Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Chapter 135: Infiltration

"Stay as close to me as you can." Docara murmured, he was clearly experienced with the spell he was using, speaking just loud enough that his voice would be slightly above the threshold for completely eliminating sounds. 

Kothar looked up to the walls, with his Mana Lens, he could see the shapes of a pair of guards on the walls of the outpost, the pair of them in an animated conversation, the pair of the were obviously at ease. 

Kothar waved to Docara and signalled to him, raising two fingers and then placing his hand over his eyes. Docara immediately understood.

"Two watchers up on the walls, both relaxed. Rufus, keep those sensitive peepers of yours open, I don't want any surprises. Any volunteers for our friends on the wall?" Docara swept his eyes around, virtually every single man on the point had raised one hand from their oar, eager to get into action. Docara sighed and pointed at two soldiers at random, nobody here could possibly fail at such a simple task, so this would have to do.

The canoe slid onto the sandy bank, deep in the shadow of the outpost above, there was only a single window on this side of the building, if the guards were to even look down over the parapet they would see nothing but darkness.

Kothar and the others banded together to pull the ship up onto the sand, Docara walking alongside, now sweating slightly, Kothar could see that the spell used a significant amount of mana, but Docara carried on nonetheless. 

Once the canoe was securely up on the sand, Docara gestured for the gathered soldiers to hunker down in the shadow of the wall, hugging the rocky foundation of the outpost. 

They were now practically invisible to the guards, unless one of them decided to lean right out over the edge and look down.

Now, Docara's spell that had been muffling the sounds all around came down, and the sudden rush of noise seemed loud, but it was only the small sounds of their breathing, and the rustling of their clothing. 

Docara flicked two fingers upwards, and the pair of soldiers who had been selected previously quietly made their way to the walls, both of them casting their own stealth spells. 

It seemed that Simon wasn't the only Thief that Tam knew, as evidenced by the multitude of stealth spells being cast all around.

Kothar stared up at the pale yellow stone of the  wall, and the murmur of the guards' conversation drowned out any noise that the group was making.

They clambered up the rocks around the base of the outpost, with large cloaks flapping in the ocean breeze, but not producing the slightest of sounds, Kothar felt as if he were watching a rare species of bat clamber up the side of the outpost. 

They easily scaled the wall, moving quickly and expertly, and then the pair looked to each other and nodded, before smoothly launching themselves over the top of the wall.

A pair of muffled grunts followed by two soft thumps signalled that their targets were either dead or incapacitated.

Now, Docara beckoned the rest of his group of ruffians to follow him up the wall, and Kothar joined them, a whole group of masked and hooded figures swarming up the wall.

Gathered on the top of the wall, Kothar looked around the outpost, sending a steady stream of mana to his Mana Sensing Lens. 

The outpost was shaped like a pentagon with sides that curved slightly inward, and had large towers at each point of the pentagon. A pair of guards were posted on each of the remaining walls, along with another three on each of the guard towers. The center of the outpost was dominated by a large building, which was made of the same pale yellow stone as the walls, within were another forty soldiers, as well as the weaker mana signatures of what Kothar assumed were cooks and maids that serviced the outpost.

However, at the very top of the tower, were three far stronger mana signatures, spaced evenly around the top floor, which would likely be reserved for the commanding officers. 

Kothar leaned over to Docara and filled him in on the numbers of the enemy, as well the threat posed by the stronger individuals in the central building.

"You can't tell me what kind of fighter they are?" Docara asked Kothar in a hushed voice, the hawk mask on his face peering at Kothar, sinister in the dim lighting.

"No, I can tell you their location and that they're stronger than the others, but I couldn't say what their profession is." Of course, Kothar could make an educated guess, by looking to see which rooms had more Mana Crystals and likely more Magical Devices, but he didn't want to make a guess that could lead to the deaths of his fellow soldiers.

"Well, they all bleed blood at the end of the day." Docara gave a quiet chuckle and gathered in the surrounding soldiers with a wave of his arm.

"We've got two on each other's wall, and three in each tower. The towers probably have their alarm system, so make sure you neutralize them first. Ten men will take care of the men on the walls. The rest of us, we're going down there, and finding any methods they might have of contacting the Empire and taking them out as we do so. We're looking at forty men in a barracks on the first floor, and another three who'll give us a headache if they're woken. You feel even the slightest hint of a rune anywhere, you stop right here and wait. We're not risking anything here. Understood?" Docara pointed at soldiers, seemingly at random as he spoke, but from how well the pair who had scaled the walls had worked together, it seemed that he had some understanding of the men's capabilities. 

"You, you're going to be our scout. Roam ahead and get rid of or leave us a sign of anything unexpected. I'm sure all of us can read enough to decipher whatever messages you leave." Docara nodded to Kothar, and then turned to the other men. 

"Understood." Kothar nodded, and launched himself down into the courtyard leading to the main building.