23 Enclosure (1/2)

”We should be almost there. Just past this hill. Everyone stay sharp, we don't know what happened or what we're going to encounter here.” Becky armed herself with her two daggers as she continued to use her heightened senses to scout ahead. Everyone else took out their weapons. Everyone agreed that Aima did a commendable job enhancing or smithing new weapons for everyone except Sebastian, who chose to have his armour upgraded instead.

”I'll also help with scouting Becky. [Augment] Steel body and mind, hyper senses.” Sebastian's irises emitted the familiar faint amber glow as he took to Becky's side.

Sebastian straightened his back with a jolt.

”Hup! I smell it as well Becky! Let's go! Everyone stay cautious! Blood has been spilt!” Sebastian took the lead as he rushed forward.

”What happened -” Aima couldn't finish her sentence as she looked at the village's outside walls in front of them. The walls were made of crude wood fastened together with guard towers jutting out here and there. It was quite common for villages to have walls and guard towers fas.h.i.+oned as such. What made it eerie and grotesque was the spikes haphazardly placed in front of the walls and some attached to the walls themselves. Impaled on the spikes were corpses of rat imps. They numbered in the hundreds, it almost covered the entire wall. If one couldn't see the spikes, it almost seemed that the corpses were part of the wall.

”Stay sharp! We don't know if there are other rat imps in the area of what. Jin and Becky stay in front, Aima and Mel behind me, please. Everyone report if you find anything unusual.” Sebastian surprisingly took the lead as he organised their formation and their next course of action.

Slowly the group advanced into the opened gate. It seemed that the rat imps were impeded by the spikes, but they still managed to spill into the village. There were rat imps and human corpses strewn all over the streets and in the houses. There were traces of a huge fight, but the human side looked like they were continuously being pressed. The whole village smelled of fresh and decomposed bodies, it was lucky that there was no wind on the journey - it would have been disastrous for Becky who had a heightened sense of smell, and Sebastian who artificially augmented his sense of smell.

”I see villagers among the corpses, but there's no sign of adventurers whatsoever. Just some weapon here and there.” Sebastian lifted his head to take a couple of sniffs. He could only smell the strong stench of blood and decomposing bodies in the air.

'[Augment] Hyper senses.' He already augmented his senses to their limit but the smell still drowned out anything else.

”Do you sense anything Becky?” Sebastian turned to Becky for further input in terms of their scouting.

”I can't sense anything living if that's what you're asking. Everything here is either decomposed or recently died.”

”Should we spread out Sebastian? We can cover more ground if we do that. Aima and I can - ”

”No Jin, that would be a bad idea. We don't know the layout well enough and it will just reduce our fighting abilities.” Sebastian shot down Jin's suggestion as they continued to move forward. He knew that being cautious was better than being quick. His experience in both worlds taught him that.

”Wait, everyone stop. I have an idea.” Sebastian signalled for the party to stop as he knelt down and placed his hand on the ground. He couldn't use his sense of smell because of the stench, but he could rely on other senses. He tried to feel for vibrations which would indicate nearby movement, and he also focused his hearing to pick up faint traces of activity. It was subtle, but he managed to pick up something.

”In the middle of this village is something like a large structure. There seems to be movement inside. I can't sense anything else nearby.” Sebastian stood up as he guided the rest of the party towards the source of the signals.

”That's just pretty handy, isn't it. Teach me that sometime.” Becky admitted to being unfamiliar with Sebastian's technique and even asked for him to teach her. Everyone felt gooseb.u.mps on their skin as they looked at Becky with wonder.

”I understand, let's focus on the survivors - either humans or rat imps for now.” Sebastian asking Becky to focus on the task at hand was also uncharacteristic as Aima and Jin snickered beside them. Their jeering was shortlived as they saw a large building in sight. Sebastian felt that it reminded him of a warehouse.

”We don't know if the movement inside is from humans or something else. Let's prepare for an attack in case. Becky, please hide somewhere, we'll need your [Shadow Step] if needed. Jin, you approach the building with me. Aima and Mel please standby on top of that building please.” Sebastian organised the party's positions while they were still at a distance.

After checking that everyone was in position, Sebastian and Jin slowly walked to the front of the building. Sebastian was using multiple instances of [Augment] while Jin had physical reinforcements on his body as well.

”Is there anybody inside?! We are adventurers sent by the adventurer's guild!” Sebastian and Jin raised their weapons, preparing for a fight.

The ensuing silence was almost deafening as they waited for a response.

”By the G.o.ds! They did send help! We are survivors trapped here from the attack! Is it safe to open the door?” A shaky voice responded from behind the door. Sebastian could tell that the voice's owner was frightened and weak, most likely from starvation.