The slaves were still running up the hill when I made my presence known to the band of misfits that commanded them. Cellestra and Tavion, in the meantime, ran towards the hill to inform the elves on the other side of what was going on.

As I had expected, the bandits were at least briefly stunned when they first saw me. I used the opportunity to sow as much chaos in as short a time as I could. I threw my strongest fireball into a cluster of bandits, followed by an elemental blast.

My elemental blast was far quicker to reach my target, despite being cast a second or so after the fireball. I saw three separate bolts, one of fire, one of ice, and one of air, fly out. They combined into one bolt in mid-air, and then struck one of the bandits in the chest. The spell penetrated his chain armor and then exploded in his chest, causing instant death.

You have killed a Human Bandit: EXP+416

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 5!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

The fireball then hit another bandit, causing him to catch on fire, and sending him flailing with his arms up in the air as he screamed his lungs out while the blazing flames consumed his flesh. Blindly, he ran back into the group of bandits, causing confusion and hesitation. I didn’t stand by idly. Their confusion was exactly what I needed.

They didn’t give the slaves any other orders, they just kept running forward and were now on top of the hill. Swift as the wind, I made my way towards the hill to achieve the most important part of my plan, but not before I summoned an earthen spike beneath one of the confused scoundrels.

The scream that came from him as the spike cracked open more than just armor would probably haunt me for the rest of my days.

You have killed a Human Bandit: EXP+411

I jumped over the top of the hill just as another message showed up before me.

You have killed a Human Bandit: EXP+409

Beyond the hills, I found three covered wagons pulled by two horses each, in line on the dirt trail that ran through the forest. By the shadows that were projected onto the canvas, I could see that there were people huddled together within the second wagon from the front.

The wagons were protected by a small band of elven knights that seemed at least somewhat experienced. Their plate armor was of excellent quality, and I could see that their weapons were enhanced with minor enchantments, but enchantments nonetheless. Sometimes that little edge was all you needed.

I didn’t have time to stand and observe. I never stopped moving as I approached the convoy. The slaves from the other side of the hill had been sent slightly earlier than the ones from our side and they were about to crash into the soldiers. Even worse, one of them was far ahead of the main group and was about to be impaled by a spear. One of the guards was more than ready for him.

With no time to lose, I made another jump towards the convoy. It was unfortunate, but I needed a bit of time. My jump to within nine yards of the closest soldiers turned at least a few heads as my massive figure suddenly showed up before them. I would have rather avoided this kind of chaos among the group that we were protecting, but there was no other option here.

I forced one of my spells to appear with the utmost effort. I created an earthen wall between the soldier’s spear and the human slave that was charging at him with a small spear of his own. The process was painful, but the wall was placed exactly where I wanted. The human ran into it, causing pain in him, and confusion in the elven guard. I had at least saved his life, for now.

“Massive spider!” one of the guards yelled. “They got a massive spider!”

Oh, just great. Now they thought I was with the bandits.

One of the guards ran at me with a sword in hand as I was in the process of firing off a thread of silk at two approaching slaves. I blasted him back with a gust of wind immediately after casting my threads toward the two slaves, causing them to trip and fall a good twelve yards from the ring of guards. The guard’s armor rattled as he fell on his bum.

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Then, Cellestra made her presence known by yelling to them in the elven language.

“Don’t attack the spider, she’s with you!”

From my side eyes, I could see a wave of confusion run through the elves around the caravan, but they remained steadfast in their place and were ready to strike down the approaching slaves.

To prevent them from doing so, I jumped in front of the guards that were positioned on the side of the wagon where the slaves were sent in earlier. I summoned lines of threads and fired them at the slaves. I managed to make five or so of them trip and fall. To finish immobilizing them, I summoned more threads and bound them to the ground.

I had hoped that made my intentions clear, but it didn’t appear to be the case. One of the elven soldiers to my back charged at me and swung his sword at my abdomen. The attack didn’t penetrate my barrier, and I thought it would be for the best to not retaliate.

Instead, I summoned another thick, long thread of silk to bind the remaining four charging slaves together. As I finished doing so, they too fell easily, due to the command that was given to them by the bandits.

The collars made them charge and not stop. When I chained them together with threads of silk, like that, it messed up their movements so badly that they’d just trip up.

That should give Cellestra enough time to fully inform the guards what was going on.

I turned and observed the elf that had struck me with his sword. I saw both fear and confusion written on the small part of his face that I could see through his plate helmet. He was frozen with his sword in mid-air and obviously had no idea what to do.

My towering presence seemed to be more than enough of a deterrent. My abdomen alone was twice his length.

I ignored him and made my way to the other side of the battle, crossing the road by jumping over a set of horses. Their snorts made it clear that I’d scared them, which I couldn’t blame them for. The coachman who’d observed what I was doing was shivering but still somehow managed to keep the horses in check.

What a guy.

Once on the other side, I repeated many of the same actions. I summoned thread after thread, immobilizing the approaching slaves. Cellestra’s voice called out again while I was occupied.

“The spider is with us. Don’t attack the slaves!”

Another wave of confusion went through the small group of guards as the elf was still running towards them, Tavion close behind her.

The guards had obviously no idea what the hell was going on, but, in the end, I think it helped us. They didn’t make a move to try to kill any of the immobilized slaves. Instead, they stayed together, for the most part in a defensive formation around the second wagon.

None seemed to get the bright idea of trying to strike me again. Maybe it was because of Cellestra’s words, maybe it was because of the soldier hitting me earlier, and me plainly ignoring him. I hoped I’d confirmed that I wasn’t hostile to them.

My vision came in handy once more as I noticed a flash of light on top of the hill, followed by a fireball that was directed at the guardsmen. Without hesitation, I jumped towards the area where it was about to impact and summoned my fire wall to absorb it.

The wall did what it was supposed to do; block spells. Because of the specificity of the school of magic that struck the wall before me, I saw the flames of the wall grow in intensity and size, creating a more powerful barrier.

If these soldiers still didn’t know what was going on, I doubted they ever would.

“What the fuck is going on?” I saw one of the guards ask the soldier next to him, who started scratching his head.

I doubted it had any effect, considering he still wore a helmet. It made him look ridiculous, if nothing else.

“She’s with us!” Cellestra shouted again as she drew nearer the guards. She came to a halt about ten yards from them, and repeated her words once more.

I didn’t pay them any heed. I was still focused on making sure that none of these slaves would run into certain death. I immobilized the last two with my threads as I jumped to one of them. A fireball was flying and had apparently targeted one of them. I absorbed it with my still-active fire wall once more, as I saw the bandits stand in line on top of the hill before me.

I imagined that Cellestra could fix the rest. These slaves were not going anywhere.

It was time to turn my attention to the real problem.