As soon as Gram said the word “Attack.” The party sprung into action. They didn’t charge in screaming at the top of their lungs. Instead it was silent and almost deadly as most of the people surrounding Bjorn disappeared to his vision as they entered stealth. Not to be left behind, Bjorn entered stealth as well as began to creep forward.

  As he slowly crept forward he actually had no real clue where he was in relation to the rest of the party due to them having higher stealth levels than his passive wisdom could detect. That was rectified a moment later as a screen popped up in front of his vision.

  You have been invited to a war party by war leader Gram. Would you like to join the war party? Yes/No?

  Without hesitation Bjorn mentally clicked on the yes button. A moment after he hit yes his vision changed. The health bars appeared in the bottom corner of his vision as well as outlines began appearing around the rest of the party as they accepted Gram’s request. For the most part everyone had a green outline around them, there were two people who had orange, and gram himself who had a purple outline.

  To Bjorn’s surprise he could actually see the second half of the warband as they entered the party. This told him two things. One that there had to be some sort of promotion, badge, or upgrade he could purchase to add people to his war party when he couldn’t see them. Currently he was limited to eye sight and within 100 yards. The second thing he learned was that there was a way to give people outlines even without a designated scout. Currently for Bjorn the only way for his war party to gain that benefit was with the addition of the scout role being assigned, and even then when someone had a high enough stealth skill they could still not be seen by the warband even with the outlines.

  He could see the second half of the warband mirroring the actions of the half he was in. They were all in crouched positions and slowly moving forward towards the warehouse. The colored outlines of the war party he was near couldn’t have come at a better time as he was about to run into one of the elf warriors who started near where Bjorn had been standing. He could tell by the outline that the elf was just as surprised as Bjorn was. They quickly diverted courses and disaster was averted. The man was still a professional and even with his startlement he didn’t drop out of stealth.

  Bjorn snapped back to the matter at hand and they had crossed 1/4th of the distance they needed to cross. Seeing how he still had a moment before they were at the gate Bjorn took the time to review the effects of Gram’s aura from war leader.

  You have been effected by an allied war leader's aura, you gain the following benefits. Health and stamina regeneration are increased by 100%, mana regeneration is increased by 400%. All physical offensive damage is increased by 25%, your effective defenses are increased by 25%. All spell schools cost 6% less mana to cast, earth magic costs 12% less to cast. Your favored terrain (urban) has increased your movement speed by 15%. You gain 10% elemental resistance across the board.

  You have been designated as VIP for the war party. The particular VIP position you have been assigned had given you the following benefits. 1) 10% of the damage you take will be redirected to the rest of the warband. 2) Upon taking fatal damage you will be given an immediate heal that will set your health to 5% of your maximum. 3) you gain 15% of the total experience that the warband collectively gains.

  Ho-ly shit. What the fuck? He knew that war parties could be strong, he didn’t know that they could be this strong. The passive benefits from Gram’s aura was insane. He was a one man force multiplier. It was no wonder that Gram’s personal war party was able to stand up against the majority of the snatcher spider’s force on their own for so long.

  The last time he went into a fight with the man he wasn’t actually a part of his main war party so he didn’t actually get to see the full benefits of the aura. The last time he only gained from being a member of a different war party but still within the sphere of influence and he thought that buff was strong. Boy had he been mistaken.

  Looking through the buff it made sense what Gram spent his points on. He had spent the majority of his war points increasing the capabilities of mages. Which made sense as most of the time when he would be going into a combat situation he would have Dornan by his side. If Gram was a monster in battle Dornan was a force of nature in comparison. Sure in a straight up fight Gram would likely win, but with Gram defending Dornan letting him cast his magic in peace then there was no doubt who had a bigger impact on the battlefield. It just purely made sense to do whatever he could to further increase Duke Dornan's magical capabilities.

  One thing that did surprise Bjorn however was that there a psionic link wasn’t established with the rest of the force. He wasn’t sure why that was the case. For how cheap it was purchase there was no doubt in his mind that Gram would have had the points necessary to purchase the upgrade. He didn’t even want to start to think about how much it would cost to purchase a 25% increase to attack and defense. When he was a part of the raid on the snatcher spiders he was pretty sure that Gram had been able to communicate psionically.

