Sierra tapped Sharur's shoulder to settle him down.
"Okay, okay, you can relax now. Smoke said that the finals for the tournament isn't until a week from now. He says that his training hard in Madam Dawny's farm and is sending his regards to all of you."
The members of Smoke's private army were proud of their leader. They kept on talking about his accolades and accomplishments. They knew that once they've succeeded eliminating the Brandals, Smoke would be proud of them as well.
Everyone was about to get some rest to re-energize for tomorrow's activities. Sierra decided to log off to continue her real life experimentation of the Zectas' menu she learned.
* * * * * *
Sherry was browsing through the Zectas forum. Everywhere she looked all she could see promotions about Coatl's Knight themed events. The prize of the Swordsman to Knight Tournament's complete Knight set totaled forty million zecs.
The 'Muddy Boar Catching' prize was cold cash of five hundred thousand zecs. The 'Mounted Race' prize was a trophy and and an armored carriage fit for a king, priced at thirty million zecs.
The final event the 'Jousting Tournament' offered a trophy, a mount armor set, and a cash prize of ten million zecs. If you were to add everything up it would be worth sixty million zecs.
"No wonder everyone is excited about Coatl's events. With such prizes most Swordsmen and Knights would definitely head there."
After browsing through the Zectas' website, Sherry went to their kitchen and started to prepare the dishes that she had learned in the virtual reality world.
Sherry wasn't too confident with her average looks. That's why she wanted everyone that knew her to remember her cooking.
She cooked at least a dozen dishes before she felt confident that she would let her uncle Alex taste it. Two hours passed, and she had two dishes prepared.
"Lunch is ready! Come and get it!"
Alex had brought in his girlfriend Gloria. Gloria was about his age at around forty. She had blond hair and the body of a sprint runner.
Her uncle had told her that they met when he was out jogging. He had invited her over because Sherry said that she would prepare a special meal for them.
Sherry always cooked very tasty meals, and Alex wanted to show off his niece's talent to Gloria.
"First, we have this mystery stew. I hope you'll like it."
Alex pulled a chair for Gloria and answered his niece.
"I'm sure we'll love it."
Alex and Gloria caught a whiff of the soup and immediately felt hungry. They blew on their spoon full of mystery stew as it was still steaming hot.
Gloria complimented Sherry's cooking.
"Mmm... This is really good stew. Can you tell me what's the secret to this tasty dish?"
"I'll tell you the ingredients as soon as you finished the next one. Sorry I only have two dishes for you to taste. I'm having a hard time finding the right ingredients. Next, we have this mystery barbeque."
Alex took a guess at what the mystery barbeque was.
"Mmm... grilled chicken. I like it. Gloria, let me cut those up for you."
"It's okay. I can do it myself. Mmm... What's the secret sauce that you used? They don't really taste like chicken at all."
Sierra smiled as she heard their compliments.
"Well, for the stew it's actually a rabbit stew, and the grilled chicken is actually a pheasant. In Zectas it's called medicinal rabbit stew and grilled blood pheasant. The game's ingredients required a magical medicinal herb. Since we don't have those in the real world I used ginseng, but just a bit of course. Those things are really expensive."
At full tilt, Gloria took a glass of water and gulped it down.
"How dare you? You've fed me something from out of a game menu, and worst you've fed me a rabbit? I don't eat rabbit, and what's a pheasant anyway?"
Gloria stormed out and Alex immediately went after her, but not before telling Sherry not to name her dishes with the word mystery in it anymore.
Sherry was left alone in front of a meal good enough to feed four people. She slowly ate her share of the meal.
When she finished, she packed the rest and placed them inside their refrigerator. She wanted to send the meal to Nash but after seeing her uncle's reaction she decided not to.
Sherry got back into her gamepod and logged back into Zectas.
* * * * * *
Sierra got back online and when she opened her eyes, she was greeted by Adder.
"Welcome back, Sierra. Huh? What's wrong? You looked upset?"
"It's nothing. Something just came up at home. Anyway, how's everything? Any updates?"
Adder frowned as he had plenty of sad information to tell Sierra.
"There certainly has been. Ichaival and Sharanga came back and they told me that Betul was in the same shape as Nisko."
Sierra listened quietly and waited for Adder to continue.
"Betul used to be a large river-port village. Water Traders would drop by the village and drop their wares from Centeo and Coatl. Presently, they only have twenty fishermen left in the village to feed them. Water Trader's ships would just pass by, because they fear the Brandals."
"How many residents are left in Betul?"
"Sharanga counted them to be around sixty. She also said that there was no cemetery in the village, but there was a white building with the statue of the Gnome who founded the village."
"I guess that means we still haven't found which village it is. What are the other updates?"
"Next, we have falcon updates. Thyrsus' falcon spotted the Brandals at Nisko. Thyr followed the bandits from a safe distance and was joined by Aya, Vijaya's second falcon. It appears that the bandits were heading to Salah. I think they're sticking to the same pattern and attacking the villages every other day. From what Thyrsus told me they only loot enough supplies to last them about two days. These Brandals have made these villages into their milking cows."
Sierra wanted to take action, she was tired of hearing these bandits attacking the defenseless villagers.
"Have they just left for Salah? If we leave now we can get there before they do right?"
