As expected, there was a fallen tree on the path. A brief inspection would make most think it’d simply fallen over due to age and wind, but Elijah could spot the cuts made at the bottom. It had been purposeful, practiced cuts making it splinter and fall perfectly to obstruct the road.

“Any chance of removing that in less than an hour?” Aleksi mused loudly as he and Elijah left the first wagon to do what seemed like a closer inspection of the fallen tree. In actuality, it was so Elijah had a firmer connection to the ground below, letting him connect to the roots that covered the forest earth. It was dense and old enough to nearly drown in, but he forced himself to walk steadily, ordering the plant life to point out the ambushers. “How bad do you think it is?”

Channeling of [Plant Bond] has been activated! Current cost: 17MP/sec

Let me see where they are now.

The world around him obeyed, greedily drinking the Mana while they fed him images of where each person made physical contact with the plant life. Five on their left with axes and spears, three on the right carrying bows, and one a little further back with a warhammer.

A standard ambush.

“Nine hours of work, as I’m sure you can guess,” Elijah replied, making the giant sigh. He’d missed one when he’d detected them from a distance. No matter. The plants were starting to make noise from his commands. “Let’s get this started.”

Howls of pain were heard as the three with bows found their feet pierced by sharpened roots. An expensive move from Elijah’s side, but he felt it as they received a signal and started to pull back the strings. He couldn’t allow ranged attacks.

“Surrender or die!”

The five to their left didn’t seem bothered by the howling, screaming at them as they charged out from the forest growth. They were covered in dirt, their armor a mismatch of stolen pieces, but their weapons were made of metals regardless. They were a threat.

Elijah moved behind Aleksi as he allowed Dawn to leave Plant Storage, the duck instantly enhancing his connection to the roots as she took control of the ones holding the archers in place. Under her guidance, the howling became undiluted screams of pain.

A shot rang out, and one of the five who charged them fell. Jack had entered the fray, jumping out of the wagon. The other four didn’t seem to realize what had happened, only seeing their ally fall to the ground without a noise.

The leather helmet hadn’t stopped the bullet.

“Pathetic,” Sasha commented, as she joined Jack who stood frozen on the ground. Elijah feared she would try to best the remaining four in hand-to-hand combat, but he could relax when she instead just raised her hands towards them.

Imitating the Pyromancer of the world, the space in front of her began to distort the light that traveled through, as a stream of super-heated air flew towards the bandits.

They screamed, unable to escape it.

Elijah was surprised at the lack of pity he felt.

‘I need help,’ Dawn urged him, as she reminded Elijah of the archers. While their feet were kept in place, and more roots had started to fly out to attack them, this wasn’t like in the Dungeon. The energy costs were too high to be quick, and one of the three had seen the horrors inflicted upon the other group.

Elijah took in air sharply when he spotted the archer’s act of desperation when they stood to their full height, pulled back the string, and fired off an arrow before he could hope to stop it. Even if it had been a hasty act, the aim had held true, and the arrowhead seemed to almost slow down as it approached his body.

A log of an arm stopped its trajectory at the last instant.

‘Got them,’ Dawn let Elijah know, as a root swung up and wrapped around the archer’s throat, pulling them down to the ground without mercy.

Elijah couldn’t focus on that fact as Aleksi cursed. A fair thing to do when an arrowhead had firmly settled itself inside his forearm, making the muscle cramp and dig into the flesh even further.

“Let’s finish this first,” Aleksi said, before Elijah could get any ideas about finding tools to take care of an arrow wound. “Though… I don’t think there’s much we need to do anymore.”

“Back, both of you!”

The command came from Fade, her words nearly overshadowed by the hollow screams of the giant man that had come from behind. He’d wielded his warhammer with ease, but it meant nothing against the swirling Nightmares latched onto his head.

Elijah could see the black mass of eyes of hungry maws, could see as the monsters eyed them, could see as the pupils rolled back into the darkness when they crunched down on the man’s head and the screams ended.

Both Jack and Sasha stepped back when the Nightmares left the larger one behind, flying through the air as they covered the four half-dead bandits right next to the road. They were badly burnt by Sasha’s attack, still alive but not far from death. The Nightmares quickened that process, barely needing a few seconds before they were finished off as well.

As for the archers… the two that hadn’t been pulled down to the ground by their throats could see what was to come, could see the many rows of teeth ready to sink into their flesh, and they begged for mercy.

It came out as something closer to pained blubbering, but the message was clear regardless. They weren’t ready to die, and certainly not to this.

Such a pity that they had picked up this profession.

Live by the blade.

Elijah didn’t look away as the dark masses latched onto the bodies, as they forced their way inside and made the flesh tear itself apart. It’d taken less than five seconds, but it must’ve felt like hours to the victims.

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Die by the blade.

There was no pride in what they’d done, but neither did Elijah feel bad for their actions. Banditry was not a position of honor, and the plan to kill merchants with an ambush hardly made it possible to offer excuses.

Did that mean they deserved such a horrible death? No, but neither did Elijah feel deserving of having an arrow almost reach his chest from a bandit of all people.

That had been too close.

“Are you all alright?” he asked, getting some muted confirmations as he entered the wagon to grab healing supplies. Initially, he’d wanted to carefully remove the arrow from Aleksi’s arm, but a few more seconds of thought made him realize the extra time required for such an operation could cause more bad than good. The elixir present in his body didn’t care about obstructions and would try to push it out slowly while wastefully healing everything. It was better for Elijah to rip it out instead and heal the aftermath.

