“‘There are always risks in battle. It's a dangerous business. The trick is to take the right ones.'
'How do you know which are the right ones?'
'You wait and see if you win.’” ― John Flanagan, Emperor of Nihon-Ja

It had been one week since the museum heist and three days since Adler officially announced the guild had a contract for an escort through the the Cáqash. It was one of the largest groups (thus requiring more mercenary assistance) to pass through, even including city guards for the first time since what was known as “the Cloppington Incident”.

The Cloppington incident referred to the event that put a permanent rift between the merchants and the guards regarding the transportation of commodities.

The way Karl heard it, Captain Cloppington was a former Captain of the city guard who led an immense convoy and hundred guards into the Cáqash nearly thirty years ago.

It did not end well.

Cloppington and his personal guards were brutally slaughtered in a the final battle. Of the five guards that managed to escape, three would later die from infected wounds the physicians couldn’t heal quickly enough.

Of course, all that the merchants cared about was the fact that it was the largest loss of merchandise in remembered history.

The reason for the guards’ presence on this particular expedition was because, in addition to the normal mercantile caravans, it included a military convoy meant to resupply the garrisons that were stationed near Ironhoof. Even if they were just for show, protocol stated that officially appointed guards must accompany all shipments of the sort.

However, Adler had told them they would, as normal, be responsible only for the merchants and their transport.

Karl was almost certain, and Adler was absolutely certain, that the ponies were going to get butchered and he was planning on using them as meat shields.

Karl and Locust trained as normal, awaiting the day they would finally leave.

Neither of them really had much contact with Sunny for the entirety of their stay, and to be fair, Karl was thinking about sending her with Max back to Hoovetown. She had simply lost her usefulness at this point. Additionally, she appeared to be getting more distant; as if she were having doubts about the mission, and that was definitely not good. If she was already doubting now, what would she do in the Cáqash or after? Would she still be trustworthy then? If that wasn’t bad enough, Sunny still didn’t exactly know about how his plans for her country and the inherent implications regarding her own life, so she could very well turn on him.

It was definitely something he was debating internally.

He was currently sitting on a bench in the shade of a big tree near the side of the Sythan river.

“Karl? We need to talk.” a familiar voice said from somewhere on his right.

“Titus? What brings you here?”

“Saqatuwa’s been dognapped. Or should it be Nāga-napped? Oh, fuck it, you get the meaning!” Titus said, audibly infuriated.

“How the hell did that happed?” Karl asked, not liking the sound of this new information.

“Pony guards searched club and took her! They said she was a “Prisoner of the Equestrian State” or some bullshit, so the deal we had with the slaver was unlawful.”

‘Yeah. *That’s* why it was wrong to buy and sell a person.’ thought Karl sarcastically.

“We managed to save the tablet, but they took her to that fortress over that way.” Titus motioned to the fortress that stood on the island connected to the mainland by the bridge.

“Well, shit.” responded Karl, unable to articulate anything more eloquent.

“They’re planning on sending her with the military transport to Ironhoof, so we have a chance of reclaiming her there.”

“Reclaiming? That makes it sound like she’s property.”

“Reclaiming, liberating; it’s all the same! Now listen: that transport heads out in two days. They’re going to put her back on those chemicals if they get their way and we cannot afford her losing all her strength again! You saw how long it takes her to gain it back!”

“Alright, I get it… did you find anything out about the tablet yet?”

“Yeah, we asked her about it. She thinks it’s a translated page from an Evolved.”

“‘Evolved’?”

“Some guys who once threatened Equestria. Not much is known about them. Their motives, their fate, all lost to history. Most stories say they come from somewhere in the Lost World or the Echo. They appear to be the reason for some rather cataclysmic events in the past. There’re a few vague allusions to a figure referred to as the Slayer who tried to lead a mass violent uprising against pony rule. The ponies and most of the world have forgotten about them. The only reason we know about them is because some of those Evolved are believed to have created our races.”

“So you don’t really know shit about them.”

“Hey! Those guys haven’t been around for at least three thousand years! Besides, even if there was any well-preserved history, the princesses and the aristocrats probably destroyed it: they don’t like their population getting ideas.”

“So what good is that tablet if the people who first wrote it aren’t even around anymore?”

