Chương 30: To Analand!

With his attribute fully powered up, Chiron condensed time to the point where he made a month long journey into a four day venture. He ate the dried food he had stolen back in Assai a "month" ago to sustain himself, as he ran toward the border. His journey to the border of Analand was rather dull, as he neither hunted, killed or did anything except eat and run, sleep and regain stamina and... That's all he did.

He had no weight on his body and he had soaked his bandages in a special soothing concoction, that helped alleviate exhaustion when rubbed on wounds. The Assassin's Rags medicinal attribute absorbed it and helped with relaxing his muscles, while he ran and finally he was at the 'birder'.

That is what Assai call's this location, but when he arrived at said border, Chiron learned of the true state of the war.

Analand wasn't that large of a country. It was mainly around 40 baronies, 38 of which were taken over by Aranai, its population being quelled by 50% and its garrison by 40%. A total of 30 thousand soldiers were bunkered up in the capital city, 5 thousand for each of the 6 districts and the only other "city" was a minor barony, that couldn't escape in time and is now being sieged down by a rather cowardly Aranai general, who prefers starving his enemies to death, rather than fighting them.

This was, beyond any doubt, the last bastion of safety in all of Analand. The only reason the numbers of this city could match up to Aranai are the nobles. Not even the nobles dared to spare their personal knights in such a situation, soldiers much less. They contributed them all to the garrison and, without any doubt, this is ALL of Analand.

Any man, who can fight is a soldier, who can't is being trained to. This was the ugliness of war. The desperation to survive and the scarcity of resources. This was a proper siege. Assai either starves them out or kills them, there is no alternative and their latest 'kill' plan is Chiron.

Chiron wanted to get in, meet the nobility, kill them, get out originally, but the more he thought about it, the less that seemed attractive of an offer. He took Elbaf's warning to heart and he knew he wouldn't stand a chance against an actual ascended warrior. Just the assassin's memory was enough to send tremors through his body and make him subconsciously activate his bunkering down from the PTSD.

The victory that day was a complete accident and he was lucky to have only lost a single eye to an assassin even the nightmare acknowledged the name of. If he hadn't caught him off guard with his use of impatient, he would be dead considering how it took 3 days for him to be discovered after barely surviving.

Elbaf was just pure luck! If it was any other ascended, he would be dead. It only took a single second for him to be knocked down by their combo attacks and he was nearly executed a second later by Elbaf himself. *Just thinking about how much I have bluffed my way out of is amazing! How I keep living through all of this is beyond me. I don't have any trump cards left this time to help me either, I've pulled everything out of my A$$ and have no attributes, abilities or memories left to use. What do I have?*

*I only have 3 decent memories and several disposable trash dormant ones, the ability to do 10 seconds worth of things in 1 and the ability to survive being slashed... Why the f"ck am I doing this again? Anyone want to remind me? Me, a dormant c"ck, trying to overthrow a government with several tens of ascended, hundreds of awakened and maybe even a transcendent existence at the helm! Do I even stand a chance? Probably. I don't know, let's see! I'll prepare for a month and then I will strike! Well it depends.*

Chiron rested for a "day", 1 hour would be more accurate and then he wanted to just rush at the walls, but he had learned the lesson several ascended hammered into him *There is no rush!*

He didn't rush the walls of the fortress and observed the tall structure with great interest. *How do I get in, though? This is THE most heavily guarded fortress city of Analand. Hmm, there are 3 main options of getting in. I sneak in, I meet Charlie or Holmo and integrate into the army, but then the questions of HOW I got in come flooding in. Option 2, I wait for a refugee wave, help the survivors and migrate here with them. This Will take too long and is impractical considering the massive siege. Option 3, walk up to the wall and try to get in by climbing in and go from there. No permission to enter and I am unwanted. Almost impossible considering it is being sieged down... Option 3 it is!*

His only realistic option was sneaking in. Any other way in was impossible or took too long and so Chiron finalized his plan and went into action. He spent the next 60 hours of his time waiting for nightfall and training in the meditation technique, while he observed the guards and learned their patrol routes to better execute said plan.

He doesn't intend on leaving this nightmare for a month, at least, so 10 months of practice might not yield much, but it is better than training in a weapon style he never intends to use in the future.

Come nightfall and he completely surrounded his whole body, everything but his eyes, with the assassin's rags and rushed toward the castle walls, arriving in a minute, ready to scale it and get back 'home'. The entire perimeter was surrounded by soldiers with siege equipment, ready to shoot down anyone foolish enough to look down from the walls, if that were possible in the first place!