Chapter 40 - The Plan

The next day, they got into their positions.

Maya perched herself on a tree a bit far away from the camp, her Dragoon rifle ready to fire. Claire hid behind bushes near the entrance, her glaive stowed away to keep it hidden. Alanis hid farther away from her, prepared with medical items if anything went wrong.

Peter sat near the edge of the camp, observing its members from the bushes.

The maps provided by the goblins proved to be reliable. The main stage, where Ferdinand Jaw would talk to his soldiers, sat in the direct middle of the camp. Surrounding it in a circle were various tents, all the same size. More tents of the same size were lined up in two rows, near the southern end of the camp. The map made no mention of what was inside these tents, but he didn't need them to. All he needed was to find Beatrice, and the gem. The latter would be easy; he felt its presence in the area strongly. It was definitely taken out of the box.

He put on his bandana, tying it snug against his face, and put on the hood of his cloak. He checked his equipment: his revolver, loaded with five bullets, and seven vials of blood, drained from a deer. He balled up his hands into fists, then shook off the nervous energy. It was time to sneak in.

Timing his entrance right, he snuck in, using the tents as cover.

When he saw a guard coming, he'd slip into a tent, hiding in a dark corner. This was extremely dangerous, as he had no way of telling which tents had people in them, but he had no choice. The first tent he went into was a weapons stockpile, full of guns and spears. The second tent he entered held their food supply. The third had a stockpile of random trinkets, big and small. He couldn't make heads or tails of them from the opposite corner, but he figured they might've been plundered loot from the Jawbreakers' unfortunate victims.

The fourth tent he entered held a human sized cage, made of bamboo and wood, unlocked and open.

This was most likely where Beatrice was being held. But where was she now? He peeked out of the tent. Beatrice had been dragged out, her hands and legs tied up. Her hair was scraggly, the bun forcefully undone. Her clothes had been replaced with a simple dirty brown dress, one that showed off the bruises on her arms. Her eyes darted around with suspicion, looking at every member with hatred. It was as if she became a different person altogether. He thought back to what Maya told him the other night. Was this what Beatrice looked like back then?

Before he could ponder, a guard went towards the tent, forcing him into a dark corner. The guard looked around inside briefly, before heading out again. He shook his head silently. He was lucky that guard didn't spot him. He snuck out, checking his lefts and rights, before crawling to a tent closer to the main stage. He peeked into one of the tents; seeing a table with a tablecloth on it, he took the chance and hid under it, the tablecloth obscuring everything but his boots. Soldiers gathered around the main stage, huddling around it. Something was starting. The main ceremony?

He peeked his head out from under the tablecloth, watching intensely. Ferdinand Jaw stepped up, holding some sort of white chalk in his right hand. In his left lay the blood gem, held like a dagger. He took out a vial of blood, uncapping it, in preparation. He listened closer as Jaw began speaking.

"Soldiers! It is time! I have spoken about it many times before, but now it is here! One of the Seven Blood Gems of Fermigan is within my hands! And with this, I will become a blood mage! All will fear me! All will follow me! And from this day onward, you will be rewarded handsomely for sticking with me!"

Cheers erupted from the crowd, some enthusiastic and some less so. It was hard to differentiate between the two.

"And now, with this blood gem, I will use a human soul to link myself to the gem, providing me with infinite power!"

"That's really not how that works," he thought to himself.

Jaw grabbed Beatrice by the hair, forcing her to stand up. He aimed the gem at her chest, somewhere near her heart. He slipped out from under the table, panicking a bit. He was about to kill her with the gem! He formed the vial of blood into a bowl, knocking on it to prove its solidity, before sending it flying towards Jaw.

It hit him square in the face, both Beatrice and the gem falling out of his hands.

He scooped up the gem with the bowl, flying it up to the sky. Jaw immediately leaped for it, but failed miserably, falling off from the main stage. Soldiers shot at the bowl, trying to gun it down despite Jaw's warnings. He found himself in a bit of a pickle. If he brought it to himself now, he'd be discovered immediately and most likely gunned down. Not the best thing to happen. But if he kept it in the air for too long, the blood would corrupt, dropping it down into a crowd of people.

Suddenly, someone yelled at him, pointing his gun at him. "Who are you?" They screamed.

Well, that was a moot point now.

He aimed the bowl over the man, smashing it into the top of his head. The man fell down, knocked out cold. The bowl turned dark. Quickly, he flung the gem to himself before it corrupted, losing its form entirely. He uncapped another vial and caught it in his free hand, jumping up and down as the soldiers shot at him. He ran out of the tent, dodging bullets left and right. Perhaps this plan was a bit more flawed than he anticipated.

"STOP!" Jaw bellowed.

The soldiers stopped firing. Some of them switched to melee weapons, realizing they used up all their ammunition trying to shoot down the bowl. They all looked at Peter menacingly. He was just glad he didn't need to dance around anymore.

"Who are you and why do you have my gem?" He asked.

Peter chuckled loud enough for Jaw to hear him. "Your gem? Please. I think this belongs to me."

"If you don't unhand that gem now, I will personally disembowel you alive!"

"Hah! Good luck with that. Because I'm going to do it myself!"

And thus, he stabbed the third blood gem into himself, falling unconscious once more.