“I don’t know, but Saqatuwa was quite enthusiastic about what she found. She was exhausted pretty quickly and couldn’t elaborate much on what she found, but I’m confident that it’s something big. But she also mentioned something about how the writing seemed to leave off in the middle of a sentence and that there was probably at least a second tablet. She didn’t give any information about where that might be though.”

“Well, there’s no point in getting worked up over things we can’t solve right away. We have more pressing issues at hand. Do you have a plan to undo the effects those chemicals will have on her?”

“Yes, but there’s a big problem with it: I can give her some drugs once or twice a day that suppress the effects of those chemicals, but we can’t do that the entire route. If we let too much build up in her system, the effect could be just as bad as the other chemicals. Maybe even worse.”

“So what do you propose?”

“We can do that for about a week, but afterwards we need to get her out of that water, and that means…”

“Leaving the group and trying our luck in the Cáqash.” Karl finished, earning a somber nod from Titus.

“Why is it so important she keeps her strength? I mean, can’t we wait until she recuperates in Ironhoof?”

“That’s just it: we cannot allow the ponies to reach Ironhoof with her. Then we won’t even have the chance to liberate her. We need to help her escape while we’re still in the Cáqash and we can’t drag a drugged Nāga through the entire swamp, can we?”

Karl sighed. This entire situation had suddenly become a whole lot more complicated.

“How do you plan on escaping with her? Even if she isn’t drugged, we aren’t just walking her out under the noses of all those ponies.”

“True, but don’t forget; this is the biggest convoy ever since the Cloppington incident. Those pirates haven’t forgotten how they butchered the guards last time, and don’t forget that the Skôkak are involved this time. Surely you realize as much as I do that this can only end badly for them.”

To be quite fair, Karl did get two extremely unpleasant words in his mind when he thought about the mission: Teutoburg Forest. Everything just started to look way too much like that decimating defeat of the Roman army in the battle of the Teutoburg forest and he wasn’t part of the winning faction.

“How about that help Max promised Rover?”

“He keeps his word. I’m the only one who will come with you for this. The rest of the pack leaves the city and goes to Hoovetown. The guards were getting too annoying here anyway.”

“So how exactly do you travel with us?”

“Oh, I’ll be joining with you guys. I have the required amount of military service to qualify, and besides, one of your captains owes me. You probably know him already: Adler Lowegreif.”

“What kind of debt?”

“I saved his ass from jail once a long time ago when there was no mercenary guild and only criminal organizations. He and I worked for the same outfit and we were pulling a heist he got wounded. I managed to get him out of there, but we lost contact for a while after that.

“I found out where he went to when I discovered that he’d joined the guild. I decided not long after to join Max’s fledgling organization. I am not above admitting that the reason I didn’t join the guild was that I refused to aid those stuck-up ponies even after they came begging. No doubt Adler told you that back in those times all non-ponies were treated like crap around here. By the time my anger had subsided a bit, I was already on good terms with Max so I stuck with him.”

“You seem to take the thought of separation from Max’s pack quite well.”

“I know. To be fair, I think it’s finished for us. He was good for me for a while, but what we each want differs too much. I haven’t forgiven the ponies for what they did so many years ago. If I join someone who actively fights them, then perhaps the union’ll offer me the chance that no one else’s managed to give me for all these years. I can’t let this one rest without some kind of retribution.”

“I understand perfectly: we’re both looking for some payback.” Karl replied, earning an understanding nod from Titus. The dull grey dog stood up from the bench.

“Well, see you in two days I guess.” Titus said before walking away.

“Until then.” Karl replied before resuming his vigil over the Sythan river.

****
“Come on men; PULL!!!”

Karl and some other mercenaries strained against the ropes connected to a transport that had fallen in the water after the road underneath the car collapsed. With one final grunt of effort, the men pulled the transport back onto the road. That, however, was only half of the work. Now they also needed to re-build the path to allow the other transports to cross.

Karl and the others went over to a cart with tools and materials to arm themselves for the annoying job. Fortunately, Karl and the others had gotten a decently good training and thus were able to complete the small emergency bridge within twenty minutes, allowing the tedious march to continue.

