Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

"Who knows, there might have been tens of such candidates in the past."

Davin and others finally calmed down, hearing Wrik. 

"So what do we do?" Davin asked again. 

"We have to move first and attack before they are even prepared," Wrik said. "We will move tomorrow." 

"Tomorrow?" Lily arched her eyebrows and asked. "Isn't that a little earlier?" 

"It is, that's why it will be tomorrow," Wrik said. "You have to prepare the men again and if any of the newer men like to join us—it would be a bonus."

Seeing her nodding, Wrik then brought out the omega cube from inside of his cloak. He fiddled with the blue cube for a second as a hologram of a map appeared above it.

"What is this?" Davin asked. 

"This is where our friend Theiron is currently at," Wrik said, pointing at the red dot in the middle of the map.

"What?" Davin gave a start. And he was not the only one.

"This is thanks to Dairyl," Wrik elaborated. "Even though the brand we put on Theiron was a false slave brand, it was not an entirely white thing. I asked Dairyl if she could put a tracker in within the runes and now you see the results."

"That's why you said he still had his use?" Tanya asked. "You knew he would do something like this?" 

"I was not sure, but I still put on some safety net. Actually, I even wished that idiot would not do something like this to betray us, but I learned a lesson again."

Tanya nodded slowly. "What do you propose now?"

"As you can see in the map, Theiron is not where the fortress of Scythe is," Wrik said. "It was just over the grassland."

"Why is he here? And that too in the middle of the night?"

"He went to Scythe alright, but he did not stay there for long, he probably delivered Byul to the fortress before moving again," Wrik continued, scratching his forehead. "It appeared he was planning something or they could be planning together."

Anton stood up. "I'll make a trip there and see what the matter is there," he said and was about to leave. 

"Sit down Ton. I already sent a team there to find what was going on there," Wrik said. "Moreover you need some rest. You will have a big day tomorrow."

"What are you planning?"

"I am thinking about making an exchange," Wrik said. "But before that, I need to know what they were planning."

He fiddled with the blue cube again and the thing started to vibrate, after a while, a voice came from it.

"I was just about to call you," Aeriel said from the omega cube. 

She was the one Wrik sent to collect the information on what's going on. Before this she did not have an omega cube with her, none of the maidens had it so Wrik only had to borrow one from Michelle.

"It appears you have found out what's going on there, Aeriel," Wrik said. "Tell me in detail."

"I have not found out what they were planning, but it seemed like they were scheming something against us. Scythe is not here as far as I found."

"How many men were there?" Wrik asked.

"I am not sure, it could be two to three hundred," Aeriel said. "They were led by the outlander that betrayed us.. . ." 

"Alright then. Aeriel, you take cover there and call us with each hour or you see something strange happening." Wrik cut the call saying that.

"Looks like we might succeed avoiding a head-on collision," Wrik muttered and looked at everyone in the room. "Everyone take this time to rest. We will move again in three hours."

.. .

The sun had not risen, but the group of Wrik moved from the foot of the mountain. They divided into smaller groups of ten or so number, and moved towards the grassland and the fortress of Scythe.

Yesterday they already got the news that Scythe had moved most of his men near the grassland, probably planning to make an attack on them, but they would be only a step faster than them.

In Wrik's group other than him there was Tanya, Davin, Jacob, Michelle, Dairyl, Lora and Fraser who was holding Ben who was on a leash. His mouth was closed with cloth saving them from the mindless rambling of the crazy fellow. Anton was with them a few moments ago, and Wrik gave him some important job.

The success depends on the quick manoeuvre and Anton was quicker than anyone else presents here. Even without Anton, his team held most of the elite of the people. If he could give the two mages enough time to prepare, then there will be one or two people here in the test who could stop them. 

They were the group who would try for the exchange if only Lily and the others succeeded in their task in holding the thousand man army of Scythe. According to the news they had, it was quite possible as Scythe's men would be unprepared and they had not yet employed all the people here yet.

At least that would happen if their luck was good and the information they got was all true.

They had four hundred men among them; few of the slaves under Arjamith joined after Wrik gave them a promise of remuneration, but most chose to abstain form any conflict.

There was a blizzard yesterday, and the effect was still going on. The thick clouds on the sky moved along the wind. Gusts of chilly wind blew from the mountain and made their spine shiver. But the men still moved on. 

There were about five-mile close to the designated place when the sun rose up though the thick cloud hid most of its glory. Wrik looked at the artificial sun and sighed. All the farces that had been going on for a month will end today.

Abruptly, the omega cube in his cloak vibrated. Someone was calling him. Apart from him, Omega cubes were Anton, Aeriel who was borrowing hers from Michelle and Lily who was borrowing the one from Tanya. It should be Aeriel or Lily who was calling. Aeriel was the person who was in charge of the information gathering and was hiding near the place throughout the night. While Lily was the one who was leading the men to attack.

"Hello, can you hear me?" Ariel's anxious voice came the moment Wrik received the call. 

"Yes, what is it?" Wrik said. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes, and it's more than you can imagine," Aeriel said through the device. "This is a trap. We are trapped in an encircle."

"What?" Wrik stood by on his walk while all the others did the same, hearing the voice. They looked at Wrik with anxious faces.

"This is a trap from the beginning. I think Theiron was put here just to bring us here while the real force was employed all around here. And it was not just Scythe's men. There were other men encircling us and they were at least three or four times our number."

Wrik's face turned uglier. If this all were true, then that meant Scythe already knew about the tracker they had put inside Theiron and used him as bait to catch all of them together. 'Was I too confident with my intelligence?' he thought. 

"Dairyl, do you think anyone in the test here could sense the tracker?" he asked, even though he knew the answer.

Dairyl shook her head. "The chances of that were extremely low."

Wrik nodded and looked towards Ben, who noticed his gaze and only shrugged. 

"Tell our men to take cover," Wrik said to Aeriel. "And tell Lily to withdraw from her group and join us." 

"I don't think sister Lily would agree to that," Aeriel added. 

"Is it another dumb thing taught in your clan?" Wrik said as his mind raced for all the things. "Fine, I will call her myself. You withdraw first."

Wrik cut the call and release a deep breath. He only has a few minutes to come up with a plan and the plan needs to succeed him to at least withdraw safely.

In the end, he looked at the fellow who was bound with Fraser. Sighing again, he came in front of him.

"Open his mouth," Wrik said to Fraser who complied silently. 

"God, I told you not to put that thing inside my mouth," Ben said, spatting on the ground.

"I don't have time for this," Wrik said, glaring at Ben. 

"Well, there's nothing else to discuss. I already gave you a proposal, and it still stands."

Wrik gritted his teeth. Yes what, Ben said was right. The crazy guy was not crazy all the time, if you eliminate the crazy part from him, he would appear like a quite intelligent fellow. 

"I still don't know what you are planning?" Wrik said. 

_____________

I changed the title of the Chapter. Sorry for that.

Next Chapter: Cheater.