The Ambush - Part 6

On the other side of the carriage, the three guards had heard the thud and seen the carriage shake. The remaining guards that had not yet done so also pulled out their swords and slowly started to move around the carriage.

But, the ones at the front and back of the group stopped in their tracks when they heard a thud and the sound of a metal sword clanging against the ground, right behind them. This was then followed by someone shouting out in pain.

Turning around they saw the guard in the middle holding his arm, with his sword on the ground. Why he had done so, neither of them knew, not seeing any real cause. But just as they went to ask, they saw an object impact the man's head, denting, the helmet he wore.

This sent a shockwave through his head, knocking it back and sending him down to the ground, probably with a concussion.

The two guards were shocked by this turn of events, and turned to the tree line, just in time to see, what they now realised was an arrow, heading towards them.

These men, while not veterans of war, were still pretty competent, and so the one in the firing line quickly raised his arm, hoping to shield his face, not wanting what happened to the other guard, to happen to him.

The arrow, fortunately for him, ended up skimming the leather armour on his arms.

Not wanting to stay under fire from who knows how many men in the trees, they both started to sprint at their attackers, heading towards where the arrows were coming from, keeping a lookout for any more that would be heading in their direction.

But as they moved, something new came at them from their right and headed right in front of them. Like everything else, it was sudden, only one having spotted it and even then, just assumed it was an arrow of some sort. That is until it hit the ground and exploded, ending up with them being thrown back from the force of the blast.

They didn't go flying. But in their sprint, they were off balance, so the shockwave from the blast knocked them back and down onto the ground. Groans of pain echoed through the trees, reaching both Philly and Lyrika who looked mighty pleased with themselves. Lyrika even more so with the next shot she made, sending the arrow right into one of the men's special place.

He had not been crippled by the explosion. But the blunted arrow to that area took him out of the fight instantly.

He cried out hard, and tears poured out of his eyes, all of which stopped when a second arrow, flew straight towards his head.

…

As the girls were taking shots at the guards on their side, she was face to face with the only guard that could move properly. Both had their weapons drawn and were heading into a showdown.

She had tried to use the remaining time with her invisibility potion to charge straight into him, but as she did, it wore off and he had more than enough time to dodge to the side.

As her appearance manifested itself again, she could clearly see the look of shock and the terror on their faces. But, just her appearance alone wasn't enough to stop them from defending and fighting back.

The one with his lower half coated in mucus, moved to swing his sword out of desperation, but he was nowhere near Olivia, and ended up toppling backwards, falling into the carriage like the first guy. He was still very much conscious, but now he could only lay there against the vehicle, struggling to break free from the gunk on his legs, all the while watching the other guard fight the Orc.

In her now one on one fight, Olivia planted her feet like she had been told, and swung her morning star horizontally, hoping to slam right into the man's side, sending him into the carriage as well. With the environment around you, you may as well use it, as far as Olivia saw.

The man though, was no complete amateur. He quickly moved backwards, out of reach and followed up with a slash of his own. Which Olivia managed to block.

They went back and forth like this, one attacking and the other blocking, and it felt like they were at the same level in terms of skill. But, before long, she realised it had only been the fear and shock of it all that had the man off balance.

After one such strike from Olivia, which was blocked, he quickly followed this with an overhead strike.

Olivia barely had the time to pull back on the reigns of her first swing to bring it up to block, but somehow managed it, his blade clanging against the metal shaft of the morning star.

The man pushed with all his might. He was either trying to cut through the solid metal of the morning star, which meant he was probably panicking and losing it. Or he was trying to push her down and cut into her head or shoulder as he overwhelmed her. How he thought he could beat an Orc in a test of strength she had no idea, but, if that was the case, she had to commend him on his gumption, as stupid as it was.

As he strained with all his might, Olivia decided to break the ice a little by pushing his blade upwards, which she then followed by sending her foot outwards to collide with his chest.

Winded, he fell back, staggering towards the tail end of the carriage. But he was not one to give up, and so still breathing uneasily, he dashed forward.

As he did, Olivia thought it would be easy to disable him, but she was wrong. Even though he was struggling to breathe, that did not affect the tactical side of his brain.

As he reached her and went in for another overhead strike which Olivia quickly went to block, he changed the angle of his swing and ducked. He went under her arms, and slide his sword out, slicing at her leg. He wasn't at full strength, and his blade was not the sharpest, so he did not cut it off. But the gash it made was deep and pain shot through her body as she stood on it.

His move, while quite the achievement in his eyes, did have some consequences. The main one being that while Olivia was crying out in pain, this also came with a lot of anger. Anger that she utilised in a frustrating and sudden uppercut of a swing as the guard was trying to stand up.

A swing that impacted his body, hitting the metal chest plate and denting it with ease. Like a superhero throwing someone into the air, he was lifted off the ground by the force. Only a few inches, but still, and was sent backwards into the dirt with a resounding, and to Olivia, a welcoming thud.