“This is going great: we’re barely in the Cáqash and we already almost lost a transport, and it wasn’t even the work of the pirates or the Skokak.” Bovan stated irritated.

“Yeah, sucks.” Karl stated concisely.

A sudden commotion in the front line caught his attention.

“Hey, what’s going on up there?”

“Dunno. Looks like the pony guards have found something.” Bovan replied as he squinted, trying to see what caused the commotion. Locust suddenly landed next to them.

“Locust, what’s going on there?” Karl questioned.

“A warning from our friends the Skokak. They decided to put some of their battle trophies on our route.”

As Karl got closer, he managed to see the so-called trophies with his own eyes; the skulls of a pony and a minotaur resting on spears embedded in the ground, crossed over each other in an X. Where the two spears crossed hung a sign:

“CIVILLIAN OR SOLDIER, THIS IS YOUR FATE”

“Seems like their variant of ‘Stay the fuck out or we’ll fucking kill you’ don’t you think?”

“Yeah. Don’t count on a warm welcome here.” replied Khan with the obvious.

****

They’d been marching for a good couple of hours when the first signs of hostilities appeared. Four mercenaries from the first and second line fell into a pit lined with sharpened stakes. Everyone thought it was a standalone trap until five more mercenaries had their skulls impacted by a rain of stones.

Karl moved up to fill a gap in the mercenaries’ protective ring when he saw a Skokak for the first time. These Nāga were nothing like Saqatuwa. This particular one was female with two pairs of arms just as Max had described; not unlike the ancient Hindu depictions of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. Two of her hands grasped short, slightly serrated scimitars. Her scales were an obsidian black striped with fiery red. Her furious reptilian eyes burned in the same shade of red. Inch-long fangs revealed themselves as she let out a harsh, vicious hiss. Her only armour besides her scales was a faded silver breastplate.

She turned the palms of her two free hands towards each other. A point of orange light appeared between them and quickly blossomed into a raging clump of flames.

‘Oh, right: their females are good at magic. Greaaat.’ Karl remembered as she hurled the fireball in his general direction.

He ducked behind his shield, which took the brunt of the blow, but held. His colleagues behind him pressed forward with their own shields. This kept him from falling out of position, but kept him pressed between two forces. He prevented from the force being capable of destroying his ribs and recovered from the blow.

The order to ready the pilum was given. Karl advanced, spear in claw. The Skokak female again hissed at the advancing mercenaries and prepared another spell. Karl didn’t what would be coming next, but the color of the light was black instead of orange (‘How the hell can light be that… not bright?’ he wondered), so whatever it was, he was sure it would be worse than fire.

“Throw!”

The mercenaries unleashed a devastating rain of death upon the advancing Skokak. Many of them were impaled, which in turn caused the Nāga behind them to slow considerably.

The Nāga, now extremely pissed off (that is, more than they already were), started yelling what Karl guessed were war cries in their incomprehensible language. Karl was no expert in language, but that of the Nāga sounded vaguely similar to something he’d heard somewhere before. Indigenous American? He had no idea why, but that was the first thing that came to him.

'Fuck you, brain. Now’s not the time to play linguist.’

The mercenaries unleashed the second volley upon the Skôkak, killing a few more of them, then readying themselves to use their spears.

Right before the first Skôkak warriors reached their lines, the female Skôkak, whom Karl decided was the leader at this point, unleashed her magical attack. The attack was not how Karl expected it to be: rather than humming it directly at him she threw it high in the air. It fell down towards them like a grenade or mortar. Fortunately for him and his companions, she overshot and only a few men in the back were hit.

That was all it took, however, for the rest to realize what a fate they avoided: the black ball of magic impacted the ground, expanding outwards by a radius of about five feet. This field passed over a few of the mercenaries, who had braced for the impact. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then they began to wither. Four robust, healthy fighters aged several decades in the space of a few seconds before collapsing, their blackened, decayed flesh giving way to bones, which then disintegrated into a sickly white powder.

Karl (and several others) shook themselves and had to forcefully tear their eyes from the horrifying scene before charging the front lines of the Nāga warriors.

