Dead Man's Luck

by kurapica

This is Going to be Either Extremely Fun, or Extremely Painful (Probably Both)

We continued on our way to the caves until dark; making conversation along the way.

"So Aeren, I saw your fight against Howling Wind; how'd you learn to fight like that? I've never seen anyone even come close to beating him before, and you fought him to a draw." the Earth Pony with the crossbow asked.

"Well, I learned my fighting style from a school back where I came from; it was a general fighting school which taught me how to fight with a sword, dagger, staff, and unarmed. If you're wondering how I'm so fast, that comes from training." I replied.

"Then where'd you learn to use that magic you used?" he continued.

"To be honest, I only learned to use it a couple weeks ago by Insightful Tutor back at town. So, how strong are these diamond dogs, will they be difficult to defeat?" I asked.

"Strength wise? They're a little stronger than most ponies, but if you're asking how skilled they are in a fight then let's put it this way: if you dodge a spear to the side then they'll turn to do another thrust instead of doing a slash with it. The Thing that makes them dangerous isn't their skill; it's their numbers, there's probably going to be somewhere between 35-100 of them, maybe even more." Howling Wind spoke up. "And one last thing; they're diggers so watch your feet."

"Heh, sounds like we're gonna fun time then." I half joked.

We made camp in a copse of trees and I used the cloth I bought and some of my rope to make a hammock about ten feet off the ground and helped gather some firewood by cutting dead limbs off of the trees with my axe. once we had the wood, we then gathered some stones to make a pit and I was about to use my flint and dagger to start the fire when I was interrupted by the male unicorn.

"Allow me." he said as he cast a flame spell to start it instantly.

'Showoff.' I thought to myself.

We made more small talk for a while until I realized something; "I never learned your names." I said as I was eating some of the meat I brought.

"Scarlet Arrow." the female Pegasus said with a smile.

"Silver Stronghold." said the earth pony with the sword and shield as he pounded his chest a single time.

The male unicorn muttered something that I couldn't hear before saying; "My name is Defiant Mind." with a bow.

"You already know my name." Howling Wind replied as he took a bite of the bread loaf he was holding.

"Cobalt Lance." the earth pony with the spear shouted as he made his bedding.

"It's...Morning Spell" the female unicorn said shyly as she cleared an area of leaves and sticks to make her bedding more comfortable.

The earth pony with the crossbow was making sure an arrow that had the area around the head covered in cloth-wrapped pitch was in good condition so he didn't answer me at first. "It's Burning Impact."

"Nice to meet all of you; if you haven't heard my name, it's Aeren. Well, it's getting late; I'm going to get some sleep, you can stay up if you want." I said as I flew up to my hammock.

the next morning was relatively boring as we just walked in relative silence and only made occasional conversation. We stopped around noon to eat so I took that time to do some quick hunting and foraging. I caught a couple rabbits which I skinned on the spot; I also found some wild carrots and a tree with a few oyster mushrooms on it. When I told the others what I found, Morning Spell said she could make a decent stew for us with what I found.

'I wonder if there'll be too many of them to fight.' I thought as we continued walking

We made camp that night by a small stream and refilled our water skins as well as use some to make the broth for the stew. that night was probably the most fun of the days we spent on our way to the caves. "We should probably start sending a lookout ahead of us starting tomorrow. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd much rather have some distance between us and the caves when we're planning how to get in." I said as I started to get serious.The others voiced their agreement and began eating.

We went to bed that night happy and full but we were woken up by something big moving in the brush near us. Cobalt Lance picked up a stone and threw it in the direction of the noise to scare whatever it was off but we were met by the sound of a bear growling. I quickly used a gust of wind to try to scare it off but it must've smelled our food and wanted some. I told the others to make as much noise as possible to scare it off. I used the back of my hatchet to hit a tree to make noise while Stronghold banged his sword and shield together much like how he'd use as a taunt while the others did a number of things to scare it off. After about a minute the bear decided that the scraps we had weren't worth the trouble it was going through to get it and lumbered off.

'Well that was close.' I thought as I got back in my hammock

Nothing else interesting happened until the sixth day when I was scouting ahead. I started flying ahead after I ate some of the meat I brought and flew for about four hours before I caught the first glimpse of the caves. "There you are." I spoke to myself.

