I forgot to post this yesterday.

Oh hey, here's a part that mostly focuses on other characters, what are the odds?

Part 5

After two hours of preparations we separated ourselves, I went north to meet the humans while Ran and Hurch went to the east to the slave camp.
Ran and Hurch on their way needed to hide whenever patrols of the Dark Lord passed by, a sign that they were getting closer. They barely had any time to talk as they ventured closer to the slave camp which looked like a giant black box with a single tower and walls protruding from the sides that went into a circle. On the walls were guards dressed in white outfits that covered their faces, except for their mouth area, which was still hard to look into from a distance.

That was when Hurch finally spoke up. “So miss Ran, how are we supposed to sneak into this base without anyone noticing?” Hurch asked.

Ran looked at one guard walking down and going out of the building with a small box wrapped in fine paper. The guard passed by where Rand and Hurch were hiding and she used her powers to shapeshift into the guard. “Follow me,” she whispered to the brown gnoll.
The guard sat down under a tree and picked up a sandwich from the box he was carrying. But before he could take a bite, Ran snuck up behind the tree and knocked down the guard using the hilts of her short swords.
She then took off the guard’s clothes, revealing the guard to be an undead creature of some kind, and gave them to Hurch who didn’t really look thrilled at them.

“What is it darling? Don’t like to wear white?” she asked half-jokingly.

“It’s not that, it’s just these armours look uncomfortable and it looks like it will be hard to throw any spells while in it,” Hurch said.

Ran’s ears perked from under her illusionary helmet. “You’re a magic-user?”

“Yes, haven’t I told you about that?” asked Hurch.

“I assumed you were some kinda thief with how you could sneak in without anyone noticing, darling,” said Ran.

“Sneaking does help a gnoll like me, especially during these times, but I do see myself as a wizard,” said Hurch, trying to sound proud.

“Well, that would have been good to know before we went on this mission, darling,” said Ran with an annoyed tone.

“But… we won’t get anywhere bickering, will we?” He asked as he reluctantly put on the armour.

As the two of them had their disguises on, they snuck back into the slave camp and unlocked the port with a key that the guard was carrying.
The two of them walked down the halls and did their best to not get noticed, which was hard for Hurch as all the guards in this slave camp looked to be the same kind of undead creature, none of them having any snouts. They both knew it would they would eventually be found out if they didn’t have any good excuse.
Hurch found an empty room where he took Ran inside.

“Alright, as we shouldn’t have to worry about my disguise anymore, cast an illusion on me,” he said.

Ran looked at him. “I can only cast illusions on myself, darling.”

“Are you sure, you got four tails, that means you should be powerful with illusion spells, all you need to do is to touch my face and concentrate,” said Hurch and grabbed Ran’s paw and put it on his face.

Ran sighed and focused, feeling her magic flow into the palm of her hand, the face of Hurch changed to look like the ones of the guards. When she opened up her eyes she gave the gnoll a smile.

“You look perfect! You really do have a lot of confidence in me?” asked Ran.

“Eh… you know, I knew about kitsune and their magic since I studied magic, whenever I was alone,” said Hurch, shyly kicking the floor.

Ran slowly held his head and looked concerned. “Why do you hide the fact you know magic from others?”

Hurch trembled. “It’s because magic is something powerful and usually it’s only women who are capable of being sorceresses, while I’m the only man capable of magic in a family who had a long line of sorceresses in their bloodline.”

“I’m aware of societal standards for gnolls, how come you didn’t try to act like a woman?” asked Ran.

Hurch stumbled upon his words until a sentence could escape his mouth. “I don’t know if that would make me happy!” Cried the currently disguised gnoll.

Ran looked at him surprised with concern and sadness, but at the same time worried that his voice would attract others. “Hey, no need to cry, aren’t gnolls meant to be strong no matter the g-”

“I just want to use magic for good, but society keeps getting in the way and the Dark Lord’s rule have just made people more judgemental of others worth,” cried Hurch some more and hugged Ran.

“When we’re done here we can make sure you people will respect you as a magician,” said Ran, trying to comfort him, even though she was not used to doing that after years of calling herself a monster.

“I… I…” Hurch snivelled, his nose getting clogged by all the sobbing.

Ran gave him a paper to wipe his tears and blow his nose with, which just happened to be the fine paper that guard Ran knocked out had.

