“How do you want to play this?” I asked Kaavi, “We can either go through the valley without stopping or face their trap.”

Kaavi thought about it, “We’re all level two, except for you, who’s level three. We’ve fought the Chacali before. We know their tricks. Most important, if they know we have Ynec, they’ll for sure fight us.”

“Correct.”

Ynec wriggled in his seat, clearly uncomfortable with us discussing him.

“So what? Are we going to risk our lives for…” Ghala asked but trailed off when he saw my glare. He kept his voice down and mumbled to himself.

“Sounds like you’re saying there’s a fight coming. Right, team leader?” I asked.

Kaavi stared deeply in my eyes, remembering what I said, “We fight them. But, I’m not as good at plans as you are, Egen. I want you to tell us what to do.”

I smiled, “Right answer,” then shifted through the batch of bodies to the little window that connected me to the driver’s seat.

“Sir?” I asked.

“We’re about to stop, kid,” The battlemaster said, “We’re going to-”

“To examine the valley, right? Stop us and do some recon because we’re vulnerable to highwaymen?”

“That’s correct,” The driver said, a little taken aback at my accuracy.

“This happened to us already. We’ll be ambushed before then by Chacali. Around fifteen to twenty with some of them on mounts. They’ll barrage us with arrows as they hide behind the hills and then use that to get closer to us.”

“Chacali.” The driver took the time to process what I was saying, “I understand. In that case, we won’t stop. I’ll tell the others to pick up pace. Thank you.” Just as the battlemaster was about to blow a whistle around his neck, I waved my hand at him to stop.

“Oh, no sir. That’s not the plan.”

“It’s not?” He asked.

“No, sir. But I can tell you what is.”

The driver stopped our caravan. Just like normal. The driver got out of the seat walked around the carriage to the back, where opened the door. He kept himself within the protection of the carriage’s double doors and blew on his whistle. The hum, tamber, and pitch of the whistle changed as the battlemaster wordlessly gave instructions to his battalion. One from each group, cavalry, battlemasters, and archers, whistled a single tone back, affirming that they heard. Then, he looked at me and said, “Let’s hope you’re right about this.”

“Give it a sec.”

And we waited. The silence so thick you could chew on it. I heard tapping coming from inside and noticed that Ynec’s tail was wagging nervously, slapping the wood back post of the bench. Then, with both Ynec’s enhanced senses and my half-elven ears, we both heard the whistling of arrows as they shot our direction.

“Now,” I said.

The battlemaster blew a long clean sound from his whistle. Threw up their shields as the driver he hopped inside the caravan. The arrows bounced off the shields of the soldiers. I could hear the plopping sounds as they sunk into the carriage. I stuck my head out the window and spoke to the archers, “Focus on the hills. Aim for the mounts because they’ll get to here the fastest.

The archers nodded, notched their arrows and watched as the Chacali rose from the horizon. One of the archers loosed their arrows. It sailed through the air, making it to the Chacali mount’s chest. The humanoid slumped over and fell off his mount. His body landed with a thud, dead. Another wave of arrows.

The battlemaster let out another long whistle. Once again, everyone hid behind their shields. The arrows bounced off. Our archers let loose three more arrows as the mounts fell down. Their entire cavalry had been defeated. Their infantry charged ahead, undeterred by their fallen comrades.

“You all ready?:” I asked.

Everyone nodded their heads. Everyone except for Ynec, “Ynec,” I said, “You don’t have to do this.”

He stuck his knife out, and with a shaky voice said, “They’d do it to me.”

I looked at Ruglio, “Cast Aura of Shielding.”

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“Aura of Shielding” Ruglio said. Little shield icons appeared hovering over us, indicating that we now had extra protection from a single strike.

“As soon as three or more of our shields break, Huy, you cast the next one. Tuf, Kaavi, and Ghala, your second level spells will be Righteous Blade. The rest of you can use True Strike.”

We all stepped out of the caravan, and were greeted with the clamor of the battlefield. The Chacali were upon us. As our cavalrymen weaved through the enemy battalion, the battle masters locked blades with the infantrymen. A Chacali took notice of me and charged. It struck at me with their cleave-blades. Before it could connect with my blade, the driver blocked it with his ax. “True Strike!” I charged my blade with strength and slashed the chacali in the thigh. The enemy let out a snarl and the battlemaster used the opening to slash his throat. Blood spurted on my face. Without the arrows finishing a lot of us off, we had a hefty advantage over them. I saw a group of about ten Chacali with us, while four of the infantrymen attempted to get on their unmounted beasts. They positioned themselves behind the large creatures to protect themselves from our archers.

Ghala, Tuf, and Huy ran past me, surrounding one of the Chacali, calling out ‘True Strike’ and taking a stab at them. Tuf even performed a Righteous Blade and entered into the canine’s stomach. Blood left the enemy’s mouth as Huy finished him off.

