Chương 30: Highwaymen

Amberlin was glad that Havlo had come to her with his concerns. She was lucky to have found such a reliable apprentice. And he had a pretty mean fireball. It was more impressive than her own, even. She didn't know what she was going to do about teaching him in the future. Maybe she could keep using the same trick of buying him a Tier 4 magic book and telling him to read it. Hopefully he wouldn't ask her to demonstrate any of the spells for him because she wasn't quite there yet, herself.

Thanks to Havlo's forewarning, she got herself repositioned to the front. It was nice actually, being able to hang out with Jenny and the others. She didn't think these bandits were going to be as tough as everyone feared. She could understand why Havlo had gotten spooked, since Jenny had called yesterday's raiders professionals. But he didn't know that Jenny's party had once gotten themselves cornered in the sewers by a creature whose brain evolved in the time of the dinosaurs.

The Silverados were nice people, but she could beat ten of them off, no problem. They left the outpost in the late afternoon. By evening, she could feel the hills closing in on both sides, and the road meandered along the valleys that ran between them. There were many places the bandits could have chosen to attack, but they got through the rest of the day without incident.

This time when they set up for the night, there weren't any convenient clearings, and they bunched up as well as they could along the side of the road, which still left them stretched over an uncomfortably large distance. She could see why the caravan manager wanted some extra patrol escorts. She had dinner with Havlo and Jenny's team, and afterward played everyone a couple of songs on her gittar before heading off to hang out with Boots.

She called it hanging out, but it largely involved him running through the hills while she tried to keep up. She was getting quite good at dodging in between the trees, but her little guy moved like he'd been doing it his entire life. Afterward she stayed up and joined a handful of other adventurers in keeping watch over the caravan while everyone slept. She hadn't been rostered on, but it wasn't like she needed to sleep anyway.

With everyone being so worried about this stretch of road, she wanted to do whatever she could to keep them safe. It wasn't too boring, as Boots also stayed up to keep her company. Next morning they set out again. The caravan manager estimated that they'd be out of the valleys by late afternoon. That estimate changed when they came across a large number of fallen trees blocking their way—an unusual amount even considering the storm that had passed through last night.

It wasn't much of a problem when you had big, strong adventurers capable of moving them out of the way, but Amberlin could sense the mood turning anxious when they had to stop for the third time in an hour. It happened just before noon. The road cut through a narrow pass in between two steep hills. They'd been making good time after having gone an hour without having to stop to clear away an obstacle, and everyone's spirits had been starting to lift as they looked forward to lunch.

A cry came out from behind, and they turned around to see one of the patrol officers pointing up the slope. A couple of boulders had come loose and were on their way down.

"Move along, move along!" the caravan manger shouted, waving for the line to hurry forward to make way for those stuck in the landslide's path. The drivers in the danger zone unhitched their horses, abandoning the cargo to save the animals, and they all got clear just in time as the first rocks smashed into the wagons. More rocks had followed the first, and there came a rain of stone to cut the front of the caravan off from the back. Buck was the first to notice something amiss, and he pointed up to the hilltops.

"There are people pushing!" They all turned their heads to see that there were people on the hills rolling the boulders over the side. It wasn't a natural landslide at all. The caravan manager's response was immediate.

"We're under attack!" Amberlin knew what she had to do. The bandits may have the advantage of the high ground, but that also worked in her favor. It meant that if she could take the fight to them up there, she could go all-out without her friends seeing her powers at work. She started scrambling up the steep hillside.

Jenny turned to Duo-Fist. The warrior was one of the party members who didn't have an effective ranged attack.

"Help the civilians find cover," she instructed. He nodded and began making his way back along the caravan. Keel was already back where the landslide had landed, helping the stragglers to move away before the dirt on the hillside became more unsettled. Beside her, Buck loosed an arrow. It arced its way toward the pushers atop the hill, but it was fighting against gravity. She backed him up with some [Firebolts].

