Izick peeked around a patch of bushes concealing his body. He scanned the high stone walls of the bandit hideout, looking for any weaknesses or entry points.

  A massive door served as the main entry point, but walking through the front door was obviously out of the question.

  Lookouts, sparsely spaced around the ring-like wall that protected the towering main building, lazily peered down over the battlements with bows in their hands and quivers of arrows slung around their shoulders.

  Everything had to be in the square main building beyond these walls.

  The guards regularly alternated between watching over the battlements and checking the main building.

  This made infiltrating the high wall and getting past them difficult. Plus, these sentries would spot the Staff Hero's party coming a mile away and alert the bandits inside. Every single one of them had to be dealt with.

  The area around the hideout had been cleared of tall grass and trees to improve visibility and spot rival bandits or Scouts like Izick.

  Most Scouts would give up at this point, but this situation was doable for him.

  Izick picked the most distracted guard and crawled forward on his stomach with his moss and grass-covered clothing.

  He stopped, then pulled out a white cube from the brown sack attached to his belt. An invisible force made the space around it warp like boiling water, shaking the cube violently in his palm.

  From his low position, Izick tossed the violently shaking cube into a patch of bushes. The device rustled the bushes, instantly catching the bandit's attention.

  Izick took off running and hurled a grappling hook at the wall. The hook silently caught the square battlement at the top of the high walls.

  He scurried up at blinding speed until he reached the top behind the confused sentry, who was still staring at the shaking bushes.

  He took careful steps toward the bandit from behind, who was still unaware of his presence.

  The spooked guard stretched out his hand and formed a tiny ball of yellow Mana. He pulled his hand away as the floating ball of Mana flickered a beam of light that illuminated the rustling bush.

  He readied an arrow on his bow and shot it into the bush, using the light from his Mana sphere.

  Izick lifted an open hand toward where he'd left his white cube, then closed his hand. The cube stopped shaking, leaving the bush completely still.

  He lunged forward and brought a black cloth to the man's mouth as he tackled him to the walkway floor.

  The guard flailed wildly and let out muffled cries, but Izick kept an iron grip on his mouth until the man slowly went limp.

  After releasing the unconscious guard, he slowly raised his head to take note of his surroundings.

  The other three lookouts were farther away and oblivious to his presence, since they focused on looking down for potential enemies approaching from below.

  Izick pulled up the grappling hook and stood the unconscious lookout up. He detached a thin rope from his belt, then tied him to the square battlement.

  Keeping his stride low, he stalked clockwise around the walkway at the top of the wall.

  A guard yawned as he looked over the battlement when a black cube smacked him in the side of the head.

  The device unfolded into black, webby strips that wrapped around his head. The guard stumbled backwards in panic while trying to desperately rip off the strange straps from his face that silenced him completely.

  A blue cube latched onto his back, convulsing his body with blue electricity. His body stiffened up before collapsing to the walkway floor.

  Izick pulled off the black and blue cubes from the unconscious guard, returning the black strips to cube form and disabling the electric shocks from the blue cube.

  He wrapped a rope around the man's body before attaching the other end to the battlement and kicking the unconscious body off the wall. Simply throwing him over would create too much noise.

  A nearby lookout walked into Izick's area while on patrol, but saw only darkness where a lookout was supposed to be stationed.

  "Anthony?"

  The lookout continued to call out before noticing a rope tied to the battlement.

  He grabbed onto the square battlement and peered over it.

  Izick leaped out of a dark spot and stomped onto the guard's head, crushing it into the battlement.

  He tied up the man, then kicked him over the wall to let him dangle like the other lookout before slipping back into the shadows.

  The last guard stretched his arms and back, completely unaware of his situation, until he took a quick walk around and noticed he was alone.

  He was about to sound an alarm from the small horn hanging from his neck when he saw a fellow guard standing at attention at the next post.

  He let out a sigh of relief as he waved to get his attention.

  "Grum, where'd everyone go? Are we changing shifts already? I just started mine not too long ago."

  The guard received only silence from his comrade, who remained perfectly still. He furrowed his brow in anger as he pointed at the silent figure.

  "Hey! Are you ignoring me?" He started to lightly run toward the offending comrade, but failed to notice Izick running beside him in stride on top of the battlement.

  The guard stopped in shock when he got closer and noticed that his comrade was tied up.

  He crashed into the stone floor in a heap as something heavy held him in place.

  A single yellow cube tumbled across the stone floor and began to emit a dim yellow light.

  A series of glowing circles and dots encircled him, sending him into a panic from the unknown sigils surrounding him.

  A hand grabbed his hair and pulled his head up as a knife came into view.

