Rise of the Stalkers

Darkness surrounded them. A slight breeze swept through the leaves around a usually abandoned warehouse. Adon crept toward the west end of decrepit building. The rest of his group moved with him just as stealthily. Their role was to cause a distraction on the west end of the building. This distraction would allow the first group to make a silent entry and eliminate the slavers inside.

Veron, the leader of this venture, determined to give an owl’s hoot to communicate when Adon’s group of five would set fire to the warehouse. They were stalkers. Their sole role was to root out slavers and save as many of the captives as they could. Their group recently formed by a decree from the queen when she had been delivered information from an informant within the slavers. When she discovered the subjects on the outer regions of her kingdom were being picked off, she decided the division of the stalker had to be formed. The informant told her the people were being sold into slavery or as test subjects for the mages from Alderbajen (the neighboring kingdom). Mages from Alderbajen wanted to use the people against their own kingdom by using magic to implant hidden orders into her subjects.

Adon waited expectantly for the owl call. He knew Veron would only give the call when the first group of five got into position. With only ten people total, they could not take on the slavers directly as they numbered in the thirties. They had tracked a much smaller group to the warehouse, but soon discovered this served as the center of the slaver’s operation. They had run surveillance of the area for the last two days and more slavers had arrived in that time. Veron sent scouts out to ensure no other slavers were in the area. They returned that morning with news that no one else was in the vicinity. Veron determined they would strike that night.

The lights in the warehouse shone through the broken boards of the warehouse and two guards stood at the largest of the two doors. Veron would enter the main door and Adon would go through a side door amidst the confusion of the fire. “Whoo, whoo, whoo,” a surprisingly realistic hoot called out into the black of night. “Go” Adan whispered. Shona, one of the other stalkers, ran forward with a torch dipped in tar as well as a bucket. She smeared the contents of the bucket on the warehouse wall, grabbed her flint, and struck it near the building. Striking the flint felt like it was enough to wake the dead, if she couldn’t get it soon, the plan would fail. It caught on her second strike. She lit the torch and leaned it against the warehouse.

As the warehouse lit, a dark form took to the air screeching in protest. “Fuck!” Adon said intensely under his breath. A real barn owl had given the signal. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t life or death. The flames quickly overtook the wood, and men came running out of the side door of the building. “Get that fire out! Bring out the cargo so it isn’t ruined!” a guard in full chainmail yelled. A group of at least ten slavers rushed out.

Adon decided to go with the original plan. They had their arrows at the ready. They couldn’t take them all at once, but hopefully they could thin the numbers enough to deal with them. They loosed their arrows, and all five found purchase. They fitted more arrows to their bowstrings and loosed again as the guardsmen called out, “We’re being attacked!”

With only one slaver remaining outside due to the repeated volleys, Adon gave the command to rush in. They could stop anyone else from coming out of the side door. As they moved forward, the two guards from the front rounded the corner with shields raised. Behind them stood ten more slavers with swords drawn and a mage garbed in black robes with blue lightning etching its way down the sleeves. It was too late. Adon had given up his position, there was no turning back.

As they ran forward, the back row of slavers got hit with arrows. The plan may have failed, but Veron had still successfully surprised the enemy. The slavers turned to face the unknown threat just as streaks of lighting coursed through the air. Shona was the quickest among them. She had thrown her long sword ahead. It stuck deep into the earth. The lightning hit the sword and dissipated into the ground. “Keep the sword between that mage and yourselves” she yelled. Adon’s group fell back and the shielded slavers crossed in front of the sword. As one of them passed, she took the sword and threw it into the woods.

The mage turned around to face the threat from the rear, which gave Adon the chance to rush. The group engaged the two guardsmen. Two of the stalkers dropped low and took them out at the knees while the other two focussed on striking their vital parts. The stalkers freed the world from two more slavers in seconds. However, the small door behind them was now to their backs and the original chainmail guard sprang out of it with five others in tow. Another blast shot out from the mage. One of Veron’s stalkers went down hard. It looked like she was still breathing, but smoke swelled from her smoldering chest. Adon and his group engaged the slavers behind them.

Shona had not retrieved her longsword, but Adon heard the crisp unsheathing of her daggers. She moved to engage two targets while the rest paired off with one. Shona bobbed and weaved. She made it look effortless to take on two assailants. Adon took on the man in chainmail. He lifted his sword to parry a blow, then, when his attacker lost balance he swung his blade into his chest. The armor held firm and the man only grunted. This would be a more difficult battle than Adon had anticipated.

Veron saw Alice take a hit from the mage. He had to move quickly—that mage posed the biggest threat on the field. He shot an arrow at the mage, but instead of finding the target, the mage knocked it off course with another lightning blast. He then formed a whip and cracked it toward Veron. He tried to dodge, but dodging lighting was not an easy task. It struck his arm and made it go numb. He felt it course throughout his body and fell backward. His sight went black, and his body thudded to packed earth.

Orion, another of the stalkers, had been taking aim as the whip encountered Veron. He loosed the arrow and caught the mage in the arm he used for casting. Orion didn’t know if it would do anything to hinder the mage, but he hoped to the high heavens it would. The mage lost focus, and the whip crackled out of existence. Orion had heard mages needed to concentrate hard to use magic. The powers also caused severe mental strain. They had to work out their minds like a soldier had to work out the body.

Fortunately, this mage only seemed capable in the art of electricity. Orion loosed another arrow, but a slaver had stepped forward to shield the mage from the blow. It caught him in the chest, and the mage ensured his body was still covered by the slaver. The mage loosed another bolt of lightning. Orion knew to keep back in the woods. Lighting couldn’t curve through the trees to get him. This mage proved to be troublesome.

Shona finished off her first assailant by deflecting his blow and spinning into his neck with the other dagger. The second of the men saw her ferocity and turned tail to run. His mistake. Shona threw her dagger and caught him with the blunt of it on the back of his head. She wanted at least one alive. She turned to see Adon struggling to find a weak spot. She slipped behind the man in chainmail and brought her dagger up through the gap in his armor between his neck and helmet. He slumped, and Shona and Adon turned to assist the remaining stalkers.

Orion didn’t know what to do next. That mage kept him pinned down, and one of his blasts had sent wood shards into him, shredding his light armor. Their armor was built for stealth, speed, and glancing blows, not projectile wood shards.

The other two stalkers kept picking off the slavers from range. Soon, only the mage would be left. Suddenly, the mage stopped. He called out. “You want these people? Fine! You can have them charred!”

They couldn’t have this; their goal to protect the people had to be upheld. The mage knew he lost, so he would take as many of them with him as he could. He held his arms up and a large ball of electricity formed over him. Just as he prepared to loose it, a dagger appeared in his chest. Shona struck true. He crumpled to the ground. The lightning fizzled out.

The stalkers rushed forward to secure the building. They found the civilians unharmed, but coughing from the smoke. They evacuated all of them and started to check on the wounded. Somehow, all had survived. The only thought they had was that the mage couldn’t wield electricity that was deadly enough to kill. Now he’d never have the opportunity to learn.

Shona collected the man she had knocked unconscious. He would be questioned about the operation and the next task of the newly formed stalkers would certainly be to hunt them down. They’d cut off the supply and make sure none of the queen’s subjects ever endured this treatment again. “For a first mission, that didn’t go so poorly,” Orion said as they prepared to depart the warehouse. “Whoo, whoo, whoo.” Adon, Shona, and Orion all looked up to see an owl perched on a branch near the burning warehouse. It appeared as if the owl winked at them as they looked up. “Darned bird,” Adon said. And with that, they started their trek back toward the castle.