The day passed one after the other. One day I walked through the birch forest and the next I walked through the desert. Sometimes my body was freezing with cold and other times it was boiling hot. I didn't even remember where I was going, but something inside me kept pushing me forward.
I woke up to the pleasant chirping of birds and one of them was watching me patiently across the branches. I sat up and looked around for any danger. As my stomach rumbled. On my journey I often went several days without food, because I deliberately avoided cities and only rarely stopped at a village. I didn't take much with me because traveling light was more pleasant for me. I braced myself against a tree and stood up. I went to a nearby meadow where I set traps for hares. One of them was successful. I pulled the hare by the ears and killed him in the next moment. It was already getting colder, so winter was approaching. Every winter I ask myself if this is the last one. Fortunately, the way I traveled, I was able to avoid challenging conditions for the most part. I skinned the hare and skewered it. I said a short prayer to the fire nimer and started roasting the meat.
The Nimers created the world, so if we despised them, they could cast the disasters that destroyed entire nations in the past. I personally didn't pay much attention to them in my faith, but that was probably one of the reasons why I haven't died yet. In some places it was not safe to travel because there were flocks of karitas or packs of darens. Caritas are human-sized predators that prey mostly on livestock, but they do not disdain humans either. I've met and killed a few of them before, but when they attacked me in my sleep like that one time, I really nearly came up short. Darens are similar to wolves in many ways, but they are bigger, faster, stronger, and like karites, they have more of a mutated demonic appearance. Fortunately, most villages keep up-to-date information on their presence, and mercenaries and soldiers are sent to eliminate them.
Today's hare was quite thin, but it was enough for me for now. I gathered my gear and set off again. I traveled light, with only a few spare clothes, a sword, a dagger, and a few other small things necessary for life in the wild.
I reached the crossroads and headed towards the village. I met various merchant caravans that wanted to offer me their wares, each time I just continued on my way. I was passing one spruce after another when I suddenly saw a caravan with several bandits.
"Take everything of value," one of the bandits called out to the rest.
I hid behind a smaller slope. I didn't want to interfere. I'm capable of fighting, but I'd only be able to handle about five bandits. I didn't want to bet on that.
It was a good place to ambush. The caravan was on a bend, so you could see at most twenty meters.
I peeked out slightly from behind the slope.
Two of the bandits were human, two grasions and one jrengr. The grasions are one of the sub-human races. They are quite similar to humans, but taller and quite a bit stronger. About two to three heads taller than the average person. I would compare them to overgrown pigs who think that muscles are everything. Otherwise, this is one of the most common breeds for demanding jobs. The last of the bandits was jrengr. Or a feline beast that walks on two feet and is slightly shorter than a human. Compared to grasions, they are quite smart and calculating, but their most dangerous abilities are their speed and extremely fast reflexes, which none of the races can match. Unless there are exceptions. They are not very common in society as they mostly live isolated in their own villages.
An unknown person appeared nearby, covered in a dark green hood, when the bandits saw her, they alerted her.
"What do you think you're doing here," shouted grasion.
"I'm just passing an elephant," the person replied. According to the voice it was a woman.
Grasion frowned. "Do you think a young lady like you is safe here?" Saliva dripped from his mouth. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Before he could draw, the girl whizzed past him, slashing his throat with two daggers. Blood splattered everywhere and grasion fell to the ground. Jrengr drew two daggers and the rest of the bandits drew swords. The girl started to fight with the other two, but she no longer had the moment of surprise, so the fight was very even.
One of the people tried to push harder on the clash of weapons to get a chance to land a killing blow, but the girl could see very well in the battle area. She did not hesitate and immediately threw the second dagger at his face, the bandit dodged the dagger, but that was not the true essence of the attack. He lost his concentration for a moment and she appeared right in front of him, ripping open his stomach with a single swipe of her dagger. He screamed in pain with his intestines hanging from his stomach, it was a miracle he was alive. He tried to get out of range, but was unable to avoid another slash that severed his head. The second grasion threw himself at her with all his might. She tried to cover and parry the grasion sword, but it was too strong. She only had one dagger left, so she couldn't afford to take any chances. At the last moment she dodged the swing of the sword. Jrengr suddenly appeared behind her. Her face suddenly showed surprise and fear. She jumped to the side, but didn't manage to dodge completely.
"Aaaagh!" she screamed in pain. She caught a clean cut across the back. She fell to the ground. She crawled to the caravan and turned on the bandits. The three of them smiled awkwardly. She could only raise the dagger, which was immediately knocked out of reach by jrengr.
