A blast in the tower (1/2)

Knowing that their covered operation had ended with the audible death of the lookout, Jay rushed from his position towards the tower. By the time he reached the stairs to the tower, a group of three men was awaiting him.

Sira did exactly the same after she had also taken care of a single leftover patrol that got close to the still fleeing slaves.

At least the freed people had finally all made it up the stairs and ran together with Aranthir towards the close bye trees.

No longer hiding or refraining from flashy moves, Jay got rid of the three guards nearly simultaneously. The closest got his head blown off by an (Arcane Missile) while the second burst in flames together with the cover he hid behind from three consecutive fire spells. As for the only female of the group, she got electrocuted from lightning but died from a dagger Sira had thrown the moment she got within reach.

Smiling to his quite combat ready slave, Jay didn't wait for her to arrive and rushed into he tower.

The reason was his plan for the five presences he had noticed waiting there. Barging in through the door, Jay rushed to the exact center of the men and fired off an (Arcane Blast).

The moment Sira entered the tower only a few seconds after Jay, she got a slight shock:

Two of the men had gotten hurled against the outer walls where a bloody trail showed how they slid down.

A third one close to the door was still stuck at a shelve on the wall as well.

For the fourth it went less gory, though him laying further back and the missing head made him not any better than the rest.

The last of the men was held by the hem up on the first platform of the stairs and Jay just then asked him how many men they were. But he got no answer as the man had most of his bones broken due to getting hurled up the stairs and went to the afterlife before he even could possibly answer the youth.

Tossing the corpse down to the others, Jay signaled Sira to catch up and waited so they could go up the next set of stairs together.

The next floor they reached was some kind of storage. Other than a few crates, bags and some rubble there was nothing to be found. Jay asked Sira to check on the things there and see if she could find something of worth while he went up to check on the next floor.

Of course he had already picked up on some more opponents there.

To his surprise, it was no direct attack or ambush that awaited him one her got up there. From a straight and not too wide hallway led two doors to each side, so he carefully closed in on the first one.

With (Hide) active, Jay slowly opened the door but there still came an arrow flying. It only stuck in the door but surprised Jay quite a bit. His answer in form of an (Arcane Missile) followed without delay, nearly killing the woman instantly.

The man that had hid next to the door was off worse as Jay first broke his weapon arm after he parried, then a couple of his ribs before he could grab the weakened bandits head and twist it swiftly to the side, breaking his neck with a loud crack.

The half dead woman had no chance to yell out as Jay arrived next to her before she recovered from the magic attack. He simply grabbed her and threw her out of the small window there, hearing her scream until it ended with a thud.

Leaving the group quarters room, Jay learned the other bandits had heard her scream. The two men from the opposite room came rushing out, but Jay had already equipped his swords.

Leaving the two corpses on the hallway, Jay kicked open the next door.

A single poor bandit in there charged at him without plan or reason. The moment said bandits head hit the ground, Jay heard turmoil outside so he rushed back. Just then he saw another bandit fleeing towards the stairs up while sounds from more reached him from down below.

Sprinting after the one fleeing, Jay barely managed to catch up with him half way up to the next floor. He managed to strike the man down with a single slash.

When he turned around and wanted to rush down again to intercept the heard reinforcements, they already came running down the hallway. Not knowing where the four men had arrived from, Jay fired off two spells and jumped down over the handrail.

As the (Chain Lightning) and (Arcane Dart) hit the second closest man and roasted him, Jay used his momentum to cleave the first in two. With the help of his parcours skill he hurled himself from the stairs towards the third men, ending the paralyzed man's life by piercing through his heart.

Just as Jay pulled out his sword again, the last man fell dead forward as well. He had a hilt sticking out of his back and a cute figure taking his place.

Jay had been hoping that Sira wouldn't be found but has had no chance to check on her. It turned out she activated (Hide) when she heard the men and waited until they passed her. Then she followed them, should Jay require her help, even though she had doubted that. As the chance presented itself, she simply took care of one man in hopes to impress her new master.