Down the line, the other caravan guards were also focus-firing the pushers, and it was enough to make the bandits duck for cover. But pushers' job was now done. All this disturbance triggered a proper landslide. Rocks that had previously been happy and chill had now been convinced to join their peers in a movement aimed at crushing all who got in their way. Luckily it looked like all the drivers had managed to get their horses clear of the area, and the only victims had been the cargo.

By the smell of alcohol that wafted out toward her, Jenny guessed that included the shipment of rum. She covered her mouth with her sleeve to protect from the dust and turned to Buck.

"They've split the caravan."

"Yeah, and I think they're planning to gang up on our section," Buck said, pointing up behind her. She didn't turn to look at first because her eyes were drawn up to the crest behind Buck, where more than a dozen figures had emerged. And when she did turn, the other hill mirrored what she saw. They were sandwiched on both sides. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

With the four Silverados, the second adventuring team behind them, plus Amberlin, Havlo, and the patrol officers assigned to the forward carriages, they had maybe a dozen people on their side, not counting the drivers and laborers. Which meant that they were outnumbered by the bandits two-to-one. She found the caravan manager staring out from inside his carriage. She approached him and asked, "Do you want us to fight, or do you want to negotiate a surrender?" When he turned to her, his eyes were wide as saucers.

"I don't think they're going to accept a surrender." Before she could ask what he meant, the first [Fireball] struck the carriage. It punched through the [Shield] that she'd reinforced it with this morning, but the spell had done its job and given the occupants time to escape the burning vehicle. This only introduced another problem because now they were vulnerable out in the open. The other adventuring team had let loose with their spells and arrows, but they were outmatched in every way.

The enemy had the advantage in firepower with a Tier 3 mage capable of casting [Fireball], an overwhelming number of lesser mages with their [Firebolts], as well as archer support. The caravan teams were also sitting ducks down in this valley while the bandits had the high ground. Jenny layered a couple of [Shields] over the civilians and tried to hurry them along away from the cargo. The drivers helped lift people up onto the horses and sent them riding along.

The bandits adjusted their aim to target those who were fleeing. Luckily the targets had the protection of her [Shields], but they weren't going to hold for long under this volume of arrows.

"We've got to lay cover fire so the civilians can get away!" she shouted to Buck.

"I'm shooting as fast as I can!" he called back. She suddenly remembered something important.

"Where are Amberlin and Havlo?" He pointed up the hillside, where Amberlin was clinging to the steep slope.

"How in the world did she manage to get up there?" she demanded. But it looked like Amberlin's progress had stalled because the bandits on the opposite hillside had been targeting her. She was adeptly kicking and punching their spells and arrows aside, but it left her with no opportunity to continue her climb.

"We've got to help her," she said.

"Why? She's drawing all the fire away from the civilians," Buck pointed out. She spared him a dirty glance before turning her attention to the hill that was targeting Amberlin. The only way for her to make a difference was with a [Fireball]. That would get the bandits to duck their heads long enough for Amberin to finish her climb. But [Fireball] was a Tier 3 spell, and she wasn't sure she was capable yet. She had to try. She pointed at the hilltop, focusing her mana down her finger.

Aimed just below the crest so that it was guaranteed to explode on target. She formed the spell as well as she could, struggling to maintain its shape. So much flux was leaking out, her mana reserves might drain completely before the spell was finished. And then it was done. It felt clumsy and volatile, like it would crumble apart like a dry cookie. The flames looked barely hot enough to boil a cup of tea. It only had the spirit of a [Fireball], and it had cost her all her mana. But it held.

She fired off the spell and watched as it flew toward the bandits. They watched too, like they couldn't believe what they were seeing. But weak-looking or not, no one wanted to put their life on the line to find out, and they ducked out of the way before it exploded against the crest, sending a cloud of dust and smoke into the air. Which was all the job it was meant to do. The smoke hung around the hill, and instead of getting blown away, it spread along, obscuring their vision of the bandits.

