Chương 19: Chapter 18 - Bandit Attack

Kiara was excited. She knew that her sword was too long to be effective inside the wagon, but she and Dustin were both sitting near the wagon opening, and could easily step outside. She grabbed Dustin's arm and pulled him outside with her, throwing an apologetic look towards Victor. He seemed like a nice guy, but she only knew him from this caravan ride together, and he would have to fend for himself. Hopefully the two bandits followed her and Dustin outside without hurting him.

As soon as she was outside, she unsheathed her sword and looked around. Caravan guards were running toward the front of the caravan, where a large group of bandits were brandishing weapons and making threats. Captain Forlick and the few guards that had already arrived were arranged in a protective line between the bandits and the wagons. They seemed unaware that some of the bandits were riding in the passenger wagons.

Kiara wondered if the other passenger wagon also had a pair of bandits inside, and assumed it probably did. Just as she had hoped, the two bandits hurried outside the wagon after her, with looks of... fear on their faces? That was unexpected. She readied herself for a fight, but they didn't even spare her a glance. They sprinted for the hills without looking back. Odd. Making a split second decision, she hurried to the other passenger caravan and peeked inside.

Another two bandits were relieving the passengers inside of their valuables, and were just stepping to the door when she arrived. She stepped back to let them out. They mistook her for a guard as they jumped out of the wagon, and immediately engaged her in combat. One of them jumped towards her with their knife, and she parried easily with her sword.

The man didn't use any of the sword forms she was familiar with, and she absently wondered if that was due to his weapon of choice, or if he simply didn't know any of them. The answer quickly became apparent as he swung his blade around. He unsheathed a sword after their initial clash, seeing that his shorter weapon was a poor choice against her sword in this open environment. He mostly took up a defensive stance, which she quickly realized was to give his partner time to hit her with a spell.

They hoped to overpower her, two versus one. His partner was forming some kind of ice magic in the air, while he kept Kiara busy. She barely spared the other bandit a glance, and focused on the one in front of her. She stepped forward quickly in short steps, keeping her legs underneath her, and feinted for the man's left shoulder. As he blocked, she used the momentum of the block to swing her sword to his right leg. She made contact, but he had a mana shield protecting him.

Their next rapid exchange ended with her sword hitting his neck, but it was repelled by his mana shield again. That was frustrating. The other bandit finished casting their ice spell, which came rather rapidly at Kiara and immediately unraveled as it made contact with her. The man's eyes widened in surprise, then his eyebrows scrunched together in focus he poured mana into a large ball of fire instead, hoping to bypass whatever magic shield he thought she must be using. In the meantime, Kiara pressed the attack.

She parried the man's swing, then stepped in close and touched the exposed skin on his arm with her hand. His mana shield disappeared the moment she made contact, and she left a long gash on his right leg with her sword. With the man's leg injured, he favored it slightly, which left him open attacks on his left side. As she struck at his chest, she also kicked at the wounded leg, collapsing the man onto the ground.

The other mage's fireball hit her square in the face, which of course did nothing, and she scored another critical hit on the fallen bandit's left leg. He wouldn't be going anywhere with both legs injured, so she turned her attention to the spell caster. Having two spells fizzle out convinced the man to pull out his sword instead. With a snarl on his face, he lunged at her.

She parried, but couldn't bring her sword back in time to parry his other hand, which still held his knife, which he was stabbing towards her chest. She stepped back and rolled her shoulder to the side to lessen the impact. Her improved Mind and Strength stats helped her react in time, and the knife glanced to the side as it hit her. Her improved Durability showed its worth as well, as instead of a deep gash, she only received a small cut.

She responded with her own free hand, grabbing the back of the man's neck and guiding his face towards her knee. A crunching sound told her that his nose had broken, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. All of the passengers' valuables had been gathered into a small bag, which hung from the spell caster's belt. Kiara cut it loose, and tossed it back inside the wagon.

Then, she knocked the other bandit unconscious as well, and headed towards the front of the wagon train to join with the caravan guards there. Captain Forlick had already engaged the leader of the bandits, and enough guards had gathered to put up a fight as well. The bandits were attacking, but only half-heartedly, glancing at the two bandits that Kiara had wounded, as well as the other two who had already fled the scene.