A bit proud of her, though more for her thoughfulness than her kill, Jay asked Sira to once again wait for a moment and look for a chance to strike. Then he went up to the next floor silently and took a peek.

Just like before, his intuition had been spot on as the five men in similar armor there seemed to have been waiting for him.

With each of them over Level 24, Jay was certain the battle would be a bit more tough than the last ones. On the other hand though, he was on the top floor with only a wooden ceiling and most certainly nothing much on that.

There was a reason he hadn't used his (Arcane Blast) skill inside after the first time on the ground floor:

While it didn't deal much damage to the walls because he had been far enough away, the wooden door got completely blast away, similar to one of the wooden shelves there. Had he used the skill on the completely wooden middle floors, it might have led to them collapsing.

Choosing the man in the middle of the room, Jay rushed close and before any of them noticed him thanks to his stealth, beheaded the bandit with a slash.

Instead of using the small gap the others left in their surprise, Jay kicked the corpse back as to not get sullied by the spilling blood and waited for the four men to get closer.

With a loud shattering sound, the wooden structures squeaking and bending while every piece of furniture flew though the room, Jay's last (Arcane Blast) for the day shot out.

The bandits caught in the magic explosion got equally hurled away to all directions.

Glad that at least the floor and ceiling had remained mostly intact, Jay looked around once again in the previously office like room. The desk he had stood behind got shattered by the blast and nearly half of the splinters found their way into one of the bandits. There was no need for Jay to check if the human porcupine was still alive, however high his health might have been.

Another one of the bandits got hurled towards one of the thick wooden stands supporting the roof.

While the wooden construction had endured the torture, the woman's body hadn't. She got bent so hard that she stayed in that shape even when she slid down on it, probably with most of her ribs and spine shattered.

For the last two, Jay had to think about on which to check first. The one that had flown towards the stairs looked like he had hit the wall with his head and at least got knocked out, while the last one was simply missing. Jay went with that one and walked over to the once a big closet. It was like the shelves next to it, nothing more than broken wood and splinters by then.

As he shoved some of the rubble to the side, Jay found the bandit lying there and bleeding profoundly. The man looked in utter shock at Jay who without wait stabbed down his sword and ended the near dead bandit by stabbing his heart.

Just a second later the fight ended. It wasn't that the last survivor had died to his wounds, but Sira who had come up and stabbed the knocked out man dead. The two checked on each other for a second and then went to check if they could find any leads in the room.

Just then Jay understood why it was utterly idiotic to use (Arcane Blast) in confined and feeble structures!

It took them close to half an hour, only to check the corpses and room for any hints or valuables. In the end they found some letters and notes, most of them in not really good states, as well as some gold, books and a few other things.

One of the documents Jay found were shipping schedule and some logs about deliveries to the highlands. He was surprised that some slaves had seemingly remained in the kingdom but then thought about the suspected perpetrators again.

What else he wondered about, was that they found the documents there in the open. It was more about finding anything than the "in the open" part as literally anything lay around. But Sira was pretty good in such things and that was the reason they could climb the ladder up to the topmost lookout only about thirty minutes later.

"This view is a blast!" J.

"Mind your words master…" S.

Her expression showed she was equally taken aback by the beauty of the sight and how incredibly far they could see. Jay no longer wondered why the defiers had chosen this tower and could defend it so long.

To the south west, the view on the wide lake would have given away any ship closing in on the pier.

From the west to north west one could see far over the forest they had come through, though like Aranthir had explained the cliff was mostly hidden or simply too far away. The same was true for Lakeview somewhere behing the forest.

To the north they saw some forest as well, though thinner and then changing into plains. Not too far behind began the high mountain range that looked and functioned like a wall surrounding the whole region.