But the same applied in reverse, giving them some much-needed breathing room. Jenny turned back to see Amberlin already scrambling to the top of the slope. The bandits there noticed her too late to stop her, and then she disappeared out of sight.

"All right," she said, turning back to Buck.

"Let's get all the civilians and animals to safety."

Boots climbed out of the carriage when it began to smoke. He'd learned to put up with the shaking and the rocking because it was better than walking, but fire was where he drew the line. He was met with a scene of absolute pandemonium. It felt like he'd slept through something important. Kitten was nowhere to be seen. He picked up her scent and followed it to the hillside, where he sharpened his claws and started to climb. At the top he sat and watched as Kitten kicked the humans up and down along the hilltop.

He couldn't remember the last time he saw her fight, but she seemed to have gotten used to her new form. Her foes couldn't land a hit on her at all. At first they were yelling are her. Things like, "You think you're smart, getting up here?" and, "What can you even do, all on your own?" By the end they were instead yelling at each other. Things like, "What are you doing, you fool? This is my favorite cloak you just burned!" and, "It wasn't me, she deflected the spell into you!"

When it became clear that they were no match for Kitten, the humans turned tail and ran. He was tempted to chase after them, but they weren't his prey. They were Kitten's, and she dutifully went off in pursuit, shouting, "Give us back our herbs!" He sat there and preened himself, satisfied that Kitten was growing up to become a proper cat.

When the first rocks fell, Havlo knew that trouble was in store for them. This was the perfect place for an ambush. Which was why, with everyone distracted by what was coming down toward the middle of the caravan, he slipped away out the front. He had to get up on those hills and deal with the bandits. But he couldn't just scale the slopes. They were a bit too steep for his current level of athleticism—at least without spells. Once he was safely out of detection range, he cast [Haste].

It was tricky trying to find a way up. He'd been lazy, relying too much on [Flight] until recent times, and his trekking skills never properly developed. He reached the hilltop at about the time a [Fireball] struck the crest. It kicked up a convenient cloud of dust and smoke that obscured everything. It was like the Goddess Amberfina herself was helping him. He sensed that one of the bandits was at Tier 3 and targeted him first. His [Fireball] easily broke through the mage's [Shield].

While the mage rolled on the ground to put out the fire that had taken to his clothes, Havlo turned his attention to the other bandits, who had turned at the sudden blast. Here the smoke worked to his advantage. While he had to avoid using magic that was too advanced in case word got back to Lady Amberlin, it was enough to rely on his rapidfire casting. A flurry of [Air strikes] knocked most of the bandits to the ground while his elevated [Shield] easily blocked all their return [Firebolts].

In the past he'd been relying on [Earth Bind] to capture criminals, but that was a Tier 5 spell. The Tier 3 alternative was [Entangle], which he used now to great effect due to the abundance of vegetation. The problem with [Entangle] was that it was much easier for a spellcaster to burn their way out. With this hillside taken care of, he turned his attention to the other one, where he caught a flash of familiar strawberry-blonde hair.

Not quite believing his eyes, he used [Air Strike] to clear a tunnel through the smoke. Somehow Lady Amberlin had found her way to the crest, and for some reason had brought her cat along with her. While her methods were quite unorthodox, it was undeniable that she was holding the bandits' attention, giving the caravan down below a chance to escape. When the bandits fled into the trees, she ran after them. Was she planning to take down their entire base? He needed to find a way there to help her.

The answer came from the Tier 3 mage that he'd knocked down earlier. He was making good progress on burning through the roots and vines that held him. Havlo decided to help the process along by using [Entangle] again to weaken the binds while pretending not to notice. Once the man was free, he wasted no time in helping his friends. That was to say, he abandoned his friends and ran off into the woods without a second thought. Havlo followed him, easily keeping up with his still-active [Haste] spell.