"We have company" I whispered in a low voice. More figures were appearing in my vision as they came into the range of my spell. They were creeping in slowly, probably assuming that we weren't aware of their presence yet.
I pretended to stretch to turn around, doing one sweep of the perimeter around our camp. "One group of 3 and another group of 4 from those directions." I pointed to the side of the woods that was closest to us.
"Another 3 approaching from behind me. They have us surrounded" I whispered to Stannis. He gave me a quiet nod and quickly crouched over to where Haeken, Fallic, and Brynna slept to wake them up. He whispered something to Haeken before moving to wake the others so that they could take cover. The wagons had been parked in such a way that they formed a semi circle around us.
I noticed the bandits seemed to quicken their pace, probably realizing that the jig is up. "Incoming" I called, alerting everyone of the inbound attack.
"Haeken, raise an earthen wall for Brynna, Fallic and Damian. The 3 of you take the group of 4 and try to take them down as fast as possible. Haeken you take the 3 on the East side, I'll take the other 3 on the West." Stannis barked orders before rushing off.
Suddenly, a streak of blaze flew up into the sky and lit up the area. The assailants probably figured out that we had detection spells and might be able to fight in the dark — especially hearing Stannis call out the numbers in their group so accurately. The light was a smart move to level the playing field in terms of visibility and make use of their numbers advantage.
Haeken slammed his hands into the ground, quickly raising a few walls between us and the eastern side of the forest before he rushed off to face his own group. I could see that his hands were wrapped in thick gauntlets — something he did not have earlier — which indicated that it was probably some form of spell construct.
I quickly took cover near one of the walls alongside Brynna and Fallic, whereas the merchants and the two other visitors with us took shelter underneath the wagons.
Fallic and Brynna took advantage of our cover and the bandits being out in the open to start raining ranged spells at them.
PING—PING—PING
I took a look over the wall and saw that one of the bandits was holding a big kite shield and moving into position whenever one of the spells flew towards their group. I had to duck a moment later as I saw a few blobs of dark liquid fly over my head. Some landed on the Earthen walls and began to hiss, eating through the wall.
Not good! Some kind of Poison or Acid affinity. At this rate we would run out of cover while they could still hide behind their shield. There were some wind blades that flew our way as well, probably from another Air mage within their ranks.
I noticed the kite shield was made entirely of metal, and before I released my own Lightning Bolt at the shield user, I shouted a warning at Brynna and Fallic. "Close your eyes!"
The area between us lit up in bright white blue as the lightning arced between my palm and the shield. The bandits seemed to be blinded for a bit, but more importantly I could see the shield user start to stagger. Perhaps there was some insulation on the handle of the shield but some of the current might have gotten through.
Seeming to realize what I was intending to do, Brynna changed her strategy while Fallic continued to fire Wind Blades at them from different angles. He was able to make his blades' trajectory curve, though they were countered by the bandits' own Air mage.
Brynna took a while to gather up a blob of water instead of firing quick water bullets at the enemies. It took her a few seconds but soon she had a giant ball of water that seemed at least a few pails' worth. She shot it at the 4 bandits, centering on the shield user. While it did not fly fast enough to really hurt anyone, I understood her intent.
One of the bandits seemed to catch on and quickly jumped away before he was doused, whereas the other 3 weren't fast enough. Once the 3 were thoroughly soaked through, I fired two Lightning Bolts the second I got a chance.
The bandits did not even get a chance to scream before they were thoroughly shocked and collapsed to the ground. The same moment, a blob of acid was flying at me as I had emerged from my cover to fire the spells.
I could sense the acid flying towards me through my Electrolocation, but it was flying faster than I expected. I was preparing to partially dodge and turn my body, expecting to take some damage on my back when Brynna conjured a wall of water between me and the acid to intercept it. A few drops still got through which burnt my right arm a little.
Fallic quickly fired a few wind blades at the Acid mage to prevent him from firing more spells. We emerged from our cover and the 3 of us made quick work of the Acid mage once he was alone.
We quickly approached Haeken to help him. He had thick earthen gauntlets on his hands and he was mostly being defensive. He was using additional earth walls he erected, and occasionally punching the wall to fire chunks of it at the bandits. Once the 3 of us arrived, we overwhelmed the bandits with a barrage of spells and 3 Lightning Bolts later, they were all collapsed on the ground.
When we went over to Stannis he was doing much better than we expected. His combat style involved using earth manipulation to accelerate his movements or to trip and disrupt the opponent's footwork. He also had three rotating discs of rocks around him about the size of a football. He used those to intercept incoming spells while he closed the distance with his earth manipulation. One of the 3 bandits was already missing one arm, and with our reinforcements, they were also taken down quickly.
"Brynna, go check on the merchants. Fallic and Damian, sweep the area to make sure there aren't any other bandits. Haeken go check the bodies to see if there is any identification, we should gather the bodies together to bury them."
Fallic and I each swept one side of the woods. We didn't find any other bandits, or if there were any they had probably already fled. When we got back, Stannis and Haeken had already created pits using their Earth Manipulation and laid the bodies side by side in the rectangular pit.
"Look for your own affinity and absorb two cores each. Damian, since you contributed the most to the fight and there isn't a Lightning mage in their ranks, you should take the Yellow cored leader."
