Raph spent the rest of the day running as per his orders. The night came and just before they stopped Raph went out and found a wild version of one of those pig-like creatures he’d seen at the market in Langreth. They feasted that night on the animal and Raph was left alone that night when everyone went to sleep.

The next day was much the same with Raph running alongside the carriage and occasionally making some detours to keep the run interesting. At lunch Leah persuaded Raph to spar with her when they stopped for the night. Raph wasn’t sure whether he was looking forward to it or not. On the one hand he liked Leah and he was sure she was very knowledgeable, on the other he was a little bit scared of what she might do.

The night came, with their destination being a small clearing on the mountainside path that was leading them to Adaes. Leah asked Lincoln to stop a little further away from the main group as she wanted to spar with Raph and not disturb the others. After Lincoln parked up the carriage he walked over to the others to hang out with his soldier buddies, like he had been doing in the nights previous. The rules were very lax at this time of the day, with everyone getting along well it was very casual.

“Alright Raph, I hope you’re ready for this.” Leah said as she came over to a small area that was lacking in trees, they decided to use this place for the spar. She had with her a Bo staff, which Raph had never seen her use before. He was very interested in seeing how Leah fought, obviously she used plants but how exactly he didn’t know.

“So we’re using weapons?” Raph asked.

“Yeah why not?” Leah said with full confidence.

Raph summoned his hammers from his ring and gave them a little tap together in front of him.

“Oh.” Leah exclaimed in surprise as she looked at his hands. “Thats…” She didn’t finish her sentence. She instead shook her head and smiled. “You just get more and more interesting.” she mumbled.

“Did you just say something else?” Raph asked as they got closer to each other.

Leah ignored his question. “Don’t worry Raph, I don’t think you can hurt me. So let’s see everything.”

They began the spar with a classic stand off, Raph took up a combat stance while Leah stood nonchalantly clearly not bothered. Raph cautiously moved in closer to Leah, as he was doing so a root grew up and over his foot tripping him. He landed face first in the dirt as he was caught off guard, Leah was howling with laughter as she watched him fall.

“Wow, I can really see that training with your squad showing Raph.” Leah said, still laughing.

At this point Raph felt pretty embarrassed, Leah was much stronger than him. But even still he should not have fallen for such a cheap trick. He got up and composed himself, he decided to go for it. Raph ran forwards paying careful attention to his feet as he moved, it looked like that was a one and done trick from Leah. He was getting closer to Leah so he activated Destruction and Forged Hammers II, he would need everything to fight someone as strong as Leah Raycraft. Once he was close enough to her he swung the hammers at her chest, only to be stopped by a mesh of roots that shot up from the ground and created a makeshift shield in front of her.

“Oh, nice.” Leah said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Raph was getting frustrated with the omniscient roots that Leah seemingly had control of, he activated Eruption for an extra kick and hit the root shield full force. The hammers tore through the shield on a course for Leah's chest, unfortunately for Raph she saw it coming and jumped back a little before they hit her.

As she did so roots burst from the ground around Raph, except these ones looked hardier with pointed tips. They careered towards him, flanking him from all sides pinning him in the centre.

“You’re dead.” Leah’s sickly sweet voice came from outside the root maw.

Raph snapped out of it and realized he was dripping in sweat, if this was a real fight he would have had no chance. “Fuck.”

“Now now Raph, honestly that was quite impressive. I didn’t expect you to be able to break through my root shield, what was that? You became so much stronger.” Leah said with genuine interest.

“Yeah, it was a skill. Something I got from my Blacksmithing class actually, it’s called Eruption.” Raph said as he slumped onto the ground. Leah came over to him and put her hands on his shoulders, looking him dead in the eye.

“Seriously, that was good. That first bit was a cheap shot from me but you know, it’s a fight. That Eruption you called it? It gives you absolutely crazy power considering your level, you should be proud of that.” Leah was truly being sincere this time around.

“Thank’s Leah. Could we do this again another night?” Raph asked, trying to get over the beating he’d just received.

