by S Bailey
“Hey Slim!” Jen said, as she felt his presence and then noticed him saunter into their little camp. Her mana bond would let her know if anything injured him badly, so she had not been worried after the battle in Casino City.
Tamako looked as Slim with interest, but Jen and Sam had already told her everything they knew about him.
Slim rubbed up against Jen’s knee and she bent over and scratched him behind the ears.
Sam had taken a liking to Slim and rushed over and started scratching Slim until he rolled over on his back and Sam said, “Man, it’s good to see you. Without you around, I’ve been outnumbered with these two ladies.”
Slim noticed the evil eye Jen was giving Sam, and said, “Log, what did you do?”
Sam explained everything to Slim, which also gave him an opportunity to acknowledge to Jen and everyone else that he had acted like a jerk.
Slim sent a message directed just to Sam, “You need to remember she has a gentle heart. She is not like you and me. If you change her, you will answer to me.”
Sam was unconcerned with Slim’s threat, because he agreed with him, and gave Slim a slight nod of understanding.
Slim also sent a concerned thought to Jen, but then changed the subject, “I have some of your stuff.” Slim rolled over, opened his jaw and emptied out all the enchanted disks that Sam had launched over the Roulette army. Slim then gave Sam a serious look, and said, “but I fought and killed for the rest of the loot and it’s all mine!”
Sam scratched Slim even more behind his ears, and said “Thanks buddy! I really appreciate you picking these up for me!” As usual, Sam didn’t really care about the other loot, but he was overjoyed at getting his enchanted disks back. After He invented something once, he barely received any experience points for re-making the same enchantment, and he had been dreading the boring task of making more enchanted disks.
Jen brought Slim up to speed on their plan to kill the bandits in Big Money, and then they were heading to Rolling Dice before jumping to the Second Deck.
Slim replied, “No, I will go with you and watch your back, Tamako will keep watch, and Sam will stay out of the way unless we need to kill everyone in the town.”
The rest of the night, Jen and Slim worked with Tamako to improve her psych ability enough to allow her to communicate directly with Slim.
The next evening Slim was licking his fur in the alley as Jen used one of her Ninja techniques to quietly scale the wall up to a window where a few of the mercenaries were sleeping. The window opening was closed with wooden shutters that were locked shut.
They learned all the mercenaries planned to turn in early to be prepared for the caravans leaving early the next morning. Tamako was on watch inside the Inn and sent a message to Jen when the last of the mercenaries went to her room. There were also a few mercenaries staying in tents near the merchants’ wagons, that Tamako was watching out for, just in case they came into the Inn for some reason.
Jen sensed the mana alarm placed on the inside of the window by the mercenaries. She reached out with her psych skill and cut its mana connection turning it off. She then pulled a small mouse out of her pocket and sent it squirming into the room through the cracks in the window. She used the mouse to look around the room to locate the mercanaries and make sure they were all sleeping before she made her next move. Jen then used the mouse to disable the mechanical trap that was also protecting the window entrance. Last, before opening the window and entering the room, Jen activated her silencing rod to make sure that the mercenaries did not hear anything.
Once Jen went inside, Slim took a single jump and landed on the now open window sill. Slim watched without comment as Jen went to each of the four mercenaries in the room and placed her hand over their mouths as she slit their throats. However, when he looked into her eyes as she climbed out the window heading to the next window over, Slim somewhat regretted telling her to use the Ninja Technique scroll. Slim noticed she failed to loot the mercenaries and their gear. “It’s the least I can do for her!” he thought, as he jumped around the room taking everything of value.
Jen only had a problem with one of the four mercenary’s rooms where they were all still awake playing cards. Just as her mouse finished disarming the mechanical trap, one of the mercenaries noticed what it was doing. Jen’s silencing rod was already activated, and she immediately kicked the window open and pin-cushioned all the bandits with one of Sam’s armor-piercing crossbow rings. As she continued into the room to finish them off, she realized all of them had already removed their armor, and the crossbow bolts had been enough to kill them all.
While sneaking out of town, Jen stopped and finished off the last two mercenaries near the caravans.
Slim messaged Log and Tamako, “Tomorrow, if the merchants leave town without an escort, wait for the merchants to catch up with you and offer to travel with them to Rolling Rock. Jen needs to be around the children to reinforce why she felt it was necessary to kill the mercenaries.”
Neither Sam nor Tamako wanted to travel with the merchants. Sam wanted to work on his enchantments, and Tamako wanted to continue their combat training, but they both understood and nodded towards Slim in agreement.
After the night’s events, Tamako had a realization, and said to Sam, “You and Jen killed the Farmer’s Guild leader huh?”
“Yep.”
Chapter 69:
Merchant Travels
“James, why are we leaving without an escort?” asked Amy.
“That Giant weasel of a sheriff says that we are somehow to blame for the death of all the mercenaries last night, and has ordered us to leave town immediately or be thrown in prison.”