“Bandits have no issues with neglecting their weapons,” Aleksi commented, tensed up as Elijah helped remove the arrow. The head had gotten itself lodged inside quite well, but a strong pull finally got the projectile out. The relief afterward was instant, as Elijah’s enhancement of the healing paste began to take effect. “That muscle is going to be feeling off for weeks.”

Hopefully not.

“I really don’t like how those things are looking at us,” Jack commented, drawing the attention of the others as the Nightmares steadily moved away from the dead archers. They’d been taking their time feasting on the final victim’s flesh, before coming back towards the road. The eyes of the abhorrent beasts just kept at the group hungrily. “They’re on our side, right?”

“Back inside, all of you,” came Fade’s tired voice, the eyes of the Nightmares falling away from them as they leaped at the Dreamweaver’s outstretched arm. She grimaced when they reached her pale flesh, the skin opening up to accept the monsters into her body. “They’re on your side when they’re sated. Don’t get close any other time.”

“Oh god, this isn’t happening.”

Retching noises reminded Elijah and the others the prince was still in the other wagon, away from the main gore but still close to the larger man that had been disassembled. With a nod, Aleksi was sent over to handle the royalty, while the others could discuss what’d happened.

“We’re changing placements from now on. Louis needs to be with the larger group at all times,” Fade ordered before anything else, glancing back at the royal with tired eyes. That tiredness wasn’t just because of what had happened but also what could’ve happened. “These bandits usually attack in groups of 15 at a minimum. We were lucky so many of them stayed behind.”

“How would you— Oh, right, the Nightmares,” Elijah began to question before remembering his conversation with Fade regarding her abilities days prior. Upon letting the black monsters consume a victim, parts of their memories would be sent over to the Dreamweaver. A burden most times, but here it was a nice benefit. “Tell me everything you know about them.”

As it turned out, there was a lot to consider. The bandit group that had just attacked was part of a very large group of outlaws living out in the forest. They’d resettled here some six months ago, having previously lived more north on the popular trade routes before being driven out by hired forces, and now they were trying to amass power once again by taking down the merchant caravans that took the more discreet paths between the larger cities.

Around a hundred people in total, their leader is a mage of some variety, and they have little in the way of empathy.

“They’ve ambushed three caravans in the past month,” Fade added, detailing the various traps at the edges of the forest that alerted the bandits to anybody entering. None of them had noticed them. “They leave few alive, as they’re trying to be discreet.”

“I take it that those allowed to live don’t make it out of the forest?”

"Naturally."

Of course, it was one of these situations. A group of outlaws that preferred their presence to be unspoken by foreign tongues. The fact that this smaller team of ambushers had to report their work before the end of the day, meant that a failure to do so would lead the remaining hundred to know their cover had been blown.

It will take two days to flee the forest.

Did Elijah trust that their horses would let them flee before the bandits caught up and finished the job? No. Fade already assured him that the bandits knew routes that cut the distance in half. They would be ambushed again, with the next time leaving them without a chance of winning it.

Trying to make an improvised fortress and defend against the outlaws while waiting for help was an option, but… Elijah didn’t like it.

“Is their camp far away?” Elijah asked.

“An hour on foot,” Fade replied, narrowing her eyes. “You want to take the fight to them?”

“My hope is that we can avoid having to fight them at all,” he said, knowing how willing the old roots of the forest were to help him. If given some time to slowly work his magic, he could make a miracle happen. “Before we even consider such a thing, however, we have a report to make. I assume that your paper is large enough to send longer messages?”

“Perhaps,” came the response as she pulled out the folded paper from her jacket. Unfolding it made it clear how detailed Vera had expected Fade’s reports to be. “Give me a moment.”

The warning about what had transpired was sent out, Vera replied within a few minutes, and… it became a little hectic to explain after that. Assurances about their short-term safety were made, injuries were logged, and the reality of the situation was made clear.

It took a few more minutes for Vera to reply with orders, but Elijah wasn’t surprised by her message.

‘Elimination seems like the best option. If you can make it work, kill them all and report back.’

She agreed with him. That was good, one royal being on their side.

As for the other… he was slightly harder to deal with.

“You want to do what?” Louis nearly spat, eyes red as he kept glancing at the chewed-up corpse a few meters away. The prince was having a stronger reaction to the brutality of their situation than expected. Elijah knew for a fact that he had been present on the night of the summoning, which included the deaths of countless mages along with the passing of his brother. Maybe the rawness that came from Fade’s monsters, and the knowledge he was meant to have been killed here, made it more real to the prince? Elijah couldn’t care less, honestly. “We need to get away from here. We almost died.”

“Almost, yes,” Elijah agreed. “And if we run, it will be a certainty. But if we take the fight to them? Then you won’t need to worry.”

“... Cas said this was going to be the best route,” Louis muttered, hands over his face as he leaned back in his seat. Elijah’s left eye twitched at the words. Of course, the Seer was involved in making this happen. “This was meant to be safe.”

“I can promise you he didn’t use those exact words,” Aleksi corrected, getting a muted glare from the prince. “Your weeping won’t change reality, kid. Remember that fact and look around. Sometimes, you have to make harder choices, and this here is one of them. I’m staying here with you and the two other kiddos, while Elijah and Fade go off and deal with this problem. It’ll be dangerous, no denying that, but this is the best of the worst.”

…

For a moment, Elijah thought the words of the giant wouldn’t work, that Louis would remain steadfast in his position, but something must’ve penetrated the defenses as he watched the prince’s face soften.

“Yeah… you’re right,” Louis said, giving in. “We can work on getting that tree away. Just, please, try to be safe?”

Louis Newell, the manchild known for his temper, asking them to stay safe? Recent times truly had caused changes in the most unexpected of ways.

“We’ll try,” was all Fade said. No promises could be made here.