. On my signal.”

  As far as he knew, there was no prearranged signal, so hopefully he would be able to figure it out. Turns out it wasn’t very hard to guess. Alan had known Pixel’s main class included mage characteristics, but he had never seen that side of her. She had always seemed to be such a physical presence, so it came as quite a shock when she revealed her magical talents.

  All around the main group of four, inky black spikes erupted out of the ground. They looked like earth spears that had been dipped in oil. Whatever the spell was, it was devastating. Each enemy was pierced by no fewer than three of the dark shafts.

  As soon as Pixel revealed herself, Jordan rushed in to engage the two forward scouts. At the same time three more opponents ran into the area. Two were clearly mages and the third was the swordswoman from their previous encounter. Mikael fired off a shaft that took one of the newly arrived mages through the face, hopefully that still counted as a kill shot. Alan decided to get in the game, but first he analyzed his opponent. Discovery was no longer a concern.

  Sheila: Untar[W], Blade Angel, Threat level: extreme

  The fact that the swordswoman was only a white grade was relieving, but the class sounded intense and the threat level was intimidating. There was nothing for it though, if he backed off now, he would never be able to live with himself.

  Pixel was descending from the treetops where she had been hiding and was carving up the four she had already skewered with her tomahawks. He didn’t have time to check on anyone else as a sword came flying towards him. This Sheila must have thrown it, which was an impressive feat.

  He dove forward to avoid it, and managed to turn his evasion into a roll, bringing him closer to his opponent. Alan thought it was strange that she would throw away her weapon, since he didn’t see another sword on her. Maybe she had one in storage. After completing his roll, he landed on his feet, but stayed in a crouch.

  It turned out to be a good thing because the sword he had thought lost to Sheila was now flying back over his head before slapping into her palm. His jaw dropped, how did that work? As soon as it was in her hand again, she flung it back out once more.

  Already low to the ground, Alan was forced to tumble to the side to avoid it. He watched it this time, which was probably a mistake, but he had to know how it came back. After the sword passed through where he had been, it continued to carry forward for another few meters, but then suddenly slowed. Then it spun around and came shooting back along its previous path. That was some Mjolnir kinda stuff.

  Because he had watched the attack, Alan had missed his chance to close with her while she was disarmed, but he sprinted behind her sword as the blade returned to her hand. He already had his spewn out in one hand and his shield in the other. If she was going to be throwing things at him, he wanted an option other than dodging.

  Just before getting in reach of her now returned weapon, Alan pointed his spewn at her and blasted her eyes with a prismatic orb. While the spewn seemed to work really well with fire-based spells, it also provided some enhancement to others. The exploding ball of rainbows left her vision dazzled.

  His opponent was experienced enough that the loss of her sight didn’t leave her panicking, instead she swung her sword defensively in front of her while backing up. She was trying to buy some time to recover. Alan wasn’t about to allow that.

  Continuing his advance he caught one of her wild swings on his shield, and while her sword was out of line, he stabbed forward with his spewn. He was aiming for her heart, but anything in the torso should prove fatal. Instead, he found the tip sliding out of line and being pushed aside, almost as if he had hit a wall.

  The other mage, the one who didn’t have an arrow in his face, turned out to be the healer from before. They must have cast a shield over Sheila, and it had blocked his attack. Alan had no experience in fighting against a shielded opponent, but he had picked up some tidbits here and there from discussions.

  The first thing to realize is that magical shields aren’t infallible. If you could deal enough damage, with either one strike or several, you could destroy it. The second thing is that they are not form fitting, it is more like a rectangle surrounding the individual. Think of the shields from the 1980’s Dune, the one with Sting, not the fancy 2021 version.

  Alan’s opponent was already a higher level than he was, and she was being shielded to boot. This was not going to go well for him. Then the news got worse. Having been granted a moment to regroup, the blade angel managed to refocus on the battle and suddenly Alan felt a force emanating from her. Using his aura reading skill, he could see some kind of energy being pulsed out of her body.

  All around him, the Untarian warriors seemed to gain a second wind. Well, except for Arrow Face, he was decidedly dead. Jordan had just been about to finish off one of his opponents, but now it was he who was on the back foot. Mikael had been peppering the healer with arrows, trying to break through his shields. The last one had even seemed to shatter the air around him, a sign of a busted shield.

  The next one, however, found another barrier in its way. This one seemed to be even stronger than the last. Pixel also was having trouble now. Where before she was almost toying with her prey, she was now using her wings to hover out of their range while she cast another spell. For some reason the entire momentum of the battle had flipped.

  Alan didn’t know what ability Sheila was using, but it was clearly boosting her allies. He was using his senses to try and figure out how it worked, when he felt something being broadcast from his own aura. He hadn’t detected it before, but a sudden rise in its intensity caused him to take notice. It was hard to judge from the center of the field of energy, but it seemed like it was much stronger than his foe’s.