After doing that, Hurch gave a weak smile to her. “I don’t know why, but you’re the first one I could be open about my plight,” said Hurch.

He then felt the smell of the guards outside, which Ran caught upon. The door opened with a pair of undead guards coming in and seeing our heroes.
They stared at our heroes and then noticed the sullied handkerchief.

“What did you do?” asked one of the guards with a surprisingly lot of worry for being undead. “Warden Horace does not like it when his belongings get sullied!”

Ran and Hurch looked at each other as the two guards pointed their swords at them. The disguised kitsune and gnoll were led to the office of warden Horace, which had walls of different colours, a painting of what seemed to be a hill and a mahogany desk with a luxurious chair and a magical orb.
As for Horace himself, he was an old beardless human with no hair in the middle of his head despite how he tried to make his grey hair look pretty, he also wore an expensive robe that signified he was a sort of magician. With the undead guards around, he may have been a necromancer.
He looked at the disguised heroes with the kind of creepy stare that only old men can do.

“Here I let you borrow my finest paper sheet for a lunch box and you sullied it,” said Horace.
Ran tilted her head at Horace. “Really?”

Horace glared and shot a bolt of lightning at Ran’s feet. “Who are you?”

Ran sighed as she pulled out her swords, previously invisible as part of her disguise and cut down the guard behind her as she threw off her disguise.
The form of Ran scared Horace as he hid behind his desk and let the guards go to the attack. Ran combined sword strikes and arrows, but as she noticed, undead just rise no matter how many times you stab or pierce them
Just then, Hurch had finally taken off most of the armour that got in the way for the movements needed to throw fire bolts from his wand, which did actual damage to the undead instead of irritation. They fought for a time with Ran slowing down the guards enough for Hurch to cast his spells at them, all the while Horace cowered in fear while keeping track of his orb. Ran immediately shot his hand and then jumped at him, which made the remaining guards stop and turn towards Ran as she was holding her swords against Horace’s throat.

“Tell them to stop, I know you can do it,” said Ran with a threatening hissing voice.

Horace was threatened but didn’t do anything, at least until he noticed that the guards were all taken down by magical spells, only then did he decide to de-activate his orb, putting all the guards to a stop.

“Phew… I just ran out of spells… now that the guards have stopped, we can ask the warden a few questions,” said an exhausted Hurch.

“Right,” said Ran and glared at Horace. “Tell us how the Dark Lord contacts you and your operations.”

“I don’t get to speak with the Dark Lord directly, but with a contact who make sure it’s all going well here. And they expect shipments of metal once per month with the next happening next week from today,” said Horace.

“And how do you get in contact with that contact? With that orb?” asked Ran.

Horace pointed to something hidden behind a panel in his desk. She opened it up and picked up what's inside and put it on top of the desk. It was a box with a strange handle on top that could be removed, said handle had on both its ends wide cones as well as one end having a cord going into the box. The box also had a handle that needed to be rotated for it to work.

Ran and Hurch realized what that machine was. “You got to be shitting me?!” exclaimed both of them and looked at Horace with a huge amount of irritation in their eyes.

“What?” asked Horace.

“What do you mean what?” asked Hurch. “The Dark Lord stopped technological advancement of our country in favour of magic, correct?”
Horace nodded, which didn’t help lighten their moods.

“Then explains why a technophobe like him lets you and your contact use a telephone?” asked Hurch.

“You see… it’s handy and when connected to the orb, you can talk to others while looking at their face,” said Horace, only to get his hand stabbed by an arrow from Ran.

“I can’t believe this hypocrisy!” said Ran angered.

“My contact, Greydor will hear about this!” cried Horace.

Hurch looked at the inactive guards and looked outside to see the prisoners throwing their tools to the ground and looked up to the warden’s office with a look of hope in their eyes. Hurch smiled and turned around only to experience a mood whiplash as he saw Ran eating Horace whole with a few gulps. Ran sighed relieved and then looked at Hurch.

“What, darling? Doesn’t gnolls also eat people they don’t like?”

Hurch took a deep sigh while fiddling his wand. “Maybe so, but don’t you think everyone would appreciate us more if we let him go through a trial of justice?” asked Hurch.
Ran was going to say how it was ridiculous but realized that he did have a point.

“Oh right… it would have made us look more heroic…”

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