Chapter 12: Crocodile Smile

“Oi! Scaly! Move!” The bandit on the left, a large dim looking human, shouts at Kizzik.

Their back is to me now but I can tell the Lazcerta’s whole demeanor has changed. The bloodlust rolling off Kizzik is palpable as they put their hands in their cloak. There’s a horrible scraping sound as they pull two wicked, impossibly sharp cleavers from their sheaths. I even feel my heart skip a beat when I see the gleaming steel. Kizzik lets out a low guttural sound that's somewhere between a cackle and a growl. Something about it reaches the most primal part of my brain and I can't help but shiver. It makes both bandits retreat as if by instinct, dropping the child to the floor. Lenny scurries over to his sister and they huddle in the corner for safety. The two men can barely keep their legs from shaking.

“Okay fellas. I really only need one of you. Who wants to have a little chat?”

What happened next was so fast that I couldn’t say for sure what I saw. One of the men raises his hand and in that split second, the other drops to the floor, bleeding from his neck. Kizzik stands over him, licking their lips. Blood drips from the cleaver in his left hand but I didn't see him swing it!

“K-Kizzik?” I’m shaking so badly that it’s hard to speak.

They turn around to look at me and I see a predator. A killer. Their eyes are fixed on me as if they could eat me up right then and there. I blink and the expression is gone. The monster is gone and old easy going Kizzik is back.

“Sorry about that. Got a little excited.” They seem genuinely embarrassed.

I gasp deeply. I realize I’ve been holding my breath the whole time. Note to self. Stay on the Lazcerta’s good side.

After begging for his life, the other bandit is singing like a canary now. He’s even giving us details on the camp we didn't ask about. Headcount, trap locations, guard rotations, and he tells us about the two lieutenants working as Bisanu’s second and third in command. An assassin and a mage. This is all gold! He also tells us the people they capture in town get passed over to a transport team that hauls them back to camp then they get locked up in a big cage on the northeast corner of their compound. They plan on selling them off in a day or two.

“The little rabbit girl! We handed her off just a few hours ago. We didn't rough her up or nothing I swear!”

Kizzik puts a cleaver under his chin, lifting his head up with it.

“So noble of you, not damaging your merchandise.” Before he can respond, he’s smashed across the back of the head with a skillet by Lappy! The bandit falls face first onto the floor boards.

“Bastard!” She spits.

Kizzik gives a nod of approval. They pat the young woman on the shoulder. “He’ll live… Maybe… It’s fine either way.” We tie the unconscious bandit up and haul him back to the inn with us. We drop him on the floor in front of Rina with little regard. She arches her eyebrow at us.

“Didn’t you guys just go out to interview people?” She asks.

“Thats how it started, but we might’ve got lucky. This guy’s a member of Kerberos. We captured him and he's already given us tons of info on their base!” I say proudly, even though I was just kind of there for moral support.

Kizzik starts adding what we learned to the map on the wall, drawing the boundaries of the base, and placing pins for where guards and traps are positioned. As I watch, I start to notice a big problem.

“There’s no way to get to them without being spotted.” I say. The map shows it clearly. There’s at least a hundred bandits in the camp at any time. The heaviest concentration of guards is in the northeast corner.

Kizzik nods in agreement. “Their priority is their assets of course. If there’s one thing you can say about a bandit, it's that they’re extremely paranoid. They’ll make sure no one can just sneak in and steal from them.”

“Only Kizzik has the skills to sneak past this many people, but they wouldn't be able to get more than one or two people out undetected. Based on this one’s confession, the bandits are likely holding around a dozen people there.” Rina says.

“So a stealth mission’s out then. What about a direct confrontation?” I ask.

Rina shakes her head. “Too risky. Even if we could match their power, which I doubt considering Bisanu is at least a master level warrior, they would just end up using their hostages as leverage.”

Damn. This is trickier than I thought. I figured we could just run in guns blazing. I could do a little mecha ass kicking, Rina could throw some fireballs, Kizzik could do their scary slicy thing and we’d have it all wrapped up in about an hour. I guess being a hero takes a little more work than that. We all sit quietly pondering for a while. Wait a second…

Minerva? How would you go about saving the hostages?

There's a moment of silence and then:

[In order to keep the hostages safe, your best approach would be a three pronged attack utilizing infiltration, distraction, and destroying the chain of command. Apologies, I do not have sufficient data to run a more thorough simulation.]

Thats more than enough! Thank you!

If we can combine several strategies together, we can overcome our weak points! I get up and start writing on the wall with a bit of charcoal. The innkeeper lets out a little shriek when he sees what I’m doing, storming off so he doesn't have to witness me ruining his foyer.

“Okay guys, this is what we’re gonna do!”

I share my plan with my companions, laying out details for each of our roles. It’s a little bit crazy but it has the best chance of working out of anything we’ve thought up. I finish my explanation so they can both take it all in. Rina is the first to speak.

“It’s still risky… but it could work. The dawn relic gives us an advantage that no one will see coming.”

Kizzik nods in agreement. They’re both on board with my plan. I’m simultaneously glad and incredibly anxious. It’s a lot of pressure to have people put their lives in your hands.

“Great then. Let's wake up this idiot so we can get started.”