Jack ran up next to James and Amy, and said, “The wagons are ready to go. I’ve dressed all the kids up to look like adults and armed them with weapons. With any luck we will fool any gangs into believing we have a full escort of mercenaries with us.”
James was trying to keep his composure for everyone else, but he knew if they were attacked, they were as good as dead. There were 10 adults and 18 kids in the convoy of five families and six wagons, but none of them were skilled in combat or hunting, they were all merchants. James wasn’t even sure they could survive if a pack of wolves attacked them. However, he did know that they would all fight to the death to protect their children.
“I made those fools leave town without their escort,” said Sheriff Gilda.
“What happened to all the mercenaries that were supposed to take them to Rolling Dice?” asked deputy Rod.
“They either got themselves killed, or they skipped out after getting paid up front. I don’t really give a shit. What I know is those merchants are going to be easy pickings.”
“What about the Mayor?”
“What about him. No one is going to know.”
“O.K., so what’s the plan?”
“I’ll be about 20 minutes behind you after I round up a little help from a few of the others that know how to keep their mouth shut. Now get going and see which direction they take at the junction, and leave a sign for us to follow you, and stay out of sight!”
Jen’s eyes narrowed suspiciously when she noticed the man leave Big Money following the caravan. Twenty minutes later when another group of 15 people hurried out after the merchants in the same direction, she knew for sure what was going to happen.
Jen messaged, “They just left following the caravan. There are about sixteen of them in total. One tracking the merchants and fifteen following further behind. I believe in a couple of hours when the caravan has to stop to rest and feed the oxen that are pulling their wagons. They will make their move.”
Tamako replied, “What do you want to do?”
“We’ll follow behind, and when the bandits start to make their move against the merchants, we’ll move into the woods for cover and concealment, and hit the group of bandits from their flank.”
James was driving the oxen hard trying to make good time, but just a few hours outside of Big Money they
stopped to water and rest the oxen for a short break.
“James!” called out Jack from the rear of the caravan.
As James ran to Jack’s position he hollered, “circle up and get your weapons ready everyone.” James knew there was only one reason Jack would call out to him like that. His heart fell to his stomach as he quickly counted 16 bandits strolling down the road towards them like they had nothing to worry about.
James hollered out, “Stop right there if you know what’s good for you!”
Sheriff Gilda laughed, “Whatcha going to do to stop us Big James!”
James was stunned as he recognized the voice, “Is that you sheriff?” James was pissed, he figured she must have run the mercenaries out of town to force them out here by themselves where she could rob them and kill them.
“James, we don’t want to harm you. Just peacefully lay down your weapons and give us your money and wagons. Then we will let you and your families keep going to Rolling Rock.”
Before James could say anything, lightning bolts came out of the sky striking all 16 of the bandits.
As James and Jack were trying to pull swords out of their scabbards, they watched all but three of the bandits drop to the ground dead. Sheriff Gilda immediately twisted and threw her great spear into the forest, just as another spear came out of the forest piercing her through the chest. As Gilda was pulling a potion from a storage ring on her hand, an odd piece of metal flew out of the woods smashing the potion before she could get a chance to drink it. A scream of pain came from the woods, but then a small woman leaped about 15 feet through the air from the edge of the forest, and after landing, she kicked Gilda in the head so hard her brain splattered all over the remaining two bandits.
James motioned for Jack to back up with him to form a tight perimeter with the other adults around the children.
After the little woman splattered that bitch’s head like a watermelon all over the two remaining bandits, one of them turned to run, and the little lady cut him down before he took a step, but then she had to parry the axe the other bandit was swinging down towards her face.
Tamako was a little disgusted at the bandit’s poor technique, but she knew he had just been hit with a lightning bolt. She reversed her parry of his axe into an upward swing sinking her sword through his shoulder and half way through his chest. She let go of her sword and pulled a small hand ax from her waste and smashed it down through his helmet and skull. She checked to make sure all the bandits were dead before heading to check on Sam’s condition.
After Jen threw her Ninja star at the big women’s potion, she turned to Sam who was screaming on the ground with a spear through his side.
As Jen started to grab for the spear that was impaling him, Sam yelled in pain, “Wait! I’ve already healed myself.”
“But the spear is still in you, let me get it out!”
“Fuck it hurts!, but just wait a second!” he screamed in pain.
Jen’s multi-focus was aware that Tamako had already killed the remaining bandits.
Sam was in terrible pain and was having a hard time talking, “Before…I…cast another heal…..yank the shaft out only after you snap off the tip!”
Jen grabbed the tip of the spear with both hands and while snapping it off yelled, “That’s what she said!” Then she yanked the shaft of the spear out of his body.
Sam used his legacy heal tattoo and cast a mana-heavy general heal over his entire body. His ass was now burning, but he could feel his insides mending back together, as he just laid on the ground trying to deal with the pain while allowing the enchantment to wash over his body.
Tamako returned to their location, and after seeing Sam was going to be O.K. said, “Why didn’t you dodge?”
Sam looked flustered, but replied, “I was behind a tree that was two feet thick! I didn’t think the spear would punch clean through the tree!”
