Chapter 44: In The Skies

"So you plan to get caught as well?"

"Yes, in fact, I plan to take you there myself with my firewing."

"What?" Rox clenched her fist.

Benign didn’t bother to explain as her growing anger entertained him. A laugh came from the mustached protector. "I think he means the opposite, Rox dear."

Everyone looked toward him. He relaxed in his seat, as if feeding off the attention he had.

"As long as the slime reaches the camp, you two can become the distraction. If the Firewing draws every eye, nobody will notice something the size of a slime ball landing elsewhere."

The soldier pointed at him. "Exactly that."

A wave of discussion swept the room. Most wondered if the plan was worth drawing the eyes of the enemy they dreaded, or if stealth was best.

But Benign had another plan he kept to himself.

"My firewing is alert too," he added to soothe Rox. "We wouldn’t stay long enough to get shot down."

Suera slowly raised her hand. "I can help with the drop."

A second hand rose beside her. Areus. "I’ll help lift them above the clouds. The enemy might not notice fast enough."

Benign smiled. "Thanks, but my firewing can only take three at a time."

Suera’s hand dropped with a thud. "My brother will be more useful then."

The Commander looked around the room before giving a firm nod. "Approved. Thank you, Hero."

Benign rested both hands on the table. "My pleasure."

His mind went through the plans again. The medicine should already be slowing their mounts, so the likelihood of being chased was reduced.

If this worked out, then they would focus on disabling whatever weapons the enemy had.

When he stopped thinking, he saw the others gaze on him. He blinked once. "Should I go over what I said again? What part did you understand?"

The girl with the large glass frames adjusted them on her nose. "Perhaps, the part where you are a Hero... and you’re seated over... there..." she pointed at his position as if that was where rats had vacation.

Lady Alana’s eyes shifted to the girl, but the girl seemed unbothered by it. Again, Benign could tell there really was a rivalry between the branches.

The moustache man smirked. "It seems the hero we have now knows battle strategies. Quite different from the powerhouse Sir Ashold was."

The rest of their protectors nodded. No matter how Benign replayed those words in his head, it didn’t sound like a compliment.

It was simply a comparison to Ashold, who the man considered a powerhouse while he, Benign, only brought battle strategies.

’I have considered dropping hell rain on the enemy’s base camp. But I have to be close enough, and it could get risky for me.’

Also, there was a chance that General would survive it if she’s anything like Rox, who can regenerate.

Minutes later, Areus, Rox, and Benign stood at the woodlands again under a moonlight sky.

"Hey, boy," Benign called the firewing’s attention as he would a dog.

[Correction: It’s a female Firewing.]

His raised hand froze in place. The Firewing dove down, regardless, and waited in a sitting position for the next command. Benign slowly rubbed its head.

"Are they all female Firewings then?" Benign muttered to himself.

"What?" Areus turned to him. "I don’t know."

Benign shook his head. He strapped the firewings, being oddly careful since it was a girl. Yet the firewing threw the saddles roughly, and it stooped down.

The soldier stared at it with hands on his hips. "Of course, whether a girl or boy, you are still the cheeky Firewing." He said, before clicking his tongue.

Areus and Rox exchanged glances. They looked back at Benign, sharing the same confused expression.

A minute later, the Firewing glided above the forest.

Its wings remained folded close to its body, using the night winds and the soft glow around its body, instead of constant flapping.

Benign sat closest to its neck while Rox remained behind him with a small glass container resting carefully in her hands. Areus sat at the back, with a hand constantly on the Firewing’s body.

Inside the jar floated a tiny blue slime that was no larger than an apple with two tiny black eyes blinking curiously at the world outside the glass.

Benign leaned backward slightly. "It’s adorable."

"It isn’t." Rox’s reply came sharply.

The soldier leaned forward again. He wasn’t surprised. She was the same person who used her slimes as sacrifices to torment him.

He kept scanning the horizon, but his eyes caught the slime bouncing happily against the glass.

Areus hummed. "I think it likes you."

"It has terrible taste." Rox’s reply came again.

Benign almost smiled. The enemy camp appeared beyond the rolling hills, having rows of tents stretched across the grasslands with almost no trees nearby.

