Homesteading in a fantasy world

"Report," I said in a commanding voice, which made all the people except for Kodgrid straighten up.

"We left this morning on a mission to exterminate some quest beasts. About 30 minutes ago, we felt that someone might be following us. At first, we thought it was a beast stalking us, but it didn’t feel right. As commanded, we set up this camp if we were to feel that something was off and then break the stick."

So, I think I was correct; these people were just bait to get me here. "Kodgrid, get them out of here now," everyone was a little bit confused, but in less than a minute, everyone was prepared, and then Kodgrid cast his spell, taking him and the party members out of here.

Now, I was left alone in the forest. The campsite itself was in a small area that had less vegetation and was free of trees, and of course, there was the small campsite with a fire in the middle.

Let’s not mess about as that might backfire, it would be better to be sneaky and hide nearby than to wait for them out in the open. I was careful and controlled my energy output as much as possible, but slowly I took control of the surrounding lands so I would know exactly who and what was on it.

It was an amazing ability I got a while back and while it didn't come close to being actually on my land, it did mimic the effect quite well.

It had also been quite a while since I used my stealth-oriented abilities and skills. I made sure to hide myself in a spot where I could easily see the whole campsite and still be in a position that wouldn’t compromise my defensive capabilities. So no climbing a tree, which would make me an easy target to anyone who could actually find me.

What followed was a long wait. I couldn’t remember the last time where I needed to wait so long in such a tense situation for an enemy I wasn’t sure would or would not come. There could be many things that could have tipped them off that something was wrong, but I hoped that their curiosity would eventually bring them here.

One thing I had learned long ago was that I wasn’t suitable to be a sniper. I had some patience and discipline, but the longer I waited, the more fidgety I got.

I still don’t understand how some snipers could just lay down and stay in that same position for so many hours. It seems that the increase in stats, or perhaps the fact that I could observe more helped me endure this torture for a bit more than 7 hours.

Finally, however, I felt human feet enter my zone of control. It took this person some time to make it further toward me, but with every step, I got a clearer picture.

It was obviously a ranger of some type; he even had his bow out. He got a bit closer but still was a decent way away from the campsite when I felt him release some of his stealth abilities so it would be easier to sense his presence.

Immediately afterwards, those abilities masked his presence once again, and he started to slowly trace his way back to wherever he came from. Why would they do that? It didn't take long for me to come to a conclusion.

Now I was 100% sure they were waiting for me to get here. The party members were truly just bait to lure me and Goose here. While it was nice to confirm what I already was quite certain of, it meant that they were confident they could take me.

If they were willing to wait for so long and make it so obvious that they were here, it also meant that they wouldn't go away. At least I hope so, because now I was quite certain I wouldn’t have any trouble waiting here for as long as it took for them to actually show up here. Just thinking about their frustration brought a smile to my face.

There was also no point in just sitting here. During all this time, I noticed one thing about this ability of mine that allowed me to mimic my own land. The longer I stood in the same place, the stronger its effect seemed to get. Perhaps it’s time to pour a little bit more energy into this ability and see if I could slowly make this area feel even more like my land back home.

The person came four more times, releasing his presence and then backing off. When I finally sensed more than him coming closer, it was already the next day, although it was still early morning. I had to frown when I finally sensed no more people joining the ones who were already coming closer. There were 14 of them, half of them being rank three while the other half were rank two.

A core group of four people, with one of them being the mind reader were close together, perhaps the ranger was also a part of that group, as the rest of them seemed to be less sure of themselves. Oh, I had no doubt that they would do anything to kill me when ordered; it just seemed they didn't fully support the idea of attacking people who hadn't done anything.

I wasn’t in a forgiving mood, and if you choose to follow such a person, you should accept what would happen to you. The other question, however, was whether I would be actually able to kill all of them or even survive their combined attacks. I might be able to escape, but that ranger was rank three and who knows what spells the mages knew.

The ranger was the first to reach the campsite and quickly went back to report what he found. It didn't take long for all of them to be in the campsite. They were slowly spreading out, and I was just waiting for the perfect moment.

“I do not see any signs of them going away from here, and I hadn’t seen that damn chicken as well,” the ranger said, and I almost rushed out to crush his neck for calling Goose a chicken.

“I did not expect this; perhaps they used teleportation devices instead. Troublesome, but then why leave the camp? Wait, he’s still here.”

As soon as I heard the leader say that, I rushed out and cleanly cut off the head of the closest person to me. There was silence, and only the fall of the head and the body made any noise as everyone waited for the fighting to start.

I felt him trying to enter my mind. It was like a sledgehammer trying to break through my mental defenses and freeze me in place. My defenses held, but even that small distraction allowed the Ranger to shoot an arrow at me, and everyone else to ready their defenses.

The arrow that came towards me was fast and filled with a lot of energy, but I had sensed mana in the Ranger as well, and it made no sense for him not to attack without that.

I took a simple step to the left so that the arrow would miss me, but still I readied my sword for defense and boosted my armor as much as possible.

I had expected something to happen, but the arrow suddenly disappeared and then reappeared to perfectly hit me in the neck, I had not expected. I was barely able to get my sword in the way to divert the arrow slightly downwards, but when it hit me, I was blinded for a moment by the flash of power it emitted.

Now I knew why they all went into a defensive position. The arrow exploded with such force that if I hadn’t used my core energy, I would have been blown apart. The surrounding small campsite was now a large one as all the trees were blown back quite a distance.

My chest armor was quite damaged, but the attack hadn’t penetrated it. When the dust settled, I still stood where I was when the explosion happened, although a bit more smoky.

Absolutely everyone looked at me in astonishment. The Ranger looked like he was half dead, and most likely the energy that I felt from the attack before was all meant to hide what it actually was. That must have been at least a dozen different abilities stacked together to make the most devastating attack possible.

With this one attack, half of my core energy was gone, my armor was in some parts heavily damaged, but even worse were the energy pathways inside the armor. There was no way I could channel any more core energy through them, but they wouldn't know that.

So, I smiled as I looked at them and took a step forward. It was so satisfying to see them take a step back, even that mind-reading jerk.