Raen and his team reached the slope and climbed on top of it before stopping. All of them dropped low, pressing themselves against the earth.

  “I’m counting on you,” Raen told Thatch, who nodded his head and disappeared, his figure blending in with the shadows of the forest.

  The others all controlled their breathing and stayed perfectly still. None moved a muscle as Raen’s eyes were fixed on the boulder where the lone crossbowman was supposed to be.

  Seconds passed, feeling like minutes.

  Sweat formed on foreheads, trickling down slowly – down temples, down noses – before dropping silently on the ground.

  Some team members swallowed nervously while some steeled themselves for the possibility of Thatch failing. They were mentally preparing themselves for the worst-case scenario – fighting against their numerically superior enemies in open combat.

  Some were even thinking of running away.

  Only two men were calm, confident that Thatch was going to do his part of the job without any issues.

  Adam held the handle of his hammer and stared at Raen’s back. Raen stared at the boulder, waiting for some sort of sign.

  Suddenly, he saw a figure standing up on top of the boulder.

  He wore armor, a helmet that obstructed his face, and held a crossbow in his hand.

  Raen stopped breathing, time seemingly stopping as he stared at the figure.

  The man lifted his arm. He then raised his thumb, which made Raen sigh and shake his head.

  Only Thatch would give a battlefield confirmation like that.

  ‘Very funny, Thatch.’ Raen complained inwardly before turning to the others.

  “Thatch has succeeded, move,” Raen said, standing up and moving.

  The rest made their way toward the position where the crossbowmen waited. They were silent, controlled. Each step was placed with deliberate care.

  “Remember the plan,” Raen whispered, and the team scattered, each member breaking off to a different direction, to their assigned target.

  There were six enemies left, and there were eight of them as Thatch was still on the boulder. Raen was going alone to one crossbowman, Adam was paired with Selise, and Torren – the most cowardly member of the team- was with Rais.

  The rest were all experienced enough. Raen had little doubt that they would be able to accomplish their goal without any issue.

  Even if one or two failed, it was fine, it would still be manageable.

  With most of the crossbowmen dead, it would only take them a bit to take care of the rest. They would do it faster than it would take the other team to come investigate the disturbance.

  Of course, that was not the ideal situation, just a survivable one.

  Raen was still confident that they could emerge victorious without any casualties.

  As he got closer to where his target was supposed to be, something unexpected happened.

  Nervousness.

  His ribs started aching faintly, a tightness took hold of his chest, and thoughts – thoughts he shouldn’t have right now, arrived, unwelcome.

  ‘What if I made a mistake?’

  ‘What if he was the one who fails, who makes noise?’

  ‘What if I’m the one who gets someone on the team killed?’

  It was a simple task. An action he’d performed hundreds of times in his life. Silent kills were second nature to people like him – people who had struggled and survived thirty years of war.

  And yet – for the first time in God knows how long – Raen felt apprehensive.

  His body was still not fully listening to him. The gap between what his mind wanted and what his body could deliver had narrowed, but it was still there. What if it failed him at the crucial moment?

  What if his hand was a fraction too slow?

  What if his steps were just a bit too loud?

  ‘What the hell is going on?!’ Raen roared inwardly, anger boiling inside him.

  These thoughts, he shouldn’t have them. They shouldn’t exist.

  He had removed such useless thoughts from his life and stopped second-guessing himself a long time ago.

  So why are they appearing now?

  ‘That damned Altar!’ Raen cursed in his mind. ‘The memories it forced me to relive. They’re the reason why.’

  He then stopped for a moment and took a deep breath.

  ‘Calm down, Raen, everything is fine. Your body has started adapting. Even fighting isn’t that difficult anymore. Calm down.’ Raen repeated in his head, relaxing his body, trying to empty his mind, stop it from overthinking.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  His footsteps became softer. Even softer than before, when he was sneaking with Selise and Thatch. His breath evened out – silent, almost unnoticeable. His body moved with the grace that had taken him decades to learn.

  ‘Not perfect.’ He thought, moving through the undergrowth without a sound. “Not as good as I was. But miles above what I could do at this age before.’

  Raen then froze.

  He caught a glimmer a few meters ahead. Narrowing his eyes, he saw that it came from a bolt that was resting against a tree.

  He looked around, trying to figure out where the crossbowman was, only to hear a sound a couple of meters to his left.

  It was the sound of running water, followed by a low groan. Not a groan of pain, but relief.

  Raen moved, quickly appearing some meters behind the crossbowman. The man was standing with his back turned, one hand braced against a tree, taking a leak without a care in the world.

  Why would he be worried?

  The enemy would be walking straight into the trap as all routes were compromised. The observer on the boulder would spot anyone approaching. The whole operation was carefully planned and stress-free.

  Raen took a couple of steps forward, now standing right behind the man.

  He stood up, dagger in his left hand, his nose two inches away from the back of the man’s head.

  He then made his move.

  His left hand pulled back and was then driven forward in one smooth motion. The dagger entered through the left side of the man’s neck and exited on the right.

  The instant Raen’s dagger stabbed into the neck, the man’s body froze. Blood started flowing out as both carotid arteries were cut. The man stopped breathing as the airway was blocked, and his body no longer listened to him thanks to the damage to the cervical vertebrae and the nerves.

  Raen let go of the dagger. His right palm moved, covering the mouth and nose of the man, making him unable to even gurgle. He let the body lean back against him, supporting the weight as he slowly lowered him to the ground.