The first Skôkak, a male, hit Karl’s shield with Titanic force as he brought his scimitar rushing down. Karl blocked with his shield whilst stabbing the oversized snake man in the stomach, eliciting a pained moan (since he was part snake, it came out as more of a wheeze) from his enemy. Karl violently pushed his shield against the enemy, the metal boss hitting the Skôkak square in the chest, probably breaking a couple of ribs if not the sternum. Karl pulled out his spear and with a last push of his shield, the Skôkak fell backwards, a gurgling mess of flesh which was rapidly losing blood. Karl stabbed the Skôkak straight where he believed the heart was, ending the Nāga’s suffering

The Skôkak woman scowled at him before turning tail (no pun intended) and fleeing deeper into the marshes with what little remained of the male warriors. The job wasn’t done though: the mercenaries had held the Skôkaks off, but the ponies had more problems as expected.

Their archers and crossbowmen did a good job at thinning out enemy lines, but their infantry was getting butchered. The ponies who didn’t have any shields desperately tried to form a line, but the brute strength of the male Skôkak warriors and the magic support a couple of female Skôkak was enough for the males to break through the lines and start assaulting transports.

“Protect your employers!” Adler yelled as he charged the Skôkaks followed by his men who let out enthusiastic battle cries as they charged side by side.

Karl, just like many others at this point, had fallen into the ruddy embrace of bloodlust, and lifted his shield to block an incoming swing from a long Skôkak sword. Karl was shoved forward and managed to heave the Skôkak off of his shield. The Skôkak had trouble rebalancing and couldn’t dodge Karl’s spear point on time. He got hit in the stomach and Karl twisted the point, completely destroying the organs of the Nāga who led out a hoarse, pain-filled shriek.

The Skôkak used his free claw to sweep at Karl’s spear and successfully snapped it in two before attacking again. Karl blocked the attack and with full force drove the sharp point of his broke spear shaft straight into the Skôkak’s neck. The Skôkak gurgled a bit before collapsing straight on top Karl used his shield to keep from being crushed.

What remained of the Skôkak warriors retreated, not liking the swiftly closing organized spear wall that had decimated their line with little effort. The Skôkak may look like they would be slow, but they were surprisingly fast, certainly in retreat. Some pony archers tried to get some cheap kills, but let’s just say… they didn’t.

The red glow filling Karl’s vision began to fade as his senses came back to him.

“Men, form a defensive perimeter around the transport for loss measurement… and make sure that pitfall is covered so the transport can continue moving!” Adler ordered as he flew over to the pony captain, probably to discuss some things about his guards’ disappointing lack of skill.

Karl received a pat on the shoulder from Turok. Turok put him to work at covering up the spear-lined pitfall. It wasn’t a pretty sight: the bodies of eight unfortunate mercenaries lay impaled at the bottom. One of them was a minotaur who stared right at Karl with fear-filled eyes glazed over in death. A spear had pierced straight through the back of his neck out of his mouth.

He saw some intestines sticking out of some bodies and blood forming a rapidly growing pool at the bottom. The repulsive smell of excrement and death hit him as he came closer to the pit in order to put down a beam which would allow the transports to cross. There would be no funeral for those who died here today. These particular mercenaries had the most luck: at least they got a pit which they could call a grave. The rest were simply stacked up in a large pile and left for the Skôkak or wild animals to deal with.

As the caravan filed away, Karl turned back and saw a lone Drake approach the heap. He’d seen the Drake before, but he never really got to know who he was. His curiosity was now piqued, however, and he continued to watch as the Drake pressed his palms together and made a slight bow to the pile of dead while saying something that sounded almost like Hindi:

“Haamii marna prakrti kou hou. Mrtyu umkinee kunai upaaya cha. Tapaa'iim arkou jiivanamaa aananda ra shaanti bhari’eekou hous.”

He then took a small amulet from around his neck, kissed it and left it at the base of the pile before hurrying to re-join the group.

He noticed Karl looking at him and hesitated, perhaps fearing being told off for lollygagging. Karl just gave a single nod in understanding and turned to follow the group, the Drake following close behind. The two walked the rest of the way in silence.

Thirty died on this first day: thirteen mercenaries and twenty-five Skôkak. Karl was certain that they were far from the last ones who would die in the Cáqash.

