A Gunslinger's System in a World of Magic-Chapter 267: Vanguard

[Nyx has Leveled Up!]

[Nyx is now Level 22]

[Nyx's Hit Point Maximum increased to 350]

[Nyx's Mana is now 365]

[Strength: 145 ———> 150]

[Speed: 270 ———> 280]

[Stamina: 140 ———> 145]

When the dust of the battle settled, Sir Doran gave Boyle a look and then cast his eyes about at all the Knights in Boyle's group and it was clear he was doing a quick count. The more he counted, the clearer it was that Boyle's group had seen fewer casualties.

"Looks like you had better luck than we did," he said with a grunt.

"That's not important," Boyle said urgently.

"Not important?" Doran repeated like he had been slapped, "The lives of my men are unimportant?"

"It's not. But if we stand around talking, we're all going to die," Boyle said still with urgency, "We have to find the Dungeon Boss now!"

While Doran was coming to terms with this new information and struggling to accept that Boyle did not indeed see himself above him at that moment and was far more focused on a separate issue, Boyle looked over at Eloise who was pulling her sword out of her final kill.

"How close are we?"

"Very," Eloise answered with her sensory spell recast, "Less than a Hundred Meters."

"Then, let's move!" Boyle yelled and rallied his Knights, Marla and her Mercenaries, and Meryna and the Clerics.

"Wait!" Doran said, "What's happening?"

"Come with us. I'll explain on the way." Boyle said with dreading seriousness and he got moving.

For a second, Doran was unsure what to do and then he called to rally his Knights and followed Boyle's lead. At the moment, whatever competition they had between them took a backseat in favor of what he could just tell was a very serious situation.

"Sir Doran!" Aurelius called out suddenly, his blond hair all messed up in the recent battle and his armor specked with blood, some of which was his own.

"The Mercenaries, Sir," he said, "They didn't make it."

Aurelius pointed at a few corpses, some split in two by Axes and others having arrows stabbed into their chests.

Eloise hadn't seen it happen, she had been preoccupied, but she looked at Henry almost immediately like she could tell it was his handiwork.

Maybe what gave it away was the suspicious way the arrows were not too deep in victims even though the Archers would have fired from very up close and with bows that were more than capable of deeper shots.

She smiled.

She hadn't forgotten that this was what she had used to convince Henry and Angus to come along. She had just accepted it was something the two would wait to get on with after the expedition was over. She was glad things had been sped up.

Beyond using it to convince them to come along on this dangerous expedition, she believed herself invested enough in the liberation of the slaves. A lot of them had died but she was glad for the ones who survived who no longer had cuffs on their wrists and were quickly getting assimilated with the group of former slaves that had followed their group so far.

"Hmm," Aurelius said suddenly pulling Eloise's attention away from Henry. She saw her fellow Knight kneel close to one of the arrow-stabbed bodies and observing it curiously.

"This arrow wound seems shallow," Aurelius said.

"It killed them didn't it?" Andor asked, "Can't have been that shallow."

Instantly he knew he should have kept quiet. Aurelius looked from the corpse to his face and his eyes narrowed suspiciously. The more he stared at Andor and then at Henry who stood nonchalantly off to the side, Aurelius was more and more convinced they had something to do with this.

"We don't have time for this," Eloise stepped in to say.

"She's right," Boyle voiced, "We'll have to continue with the numbers we have. Let's go!!!"

And that was it.

Too lost in the mystery of what the urgency was for, Doran barely cared about the Mercenaries. Especially since they had been so busy using their slaves as meat shields to retain their numbers while his men fell to attack after attack.

Aurelius cared though and he kept a suspicious eye on Andor.

"Ignore him," Henry said as Nyx trotted by his side with her <Dread Horn> gone.

"Of course," Andor said but throughout the journey, he felt the stare on the back of his head and it bothered him.

"Boyle, speak!" Doran said and Boyle set off into an explanation that ended faster than he expected. The situation proved very easy to explain.

"By the gods!" Doran said in reaction to the dread tone, "I felt something amiss like the space was fracturing but we just continued our search then the Boss. It was mostly aimless and we encountered multiple hordes and lost too many…"

Doran paused speaking here and glanced at Eloise leading the way with her sensory spell,

"If only we had her on our side," he said and his tone made it clear he felt like he had chosen wrongly when selecting his second-in-command back at the citadel.

Hearing this, Aurelius frowned and then his shoulders slumped slightly while a feeling of failure swarmed him. He recovered quickly enough though. He had heard all Boyle said in explanation and was all too ready to prove himself.

"Oh no," Eloise said suddenly.

"What is it?" Boyle asked.

"Orc Priests," Eloise said.

Those two words were all that was needed and a bleakness shrouded the entire group. The only ones unaffected were Marla and her Mercenaries.

"What's an Orc Priest?" She asked.

"A menace," Boyle said.

"We lost so many because of it," Doran said and the meteors caused him to flinch.

"So did we," Boyle said.

"Not as much as we did, I expect," Doran said in a self-deprecating tone. He blamed himself for the losses.

Boyle opened his mouth but almost immediately, he shot it.

"Hold on," Henry said when he realized there was a detail the rest hadn't seen to pick,

"Orc Priests? As in, plural?"

Eloise nodded gravely,

"They're protecting the Dungeon Boss just like the rest of the Army."

"Army?" Andor asked.

Eloise nodded and continued. The group's walk had slowed now.

"The Dungeon Boss is empowering them all. Even more than the hordes it has sent out to scour the Dungeon."

The group had stopped now.

"We need a plan," Boyle said.

"I agree," Doran said and he looked like it hurt him to be the one to speak second. It was like he had been relegated to second-in-command in favor of Boyle. The thing was, this would actually be fair considering Boyle had technically proven himself to be the better Squad captain.

"The plan is to end the Dungeon Boss as fast as we can. But if it's protected by Orc Priests, a very nasty bunch, we're going to have to cut a path. We'll need a Vanguard…"

"I'll do it," Henry said immediately with his hand stretched to the side to touch Nyx's coat.

"Tree hopping might not help here, unfortunately," Boyle said.

"Wasn't planning on it," Henry said and hoisted himself into Nyx's saddle.

Going up in the trees might help attack a few Orc warriors but with multiple Orc Priests, the situation was different. A collection of those spells would quickly become overwhelming even with his Precognition.

What he needed was speed to avoid their spells while he cleared a path for the rest of the forces. A dangerous task to take upon himself but he just felt he was the one person who could handle it. Well, he and Nyx, that is.

Boyle looked at him for a second and then nodded.

"Thank you," he said.

Henry gave him a nod and then noticed the glances both Andor and Eloise were giving him.

"What? I'll be fine," he said and rolled his eyes at their concern which was so clearly an attempt to shrug off the very real presence of danger awaiting his task as the group's vanguard.

Plans after the selection of a Vanguard were very quick and straight to the point and soon, Henry pulled on Nyx's reins so she reared on her hind legs and let out a gallant neigh as she kicked out with her front limbs.

"See you upfront," he said with an almost dashing smile, "Hyah!"

And Nyx tore forward in a fast and powerful charge. Amid the charge, Henry heard a bird's call from uphead.

*Kraw!* *Kraw!* *Kraw!*

Henry raised his head a fairy and a large black bird was flying above him. Strangely, it felt like it was calling to him but at the same time, it sounded like it wasn't. All in all, the bird kept pace for a while and then swerved into the covers of the trees and vanished.

"Huh," Henry let out. He was sure he had seen the bird before but couldn't remember when or where and with what he was about to do prevalently on his mind, he shook it off and focused on the task at hand.

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