  Once the body was down, Raen reached for a nearby crossbow bolt and stabbed the man through the heart.

  A clean kill.

  No sound was made.

  Raen then stopped and listened. The forest was silent around him, which meant the rest of the team was doing well.

  He crouched beside the body and waited, ready to move in an instant if something went wrong.

  Nothing did.

  Thatch appeared beside him without a sound. His eyes moved from Raen to the corpse, and then back at Raen. Something flickered in his expression – surprise, perhaps.

  “The others are dead as well, moving on to the next part of the plan?”

  Raen nodded.

  He pulled the dagger out of the man’s neck and wiped it clean. Then, he began stripping the body.

  The armor fit well enough. Raen buckled it into place, adjusting the straps and testing the weight. It was heavier than what he usually wore, but that didn’t matter. He then grabbed the crossbow and slung the quiver over his shoulder.

  The team regrouped at the giant boulder. They’d done the same – stripped their targets and donned the armor while arming themselves with crossbows.

  Only Thatch and Rais were not wearing the disguises, as there hadn’t been enough armor to go around.

  It didn’t matter what they had was enough.

  The team exchanged glances, nodded, and then moved forward.

  They went around, circling wide and coming behind the second enemy team. The group was hidden near the choke point, their weapons ready. Their eyes were fixed on the choke point ahead, waiting for the screams to start in order to join the slaughter.

  Raen and his team crept into position behind them.

  Seven crossbows rose, aimed at the backs of the eleven men.

  Adam and Rais slowly moved into position at the flanks, waiting for their signal.

  And then it came.

  Seven crossbows unloaded at once.

  ***

  Groans and cries of pain erupted through the forest. They echoed between the trees, just as the enemy expected.

  They didn’t expect them to be their own, though.

  Selise’s count had been close, but not perfect. She’d estimated ten. There were eleven – an acceptable margin of error at that distance. One extra enemy wouldn’t change the outcome.

  Three men dropped immediately, two with a bolt each in their backs, one with a bolt in his neck. One fell clutching his side, the wound deep enough to bleed him out in minutes. Two were locked into combat before even processing what had happened, and one had moved at the exact moment a bolt was fired at him – pure luck – and only suffered a graze across his shoulder.

  The moment the bolts were released, Adam and Rais moved.

  Adam closed on his target in three steps, his hammer crashing down on his opponent. The soldier quickly spun around, bracing himself with his shield.

  The hammer struck, denting it. The soldier dropped to one knee, his arms shaking from the force.

  Adam was relentless, not giving him time to recover. The hammer rose and fell constantly, hitting the shield as if it had wronged him. Each strike dented the shield further, driving the man lower and bending his arms at angles they weren’t meant to go. His legs trembled as his breath came in ragged gasps.

  Rais was more refined. His sword came in at an angle that bypassed the shield entirely, cutting the soldier on the side of his neck. It wasn’t fatal, but enough to bleed freely and cause the soldier to panic. He instinctively placed his hand over his neck, and it came away covered in blood.

  He couldn’t fight properly anymore as fear had taken over.

  Raen and the rest of his team arrived immediately after the bolts. They discarded their crossbows and charged, their weapons raised.

  The armors they wore did exactly what Raen had hoped. The enemy soldiers stared at them – at the familiar armor and crossbows – and confusion rippled through their ranks.

  How did someone get past the first team?

  And then, after they saw the armor more clearly. It was the same as theirs.

  The first team had betrayed them.

  “Defensive formation! Quickly!” A man shouted, rallying five soldiers around him. “It’s the enemy – they’ve killed the first team!”

  Only five men, but it was enough to form a defensive line. Their shields were up and weapons ready.

  “Thatch,” Raen said softly. “The leader.”

  Thatch smiled.

  He moved like a shadow, faster than anyone could track. He was a blur as he reached the enemy men, who were still not fully prepared.

  He vaulted over them, bypassing the defensive wall they had created and landing right behind the leader.

  The man spun, attacking him with a battle cry, his sword already rising.

  He fell to the ground a second later.

  His right hand was nearly severed at the wrist, hanging by threads of tendon and skin. His sword clattered to the ground as he stared at the stump before collapsing, his face white.

  With Thatch behind the shield wall and their leader down, the soldiers panicked.

  They were stuck between a rock and a hard place. They could be attacked from both the back and the front, making their defensive line – built to defend from one direction – crumble under the pressure.

  Raen and his team hit them hard from the front, breaking through their wall, cutting them down.

  At the same moment, Adam’s opponent finally relented, his shield – completely dented and now useless – was thrown at Adam. He deflected it with his hammer before hitting the man’s sword mid-swing, sending it flying. The impact tore the skin between the man’s thumb and index finger, rupturing the webbing.

  The last thing the soldier saw was a hammer becoming bigger and bigger, filling his vision.

  It struck him in the head and shattered his skull like it was nothing.

  “Alright, this proved easier than I thought,” Adam said, panting and observing the battlefield. Bodies littered the ground, and blood soaked into the earth. No one from their team was down.

  His eyes then found Raen, who had removed the stolen armor and was wiping the blood on his body, covering himself in it.

  “Yes, the battle is won.”

  He looked up at Adam, his face smeared with red.

  “Now you have a new job. Grab the other two teams and meet up near the camp.”

  Adam blinked. “What are you –“

  “I have an act to play in,” Raen said, his smile wide and bright.