  This was neither the time nor the place for that conversation though. On top of that they had finally closed the distance and were 50 feet away from the main entrance to the warehouse. Still no shouts or obvious alarms which was good so far. Being so close to his target he wanted to start running to finally get there, but the slow calculated pace of the rest of the war band helped Bjorn curb his enthusiasm. His anticipation just made the last 50 feet feel like they drug on.

  Finally they made it to the door of which there were two. There was a large closed door that would be used for moving goods in and out of the building with wagons, or beasts of burden. Directly next to that door was a more normal sized door, one for all humanoids to use. The warehouse they were going into was one of a series of 4 warehouses. The second half of their warband was going to go in the 3rd warehouse as according to plans those three were all connected to one another.

  Gram paused for a moment in front of the door. He was looking in the direction the other half of their warband was setting up. He watched until one of the members waved their left hand above their head in an exaggerated arc. This was the all clear signal. Gram pulled an absurdly large and long sword from a bag at his hip. To anyone else they wouldn't be able to wield such a monstrosity. To Gram it was easy. It looked vaguely similar to the dragon slayer sword from berserk.

  With that Gram placed his hand on the door handle and pushed it lightly. It swung slightly open and he stopped looking at the door frame. From his position in the middle of the pack Bjorn couldn't see what at or for. Gram was looking at. After a moment one of the soldiers walked up to where Gram stood still and pulled a knife from a sheath at his hip. He then inserted it into the upper corner towards the hinge of the door. He made a quick jerking motion with the knife and then stepped back.

  Gram then finished swinging the door open. With his dark vision he could just barely see a narrow section of the building past the door, there were just too many people in the way and too much distance between him and the door.

  Gram led the way into the room and the rest of the party followed right after. Off in the distance Bjorn could see the same thing happening with the other half of the war party. As his group entered the room they slowly started to spread out. When Bjorn entered he finally got a view of the interior of the room.

  The warehouse had large vaulted ceilings with thick wooden beams high overhead to hold the room in place. There was a catwalk to a second level that ran along one side of the room. It was on the side adjacent to the conjoined warehouse. The floor was filled with crates, barrels, and several wagons. It was dark mostly, making it difficult to make out shapes in the room. On the far wall he could see two different doorways leading out of the massive room in the corner right below the catwalk, which ended in the wall with two more doors leading out of the room.

  Gram gave a hand gesture that Bjorn didn’t recognize but during the briefing he had been assigned a battle buddy of sorts. The idea was that no one was able to sneak off alone making it nearly impossible for a professed rogue or assassin to pick off the war party one at a time. The 12 people paired off with their battle buddies and they started to make their way further into the building. Off in the distance he could see the same thing happening in the other building.

  Bjorn and his battle buddy were making their way past a wagon when an explosion echoed through the room. It wasn’t loud enough for it to have been in this room. Instantly Bjorn’s gaze was drawn to the distance to the other half of the war party. 11 out of the 12 in that building were crouched down or getting back up from a prone position. The last member of the party was standing fully erect with their arms flailing wildly above their head. The member next to them jumped back to their feet and tackled the person to the ground. There was a brief rolling around before the outline around the person flailing their arms winked out.

  Party member Johannas has died.

  A moment later lights began to come alive in the rooms in between the buildings, on both the ground floor and the second floor. Their element of surprise was wasted. Gram stood to his full 8 and a half feet and said loud enough for his party to hear. “The time for sneaking is over. Get to those rooms, watch out for traps. We are now on a clock, let's move.” His words came out in a compressed sound as if he said each word as fast as he possibly could. It only took a second for his sentence to leave his mouth, but Bjorn could understand everything that was said without issue.

  In unison each of the 6 pairs stood fully upright and began to hustle through the room. Their eyes alternating between looking at the ground and their surroundings checking for traps and watching the doorways in the distance for enemies.

  They made it halfway through the room before one of the parties triggered a trip wire. Thick sticky webs shot out from the crate next to them. One of the fighters wasn’t fast enough and the webs fully covered them while the second one was fast enough and threw themselves backwards avoiding getting tangled up in the webs.

  A few moments later a pair of poorly dressed archers appeared on the catwalk above the room and knocked arrows from the quivers they dropped by their feet. They drew back and sighted on the entrapped man and pulled back, but they weren’t fast enough.

