ALL NOVEL Chapter 26 - Prepping an Assault
Owen dodged the incoming raking claws of a desert hound, and at the same time, lashed out an attack of his own. His blade bit into the hounds shoulder as he felt the sickening sensation of slicing into flesh. The dog yelped and snapped at him once more, but he stepped out of range.
A high powered arrow arrived, slamming into its head, popping it like a balloon.
All around the four of them were corpses of desert hounds. At least 7 of them. No-one had managed to escape unscathed. Everyone sported wounds one way or another. Rehan was the worst off, having had to fight at the same time as protecting Owen. As the most experienced fighter, he placed that responsibility on himself.
Owen gulped in a hot breath of air. Right now, they were on the left side of the mountain where the only scenery was an impenetrable mountain. The hounds must have been there to hide from the stabbing sun. He plundered their corpses right away, no need for storing.
You have plundered Sand Hounds x7.
| Claimed materials: Summoning Ticket 2x Warrior, Summoning Ticket 1x Builder, Summoning Ticket 1x Administrator, Sand Hound pelt x7 (Normal), Sand Hound bones x32, Sand Hound meat x24,
| Stats gained: 12 Strength, 16 Vitality, 8 Dexterity.
| Skill gained — Sand Camouflage: Enables the user to blend seamlessly with the sandy environment, becoming nearly invisible.
Owen smiled at the new Skill. It would prove quite useful. Seeing as there was nothing but desert...
Owen moved on, and summoned the Warriors right away. One was a 1-Star human named Frederick, the other was a 2-star beast man called Ra-Ka. He wore iron knuckles and muscle rippled underneath his shining fur. They both bowed. Owen immediately filled them in on the plan. It was a crazy one.
Then he turned his attention to the Administrator ticket and expectation built up. Ansel, the main character of the novel, had gained an incredibly rare Admin to help run his territory. It was practically needed since in the novel, the direction was moving heavily toward Ansel relying on himself and becoming overpowered to fight all in his way. So he had to have someone back home to deal with the day-to-day.
Although Owen had also gotten his fair share of luck in the past few days, he didn’t think he’d get a god-like member to take over his position. Stressed out of his mind, he’d be happy to just have at least someone to help the load. Even if it was just a 1-Star.
He’d wait until later to summon them, along with the Builder.
Now that they were at the side of the mountain, Owen approached the wall, and plundered it, erasing a section around 6 foot tall and 3 foot wide. He told the new warriors to stay and defend the area as Owen kept on going, carving out a tunnel system. Then he started carving his way up, creating stairs leading all the way up. Rehan guided him, using his Skill. Owen still couldn't wrap his head around it.
Name: Rehan (★★★★)
| Race: Human
| Level: 5
| Class: Scout
Attributes:
| Strength: 25
| Vitality: 34
| Dexterity: 49
| Magic: 26
| Mana: 8
Skills
| Radar — Mastery: Middle
| Altered Muscle — Mastery: Middle
| Sword Expertise — Mastery: Middle
Radar: Grants the ability to detect nearby entities and objects, providing their locations and movements within a 360-degree range.
Altered Muscle: Enhances leg muscles to significantly boost speed and agility, allowing for rapid, powerful movements and swift dodges.
High stars really are built differently, Owen thought with a slight shake of his head. He wouldn’t complain. He was on his side, after all.
With Rehan’s guidance, Owen and the others soon made their way up to the top of the mountain, often taking numerous breaks. 4 hours had passed since they entered, and finally, Owen opened up the rock to light. It blinded him for a moment, and after adjusting his eyes for a few seconds, gazed out. Far down below, in the middle of the canyon, was a rapidly forming village.
But his eyes weren’t good enough. Draed come to the front and quietly relayed the information needed. The huts were made of beast hide. There were exactly 26 of them. The biggest one was in the centre. They had erected tall walls made out of bone on either side of the canyon. There was another way in, all the way at the back.
Draed spotted over 50 people. Maybe more were currently in the huts, minus the orcs out hunting right now. Then, someone approached in a panicked scramble. He arrived at the big hut, hunched over, panting, begging for water.
Numerous orcs rushed over. Noone could hear what he was saying, but then Owen saw him. A huge orc that had to be at least 8 foot tall left the centre tent, holding an enormous axe-like weapon that suited his appearance perfectly. Beastly, primal, angry.
Something within Owen cried out. Not one of fear or panic, but one of aggression. For some reason, something deep within him was telling him to go down there and challenge him, to take over his territory. Owen held his chest tight. From that moment, he knew that the orc was in fact a Lord. It was unmistakable. It was the same exact feeling he had read about.
