CHAPTER 76: WAY OVER

Marcus’s enchantments activated across our weapons as kinetic amplification and precision targeting, it made it so our people hit harder and with near perfect aim.

Damian moved through the fight like water, his butler combat arts looked ridiculous on paper because who fights with serving tray techniques? But in practice, they were devastatingly effective. He deflected strikes, redirected momentum and turned enemy attacks against themselves.

A bandit swung a club at his head but Damian caught it on his armored forearm, stepped inside the attacker’s guard, delivered three precise strikes to pressure points and the bandit folded like wet clothes.

I engaged the leader. The big man with the executioner’s axe.

"You’re making a mistake," I said, Shadow Blade forming around my sword.

"Only mistake is yours, boy!" He swung the axe in a wide arc.

But it was ridiculously slow to me. I shook my head.

I ducked under it, came up inside his reach, struck him in the solar plexus with the flat of my blade. Enhanced by Marcus’s enchantments, it hit like a battering ram.

He staggered back, wheezing.

"Walk away," I said. "Take your men and go. You don’t want this fight."

"We... we’re twenty... hardened..."

My eyes glowing silver. "Last. Chance."

He looked around. His men were down. The whole fight had lasted maybe three minutes.

"We yield!" he shouted, dropping his axe. "We yield!"

"Smart choice." I signaled Helena. "Secure them. We’ll drop them at the next town with a warning. I want the local authorities to deal with the survivors."

And thirty minutes later, we were back on the road.

The bandits were tied up in one of our supply wagons, nursing bruises and wounded pride with some of their dead. We’d leave them at Millbrook with the local guard.

"Well," Marcus said as we resumed our journey. "That was therapeutic."

"Therapeutic?" Isabella looked at him incredulously. "We were ambushed by armed bandits!"

"Yes, but we won easily without casualties. After a week of brutal training and emotional trauma, getting to actually apply what we learned against real opponents?" He grinned. "Therapeutic."

"He’s not wrong," Lucille said. She was back to cleaning her daggers, but she looked more relaxed. "Felt good to fight something that wasn’t trying to assassinate us specifically."

Ravenna nodded. "The void cage held perfectly with no breaches. The training worked, we should try it more."

"Everyone performed well," Seraphina added. She’d retracted her wings but still had that holy aura around her. "Coordination was flawless and communication was clear with no hesitation."

"Seven days of Helena beating perfection into us," someone said from the other carriage.

"You’re welcome!" Helena shouted back.

I looked at my inner circle. They were smiling, actually smiling for the first time since Felix’s death, they looked... okay. They aren’t healed but they’re getting there. Not bad.

The fight had indeed helped.

"Distance covered?" I asked Damian.

"Fifteen miles. We’re making excellent time. At this rate, we’ll reach Millbrook by late afternoon instead of evening."

"Good. I want a full night’s rest. Tomorrow might bring more complications."

"Tomorrow would definitely brings more complications," Lucille corrected. "But that’s fine. We’re ready for them."

She was right.

We were ready.

I am.

We left Millbrook at dawn, well-rested and well-fed. The innkeeper had been grateful for the money we had to spend and we’d delivered the bandits to the local guard, they were happy too because apparently they’d been terrorizing the region for weeks.

"Strange though," the guard captain had said. "Those men were well-equipped, too well-equipped for common bandits, it might be that omeone’s funding them."

"The Baron?" Marcus had whispered as we left.

"Maybe. Or the League testing us. It might even be any enemy that we did not know." I’d watched the forest ahead. "Either way, stay alert."

The second day passed quietly. Too quietly that I and the team even start to get twitchy as if we’re not used to something not happening.

Besides....

"I don’t like this," Lucille said, scanning the treeline. "We should’ve encountered something by now, some merchants or travelers, maybe even some patrols. The road is simply empty."

"Maybe everyone’s headed to the tournament?" Marcus suggested.

"Or maybe someone cleared the road," Lucille countered. "Made sure we’d be isolated here."

"Paranoia or.....?" I asked, my eyes were hard as I asked. Can’t I have a moment of peace too? Why should everything keep happening?

"With our luck? Both."

We camped that night in a defensible clearing. Helena organized watch rotations and Ravenna set some wards. Marcus placed detection enchantments.

And surprisingly.....nothing happened.

But no one slept well.

The next day, something did happen and it made all of us breathe a sigh of relief. It was better for something to actually happen than to keep feeling twitch as if we were being hunted in the dark.

The bridge that we were to use had been destroyed.

And it wasn’t no old damage, it was recent and the wooden supports were cleanly cut, the stone foundations deliberately undermined.

This was sabotage.

"Someone really doesn’t want us reaching Silvercrest," Isabella observed.

"Or they want to delay us for whatever reason," I said, studying the river, it was incredibly fast-moving, fifty feet wide.

"Could be the Baron," Damian suggested. "He’s trying to prevent us from competing. If we arrive late, we forfeit and he’ll keep is from public eyes."

"Or it’s a test," Seraphina said. "The League, seeing how we handle obstacles. Although, I failed to see how this counts as one."

"Does the reason matter?" Helena asked. "Either way, we need to cross."

Marcus was already examining the riverbank. "I can build a temporary bridge with earth, it would take about three hours with my runesmith bloodline enhancements. It’ll hold long enough for the wagons."

"Do it. Everyone else, defensive positions. If this is a trap, they’ll spring it while we’re vulnerable."

It wasn’t a trap.

But three hours working on a bridge in the open was nerve-wracking.

We crossed by mid-afternoon. The temporary bridge held aw he said it would. Marcus had literally channeled runic energy into the stone, creating structural support from pure magic.

"That was impressive," Ravenna said as the last wagon rolled across.

Marcus collapsed, exhausted. "Never doing that again. My mana channels feel like they’ve been sandblasted."

"Rest. We’ll make camp early today. You earned it."