Despite nothing happening after several hours, Damion’s excitement had hardly diminished. Ethan had been regaling Damion with tales of past escorts and close encounters that, even though Damion knew were mostly tall tales, were highly entertaining.
The trade caravan had reached the Benault Forest and been forced to slow down, though only slightly. The tall dark trees of the forest were a stark contrast to the open plains around Saung. To Damion it was almost like entering another world entirely.
They were still traveling at a quick pace and were around the halfway mark, according to Ethan. Damion was feeling a bit let down that nothing had happened. So far, he had yet to catch even a glimpse of a Ferocious Beast. He had seen a couple flashes of light ahead of the number one truck, but whatever the lead escorts had attacked either fled or was flattened as the convoy rolled over it.
“Still hoping you’ll get the chance to fight something?” Ethan asked as he watched Damion scan the tree line on either side of the road.
“Can’t hurt to keep an eye out,” Damion answered not wanting to admit that Ethan was right.
Damion was preparing himself for Ethan’s retort when the lead truck suddenly braked hard forcing theirs to brake as well. The two of them were jerked forward in their seats, luckily they were strapped in, otherwise the sudden stop would have sent them both tumbling forward and off the roof of the cab.
As Damion and Ethan registered what just happened, fighting broke out in the road ahead of the convoy. Damion saw Ethan release his straps and ready his weapon while looking around, likely trying to find the trouble. Damion followed suit, checking his side of the truck for trouble.
There were no beasts that Damion could see, but Ethan ran to the back of the truck and then jumped down. Not sure what Ethan was up to, Damion decided to follow. When he arrived at the back of the truck Damion saw Ethan fighting a man, with another man on the ground, blood gushing from a gash on his neck.
“Bandits!” Ethan shouted at Damion as he deflected the bandit’s attack with one dagger while slashing with his other.
For a moment Damion considered jumping off the trailer to ambush the bandit that was still fighting, but he thought better of it. Bandits were likely to be better at close fighting than he was and he had no idea if they were knights or not.
Instead of jumping down, Damion channeled mana into his sword and the fire attack glyph. Ethan seemed to have a sixth sense regarding Damion’s intention and jumped backwards. With a clear shot, Damion launched his attack at the bandit.
The fire slash lashed out at the bandit, who had no idea it was coming. The attack hit him in the right shoulder and burned its way across his chest to his left hip. The bandit screamed in pain and collapsed on the ground. The blow had not cleaved flesh. Damion’s fire attack on its own was not strong enough to cut into a man, but the fire attack seared the skin of the bandit, causing him great pain and sending him into shock.
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Seeing the bandit hit the ground, Ethan lunged forward and slit its throat before looking up at Damion. Watching the man be finished off was not pleasant for Damion, but he knew the law of this world’s wilderness was the same as the old west, kill or be killed.
“Go check the back of one,” I’ll make my way to 3,” Ethan ordered.
Damion quickly put two and two together. The bandits had done something to stop the caravan and while the escorts were at the front meeting the threat, other bandits were slipping in between the trucks to steal what they could.
When Damion reached the front of his truck he saw two bandits at the back of truck one. They had managed to get the door open and were trying to move one of the heavy boxes out of the back, but it appeared they were not strong enough to budge the heavy box.
“Might I suggest you surrender,” Damion said looking down at the pair of bandits that were trying to slide a box out of the trailer without any luck.
The bandits looked up at Damion unsure of what they should do. Since Damion had not moved to attack, they decided survival was the best course of action and took off into the forest. Damion watched them go, glad he would not have to fight them. Fighting beasts was one thing, fighting people was another.
With a quick jump Damion moved to truck one and headed up to its cab to see how the escorts were fairing. Across the road was a large tree, which appeared to be the reason the caravan had stopped. On the ground were several bodies spread out around Mr. Hoyt, who was standing alone with a flaming longsword in one hand.
“All clear front and back of two,” Damion called down to Mr. Hoyt.
The man looked up at Damion before turning to the tree blocking the road. With a slash of his sword Mr. Hoyt split the tree in two. Each half of the tree he gave a quick kick, sending the pieces tumbling out of the road.
“How are the other trucks?” Mr. Hoyt asked Damion.
“Ethan was working his way backwards,” Damion answered.
“I’ll keep an eye on the front. Head back and see if it’s all clear, we need to get moving. You have three minutes and then we need to start moving.”
“Yes, sir,” Damion answered. “The bandits managed to open the back of trailer one.”
“You get going, I’ll handle it.”
Damion did as instructed and started to the rear of the caravan. At the back of each truck Damion saw bodies. Some were bandits, a few were escorts. It was not until the fifth truck that Damion saw a live person. One of the escorts was climbing back on their cab.
“Mr. Hoyt says we’re moving out in just a couple minutes. Make sure everything is buttoned up.” Damion told the escort as he continued to the rear.
Damion got to the second to last truck when he spotted Ethan on the last truck coming towards him.
“Mr. Hoyt says we are going to get moving in just another minute or so,” Damion told him when they got close.
“Good. You take number two, I’ll take three,” Ethan told Damion as a few people climbed on the cab from behind Ethan.
“How many did we lose?” Damion asked.
“Just the escorts on truck three and four,” Ethan answered. “We didn’t lose any cargo though.”
Damion did not know what to feel as he made his way back to his seat on the roof of cab two. When he heard that two people from his first mission had died it was an eye opener. Between Ms. Teft and Ethan, this mission had sounded like a walk in the park. If his mother ever found out he doubted she would ever let him out of the house again. Damion knew he needed to make sure to not let his guard down for a moment.
Not long after Damion was done getting his strap in place on his chair the caravan started moving again. Part of him was going to miss Ethan’s conversation for the rest of the mission, but another part of him was happy for solitude.
From his bag, Damion took out the sandwich his mother had made for him and took a bite. At least for a little while, Damion had something to distract his thoughts.