Triple Strength

313. Hide-and-seek: Wiremu

If blowing up their storage facility, maiming or killing a hundred troopers and maiming an affinity user doesn’t get all the attention on us, then nothing will.

We came out of the gate's shadow to a hail of arrows. It is Tāoke I am most worried about. He is moving slowly. He is seriously injured. I ignore most of the arrows as they just bounce off my Granite. I create a Granite platform for Tāoke to rest on Težka while still in his lava form. Our pace picks up.

I grab my bow from Težka’s saddle and one of the many quivers of arrows he is carrying. I start picking off the better archers on the wall. With my Telescopic sight and my Marksman Skill, it is almost child's play.

We are out of range of most archers when I sense a bond to my left. I whirl and fire in one swift movement. A magpie lies there with my arrow embedded deep. All bonds that are sent after us will need to end that way. I scan the sky with my Farsight and telescopic sight into suspicious movement. It looks clear for now.

We move out of sight of the walls and take a different angle. I estimate the cavalry will be on our trail within the hour. It is only midafternoon. It is going to be a long afternoon and a longer night. I start removing our tracks.

We stop at Dusk in a cave I Shaped. Tāoke changed back to his normal body and started healing. He had to stay large for now, but at least he would not show up on Thermal Sensing for miles. I treated his wounds as best I could, and he took a potion.

Modrica let me treat her wound. I wished Umreti was here. He had the First Aid skill. Modrica’s healing was called Blood Restoration, and it was only at the early Apprentice Level. It was like my Regeneration, and would not regrow limbs and organs until Master level. She was going to be without the hand for a long time.

While they rested, I created some camouflage for Težka. It was made up of bushes and grasses, and we needed to refresh it every morning and night. If I gave the signal, Težka would stop moving and lie down. If he had time, he could use Earth Manipulation to sink down into the ground and reduce his profile. All this was only assistance for Tāoke. Tāoke would ride him, and not just because he was recovering. Tāoke had a Master Level Camouflage Skill, which would always be on. It was not good at movement but could be extended to cover others. Modrica was also to stay close so she could be included in the skill, but she would bury herself immediately if she were caught away from them.

I would have to be both scout and trail cleaner.

If we met any patrols we couldn’t hide from, we would need to eliminate them entirely. No survivors.

My Hearing Aid tracked a group of horses galloping past. Before we moved on, I scanned everybody carefully for any tracking marks. Then we got moving. It was a very tense night. We stopped at every suspicious thing.

It is just as well I did, too. It is the lone trackers sneaking through the scrub that is the danger. I can hear patrols from miles away. He was the patient, sneaky sort. He must have had some sort of tracker insight Skill like Kelda because he knew he was close even though he could not find us. He looked like the tenacious sort, so I decided to assassinate him. I stripped him of his pack and weapons, and Modrica buried him deep after drinking deeply. I am starting to worry about her feasting on the bodies of sapient races. It has a cannibalistic feel even though she hasn’t fed on Orcs. Yet, to my knowledge. I will need to hunt animals for her. Once we get into the wilds, Težka can hunt for them both.

I was exhausted by dawn, and we found a small stream in a rocky area and buried ourselves as deep as we dared for the day.

I surfaced about dusk and carefully scouted the area. A hundred meters downstream, a squad of foot soldiers are setting up camp for the evening. This is going to make moving tricky. They get a fire going and prepare their evening meal.

Foot soldiers mean the mounted troopers have passed us during the day. They will be scouring ahead. They will know roughly how far a dire bear can travel in a day. Every day, the search area gets bigger. In comparison with our top speed, we are travelling at a crawl. It is going to take longer to get out of empire territory, but our biggest asset at the moment is our Camouflage Skill. Tāoke is a Master, and I am one step from becoming a Master of Camouflage.

What I am most annoyed about is that I have to do all the running, scouting and trail hiding while Tāoke rides in comfort on Težka. That doesn’t seem fair.

I have two things in mind to develop at this time. One is Camouflage while moving. I know true invisibility is beyond me at this stage, but I am sure that the Foxkin we ran into in the desert had it or was very close. Therefore, it is doable. Ruku told me about his Concealing Mists, but it is a thing that hides you, like Tabitha’s Shadows. When you know to look for it, Mist and Shadow being out of place is a clue that someone with Keensight would notice.

The second thing we need is to hide from the people like that tracker with more intent-based skills. That includes Kelda. In fact, Kelda’s Skill is what I have to base things on. That and my own Sense Treasure Skill. We have confused Skills like Sense Treasure with false treasure, but what about blocking the skill altogether? Or at least limiting its effect.

These will be my tasks in the coming weeks. The camp I am observing has settled down with two on the first watch. Time for us to get moving.

I explained the situation to the others, and we headed away from the camp. I tell them to follow the stream for now while I watch our backs and hide our trail. We move slowly and carefully. Tāoke is guiding Težka in where to put his paws and how to move silently. Težka might even get the Stealth Skill before we are done.

I am in a constant state of high alert with my senses stretched and my Stealth and Camouflage pushed. I really don’t want to kill anyone as the risk of it being discovered grows, even if we hide the bodies. Hiding a fight scene is nigh impossible, and it pinpoints us at a particular place and time. Plus, there is the risk of not getting everybody and them missing their reporting schedules, which will alert the commanders. I don’t know how often the tracker was supposed to report.

The push for speed to move away wars with the need for stealth. Steady and careful is the game now.

There are patrols out at night. My Hearing Aid is usually the first to alert me to a nearby patrol. These troopers are not used to moving quietly. The Scouts and Trackers with them are the risk. One patrol had a sniffer dog with them. It wasn’t a bond; it was just well-trained. It was very close to getting the squad killed. It was the grasses I had draped Težka in, as well as Tāoke’s camouflage, that kept the squad alive. It also extended our life.

It is the little things that keep us alive, and I am scared that I will miss something. It is a constant mental pressure. I keep checking and rechecking, but I know I am not perfect.

I call the night’s travel short when Granite Sense finds an unoccupied damp cave that will be easy to close. If I get mentally fatigued, I will miss something.

As I relax, I let my mind roam over my Stealth and Camouflage Skills. Stealth is a Tier one skill that only requires Physical Agility. Camouflage adds Mental and Spiritual Agility and a higher level of Physical Agility. Camouflage, however, is mainly used in rural settings. Kelda learned to blend into the background where there were lots of people, like the army. Tabitha has her Mimic skills.

Different skills for different settings. Different people as well. People’s approach and attitudes play a factor. There has to be a moving version of camouflage for the rural setting, like blend and mimic in an urban setting.

Camouflage requires all three abilities as well as Journeyman Level Stealth. I am way past Journeyman Level Camouflage. What attributes do I need to get Camouflage to be mobile? More of all the Agilities, but it also will involve Strength, Spiritual as well as Mental. I have to blend into the background while moving, more than just stealth. My Agilities are 47, 52 and 61. They are way above anything I dreamed of as a child. The main attributes to find and seek Skills are the Perception Attributes, and to block Perception, you need strength. This is true for spiritual seeking as well as physical seeking. I need strength, Spiritual Strength.

That is something to practice tonight in our deadly hide-and-seek game.