  "Three questions," Izick said in a deep, highly distorted voice. "Where do you keep your hostages, where do you keep your spoils, and when do the guards change shifts?"

  "Intruders have taken the walls!"

  Izick slammed the man's head into the floor, then pulled it back up with him gasping for air.

  "Screaming won't help you. I already set up a Silence trap. No one'll hear you except for me. Answer my questions, or I'm throwing you over the wall like your comrades."

  "O-okay! I get it! Don't kill me! They don't tell me where the loot is since I'm just here to spot incoming enemies, but it's likely near the southside wall where we keep the hostages."

  "When do the guards change shifts?"

  "We just got here, so in about three and a half hours? I swear, I'm telling the truth!"

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  After extracting more information from the guard, Izick put him to sleep with the black cloth.

  He tossed both the last and first lookouts he'd encountered over the walls before turning his attention to the main building.

  Getting to the main building was still the priority, but he also had to work out an attack plan for Alister and the rest of the party.

  Their plans had to be adjusted based on the information he'd just gathered.

  This place used to be a stronghold for storing valuable resources for royals. The hostages and the loot were likely to be in the same place, like the guard said, but he had to verify this.

  Find the loot, find the hostages, or vice versa.

  He fastened a new grappling hook to the battlement once more and rappelled down the inner side of the wall until his feet touched the high grass.

  He made it inside the walls and back on flat ground without alerting the main forces.

  Izick stalked forward, crossing a huge courtyard between the stronghold's tall walls and the main building.

  Only trash and broken statues kept him company out here, as there was no one in sight.

  He ran behind an overturned statue to get out of the open space and catch his breath.

  The stony main building loomed large over Izick. It seemed like an impenetrable fortress, but a closer look revealed a few points of entry through open windows.

  The entrance to the main building remained unguarded, but this gave him no reassurance.

  A group as well-organized as the Bands of Iron would never leave an entrance this unguarded. He focused his eyes on the space around the front door. It slightly warped like his shaking white cube had done before.

  He ran up to the entrance and stopped a few feet away from the iron door. Pulling out a red cube, he clicked a button on its side to bring up a map-like series of red circles and dots like stars in the sky.

  The dots started flying around the map, then suddenly lined up to point at the door.

  The door, and likely the entire building, was warded with Mysteria, unlike the walls. This ward might sound off alarms or explode on contact, so he wasn't getting inside or scaling the building unless he disarmed it.

  Fortunately, he'd gotten the key to disarming the ward from the guard he interrogated earlier. The small horns every guard had around their necks. One now hung from his own belt.

  Taking off the small horn, he stepped forward while slowly extending his hand toward the iron door.

  A semi-transparent red force field revealed itself. A red question mark materialized in front of him. Red bands enveloped the small horn in his hand before more bands traveled up his arm.

  The red question mark and red bands turned green, with the question mark becoming a check mark as the ward accepted him.

  His ears perked up at an incoming sound, causing him to put the horn away and lie flat on his stomach near the building's wall beside the door.

  Two men exited through the iron door with heavy axes slung over their shoulders. One of them grunted loudly as he kicked a nearby stone.

  "Ugh, all that wailing from our 'esteemed guests' was giving me a headache. I need some fresh air."

  "Agreed. Those kids are the loudest though. I'm not even sure why we need all these people anyway."

  The two bandits continued their conversation as they stood in front of the iron door. Izick kept a careful eye on them while remaining flat, undetected on the ground behind them.

  He slowly rose to his feet and grabbed onto the windowsill of the main building.

  Izick free-climbed from window sill to window sill until he reached an open window on the fifth floor that seemed dark inside.

  Swinging himself through the window, he found himself in darkness when the lights flickered on to reveal a long, well-lit hall.

  Looking up at the source of the lights, he clicked his tongue. Dome Torches were annoying since they automatically lit themselves when their harmless wards came into contact with the Mana within every living being.

  Long and illuminated halls offered little cover for a Scout. Things could get dicey if someone entered this hall and spotted him.

  He sped down the hall and then peeked around the corner.

  The hall opened up to a wide area with an interior balcony and stairs descending from each side.

  Crouching down, he approached the balcony and knelt by the rails to look down at what was happening below.

  Around a dozen people, ranging in age from about 9 to 40, shuffled forward in chains. A man led them at the front while two more men brought up the rear as they came out of a set of double doors.

  They all wore ragged, light green frocks and looked beyond

  exhausted. Their heads hung low, and they stumbled forward as the young child in the rear struggled to keep up.

  A knot formed in his stomach as he saw these hostages. His anger told him to save them now, but his experience told him to wait.

