The farms consisted of several walled in and fenced in areas with different interesting environments within them, though most of them were just grassy fields. One of the grassy fields had a very large herd of deerbucks wandering around doing deerbuck things. Shiv saw that and couldn't help but shiver. Those things were terrifying.
Other fields had other types of animals that he'd never seen before, but he could see several that looked like strange blends of earth animals. He could tell that some of them were incredibly dangerous, despite their goofy looks.
Each of the fenced-in areas had an area next to their gates that was further fenced in, with a gate attached to it. From his high vantage point, Shiv could see that those smaller areas were blood-stained an extreme amount.
"That's a lot of animals." He whispered. He'd been feeling off, and it was ruining his judgment, making him do things he generally knew better than to do.
"Shut up." Briggs hissed back. The two were on the wall, and it was being patrolled by guards wearing the same colors as the guard at the gate who had turned away the noble. The only reason they hadn't been noticed yet was pure luck. All of the guards were currently looking in other directions. "Alright, now you've seen them. We're leaving now." Briggs backed away from the edge and toward the opposite side, where his rope still was, and beckoned impatiently for Shiv to follow.
"We're coming back here, right?"
"Why would we?"
"So I can level up a bunch!" Shiv knew he was acting strange, but was scared to figure out the reason why. Though he had a strong feeling that he knew exactly what was bothering him.
"Get down, now. We'll talk about it later." Just as Briggs said that, a pair of guards began making their way toward them. Their eyes were glued to their feet, but it was only a matter of time before they ran into the two intruders.
Shiv sighed and followed Briggs down, reusing his handholds. They made it to the bottom without being caught, and erased all traces of their climb before walking away as if nothing had happened. "Tonight we're going to sneak in there and slaughter all of the high-level animals."
"You would be the one who got slaughtered." Came the curt reply.
Shiv pleaded his case while they walked, and Briggs remained silent. The short man was back to looking everywhere, studying everything the city had to offer.
"C'mon, we've got to destroy the whole place anyway, so why not start with the animals?" He didn't know why he was so fixated on the animals. He just wanted to let off some steam through conversation.
"Exactly." Briggs finally spoke. "Why bother with them individually if we're going to destroy the entire place as a whole, regardless?"
Shiv didn't have an answer to that, so he became quiet. 'Now the conversation is dead.' He frowned.
"I have the beginnings of a plan." Briggs gave Shiv a sideways glance. "And it involves sneaking into the XP farms tonight. But we can't kill the animals. Not yet. It will just be some scouting."
'He started the conversation himself? Wow.' Despite that, Shiv couldn't prevent a depressed sigh from escaping his lips, but nodded along anyway as Briggs described the plan. "That's going to be gruesome." He said thoughtfully when Briggs was done.
"We are out to destroy the world. Every plan we conjure will be gruesome." Briggs snapped back.
Shiv scowled, unhappy with the manner in which he had been spoken to. He wasn't aware that Briggs was still torn up about killing his ex-wife, or he might have been more understanding.
***
That night, they infiltrated the massive XP farms with no issues other than the angry silence the two had maintained throughout the day. They went to a different part of the wall that Briggs had chosen and climbed through there, noting that the guards seemed to be far more alert tonight than they had been earlier. Despite that, they had made it into the main complex of the farms with ease.
They moved down the unlit path in crouched positions, not making a sound aside from Shiv's occasionally gurgling stomach. 'I ate as much as I could, but I still feel like I'm starving. That suit dude better not have screwed up again in his attempt to help me out.' Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the crunching footsteps of a soldier headed toward the intersection he was moving toward until it was too late.
He stopped at the corner of the intersection and peaked around the corner and made direct eye contact with a pair of guards. His stomach rumbled epicly. While they stared in shock at him, his body moved on its own. He stood straight up and stepped around the corner, grabbed them by their heads and crashed them together as if they were toys.
He crouched as they went down, lowering them slowly to the ground so as not to make too much noise.
Briggs shuffled over quickly and glanced at Shiv's handiwork, noticing the two gaping holes in the corpses' heads. "Hide them." He whispered, and turned around to keep watch.
Shiv manipulated the earth to swallow the two dead men and leave no trace of them, then they continued moving. There were several more close calls with the guards, but they managed to go on without causing anymore death. The entire time, Briggs was mapping the place out, making sure his plan would work. So far, it wasn't looking too great.
Until something happened that threw a wrench in everything.
The two were sitting on a fence checking out the animals within, when they heard a strange noise. They looked in every direction with impressive speed, and found themselves staring at an unaware man in a guard's uniform climbing the fence next to them. They stared at him for a solid three seconds in which Shiv was able to notice that the man was the same noble that had been turned away from the farms earlier in the day.
At the end of that period of time, the noble seemed to notice something wasn't right, and glanced right, then left… and found that he wasn't alone on the fence. "Well, hello there."
"Uh, hi." Shiv waved at him with an awkward look at Briggs.
"What are you two doing here?" The noble shifted nimbly on the fence until he was in a sitting position identical to their own. "You're not dressed like the rest of us guards. Are you making a new fashion statement? Is that why you're so high up? So everyone can see you? But if that were the case, you wouldn't be over here in the shadows… hmmm." He thought with a comical expression on his face for a few moments in which Briggs began to hate him and Shiv wished he was anywhere but here. "Oh! By hell, I've got it! You're getting yourself used to high places so you can climb an even higher place without being too afraid. And you're going to climb to a higher place, of course, to show off your new clothes."
Shiv glanced down suspiciously at his dirty, stained, dark clothing while Briggs spoke. "You're insane."
The noble in disguise found this to be hilarious, and so laughed loudly. Briggs and Shiv immediately shushed him, causing him to cut his laughter off and glance over his shoulder. As he had said, they were in a very dark, shadowed area, but that didn't mean they couldn't be heard. "My apologies for that. I'm not used to talking to truthful people." He beamed at them.
"Go away." Briggs replied.
"Oh, that just won't do. I propose you tell me about your fashion choice! I am an icon of fashion myself, and would be more than willing to make sure you get the attention you so desire." There was a dangerous edge to the man's voice, and his eyes had a strange light to them.
Briggs caught on to his meaning immediately, though Shiv was less quick. Well, Briggs thought he caught the noble's meaning. He honestly wasn't sure if the noble was joking or if he was actually threatening them. His experience taught him to assume he was being threatened, so he did so. Normally, he would kill the one threatening him, but this noble had him on edge… Briggs honestly wasn't sure he could kill him.
The noble was threatening to expose them to the guards unless they explained why they were there.
"We're scouting." Briggs' reply was short and sweet.
"Oh, me too! What are you scouting for?" The noble smiled charmingly.
"The defenses, the routes the animals would take if they were released, and the amount of troops stationed here." He told part of the truth.
The noble's expression changed drastically to one of dead seriousness. "In short, you're planning to take over this place as well, ah? And that second thing you said is sharp. I honestly didn't even consider that those bloody sods would release their animals to help defend."
Briggs was stuck on two specific words the noble had said, a pit of despair making itself known in his soul.
"'As well'?"