  Two attacks slammed into the catwalk instantly killing both of the archers. The first attack was a heavy javelin that Gram pulled from his bag and in one fluid motion threw it with surprising strength and accuracy. It slammed into the man with enough momentum to carry both the javelin and the man to the wall and bury itself into the wooden wall, pinning the corpse to the wall. The second attack actually came from Bjorn. As soon as he saw the first man enter the room Bjorn had pulled back on his bow sighted and released on the second man as soon as he stopped moving to draw. The arrow slammed into the man’s head, dropping him instantly.

  In a split second he had made the call to attack the second man, he was going to attack the first one but he thought that was who was most likely to get hit by our ranged attacks. It didn’t matter overly much however as mere moments after Bjorn and Gram’s attacks hit 3 more ranged attacks slammed into the bodies. One arrow slammed into the pinned corpse, while another arrow and a beam of light slammed into the second body that was crumpling to the ground.

  Most of the group continued to advance through the room, the only two who weren’t was the man tied to the crate, and his battle buddy who was trying to free him. Off in the distance they could see the other group trying to do the same. However from their outlines they were obviously locked in combat. They seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.

  They were roughly a quarter of the way to the door when people began flooding out of the two doorways on the ground level. They were all in various states of dress. Some were just in their boxers and night gowns, others had hastily donned armor, not even taking the time to properly equip themselves, while there were a few fully suited up for combat. They were all equipped with their chosen weapons.

  To their credit they charged towards their enemies fully under equipped and outnumbered. Their bravery was something to be commended. Unfortunately their bravery wasn’t enough to protect them from the professed fighters that surrounded Bjorn.

  Gram’s trained warriors stepped up to meet the charge head on and more than one activated talents. It was a slaughter, the first rank of defenders broke upon the ranks of Gram’s hand picked fighters. They had superior equipment, better training, and the final force multiplier, talents.

  They were cutting their way through the fodder that was in their way with Gram several feet ahead of the next closest fighter. He wanted to get through that door and nothing was going to get in his way. He was casually killing people who were likely level 4 or 5.

  “Wotz Dis?” A gravely voice bellowed from the doorway connecting the two buildings. It was a voice that Bjorn knew all too well, he had heard the tone, the pitch, and the broken vocabulary twice before.

  A hulking green form burst through the wooden wall between the two buildings just like the cool aid man. Apparently he didn’t have the patience to get through the door and so he made his own door.

  “Wha maks you dink you can ‘um in er an do wut ye wan to?” Gnack bellowed at the top of his lungs. In his hand he held a club that was a wicked mix between a large lump of wood and a jagged blade on the other half where daggers had been driven into the wood.

  Gram instantly changed course from heading towards the doorway to heading straight towards the 11 foot behemoth standing in the new doorway. Instead of answering Gnack as Gram moved closer to Gnack he grew from his 8 and a half feet tall to just around 12 feet tall.

  “Eh? Puny Humy gro ‘ig?” A wide Grin spread across Gnack's face. “Good.”

  That was all he was able to get out before the massive sword that Gram was wielding slammed into the form of the ork, it was a devastating overhand chop the was going for the ork’s head. However the ork moved surprisingly fast and the blade landed on his deltoid instead of on top of his skull. The force behind the blow was more than enough to cut a normal person in half. Gnack was no ordinary person however. The blade sunk just a few inches into the thick green skin and muscle beneath it before the energy stopped.

  That wasn’t the extent of Gram’s attack however as a moment later Gram’s body slammed into the ork sending both bodies crashing through the wall that Gnack had just entered through. It was hard to see from where Bjorn stood but he could have sworn he saw horns on top of Gram’s head.

  That was as long has he had to watch until three humans were attacking Bjorn and his battle buddy. Fortunately for Bjorn Jacob was a dedicated melee fighter and he raised his shield to meet the attackers head on. This gave Bjorn enough time to put his bow back into his bag of holding and draw his sword. He and Jacob had talked about this before the battle. Jacob was going to be the front line attacker and defender. Jacob at first wanted Bjorn to meet the attackers head on as well, but that changed once he found out that Bjorn had the ability to cast magic.

