Chapter 27- Bandits

Dubs awoke at 4:30 am, showered, and headed out to the dining hall to meet up with his squadmates.

"What's the plan, Dubs?", Alt asked.

Dubs walked through the hallway quietly and whispered to Alt, "If possible, I will take a position furthest back. In the case of an attack, I don't plan on revealing my strength. I will rely on you to take enemies out from range with your shadow form, but you will have to assist me by scouting things out."

Alt was pleased upon hearing this. If they ran into thieves or any other enemies, Alt would be able to release some pent up stress on them. Alt's condition however, was beginning to stabilize. After a long week of training with Dubs, an opponent who was now almost up to Alt's level, he experienced a challenge for the first time.

All the other knights who came at night to use Dubs as a training dummy ended up encountering Alt in his shadow form, and he had never met a single enemy who was even able to sense his presence, much less land a blow.

Alt's thirst for battle could never be quenched due to this, as even the strongest foes of the empire couldn't match up to him, which was why having Dubs as a partner now allowed him to become much more stable.

As a matter of fact, over the past week of training the synchronization between Dubs and Alt had reached 8%. Both Dubs and Alt became much more like-minded as a result, but they remained two separate minds.

Dubs began to wonder if they actually would end up merging into one, or if at 100% synchronization they would rather remain two people who had very similar if not identical personalities.

Arriving at the dining hall, Dubs ate some breakfast and one by one his squadmates arrived, taking a seat next to them. By 5:30, all 5 of the members were gathered, ready to go on the mission.

The resistance was poorly funded, and was unable to provide rookies with new weapons. This was one reason why magic was so important, as most rookies didn't have the funds to arm themselves.

This was the case for all the members of the party aside from Dubs, as Ivan had retrieved his fathers dagger for him.

When the party had finished, they headed off and met in front of the roasted boar inn. Upon seeing Aria loading up her wagon, Enferia waved over to her.

"Good morning! Would you like some help loading up the supplies?", she offered.

"No, I just finished up with the last of the supplies. Are you all prepared to head out?", Aria asked.

The party confirmed that they were ready and took positions.

"Does anyone here know how to drive a wagon? I can do it myself if needed, but I would prefer to watch over the goods if possible.", Aria stated.

Tirian raised his hand. "As a former noble, it was required for me to learn horse riding and carriage driving.", he proudly stated. Despite the fact that he had been betrayed by his family, and joined the resistance as a result of this, he still took pride in his lineage and his past.

Tirian took the reins and Enferia took the passenger seat next to him. Aria got into the back of the wagon, and Dubs took the rear guard.

Drodus walked over to the left side, and Samuel took the right.

"Alright, everyone is in proper formation. Lets move out!", Tirian ordered, whipping the reins lightly.

The horses trodded through the empty night streets, which remained dark even during day due to being underground.

Eventually, they arrived at a transport tunnel to the city of Ariola. The cargo of the wagon was inspected, and the five had to show their mercenary ID's as proof that they were allowed to travel between cities.

After a thorough inspection, the guards let the wagon pass, and they entered the unlit tunnels.

Enferia began to chant and meditate in the elven language, and after a few minutes she stated [minor light], and a small ball of light magic hovered above the carriage which illuminated the surroundings.

The party moved forward, and Alt took up a shadow form. He began to converse with Dubs shortly.

"Looks like the empire takes their security pretty seriously, eh? Funny that the mercenaries they trust so much are harboring a rebel faction.", Alt noted.

Alt's shadow then sunk into the ground as if he had become liquid soaking into the soil, and spreading out across the area. Dubs couldn't even respond before Alt had left, but Alt could still communicate with Dubs his whereabouts and through thoughts.

"Surroundings are clear so far..." Alt stated, as the party continued walking.

"Can you hear me from so far away, or can I just hear you?", Dubs inquired.

"I can hear your voice so long as you speak out loud, regardless of our physical distance. Similarly, you can hear my voice, not that anyone else can.", Alt responded.

After an hour of walking without event, Alt began to giggle and exclaimed "Hehehe... looks like I've found some prey... I'm going to take a quick stab at these guys over here..."

Dubs assumed Alt had found some thieves, and left Alt to take care of them. He sensed the presence of 7, which dropped one by one until only two remained.

"That was boring... not a single one of them put up a fight. I left the two who were separated from their group so we can test your other squadmates...", Alt announced to Dubs.

Dubs readied himself, and began to try to feel out their locations. Both of them were to the left, waiting along the path to pounce on any unlucky targets who came their way.

"If this many bandits are here, they must have taken up residence within the tunnels long ago, living off traveling merchants. There would be no way they would be able to easily make it past the guards so many times.", Dubs thought.

As the wagon approached the bandits, the party heard two high pitched male voices. "Get im!" "Alright!", and two human males dressed in some well tailored leather armor charged at the wagon.

One wielded a samurai katana, and the other held a trident weapon. Charging towards Drodus, the horses began to freak out and started bobbing up and down uncontrollable, screeching.

Tirian and Enferia were too concentrated on the horses to react to the attackers, and Samuel was on the other side of the carriage. It would be too late to do anything by the time he came around.

Drodus held up his hands and on the ground in front of him, and stated [blanket of flames], and a patch of fire formed. Chanting in the dwarven language, he finished off with [oxygen enhancement]. With the raising of his hand, some wind gently fueled the flames, enlarging their effect.

"Interesting!", Dubs thought. "Drodus has combined his abilities in fire and air to fuel a fire spell with oxygen, increasing its attack power!"

The two bandits smiled and one screamed out, "Magic users eh!? As if some petty fire like this will stop us from making it over there!"

The two ran straight through the fire, and were about to exit, mostly unscathed, with some scorch marks on their feet. The long reach of their weapons were about to reach Drodus, when Dubs heard Alts voice in his head.

"And now its time for some meddling..."

All of a sudden the flames that the two bandits were trailing their way through erupted in a huge bath of fire, and the bandits flesh roasted as they screamed out in agony.

Drodus fell back in shock, unsure of what had just happened, but let out a sigh of relief.

Samuel had run over at this point to witness the scene, and the rest of the party was left speechless.

"I cannot believe you had this much power in you Drodus! Well done!", Tirian stated.

"I... no, I didn't... I thought I was dead for sure...", Drodus replied, stuttering.

Dubs heard Alt laughing inside his head. "Look at their faces!! AHAHA! They think that kid did that! Priceless!"

Dubs also let out a chuckle from behind the cart and proceeded over to the group. "Is everyone alright?", he asked.

Drodus nodded, and the rest of the party became at ease. Samuel went back to his position, and Dubs walked over to the corpses of the two thieves, searching their bodies.

Their armor had been ruined, but Dubs did manage to grab a pouch of coins that had only been seared. Dubs threw the pouch over to Tirian, who pocketed the funds for the party. Alt then came over in his shadow form, and engulfed the weapons.

Dubs was surprised by this and looked at Alt. "You can do that?"

Alt smiled and explained. "This body is made of the element of darkness. Similar to a black hole, inside this area leads to another dimension, where I can store items. I've been slowly collecting all the useful things off the thieves and storing them here."

Dubs was pleased. He had gained some reasonable equipment and items to sell, as well as plenty of money from the bandits.

After the looting had finished the party moved on.

"We are more than halfway to the city, I hope we will not encounter any more bandits!", Aria stated.