It took me about another hour to get close enough to make out any details. I noticed four openings to the caves as well as a couple figures who were too far away to tell anything except that they were bipeds; I also noticed that there were no trees and little grass around the caves likely due to the dogs digging the ground up; there was however, a two groups of boulders close together that could work as cover. After making sure I didn't miss anything I flew back to tell the others; it only took me three and a half hours to fly back and by that time it was mid afternoon.

"So, did you find anything?" Cobalt Lance asked as I made my landing.

"As a matter of fact I did, the caves are a few hours away from here and there were four entrances with a few diamond dogs wandering around them. I didn't see the ponies but I did notice that there's a two groups of rocks that could be used as cover." I said. "If you have some paper and something I could use to draw on I could make a map."

Morning Spell searched around in her bag for a moment before producing a piece of parchment and some charcoal. "Thanks," I said as I began making our map and turning it sideways to give more room to draw the whole area. " Alright, the four entrances are in these spots, the two on the right are about 30 feet and 45 feet uphill. There are 2 diamond dogs next to each of the left entrances and 3 at the base of the hills between the right ones." I said explained as I drew some circles to use as entrances and stick figures to mark the dogs.

I then began marking distances. "The middle-left entrance is about 120 feet from either of the adjacent entrances and the right ones are roughly 90 feet apart. The area which will be our battlefield I'd say is 540 feet by 240 feet." I said as I made lines to mark the distances.

Lastly, I began to draw and explain the terrain. "There aren't any trees and very little grass, but there are seventeen boulders scattered around the area. Nine of them are close enough to make two walls with small gaps in between them about 180 feet away from the middle left entrance and eight more scattered around them; three on the left, and five on the right." I finished as I used circles that I colored in to make the boulders.

"Nice job Aeren, now all we have to do is make a strategy on how we attack." Howling Wind said while he gave me a hard pat on the back. After about an hour, Howling Wind called us together to hear the strategy he thought of. "We'll have Aeren and I get their attention by flying by them and flying back to the area just in front of the boulders while the rest of you stay back and support us with your magic and arrows. Cobalt, Stronghold; you'll be making sure that the diamond dogs don't interfere with them, got it?"

The others voiced their agreement while I looked at the map and found a way to make his strategy even better. "There's something I'd like to add though, let's have Defiant Mind, Burning Impact, and Cobalt Lance near the rocks on the left and the others on the right; that way we have an archer a mage and a melee fighter near each set of rocks."

"Good idea; alright let's get ready for tomorrow." He said as he went to prepare his gear while the rest of us did the same. I decided to only bring my sword and dagger with me and leave the rest of my gear high up in a tree. I spent the rest of my time before sleeping sharpening my sword and dagger to the point that it would probably dull the blade if I tried to make them any sharper. Because we were so close to the caves we set up a lookout for the night, nothing happened in the night but you can't be too careful.

The next morning we made our way to the diamond dog's caves to scout it out again for any changes in the number of them that were out there. It was a good thing we decided to wait before attacking; we saw them taking a group of ponies from one cave to another.

"Don't let any of them live." said in a voice that outwardly sounded calm, but inwardly showed a level of anger that could not be hidden.

"Gladly." I replied in a similar voice.

While the others got into position, Howling Wind and I started flying around and taunting the diamond dogs. I flew over to one of the cave mouths and shouted: "Come on out and play, you overgrown house pets." That got their attention as within a few seconds some of them came rushing out of the cave with a varied assortment of weapons. I flew about twenty yard in front of the rock walls just as Howling Wind did the same.

"You ready to kill these mutts?" he asked

"We're about to find out." I replied with a smile.

Comments

[Grankuwaga]

l how'd you learn to fight like that?

^maybe the I should be removed unless some words are missing here?

Howling wind spoke up.

we made more small talk for a while until I realized something

the male unicorn muttered something that I couldn't hear before saying

the next morning was relatively boring as we just walked in relative silence

Morning spell said she could make a decant stew for us with what I found.

Cobalt lance picked up a stone and threw it in the direction of the noise

the others voiced their agreement while I looked at the map

the next morning we made our way to the diamond dog's caves

"gladly." I replied in a similar voice.

I flew about twenty yard in front of the rock walls just as Howling wind did the same.

^need to be capped

[Sir Stove Top]

Here I thought it was agreed that the group wasn't to attack unless they had no other choice...

[kurapica]

6579489 that was before they found out that the ponies were being kept as slaves