"Why does he get the Yellow core?" Fallic protested. Haeken tried to hold Fallic back but couldn't do so in time. "Forget he said that, we're happy with the distribution" Haeken tried to smooth out the situation.
Stannis however, did not let the challenge stand and explained. "Damian's detection range allowed me to wake everyone up before they approached and gave us time to get prepared. On top of that, Brynna told me that Damian's lightning spell was the one that broke the stalemate the 3 of you had on your side. He also landed the killing blow on more than half the bandits here."
Stannis paused for a few seconds before continuing "Is it exactly a fair distribution? Likely not. However the other 4 of us are more likely to absorb cores of the same affinity. Life as an adventurer is not easy, we should help each other out where we can."
He looked to Haeken before saying "Brynna and I agreed that Damian deserves the Yellow core, do you have any issues with it?" Haeken just shook his head.
Stannis looked at Fallic next. "You might not think it's fair but on a mission, the party leader gets the final say. If you're not happy you can choose not to join the party the next time. You can take this as a lesson or you can ignore it, but you're still young and you'll likely encounter more of this in the future."
"Let's get on with it then, we should bury the bodies after we absorb the cores. The sun is almost up and we might as well get a move on rather than go back to sleep"
We were on the road within the hour, thankfully none of the merchants were hurt. The old man and his granddaughter also headed off towards Hollow's Reach. Haeken and Stannis had some light cuts which were promptly healed with a dose of Basic Healing Potion after Brynna cleaned their wounds. Unfortunately, the potions could not do anything for the acid burns. Brynna had cleaned it out and I would just have to let it heal on its own unless I paid for a healer.
The whole fight lasted probably less than 5 minutes but the aftermath took a lot longer to clean up. The wagons' bodies were largely fine but one of the wheels was hit by a stray spell. Malmon had spare wheels which we could change out. Luckily it was not the axle that was damaged or it would have been troublesome.
Stannis was walking alongside me this time, whereas Haeken and Brynna were on the other side. He had seemed like the kind that didn't mind giving his juniors some advice so I took this opportunity to ask a few things.
"So, why did we have to bury the bodies just now?" I asked.
"Ah, it must be your first encounter with bandits" Stannis mused. "We bury the bodies so that it would not attract beasts from the forest. It would cause inconvenience for other people using the road. It also prevents unwanted diseases from spreading due to rotting corpses"
I thought back to the fact that I had actually used the beasts as a convenient way to get rid of the two bandits bodies.
"I see, where do you think they came from? Don't you think it's an unusually large group for bandits? If we were a smaller or less combat capable party, we would have been wiped out" I asked.
"Ironhold scum" Stannis spat to the side at the mention of them "A few of them still had Ironhold insignia on their armor. So did the shield the bandit was using. It was likely they rallied some local bandits or other deserters as well to form their gang"
"Ironhold? I thought the war is in the East? What are they doing so far away from the border?"
"Ah, but the empire fights its wars on many fronts. And Vesperia is after all a coastal kingdom. There are bound to be deserters from their armies." Stannis explained.
"But why Vesperia? Shouldn't there be other places?" I wondered out loud.
"And I'm sure you'll find bandits there too. But you should know that The High Moors are difficult to survive with its mountains and different clans hunting outsiders down. The Oakhaven elves are worse than your clansmen, being quite xenophobic themselves" Stannis looked at me with a puzzled look.
Ah fuck, I'm supposed to know some of these things.
"Speaking of, High Moorians don't often leave their clan, let alone one with such a strong affinity as yourself. What's your story if you don't mind me asking?" Stannis finally asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.
"Ah, I was sort of sent here against my will. It's a long story for another day" I decided that half truths were usually more believable lies than poorly made up stories — half telling the story of my reincarnation.
"Fair enough, hopefully over a tankard of mulled wine and roasted meat in a tavern some day in the future" Stannis said with a chuckle.
It was after lunch by the time we arrived at Saltmere.
"Here's the signed writ for each of you to collect your payment from the guild" Malmon handed each of us a piece of parchment along with a small pouch with a few coins in it. "And a little bonus for your troubles"
He had probably heard the disagreement we had about the core distribution, and this was perhaps his own way of alleviating some of the tension. The poor man had likely paid this out of his own pocket.
Fallic just accepted them with a grunt before heading further into town.
"Wait~! Ah dang boy. You would think with his temper he would have a Fire core" Haeken grumbled.
"Listen Damian. I hope we don't get off on the wrong foot. If you would like we can travel back to Hollow's Reach together. We might stay a few days and provide escort for free for one of the caravans travelling to Hollow's Reach. We would likely stay at one of the taverns near the Adventurer's Guild in town. I know you're new to Hollow's Reach but we'll likely cross paths many times again in the future. I hope you and Fallic can be friends" Haeken said as we walked into town.
"Sure, I'll think about it. But if you don't see me, please don't wait up" I said without directly refusing his invitation as I intentionally headed in another direction. Haeken was a nice enough man but I could not stand the idea of travelling with Fallic another day longer.
Besides, I had my own plans for visiting Saltmere.
Author Note: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter as I tried to make the combat more than just people flighting spells of their elements at each other. I hope you all enjoyed it too.