But he wasn’t naive enough to think he had a hope in hell to defeat that gargantuan orc. No, if he was to win, it was to be a victory of sabotage.
“Commit what you see to memory,” Owen told his Hunter and Scout. “You will need to relay the information back to Gorath.”
After giving them a few minutes to do so, they returned all the way back down. But Owen wasn’t finished. He continued the tunnel system, carving a way right to the borders of the Lord’s territory until he was almost breaching the other side. Only then did he stop. If they were to infiltrate later on, Owen had now set up the perfect environment for it.
Only after doing all of that, Owen returned back to the entrance. Leaving, Owen turned and picked out the rock he had plundered, and placed it back. It was almost so perfect, that no one would be able to tell there was an extensive tunnel system just behind.
“Okay,” Owen said. “Let’s get out of here.”
The way back was thankfully uneventful. They hadn’t encountered any other monster. Maybe they were scared of the worm's emergence, or maybe they were just lucky. Returning back to his land, he arrived to see Lome and the others relaxing in the wall, Rizael tending to their wounds. None of them were injured badly. Owen sighed in relief.
Sitting in a pile were numerous wild beasts. Mainly hounds. There seemed to be a lot of them. Owen wondered if there was a nest somewhere nearby.
They all rose seeing their Lord. Owen waved them to sit back down, then plopped his rear down beside Mirian. “How did it go?”
Of course, he didn’t really have to say that. He saw it himself.
Your subordinates have defeated a Dune Ravager x6, Sand Hound x5, Orc x7.
| You have Levelled up.
| Your subordinates have Levelled up.
| Your subordinates have gathered Summoning Tickets.
| Warrior x3, Hunter x1.
And there was more. Owen sat up straight.
Lome is ready for a Class evolution. Would you like to–
“Well,” Lome said, interrupting the notification, his eyes spitting fire. Literally. “They screamed.”
“Okay then,” Owen said, rolling his eyes. The message could wait for now. “Did you use the Armour? Mirian, did you show yourself?”
Mirian shook her head. “We didn’t use either. We left one of the scouts to return alive.”
“We saw him,” Owen added. “And we made contact with their camp.”
“Tribe,” Gorath corrected. The chains of before were sitting at the side. He smiled wide. “I displayed my might. No doubt they are speaking of my grandeur.”
“Let’s just hope they think of you as a prisoner,” Rehan said, wiping his blade clean. “If that’s the case, we should start plotting our next move. We’ve got a tunnel to their camp, thinned out their numbers… We could burn them all to the ground.”
“Hold on, Rehan,” Owen interrupted. “There could be innocents in that camp—tribe,” he corrected himself. “We don’t know who’s in there. Could be families, children. We can’t just torch the place.”
Rehan smirked. “Your heart’s in the right place, but that’ll get us nowhere. These people won’t hesitate to do worse to us.” He sat beside Owen, the stench of sweat heavy in the air. But then, no one had bathed for days. “Alright, a softer touch then. If they don’t have one of those storage abilities, they’ll be keeping their supplies somewhere. We burn that. No food, no water. We’ll break them without shedding any blood. Happy?”
Owen paused, his hands fidgeting on his knee. “It’s not about being happy. It’s about being smart. If we cut off their supplies, we weaken them, make them surrender. But if we go in swinging… we start a blood feud we might never recover from.”
Rehan shrugged. “Starve them out, kill them outright… either way, they’ll hate us. You think this path is any less cruel?”
Owen sighed, glancing toward the horizon. “Maybe not. But it gives them a chance. We’re not executing them in cold blood. We’re giving them a way out. If we leave them no choice but to fight, then the blood will be on both our hands.” He stood up. “We hit them where it hurts, but we don’t cross a line we can’t come back from.”
"Us orcs understand, my Lord," Gorath spoke up. "Whether it be woman or child. We understand war and death. Celebrate it."
That didn't make him feel any better.
Rehan looked doubtful, but Owen continued, “We’re not killers. Not if we don’t have to be. Maybe we can make them surrender” He looked back at his men. Gorath looked doubtful. Owen knew it was a long shot. But it was better to try than to give up. “Rest up, we’ve got work to do. And Rehan, remember—we’re still fighting to be better than them.”
Rehan chuckled. “You want all of us to evolve before tomorrow, don’t you?”
Owen smiled in response. “Yes. Don’t say you’re afraid of a little hard work?”
“It’s the sun I fear,” Rehan groaned, waving the sweat away from his face. “Not the work.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Owen said. “Well, probably not. Just work on your tan and you’ll be fine. Lome,” Owen said, turning to his undead warrior. “Let’s get started on your class upgrade, shall we?”
Owen activated the evolution process.