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Two days passed since I quit my strength training, and I was trying to move my mana while walking on the road.

It wasn’t anything too complicated, I just had to open and close a single finger.

Still, it was too damn hard.

The first time I did it, I was able to move my fingers slightly and feel the wood give in, but that was just because I was already squeezing the headboard, so I didn't have to move them much. Moreover, I was concentrating on doing only that.

Now that I was trying it while walking, it was really tough.

My brain wasn’t used to the new feedback, and it felt like moving a new and completely foreign limb. It was so mentally draining that I wondered if walking with the manacles was easier.

Until now, I could barely make a single finger twitch, and I couldn’t even pay much attention to the road while doing that.

That's why I wasn't quick enough to react when Zeph suddenly stopped.

“Hey!” He said as I hit him.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you. Hahaha,” I laughed it off. “But why did you stop so suddenly?”

He should have at least warned me.

“Nothing, I just thought about something. Let’s keep going.” His voice was louder than usual.

He motioned me to go ahead as he positioned himself in front of Freya.

I raised an eyebrow at that but went ahead anyway.

Right after I passed him, he said in a low voice, “One of my passive Skills warned me, just act as normal and keep walking. There’s danger around twenty meters ahead of us, I don’t know where, but I guess there could be something on the ground of the road or someone hidden ambushing us from the sides, or both.”

I kept walking as if nothing was happening, while a familiar tension started pervading me, my body and my mind suddenly energized.

“When I snap my fingers you run to the right, I will run to the left, Freya will run back. Let’s try catching them by surprise if there’s someone. Cough if you understood,” he finished.

*Cough*

*Cough*

I could see the mountain range in the distance, with the river flowing a hundred or so meters on our left.

The land was less flat here, rocks jutting out almost everywhere among the sparser grass, but I saw nothing big enough to hide someone.

Still, I mentally prepared myself for the fight.

I would have preferred more time to familiarize myself with my new strength. I felt light as a feather, but I also didn’t have the same control over my movements as before. In the morning I did some practice, so it wasn’t the worst, but it would have been better if I had put more time into it. Well, what’s done is done.

We were walking closer now, and I felt the excitement pervading me.

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Would they be strong? Would there be many? I didn’t know, but I was as ready as I could be.

We walked a few more steps when I suddenly heard a *snap* and I saw Zeph flashing to the left.

I leaped to the right, my strength making me move much faster than I was used to, and then I understood where they were hiding. There was a depression around ten meters away, expertly camouflaged so that it wouldn’t be visible from the road.

I heard someone curse, and then two people got up. An archer and a swordsman.

Even though I took them by surprise, the archer already had an arrow nocked. He was about to draw when I threw one of the knives on my belt. It wasn’t on target, but it was close enough that he ducked on instinct, losing the chance to shoot at me.

The swordsman jumped out and, when I saw the sign of one of the most common Skills of the kingdom about to be used, I stepped to the side as a blade of wind passed by me.

My dodge was a bit too wide, but it wasn’t something the guy in front of me could take advantage of. From how he moved, and his Skill usage, I could guess his level was in the early twenties, and he just acquired that Skill.

After that, he tried again, but I was already too close. I parried his sword, making the wind blade pass by my side.

It felt almost too easy when I slashed his throat.

After I passed his falling body while blood sprayed from the wound, the archer was already out of the hole, aiming at me.

I jumped to the right the moment I saw his fingers leave the string, and the arrow missed me.

Once again, I moved too much while dodging, but his chance was already lost. He tried to take out the short sword as he stepped back, but I was faster — another throat slash ended the battle. Blood spurted out a few times as he brought up his hands to the wound, almost as if he was trying to close it. Then he fell to the ground, dead, like his companion behind me.

I turned around to assess the situation.

I saw Freya still running away, and Zeph already coming towards me while calling her back. A few consecutive uses of his Skill probably made him fast enough to catch his opponents completely off guard.

I then noticed a movement with the corner of my eyes. Turning my head, I saw two riders run away on their horses a few hundred meters ahead on the road.

Mm, somehow I don’t think this bodes well, I thought as I turned back toward Zeph.

The fight had been easy, though it was mostly due to us surprising them. I could already imagine getting an arrow in the back if I passed without noticing the ambush.

The arrows were probably enhanced with some Skill, so even with the armor, I doubt I could have survived.

Zeph was watching the two riders worriedly.

“Any thoughts on that?” I said, pointing at the riders with a thumb when he glanced at me.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, he said, “I’m sorry, but the only thing I can think about is that they are part of a bigger gang and that those two are going back to warn the others.”

He looked at the corpses behind me.

“Why would they put their men here to rob a few random passersby, though? They also had two others down the road to warn them in case of failure. What’s the point? I don’t understand,” he said, though he was probably just talking to himself. “I am missing something.”

We tried to search the bodies, but we didn’t find much; just a scope and a few silvers.

Freya reached us soon after, panting, and after we searched the other two corpses, finding almost the same things, we went to look at where the riders popped out.

There we found another depression deep enough to hide two horses and their men from the ambush location. It went down vertically in our direction, and it had a gentle slope towards where the two riders ran away. It was too convenient to be natural.

“This is almost certainly the work of a Mage with Earthshaping Skills," said Zeph, confirming my doubts.

I never fought mages. I wonder how I would fare against them, I thought as he continued.

"It makes no sense. If it’s a band big enough to have Mages in it, what’s the point of attacking a few poor travelers? And with this setup too?” he said, holding his head with a hand.

I looked around a bit as he kept thinking. I didn’t even try to come up with something, since I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Then I saw Freya looking all anxious.

“Hey, what got you so freaked out? Isn’t it nice, we have some excitement now? It was getting so boring, I was falling asleep while walking before! Hahaha!”

She didn’t seem to appreciate my way to lighten the mood.

“I liked boring. It was nice,” she said, still looking scared.

Well, at least now she can express what she wants, I thought while shrugging.

“It's useless to worry about it now,” I said, turning to Zeph, “So, do we keep going or are we turning back?”

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