Once Leona stepped forward, the soldiers around her took a step back to create enough space. Seeing how she was treated more than a comrade, Hahzi stood up. That prompted Krieg to reach for his longsword but not draw it.
"I'm sorry, what was your name?"
"Leona, Leona Crossford. I would like to hear more about your plight, I might be able to come up with a plan to solve it."
"Your last 'plan' almost got us killed."
Khalid muttered under his breath, but he was just loud enough that Luka elbowed him.
"Shut up you buffoon."
As the two of them bickered, Charlotte simply extended her hand and gestured towards the tactician.
"If you've read anything regarding the recent state of affairs in Akrapocalis. She was the one responsible for keeping death angels at Lugna Plains."
Hahzi brought his paw to his snout, tapping it a few times before exclaiming.
"Ah! So you are the one they call princess tactician?!" Looking at him up close, his eyes had different colors, the right one was dark brown while the other was gray with a scar crossing it vertically possibly from a previous fight. "It is an honor." He once again bowed and proceeded to explain the situation. "Below us there is a labyrinth of tunnels that leads to the excavation site. My brother is planning to dig under the city in order to collapse the outer walls so his troops can attack the city. However even if I somehow manage to kill him, his plan will still come to fruition through the others that follow him. I must cull those that wish to bring ruin to the city."
"Are you suggesting to murder everyone down there?" Gregor asked, intrigued. "Are they not your brethren?"
"My brethren they may be, but if their actions condeems us all to ruin I will lift the blade against them. As though I wanted to solve this peacefully, madness has taken a hold of my brother. He isn't the same as he used to be and I'm afraid any attempts to persuade him off this path will only result in conflict."
"You mentioned he was using captives as slaves to work in the mining endeavor, how far have he gone?"
Leona asked.
"Yes, most of the people he kidnaps off the road are put to work in the digging, whoever isn't capable of doing so or becomes too weak to work is served as food to others."
That made Charlotte frown her eyebrows as she stepped forward.
"They what?"
At that point the heavily armored kobold on the side reached for his weapon as tension seemed to rise.
"Believe me, I wanted this to end." Hahzi explained. "But we didn't have enough strength to fight, but now that you are here, I believe we do have a fighting chance."
She tightened her hands into fists, putting aside her outburst of anger, she asked with a tone filled with resentment.
"Where do we go from here to reach this place?"
"Just beyond the hallway behind us. The fall that you just experienced was us trying to find a way to bring the gunpowder here without raising suspicions."
"Couldn't we just grab the people being held here and then come back another day with proper explosives?" Khalid asked. "The way he mentioned it, we'll be dealing with a swarm of kobolds while blind by darkness."
"No, we'll finish this here and now." Charlotte said with determination. "If we let this go on, more lives will be lost. I don't want an innocent's blood on our hands."
Leona nodded.
"I'll come up with something, but for now-" She turned to Hahzi. "Do you happen to have a map of the cavern layout?"
"I have one." Hector stood up after finishing fixing his weapon. "I've made it with his help. It should be accurate enough."
He shuffled through a tattered duffle bag and pulled out a thick rolled up parchment which although the ink had been blurred due to being made in a hurry, it was still mostly legible. He rolled it on the ground and Hahzi began showing where they were. Leona, Krieg, Charlotte and Khalid were all huddled in a semi circle as the kobold pointed his jagged index claw.
"Here, this lone pocket is where we are, relatively close to the entrance." He showed the circle that was a few centimeters away from the hallway they were in. "If you go through this room you'll end up by the food storage, from there you'd need to exit it and take your immediate right and keep going straight."
"They might be guarding it since there is little to no food left in this place." Hector commented. "After a certain point the tunnel will expand quite a bit." Explained while glancing at everyone that was around to look at the map. "There may be more guards blocking the entrance before you'll be able to reach the deepest parts of the mine."
"You should be the one guiding us." Charlotte suggested. "Since you were caught before you must know the way through."
"I would love to help but I don't have any ammunition left." He showed her the flintlock pistol on the side that he was working on. "Not only that but I'm terrible with blades-"
"We don't need to get him involved." Leona said as she took the map from the ground. "We'll be on our way. Hahzi, do you have anyone from your group that can help us?"
"My sworn brother." He turned to the kobold that had been following them. "Zerm. Come."
Upon seeing him motion with his right claw the kobold turned his rather sizable body and slowly walked up to them.
"Can you show us the way to this place?" Leona pointed on the map to the large area that was beneath where they were. "We want to get the prisoners out of there."
He silently looked at her and nodded. Seeing how they were heading off to yet another dangerous expedition, Cecile, Gregor and Charlotte reloaded their weapons. Khalid cleaned his scimitars with a piece of old cloth while Krieg and Phoebe checked their blades as well.
"You'll need this after heading downwards." Hahzi picked what seemed to be a few porous rocks of greenish, blue coloration and gave a few to Leona. "Break these and use it in a cloth mask, it'll help you breathe below."
He gave each of them a few, aside from Phoebe.
"Hey, what about me?"
"I'm sorry but you might want to refrain from going in that place with, no offense, those legs, you'll be hard pressed to walk without falling over."
"Hah?"
"It's true." Hector voiced up. "There is just too much rubble and loose rocks in there that even people with proper legs have a hard time navigating that place."
"Ngh…"
Phoebe glanced at Leona for an answer which made her step forward towards her.
"It's best if we have someone behind the main group too, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to have both Khalid and you by our flanks."
"I will aid you however I can with the ones that can still fight." Hahzi said as the other armored kobold came behind him. "Go fetch the others, we will attack once they seize the advantage."
As Phoebe was about to find a corner so she could inspect her bow in peace, Leona tugged her arm and with a soft whisper said.
"Come talk to me when we are in the tunnel."
She then turned around and went to talk to the others. Phoebe noticed Hector subtly looking at her as if trying to listen in the short conversation, but instead of inquiring she simply turned around and began to work on her weapon.