"We should be almost there. Just past this hill. Everyone stay sharp, we don't know what happened or what we're going to encounter here." Becky armed herself with her two daggers as she continued to use her heightened senses to scout ahead. Everyone else took out their weapons. Everyone agreed that Aima did a commendable job enhancing or smithing new weapons for everyone except Sebastian, who chose to have his armour upgraded instead.
"I'll also help with scouting Becky. [Augment] Steel body and mind, hyper senses." Sebastian's irises emitted the familiar faint amber glow as he took to Becky's side.
Sebastian straightened his back with a jolt.
"Hup! I smell it as well Becky! Let's go! Everyone stay cautious! Blood has been spilt!" Sebastian took the lead as he rushed forward.
"What happened -" Aima couldn't finish her sentence as she looked at the village's outside walls in front of them. The walls were made of crude wood fastened together with guard towers jutting out here and there. It was quite common for villages to have walls and guard towers fashioned as such. What made it eerie and grotesque was the spikes haphazardly placed in front of the walls and some attached to the walls themselves. Impaled on the spikes were corpses of rat imps. They numbered in the hundreds, it almost covered the entire wall. If one couldn't see the spikes, it almost seemed that the corpses were part of the wall.
"Stay sharp! We don't know if there are other rat imps in the area of what. Jin and Becky stay in front, Aima and Mel behind me, please. Everyone report if you find anything unusual." Sebastian surprisingly took the lead as he organised their formation and their next course of action.
Slowly the group advanced into the opened gate. It seemed that the rat imps were impeded by the spikes, but they still managed to spill into the village. There were rat imps and human corpses strewn all over the streets and in the houses. There were traces of a huge fight, but the human side looked like they were continuously being pressed. The whole village smelled of fresh and decomposed bodies, it was lucky that there was no wind on the journey - it would have been disastrous for Becky who had a heightened sense of smell, and Sebastian who artificially augmented his sense of smell.
"I see villagers among the corpses, but there's no sign of adventurers whatsoever. Just some weapon here and there." Sebastian lifted his head to take a couple of sniffs. He could only smell the strong stench of blood and decomposing bodies in the air.
'[Augment] Hyper senses.' He already augmented his senses to their limit but the smell still drowned out anything else.
"Do you sense anything Becky?" Sebastian turned to Becky for further input in terms of their scouting.
"I can't sense anything living if that's what you're asking. Everything here is either decomposed or recently died."
"Should we spread out Sebastian? We can cover more ground if we do that. Aima and I can - "
"No Jin, that would be a bad idea. We don't know the layout well enough and it will just reduce our fighting abilities." Sebastian shot down Jin's suggestion as they continued to move forward. He knew that being cautious was better than being quick. His experience in both worlds taught him that.
"Wait, everyone stop. I have an idea." Sebastian signalled for the party to stop as he knelt down and placed his hand on the ground. He couldn't use his sense of smell because of the stench, but he could rely on other senses. He tried to feel for vibrations which would indicate nearby movement, and he also focused his hearing to pick up faint traces of activity. It was subtle, but he managed to pick up something.
"In the middle of this village is something like a large structure. There seems to be movement inside. I can't sense anything else nearby." Sebastian stood up as he guided the rest of the party towards the source of the signals.
"That's just pretty handy, isn't it. Teach me that sometime." Becky admitted to being unfamiliar with Sebastian's technique and even asked for him to teach her. Everyone felt goosebumps on their skin as they looked at Becky with wonder.
"I understand, let's focus on the survivors - either humans or rat imps for now." Sebastian asking Becky to focus on the task at hand was also uncharacteristic as Aima and Jin snickered beside them. Their jeering was shortlived as they saw a large building in sight. Sebastian felt that it reminded him of a warehouse.
"We don't know if the movement inside is from humans or something else. Let's prepare for an attack in case. Becky, please hide somewhere, we'll need your [Shadow Step] if needed. Jin, you approach the building with me. Aima and Mel please standby on top of that building please." Sebastian organised the party's positions while they were still at a distance.
After checking that everyone was in position, Sebastian and Jin slowly walked to the front of the building. Sebastian was using multiple instances of [Augment] while Jin had physical reinforcements on his body as well.
"Is there anybody inside?! We are adventurers sent by the adventurer's guild!" Sebastian and Jin raised their weapons, preparing for a fight.
The ensuing silence was almost deafening as they waited for a response.
"By the gods! They did send help! We are survivors trapped here from the attack! Is it safe to open the door?" A shaky voice responded from behind the door. Sebastian could tell that the voice's owner was frightened and weak, most likely from starvation.
"Yes, it's safe to open the door now. There are no more rat imps in the vicinity." Sebastian responded as he held his right fist up, it was to signal the rest of the party to hold their positions. They still weren't sure if the people behind the door were friendlies or otherwise.
