Miracula Luxia C7, P8- "Teamwork Makes The Dreamwork"

"Teamwork Makes The Dreamwork" is the eighth Part of "Miracula Luxia" 's Chapter 7- "A New Beginning". It was released on 19.02.2020.
== Plot ==
Jared reunites with his father, John and Annie and they talk about the new mission that is given to them by King Starrus The Second.
It looks like the enemy has a few camps that are stationed on the territory near the Castle. The soldiers tried to talk them into leaving, but the bandits refuse and stay, daring them to do something about it.
While the thugs are expecting attacks from the soldiers and are ready to repulse them with everything they've got, they are definitely not prepared to fight four well-equipped, well-trained heroes.
It is time for our heroes to teach those no-good bandits what it means to cross someone's territory without their permission.
== Story ==
Jared woke up, only to find himself surrounded by bandits.
They told him to stand up. One of them chained the boy's arms up with chains.
"Ow!"- Jared exclaimed- "I understand that you want to kill me, but there's no need for you to do that!"
The bandits laughed.
"We can do whatever we want."- One of them said- "Our boss allows us to do whatever we want with you. And we say chain!"
Jared raised his eyebrow.
"Your boss, eh? I don't suppose his name is Farrar, is it?"
The bandits sweated.
"N-no. We're just independent bandits."- One of them tried to lie- "We're our own l-leaders!"
Jared smiled.
"I know that you're under Farrar's command, you insolent creatures. Now spit it out before I break those chains and kill every single one of you!"
The bandits smiled.
"Well, gee. Ye got us."- One of them said- "But that ain't gonna happen. You'll die here. And when we're done with ya, we're gonna take down your friends. And then the soldiers. And, finally, the king 'imself."
One of them approached the boy and raised his knife to stab him.
Jared closed his eyes, expecting the worst.
When he opened them up, he was surprised that he wasn't dying. The bandit who was about to stab him was on the ground, dead. An arrow was stuck in his head.
The other bandits looked ahead, to the west. Something was clearly scaring them.
He saw three people in the distance. They were aiming their weapons at the bandits.
Jared took this as mercy from God. He quickly removed the chains from his arms, grabbed the knife from the dead bandit and surprised the rest of the bandits by stabbing one of them in the back.
The bandits tried to fight against Jared, but some more arrows took care of most of them.
Only two remained.
Jared grabbed the knife from the corpse and used it to stab one of the bandits in the head.
The other bandit grabbed the boy's arms and tried to throw him in a pit.
"You're gonna pay! Pay!!!"- The bandit screamed at Jared.
An arrow flew forward and pierced his leg.
As he fell to the ground, screaming, Jared noticed that the three figures were approaching them.
Aleks, John and Annie looked at their ally, clearly worried.
"Are you hurt?"- Annie asked Jared.
He showed her his arms.
"Nothing serious."- He said- "No stabs. No bruises. They didn't really hurt me."
Annie sighed in relief as Jared grabbed the knife and pointed it at the dying bandit.
"Tell me everything, you crazy person, or I will make sure you die painfully. And slowly."
The bandit shaked his head.
"Not gonna tell you a single thing!"- He screamed- "I'm loyal to Farrar and I'm gonna stay that way!"
Aleks smiled.
"Don't worry, son. We've got all the information. You can kill him, if you want."
Jared looked at him. Then, he looked at the knife in his hand.
Finally, he decided to give him some degree of punishment.
"For what you tried to do to me, you're going to suffer the same fate. But first, just to make sure you don't escape from there alive... "
He slit his throat.
"Because insolent bugs, who try to kill innocent people without a reason, do not deserve to live.
As the bandit choked on his own blood and tried to scream for help, Jared kicked him into the pit.
His gurgling scream was the last sound that came out of him. After that, there was a simple *thud*.
Jared shaked his head.
"I had to do it. He... he tried to kill me."- He tried to excuse himself in front of his allies.
Aleks nodded and placed his hand on his son's shoulder.
"It's okay. We understand. Sometimes, you have to kill the person who tried to kill you. Your soul won't allow you to do otherwise."
Annie nodded.
"It's for the best. He was too evil to live. I mean, did you see his hatred for you in his eyes? If you decided to spare his life, he would surely come back for revenge later and try to kill you again."
Jared shaked his head.
"Even though your words do matter to me, I still feel bad for taking another human being's life."
