16.3

Eve exited Charlotte’s room before sealing it with a set of runes around the door’s outline. As the runes flashed silver and faded, the door vanished like a soap bubble popped out of existence. She repeated the trick on all the other doors leaving a seemingly empty corridor with only bare wood-paneled walls. It wouldn’t stop competent mages like those at the Praetor’s level, but it would certainly confuse any meatheads or middling-level mages that made it this far. Eve suspected spies, if not assassins, were already among the inn's staff. Ralph would handle anything this close, though, in her opinion.

After concealing all the doors in the hallway, Eve moved to a specific spot in the corridor before teleporting behind the blank wood paneled wall in front of her. A complex room filled with chemical scents greeted her, and she gained an almost demonic smile. If she hadn’t been sure before that the person who owned the Rasmuchein was from Earth or a parallel version, this room removed all doubt.

Cleaning supplies were stacked in neat layers along the shelving of the wall. It was everything that could be expected from a well-stocked janitor’s closet, which was not common in this world. Even though the Othuven kingdom might be advanced in the current Aiqen continent, it wasn’t to the point of implementing JIT inventory methods. There was a very basic version of it in Charlotte’s mansion, only because her maids were trained professionals from birth. Looking at two separate walls of shelving, Eve located the exact chemicals she needed for tonight’s quiet work by scent alone.

The true terror of advanced levels of knowledge is when combining magic and science for obscene effects. Eve thought with a sadistic grin. Bleach and Ammonia with a Ring of Air to steer things will do just fine. She stored several containers away, including one, a singular poison for rodents that would work just as well on humans. Pausing, she made sure to leave money worth quite a bit more in its place. There was no requirement for petty theft when she was flush with funding, and she didn’t want to offend the owner without need.

Eve moved back into the stairwell before repeating the same trick with the stairwell door. She took deep breaths as she slowly recovered from the mental effort before moving up the stairs and taking them to the roof. It was the work of a few moments to forge a key for the roof with a small silver ingot created from a few kingdom coins. Several seconds were spent deactivating the alarm before looping it into a circuit. With the circuit active, it was child’s play to open the door and move out onto the rooftop.

When she arrived on the inn's roof, Eve closed the door and restored the alarm. It took her a short time to make sure nothing was accidentally triggered. Normally, she wouldn’t bother with such things, but teleporting through the door would surely trigger the security wards. For an inn, their methods of protecting against intrusion were rather modern. Doubtless, the security worked against ninety-nine point nine-nine percent of individuals. However, people who had reached Ralph, or Eve’s level of power, could bypass such things.

The lower the Tier, the more tricks are required to fight when mana is present. Eve thought as she connected to the satellite above her. A feeling of nostalgia crept over her as she felt almost the same as when she would run solo black operations back on Earth. The god’s eye in the sky we used to call these things. Able to provide the support that enabled one to obliterate logic and sidestep causality.

She had arrived at a thousand when calculating how many Third Tier opponents would be required to kill this currently sealed body. While she had confidence, as expressed to Charlotte, there was little doubt in Eve’s belief. One thousand Tier Three individuals would be her match if they managed to encircle and wear her down. However, the upcoming fight wasn’t something like that. Eve wasn't stupid enough to fight fair.

Eve carefully noted the various heat signature clusters gathering around the town marking their positions down in her mind. Before the satellite network's eyes, forces that didn’t take precautions to avoid them couldn’t conceal themselves. While mages might detect spying by magic, they had no chance against something they didn’t even know existed. It was clear to Eve that Luvec’s side was preparing a massive bid to remove Charlotte. This attack wouldn’t be like the previous attempt. Using overwhelming numbers and power would leave traces that could easily be exposed. Doubtless, there were failsafe methods to cover everything up, but the attack alone would still provide ample ammunition.

Eve trusted Ralph would deal with those already inside the town's perimeter. It was up to her to remove the larger portion of the twin forked attack outside it. She wasn’t worried the two professors would do anything except defend either. The two men from the College wouldn’t take the chance of being killed by accident in this mess.

