Chapter 85: Chapter 83: Desertion

The expedition went well for the first few weeks. Most of the strong monsters in the areas near the frontier towns had been cleared out when the Queen of Monsters came through and conscripted them.

There were, occasionally, remnants of the Queen of Monsters’ army, pockets of resistance that seemed sort of randomly scattered about the place, but those were no trouble. While there were some of the strong monsters in those, there were never more than one or two, and that was well within the capabilities of Anala and Eve’s parties.

After that, though, things changed. The frequency of the remnants of the Queen of Monsters’ army appearing increased, and stronger monsters showed up more frequently, each group having no less than two, and often having three.

The last battle had had four, and it had been rough. Several members of the expedition had died, and while Jameson and Bruce had been able to bring them back, the group’s morale had hit rock bottom. They had, admittedly, performed better than Anala had expected; towards the end there, they had actually been of some help against the strong monsters.

But, at the end of the day, they hadn’t improved as fast as their opposition. So, they were having an emergency meeting, the members of the expedition trying to figure out where to go from here. Some people had left in the weeks leading up to this battle, but the majority had stuck with it, so there were a fair number of people in attendance.

The guy who had become the de facto leader of the expedition stepped up onto a stone so he had a raised a raised position with which he could address everyone. “I believe we all agree that we need to rethink things.” He said, a pained expression on his face. “That last battle was more than I think most of us could handle.”

There was a murmur of agreement from the crowd. Their appetite for glory seemed to have been considerably dampened by the loss of some of their number, regardless of how impermanent the deaths had ended up being.

“I do not believe it is any shame to turn back now.” The leader continued. “It is important to know when you are beat, so you do not die a pointless death. We have thinned out a not inconsiderable number of the Queen of Monsters’ strongest subordinates, and gained no small amount of strength in the process.

“So, I believe it is in our best interests to retreat. We can take the materials we’ve gathered back to town, obtain better gear, train up more, and come back stronger. We cannot afford to lose our fighting force, as each one of us is irreplaceable; not just because it is harder to raise a sapient being to combat readiness than it is to find a monster of a similar strength, but because we’re people. We cannot view our lives as something to just throw away so casually.”

He looked like he would have kept going for a while, but a woman from the crowd stepped up. “Yeah, maybe so, but so’s everyone we’re protecting.” She said. “If we don’t step up to the plate, who will? None of the governments seem to want to throw their hat into the ring to deal with the issue, so it’s up to us. The Queen of Monsters isn’t going to just do nothing, she’s going to be growing stronger just as we are.

“I’m going to keep going, and I think you all should too. I admit that that last battle was a bit too much, but we always knew it was going to be. If we balk at the first sign of trouble, then we were never going to be able to do anything to the Queen of Monsters. It’s going to be hard for a while, but we were improving.

“In the past few battles, we’ve been noticeably more proficient in taking down those stronger monsters. And…I’m sure some of you have noticed, but there are some among us who are much, much stronger than the others. If nothing else, we can at least support them.”

“Are you suggesting we throw our lives away in a suicidal ploy to support some “strong” people that I’m not even sure exist in this group?” The leader countered. “I know I haven’t noticed these people you’re talking about.”

“Of course you haven’t.” The woman said dryly. “I wouldn’t expect you to have seen through their attempts to hide their true proficiency.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” The leader bristled.

“Oh, nothing. Though…now that I’m thinking about it, perhaps you wouldn’t make for the best support. If you want to leave, leave. But…you’ll forever have to live with the knowledge that you were too much of a coward to continue on after you encountered the slightest bit of resistance.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” Someone else interrupted. “You didn’t die. If you had, you wouldn’t be saying the same, it was awful. I don’t think it can be called cowardice to leave when I’ve received proof that I’m not good enough for this.”

“And that’s fine, I can’t blame you for that.” The woman said. “It’s those of you that have been hanging in the back and doing the bare minimum that I’m calling out. You can’t give up before even really trying.”

“That’s beside the point.” The leader said. “If you wish to keep going, that is your decision to make, but trying to guilt people into getting themselves killed is not the right way to go about it. I am leaving, and nothing you say can change my mind. Those of you who wish to come with me, I will be leaving in an hour, meet me at the south end of our camp. Dismissed.”

“Wait, I’m not done here!” The woman exclaimed. “Don’t just leave because you don’t have a good answer to my accusations!”