“Yeah, of course Raph.” said Leah.

The night wore on and Leah had fallen asleep where they were sparring because they had been talking late into the night about fighting and classes. Raph was awake still, thinking about the fight with Leah and how weak he really was.

‘I need to gain some more levels before I have any chance of beating Leah, she’s crazy strong. I am really glad she showed me her powers though.’ Raph let his thoughts go wild, thinking about sparring again and then some other things they could do together.

“Geez Raphael, get your mind out of the gutter.” Raph said to himself as he stood up from where he was to stretch his legs. He walked over towards where their carriage was parked to get his bedroll out, finally time for some sleep.

As Raph walked over something broke the peace of the night. He heard something like a grunt, yet it wasn’t. Taking precautionary measures Raph ducked behind a nearby tree and strained his eyes in the direction of the noise. He could vaguely make out the outlines of a few figures, he thought maybe five or six. Unsure what was happening he decided on a whim to use identify to see who they were.

Identify

??? -- Duskblade Lv. 167

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

??? -- Assassin Lv.181

??? -- Shadowmancer Lv.202

‘Shit. They’re not with us, could it be Breawen?’ Raph looked on, he could see the figures kneel down to what he assumed was an officer sleeping. A glint of moonlight lit up what Raph could only assume to be a blade, it was then plunged into the body of the officer while a hand covered his mouth.

Raph backed away, he needed to get out of here. He didn’t know who they were or what they were here for and he didn’t want to stay and find out.

‘Shit, Leah.’ Raph had to get her out of here.

He made his way over to where she was sleeping as quietly as he could. When he got there he gently rested his hand over her mouth just in case, then he shook her gently to wake her up. A small muffle came from her mouth until she focused on the figure in front of her, Raph raised his other hand to his lips and made a gesture for her to be quiet. Leah nodded, understanding Raph’s gesture so he removed the hand on her mouth.

Raph leaned in close to Leah’s ear and spoke as quietly as he could. ‘Leah, there is a group of high leveled fighters with classes suited to assassination over near the main camp. I don’t know what they want or why they are here. Get up quietly, we need to get out of here.’ Leah’s breathing sped up as Raph explained what was happening, when he finished she nodded and began to get up and put her shoes on.

Raph and Leah quietly moved away from the camp, they did not speak a word to each other until around thirty minutes had passed and they had covered quite the distance from the carriages. The area they had stopped at was a small natural cave in the mountain side that was obscured from the direction of the carriages. Raph slumped down on the side of the cave and Leah sat down beside him.

“Fuck.” He swore, still in a low voice unsure as to the methods the other party had at their disposal. He looked at Leah, she seemed to be in a worse state than he was. Her eyes were out of focus and she was trembling.

Raph moved his arm around her back and spoke quietly to her.

“Leah, I need your help here. Really I don't want to do this but I need you, Major Raycraft.” Raph emphasized her rank. Being addressed professionally seemed to help, she moved her hand to grip Raph’s free one and turned her head to face him.

“Alright Raph,” Leah said, taking a heavy breath. “Tell me what you saw. Every detail.”

And so he did, Raph explained everything he could remember about what he saw at the main group of carriages. “... So I backed over to you as quietly as I could and got you out of there.”

Leah ran her other hand through her hair. “Right. What a fucking mess.” Leah’s vocabulary honestly surprised Raph but given the situation, it was appropriate. “So, you said you saw five or six?”

“Yeah, that's how many I could see. There could have very well been more.” Raph explained.

“Ok, we have no chance if we engage them alone or separated. We can either get the hell out of here and go far as possible or wait them out. At least we could get the bodies back if nothing else, what do you think Raph?” Leah asked.

“It’s your call Major, at this point I’m just dead weight.” Raph said with a self deprecating smile.

“Don’t be stupid Raph, I’d most likely be dead if it wasn’t for you.” Leah said as she squeezed his hand again.

“What do you think they want Leah?” Raph asked as squeezed Leah’s hand back.