Their battle had been short and brief, but that's how they usually would be. Long unending fights were not the norm.

And even though it had been quick, it was by no means an easy one, where whether they lived or died, hung in the balance.

On that note, she knew she had put a lot of force into that final swing, the sudden rage from being attacked fuelling it. She had no idea if he would make it. The only saving grace she had was that she could still hear him wheezing away from the winding he received. Both the first and second time.

At this point, she moved to get a good look at her leg, in order to see the extent of the damage. But was stopped by the sound of cracking.

As well as the sound of a man possibly having lost his means of creating a family, which instantly made her move one of her hands to cover her own special place.

…

Having taken two of the men down, Philly and Lyrika were left with only one left. But he was a slippery bugger.

He was much more agile than his colleagues, and now knowing what was being fired at him, he was more prepared for their attacks.

He was very well trained, maybe even more so than the other guards, as he only got better and better at dodging their attacks as time went on. Some did hit, a blunted arrow here and there managed to find its mark. But, it was only ever a graze or a hit to an area that was well armoured and had little effect on him aside from a bruise later.

They were getting nowhere and were losing supplies fast.

Another arrow dodged; another bottle jumped away from.

Philly had alternated between the explosive kind and the ones with just the mucus, but neither were doing the job. Having seen how destructive the first bottle that hit them was, there was no way he would do anything other than dodge any bottle that came at him.

It was getting bad, and it only got worse as he finally decided to make a move.

He had taken his time coming to this conclusion, probably hoping the guards on the other side of the carriage would join him. But in all his time dodging, no one joined him. He must have realised they had been taken out. So, the only thing he could do now was deal with the archers he had been managing to evade.

As he started to get closer to them, Philly and Lyrika realised they had to try something different. There had to be some way to get him to slip up.

And that's when they realised it was because of the lack of synchronicity between them. Lyrika could fire her shots quickly, but Philly was new to the game, and had a little trouble in matching her speed. This meant there were only a few occasions when they both fired at the same time. And even then, the bottle travelled slower than the arrow.

They needed to fire shots at him at the same time and use something that was even harder for him to dodge, as arrows were not cutting it.

That's when Lyrika realised the mucus bottles would be the way to do.

And so, looking over at each other, Lyrika pulled out one of the few bottles of exploding mucus that Olivia had forced her to keep just in case. She raised this up, along with one of her arrows towards Philly, hoping that she had gotten the plan across. She then got to work tying the bottle to one of her arrows using some of the leftover vines. It didn't have to be perfect. As there wasn't much time left.

Philly having seen her, didn't quite know what she was going to do, but made sure to keep firing at the man as fast as she could using the mucus bottles to keep him occupied, which was doing a good job forcing him to jump all over the place to dodge them. This stopped him from heading straight to them, and even stopped him from running, as he would have even less control over his ability to doge if he did that.

This gave Lyrika the time she needed, and once she had completed it, she gave a quick whistle to tell Philly she was ready. The girl in question looked over and saw Lyrika holding the arrow with the bottle, and she realised what she was doing. So she too pulled out an exploding bottle.

Both of them then aimed and lined up their shots.

The man was sweating profusely, even more so since the bottles and arrows had suddenly halted.

But that is until he saw one such bottle coming his way.

Doing as he had been, he dodged to his left, given the bottle was heading towards his right. But once he did, he realised his mistake.

As looking up, he saw an even faster bottle, now on the end of an arrow, heading towards his left.

It was at that point he realised he messed up.

He tried to dodge, moving backwards to get some distance from them, but both hit the ground within seconds of each other, and the force flung him backwards.

He flew straight back down the slight hill he had been heading up and slammed against the ground hard.

He hadn't died, and he hadn't passed out. But every part of his body hurt.

Looking up to see what he could do, the only thing he did see was something heading straight for his head.

And this time he couldn't dodge it.

…

Olivia knew what the cracking meant.

The mucus had hardened, and now, the man was freeing himself.

By the time Olivia had turned to see the man doing just this, it was too late. She had ended up only a short distance from the carriage, but it was enough that she wouldn't make it in time to take him out before he got free. That was all because of the nature of the mucus. It all hardened at about the same time, and for someone who had a good deal of strength training like that guard had, even just a pelvic thrust was probably enough to break it around the top of his pants.

That's not how he did it mind you. He was using the pommel of his sword, which caused it to break very easily, crumbling away before she had even started to move.

So, rather than cause herself more pain moving on her damaged leg, she planted her feet as best she could, and got ready to defend.

The guard, once free, saw the Orc standing there, and with a war cry, went on the charge.

*thump*

But was halted as the door to the carriage was flung open, right into his face, knocking him to the ground.

"Finally. That was quite a tough lock to break. My parents spared no expense I see."

Standing in the doorway was the first person she had become friends within this world. The first person she had saved. And the person she had been looking to kidnap.

Ameril.