The leader shrugged. “Further conversation is simply unproductive. Neither of us are going to change our minds and we have already stated our points, so I do not believe we should keep going. We are only wasting our time and the time of everyone listening.”

“We are not! I’m talking to them, too! You might be a lost cause, but I don’t think we should all just…give up and go home! We’re supposed to be better than this!”

“If I may interject,” Eve began, “I believe there is merit to both sides of this argument.” She shot a glance at the leader. “Everyone here is a volunteer. We have no right to ask them to stay any longer than they want. It is their right to choose if they want to leave or if they want to stay.”

She glanced back at the woman who had interrupted. “And I also believe you are correct. We have an obligation to do something about this. This isn’t like a normal war, the enemy is one who is a threat to every sapient being. For now, she says she’s content with just taking over Haven, but there’s no telling if that’ll last. Something needs to be done.

“Still…it is my opinion that those who choose to leave now are, perhaps, not worth keeping around in the first place. With the exception of those of you who died this last battle, people who choose to leave now are ultimately not the kind of people who would be helpful when the time comes to fight the Queen of Monsters herself. She is a threat that cannot be solved by just sheer numbers.

“And…well, perhaps trimming the fat of this expedition is for the best. It is my impression that those strong people you mentioned are, to an extent, being held back by the size of this group. They have to protect the weaker ones, and that’s hampering them.”

“Look, can someone tell me who these “strong people” are?!” Someone in the crowed interrupted. “You two keep talking about them like they’re totally here, but I’ve yet to see you actually name one or put out any evidence that they exist!”

Eve shrugged. “I have no reason to do that. They’re clearly trying to stay at least somewhat hidden, so revealing their identities to all these random people seems counterproductive. If you know, you know. That’s all I have to say, though. Stay or leave, it’s no skin off my back.”

There was a murmur in the crowd, and the woman who had interrupted originally and the so called leader began to bicker again, but Anala’s attention was drawn away as Eve came up to her. “Let’s go get a camp set up.” She said, looking over Anala’s party. “This discussion isn’t going to go anywhere, so we might as well go do something productive.”

“Why’d you step in, anyway?” Ava asked. “I thought you weren’t really big into this whole expedition thing in the first place.”

“I’m not.” Eve replied. “They were just going to be running in circles talking about the same thing over and over, so I tried to put in some new information and left. Yeah, I kinda admitted I was one of those strong people, but if they knew enough to know there were strong people, they would have figured it out before too long, if they hadn’t already. Anyway, Anna and Jameson are already working on getting the camp up, so I’m going to help. If you wanna talk more, we can talk there.”

With that, Eve strode off, leaving Anala’s party to talk amongst themselves. After some discussion, they ended up deciding to go help set up camp, and just let the discussion take its course. They could catch up on what the people decided afterwards.

By the end of the day, about half of the expedition had given up and left. That number, fortunately, included most of the posers, the people with impractical gear that, frankly, weren’t really helping that much anyway.

Still, seeing how easily so many people gave up was a little disheartening. The atmosphere around camp that night was a somber one, and it didn’t get any better for the next few days. Even so, they trudged on, drawing ever closer to the Queen of Monsters’ home base.

The fights got harder and harder, and more and more people dropped out, but losing them really wasn’t so bad. Like Eve had said, numbers were of little help in this war, at least not the relatively small ones that the expedition was working with. Theoretically, an infinite number of weak people would be able to eventually overwhelm the Queen of Monsters, but that wasn’t exactly feasible.

Eventually, the number of people in the expedition dwindled down to only a handful, excluding Anala and Eve’s party. But…things were looking up; the number of strong monsters in each group had begun to shrink, and that could only mean two things.

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The first possibility was that the Queen of Monsters was running out of strong monsters. Anala hadn’t been keeping count, but it seemed like they had almost worked through all of the ones that had been shown in the broadcast, so Anala wouldn’t be surprised if the Queen of Monsters had begun to reserve them more.

The second possibility was that they were drawing close to the Queen of Monsters’ home base. In that case, it would make sense that the Queen of Monsters was keeping monsters in reserve, for one final push back against the heroes.

More likely it was a combination of both of those two. Whatever it ended up being, though, it could only be good; things were, finally, drawing to a close. The spirits of the remnants of the expedition were soaring, and they finally felt like they were getting somewhere.

