Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

"Please close the door," said Samira as Jay and Marko entered the war room. Jack and Corinne were already inside, waiting beside Don Enzo. All four of them stared down at the war table and the towering stack of red tiles piled up on top of Miranda.

"I'm guessing that's where we're headed?" said Marko, pointing at the pile.

Samira nodded. "Tomorrow afternoon, the directorate is having a parade to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their arrival to Whispertide. They're chalking off the day as an island-wide day of festivity and hosting many parties all across Red Sands."

"And the people are joining in?" said Jay, surprised that the islanders would accept a parade thrown in honour of their invaders.

Enzo visibly frowned, huffing sharply at Jay's words.

"The Directorate centralised most of the Archipelago's trade, moving it towards Red Sands. It made several connected merchants on Miranda a lot of money; it made the rest reliant on the Directorate itself.

"If the Directorate says celebrate they'll get a celebration, regardless of what the people want."

Enzo hacked a lump of phlegm up his throat before swallowing it, as if he only just remembered he was inside.

Samira picked two blue tiles off the table, grabbing the room's attention before placing them atop the stack of red tiles.

"As I said before, the directorate is hosting a parade down the main boulevard of Red Sands, many high ranking members will be attending, each of them protected by a team of Smothering Grasp gladiators.

"Once you get to Red Sands, you'll meet up with two Howling Wind spies situated there. Following their lead I want you to investigate two of these officials, Carlo Caruso and Anton Bassar. I want you to follow them after the parade, note where they go, and scout those places for ambush potential."

"If we see an opportunity, should we go for the kill?" asked Jack.

Enzo visibly recoiled until Samira's reply calmed him.

"Not under any circumstances," she said. "Attacking the Directorate so boldly and so early on in the battle is bound to cause a reaction. They'll flush out all our spies and gladiators and it'll end up doing more harm than good. If you sense an opportunity, note down the circumstances and we'll hopefully use the information later. Whatever you do, try not to cause a scene."

Jay nodded, understanding why Limitless Ascent couldn't just attack their opponents.

He might be fighting his own battle, but the alliance was waging a full on war.

Kestrel had a new boat driver waiting at the underground docks to take them to Red Sands. The old sailor's name was Ricard, and he only communicated with Kestrel through a series of grunts and nods. Ricard and his boat, the Penelope, cut silently through the belt without bumping into the rocks once. After passing through the treacherous underwater canyon, they took Kestrel on a much smoother journey than their previous trips with Mahon.

The Penelope rode with the waves, not against them. Kestrel were even able to speak while they travelled, a previously unavailable luxury. Halfway through the journey, Corinne pointed behind them, spotting a pod of five snake-like creatures swimming alongside the boat's wake. The turquoise lizards sailed through the ocean, occasionally jumping from below and smashing their open mouths into the frothy waters behind the Penelope.

Jay wished he could have brought Ping on this mission, but the shield was far too recognisable, especially for a mission where he probably wouldn't be fighting. Ping would've loved soaring alongside the serpents, but instead she stayed trapped inside the Full Moon Sanctuary.

The sea serpents trailed Kestrel for most of their journey before drifting away from the longtail shortly before they caught sight of Miranda. Snow-covered mountain caps towered above several rusty peaks, each of them lit up by the sunrise and looking down on the Mirandan woodlands. Below them both were the red sands that gave Whispertide's economic capital its name.

Red Sands was by far the most built up city Jay had seen since arriving at the archipelago. Multi-storey stone buildings built with rocks as red as the sand they sat atop covered almost all of Red Sands' coastline and stretched a good way inland too.

Kestrel weren't the only ones planning an early arrival to the parade; dozens more longtails streamed towards the port city alongside several even larger boats. They formed into two queues and Ricard steered the Penelope towards the shorter one.

The boats forming the larger line sailed towards the river that bisected Red Sands before entering a newly refurbished harbour beside it. The 'Apex Port' was the newest jewel in the Directorate's crown. Rebuilt specifically to celebrate their fifth anniversary, it was twice the size of the second largest Harbour in the region.

While a fancy new marina would be an excellent place to dock the Penelope and quickly enter Red Sands, it was also the perfect place to set up a checkpoint and verify all the arrivals into the city. Every member of Limitless Ascent, apart from perhaps Jay, would be known to the Smothering Grasp Alliance and therefore the Directorate. The Apex Port was surely packed to the brim with enemy gladiators waiting to pounce on them the moment they were identified.

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But if the Smothering Grasp Alliance were all situated in Red Sands, then they'd made a big mistake.

Kestrel were one of the few Limitless Ascent teams sent to Miranda today. Samira had opted to try and press their advantages elsewhere rather than strike at the directorate's core. It seemed like a good plan, but Jay didn't ignore that she'd sent Kestrel into the most dangerous place in the archipelago on a mission not even part of her main strategy. He privately hoped that the Smothering Grasp Alliance saw through her plan, and didn't place many gladiators in Red Sands.

Jay kept his hopes silent, however.

Ricard entered the city through a smaller, less maintained marina five minutes west of the Apex Port. He travelled past several mooring points before steering towards a short woman in a hooded red moko waving him towards her.

"Drop them off here!" she shouted.

