Chapter 23

The next morning they woke up early and started the first day of their island exploration. The other side of the island was closer to the mountains on the island. The forest was really dense at the foot of the mountains. They first secured the location Ash had seen on Knox's map. They set up a perimeter around it for a mile; they were still very far away from Knox's camp. Once everything was setup, they started digging. Shovels and arms were not going to do much, and with speed, so they used explosives. At first, they were afraid it might cause too much noise, but Raeya said she had a silence scroll.

"It stays active for a couple of hours after every activation, so we don't need to worry about it" she had said.

When the digging process had started, he, Raeya, and Drax left to explore the rest of the island. Ash had fashioned a map out of memory similar to Knox's, it looked more or less similar, but the distances might be different.

"let me take a look at it," Drax said when Ash tried to see where they were on the map.

"I think we are somewhere here; look at the mountain on our left. We are very close to it, but we can't see the camp anymore," they speculated.

"Right, I think we should check out these small hills, they are right in the middle of the island, and they seem a bit out of place."

"They are not out of place, and this is not a mountain it is a volcano," Drax said finally while Raeya and Ash were having their discussion.

"How can you tell?" he asked.

"I am a dragon-kin, we can tell; the hills must be formed due to the solidifying of the lava after eruptions over the years," he explained, and they nodded.

"It's not going to explode any time soon now, right?" he asked.

"No, but big diggings are happening on both sides of it so I won't be too surprised if the island retaliates," he said grimly.

"Well, let's hope we get out of here before that," said Raeya and they moved towards the hills.

At one look at the new terrain and they could tell that indeed these rocks were not normal. They could see a pattern of lava coming down the huge volcano and resting there. Ash moved forward but his eyes were darting here and there as the new sights came in vision. They started climbing the hills now, the trek was tiring for Ash but Raeya and Drax seemed fine.

"Hush!" Raeya said suddenly and clamped a hand on Ash's mouth as he was about to ask why. She pointed silently over the side of the hill; they peered silently and slowly over the edge and saw in the small valley that had been formed, surrounded by the hills, men. They were the same men Ash had seen with Knox, evident from their clothes and tattoos on their faces, but this time there were more of them.

"Do you recognize them?" Raeya asked Drax.

"Yeah," he replied to Ash's surprise.

"Who are they?" he asked.

"They are a band of sell-swords, call themselves the Black Bandits," Drax replied with hate "They are pretty famous among the mercenaries, and they are a problem," he finished with a grimace.

"What are they?" Ash asked, 'cause they seemed human.

"Most of them are humans, although might be mixed with go knows what? Orcs maybe, but they aren't just a bunch of mercenaries, they are organized, used to be a proper company before until they started going for riches, and they are well trained, if we attack them just like that, they'll pick us apart one by one" he said.

Starting from me, Ash thought.

"Let's wait and see what they are up to?" Raeya said, and they fell silent.

The six men that were standing in the open were they realized keeping watch outside a cave in the hills, which wasn't visible to them from their vantage point as they were directly above it, and so they were surprised when more men came out of it. Raeya and Drax sucked in breaths when they saw their leader come out. He was indeed somewhat orc, with his stature and choice of armor. He looked ready for war, had spikes coming out of his armor and had a big axe on the back.

"That's Zora, the skull crusher they call him, a very ruthless killer, looks like the bandits are diversifying," said Drax.

"Secure the cave, it will take time, make sure none of Knox's men get a whiff of what's happening here" the eight-foot-tall, giant of a man who made Drax look normal ordered his men and left.

They waited to see if anyone was returning, but they were not; they had left six men to guard the cave entrance.

"I can take three," Drax said.

"I'll take two," said Raeya, and then they looked at him.

"I guess I 'll handle the rest," said Ash, although his heart was beating loudly now.

"I'll take the ones from that corner," Drax said and went closer over his targets.

"Here" Raeya came towards him, holding an elegant blade that she had produced out of nowhere "Which one do you want?" she asked for his sake, but it was clear who he should be choosing. Two of them were standing closer and would be better to be taken out together. She nodded and moved to her targets. Ash's target was a short red-haired man, he had a nasty-looking scar on his left eye, and an even nasty-looking knife which he was twirling in his fingers. Ash took out his own blade, it was a simple knife with nothing special about it; he had picked it from somewhere, he also had his blood dagger or the hilt of it ready, if he is successful he'll fill it up with his target's blood, it would be a much better weapon in future fights with an actual blade. He didn't know whether sticking someone with just the hilt would do something so he wasn't taking any chances. The only trick he had was Kuln's technique, it was proving to be really difficult to focus right now though and he had no time, as Drax signaled from his spot, he jumped down over his targets with a silent cry, flourishing his long sword, Raeya moved faster than was possible with her Elvish elegance, and Ash came out of his hiding spot and ran straight towards the man. It was clear the man would have plenty of time to prepare his own attack when Ash would reach him. His blade was in his hands ready to strike, With every step Ash took he felt his mind going somewhere else and the only thing that was in focus was the man in front of him. When he reached him, he was able to see his movement and move his own blade with it and they collided with sparks flying out, and with a large metal-on-metal sound, Ash's trance was broken. The noises and battles breaking out around him all came into focus at once. He realized what had happened, the few seconds long focus he had achieved was broken and now he was on his own.

They stepped back from each other a few steps, and then the man lunged. It was clear to both parties who had the better skills. Within a few seconds Ash was doing his best not to get stabbed by him until he gave his opponent too much time and he took out his sword, Now he had much farther reach too. The others were still fighting, barely a minute had gone by. Ash opted for his last option and threw the knife in the man's face. He ducked but the next moment Ash tackled him. He had gained one advantage and he rained down punches on the man. He felt a searing pain on his side, his left arm went there instinctively and it was wet with blood. He then felt the hilt of the bloody dagger, and he took it out only it had a blade now, formed of his own blood. He slashed the man with it, but he had gained a footing in a few seconds and he was only able to cut his arm when he threw Ash off him. They both stood up again. Ash was bleeding from his side, the man had a black eye and a cut on his arm. Ash was clearly the worse and the fight wasn't over yet. But as they moved towards each other. The man seemed to falter in his steps, he looked at the cut on his arms confused. And Ash also saw the cut moving and expanding and getting deeper. It widened until he was bleeding badly and fell down clutching his arm the fight forgotten.

The blade formed of his blood had, after cutting the man, left something in the man's body which was doing something to him. The man clutching his bleeding arm had finally gone still.

"Oh, looks like you cut open some big vien," Drax said, coming up, their fights were finally over. Raeya's kills were clean, Drax's targets were like Ash's.

"Good work" Raeya called around as they entered the cave.

"Well, our plan to remain silent won't work now," said Drax.

"I won't be sure, the bandits would find out, but they might not tell Knox since they are already hiding the cave from him," said Ash.

"Be on Guard," said Raeya as they moved deeper into the cave. The light was coming from a small ball of light Raeya had produced in his hands. They walked for another minute in the darkness until they came to the end of the cave. It was clear to them that they were in a man-made room now. The floor was even, and there were drawings on the wall. The ceiling was also caved inwards manually in the shape of a dome. And in the center of the room was a raised platform with some writing all around it.

"What is it?" Ash asked, his voice echoing in the cave.

"It's an altar," Raeya said.

"Altar?" Ash asked, not much knowledgeable on the subject.

"Yes, the inscriptions are really old; I can't tell which deity they are calling, but if this is a real altar and if they are successful in calling whatever it is, they can unleash chaos over the whole world," she said grimly.