It took several minutes to craft two folded paper talismans with Eve’s runes. She painted the information denoting the location of the enemy camps on each one in ink, along with their estimated strength. Her calculation also included the mana signature strength in each cardinal direction. There was no doubt that fighting alone this many would leave her exhausted, so she would pull others into the battle to assist by hook or crook.

One talisman winged its way to the Adventurer’s Guild and another to the town’s Guard Hall. Neither location could ignore the existence of so many armed individuals outside the town walls. Even if they didn’t venture outside the town to check, there would be heightened security.

Satisfied that the two other parties with decent strength would take a portion of the heat, Eve moved slowly along the rooftops to the north wall. The northern groups of enemies were the largest and had the greatest concentration of mana signatures. Exiting the town and moving into the forest was easy with her boot’s teleportation.

A glance back showed the town’s northern gate closing well before the advent of full nightfall. It was clear the Guard Hall wasn’t taking chances. Merchants heading a few caravans complained, but Eve could see the guards clearly explaining the situation to them. The sneaky guard's commander planned to use the merchant guards as an additional force for defense. By warning the merchants outside the walls, they gained additional defenders with minimal cost.

Eve did not doubt that if her information hadn’t been reliably scouted by now, the guard commander and perhaps the merchants would have hunted her down for raising a false flag. However, confirming it via a scout was negligible when her information was so precise. Any mage worth their salt at scrying could find traces of the camps provided the coordinates. As such, while the town wasn’t willing to take chances, they wouldn’t leave the merchants out to dry without any information.

Glancing at the caravan’s positioning themselves defensively in front of the gate, Eve shrugged. Whether they took losses or not wasn’t her concern. The mere fact they even had warning of the situation was good enough in her mind.

As long as they can increase the town’s defense, the merchants have no choice but to be used regardless of their personal feelings. Eve thought as she moved quietly through the forest. Manipulating the Air and Earth with her rings allowed her footsteps to have no sound and her scent to vanish. The value of Charlotte, Ralph, and Justin far outweighs random merchants I’ve never met personally.

Her clothing gradually morphed into a ghillie suit with a fully enclosed hood. Eve was no Kudzu in the plant department, but creating something like this using her Witch’s Dust was child’s play. She planned to gather information for a bit before taking further action. Unless the enemy planned to attack in a short time, there was merit in learning as much as possible about the situation at hand. Charlotte would, without a doubt, be able to turn this to her advantage.

Witch’s Eyes won’t work for spying with mages around, unfortunately. The mana signature would reveal them at this Tier. Talismans will work in theory, but I must be closer to get audio and visual. Eve thought, maneuvering through the forest with graceful steps. If I can identify where the mages are first, this would be a much safer mission.

Sneaking close to the sentries in the first minor camp of the north, Eve released her talismans. She crafted them into spiders with a thought, the better to allow them to avoid the gathered enemy’s eyes easier. Settling down, she positioned herself among the natural bushes of the forest, becoming practically undetectable. Eve let her vision and hearing attach to the talismans as they flowed forward along the ground, moving from one piece of cover to the next.

The number of sentries was abysmal but not unexpected. These were mercenaries used to operating in small groups, not a professional army. The latrines alone revealed they had no plan to be here much longer. Eve spent several minutes carefully contemplating the camp layout on her mental map. The leader’s tent, cookfire, and supply animals were completely exposed to her eyes. Checking the satellite allowed her to understand that all four northern enemy camps were set up in the same temporary manner. This group of attackers, before her eyes, was the largest mercenary band in the north.

Eve lent one ear to listen to the men moving about the camp. At the same time, her talismans were poring over every inch of the camp. She managed to find a set of documents detailing Luvec’s hiring of the mercenaries in the pay chest. After considering rapidly, Eve smuggled the documents into her hiding spot. Placing the items of interest into her Storage, she removed the poison appropriated from the inn’s janitor closet.

Since these gentlemen are kind enough to have a meal before they strike, I should help them with seasoning it. Eve thought, giving an evil grin. I might not get everyone, but it should be enough to weaken a majority. Rat poison for vermin is best, after all.

Poisoning the cookpots with a tasteless and odorless substance wasn’t hard. It was difficult moving among the four camps to duplicate the effect on the first, but Eve managed it with graceful movements born of superior strength.

