Eric drawing his sword and lunging at the bushes along the side of the track was probably a very alarming sight for his comrades.

It was as the day was drawing to a close that he first noticed something odd about his surroundings. The sun was sinking below the horizon to the east, and the fading light, with the tall grass, cast strange rippling shadows along the wide road. It was a strangely eerie scene to Eric, keyed up as he was. He’d been on watch nearly all day, and his eyes were quickly becoming tired. His head hurt from the strain of concentrating so hard, not helped by the slight dehydration he was facing.

So when he caught the tiniest glint of silver, the unmistakable effect of light reflecting off of metal, he panicked and went straight into attack mode. Thankfully, the item that had caught his attention was indeed the metal of a blade, held by a man lying in wait for the two carts to pass. The bandit, crouching low along the side of the road, had his attention on the approaching party, and hadn’t seen Eric approaching, thanks to Eric’s own Hide skill.

New Skill Unlocked!

Sneak Attack

Passive

Striking an enemy while undetected will automatically count as a critical strike.

It was lucky that his first strike was a critical one, and that it staggered and horribly injured his target, for the sudden appearance of the screen at the corner of his vision distracted him. After the dimming light of the area around him, the faintly glowing screen was almost blinding, given its close proximity to his face. He gave out a cry of shock to match that of the bandit he’d struck, and staggered back. This was another lucky thing, as the attacks that were launched at him a second later missed due to the instinctive movement.

The sergeant was quick to react, his experienced and tactical mind reading the situation that Eric faced in an instant. He shouted for the carts to halt, his deep voice trained to be audible even in the din of battle. Max reacted at once, pulling sharply on the reigns of the horses he controlled, nearly in the same instant that the sergeant made the same movement. Then in the next second, the sergeant was leaping off of the cart he drove, calling for two other guards to follow.

Eric continued his backward motion as the tall grass exploded with activity, several blade swinging out from concealment and all reaching for him. The bandits, realizing their ambush had failed, now had only one goal in mind. They needed to kill Eric, and give themselves enough time to get onto the road and form up to meet the other armed men. But they hadn’t accounted for the speed of Eric’s retreat.

Eric ducked low and threw himself back, avoiding the glittering tips of the first two swords. Then he was on the ground, raising his shield desperately to block the third sword. He rolled away, the movement made awkward by the solid piece of wood strapped to his arm, and felt a burning pain on his shoulder as at least one attack found his mark. Ignoring this pain, he kicked out with his foot, feeling it hit something. While his attacker cursed and doubled over in pain, Eric scrambled to his feet and ran back to his fellow guards.

Johan and the sergeant caught up with him once he’d run about fifteen feet, and both men dove in front of him, placing themselves between him and the leading bandits, their large shields raised defensively. Eric was aware of the sound of swords striking wood, then the sinister sound of a sword cutting through armor, followed quickly by a grunt of pain. Whirling round, his throat closed by fear, he hoped that he hadn’t just caused one of his fellow guards to be injured.

Luckily, the injured party seemed to be one of the bandits. The third guard who followed the sergeant had darted around Johan wielding a long double-handed blade, and run one of the bandits through. The guard withdrew the blade now and kicked the bandit away. The body, already limp and lifeless, rolled over into the tall grass and out of sight.

Arrows rained down out of nowhere, arcing just over Johan and the sergeant and peppering the bandits. Out of the four arrows that came down, two hit, both on the same man, who fell with a shocked look on his face, unable to utter even a gasp of surprise. He hit the ground with no more rigidity than his blood-soaked clothing, and the third guard stepped forward, cramping the other bandits for space.

Recovering slightly from the initial shock of the ambush, Eric moved up to stand at the sergeant’s side, slashing down with his own sword. His attack was clumsy, however, and missed completely. The bandit he’d selected as his target grinned fiercely and swung a fast counter-attack, but Eric managed to get his shield up in time to block it. Then the sergeant slammed his own shield into the man’s body, sending him flying back into two of his comrades.

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Johan took out one of the bandits with a flurry of quick strikes, overwhelming the man’s defense in an instant and sending him reeling away clutching a wound in his shoulder and dropping his sword. Johan let him go, choosing another target in the line of attackers, who was threatening to overwhelm their defensive line. Bewildered and outmatched, the bandits were starting to retreat. They went slowly at first, giving only a few inches of the ground. But as the sergeant struck down another of their number, the last two turned and ran in earnest, dropping their swords onto the dusty earth and tearing away.

