112 112 Defectors
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The other two were better at pretending to be asleep and only sat up once the offer to change Covens was made. It wasn’t exactly unheard of, but there was a strong stigma that went with transfers since the choice meant that they could never go home again.
This time, the answer was so obvious that there was no doubt.
“We would be honoured to join you, Lieutenant. Do we need to wear the uniform all the time, though? I’ve gotten pretty comfortable in this armour spell.” Cassie answered on behalf of the group.
“That’s an armour spell? How did you even do that? It’s so realistic. But no, you don’t have to wear the uniform. Active duty Witches with an Aura strength over one hundred get an exemption.
But you should destroy anything from the academy that you didn’t make yourself.
Don’t leave any trace that you were here because once we switch positions, Reiko’s family will come looking again, and they’ll look much more deeply.”
“Got it. With the new packs, we can get rid of the old ones. The unit can eat these rations for dinner, and Wolfe has already destroyed the uniforms.
The loss of cooking supplies and such will be annoying, but there are replacement items in the camp if those are fair game.” Cassie agreed.
“That’s fine. They can only be tracked back to this camp, and most of my unit will have pilfered some. If there are more reserve supplies, feel free to loot them as well.
“There are two containers buried beside the bus full of rice and beans that we never checked.” Mary reminded them.
“Morgana Coven and their rice and beans. Everyone else sends decent rations. They send that same bland combination every time.” Priya complained.
“We heard there is an attack. Should we be out there?” Wolfe asked.
“It’s only a few dozen monsters. They can deal with it. Just wait in the bunker for now until we can verify the Morgan Clan didn’t leave a spell behind to look for signs of you five.”
The sounds of battle barely made it into the camp, but the fight didn’t last long. In ten minutes, it was over, and the attack force returned victorious.
They were in a great mood, so they must not have lost anyone, and the group in the bunker could hear them celebrating the fact they could use their magic weapons all the time without exhausting their team’s Witch.
It made the fight simple, with all fifty blades easily cutting through the thick hide and Arrows that went deep enough to hit vital organs on the first try. They actually had the clear upper hand in this fight, and that was cause for celebration.
“The area is clear for you to come out now. We have searched the area, including everywhere near the camp that the Morgan Family’s team went to, and we’ve removed all of the spells they left behind to search for traces of you five.
I have just one question, though. Does your sister not have control of the special operations teams? That group was pretty amateur hour.” Priya asked Reiko later that afternoon.
“No, they still follow only my mother for exactly this reason. It’s not the first time that a Heir has tried to take over by force. Should we go check the last two containers now and make sure we aren’t missing any good stuff?” She responded, not really wanting to discuss her family drama.
“Sure. You might as well move some more rice and beans to the bunker as well. They go pretty well with the spicy monster meat.” The Lieutenant agreed, looking a bit reluctant to admit that the simple staples were worth keeping around when her team had pack wagons full of carefully curated rations.
Priya came to inspect the containers with them, supposedly so she could teach the newly advanced Witches of her team how to move dirt efficiently with magic as they dug up the first of the containers, but also because she was curious about what the defenders had left behind.
“Now, this is a storage locker.” Wolfe cheered, looking at the rows of rifles on the walls and the barrels of ammunition in the center of the newly opened container.
“You know that the sound of gunfire will bring any monster or undead within ten kilometres down on you, and the bullets don’t usually penetrate monster hide, right?” Priya asked.
“Can’t you enchant them like a bow and affix the spell to bullets instead of Arrows?” Wolfe asked.
“That would work for single shots, but the spell needs to be reactivated between shots, and that takes time. Unless you’re just pouring mana in from a bottomless well, it’s not feasible. We have short bows if you prefer ranged fighting.” Priya informed him.
“Fine. I’ll take one rifle with a silencer, though, just for the long range. They’re not much louder than speaking voices that way, which shouldn’t cause any issues.” Wolfe decided.
He took his time picking out a rifle with a scope and loading a bag with magazines full of ammunition and a few replacement sound suppressors, then slung the rifle over his shoulder and loaded his pockets with spare magazines.
It might take witches a few seconds to reactivate an Elemental Magic Inscription, but he could do it in a heartbeat. With practice, Wolfe was fairly sure he could enchant bullets as fast as he could pull the trigger.
He just needed to work out how to make the inscription work, but he could refer to the Arrows that the Witches were using for the template to place on the barrel.
“Let’s see the other container. Maybe it’s more useful.” Priya suggested while shaking her head at the sight of a rifle slung across Wolfe’s back.
The second container was even worse than the first. It contained nothing but spare Morgana Defense Force uniforms, cut for men’s wear, and nobody in this force would need that. Even the rice and beans were more useful than another Coven’s uniforms.
“It looks like they didn’t leave behind much of value, so we can bury these cans again and leave them for the next group, in case they have a use for them.” Priya sighed, having hoped that the hurried departure might have missed some reagents or premade wards.
“Lieutenant, we have an issue. Zombie birds are coming from the north.” One of the scouts reported.
The ward hiding the camp should keep them safe and unnoticed, but birds could be erratic, and if they ignored the repulsive effect or noticed it too late while diving, the camp could be discovered.
“Shall we try out the new barrier spell? Just me and my group will hold the Lightning Storm Barrier if the birds get close, so we can see how much mana it burns and if the five of us can hold it while the camp is under threat. Your group can use area spells to burn them to ash.” Wolfe suggested.
“That’s not a terrible idea. As long as you can hold long enough for us to blanket the area with spells, we’re good. Zombie Birds are easy to kill, but their beaks have turned many good soldiers into undead.”