  With his sword grasped in his right hand he used his left to start to weave the complex hand patterns that he needed to do to cast spells. He rapid fired through three spells in a few seconds. The first spell he cast was bark skin on himself, giving him +5 to his natural armor, but he could also feel his joints stiffen this reduced his movement speed. Right after that he moved into casting his blind spell. Black energies shot forth from his finger slamming into one of the three Jacob was combating. The now blind fighter began to flail wildly. Jacob took advantage of the man’s impairment and landed a vicious backhand with his mace.

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  This attack moved Jacob out of position creating the space for the other two to slip past his guard. This also opened them up to Bjorn’s more destructive spell. As they moved to step past Jacob Bjorn’s third spell shot forth from his fingers and a blaze of reddish light crossed the distance between Bjorn and the lead attacker. The air was filled with the acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air. The flame hit the man's center mass, dropping him instantly, but not killing him.

  The final man closed the distance between Bjorn and him, in his mind Bjorn was the bigger threat. He had just witnessed Bjorn cast spells from three different basic spell schools, that in and of itself made him one of the most dangerous people this man had ever seen. Of course besides his leader.

  Bjorn moved forward with his sword to meet the attacker head on. They briefly exchanged blows, Bjorn was slowly gaining the upper hand and the man’s face started to become strained. It didn’t overly matter much because Bjorn wasn’t alone. Jacob grabbed the man by his hair, using the hair as leverage, plunged a dagger into his back, withdrew it and brought it across his exposed neck. As that was going on Bjorn moved over to his downed man and put him out of his misery by delivering the coup de grace.

  By the time they finished off their opponents other groups had killed their opponents and had moved through the warehouse. Bjorn and Jacob made eye contact and Bjorn nodded his head to the stairs in the corner that led up to the catwalk. Jacob’s eyes darted over to it and without a word nodded his assent.

  They started through the crates at a run, crossing the path of where one other group have moved on their way to the stairs. They got there with Jacob going up first. Bjorn placed his foot on the bottom step to follow after his battle buddy when he got a notification that stopped him in his tracks.

  Part of your debt has been paid. Bandits left to kill 11/13.

  Which one died? Was it Sona the bitch who mocked Bjorn’s screams and cries for them to stop raping Meira? Was it Tslla the Argonian who held Meira in place? Or was it Ramsey, one of the two who did the act? Or was it none of the above and one of the others?

  Even though he was technically one step closer to completing his goal he felt robbed. He was going to make each of them pay in their own way for what they did to him and his wife. Now he was never going to be able to make them suffer as he had suffered. His vengeance has been taken from him.

  “Bjorn?” Jacob’s voice called down to him from the top of the stairs. It was hard to tell if it was the first time he called Bjorn’s name or the second, hell maybe even the fifth. It was hard to hear much over the din of bodies locked into combat. When Bjorn was snapped out of his zoning out and back to reality he looked up at Jacob. “You good?” He asked.

  “Yeah, I got something I didn’t expect. Let’s go.” Bjorn said and ran up the stairs after his battle buddy. He didn’t see it but Jacob gave Bjorn an assessing look before turning back to the matter at hand.

  Together the pair of them made their way down the cat walk heading towards the two rooms at the end of the hallway. They had a straight shot view into one of the rooms, while they still weren’t able to see around the corner. When they were almost to the nexus of doors there came another loud crash as something was thrown into and threw the wall underneath them.

  They looked down and saw Gram’s where he had been thrown through the wall and crashed into several crates. He got up and gave a toothy blood filled grin and like a rocket shot through the hole again going back after the ork. They could hear the loud gravely insane laughter of Gnack as he and Gram reengaged in combat.

  Jacob stood in place for a moment shocked at what he saw. He turned to Bjorn. A look of fear on the man’s face for the first time that night. “If that monster can throw Gram like that, what is their leader like?” Jacob had stood right behind Gram as he had been locked in combat with the snatcher spider queen, and that hadn’t been able to move the half minotaur, half centaur like what the ork just did.

  “He is a monster too, though probably for different reasons.” Bjorn said. “Let’s go, the longer we wait the more damage they can do and the more likely they are to escape.”

  Jacob nodded and they kept moving down the catwalk. They had the plan for Jacob to enter the room directly in front of them while Bjorn looked into the door on their right. If nothing was in the room they would sweep Jacob’s room, then back to Bjorn's.