"Well, that's the least of all our worries right now."- Aleks said- "We have an urgent mission. And we have to complete it soon, before the Castle is attacked."
Jared raised his eyebrow.
"What do you mean "Attacked"? Isn't it protected by the guards?"
Aleks nodded and shaked his head, one after the other.
"Well, as my expression would say, it's a "Yes" and "No". First, the Castle is protected by the guards, but, second, they may not be able to fend off a huge force of scouts from multiple camps around it."
Jared gasped.
"C-camps? Scouts? Slow down, dad! What do you mean by that?!"
Aleks looked up and sighed.
"Apparently, there are a lot of secret camps around the Castle. The guards tried to talk to them and convince them to go back from where they came. However, those caveman-skulled individuals will not listen and instead warn the guards that they're ready to repel them, should they try to attack."
"So?"
"So. It's our job to attack them. Just the four of us. The bandits are expecting an attack from a sizable group of guards, but they're definitely not expecting an attack from a scouting party. What do you say, son. Are you with us?"
Jared smiled.
"This sounds like a plan."- He said- "I will do anything to clean this trash from our lands and send them back to where they came from. With force, of course."
John nodded.
"That's what we've been thinking about. Well, what are we waiting for? It's showtime!"
The four of them approached a nearby hostile camp and saw a lot of bandits in it.
Aleks handed his son a detonator. Jared noticed that his father was carrying a remote bomb.
He clearly has a plan.
"Son, I'll place the bomb in the middle of their camp without them noticing me. Once I give you the sign, trigger the bomb and we'll explode them into smithereens!"
Jared nodded and waited for his father to place the bomb in its place.
Once the bomb was set and his father was far enough not to be affected by the blast, Jared pushed the button.
In an instant, a poisonous gas sprayed out of the bomb.
"Cover your mouths!"- Aleks yelled as the bandits near the gaseous explosion started dying from the gas, unable to protect themselves from this unexpected attack.
In a few minutes, all the bandits were dead.
Jared and his allies searched the camp for anything.
They found a letter in one of the sacks.
Aleks tried to read it, but failed to do so due to the strange writing on the piece of paper.
Jared asked his father to give it to him. Once he did so, the boy recognized the language, but also did not make any sense of it.
"It's written in the Slithzerikai language, but... I also cannot understand it."
"Maybe we can take it some friendly sliths who can understand it?"- Annie suggested.
Something in Annie's words gave Jared an idea.
"That's right! Gnass!"
"Gnass?"- His father wondered- "But... why there?"
"Because they are the only capable sliths who can decipher the letter for us. Let's go."
Our heroes managed to sneak past two camps and entered the village of Gnass without much trouble.
The slith priest greeted the heroes as they entered the village.
"Greetings, heroes."- He said- "What brings you here, in this time of chaosss and war?"
Jared gave the priest a message.
"You definitely seem important enough. We need you to decipher this message. It is very urgent!"
The slith priest nodded.
"I can do that. Come with me, to the shrine."
The five of them went to the shrine and the priest called for two of his assistants.
Together, the three sliths tried to decipher the message in English. One of the assistants whispered something to the priest, which really worried him.
Finally, the priest gave the message back to Jared.
"Oh dear."- He said- "I do not know how to begin. This is a real mess. A really big mess."
Aleks nodded.
"We understand. Take a moment. We don't want you to panic."
"Thank you, heroes. Excuse me for a second."- He said and washed his eyes with water from a nearby basin.
Then, he began to speak about the message.
"Apparently, there are still hostile sliths in the lands of Avernum. And most of them are located in the Abyss- the area where Farrar is."
"The message is signed by the leader of a huge band of hostile sliths- descendants of the evil warlord Sss-Thsss. They offered Farrar's bandits a chance to take over Avernum for good with their help. In exchange, they want him and his bandits to bring you to them, alive or dead."
Aleks shaked his head.
"So that's why the bandts wanted to kill you so bad."- He whispered to his son.
Jared nodded.
"Anyway, we have to find a way to protect you from those bandits."- The slith priest continued- "Because they will do anything to capture you and bring you to the wicked leader of the hostile slithzerikai. We have to stop them from doing ssso at all costs."
"Anything?"- Jared wondered.
"Indeed. Anything."- The slith confirmed.
Jared shaked his head.
"What have I gotten myself into?"- He said to himself- "Right now, I am endangering the ones around me by forcing them to protect me at all costs. That scum Farrar! When I find him, I won't have let him live, like I did one year ago."