Their wooden watchtowers overlooked every approach, except upwards, while mounted patrols circled the outskirts continuously.

Benign counted. "Three towers, and eight patrols."

"Two rotating." His finger pointed ahead. "They learned and removed every hiding place."

"Good." Benign smiled faintly.

"Good?" Areus repeated.

"Yeah. I would’ve done the same." Benign answered. "It is easier to predict what they will do next if they act according to already existing protocols."

Having lived within an enclosed camp, he could presume their next safety action.

After all, it took a thief to catch a thief.

Two hundred metres beyond the outer patrol, the Firewing descended behind a rocky ridge. Everyone climbed down.

"They didn’t even spot us." Areus brushed his hair from his face. "This might be easier than I expected."

Benign knelt beside the Firewing and stroked its neck. "You know your part, right?" He smiled when the Firewing answered with a determined screech.

Rox carefully opened the glass container. The little slime bounced onto her palm before looking up at her. "You’ll only have one chance."

It blinked twice.

Benign looked toward Areus. "Ready when you are."

Areus nodded. "I’ll give you the signal."

The slime jumped into his arms. Inside its clear blue body, three packages floated lightly. A soft glow wrapped Areus’s body along with the slime.

Rox locked her eyes on it.

While in Areus’s arms, limbs grew out of the blob. The outer surface morphed to skin with hair and nails.

Benign watched with a slight discomfort written on his face. "That could have happened while it was on the ground." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

"I like the feeling," Areus said simply before taking off the ground. Benign just stared after him, wondering what that meant.

Areus tightened his grip on the child. "Ready?"

The child nodded.

Hovering above the quietest part of the camp, where the cheetah mounts roamed freely, Areus released the child. The soft blue glow faded from their body, and they began to fall.

Before they reached the ground, Areus flicked a razor-shaped dagger downwards.

The child caught it with one hand. Instantly, the familiar blue glow wrapped around their body again, slowing their descent until they hovered just above the ground.

A second later, the child let go of the dagger and dropped the remaining distance, landing lightly among the cheetah mounts.

The dagger curved back toward Areus while the animals merely watched the child in silence. The child quickly petted a cheetah on the head before waving towards Benign from their position.

Benign watched from a distance. He smiled before waving back. "They are in."

He raised his head to see the silver reflection from the skies where Areus hung. "That’s the signal. Let’s make them look the wrong way."

After his words, the Firewing burst into the sky.

Its wings spread apart as an echoing screech pierced the air. Soldiers immediately shouted from the nearest watchtower.

"There!"

"A Firewing!"

"It’s the one. It’s the Hero’s!"

Benign watched with mild interest. "Maybe I should have asked you to create a slime version of me." He said to Rox.

When she frowned, his smirk widened. He already knew that her slime came from her skin. It would be inconvenient to produce slime for a grown person.

Rox didn’t take her eyes away from the slime child. "I am going in."

Her vision shifted. Through the slime’s tiny eyes, everything looked enormous, and the screams of the soldiers thundered like charging beasts.

The slime child stopped waving. Their eyes sharpened as the order rang out in their body like ripples.

Instantly, they started a sprint through the camp.

The child was smaller than a cheetah and easily slipped behind a pile of discarded sacks without anyone noticing. Voices echoed from every direction.

Rox’s breathing slowed. "I need more cover to get into the next building. That’s where they are talking—"

Footsteps approached the child.

Without thinking, the child’s jellylike body squeezed through a window. Just then, a soldier stopped by that window.

Rox’s breathing stopped.

Meanwhile, Benign concentrated on directing the Firewings from eating more arrows than needed. His feet tapped on the ground as he watched the Firewing.

"Lower."

The bird swooped toward the outer wall before climbing sharply again. Arrows immediately followed it in that direction. Most missed by several metres, while some got too close for comfort.

"Again. Be careful." Benign clamped his hands under his arms. "Or should I come over and help—"

The Firewing stumbled in the air, and one wing faltered.

A single screech pierced through his chest. "They hit her!"

The soldier ran down the hill without thinking.