“What should I do, Egen?” Ruglio asked behind me.

“Cast Stride on yourself. Provide support.” Ruglio cast the spell and ran around to different groups, dashing behind some of the enemies and providing opportunities for his teammates to attack.

The battlemasters were overtaking the Chacali. The junior paladins were helping. Our cavalry galloped after the infantrymen attempting to mount the large beasts. The archers readied their bows, waiting for an opening.

I ran further into the battlefield, it wasn’t until I heard Ynec’s cry, “Egen, Behind!” I leapt out of the way, just as the leader’s large cleave-blade dropped on the space where I stood. I adjusted. Ynec’s father. His breathing was labored. He was still wrapped in bandages, but he still had that same sneer on his face from when we first fought.

“You reek like magis.”

“I switched back to the old cologne.”

He gripped his sword, forcing power into it until it turned red. He launched the power at me, the red leaping from the blade and chasing toward me. I blocked it with my sword. I was pushed backward but I stayed on my feet as my aura of shielding broke.

“Sorry. That’s not going to work this time.”

Huy cast Aura of Shielding, replenishing the shield icon above me. I launched at him, and he at me. I knew I didn’t have the strength to parry against the blade directly. Instead, I opted for an old trick Ghala had shown me. I cast Knowing Light in the precise area he swung, causing a shimmer of light. Then I cast a new spell.

“Lambast Lightning.” Electricity crackled from my blade and when it connected with the Chacali leader, it shocked him, then propelled him back ten feet. His body rolled backward on the ground, singed by my new power.

“We’ve got the numbers. We’ve fought you before, and we’ve got more power now. Call your goons off.”

He got up, shaking. He let out deep measured breaths before saying, “You sure you got numbers? We still got friends.”

The cackles and yips of actual jackals rung behind me. I looked behind and I was surrounded by five snarling jackals. Even though they were small, I was not likely to hold them off. I looked at the archers. They were still dealing with the newly mounted enemies as our cavalry chased them. I stuck up my sword, surrounded. They stepped closer to me, ready to pounce. The leader used his cleave-blade as a cane to hike himself up. The howls of a Chacali caused the jackal’s head to turn. They momentarily ceased their approach. Someone had ordered them to stop and it was coming from our side. Ynec was crying out to them in his native tongue. Ynec’s father angrily shouted back, once again drawing their attention toward me. The jackals didn’t know where to look. Ynec kept calling back to them. I turned my attention back to the leader, hoping to use this moment against him.

“Stride, level 2.” I cried out. I felt the energy course through my legs as I was now able to move even quicker. I rushed toward him and dodged his errant, desperate attack, rolling and calling out,”Righteous Blade” only to stab in the exact same location I had gotten him before, this time from the other side.

“Call off your goons,” I said.

He could not speak, I had clipped his lungs. He let out little gasps as he fell to his knees.

I stuck my sword out and brought it up. This was it, the first time I’d ever take someone’s life. I brought my sword in the air, the chacali leader looking right at me, waiting for me to do it. I was waiting for me to do it. Then, Ynec cried out, “Please!”

He rushed over on all fours, “Please! He is Father. Egen. I can’t.”

“Really? I asked, "I was just about to kill him.”

I let out an internal sigh of relief, quite pleased I didn’t have to kill anyone in cold blood today. I placed my sword down. I turned my attention back to the Chacali leader “Your son showed you mercy where you did not. He’s a bigger man than you. Hell, he’s a bigger man than me.”

“He… is… failure.”

“Yeah?” I said “Well, looks like you got beaten by two failures today. So what does that make you?”

Ynec walked up with a mini pack of jackals licking his heels, he picked one of them up. “I shall take a jackal.” He said, the canine that was in his hand was the smallest of the bunch, able to be picked up with one hand. He placed the critter in his shirt, so its little head was poking out. “A runt. You will not miss it.”

“If you ever see me, or one of my troupe again, and don’t walk the other way, we’ll kill you. Got it?”

The proud jackal was too defeated, too injured to answer with words. Instead, he solemnly nodded his head.

I looked back at the leader and said, “If I were him, I woulda killed ya,” Then whooped the leader with the broadside of my sword, knocking him out.

Soon after their leader had fallen the chacali gave in. Some of the chacali escaped, others, who were injured, submitted to being taken as prisoners. They walked the rest of the way, chained to the back of the carriage, their mounts looped to our horses.

We finished the rest of the carriage ride back to our house in relative peace, except for the runty jackal that would not stop nipping our heels. We were ready to touch base back at Skorwind, where I would see my parents again and sleep for the next week. I couldn’t wait to relax, but Sergeant Bhufo had other plans.