  It was now Alan’s allies who seemed boosted and were reclaiming the initiative. Not only that, but his opponents seemed even worse off than before they had temporarily rebounded. The swordswoman did not take this turn of events well at all.

  Shrieking, a second sword appeared in her hands. While his spewn was longer than his daggers, it was slightly shorter than his gladius, and this woman was wielding two longswords. Their reach was almost double his own.

  The only thing that kept him in the fight was his shield. It was much easier to deflect her attacks with the shield than it would have been with one of his daggers. It cost him a little in his ability to riposte, but the focus it allowed him on his main weapon more than made up for it.

  The blade angel was truly talented and she dictated the battle from the start. Attack after attack was deflected with his spewn or absorbed by his shield. After the first three passes, Alan wasn’t sure how he would manage to defeat her. After two more passes he noticed a certain tendency.

  While she was wielding two longswords, and was able to make them dance with speed, she did not evince much skill with her off hand. It seemed that she was capable of using both hands to fight, but she was much more used to only using one. Perhaps he could exploit that somehow.

  A sudden scream from behind Alan startled both fighters. The healer who had been shielding Sheila had an arrow in his chest, and a second appeared right next to it. He collapsed in a heap, most likely dead. Both Alan and Sheila’s eyes found each other again. Their fight was back on, but this time she wouldn’t have a personal shield. It was time to channel Karate Kid.

  The blade angel struck at Alan three times in succession. The first was with her right hand and he took it on his shield. The second was with the off hand and he deflected with his spewn. The third was with the main weapon again, coming in fast on the heels of the second. Knowing there was likely not a fourth blow coming from her left, since her last attack had left her sword out of position, he used his spewn instead of his shield to block.

  Using the momentum from his block he continued to spin his body while crouching. His back leg lashed out and swept her legs, knocking her to the ground. The idea to ‘sweep the legs’ had occurred to him earlier, but the shield around her had prevented it from being an effective choice. Now that the shield was gone he had managed to get her on her back.

  With the agility she had already demonstrated she wouldn’t be there long, but Alan was distracted by an arrow that whizzed over his head. During the fight, Alan and his opponent had been furiously slashing at each other, turning and spinning. In all of that, he hadn’t realized that Mikael was now behind his opponent.

  Not that the archer’s own target was down, he had tried to help Alan. It was just unfortunate timing that he had knocked the swordswoman down at the same moment Mikael had tried to shoot her in the back. Luckily Alan had also crouched low or he might have suffered a friendly fire mishap.

  The distraction was enough for the prone warrior to attack again. With an impressive wrist flick, she flung her sword at Alan. It happened so fast, and he was so close, that Alan didn’t have time to block, and he was only able to partially dodge. Falling backwards onto the ground, the blade still scored a line across his upper chest as it flew past. It wasn’t too deep, but his torso went yellow on his display.

  The sword came flying back and once more slapped into her hand. It had sailed back over his head, so Alan knew he needed to get back up. Before either of them could continue the fight, though, Jordan stepped up next to her and stabbed down with his sword. Gruesomely, it went through her neck, sending blood fountaining into the air. Luckily for Alan, he was far enough away to avoid the worst of it. Jordan, not so much.

  It took a moment for the blood to stop spraying, but when it did, Jordan looked helplessly at Alan, his white eyeballs the only things not drenched in red. Alan rewarded him for the rescue by summoning an orb of water that poured over the poor scout. It might have burned some mana, or revealed more of his secrets, but it was a worthwhile tradeoff for his help. He also cast healing on himself and his torso returned to a nice healthy green.

  The silhouettes were usually grey when they were uninjured, but after any kind of injury the area would only go back to green after healing. It wasn’t until the encounter had been over for a while that it would return to its reassuring grey.

  And this fight was over. Sheila’s death was not the last, though. Pixel had actually been playing with the leader, like a cat with an injured mouse. Once she realized everyone else was dead, it was time to end it. She pointed a finger at him and a basketball sized orb of darkness floated into her enemies chest. The man’s face took on a gaunt and sunken look and he collapsed, dead.

  Everyone got to the task of looting. Nothing fancy stood out and they once again passed the storage items in to their squad leader. No doubt, most of the equipment would be an upgrade for Alan, but that wasn’t how this worked. He could have tried filching something, but not only did the idea make his conscience squirm, but the dungeon might object and throw problems in his way if he got too greedy.

  They had caused enough of a disturbance that Pixel was comfortable talking out loud for the moment. “Nice job lads, with that group gone, hopefully the path to the base is open.” She looked at Alan, he sensed that he had finally managed to earn some respect from her. There was something else in her gaze that he couldn’t make out, but her final words before setting out made him unreasonably happy. “Nice job not dying, rook.”