Tamako looked disgusted, and said, “That’s what you get for thinking instead of dodging! Next time you see a weapon heading towards you, Dodge it! God you’re an idiot!”
Tamako turned around walking back onto the road to loot the bodies. Jen said to Sam, “She was terrified that you were going to die, and she’s upset that she let you get hurt.”
“That’s not what it sounded like to me!” said Sam.
“Well, you’re not a good listener! And she was not the only one worried!” Jen said as she continued to watch over Sam and offer him some water to drink.
About 20 minutes passed while Sam just laid on the ground casting minor heals on himself; then he started laughing.”
Jen looked both pissed and curious, and said, “what are you laughing about?”
Sam raised his hand for a fist bump, and quoted Jen, “That’s what she said! That’s going to be a hard one to beat!”
Jen didn’t rise to the bait and just got up and walked towards Tamako.
“Hey! Don’t leave me hanging!” Sam called after she didn’t return his proffered fist bump.
Slim hadn’t been worried after he watched Sam almost instantly cast a heal on himself after being struck with the spear, but he was glad when he could sense that Sam almost got Jen to laugh when offering a ‘fist bump’.
Slim strolled over to Sam who was still laying flat on his back resting, and proceeded to climb up on top of him and sit on his chest, and said, “Clean my fur until they get back!”
Sam half laughed, and said, “whatever,” but reached up and started scratching Slim behind the ears.
“Slim, do you know how that big bandit knew where I was to throw her spear at me?”
“My guess is she had activated a reaction skill before she approached the merchants.”
“What’s a reaction skill?”
“A skill that allows you to immediately react to the point of an attack from any direction. It’s good for reacting to hidden attackers or to an ambush. Depending on the person’s skill level with it, the skill can stay activated and ready for an hour or two. After it is triggered by an attack, there is usually a cool-down period for 20 to 30 minutes before it can be activated again.”
“That’s pretty cool!”
“Do you know what’s even better?” asked Slim.
“No, what!” Sam said excitedly.
“Dodging!” Slim said, as he jumped off Sam’s chest heading over to Jen.
Chapter 70:
Bandit Magnets
James, Jack, and the rest of the merchants were trying to get everyone going while the bandits fought each other. He was trying to see where the bandits were when he felt a razor-sharp knife press against his throat, and heard a woman’s voice from behind him, “Don’t move. I’m not going to hurt you. Don’t try to attack me when I take my knife away from your neck and release you. Do you understand?”
All the other merchants were now looking towards James, as he replied, “Yes, I understand perfectly.”
Jen released James and took several steps backwards to allow James and the other merchants some room for comfort.
James rubbed his neck where the knife had been, as he watched the small woman step out of the woods to stand next to the woman with the knife.
James heard his great-aunt Martha murmur, “They are level 28 and 29! They could kill us all by barely lifting a finger!”
To discourage any attempts by the merchants to try and fight them, Jen and Tamako forged their levels artificially high, and Jen smiled inside as she heard the merchants’ comment.
Jen knew that merchants would never believe something was free, so she said, “We are heading to Rolling Dice, how much are you willing to pay for an escort? We are not bandits. If you don’t want an escort, we will be on our way, and good luck to you all.”
The merchants mumbled among themselves for a few minutes, then James said, “We know the standard rate for an escort all the way to Rolling Dice is 1 gold, and we do not want to insult you. However, we paid half our money up front to some mercenaries for an escort, and they ran off with it. We only have
50 silver remaining to pay you. We have some goods we can offer you for the other 50 silver.”
Jen nodded, “Separate out the goods and we have a deal.”
James was about to tell Jack to start separating out some goods, when the small woman, without turning or looking, threw a rock into the forest. James heard someone in the forest yell, “God Damnit! That Hurt!” and the small lady yelled, “It doesn’t hurt when you dodge!”
He felt like the little lady might hit him with something any second, but James turned to help Jack separate out some goods and pretended like nothing happened.
Jack said to James quietly, “After paying them with all these goods, are we going to have enough to get our business started?”
James replied, “I don’t know, but I feel without an escort we will surely be killed or worse.”
Jack replied with a nod, but James knew he and everyone else in the caravan would be worried about providing for their children in Rolling Dice.
A few days later Jen was riding in one of the wagons, when she messaged everyone, “I finally succeeded using my new flight simulator app!”
Only Sam really understood what she was talking about, and said, “That’s awesome! How far were you able to control the bird when flying?”
“Without depleting my mana pool, my regen will allow me to fly my birds about ¼ mile in any direction. If I go out further, it starts draining my mana pool more and more the further I go.”
“If you can break down the app into code, I can probably build you a body enchantment tattoo that will store mana that can be used when flying the birds on recon. You already know how it works, so I can just turn it into an enchantment without spending all the time learning it myself.”
“Maybe in the next few days, but I’ve just seen something I want to recon more thoroughly with my flight app,” Jen replied.
It was still early afternoon when Jen called a halt to the caravan, and directed them to make camp for the night.