When their view wandered further, Jay and Sira took another step towards the massive stone balustrade. As the short girl peeked over it, she gave Jay a rough explanation of what they saw as she knew those surroundings.

The hills and plains with some smaller forests stretched far in the north east, so much that the mountains far behind were only barely visible. But only barely.

Sira noted that they went around the area up until half of the eastern border. The shore that made up the rest of the regions eastern end was hidden behind Stonewatch Keep. Exactly this was the reason the stronghold got erected in the first place, to watch and guard the stony beach where the river connecting Lake Everstill merged with the Inner Sea.

The keep was not really good to see as it was still a good bit away, but from the high and rocky hill it got built on, Jay understood the choice for its location.

The bridge and what was left of it where equally hard to make out. Thanks to Jay's [Far Sight] he could take a peek, but making out people there was impossible.

Turning further to the south again they had completed one round. The other shore in the south was barely within view there, though not the mountains behind it. After one last glance, Jay descended the tower again and Sira followed.

They had to meet up with Aranthir and the slaves that surely had kept waiting for the two. Something over ten minutes later they joined up with the relatively big group. Thanks to Jay's horse they had no problem catching up, though the elf had really waited for some time.

They escorted the slaves back to Lakeview together, what took them until late afternoon as they had to make some breaks to rest.

Once the slaves got brought into the big log house a provisional refuge, Aranthir met up with Jay again. He had already informed Wiley about what Jay had done and that they could finally take the tower back. The agent was to arrive at the tower by next morning as Aranthir just received note that he had already left from Stillwater to there.

Jay had reported on their way back and given the Elf some of the documents to relay them as it would possibly take him some time to get back to Arathor.

Before they continued their planning, he first of all inquired how Aranthir had communicated so fast as they hadn't arrived at Lakeview that long ago. Grinning wide the Elf explained that he had send his falcon when they took a break. Jay remembered having seen such a bird close by when he first met him in the hunting camp, but had thought it was just a wild animal. As there was no helping him having been ignorant and not analyzing it, he ceased his thoughts about it.

They continued their talks and Jay offered to guard the tower this night should any bandits come back in the night. He and Sira had already proven to be more than enough for it and the next day Wiley could take over. Like this he could also give his report directly.

After the Rogue gladly accepted Jay's offer as he had enough to do with the slaves and sending them back, Jay said his farewell and left Lakeview together with Sira once again. Thanks to his magic mount their travel was way faster than before and so the two arrived in the vicinity at early evening.

With some time to spare and having to look out for patrols either way, they decided to take a slight detour and hunt something a bit to the north. It didn't take long for them to find some deer and only one shot to take it down.

Back at the tower Jay had Sira make a fire, not only to later roast some of the meat but also to lure in bandits as they hadn't seen any during their short excursion. In the end it was only one group and Jay had the small Hobgoblin take care of one, while he once again sniped the other down himself.

When the sun sat behind the mountains in the west and they had chatted for quite a while without anything happening, the two went inside the tower.

At first hey had thought about using the beds in the quarters there, but after testing the first, Jay had decided they would set up the tent on the floor above.

After Sira cleared an area in the center and Jay had summoned Max to stand guard on the base floor, he took out the tent and they entered it together. Inside Sira directly went to the bedroom they had used before and began to take off her armor.

Jay first stopped in the central area and watched the slender girl until she asked her "master" if he wasn't going to join her. With a wide and pleased grin Jay walked towards the then stripped bare, green little cutie and kissed her forehead.

Her face twitched to that, seemingly not sure how to react as she on one hand liked his showed affection, on the other hand had wished for another gesture. Getting it from her reaction, Jay pulled her close, while sitting down on the bedside backwards and kissed her.

This time it was on her lips.

Not holding back a chuckle for her small victory, Sira directly began to undo Jay's belt. Not only had he told her that her master wanted to test out and verify some theory, she hadn't gotten her daily "meal" up to this point...