They seemed ready to flee at a moment's notice, but were also hesitant to leave their leader, who was so focused on fighting Captain Forlick that he hadn't seen the result of the attempted robbery yet. The bandits didn't seem very well trained in combat, so although they outnumbered the caravan guards, they were still being repelled quite easily. Kiara joined in on the fun, taking on two bandits at once.

She started off slowly, not wanting to get in over her head, but quickly realized that these men were not Hank and Jeff. Their sword forms were either very poor or non-existent, and they barely knew how to defend themselves. It was clear they relied on aggression and fear to get what they wanted from unsuspecting travellers. The one on her right lunged forward, swinging wildly, leaving his chest completely exposed.

Kiara defended by plunging her sword toward his chest, but a mana shield prevented her from landing the strike. She quickly sidestepped the attacks of both bandits, and used her free hand to deactivate the man's mana shield by grabbing his arm. Her next attack struck true, and the bandit fell to the ground dead. The other bandit fell soon after, and she looked around to see the state of the battle. Bandits had started retreating, abandoning their leader completely.

The bandit leader was launching spell after spell at Captain Forlick, whose mana shield was repelling them successfully so far. Forlick's skill with the sword was apparent as she drove the bandit leader back, keeping him in a constant state of retreat. The speed of both tier 2s was astonishing, and Kiara realized that they both moved considerably faster than she was able to, even with her improved Strength stat.

The bandit leader's spell casting speed was also much faster than the bandit that Kiara had fought back at the wagon. Instead of a few seconds to form each spell, he was able to release each one after only a second of pouring mana into it. The spells collided with Captain Forlick's mana shield in brilliant displays of light and sound. After glancing around, the bandit leader gave up on the raid, and followed his cronies as they fled into the wilderness.

Captain Forlick let them go, immediately giving new orders to her guards. They fanned out throughout the caravan, looking for any additional threats, and securing the wagons. Kiara's heart rate slowly returned to normal, and she made her way back to her wagon. That was the most fun she'd had in a long time. * After Shian and Dustin had jumped out of the wagon, the bandits had turned to face Victor.

Victor had perfect aura control, and so had allowed just a small portion of his aura to leak out and press down on the two bandits. He made sure to only let it affect the bandits, so that no one outside the wagon would know what he had done. The bandits stumbled from the sudden spiritual pressure, and looks of fear spread across their faces. He simply pointed to the exit, and they didn't stay to chat.

He chuckled softly to himself as they fled into the wilderness, then used his magic sense to watch Shian run to the other passenger wagon. He watched as she fought the two bandits near that wagon, and again as she fought the bandits near the front of the caravan train. The spells that hit her seemed to disappear into thin air, which was an interesting effect he hadn't seen before from a mana shield. He wondered how she did it.

Most interestingly, the spells didn't seem to disappear until they hit her skin, which meant her mana shield was so thin and so close to her body that he couldn't even sense it. It was a truly remarkable display of mana control. Her speed mostly seemed to match the tier 1 bandits, although she was slightly faster than them, and her reaction time was incredible for a tier 1 mage. She must be a much more powerful mage, trying to hold herself back to the level of a tier 1.

That would explain some of the differences in her speed and reaction time from the other tier 1s in the battle. She hadn't quite got it right though, as she was slightly faster than the other tier 1s. He doubted anyone without his level of magical sense would be able to tell the difference though, her mimicry was close enough to fool almost anyone. He was surprised to see her take a hit on her chest from one of the bandit's knives.

Was she that committed to her ruse that she would take an injury rather than expose her true power level? Or… was she really only a tier 1 mage? Certainly not, right? And what of the injuries on her hands after that first city they had stopped at? That was when she had stopped appearing as a peak tier 0 mage and began appearing as a peak tier 1 mage in the periphery of his magic sense. If she really was only a tier 1 mage, how had she peaked so quickly after advancing from tier 0 to tier 1?

That's not how tier advancements worked, which was the main evidence he had so far for her being a more powerful mage masquerading as a tier 1. Why was she doing it? He couldn't fathom. She had started carrying some of her money in the storage ring she had purchased, and he had sensed her moving it from her other storage artifact into the storage ring. He still wasn't able to tell what other artifact she was using for storage, but he could see when she pulled from it to move money to her ring.

Why buy the new storage ring? Why hide the other storage artifact she was using in the first place? He had so many questions!