The rattle of the cages at the sudden stop of the automated cart still echoed in Fleck’s ears. After being flung against the wall beside the entrance of the driver’s section, he has fallen straight up against the floor, with the world around him spinning and spinning in his head.

Multiple muffled voices reach his ears. Voices of laughter fill the automated cart together with the sound of armor being rattled at each heavy step. Fleck feels how he is lifted in the air, being grabbed by the chain mail, and then thrown off into the dirt beside the river. Just a moment later he feels how a sudden pressure is applied to the right of his spine, a little higher from his hips.

The bastard… just jumped from the cart into me…

After being lifted once more, he is taken to the front of the cart where he is dropped off once more. While the world around him stops spinning and comes into focus, the rest of the people in the cart is dropped off beside him.

Looking in front of him, Fleck can make the figure of multiple people surrounding them. All wearing brown leather armor with crossbows, swords and a couple of maces, Fleck notices how some weapons have Ether threads carved into them, and one crossbow, in particular, has runes inscribed into it.

-”What the hell…”- Fleck can hear to his left the voice of Masha, muttering and mumbling.

-”Sorry about that, boss”- Roger’s voice reach them from behind as he is moving to be in front of them -”But, you know, my new employer made an offer I can’t resist.”-

Masha lets a chuckle escape, followed by mild laughter. Then, as if speaking to himself, he says -”See? All hypocrites, all just pure trash.”-

-”What about the one that went flying forward once we stopped the cart?”- One of the bandits that where in front of them asks.

-”Forget about him, he should be dead anyway.”- The one that seems the leader of the group speaks, a sword between his hands. He then takes a couple of steps towards Masha and says -”Our boss the SaltRock sends her regards.”-

-”That bastard… I can’t stay surprised any longer, this kind of stuff is what she orders around… which would mean…”-

-”Indeed, it means that…”- The man says as he gestures with his right hand. One of the bandits behind him comes forward, and with one swing of the mace he has, he crushes the head of someone that is further to Fleck’s left. The body falls limp onto the ground. An emerald green ether stone appears in Fleck’s line of sight on the ground.

To his right, the sound of sobbing reaches Fleck’s ears. Turning, he sees that Ana has been taken out too and she is making all the effort needed to not lose it all the while keeping Selvin’s eyes covered.

-”Nasty woman.”- Masha says in a somber voice with a serious tone.

-”Can’t help it. Orders are orders, after all, and the boss said that she particularly wanted you out of the picture, but that we should do it in the most humiliating, slow way possible.”- The bandit says as he gestures and with another swing of the mace, another of the mercenaries falls on the ground. He then adds -”Don’t know what is the history between you two, but for her to wish such thing… even I can see that that is quite a grudge she holds against you.”-

As Fleck’s sight finally stabilizes, he can see observe well all the bandits that are in front of him, while a slight drizzle starts to fall. All scruffy, covered in dirt from head to toe, for some reason they aren’t wearing any sort of body armor covering the upper part of the torso. All of them muscular, and the leader being the only one that for some strange reason has his hair be pretty long and silky. Fleck lets a chuckle escape but not before catching something that is behind the bandits and further into the chasm: The silhouette of a person wearing a large hood and cloak standing up, with a mimic bitting at her right arm but strangely enough not being able to chop it off even with their incredible strength.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

A kick flies right into Fleck’s stomach, which in turn makes him bend with his face reaching the ground. He didn’t notice but he was strip from his armor plate, probably when he couldn’t focus and his head was spinning.

Turning to Masha as the third swing to the mace comes around and the third body falls into the ground, taking advantage that the leader of the bandits just stood up and reached for the green emerald ether stone on the ground, Fleck mutters -”Hey, boss.”-

-”What is it?”-

-”You can fight, right?”-

-”A physical fight I can’t, but I have an ace under my sleeve if I need it.”-

-”Well, be prepared then.”- Fleck says as he glances once more to Hashi all in time to see three little lights come out from her right arm and, with one movement, she stabs the mimic with her right arm alone from the inside, her right hand coming out right above the mimic’s head, and the mimic going limp. Then, Hashi starts to being surrounded, little by little, with rainbow sparks.

The rain gains strength, at which the leader says -”It would be bad if we get trapped in an Ether hail…”- Then, standing up, he adds while barking -”Well boys! Our objective is complete here! Hop in the automated cart and steal it, get ours out of the camouflage spells, and kill everyone here at once. We tried to comply with the boss’ orders but an Ether hail would put us all at risk and shame her even more, so let’s put an end to it.”-

Multiple -”Finally”- can be heard from the bandits behind the leader. Fleck can hear how Ana is just muttering -”No, no, please no, no…”- again and again.

Just before the leader turns, Fleck says -”Don’t you all look a bit too stupid?”-

The leader stops and faces Fleck -”What do you mean?”-

-”I mean, I guess I can’t blame you. The tastes of your boss, quite the deviant I see.”-

-”There’s nothing wrong with the boss’ tastes.”- The leader replies, a slight angry tone betraying the otherwise calm exterior he is trying to portray.

-”And I couldn’t care less about her tastes either, that is, as long as she keeps them to herself. Why the hell does she have the need to go on showing off her gross tastes to everyone else? If I die now I certainly don’t want the image of her plaything to be the last the thing I see in my life.”-

Masha bursts into laughter, all the while saying -”And you want to become her plaything too, Roger! You must have lost all sense of pride as a man!”-

Fleck bursts into laughter too.

Raising a mace of his own, Roger comes from behind the leader, but ends up being blocked by the leader’s arm.

Raising his eyes, Fleck sees how the leader’s face has contorted into an expression of anger, with multiple sharp edges. Then, raising his voice more, Fleck remarks -”Look at that, Masha, so angry yet still not saying anything. Does his boss put a leash on all her dogs?”-

-”Indeed. It’s a spell called Geass. They are tied in a way that they can’t escape from… oooh, now I understand how they were able to set up this ambush… Roger, Roger, Roger, Roger… To think that you would already be that witch’s bitch.”-

Roger starts screaming in fury and tries to pass the leader who is blocking his path, turning to block him with his entire body -”I’ll kill them, Venetur, I’ll kill them!”-

-”Stand down!”- The leader Venetur yells. At this, Roger flinches and takes two steps back.

Still pushing against him with his whole body, pressing his head against Roger’s chest, the leader says -”Don’t worry, they won’t escape punishment. For insulting our lady SaltRock, I will make them pay with their lives.”- While saying this, Venetur puts a hand to Roger’s shoulder and incorporates himself, which in turns puts Hashi straight up in his field of vision.

-”What th-”- He exclaims, but he can’t finish the sentence before a sudden rush of water envelops his legs.

-”Now!”- Fleck barks, and in a single swoop, from the river that has grown up in size multiple water spears are fired, hitting all the bandits head-on, blowing away many heads off.