  Jacob plowed into the room d and began moving to the left. When Bjorn entered the room to his right he saw that it was filled with beds all in various states of dishevelment. Obviously whoever had been sleeping here got up in a hurry. It was a small room so there were 7 of them in total.

  There were two people left in the room much better geared out compared to the two archers they killed. One Bjorn didn't recognize, however the other one he did. He stood from where he had been kneeling throwing stuff into a bag and stood to his full height. His curly black hair and crooked nose made him stand out. It was Zain.

  Zain gave Bjorn a surprised look. He could tell by the look on the man's face he didn't recognize Bjorn. This angered Bjorn more than he thought it would. How dare this cunt help facilitate the raping of his wife, the dismembering of his hand, and have the gull to not remember me.

  Bjorn stepped forward into the room, the fact that he was supposed to help Jacob completely lost in his mind. In that moment the only thought going through his mind was how to extract the most amount of pain he could from this man.

  Zain was acutely aware of his low level. He looked over to his companion and spoke. “Let’s get him.”

  He must have had complete faith in Zain as he rushed forward to meet Bjorn, his one handed axe held upright to slash down at Bjorn. Almost lazily Bjorn sidestepped the slash and with his free hand for magic casting he grabbed the man by his throat and threw him into the ground. Then he took his sword and without looking plunged it into the man's face, skewering it to the wood floor, killing the man instantly.

  The entire time Bjorn had been almost calmly walking towards Zain never once did his eyes leave his face not even to blink. The speed and ferocity at which he dispatched the human frightened Zain and he began to back petal not taking his eyes off of Bjorn, horror clearly planted on his face. He backed up into the wall and collapsed to the floor in a pile. His hands raised in a futile attempt to ward off Bjorn.

  The entire time Bjorn didn't change his pace, nor his gait. He had found his prey and it was time to make him pay. A wicked smile crossed his face as he crossed the distance between the two.

  “Wh- who are you?” He asked in a shaky voice.

  Bjorn finally closed the distance and dropped to a knee bringing his face within 6 inches of Zain's. “You don't remember me?”

  He shook his head. “No, I don't.”

  “Wrong answer.” Bjorn said pulling back from his face he took his wooden hand and backhanded Zain. He let out a startled cry. Bjorn grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him back upright.

  “You know it is a wonderful thing. After you and your boss Kairon and that piece of shit Killian took my hand I thought that would be the end of me.”

  When Bjorn said the name Killian Zain's eyes grew wide. “You! You were that farmer with the hot wi- ahh!”

  Bjorn didn't let him finish his statement. As soon as he started talking about Meira, Bjorn pulled his dagger from his back and slammed it into the palm of Zain's right hand. A notification flashed briefly which Bjorn ignored.

  “What did you say?” Bjorn asked with heat in his voice.

  Instead of answering he drew in a ragged breath. “How are you here? You were a nobody in the middle of nowhere.”

  Bjorn twisted the knife in his palm which brought on a whole new round of screaming. “You thought I was a nobody. We left this life behind. You were the one who brought me back to this life.”

  He shook his head. “No, that's not possible. Jarred staked you out for months while looking for the trials. You were a nobody.”

  Bjorn took in a deep breath and held it for a second. He let it out before speaking, he wanted to kill this man but he still needed to get information. “What did Kairon get from the trails?”

  Zain’s eyes grew wide. “You know about them?”

  “Of course I do. I was there when you were leaving the forgotten temple.” Bjorn held up his spriggan hand in full display in front of Zain’s face. “That is actually where I got this. Every single one of you will grow to regret it. I suppose I should thank you, as if not for you I never would have gotten this power.”

  To punctuate his words Bjorn extended both his pointer and ring finger on his wooden hand and he plunged it into the muscle on Zain’s chest. The man let out another bout of screams. They intensified as Bjorn curled his fingers inside the muscle and yanked back with all of his might. The muscle and skin tore with a sickening sound and blood began to gush out of the hole in his chest.

  Eventually Zain’s screams died down. “What can you tell me about what Kairon got from the trails?”

  Zain took in a raspy breath, his voice hoarse when he replied. “I don’t know.”

  “Liar.”

  “No. I don’t know. Wait, wait, wait! What are you doing? I don’t know! PLEASE! I don’t know.” The last words were more of a whimper.