The guard with the longsword made to charge after them, but a curt order from the sergeant stopped him. “We need to make sure none of them are lurking behind us, waiting until our guard is dropped.”

Johan and the others spread out in a wide circle from the wagon, going slowly and checking the long grass for signs of more bandits. Occasionally, they swung their weapons through the grass, clearly intending to spook any ambushers that lay in wait. But they found no one, and after ten minutes, the sergeant seemed satisfied.

Eric, meanwhile, was sitting on the cargo wagon, breathing unevenly as he removed his black leather vest. The wound on his shoulder didn’t seem too bad, but the blood staining his long-sleeved tunic still was a slightly alarming sight. He hadn’t paid much attention the last time he’d been wounded, in his fight with that first bandit, nor had he really registered the pain, as he’d fallen asleep almost at once. But now, with the pain of the shoulder wound continuously making itself felt, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to get into a fight again.

“Come here,” Johan said, approaching with a wad of clean bandages and one of the water skins. “Let me take a look at that shoulder.”

Eric set his vest aside and submitted to Johan’s care. He cut Eric’s sleeve away neatly with his belt dagger, pulling the long blue sleeve away to expose the wound completely. His fingers probed around the edge of the wound expertly, just light enough that it didn’t hurt, yet firm enough to ensure that he couldn’t find any broken bones.

“You got lucky,” he said after a few seconds. “It’s a pretty shallow cut, and your vest took most of the force. I’ll just clean and bandage it for you.”

“Will it keep him out of action?” The sergeant had returned from the search now, and directed this question at Johan.

Johan regarded the wound for a moment, thinking, then raised his eyebrows at Eric in a question. Eric hurriedly shook his head. “No, sergeant. I’ll be fine.”

The sergeant nodded once, then moved off to give the merchant his report. Johan poured water over Eric’s shoulder to clear away most of the grime, then patted it dry with a small piece of cloth. Studying the wound quickly before it filled with blood again, Johan pursed his lips thoughtfully.

“It doesn’t look bad,” he mused aloud. “But I should clean it, just to be safe. We don’t know how clean those bandits kept their swords.”

He coated another small piece of cloth in a pungent-smelling liquid and rubbed it quickly along the wound. It stung horribly as he worked, but Eric gritted his teeth, not wanting to appear weak. Once he’d finished cleaning, Johan took the bandages he’d carried over and wrapped the shoulder tightly. Then he stepped away, and Eric looked down to admire his handiwork.

“Your shoulder will be stiff for a few days,” Johan warned him. “But apart from that, you shouldn’t have any problems. If you can spare the coin, I’d suggest visiting a healer when we reach Sheran. I’m no cleric.”

“That’s enough,” Eric said with a grin. “Shame about the shirt though. I just bought that yesterday.”

“You can mend it,” Johan replied unapologetically. “I’m no seamstress, either.”

Eric gave a snort. Out of all the other guards, he got along with Johan much better. There was something about him, be it his sarcastic humor or his total inability to stand on formalities, that made Eric feel more comfortable. Maybe he’d try to work with Johan again in the future, he thought. Guarding some boring, peaceful building so he didn’t have to get into another fight, he added sourly. His shoulder hurt quite a bit.

“How many got away?” He asked the sergeant as the man reappeared.”

“Three,” the sergeant replied tersely. “I killed two, Johan killed one, Williams got another, and I think the one you attacked is down as well. I didn’t see him get up again.”

“Ah,” Eric said, not sure how else to respond to the knowledge that he may have killed a man. “Master Rainhall and his wife?”

“Fine. Just a little spooked, is all. Max is calming them now.”

“Who shot the arrows?” Eric asked interestedly. “I didn’t know that any of us were archers.”

“None of us are,” Johan agreed, rejoining the conversation after packing away his medical supplies. “That was most likely Max. The man is a dead shot with his bow.”

“He fired four arrows that quickly?”

“Well, I assume he used magic. He’s not the best mage in the world, but he’s competent enough. I’ve seen him use a similar trick before.”

“Huh,” Eric replied dumbly. “That’s cool. Well, are we setting off then?”

“No,” The sergeant replied. “If it weren’t for those bandits, we could have made it to Sheran by night, but now we’ll be forced to camp. It’s a dark moon tonight, so we won’t be able to see the road well.”