The dagger striking seemed to be the trigger as five more people became visible. Unlike the first one they seemed to have dropped from a slightly raised platform about two inches off the ground. With the stealth spell gone Ajax and the other mages were able to clearly pick out that the person struck with the knife was a caster and the others merely cloaked by his spell.
Ajax knew full well that this didn’t mean they weren’t casters themselves as he also hid in plain sight by simply not using his mana where others could detect it, that combined with the odd mismatch of gear the five wore meant that there could be another caster.
Among the six there were only three with clearly defined roles. The initial caster wore some rather form fitting robes, one was decked out in full plate and a third had leather gear with a bow and daggers on his belt. The remaining three all had loose cloaks covering their bodies and hoods above their heads.
One thing was clearly obvious, these people were all above the average level found in the skirmish. A quick use of [Judge Threat] gave him a quick run down. The caster, while probably decently high level, was clearly a bad match-up against him so he was scored as a low threat. Four more were ranked as a mild threat with the final cloaked figure being a decent threat. Not only that but the last one also jerked his head to look at Ajax the moment he used the skill.
This might seem like good news but it was in fact quite bad. The people were around level thirty-five to forty meaning engaging them without his mana was suicide. On the upside he wasn’t here alone. His side had more than twice the people giving him a good reason to bow out of the fight.
“The cloaked one on the left seems to be the strongest but I can’t get a read on the mage.” he called out to the stunned defenders which seemed to have broken them out of their shock.
All but the two physically blocking the entrance of the tent moved to engage them. They had superior numbers with two casters on their side; victory was all but guaranteed now that they removed the element of surprise.
“Their levels are all well above mine,” he continued “I’ll retreat and keep a look out. Chances are this isn’t the only group they sent.”
He kept in mind that the people posted here could very well have a lie detection skill so he used level as a reason for avoiding the fight. Getting a quick confirmation nod from one of the more decorated soldiers he started to back away.
He saw a second knife coming towards him but this was intercepted by one of his comrades. This was one of the veterans who had given him an annoyed look when he first showed up thinking he got the post due to nepotism or bribery. That look was long gone, transformed into an excited smirk. He gave Ajax a quick nod to get out of range before he focused on the enemy and started to advance with everyone else.
Feeling at ease with the group being handled, Ajax dropped back and took another look at the direction they must have come from. Surprisingly he could now make out tracks in the dead leaves he had spread around. With this he narrowed their stealth spell to one which produced an illusion and prevented noise from escaping. This is why they triggered the trap as it was activated by the weight stepping on it.
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Knowing what to look for now he scooped up some earth, crushed it into small rocks and started tossing them around, looking carefully at whether or not they stopped or disappeared for no reason.
With an overwhelming numbers advantage the battle had quickly ended without too much fanfare. On the ground tied up were the six infiltrators as well as one of the guards.
“Why is he sitting down too?” Ajax asked.
“Unlike the weak conscripted we don’t need the threat of possible death to motivate us to fight. This also means that we stop before delivering any strong debilitating blows, taking the loss and stepping out for the rest of the war. This helps prevent any unlucky deaths when people of similar level fight” the same veteran explained.
“So he was taken out? Then why are the others tied up?” Ajax asked.
“Because we didn’t kill them, technically. Sure, marking them as dead would mean that they have to stay out of the fighting for the rest of this war but we also can’t interrogate them. Considering how this skirmish has gone since we lost the bug I’d say it’s worth risking them getting freed to get some extra information.” The veteran seemed a lot more patient with the young hunter now.
“You had the right of it kid.” the one sitting down said. “That one really was tough, he’s the reason I’m ‘dead’.
Hearing the praise seemed to improve the mood of the cloaked man, though this only means that his scowl lessened.
The next few hours were peaceful. Ajax still repeatedly tossed some crushed up earth in random directions but focused on the battle in the distance. Unlike their previous engagements it was their army that was now on the backfoot. Not only were they rushed into position they were also missing most of their mages as their mana was spent taking out the fort.
The group of guards and mages had been finally absorbed into the main army and the careful retreat was finally beginning. Unlike the previous retreats where the other side all but turned back and ran or both armies stepped away without an engagement beginning this one was done with the help of the few leftover mages. They were casting long spells preparing to create a big ditch between the two armies that would give us time to retreat without having our men run down.
As the spell was finally released Ajax was absorbed in watching. Feeling the mana from all the way here and watching as the multiple mages worked together to power one single action. This was definitely a strength that only chanting magic had. Sure runic could also do the same thing with multiple people having items designed to work together but those lacked the flexibility to adapt to anything but the ideal scenario.
As he was focused on the aftermath of the spell he suddenly felt one of his traps trigger. He felt a chill run down his back at his own stupidity. How could he have let his guard down just because the armies have started to disengage.
Even if all of the assassins that had come for the healers would be taken out this was a trade the enemy was more than happy to make. A real downside of this skirmish was that such suicide attack didn’t require the mental convition of throwing away your life as ‘death’ merely meant spending the rest of the war in poor living conditions.
His hand instantly went to the knife at his belt drawing it as he was turning ready to throw. Thanks to his trap layout he didn’t even need to be looking at the target to know the general area he needed to aim for, he wasn’t going to see anything anyway.
As he was about to release the knife he felt a strong grip take hold of his hand.
“Woah, easy there.” the same veteran that seems to have taken a liking to him and had been sticking closer to him since the ambush said.
Ajax’s reply died in his throat as he turned and noticed people carrying injured towards the tent were what had triggered his trap. Had he not been stopped it was likely he would have harmed one of his own, maybe even killed depending on where the knife hit.
“So that’s how you did it?” the tied up mage exclaimed.
“What do you mean?” the dangerous cloaked man I now identified as the leader of the hit squad asked.
“I was thinking how it didn’t add up. He managed to see through my spell but couldn’t gouge my level of power but had no problem with you. It just didn’t add up, if he had enough skill with spells he should have had no problems.”
“It was just a double layered trap, the leaves were masking strings and I just stepped on one.” he continued to silently curse his misfortune.
A trickle quickly turned into a stream and the tent was filled up in no time. This lead to quickly forming arguments from some of the people in one of the future baron’s entourage demanding that space be made for them before the commoners.
A frustrated one with a decent slash on his arm fumed as he angrily kicked the ground breaking up the ground and leaving a small creator.
The rubble exploded in every direction with the sound of the impact drawing everyone's attention. A few of the pieces seemed to hit an invisible wall no more than five feet from the entrance of the tent.
Three daggers joined Ajax’s in striking the same spot where a man clad in plate armor appeared a moment later before all hell broke loose.