  The Staff Hero's party would rescue them all. He wouldn't abandon these helpless people, but getting emotional now wouldn't save anyone.

  The hostages made a sharp turn as they were led through another set of double doors. He had to figure out a way to trail them without revealing himself.

  After visually checking every door in his vicinity, he focused his senses on his hearing again as something caught his ear.

  Faint footsteps approached his position, more specifically from the hall behind him.

  Standing up, he ran toward the stairs and slid down the rails until he reached the base level. He crossed the marble floor to the double doors through which the hostages were taken.

  The footsteps grew closer, so he pushed through the double doors and stepped into another hall with split paths. The walls were made of rougher, older stone, and the hall itself wasn't as well-lit, since traditional wooden torches provided the lighting.

  He silently jogged down the left path toward the sound of clanking metal and the shadows of chained people trudging along.

  The sound of moving metal ceased ahead as he passed a narrow door and came to the end of the hall. Hugging the wall, he took a quick glance around the corner.

  Two guards, wearing heavy golden armor and wielding long spears, stood in front of a massive wooden door, with an equally large drawbar securing it. The bandit leading the hostages nodded at the two guards and stopped in front of them.

  "When're you gonna let us in there? We're not gonna take anything, but some of us just want to see the fruits of our labor," the bandit said, half-jokingly as he pointed at the wooden door.

  The two armored guards completely ignored him as another group approached. Three men with gold pendants pinned to their brown tunics, carrying a huge brown trunk on their shoulders.

  They told the bandit leading the hostages to move out of the way, causing him to grunt in annoyance but lead the hostages away.

  Taking mental note of where the bandits were taking the hostages, Izick assumed that the rest of the hostages had to be further down the hall. There was no way to go any further without risking exposure, so he would have to check the hostages later.

  The guards unlatched the drawbar and pushed the giant door open to let the three bandits in.

  Through the opening, he could see massive collections of gold chests, coins, bags, and more stacked toward the high ceiling.

  He found it. The treasure cache of the Bands of Iron.

  The three men quickly exited the treasure room, then turned to head down the hall where he was hiding.

  Quickly pulling back, Izick took off running down the hall to avoid being detected. The sound of footsteps from yet another group came to his ears, but this time from around the corner ahead of him, prompting him to stop.

  Trapped. A group coming behind him and a group quickly closing in ahead.

  A quick look around helped him notice a narrow and ancient wooden door that was barely a hole in the wall.

  Pulling it open, he found bundles of neatly cut wooden sticks with cloth wrapped around their ends, reeking of oil.

  This had to be where they stored unused torches. He quickly nestled himself in the closet and shut the door as the two parties turned the corner and walked past.

  Fighting off nausea from the coarse oil attacking his nostrils, he pulled out a pocket-sized black notebook from his back pocket.

  Flipping it open, he detached the black ink pen from its spine. The white pages on the notebook illuminated as he clicked the pen and wrote a series of numbers in the top left corner before writing in the main body.

  { Infiltrated stronghold but needed to neutralize the lookouts. Small horns from bandits are necessary to disable the main building's wards. Treasure cache is near the southside wall }

  { Exact location of hostages is unconfirmed. Hostages might be near the treasure cache. Must start the raid within three hours, or else the missing guards will be noticed at the next shift. Map incoming. Further instructions? }

  ***

  In a forest near the bandit stronghold, Klint looked down at his own notebook, similar to Izick's, as the boy's handwriting began to materialize on an empty page.

  A page in his book automatically flipped as a detailed drawing from Izick showed the most optimal area the party should strike.

  "Al, I just got confirmation from Izick on the location of the treasure cache and hostages. He also sent a map that marks our best strike point."

  "Took him long enough," Alister said, rising to his feet while swinging his right arm in a circular motion. "I can't believe I'm paying some kid to draw maps and stumble around in the dark wearing cowskin pajamas."

  He turned his head to the dozens of party members behind him and waved his hand for them all to stand.

  "All right, people. You know the drill. If you stray too far from me and die, it's your fault. If you get too close and get caught in my line of fire and die, it's your fault again. Draw your weapons!"

  He raised his right hand and summoned the long white shotgun into his grip as his party members readied their weapons.

  "It's killing time, boys."

  Mill remained silent and in place as the party members let out a war cry at his words.

  She shook her head as Alister paraded in front of his party members with his weapon high above his head.

  Joining this Staff Hero's party had been a mistake despite the promised high pay. Still, her mind drifted back to the boy who was currently all alone, surrounded by a horde of bandits.

  Throwing on her hood, Mill joined the Staff Hero's party as they began to march toward the Band of Iron's hideout.