Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Twenty six hours had passed since Lucius and the team had left the city. They had traveled a majority of the distance and would be reaching their destination in a couple of hours. 

They had not met any bad weather in this time and hence were able to travel comfortably. During this time, Lucius had also gotten to know the six guards and their gifts. He even used nexus to take a look at the muscle-strengthening gift which gave him a bit more information.

Though he wanted to use it once more to see if it could tell him about its upgrade requirements. Lucius had found this gift to be rather simple and straightforward, yet it was this very simplicity that made its application endless.

Lucius wondered what the upgraded form of a simple gift like this would be. Since it was an uncommon ranked gift, he reckoned that requirements for it would be much easier to find.

~clop~clop~clop~

The carriage came to a halt as the gravel on the ground got knocked away. Lucius lifted the window cover and peeked out. 

There were mountains in the distance and trees everywhere around them. Along the sides of the roads, a span of free area could be seen, and there were flowers blooming. Overall, it was a picturesque scene and no one would think it was a place of conflict.

"Are we there now?" Lucius questioned the guard standing outside.

"We are nearly at the place, my lord. According to your plan, we should leave the carrier here, right?" The guard asked.

"Hmm… that's correct. Park it to the side." Lucius ordered.

They had been switching driver's turn by turn so that just one person did not get exhausted too much. Right now, it was another guard driving the carriage while John was scouting up ahead.

~creek~

The door of the carriage opened as Lucius and Kiana disembarked from the carriage. Lucius stretched his slightly sore body and looked around the area for any abnormalities. He could see that there were additional hoof prints on the roar which showed the presence of other people passing by.

Though looking at the age of the tracks, Lucius guessed that they were over four days old.

"Just about the same time as that attack… the soldiers should have passed by here," Lucius said.

"My lord, it rained two days ago here." One of the guards informed.

"It did? But it didn't say so in the report I saw." Lucius said.

"I heard this from one of the couriers when we took a break in the last town. The rain was mostly confined to this area, so that is probably why it was not in the report." The guard replied.

"I see…" Lucius muttered, feeling strange.

If it had really rained, then these tracks should not have been so clear. It was likely that there some other factor in play here that he couldn't place his finger upon. Lucius decided to wait for John to return before making any further decision.

About an hour passed after which John finally returned on horse back. Lucius saw that he had not come back in the same state either. His face was tense, and he seemed to be carrying something with him that he didn't have before.

"What do you have to report?" Lucius questioned.

"There is a small camp of bandits, north east of here. They are nestled at the side of a knoll and are surrounded by sparse trees. Looking at some of the tracks I saw there, I'm pretty sure they are the same bandits that attacked the soldiers." John answered.

Lucius nodded before asking, "and how's their camp? What kind of tents are they using and what about their other equipment?" 

"They're using common canvas tents with no unique features. As for other equipment, I can see that they have four horses and some tools. Their weapons are either on their person and the rest in the other tents." John replied.

"Hmm… alright. We'll take another look and come up with a plan." Lucius spoke.

They then discussed for a few minutes before leaving on foot. Going on horseback would be problematic and John only went on it because he had no idea where he would find the bandits. But now that they knew their location, it was best to be as silent as possible.

It took Lucius and the rest about forty five minutes to reach the bandits' camp. They had left behind one of the guards so that he could watch the carriage and the horses. Upon reaching the location, Lucius assessed the location.

Though his gaze eventually settled on the knoll as an idea formed in his mind. They went around the area and finally reached the back side of the knoll. This area was steep to climb while the side where the bandits were located was more even.

"This is where we'll attack from," Lucius stated.

"You sure?" John asked.

"Yes, with Kiana's gifts, she will be able to attack them with ease. Besides… I doubt we will actually need to fight ourselves…" Lucius said with a smile.

"Alright, if you say so." John replied, feeling satisfied since he had also seen the power of Kiana's gift. 

Kiana could easily attack over a distance of three hundred meters now, and all she would need to do was to shoot in a horizontal line while targeting the tent. Just this would likely take out most of the bandits.

They waited some more time to see how many bandits there actually were. There were seven tents set up there, so they reckoned there should be at least thirty or more bandits since the tents were large enough to accommodate six men each.

Lucius's guess turned out to be correct as there were thirty four bandits in total. They also got to see the gifts of a few of them.

This was the thing that had shocked them at the end. Six of the bandits had rare ranked gifts that were of the offensive type.

"Surprise attack is the way it seems…" Lucius muttered.