19 Ambush

Nick and Alyssa spoke for a couple of hours as they waited for the caravan to finish their business, it took a surprisingly long time for how much they actually traded. The town didn't have much they could trade, but Nick hoped that would change now that the ogres were dead. "Hey, it's time to go!" Tim yelled to them as he and all of the others loaded the wagons.

They both grabbed their bags and jogged over to the wagon. "Hop in and find a place to sit. There is someone else in there, he will be keeping an eye on you to make sure you don't try to pocket anything."

"Fair enough." Alyssa jumped in, Nick following her lead. There was a young man already inside the wagon, he paid no attention to them at all. Not much in the wagon was small enough for them to actually be able to sneakily steal, it was mostly tools and a few weapons. There were a couple boxes as well, though Nick was not sure what was inside of them.

It did not take long for the wagon to begin moving and the town to fade into the distance. "Glad we don't have to sleep in that crappy inn again." Nick said as he watched the town, which was now just a small speck in the distance, slowly disappear from sight.

"Yeah. Man, I need a shower."

"Now that I think about it... I haven't seen any showers around here yet." Nick was not even aware there were showers in this world.

"You must have gone to a pretty crappy bathhouse if there were no showers..."

"We would just dump a bucket of water over ourselves before getting in the bath. It was the same in the castle."

"The bathhouses in the castle also have showers, they are in a different room inside of them."

"Huh... Good to know."

"A dinner, a shower, and some nice sleep... Once we get back to town those are the first things I am doing after we get paid."

Nick laughed, waiting a few minutes before replying. "I wonder if we will rank up from this quest. Probably not, right?"

"Yeah, I doubt it. We accidentally did one B rank quest and now we did probably the easiest one we could have done. We will have to prove ourselves quite a bit more before they think about ranking us up." She chuckled.

"I don't care too much about rank anyway, it is not like we get paid based on what rank we are."

"Yeah, though we would get a bit more respect if we were B rank."

"I guess so."

"Bandits!" Nick heard someone shout. He raised an eyebrow, as if he was puzzled as to why someone would be shouting that. It took a few seconds for him to understands the situation, his eyes grew wide as he shot to his feet.

"Bandits? Shit!" Nick quickly grabbed one of the swords beside him, he did not want to summon Azara in front of all of these people. Nick saw that Alyssa was already coating her arms in ice and forming an ice sword. The man who had been tasked with watching them was already jumping out of the wagon. Nick and Alyssa quickly followed his lead, jumping out of the wagon and looking around.

There was a large group of what must have been fifty bandits rushing towards the caravan from the tree line. "Alright, let's do this!" Alyssa began to rush forward, Nick quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "The hell?"

"Go hide in the forest behind us." He told her.

"What kind of sexist shit? I'm stronger than you are, who are you to try to protect me?"

"That's not it. You said it yourself, you are faster than me. If this goes bad then someone will need to escape to the capital to tell the guild. The faster that person is, the better." Nick explained, watching as the bandits drew closer. Some of the members of the caravan were already exchanging arrows and crossbow bolts with the bandits.

"...Fine." Alyssa was pissed, but she understood that someone needed to get away just in case the bandits were too much for the caravan. "Beat the shit out of a couple of them for me." She said before running towards the trees on the opposite side of the caravan.

The bandits were coming closer, a group of five were running towards him. "You alright, kid?" Tim asked, walking up beside him, sword and shield in hand.

"For now, but that could change quickly." Nick watched as two more men walked over to him with swords draw.

"I'll take two of them, you three each take one." Nick and the other two nodded in understanding as the bandits got close enough to attack. Nick watched as Tim and the other two quickly engaged their opponents, one of the bandits rushing at Nick. The bandit quickly slashed his sword diagonally at Nick's torso, he was able to block and back away slightly, moving away from the others.

The bandit did not miss a beat, now swinging his sword downward at Nick. He held up his sword, placing his palm against the flat of the blade to add support while blocking the blow. Once their swords clashed Nick planted a foot in the bandit's gut, sending him stumbling back a few steps before he regained his composure. Nick was on the defensive, this man was extremely aggressive. If he was careless and tried to fight back without a clear opening he could make a fatal mistake, this was not like fighting a wolf or an ogre.

The bandit quickly stabbed at Nick, he was able to slap the stab away, but each time he did the man was able to pull the sword back and stab again very quickly. It was almost overwhelming, it was all he could do to deflect all of the quick stabs. He couldn't find an opening to counter attack, this man was much better than he was when it came to sword combat. Damn it, I need to take a chance.