  When he first denied knowing, Bjorn ripped the dagger free from Zain’s right palm and began slowly running the tip of the dagger up Zain’s arm heading towards the elbow. He slowly painstakingly set the blade to Zain’s elbow and slowly drew it back and forth across his arm. With not enough pressure to cut, but with just enough force to make small cuts in the skin on his elbow. At the same time he took his free hand and gripped Zain by the lower arm.

  “I am going to ask you one more time and you better not lie to me. What did Kairon get from the trails?”

  The fear in Zain’s eyes was almost palpable. “I do not know.” He whispered.

  Bjorn tisked before he applied pressure slowly and methodically sawing through Zain's arm. He took his time cutting off Zain's forearm. He had a plan and he was going to make sure it happened. A plan he had to accelerate as Zain passed out about 3/4th’s of the way through either because of blood loss or because of the pain Bjorn didn’t know. The only reason he noticed that the man passed out was that his screams abruptly stopped.

  With annoyance Bjorn pulled one of the healing potions he had gotten from Skarit out of his bag of holding, he popped the cork and poured the contents of the vial down Zain’s throat. He then didn’t have to wait overly long. A few seconds after Zain drank the potion he regained consciousness. Bjorn continued to cut.

  When the arm finally fell free of Zain’s body Bjorn grasped it and held it up in front of his face. He then said, “Oh, come on. There is no reason to be so serious, we can all be friends here. Why do we need to have all this unpleasantness? Why don't we just sit down together and talk about this. If you really want to, I could be convinced to let you have a throw with the dagger.” Zain’s eyes grew wide as he recalled what he had said to Bjorn before Gnack ate Alaric’s arm.

  He pulled back the limb and with a swing brought it down on Zain. He brought it back a second time to hit him a second time but his blow was brought up short. A strong callused hand gripped Bjorn by his wrist stopping the swing in motion.

  Bjorn swung his head around to see who had stopped him. He had been too engrossed in his vengeance and lost track of his surroundings. A mistake he shouldn’t have made. A mistake he wasn’t going to get punished for. On the other end of that hand was one of the professed fighters who entered the building with Bjorn. It wasn’t Jacob his battle buddy but he still recognized the man.

  The man’s eyes were filled with sympathy and sorrow. “That’s enough, for now. We need to take him in for questioning.”

  The fury in Bjorn boiled up again, who was this man to get between him and his vengeance? His gut reaction was to draw his hand back to hit this man who stopped him. A tense moment passed before Bjorn relaxed. He wasn’t going to be getting any information out of Zain, Vilgaforts would probably have better luck than Bjorn was having.

  Bjorn released his fists which let Zain’s severed limb drop to the floor with a thump. “Let’s get back to it.” It was the first time he saw that there were two others of the warband in the room with him.

  The man shook his head. “There is no need. The battle is over, we won. We just need to sweep the buildings to see if there are any left alive.”

  Bjorn nodded, relaxing. “How many?” The question was three fold, he was asking how many did we kill, how many did we capture, and finally how many of us survived.

  Fortunately the man understood the question. “We don’t know, there were more than we were led to believe, this made it harder to capture them alive. As for the warband you should be able to see.”

  He was right Bjorn could see the names grayed out on the corner of his vision. Of the 24 assault members who attacked 21 of the names still had color to them, only three of them were grayed out. He could however see the amount of life each member of the war party had left. Out of all 21 members left alive he was the only one who actually still had full hp. Everyone else had taken some form of damage. Most were under half health left, with a few lower. Surprisingly Gram was under half health left.

  “Shall we go help sweep the building?” Bjorn asked.

  The man just shook his head. “No, I don’t think that would be for the best. This had been a high stakes event and you are too close to it personally to think straight. Our backup has arrived anyways and they will take care of the sweep. I think we should grab this man and head out of here.” He spoke as if he was trying to calm down a wounded animal.

  This annoyed Bjorn, he wasn’t some mewling pet to be calmed down. He thought about lashing out then his eyes fell on the two other professed fighters standing behind the man. It finally dawned on him why they were there. They weren’t there to help Bjorn, they were there to help in case Bjorn acted out and did something stupid. He had no idea what Gram told these men but they must have been given orders to watch out for Bjorn. They had collected before confronting Bjorn.