After a few moments, there were sounds of something large being pushed to the side coupled with lots of grunting and panting. It really sounded as if the people behind the blocked door were weakened. Sebastian seriously considered if he and Jin should help push the door open.
With a dull sound, the door was finally being opened. When Sebastian and Jin's visions adjusted to the dim light inside the warehouse, they held their breaths in from shock. There were at least 6 people left standing in tattered clothes. Sebastian quickly counted 4 bodies covered in cloth lying in the corner of the warehouse. He quickly pieced the situation in front of him with that little information. He made an educated guess that the people holed in the warehouse as a last resort, but the 4 people that were either injured or sick didn't survive. The almost empty sacks of grain and fruit in the corner indicated their dwindling supplies.
"I'm Oswald Fomar, you may call me Oswin, an adventurer from Wildecross City like yourself. We were sent here to subjugate the rat imps reported in the area. We didn't expect that the rat imps would come in hordes and destroy the village." Oswin was a human adventurer, looking past his 40's. He was well built, fooling people to think he was a physical or a combat class when he was a mage as indicated by his magic staff.
"Are these all the survivors in the village?" Jin calmly asked as he pointed his glaive downwards. Even though he lowered his weapon, he still kept it in his hand - Sebastian noticed and followed suit.
"I'm Sebastian and this is Jin. Let's talk outside the building, I imagine you all feel stifled." Sebastian coaxed the survivors outside, he didn't want to be in a cramped space should combat break out. For some reason, the words 'cabin fever' kept popping in his head.
From Sebastian's memory, cabin fever was a reaction when a person or a group stayed in an enclosed space for long periods of time. Coupled with anxiety from the rat imp attack, he expected the survivors to be extremely sensitive and some may already be agitated already. It was the reason why he remained cautious even after seeing the survivors. Oswin came out of the building first, followed by what looked like his party. A female elf with daggers, and a male dwarf with a shield and axe. The remaining three villagers also came out with a horrified look. Anyone could tell that the survivors went through a lot during the past few days.
"As I mentioned, I'm Oswin. These are my party members, Sylvie and Bodeth, the others are villagers here. Are there only two of you?" Oswin had bloodshot eyes and had a haggard appearance, but he still had a commanding disposition.
"Our party members are scouting the rest of the area, we don't want to be caught surprised. They should be coming back shortly." Sebastian met Oswin's bloodshot gaze as he casually opened his right fist three times. It was subtle, but visible to the rest of the party lurking in their positions.
'Bloodshot eyes, dilated pupils, restless movements. I should remain cautious.' Sebastian quickly assessed Oswin and made a mental note as he kept the distance between them.
"While we're waiting for your party to return, there are a couple of survivors that need medical attention. They're okay, just bruised and exhausted. Do you have a healer in your group Sebastian?"
Oswin directed his group towards a house that wasn't surrounded with dead bodies. They sat down in the house's courtyard under the shade. Sebastian noted how Oswin's group followed him without any fuss whatsoever. He contributed their blind obedience as an after effect of the physical and mental fatigue.
"We have one, but I can physically treat minor injuries if needed. I'll take a look at them while we're waiting." Sebastian checked each survivor, but as Oswin said, it was more of mental shock than anything. He thought that the entire group, including the adventurers, needed a debriefing after what they've experienced. However, the amount of rat imp corpses around them indicated the more pressing matter at the moment.
As if on cue, Aima, Mel, and Becky arrived pretending to have come back from scouting as planned beforehand. "There are no other enemies in the area, it's safe for now." Becky reported to Sebastian. There was some truth to the report since Becky was continuously using her senses to check their surroundings.
"Thank you for that Becky. Let me introduce you. Oswin, these are the rest of my party members. This is Becky, Aima, and Mel. Aima can check the survivors if they need treatment." Sebastian quickly finished introductions while taking care of the survivors.
"After that, we need to check the areas where the rat imps came from. My party and I noted that they came from 3 burrow sites just outside the village walls. Let's split up to check on it. You can assign your members to each of us as we guide you to them. I'm sure everyone knows the importance of blocking their source for our survival here." Oswin casually mentioned his plan as he started to move towards the village exit. He didn't seem to wait for the other member's input and only waited for Sebastian to assign his members accordingly. Sebastian noted again that there didn't seem to be any room for discussions with Oswin.
"Shouldn't we go as a group? Sebastian thinks that it's better compared to splitting up." Jin advocated for Sebastian's decision as he learned just moments ago.
"No, they're right this time Jin. We should check it out and destroy the rat imp burrows before they swarm again. Everyone just needs to be careful of any dangers whatsoever." Sebastian emphasised the last sentence carefully as he looked at Jin and Becky.
"Becky and Mel, you go with Sylvie. Jin and Aima, you go with Bodeth. I'll go with Oswin, that should be enough. I'll emphasise this again, proceed with caution from all sides."
With a huff, the newly-formed teams quickly walked towards their assigned burrows. Sebastian kept stealing glances at Jin and Becky with his amber eyes.