"Yes, but from what Thyrsus saw, there were at least twenty mounted bandits on black ctenosaurs."
"What in the world is a black ctenosaur?"
Thyrsus got a stick and drew a sketch on the ground of a Brandal bandit riding a black ctenosaur.
"It looks something like this."
"That looks like a giant iguana. How long do you think this monster is?"
Thyrsus answered.
"I'd guess about five feet in length? If you include its tail then nine feet, maybe?"
"That's a really big scary looking lizard."
"They're fast as well, not as fast as Laernea and Gandiva's stag moose but still faster than the Cavalry Knight's dirus wolves."
Sierra took a step back and thought that they were at a clear disadvantage.
"Adder, what's the next phase of your plan? Eight versus twenty doesn't sound like favorable odds."
"Well, we'll have the falcons follow them to their base, and then we'll see just how many they really are."
"Sounds like a good plan."
The falcons that pursued the bandits were Thyr, Vij, and Aya. After Salah, the Brandals ransacked Betul.
They followed the Brandals' rampage from a safe distance. When they were done aiding Betul, the Brandals followed the river northward.
Ten kilometers up the river, the bandits took a sharp left. If anyone had pursued them on the ground they wouldn't have been able to follow the sharp turn.
Owing to the fact that the bandits had built movable shrubs that would swing when they pulled a lever that was made to look like another tree branch.
With the advantage of the falcons' view. The three falcons were able to follow them when they took the tricky turn. However, Otaczac forest started to obstruct the falcons' line of sight.
The three hunting birds dropped down and dove into the forest. They were used to flying through the thick branches.
Vij was avoiding a huge tree when an arrow winged her. A few seconds after, fast loud scratches headed to the direction where Vij had fallen.
Thyr and Aya swooped down and carefully picked their hurt comrade with their claws. The two falcons carried their injured friend to safety.
Two male Lioumerean lions on top of black ctenosaurs arrived and searched for the fallen bird.
"I know I shot it down here somewhere."
"All I saw was you shooting your arrow at a branch."
"I'm telling you. I shot down a strigidae owl."
"Well, I'll only believe you if we find it."
The Lioumerean bandits spent the next five minutes looking around the area. When they found nothing the two of them decided to follow their group to their hideout.
"I told you, you shot a branch."
"I swear I shot down a bird. I think I must have missed it by just an inch."
The bandits voices started to fade as they were getting further and further away. Thyr left Vij and Aya behind while the he pursued the galloping bandits.
* * * * * *
The moment Vij's wings were hit by the arrow, Vijaya felt a twinge and reflexively asked Thyrsus what he was seeing.
"Vij has been hit by an arrow."
The worried WoodElf immediately ran to the direction of her fallen falcon. Vijaya's team mates blocked the exit before she had the chance to leave.
"No one stop me! I'm gonna save my friend even if it's the last thing I do. Vij and Aya are more than just falcons to me. All of you get out of my way!"
Sharanga answered her sister calmy.
"When did we ever stop anyone from doing dangerous missions. Now, come on. We're all going with you."
Everybody was running as fast as they could towards Vij's location. It was between Betul and the Brandals' hideout.
It took them two hours before they reached the wounded falcon. Aya her twin falcon was diligently waiting for their master beside Vij.
Vijaya was in tears when she saw her two falcons. Although one of them was seriously injured at least they were both alive.
“Vij, don't worry. I'm here now. Everything's gonna be fine.”
The Huntress broke the arrow and carefully pulled it out. She quickly applied bandages and wrapped a small stick on Vij's wings to keep it in place.
They left Vijaya to tend to her falcons while they followed Thyrsus' directions as Thyr kept on the bandits trail.
Thirty minutes passed as they traveled on the bandits hidden path, when Sierra keened on her 'Animal Instinct' ability and noted that there was a hostile group up ahead.
Sierra raised her dominant Werebear claws and called her party to stop. Thyrsus confirmed that they were near the Brandal's hideout.
Thyrsus' eyes were white as he was sharing his falcon's vision with the bandits' hideout.
"It looks like an old ruined castle. Its area seems to be about eight hundred square meters and has heptagon shape. They've placed huge tree trunks on the fallen walls. They have one sentry tower on each corner of the wall. There's also a prominent keep at the center of the castle. That must be where they store all their stolen goods."
Sierra asked if he could see how many bandits he could see.
"From outside there are about seven Snipers, fourteen Barbarians, and four Priests. Thyr can't see inside the castle. I can't guess how many there are inside."
Sierra tried to count the known members of the Brandals.
"If we consider that the bandits who pillaged the villages are different from the ones guarding their keep, then there are at least forty five of them in there. Even with the least possible count we can't possibly beat them now. I suggest we use guerrilla warfare. Let's find a suitable base camp near here and start setting up traps."
Sierra contacted Vijaya and told her their chosen location of their new base camp. It was strategically located, a few kilometers from Betul, the Brandals hideout, and their hidden path towards it.
Sierra ordered for Adder, Sharur, and Thyrsus to start making multiple escape routes and other methods of traveling inside the forest. Vijaya, Ichaival, and Jinggu started building the interior of their fortified base.
They chose six large trees as their main posts and built defensive walls around them. There were platforms on top of the trees for the Hunters to attack from.