****

There was a sombre atmosphere in the camp that night, and not only because of the losses. The swamp spooked many. Some believed there were dark ancient spirits living in these swamps that had been called up by the Skôkak to attack and harass outsiders. Karl also heard stories about monstrous creatures that rose up out of the swamp and pulled unsuspecting folk with them back to the bottom. Others talked about a creature made of mist which supposedly entered your lungs and choked you from the inside.

Normally tales likes this wouldn’t scare Karl, but he had learnt more than once that things he never thought existed were ordinary parts of reality here. There was magic on this world, so perhaps creatures that existed out of mist weren’t too much of a stretch. He heard sounds coming from the vine-laden trees which he could not assign to any creature. Not even the bizarre ones he had encountered here.

For those who weren’t spooked by the stories, the eerie mist and general air of danger did the job quite well.

Turok was moving though the lines to select those who got guard duty, and who thus not only needed to stay awake for a while or would get woken up in the night, but who also needed to patrol the creepy swamp. Karl appeared to be fortunate, as his tent wasn’t selected for guard duty.

For dinner, they were handed bowls filled with some kind of stew with filled chunks of meat of ambiguous origin and one slice of bread.

Karl huddled in a blanket with his back against a rock together with his tent mates near one of the fires so as to dry their sodden bodies and equipment.

Septus was busy rearranging his stuff when he spoke up.

“I heard that Adler and that pony captain really threw down earlier.”

Salinas nodded.

“Yeah. Adler called ponies incompetent fools that are going to get the entire escort killed. Ponies accused us of not having their back in their time of need.”

Taka snorted. “So now it’s our fault that they suck at fighting?”

“So it appears.” Boulder replied.

“Why do those idiots even come with us? It’s not like they ever came back here after that Cloppington disaster thirty years ago. Hell, they were pretty useless even before then! What’s their angle?” Khan questioned, clearly distrusting the ponies.

“They gave some bullshit line about how they have to accompany any ‘official state shipments’. They’re also supposed to be reinforcements for Ironhoof from what I heard.” Karl told them.

“If you ask me, by coming through this swamp they’re doing those rebels a favour. After all, dead soldiers can’t fight anymore.” Zōlak replied.

Suddenly, a familiar buzzing filled the air and a couple of seconds later, Locust landed near them.

“How’s it going guys?”

Locust was immediately greeted by everybody. Since his introduction, most of the mercenaries had taken to the Changeling.

“Hey Locust, how’s it looking up ahead?” Zōlak asked curiously.

“Calm. The Skôkak haven’t been seen around the camp. Of course, that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. With this fog and orders to not fly anywhere too easily visible, it’s kind of hard to tell for sure.”

“Do you think the Skôkak are going to come back anytime soon?” Salinas asked.

“Yeah, they’ll be back.” Caine spoke up. “Definitely now that they saw how little a threat the ponies pose. I did this route once a long time ago. I never fought against Skôkak before today, but back in that time I heard some guy in a pub tell other mercenaries that the way to minimize the amount of attacks is by giving them a major asskicking. However, with all those pony deaths I doubt they have been demoralized. They may hold off for a little while, but mark my words, for every second we don’t see them, they’re either planning, spying or lying in wait for an ambush.”

“Alright then. That just means I need to regularly clean my spear and sword. No biggie.” Salinas replied nonchalantly as he continued to inspect his sword.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I am going to try and get some sleep. I doubt that there’re going to be many quiet nights in this hellhole.” Karl spoke up as he suppressed a yawn.

“Yeah, we probably should follow his lead. We should be grateful if those big snakes even stay away for the night.” added Caine

The group stood up and walked into the slightly cramped tent, positioning themselves under their blankets after wishing Locust good night as he headed over to re-join his fellow scouts.

Author's Note

Hello everybody

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and if you did please leave some support behind and I shall keep on updating the story.

And so the march into the Cáqash has begun! For those anxious to see some ponies their point of view I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that it will be at least four more chapters before you get to see ponies their point of view. The good news is that once I start with ponies their point of view there will be plenty of it.

Once again please show some support, perhaps give me a follow if you feel like it (would be appreciated) and I hope that the story keeps doing well with the audience.

One more thing if you know any groups that this story could perhaps fit into feel free to tell me!

Editor: Vlasislas32
Author: TheShadowOfZama