Ricard grunted before turning his longtail parallel to the wooden pier and taking Kestrel towards a metal ladder that sank into the water. The woman nodded at each gladiator as they climbed out of the boat, although Jay couldn't clearly see her face.

"If we're not here by sunset, wait an hour before leaving. We'll meet you tomorrow night then," she said to the boat driver. He simply grunted before sailing away.

"What a charmer… there's a safe-house across the street from here. Let's talk there."

Kestrel all nodded before silently following their guide out of the loosely guarded dockyard.

Twenty paces inland of the dilapidated docks, their guide led them into a recently closed bar named the Ugly Duck. The lone barkeep stacking fallen chairs turned his head towards them. He looked ready to fight for a second before sharply returning to his duties.

Based on the state his bar was in, it'd take all morning to beat the place back into shape. Jay's boots clung to the sticky wood panelling with each step, and although there were only three broken chairs, the glass fragments strewn across the floor seemed far more difficult to clean up. Jay ran his fingers along the central bar, gazing at the half empty liquor bottles behind it as he followed their guide to the back exit.

The beaten up door barely clung to its hinges and stank of piss, but walking through it meant leaving the alcohol soaked air of the Ugly Duck, and for that Jay was glad.

Kestrel's guide led them up two flights of stairs and through a tattered hallway. She stopped beside a door—the only one with a full coat of paint—and knocked on it in a rhythmic pattern before unlocking it and waving Kestrel inside.

Unlike the rest of the building it inhabited, this safe house was relatively well kept. The walls were all painted ocean blue, and there was a matching green set of armchairs and sofa further within the apartment.

"Welcome to Red Sands," said the woman, finally taking the hood off her moko. She had wavy black hair and pale skin that highlighted the bags beneath her eyes.

She dropped into an armchair with a relieved smile before kicking off her boots and propping her feet up onto a coffee table. "Name's Nelly, you guys must be Kestrel. Take a seat. It's too early to talk business standing up."

Jay smiled before sitting down onto the sofa next to Marko and Corinne. It seemed their guide wasn't the biggest fan of the Full Moon Sanctuary's no boats during daytime policy. A door creaked open behind Nelly and another woman joined their meeting.

Although she did a slightly better job of hiding it, she looked just as tired as Nelly. Her curly blonde hair was tied in a hasty ponytail and she half squinted at the four gladiators that had just entered her home.

"I'm Mia. I assume you're the gladiators?"

Jack nodded and introduced himself first, Marko followed him before Jay and then Corinne. Mia and Nelly slowly grew more awake with each introduction until it was finally their turn.

As it turned out, they had a reason to be tired. Both women worked as Directorate administrators during the day while moonlighting as spies for the Howling Wind Resistance. While the entire island celebrated the parade today, these two were working overtime.

"What can you tell us about our targets, Carlo Caruso and Anton Bassar?" asked Jack, eager to get straight to business.

Mia held up a sheet of paper laden with scribbled notes before handing it to Jack. "Caruso's the Directorate acquisitions leader, the one who scours the Whispertide islands and bones looking for wealth to exploit. He fancies himself an archaeologist but spends most of his time setting up mines throughout the archipelago.

"Bassar's sort of his opposite. He's an ex-pirate turned privateer turned merchant turned Directorate executive. When he's not blackmailing traders into woefully lopsided deals he's getting blackout drunk at the nearest bar he can find.

Jack raised an eyebrow and looked over at his team.

"Don't get your hopes up," said Nelly. "Somehow, the more drunk Bassar is, the harder he fights. He's gotten a new set of guards recently as well. I thought they were mercs from out of town, but they're probably gladiators."

Nelly's final sentence caught Kestrel's attention. While the Limitless Ascent gladiators darted around the archipelago applying pressure wherever they were needed, most of their opponents operated in fixed roles. Knowing where specific gladiators were stationed was key information that Samira wanted to learn.

"Where are they likely to go after the parade?" asked Jay.

"Bassar's almost certainly staying in town," Nelly replied. "He'll be at one of the seafront bars but it's random chance which one he chooses. As for Caruso, he'll probably leave the parade early. He's leaving for an expedition to the far north of the Archipelago tomorrow—has suspicions it's a Titan bone apparently. He lives up in Red Rock so will likely travel there with a squad of guards before the parade's over."

"We'll have to split up then," said Jack.

"I'll take Caruso," replied Corinne. "Anything to get me out of the city."

Jack nodded. "Jay, you should join her. You're better than me at staying unseen and Marko's more useful in a crowd. We'll tail Bassar and see what he gets up to in the evening. Don't do anything rash, there's a good chance we have to spend the night on Miranda and I don't want any eyes on us."

Jay agreed with his captain's reasoning. The thought of stalking someone through a forest so soon after advancement irked him, even if it was better for the team.

"I guess we're splitting up too then?" said Nelly. She looked up at Mia before turning to Jay and Corinne. "I'll come with you but I'm not leaving the city. I'll show you a passage you can use to exit and return unseen."

"Sounds great," said Jay. Nelly seemed competent enough, but she'd likely just slow down him and Corinne through the forest. Jay was glad he wouldn't have to tell her to back off later that evening.

"Anything else?"