'Wait a second, isn't that--?' Merlin's train of thought was rudely cut off as the wagons moved down a street abruptly, causing him to lose sight of the pale man. 'There's no way... What is he doing here in the beta?'
'He's supposed to appear years later in the main release...' Merlin felt his heart race as his thoughts were slowly piecing together. 'How did I not realise earlier. That description.'
The group of wagons continued through the town while Merlin sat there lost in thought, a cold sweat ran down his back. 'Wait, then that means...'
"Hey Merlin, you doing okay?" Callisto asked, which caused Merlin to lose his train of thought once more. "You're looking a little pale."
"Yeah, sorry. Lost in thought." Merlin awkwardly coughed before trying to change the topic, "This place is a maze, huh?"
"Yes, and we've got the dwarves to thank for that." Callisto let out a small chuckle. "For a race that prides itself on being master craftsmen, when it comes to building cities, they're all surprisingly poor at planning for expansion."
"Isn't that just an excuse so they can build more?" Merlin remarked.
Callisto's eyes widened, and she nodded a few seconds later. "Now that you mention it, that does make more sense."
The wagons had made their way through another portcullis gate, and this time the streets opened up rather wide, and there were several large buildings scattered around, almost all of which seemed to be for some important purpose based on how many people were moving between them.
Merlin's focus dropped back down to his own lap as the wagons continued moving, he caught a glimpse of the ring covered in magical runes on his finger, which allowed him to let out a sigh of relief. 'That could have been bad, I'm never taking this thing off.'
The wagons eventually stopped in front of a large building, and based on its appearance and the types of people walking in and out of it, it seemed to be some kind of military barracks.
Callisto stood up in the wagon and began speaking loud so that the entire group could hear her. "We'll be working alongside the town's military, everyone dismount and prepare for a briefing."
The rangers began leaping off of the wagons, and once everyone was gone, the drivers made their way down the street, disappearing behind the barracks.
The large group of rangers, Merlin included, began walking towards the barracks, where they were led down a hallway by an older looking knight with a scruffy white beard.
They were eventually lead to a large auditorium, the room's structure was reminiscent of a lecture hall. Other groups were slowly entering the room and filling up the seats, and Merlin followed the rangers who began doing the same.
The same older knight who had led the rangers to the briefing room started making his way down the stairs towards the stage at the far end of the room, Callisto had followed him onto the stage.
The old man introduced himself as the commander of Farncombe's military to the audience, before introducing Callisto as the leader of the rangers guild. After a brief section explaining that the rangers guild will be working alongside the military, the real briefing had begun.
The briefing was short yet information dense, it covered the general layout of the nearby land, and explicitly pointed out certain areas where scouts had spotted large groups of orcs gathering around.
But one thing had worried Merlin, and that was when a wounded scout hobbled onto the stage and began describing his encounter with the orc warlord only a few hours ago.
It seemed this orc warlord wasn't normal in appearance, even for a warlord which was already a rare variation of the creature. The scout described an orc roughly twice as big as any other orc they had seen, which was normal for a warlord so far, but the next few details made Merlin realise what was going on.
Underneath the orc warlord's dark green skin were almost pitch black bulging veins, the whites of its eyes also seemed to take on a darker greyish colour.
'Seriously, they even started corrupting monsters?' Merlin thought to himself, 'We're still just in the beta, what haven't those cultists done?'
'I guess starved souls haven't appeared yet, that's a good sign at least.' He internally sighed.
Merlin noticed that Callisto's expression had changed dramatically, it looked like she was shaking in anger.
As the wounded scout finished talking, the commander started to step forward once more, but he was surprised to find that Callisto had done so as well, cutting in front of him.
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"If I may." She began speaking, turning to the old man who backed away and gave her the spotlight. "The black veins that you've just heard described, the rangers guild have had a confrontation with an ogre with similar symptoms."
"The most glaring detail was that the ogre attacked my men alongside two of Despoina's cultists, both goblin mutants." Callisto announced, which caused a loud collective gasp from the crowd, "With this new piece of information, I suspect that the cultists may have something to do with this, perhaps even something to do with the warlord's evolution."
'Wait, wasn't that the time we were attacked by the statues?' Merlin thought to himself, wondering why he didn't notice it at that time. But then he remembered that he never actually saw the ogre's corpse as he was too busy providing medical support, and they left the temple not long after.
The briefing room started getting louder as people began speculating and trying to talking over each other. It became very loud rather quickly, and it made it hard for anybody on the stage to get a word in or continue the briefing.
"Silence!" The old man yelled, his deep voice reverberated throughout the briefing room, which caused everyone to suddenly stop talking.
The room had gone from unbearably loud to almost complete silence within a matter of seconds, and everyone sat still while looking at the old man who was yet to move again.
"This information doesn't change our plan." The man spoke out, "We'll still be killing the orcs and the orc warlord, but..."
The old man cleared his throat before continuing. "Should you come across a cultist of Despoina while out on the field, mutant or otherwise... You are ordered to kill them on sight."
"If there is nothing else to be said, you're all dismissed." The room remained eerily quiet as the older man stepped off the stage, making his way out the briefing room.
Callisto, having nothing left to say, also dismissed everyone before she walked back towards her group and started leading them out of the room.
As the rangers all started filling up the hallway they entered from, a loud bell began ringing, and the ear-piercing sound started echoing throughout the building.
"Well that can't be good." Merlin grumbled. He didn't enjoy the sudden loud noises, it was rather unpleasant.
He noticed that there were several knights that were previously walking near the rangers suddenly break out into a full sprint the second they heard the bell, not caring if they had to push past a ranger or two. The knights ran down the hallway, and they seemed to be in quite the hurry.
Callisto quickly lead her group outside of the building and onto the street where they wouldn't get in the way of all the knights running around.
"Is everyone prepared?" She turned to her group and asked, to which she received a unified yes.
"It's the orcs, they're here." A knight yelled out as he left the military barracks and started approaching the rangers. "Another scout just returned, the first attack is apparently just a small group of orcs, they're approaching from the north."
Several more knights that started rushing out of the military barracks, some of which were still putting on armour and adjusting their weaponry as they ran. The knight who informed the group had also started running alongside them towards where the orcs apparently were.
"Alright, everyone lets head out, follow those knights." Callisto ordered, grabbing her bow as she started marching towards them, "And don't you dare die... Any of you."
The rangers started running through the town as they attempted to make their way north. Due to the town's unconventional layout, they spent more time running away from the north before they could start travelling in that direction. It wasn't fun to deal with when you were in a rush, but if it confused a group of rangers, then it was enough to confuse an army of orcs.
Merlin noticed that everyone had started running into houses and locking up. He saw that most houses had metal bars on the inside of their windows, something he didn't notice while entering the town. It was likely that they were only attached to their windows during times like these.
The rangers had finally made it to the edge of town, where they saw the same knights that they met previously. These knights were locked in combat with three heavily-armoured orcs, and it was clear to see that they were losing ground.
Merlin quickly switched his weapons around, he chose to throw the goblin dagger back into his inventory before pulling out Ghostsaw's blade. The wolf's fang was relegated to his offhand so that the cold jagged blade could have its time to shine.
"Phantom step." Merlin chanted as he ran towards the orcs. Callisto and the other rangers saw as his body suddenly began fading away, before he was completely invisible mere moments after.
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