“I don’t know if it is anything specific, I mean that caravan had the second or third in command from most of the divisions in the whole army. That alone makes it a viable target.” Leah said angrily.

“I’m so sorry Leah.” Raph tried to console her.

“It’s not your fault Raph, it’s those Breawen bastards. I say we wait here until first light, If I were them I wouldn’t be sticking around.” Leah said with conviction.

“Alright, we stay here. Try and get some sleep Leah, it seems to elude me anyways.” Raph said as he took out a spare blanket from his ring and wrapped it over her shoulders.

Leah smiled as she saw Raph pull the blanket out of thin air. “That ring of yours, really is useful.” she said with a yawn, and soon enough she fell asleep with her head on Raph’s shoulder.

---

The morning sky was a welcome sight for Raph, washing away some of the tension that the night had brought him. They were not out of the woods yet, merely a step closer. Leah was still leaning her head on his shoulder looking as peaceful as can be all things considered. Raph gently shook her awake, they had to get moving.

“Leah.” Raph said with a whisper.

“Mmnn,” a small groan came from her mouth.

“Leah,” Raph said again.

“I’m awake,” she said as she rubbed her eyes. She turned her head towards the mouth of the cave and saw the dawn light.

“Any other surprises last night Raph?” Leah asked as she got up and stretched, which to Raph was a feast for the eyes.

“Huh-Hmm.” Raph coughed and turned his gaze away from Leah, looking out at the sunrise. “No, nothing to report. Didn’t hear anything.”

Leah turned to face Raph and saw a wet patch on his shoulder where she had been resting her head, her face blushed. “I’m sorry for falling asleep on you, I didn’t mean-”

“Leah, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Raph said as he stood up and put a hand on her shoulder.

Raph took out some of the rations he had kept in his ring and handed a portion to Leah, they ate in silence while looking out at the sunrise.

“Alright Raph, stay close to me and be prepared to run if anyone is still here.” Leah said as they started walking back towards the caravan.

“I won’t run Leah, I will not leave you here.” Raph said matter-of-factly.

Leah blushed and said no more at Raph’s response. All looked quiet as they approached the site of the attack. The duo stood at the edge of the area for a while, they were as cautious as possible returning back to the carriages. When they were sure there was no one left they approached their carriage first. Raph noticed that it had been searched, the boxed and documents were thrown out onto the floor.

“This is odd.” Raph said to Leah. “They were looking for something?”

“It does seem like it.” Leah agreed with Raph.

Raph and Leah moved on over to the main area with the rest of the carriages. Raph could smell it before he could see it. Blood. It was unmistakable, then he saw the bodies. Killed where they slept, clearly whoever Breawen had sent to do this were experts. The killers hadn’t alerted anyone else in the camp, everyone was still in place.

“They killed everyone.” Raph was stuck in place, Leah just beside him.

Raph noticed the body of the Major he’d seen in the cafe amongst the dead, then he saw their driver Licoln in a pool of his own blood near a fire pit.

“Bastards.” Raph swore as he knelt down near Lincoln. He moved his hand onto the man's shoulder. “I swear to you, I will find who did this and I will kill them.” Raph’s tone of voice was uncharacteristically heavy.

“Raph.” Leah said from the other side of the carriages. Walking around to see why she had called him he saw they were the same as theirs, the contents were now strewn on the floor outside.

“What could they have been looking for?” Raph asked Leah.

“I don’t know, as far as I’m aware we weren’t transporting anything valuable.” Leah sighed.

“How about strategically valuable?” Raph asked again.

“Oh shit.” Leah swore.

“What is it? What do they have?” Raph asked.

“The maps. The fucking maps!” Leah said, much louder.

Raph had some idea what was coming but he had to ask. “What’s on the maps?”

“Fucking everything Raph, thats what. Exact locations of bases, squad movements, transportation routes. Fucking everything. We’re fucked.” Leah screamed.

“Right you are.” A gravelly voice said from behind Leah.