The man stabbed again, Nick slapped the sword to the side with as much strength as he could. The man seemed unfazed, but Nick took the opportunity to slash it him. He wanted to injure the man's arm enough so that it would be unusable. The bandit was easily able to block the slash, right after blocking he grabbed a dagger from his belt and stabbed at Nick with it. He did not expect this, he attempted to dodge but was unsuccessful.

He was able to move back, but not enough to avoid the knife completely. The wound would not kill him, but it did hurt a lot. The bandit quickly put the dagger away and grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands, this time assaulting Nick with a series of quick slashes. The wound made it a lot harder for him to concentrate on the attacks, but he was able to block them all. Nick closely watched all of the man's movements, trying to find some opening to counter attack.

After blocking a couple more slashes he saw it, an opening right before the man struck at him. He took the opening, stabbing towards the man's stomach. The man smiled, grabbing Nick's blade with his left hand. This took him by surprise, it never occurred to him that the bandit would grab his sword. Before Nick could recover he felt the pommel of the bandit's sword hit the side of his head.

Nick's vision blurred and his grip on his sword loosened. He could feel blood begin to pour down the side of his face. He was able to make an opening on Nick by faking on opening on himself. It was smart, Nick wished that he had thought of that. He fought hard to hold onto his consciousness, but it was a losing battle. Nick's vision slowly went black as he fell to the ground.

Alyssa's POV:

Alyssa cringed as she watched Nick get hit on the head and then fall to the ground unconscious. Idiot. Couldn't even take some bandit in a one on one fight. She sighed. He didn't even use his magic...

As she looked around she could see that the rest of the caravan was not faring much better, more than half were already either dead or restrained. She stood up and began to silently make her way through the forest. The sooner she got to town, the sooner a rescue party would be sent to help Nick and the others who were captured. She knew she could easily take a few bandits, but rushing in against that many bandits was basically suicide. She was strong for her age, but she could tell that all of the bandits were near her level.

After ten minutes of sneaking through the forest she was finally out of the line of sight of the bandits, she took off running as fast as she could. She did not have as much stamina as she hoped, but she was somehow able to run almost all of the way back to the capital. It was over an hour of constant sprinting, her lungs were burning by the time she got back to the guild. She was fighting the urge to pass out, she would only allow herself to take a break after everyone was rescued.

She slowly hobbled up to the reception desk, the man currently behind the desk looked at her with a curious expression. She took out her ID and put it on the desk, the man took a look at the ID and then at a sheet of paper. "Ah, here to collect payment for the ogres?"

"Not exactly..." She managed to say between heavy breaths. "On the way back from the town a trading caravan we were traveling with got attacked. There were at least fifty bandits, at least twenty traders were taken, more dead. One of the people taken hostage was Nick, my partner who took the quest with me."

"That sure is unfortunate... Wait here while I go and get your payment." The man said, a coldness to his voice.

"Are you going to send anyone to rescue them?" She called after him.

The man turned back, a serious look on his face. "No, we are not a charity. They took hostages, so they probably plan to sell some as slaves and ransom others. I'm sure a family will set up a rescue quest, but until then we can't do anything. You would have better luck talking to the town guard, though they will likely tell you they can't spare the manpower."

"Well, how much would it cost to set up a quest?" Alyssa had a desperate tone to her voice, obviously worried about all those taken hostage who could be killed or sold at any moment.

The man sighed. "From what you described? At least twenty five gold. It is an A rank quest, a bandit group that big is way too dangerous for groups of low level adventurers. You would need at least twenty B rank warriors to take this kind of quest."

Alyssa ran a frustrated hand through her hair. "I will get you twenty five gold, or however much you need."

The man nodded. "Once you gather the money you will have to meet with some guild officials and they will write up the quest and determine its rank. Keep in mind that they might ask you to pay even more depending on what you tell them."

"Alright. Can you put the reward from my last quest towards the payment for setting this one up?"

The man shook his head. "Afraid not, but once I give it to you, you are free to do whatever you want with it. I will be right back." The man walked through a door and came back ten minutes later with a small leather pouch tied shut with string. "Here is your payment. Good luck on getting the rest of the money, that kind of money is not easy to come by for someone of your rank."

Alyssa rolled her eyes and took the money. My rank won't be of any help to me here, but luckily my father has plenty of disposable income... She quickly left the guild building, making her way towards the castle.