Hunters Hunted

The hunt was not as successful as they had hoped. After weeks of searching there was not a single encounter. Just as they planned, a scouting group was sent to various locations, first within Errautsuen Herrria, then even in Izotal Empire and the Kingdom of Zikinar. They had returned to Zuhaxea several times, but were currently away for over two weeks. The group was surrounded by elite specialist, who were able to move around unseen. Four of these groups surrounded the scouts, one in each direction in order to prevent any ambush by the gunmen. Ilargi and Corbin joined the last of these groups, which they assumed was the least likely to directly encounter the enemy.

“Do you think this will work?” Corbin asked.

“I don’t know. I’m just doing my job. This isn’t really far from what we usually do, except that a lot more people are involved in the same task,” Ilargi said. “Maybe there aren’t that many gunmen out there. That would be good for us anyway. If the increase in weapon supply is so small that they can’t afford a large scale assault, maybe this whole thing could just blow over. As you said they need to also steal ammunition from your world. I imagine every raid will become harder for them, even if your leaders tried to cover up what was happening at first.”

“Do you really think that?”

“No,” Ilargi said and sighed. “More likely they are stocking and will then use it all at once. If we want to take the weapons we might need to raid their stockpiles. The most we can do here is get our hands on a couple of guns to learn more about them.”

“Is it possible that they know what we’re planning?”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to say what they would do if they suspected we knew about the guns. If any of those we met before survived, they already know anyway. Then again, they might just blame the Kingdom instead. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

One of the other group members gave them a stern look. They had been speaking softly, but others were mostly silent. She looked at Corbin and nodded. He nodded back. I can’t believe that the thing that bothers me most about this is the fact that I’m falling behind on my combat training with Ilargi. Making noise was not allowed for them. They also never made fires or built tents. Everyone was in the colours of fallen leaves and branches.

There was a rustling sound from the bushes. Within a blink of an eye rattles of hands grabbing sword hilts and arrows being nocked followed. A short rhythmic clapping sequence came from the bushes and the tension deflated palpably. One camouflaged scout came rushing through the branches. Hunched over as he was, it would be hard to see him from a distance. He went directly to the leader of the group and whispered into his ear. After a short exchange he disappeared back into the undergrowth. The leader signalled everyone to come together and they huddled in a close circle.

“They have found the gunmen. We don’t have much time, they are already setting up an ambush. We will do a pincer manoeuvre. Let’s go.”

At first they ran as fast as they were able. Corbin was thankful that he had already got used to the swift pace of the people of Errautsuen Herria. They took a longer way, circling around the gunmen, who were positioned on top of elevated areas on either side of a forest path. On their side of the road three people were facing the road, while another faced the other way and kept watch. This made it impossible for them to sneak closer to the group. Their leader made a gesture, pointing to two of the archers and to either side of the ambush. They spread out further and waited for the signal.

What came instead a loud bang followed by shouting. It came from the other side of the road. Everyone on this side jumped up in shock and began looking around. The one who had been looking backwards stumbled and fell, an arrow sticking from his chest. The others threw themselves to the ground, trying to move behind cover. More shots came from across the road. The leader signalled to the arched on the right side, who started shooting freely at the three gunmen, but was unable to hit any of them. Still it was enough to get their attention and they began shooting towards him, forcing him to hide behind a large tree. One of them was equipped with a single-shot rifle, while the other two both had automatic weapons.

At the same time swordsmen began sneaking from the other side. From a third side one of the scouts threw a javelin into the group. After another gesture the archer fired one last arrow. As soon as it thudded into the ground the swordsmen dashed to the gunmen weapons drawn. As they spotted them they began shouting and more shots were fired, but it only took a couple of heartbeats before the noise died down. Some of them rushed down the slope and towards the other side of the road where there were still sounds of fighting. Some of them stayed behind. Despite their best efforts there were two wounded and one dead. It is probably worse on the other side.

Corbin hurried over to the injured and helped with applying bandages. One of the injured was able to walk, while for the other they used two branches and a blanket to make an improvised stretcher. After all the fighting was done and the injured accounted for, they brought all of the guns together.

“Alright Kemen, what do you think?” The leader asked.

“Let’s see, there are 4 hunting rifles, 3 automatic rifles and 5 pistols,” Corbin said, while browsing through the spoils. He explained how each was used and what they can expect from it. “Also this is just the guns. You should go through everything again and see if they have any spare ammunition,” he said and took one of the pistols. He wasn’t used to handling guns, but after a couple of tries he managed to eject the magazine. “This is what they look like. For other guns they are similar. It’s also possible that they have boxes of bullets on them, so bring any of those as well. We need to collect them all,” Corbin said and looked at the leader, who nodded and ordered his men to move out and retrieve the items.