The team regrouped after all eight of the attacking skimmers were destroyed. Humphrey and Jason took out two each on their side, while on the other, the bronze rank Ernest had dealt with three. The final pirate skimmer had an encounter with Mose's fire vortex bomb, being reduced to a shattered wreck of warped metal.
Jason stood over the bodies of the men he had killed, looking grimly down at them. Sparring with Humphrey and Rufus had given him an inflated opinion of average skill levels, and finishing the pirates who survived the crash had been contemptuously easy. Too easy, for taking a life. He tapped a boot to one of them.
[Ustei Raider] has no loot.
He made his way to where the other skimmer had drifted to a stop. The pirates were all dead, courtesy of Colin. Where the corpses weren’t pale and drained, they were blackened with rot. He cut his hand with the forearm razor, holding it out for the leeches to return. The cut quickly closed afterwards, as if it had never been there at all.
The cargo skimmers turned back to pick up Jason, Humphrey and Ernest, who had all left the skimmers to fight. Humphrey was the last to be picked up, waiting next to the ruins of a skimmer with four prisoners on their knees in front of him.
Jason and Gabrielle hopped off the skimmer as it pulled to a stop. Gabrielle moved to Humphrey’s side, while Jason examined the wreckage of the pirate skimmer. He could see it had been split down the middle and driven into the ground with a single, ludicrous blow.
“What did this?” he asked.
“Special attack,” Humphrey said. “It’s called unstoppable force.”
“I can see why,” Jason said.
Another skimmer arrived, Ernest and Phoebe stepping off to join the others.
“Did you get anything out of them?” Ernest asked, nodding at the pirates.
“They’re all northerners,” Humphrey said. “Ustei Tribe nomads, from the hair and clothes. I have no idea what they’re doing this far south, and they aren’t talking.”
“Why would they attack a spirit coin convoy?” Phoebe asked. “If they knew enough to intercept it, then they had to know it would be covered in adventurers. That’s a crazy desperation move.”
The four prisoners knelt in the hot sand, glaring up at their captors.
“Do they look like beaten men to you?” Ernest asked.
“No,” Phoebe said.
“Could be just courage,” Ernest said, “but maybe take a look around, Humphrey.”
Humphrey nodded, vanishing as he teleported high into the air. Dragons wings appeared on his back, holding him aloft as he looked around. From this high, he could see the city and the green of the delta. In the other direction, some of the spirit coin farms. Closer, he saw something moving over the sand. At first glance, he thought it was an enormous monster with three heads, but he realised it was some kind of highly stylised vehicle. Too big for any monster lower than silver rank, there was a rigidity to its motion. It moved smoothly over the sand, like a humongous sand skimmer. He let himself drop, using his wings to slow down as he neared the ground.
“Anything?” Ernest asked.
“Sand barge,” Humphrey said. “Very big. We should get ready for another fight.”
82
Choices
“I like the enthusiasm,” Ernest said to Humphrey, “but we shouldn’t immediately rush to battle. What do you think, Phoebe?”
“Our options are run or fight,” Phoebe said. “Their skimmers may have been faster than ours, but there’s no way a sand barge would catch us.”
“What do you think, Humphrey?” Ernest asked.
“That barge was larger than any vehicle I’ve ever seen,” Humphrey said. “I’ve heard of the nomad tribe barges, and this was everything promised. I’d be willing to bet their whole tribe is onboard.”
“How would you approach fighting it then?” Ernest asked.
“The barge will have their strongest people,” Humphrey said. “We’ll definitely be outnumbered, and we don’t have a healer. On the other hand, this first group may well have been trying to drive us into a waiting ambush. If we run, only to fall into the lap of a larger, stronger team, the sand barge will catch us up when we’re at our greatest disadvantage. If we’re going to fight, it has to be on our terms.”
“Do you think that’s likely?” Ernest asked.
“I didn’t see anyone else from up in the sky,” Humphrey said, “but a shovel and some canvas sheeting can make you almost invisible out here.”
“So what action do you suggest?” Ernest asked.
“Attack the barge,” Humphrey said. “The nomad tribes get by on shock-raids with huge numbers and a reputation for atrocity. They think tactics are for cowards and equipment is for the weak.”
Humphrey bent down and picked up a claw weapon he had taken from one of the prisoners, holding it up.
“They use weapons like this, or even none at all,” he said. “The nomad tribes are fearsome to an isolated community, but every time I’ve heard of them coming up against a trained and equipped group they get torn apart. Including this time. Something made them desperate enough to come south and attack a guarded convoy, but that didn’t change the result.”
Humphrey looked out in the direction the barge was approaching from.
“We take the initiative,” he said. “Put them on the back foot, when they’re used to being on the front foot. We move fast, hit hard and take them apart before they can regroup.”
Ernest gave Humphrey an appraising look.
“You’ve changed, Hump,” he said. “I thought for sure you’d say run.”
Humphrey cast a panicked look at Jason, wincing when Jason’s face lit up like a child just handed an unexpected present.
“Did he just call you Hump?” Jason asked Humphrey.
Humphrey let out a sobbing groan.
“Are we doing what Hump suggested?” Jason asked Ernest. “If we're going to follow Hump's plan the way Hump laid it out, we need to get moving, don't we, Hump?”
“I hate you,” Humphrey said.
“That’s alright, Hump,” Jason said with a consoling slap on the back.
“If you’re quite done?” Ernest asked Jason.
“Don’t worry about me and Hump,” Jason said.
“Please stop saying Hump,” Humphrey begged.
“No worries, Hump. I’ve got your back.”
Ernest looked around the group.
“Staging an attack like this is outside my purview as team leader. I will not order any of you to participate. If anyone has any thoughts, let's hear them.”
Jason smiled to himself. He could see Ernest had already made up his mind and was just creating a teaching moment.
“Do we even have time to stand around discussing this?” Gabrielle asked.
“Humphrey?” Ernest asked.
“With the speed it was moving,” Humphrey said, “we have five to ten minutes before the barge gets here.”
“Do we even know they’re with these people?” Mose asked. “It sounds like that barge is far away.”
“We weren’t making a straight line back to the city,” Ernest said. “That’s specifically to avoid interception. They needed fast skimmers to catch us, but they couldn’t handle the weight of the coins. The most likely scenario is that the faster skimmers moved to intercept us, with the slower barge following to pick up the loot.”
“That leaves the question of whether we move towards it or away,” Humphrey said.
“Anyone?” Ernest asked. His gaze went over the group, who looked largely uncertain. When no one spoke up, Ernest looked to Jason, who was standing around with a casual lack of concern. He was also older than the other team members, even Ernest himself.
“Mr Asano,” Ernest said. “What is your assessment?”
“The instinctive reaction might be to neutralise the threat,” Jason said, “but that isn’t the job. We’re not out here to catch pirates or wipe out bandit clans. That’ll be the job they send the next group on. We’re here to escort the coins. Attacking an unknown force with unknown capabilities significantly impacts the likelihood of the actual mission going wrong. I say we just get on the skimmers and go.”