"So, to make sure that you are safe, along with the rest of your team we will send a lot of our most well-trained guards as well. They will make sure that no one of those traitors ever harms you. Or takes you away."
The slith priest left to talk to the chief.
Soon, the slith arrived with his royal guards.
"Jared, we're glad that you are here."- He said- "Sssadly, you need to go soon. The village is not safe anymore and the bandits might come and kill us all."
"Before you go, I will send ten slith guards to protect you. Isss that fine?"
Jared thought about it. Then he realized that ten are too many to keep them undercover.
"How about just five?"- He tried to negotiate with the chief.
The huge slith shaked his head.
"That's too few. You need complete protection. You're too valuable... "
The slith priest pulled him away and whispered something in his ear.
The slith chief sighed and turned to Jared.
"So it be, hero."- He said- "I shall only send five, then."
"Thank you, sir."
"But right now, you will go with me, the priest and a huge army of us."
Jared raised his eyebrow.
"Um. Why?"- He wondered.
"Because we will work together in crushing the insolent scum that isss camped around our village and the Castle and harass us. Let us see how strong they really are."
"But sir!"- Jared tried to talk him out of it- "They're probably well prepared for an attack!"
The slith chief shaked his head.
"The insolent rats only expect an attack from the soldiers at the Castle. They'll be surprised to find out that it isn't the Castle that is going to attack them today. It will be us- the Slithzerikai."
"We've been hiding in the shadows for too long. It is time for us to fight again the enemy, too!"- The huge slith said and went to the village square to line up his soldiers.
He returned with a huge army of soldiers. Surprisingly, a lot of them were volunteers. Regular sliths who wish to fight the bandits.
"A lot of my people have agreed to fight those thugs."- He said- "So, Jared Kaos. Are you ready to fight by our side?"
Jared nodded.
"Your people helped us out. We will help you out, too. Let's crush those weaklings!"
With bloodthristy cries, all of the slith volunteers (along with the chief and the priest) left the village to fight, leaving only a few guards and farmers to tend to the crops and take care of the children in their absence.
"We should go."- Aleks said.
Jared nodded and the four of them left the village to join their slith allies.
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Our heroes entered one of the camps just to see a battle going on. A battle between slith warriors and bandits.
Of course, the bandits were definitely outnumbered and stood no chance against the army.
Jared joined the fight and saved a slith by stabbing the bandit who was about to kill him in the back.
Aleks and Annie helped the chief destroy five of the bandits while John joined Jared in killing three of the bandits who were trying to slay the priest.
In just a few minutes, the battle was done. There were no survivors from the enemy side.
Plus, no one of the friendly sliths was killed in the battle.
"So. There are no casualties?"- Jared asked the priest.
The priest nodded.
"Yes. We took them by surprise, so they were unable to do anything to harm us."
"I suspect that we will not be asss lucky when we fight the rest."
Jared shaked his head.
"This is a small price to pay for freedom."
The priest smiled, as if to say "You are right", but said nothing as the chief approached Jared.
"There are five more camps. We might lose a few of our troops, but we won't give up. We will fight until the bitter end."
Jared nodded.
"We will indeed, sir. Let's do this."
The slithzerikai army and our heroes worked together to surprise four of the camps's thugs, kill them and leave no survivors. The only casualty was a slith warrior who was killed accidentally by friendly fire.
The final camp put up more of a fight. Somehow, the thugs knew that they were going to come and tried to shoot them down.
Fortunately, two sliths stood in the way of the shots and died to protect the army.
This gave the army enough time to quietly approach the camp and execute the archers.
Once the archers and mages were dead, the warriors were just a joke for the army of humans and slithzerikai.
The chief found a message on the last bandit and deciphered it.
"It looks like those thugs were about to head to the Surface. The message says that they were going to prepare and attack the ones up there while causing some minor havoc before returning to the underworld."
"By the way, Jared. Do you have any family relatives living on the Surface?"- The slith chief wondered.
"Umm... yes. Yes we do. My mother and my sister are still up there. Me and my father wanted to make sure that they're still fine."
The slith chief nodded.
"Very well. We need to reactivate the old portal at Fort Avernum and go there. But we shouldn't stay here. Come with us. We're going to go back to Gnass and discuss our next move."
Jared nodded and joined his allies in going back to Gnass.
Soon, all of them were there, ready to discuss their plans and think about their next move.