At least that was the impression she wanted to portray for them. The moment the sound of their footsteps vanished she got up and used three of her four racial abilities before running after them.
{Lightfoot}, {Invisibility} and {Ghostwalk}; each of these abilities could be maintained at the cost of a constant consumption mana after a set period of time. When her mana was still white Sage was unable to maintain each of them for longer than ten minutes. Using them together as she did now had drastically increased the consumption of mana to the point where she would run out in under two minutes. Fortunately she was in now in the 4th Order. With her maroon mana being thirty-two times denser than the white mana, she could last an hour in her current state.
Initiating a soft silent jog, she did not take long to reach the four mercenaries. The quartet's approach of the cave entrance was slow and cautious, they did not want to alert the guards.
Said entrance soon came into view. The two bandits were still there, idly guarding the place. From their posture alone one could see that they were not expecting any company. From time to time one of them would cover their mouth and yawn, a clear sign that they were bored.
Bored people made careless guards. The two bandits were unable to react when a pair of arrows flew out of the trees and lodged themselves in their sockets. They were dead before they hit the ground.
Sage watched Kaylee lower her bow and silently walked over to the bodies to reclaim her arrows. Her companions followed closely behind, careful not to make a sound until they were standing at the entrance of the cave. Then Marcus made a hand-gesture that Sage did not understand but the Scarlet Quartet clearly had no trouble deciphering. In response to it, Zachary raised his sceptre and cast a spell on them.
Although Sage was not familiar with the spell she could still tell that it was of the 2nd Order.
After that Zachary cast a few more spells on his companions. They were support spells ranging from the 1st to the 3rd Order. They seemed to have taken a sizable chunk out of the priest's mana. To counteract this the priest took a clear potion from his robe and downed it. Then, like his companions, he stared at the dark entrance of the cave.
With preparations to enter complete, the party entered.
The inside of the cave was pitch black. A few metres in and the average person would have trouble seeing past their nose. However, Marcus and his companions seemed to be able to see just well, which made Sage come to the conclusion that one of the spells Zachary cast on them was the 2nd Order [Night Vision]. The spell was also in Bori's study, but she did not learn it because it would have been redundant.
When the band continued the advance their footsteps were quiet, a clear indication that they were magically muffled. It was another spell Sage had no need for.
The bandit hideout did not seem to be a single cave but a network of caves within the Highlands. This was something Sage realised as she followed the group out of the first cave into the second.
This cave was smaller than the one they had just left. Different from the previous one, this one had lamps hanging from its ceiling. Sage was amazed by this. It seemed the bandits had really made a cosy place for themselves. There was a stone table surrounded by four chairs in the middle of the cave room. On the table was a wooden jug and four wooden cups.
Also, there were bandits sitting on the chairs holding these cups.
When the four bandits saw the mercenaries enter their first reaction was shock, then alarm as they tried to reach for their weapons to fight the intruders. However, they never left their seats. Marcus and Kaylee rushed forward to dispose of them before they alerted their companions deeper in the caves.
The half-elf was nimble on her feet as she rushed past two of the bandits. Her knife flashed once and the two throats were sliced open.
As for gigantic party leader, he leapt in the air and swung his giant blade down hard, decapitating the remaining two bandits in one swoop.
The four of them waited for a while until they were sure the deaths of the bandits and subsequent dropping of their bodies had not alerted the bandits in the next room. When no one came they heaved relieved sighs and headed to the next cave.
This room was also lit and it too had bandits. However, they were all fast asleep on straw beds and sleeping rags. It turned out this was their sleeping quarters.
Here the party stopped and everyone turned to look at Kaylee. Feeling their gazes, the half-elf gave a wordless sigh and approached the closest bandit with her knife drawn, still leaking blood from its previous harvest. Then, like a poised viper, she struck.
Pressing her palm against the bandit's mouth, she ran her knife from one side of his throat to the other. This caused the man to wake up, struggling and choking on his blood. Kaylee kept him down with her hand covering his mouth to make sure he did not wake the others. Over time the bandit's struggles became weaker until his body slackened and the light disappeared from his eyes. The disturbance he caused was not enough to wake the others up. Kaylee was relieved by this. She then proceeded to give the other bandits the same treatment.
Within minutes there were six bodies sprawled on their beds with blood leaking from their throats. Some of it had gotten onto the half-elf but she did not seem to mind.
When the group was done they moved on. The next cave was empty even though it was lit. It was much smaller than the ones they had previously passed. This one felt more like an intersection between the cave they had just left and the next one they were going to.
The Scarlet Quartet peeked into the next cave to get a layout of the place.
Unfortunately, before they could view the place they heard a dog's bark.
A moment passed where all that could be heard was the dog's barking. Then they heard footsteps scrambling around the place followed by the sounds of weapons being unsheathed. Then footsteps rushed towards them while shouting in alarm.
"Shit!" Marcus shouted.
They had been found out, so he saw no reason to be quiet anymore. He jumped out of his hiding spot and swung his sword. His blow cleaved the dog that had given them away. The vicious beast had been running towards him when it met its unfortunate fate. Its head, part of its shoulder and a leg; these were sent flying from its body after the broadsword made contact with it.
This was also the moment Arletta, who had not done a thing until now, became active. She raised her hand and flung a [Fireball] into the midst of the charging bandits. The moment the spell made contact with the tightknit bunch it exploded, sending them scattering in many directions in many parts.
There were still a few bandits left after her attack but they were quickly taken out by Kaylee's arrow and Zachary's [Ice Spike]. Soon the four of them were the only breathing entities among a sea of mangled corpses.
Zachary took another clear potion from inside his robe and downed it while Kaylee went to retrieve her arrow. The pair looked like they wanted to take a breather.
However, Marcus' voice killed their desire.
"Go! Go! Go!" he shouted. "Now that the bandits know we're here the hostages probably don't have long to live. We must hurry!"
Hearing this, his companions frowned and reinvigorated their actions.
Quickly they rushed to the next room.
Here they found no signs of the hostages either, just more bandits. There were seven of them in this cave. The Scarlet Quartet dealt with them in one breath. Their pace did not slow as they rushed to the next cave.
They did not find the hostages in there either. This was another sleeping room for the bandits, with about a dozen straw beds and sleeping rags. The Bandits here had already been woken by the commotion in the previous rooms. They were ready and waiting for the intruders, some with swords drawn and others with bows raised.
The moment the mercenaries passed through the bandits released their bowstrings, sending their arrows towards the intruders. Unfortunately for them, Zachary's [Force Wall] prevented them from inflicting any damage. Then, a [Fireball] sent their way by Arletta blew them up.
Just then the mercenaries heard a shrill female cry come from deep within the caves.
"Fuck!" Marcus exclaimed. To his teammates he shouted, "Faster!"
The others complied. Sage could see their expressions. They were panicking, perhaps thinking that the bandits had already begun killing the hostages. If that was the case they would not be able to make it in time to stop the slaughter. The scream had not sounded like it came from the next room. They would take a while to get there. They were losing hope of finding the women alive, Sage could see it on their faces.
What a drag, she complained, releasing a silent sigh.
Then she left the group and ran into the next room. Blitzing past the bandits who could not see her, she picked up her speed, rushing towards where the woman's scream came from.