"Hmm, so where do we start?" Jrengr removed her hood. Brown hair fell over her azure eyes. She could be pretty if it weren't for all the blood and dirt.
The girl looked around desperately. Her azure eyes stopped at where I was hiding.
Did she know I was hiding here?
"I haven't seen such a pretty face in a long time," jrengr said with satisfaction.
The girl tried to defend herself, but she was not strong enough. Grasion grabbed her hands to keep her from twitching so much. I couldn't watch it anymore. Most likely the bandits had a reward posted on them, which would solve my rusty and dull sword.
"Help!" she shouted.
I was behind them in no time. I myself had no idea where I got such speed. The bandit holding her legs didn't have time to do anything when I stabbed him through and through. My sword was obviously very blunt, so I had to use a lot of force just to get it through. The bandit screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Jrengr and grasion immediately retreated and raised their weapons. I put myself between them and the girl. I heard a small sigh from behind me. I wanted to turn around and make it clear to her that it was far from over. I made a quick lunge at grasion, who sent down his sword with full force from above. The screeching of blades echoed through the forest. We both resigned. They could fight well. I had to use my speed to get rid of grasion. Something flew through the air and I just barely dodged the jrengra blade, cutting my face lightly. In the next moment, grasion pounced on me.
It was a pretty strong combination. As soon as I dodged a strike from grasion, yrengr was already flying at me. Obviously, jrengr didn't want to risk accidentally hitting grasion, so he was quite careful. The girl began to slowly crawl away. The fight went on and on, I covered one lunge after another. I could not continue this fight for long. I became short of breath and my lungs burned. During Grasion's attacks, I noticed that he attacks more upwards and exposes the lower part of his body. Grasion lunged again. I immediately dodged and lunged at his waist. I slashed at point blank range and inflicted a gash the width of my entire abdomen. The Gracians were quite persistent, their barbaric will to win clearly keeping him alive.
It would take a sharp sword, I thought. If I had it even a little bit sharper, grasion would be cut in half.
I covered the jrengro outage. Grasion kept trying to fight, but his lunges were getting slower and weaker. I parried another of his lunges, but this time I was able to parry his sword and gain momentum. I slashed from the left as hard as I could, but my sword stopped immediately. Something flashed behind me, I didn't have time to react. Jrengr appeared behind me and stuck a dagger into my back. I hissed in pain, but something else flashed as well. Suddenly a dagger came flying and stuck in Grasion's head. I shook off jrengr and raised my sword again. I was losing a lot of blood, luckily my organs were not damaged.
Jrengr hissed, "What do you think you are," he paused. "you are both injured and now with my speed I will easily kill you both."
I barely had time to turn to cover the lunge. He immediately disappeared and appeared behind me. I didn't catch anything. I swung my sword into the void behind me. Blade fell on blade.
In my condition, I probably won't be able to beat him, although he only has one dagger left, but he would have to make a mistake. All he had to do was persevere until we lost more blood and fell unconscious.
I covered another lunge. For a moment the fight stopped, my lungs were literally on fire. I coughed up blood. The jrengr standing across from me smiled, about to make a killing attack. I raised my sword. He ran straight towards me. Suddenly, as if time slowed down. I saw him suddenly change direction to the right. It seemed too easy, so I bluffed and signaled that I would cover and set up a slash to the left. When jrengr was almost at my place, he changed direction. I cut to the left. I ripped him pretty deep all over his stomach.
Jrengr screamed in pain and fell to the ground. He twitched desperately a few more times, so I cut his throat instead.
I won.
I took a few steps and collapsed against the caravan. The elderly gentleman who owned the caravan apparently took advantage of the confusion and fled. I put a piece of my clothing on the wound. The girl ran up to me. Her clothes were tattered and barely covered her.
Nice last view, I thought.
"Get up and get on that wagon," she ordered. I tried to get up, but my legs gave out. "Ahh.. are you so weak that a woman has to help you up?" she scolded me with a slight smile on her face. Why was she smiling when we both almost died here?
"If I were that weak, I wouldn't have intervened and let them rape you and then kill you," I retorted angrily.
I wasn't in the mood for a joke when I could bleed to death at any moment.
She knelt down so I could deny her. She hissed in pain as I pressed against her and lightly touched her wound. With the last of my strength, I swung myself onto the car. My consciousness gradually began to fade from lack of blood.
"Thank you," the girl whispered, sitting down next to me.
The world plunged into darkness.