B2 Chapter 217: Cold Bodies, finale

Sitting on the warchief’s throne, Ro gave them a look as she sprawled out lazily—one leg crossed.

It was calculative—stern and judging.

Kaius struggled to respond, his mind still rooted in the spot by the simple sight of seeing her in the boggling cave.

Ro? Of all people—the strange force that had torn their way through the bogglings that had given them so much trouble was Ro?

They hadn’t even sensed her—and the obvious ease with which she had cut through the horde revealed she held far more personal power than he expected.

So it was a test, he realised. Rieker had said he would put them on missions that were at the very edge of their ability, but Kaius had thought that the man had meant their ability to handle in direct battle.

This…seemed different. They’d missed something crucial, and no doubt were going to suffer for it.

Ro watched them standing in silence, her fingers drumming impatiently on the bone of the warchief’s throne.

“Come on, folks, I don’t have all day. I asked you a question.” her tone brooked no argument.

Kaius flinched—realising he’d just spent the last few minutes staring at the guild manager. In his defence, seeing her here—comfortable in the midst of a charnel house—was not what he had expected. Hells, a dragon would have surprised him less.

“Like ash.” he replied honestly. After so many hours to think about it, he’d continuously arrived at the same point again and again.

They’d failed due to hubris and lack of preparation—not inability. Sure, they were poorly suited to such a fight. At least they were until Ianmus showed his capabilities with his new spell that had annihilated what must have been over fifty bogglings—a spell the man hadn’t even named yet.

Ro smiled at his response—it wasn’t a wide one. More a bare acknowledgement that they at least had the sense to know that they’d messed up.

“Good—you’re not entirely hopeless, even if today was a fucking travesty. I’ve seen Coppers who work better than this, you utter fools.” Ro tore into them, her withering gaze letting them know just how disappointed she truly was.

“I mean, seriously, we tell you you’re up against an entire warren and you just…waltz in? Credit where credit is due, at least you didn’t go for a frontal assault, but there’s so much more you should have done. I hope that’s evident.”

“It is,” Kaius replied, stepping forward to take the brunt of her disappointment. As party leader, it was ultimately his failure—he was the one with the final say on their tactics. “We should have watched the horde for longer—tried to get an accurate reading on their numbers.”

“And your assault? What would you have done differently then?” Ro uncrossed her legs, leaning over in the chair to rest her elbow on the arm of the throne.

Kaius winced, thinking of all the things he should have done.

“There’s a lot. Sneaking in was probably the best ploy—as was leaving the raiders alone. If they’d known we’d been approaching we would have had to deal with ambushes and traps galore—probably magical ones too, with the bugbear shamans.”

Ro nodded—though Kaius could tell by the way she rolled her wrist at him to continue that she thought it was a bare minimum of tactical acumen.

“Other than that, I’ve had the time to think. I can see two main things we could have done to improve our odds. Three, technically—but I don’t think the last is as applicable in this specific situation.”

Ro cocked her head, looking at him with a touch of genuine surprise. Kaius was almost offended by her lack of faith in his ability to recognise his faults, but he was sure she was more used to pampered nobles—and in her defence, they had been more than a little reckless right off the back of her warnings about the assassin spider.

“Oh? You’ve reflected—what a surprise. Shock me with your wisdom, greenhorn.” she replied, her voice sardonic.

Taking the jab with the grace Ro had earned—she had just saved their asses, after all—Kaius nodded.

“First, we were woefully uninformed of the difficulties of a large scale cull of bogglings—”

“Bogglings?” Ro cut in—unable to stop herself from chuckling at the unexpected word.

The mirthful smile she let slip cut the tension.

They weren’t in trouble, Kaius realised. Her stern disappointment was smoke and mirrors, his Glass Mind was sure of it—cataloguing her every reaction against his memories. This had been planned.

Thank the gods he’d managed to crack her with a slip of the tongue, though he stood by the fact that bogglings was the best term for the monsters.

“Ah, the boggarts and bugbears…and whatever that is I suppose.” Kaius replied, nodding his head towards the stiffened corpse of the warchief. “Sort of like goblinoids.”

Ro tried to keep a stern face, but his eyes were sharp enough to catch the twitch at the corner of her mouth. “Right, yes—bogglings. It’ll do—the system calls the big one’s Bugganes, by the way.” The guild manager replied, nearly choking on the name for the largest boggling. “Continue.”

Kaius nodded, doing his best to ignore the humour that Ro had found in the names. He did admit it was a strange name, but regardless if it was expected for them to fail or not—they were being judged.

Trying to find the humour in it all—to joke with Ro as if she was a friend—would undoubtedly backfire.

He might have, back in the guild hall—if they were sharing a pint and swapping stories—but right now they were delvers who had failed, and she was their superior.

“We were uninformed. While bugbears and other developed forms of boggarts are new, cullings of a scale like this are almost certainly not. We should have asked for advice—found accounts in the guild, approaches that had worked in the past, and tactics that would maximise our success. We probably should have looked into goblins too, since they’re a similar plague to the dwarves, and they deal with them in far greater numbers than boggarts have ever been seen in.” Kaius said, laying out the first of their mistakes.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He’d thought about it a lot. Honestly, the fact that it had taken this for him to realise he should be leveraging the experience of the guild was an embarrassment. They were an institution, with all the knowledge and experience that came with it. Not just a mission board and a wallet.