After all the cookpots had been dosed with poison, Eve settled back to her first observation post on the largest camp. While waiting for the rat poison to take effect, she began combining the two stolen cleaning chemicals. As the green chlorine gas was created, it was compressed into a small tennis ball-sized orb of green by her Ring of Air.

By the time night had fallen fully and midnight had come and gone, the tennis ball orb was the size of a basketball. Eve’s ears perked up as she heard the distinct sound of retching. Accompanied with the vomiting noises were quiet choking sounds. Checking through her talismans, she could see the enemy camp in disarray. Nodding in satisfaction, she got to work.

Eve could have easily run among the sentry posts slicing and dicing, but that wasn’t the best choice. The scent of blood would be difficult to conceal with her Ring of Air in a large space. She needed a quieter option for pest removal that wouldn’t leave any easy trace. To that end, the ball of compressed chlorine gas was quite effective. Moving among the sentry posts, Eve expanded the ball, wrapping the concentrated death around the enemy lookout's heads.

In seconds, each of the sentries was nothing but a corpse choked to death by insidious means. Removing the sentries was a basic concept she had been taught through systematic training on Earth. Not only did it allow Eve easier access to the camp, but it also ensured a line of retreat in case of discovery.

Quiet as a ghost and invisible as a shadow in the night, Eve moved into the camp, heading for the tents. She avoided the leader’s tent, which was the largest one. The Ring of Earth silenced her footsteps, and the Ring of Air concealed her scent. The same trick that concealed her scent also prevented the stench of chlorine from waking her victims. She didn’t target those who had suffered from the rat poison immediately. Their inability to resist the poison meant they were weaker threats.

Instead, she silenced those in the tents who hadn’t suffered from consuming the unclean food. Eve was merciless, using utterly ruthless means. She moved like a reaper of souls, killing those sleeping by filling the tent with death before moving to the next.

As she moved from one tent to the other, her ball of green death slowly decreased in size. Finishing the majority of the camp eventually cost all of her gas. She could create more from Witch's Dust, which would awaken the mages. Eve shrugged, turning her Jian into a small punch dagger with a long needle-thin point. It took more finesse to complete the last two tents without the deadly gas.

Moving inside the tents, she sunk her dagger behind each target’s ear, killing them instantly as the Jian expanded inside their craniums. Brain matter was instantly minced into pulp, turning the victims into vegetables with zero blood scent.

Only the last tent gave her any trouble at all. Eve’s experience came to the fore, allowing her to remove the surprised man. He’d been a weaker one who had returned from the latrine after emptying his bowels.

After the entire camp had grown silent, only the leader’s tent remained. Before approaching, Eve witnessed mana flare in the last tent like a newly risen sun. Ten people in full battle regalia exited the tent with weapons ready. She noted the bestial ears and tails before taking the lesser path of valor and fleeing. As a parting gift, she cut the tethers for the supply animals causing them to provide an excellent distraction.

I could doubtless kill the group, but this is a numbers game. Eve thought, slipping away. She did not need to engage at the current time.  I don’t need to exterminate everyone, only reduce the numbers so that entering the town isn’t viable.

She quickly ripped through the other three camps, killing with incredible speed. Eve adapted to using her Ring of Water without chlorine gas as a substitute. It was a more mana-intense method that carried risk, but the results were effective to the extreme. The only problem with using water was combining it with her Jian for the best effect. Unlike chlorine gas, people drowning had enough time to flail about and wake others. Eve didn’t give them the chance, silencing each individual with brutal speed.

With the knowledge that the mages were located in the leader’s tent. Eve didn’t waste time as soon as the fodder was dead. Instead, she immediately shifted targets moving to the next camp. As releasing the supply animals had facilitated her escape from the first camp, she didn’t stop doing it.

Eventually, all that was left of the four enemy camps were thirty melee mercenaries and ten mages. They had congregated at the first camp she’d attacked after corralling all the supply animals and the most critical water and food supplies. A look through her satellite connection revealed no new surprises, so Eve settled down to wait. Forming a new ghillie suit took a short amount of time.

Settling in, Eve listened to the mages and warriors that remained as they attempted to choose a path forward through her talismans.