Or…they were, until late one night. Anala’s party was setting up camp when there were yells of surprise and pain, and the sound of a brief conflict. They rushed over as quickly as they could to find most of the other members of the expedition lying on the ground, injured.

“What happened?!” Anala asked, kneeling down and beginning to administer first aid to the first person she saw. It was a woman by the name of Saria, the one who had so strongly objected to giving up during the first big desertion.

Saria coughed. “I-it was Eve.” She stuttered. “Her…her party j-just…stabbed us in the back and left.”

Anala’s heart sank. “What?! Why?!”

Saria shook her head, coughing again. “I…don’t know. One moment we were fine, joking and laughing as if nothing was wrong, the next–” She was interrupted by a coughing fit, and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly.

“Don’t force yourself.” She said. “Bruce will be here to heal you in a second.”

“N-no.” Saria said. “This is imp…important. We were…fine, and then Anna and Jameson’s eyes glazed over, they attacked us without a word, and left.”

“Just Anna and Jameson, not Eve?”

“She…she attacked us too. But she looked…looked normal, like she was fully in control of what she was doing.”

“We’ll figure this out.” Anala said, more to reassure herself than to reassure Saria. “There must be something else going on, they must be being forced to do this. We’ll save them, just like we’re going to save everyone else.” Finally, Bruce made it over and began to apply his healing magic.

Saria, a relieved expression on her face, nodded weakly. “Thank you. I’m…going to sleep now.” She fell into unconsciousness, and Anala went to go help the others.

Soon after, the others were all stable and sleeping off their wounds, leaving Anala’s party to talk amongst themselves.

“Anyone get a good idea of what happened?” Raesn asked. “All I could get was that Eve and her party randomly attacked them.”

“Ditto.” Anala said. “Saria said that Anna and Jameson’s eyes glazed over, but also that Eve looked fine. I…I think the Queen of Monsters is controlling them somehow.”

“I was a bit focused on magic, but I heard the same.” Bruce said. “Ava?”

Ava, who had been pacing near the fire, stopped. “I found this.” She said, holding up a sheet of paper.

There on the paper a message was written in a neat script. I’ll be waiting, half a day to the north. Don’t bring the weaklings inside the castle, they won’t survive. Leave them outside, I guarantee they will be safe there. -E

Raesn frowned. “That’s…definitely Eve’s handwriting. But…why?”

“I don’t know.” Ava said, shaking her head. “It’s driving me mad. Why attack the others and then say she’ll guarantee their safety? How can she guarantee their safety? Is she…working with the Queen of Monsters? I don’t want to believe it, but it seems the only logical conclusion.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Anala said. “She and her party have been one of the biggest helps this entire war. I…I think the Queen of Monsters is blackmailing her or something. She must have snuck up on Eve and…done something, and now Eve has no choice but to obey her.”

“Yeah, but Anna and Jameson were hypnotized or something, and Eve was fine.” Bruce pointed out. “If she hypnotized the two of them, why wouldn’t she do the same to Eve?”

“No, she has to be right.” Ava said. “Otherwise, things just don’t add up. Besides…do we really want to doubt Eve? She’s been nothing but a good girl, even if she’s a little brusque at times.”

Raesn sighed. “Whatever the situation, there’s only one way to get the answer. We go north.”

Anala nodded. “Should we pack up now?”

“No.” Raesn said. “I need some more time to prepare, and we all need rest. We can’t afford to go into this in anything but the best shape.”

“I…don’t think I can sleep.” Ava said. “Not with this hanging over my head. I have sleep resistance, and I know the rest of you do too. I think we should just go for it.”

“No, Raesn is right.” Bruce said. “We need to give the wounded a bit more time to properly stabilize, anyway, and we can’t just leave them here.”

“I have some sleeping pills.” Raesn suggested. “Extra-strength ones I made myself using my Blessing. Take one if you have to, but we need this time.”

“Fine.” Ava said. “I’ll try to sleep. But…first thing tomorrow, we set out, alright?”

“That’s the plan.” Raesn said. “Now, I gotta go put the finishing touch on a couple of gadgets, and then I’m going to hit the hay.” He reached into a bag and pulled out a few pills, which he handed to Ava. “Only take one.” He instructed. “The other two are for Anala and Bruce, if they need them. I’ll see you all tomorrow, alright?”

Anala nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And with that, the party split and prepared for bed. Anala took one of the pills, set up some magic to alert her for intruders, then crashed. It seemed that, one way or the other, the next day was going to be the end.