  “Let’s go.” Bjorn said in an icy tone. He could see relief pass through the bodies of the three professed fighters standing in front of him. They had been waiting with baited breath for Bjorn to lash out. Honestly seeing this man who had become almost legendary in this city torture a man, and have no qualms about doing so unsettled the three of them. He wasn’t anything like the stories that had been told about him.

  They made their way out back onto the catwalk. Below dozens of Gram’s normal guards were milling about as they searched both the crates as well as the building for survivors, stragglers, and souvenirs. The guards down on the ground floor were not looking at them, pointedly not looking at him, as he and his escort walked across the catwalk. The two in the back were carrying Zain’s limp form in between them, they had applied cloth to the stump of his arm to make sure he didn’t bleed out.

  They walked through the building and back out into the night air where it was filled with activity. The city looked like a hornets nest had been kicked as there were guards everywhere. Apparently 30 minutes after Gram and his warband left for this operation he had given orders for those guards on duty to converge on this section of the city.

  Bjorn and his escort made their way through the crowd of guards heading towards a building nearby that had been commandeered as their headquarters and makeshift field hospital. They walked into the makeshift field hospital and saw a few wounded of the bandits that were mixed in with the more injured of the assault team. There was a sheet that separated the main area from a small room. They were walking up to it and one of the fighters pulled back the curtain gesturing for Bjorn to enter.

  Inside Gram lay on a makeshift bed made out of cloth and sacks found inside the warehouse. He looked like hell. There were several deep lacerations that covered his body. There were several bruises that were already forming across his bare chest. His left leg sat at an awkward angle. It was no wonder his health was below 20%.

  “What the hell happened?” Bjorn asked.

  Gram had been laying with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. When he heard Bjorn’s voice he opened one eye and looked at him. “You weren’t joking, that monster was no joke. I had never fought an ork before, and damn. He had me beat for strength, but he fought with all instinct and ferocity. I thought with my higher level that I would have him beat especially seeing how I have both my profession and my specialization. He must have had some sort of damage resistance because the more damage I dealt to him the harder it was to do more as well as the stronger and faster he got.”

  Gram paused to let out a small coughing fit. “I was faster and had actually been trained on how to fight so I had an edge. He was still getting in a few lucky hits but It was obvious that I was going to win. That was when he lured me into a trap. He left a glaring opening, one I had seen multiple times during the fight, this time I took the bait. That was when he got ahold of me and threw me through a wall, that’s how my leg broke. To my surprise he didn’t follow after me and instead fled. They must have had an escape route, I am waiting for the report.”

  “I caught one of them.” Bjorn said.

  Gram gave him an assessing look. “So I heard. I heard you started getting some revenge on the man as well. I understand your pain but we need them alive if we are to find out where they are going and what they are doing.”

  “I almost got too carried away.”

  “I know.” Gram said before he coughed.

  The sheet was pulled back and in walked a man in a pristine white robe. He looked between Gram and Bjorn and bowed slightly to Gram. “My lord.” He said.

  “I think it’s best you left the healer to do his job Bjorn. I think you should go back to the palace, as soon as I get a full report about tonight I will send it to the palace and I will make sure you are included in the reading. You and the Duke will be the first to know what happened tonight.”

  Bjorn tightened his lips, he hated being dismissed like this, but he had already gotten more information than he really deserved, he was still technically an outsider and not a member of the city's fighting force. He shouldn’t be having meetings with people as important as Gram and Dornan.

  “I understand, rest well, and I wish you a hasty recovery.” Bjorn said as he turned to leave.

  Back outside the three fighters who had escorted him to Gram were milling about. When they saw Bjorn exit they snapped to attention. “We would like to provide security for you as you head back to the palace.” The man said.

  Bjorn was about to reject the offer when it dawned on him. They weren’t offering to protect him. They were likely ordered to take him back to the palace as if he was a petulant child. It was a far cry to how he had been treated a week ago. He wanted to lash out but he still needed the resources of Blackrock Bay for the time being. He needed them to point him towards where the enemy fled to.

  “Very well. Let’s go.” Bjorn turned and left the building, his guard in hot pursuit.

  Mentally he started to replay the interactions in his head of what had happened over the last few weeks, it was starting to happen again. Just like last time the city of Blackrock Bay was starting to view him as more of a pawn rather than one of the power pieces on the board. It may have been irrational but it was starting to piss him off.