Bandit's Attack

  "Are you sure? You should realize someone coming after me," the young man said, surprised by the sudden invitation.

  "I don't mind. Besides, you clearly are a decent person if you warn us about having people chasing you," Ryker replied.

  "In that case, I don't mind, though I'm heading towards the capital city," the young man said, watching them react.

  Ryker looked at him in surprise, "What great convenience, we also heading there,"

  Hearing his savior want to go to the capital he let out a sigh of relief, "Thanks for letting me join,"

  "Sure. By the way, what's your cultivation realm?" Mashia interjected, asking an important question immediately.

  "I am currently at the 1st Stage Genesis Condensing realm," he told them, the others nodding in agreement.

  "How strong are your pursuers?" she asked again, a valid question in Ryker's opinion.

  "They were at the Genesis Condensing realms with the leader being someone at the 1st Stage Genesis Condensing realm," he told them, looking at them again to see if they would stop their intention to help him after hearing the strength of his pursuers.

  "Ryker, you could handle the leader. I beat up the small fries," contrary to his expectation, they seemed not to look afraid, instead, they even looked glad for some strange reason.

  "How strong are you?" he asked, wondering if one of the two or maybe even both were at the Genesis Foundation realm.

  "We both at the peak of Genesis Condensing realm," Ryker told the young man, his consumption of the spirit fruits and herbs he gathered at Argaman Range allowed him to raise his cultivation level, only needed a little push to break through the Genesis Foundation realm.

  Hearing that, the young man wondered why they had the confidence to handle a Genesis Foundation expert but decided to thrust them. If they bite more than they can chew, it's on them, not him as he already warned them of possible threats.

  The young man then started to eat, the bowl in his hand soon emptied of its contents, he had not had anything to eat for a few days. They soon eat in silence, the night devoid of any sound as they eat in peace.

-x-

  "To think a group of travelers had saved that brat. Well, we have to show them they should watch whoever they saved," a nasty-looking man said, watching the group as they had their dinner.

  "True. Besides, there are some beauties in the group. I would gladly do anything to have one of them spend the night with me," another bandit said, drool dripping as he thought about violating one of the beautiful women.

  "Don't worry. The boss would share them after he had his way with them. Though we should get the boss. He needs to know the turn of events," the first one said, the two soon used a movement technique as they left the area.

  "This bandit group must have a backer to get their hand on movement technique, and a decent one at that," Ryker said, having concealed himself when he sensed two presence hiding themselves.

  While there are stores selling Cultivation Techniques and even Cultivation Arts, most of them are trash compared to the real deal. The powerful ones were mostly kept by the nation, army, and powerful families. Adventure Guild also has some but points are needed to exchange it, though they do provide a better Cultivation Art than what was sold in the market.

  For them to have a good technique, their supporters might be from a powerful family. "To think I will get involved with two families even before reaching the capital," he rubbed his forehead as he said it.

  "You can not help the guy," a female voice said, Mashia appearing next to him. Similar to him, she also sensed the two. Her lack of concealing technique made her unable to get close without alerting them though, so she waited until they left before she went to Ryker's side.

  "Eh. I don't really care much about that. Besides, you did say it was a boring trip. Having to fight strong cultivators could satiate your battle lust for a while," Ryker pointed out, making the dragon princess grumble in annoyance.

"They likely somewhere close. Do you want to take the fight to them?" she asked, looking in the direction of the bandits.

  "Nah, they just used a communication token just now, so chasing after them wouldn't be worth it. We just let them come to us and kill them. Besides, we have a helper. His strength should be enough to protect them. If not, I have bought several talismans for them to use," he said, heading towards their camp to get some rest.

  "True. We just have to see what happens tomorrow," Mashia conceded, and the two walked towards their camp.

  Reaching the camp, Ryker was soon surrounded by his lovers,  asking what he was doing with the dragon. Similarly, the children asked questions to Mashia, mostly some childish way of saying, "Do you love big brother? And so on.

  It took them nearly an hour before they finally calmed the two groups down. By the time they finished calming down the two groups, the young man had already fallen asleep, tired, and still recovering from his injuries.

  The others soon followed, the night sky glittered as they drifted to slumber.

-x-

  The group headed towards the road to the capital. Unlike last night, the young man had been wary, watching for any sign of trouble as he looked at their surroundings. 

  Ryker let him do his things, his paranoia likely coming from having to fend for himself for who knows how long. Still, it got tiring watching him for a while so they decided to ignore him.

  For both Mashia and Ryker, they don't need to worry about the enemies as their divine sense allows them to sense up to a 5-kilometer radius.

  They only had been moving for about 2 hours when Mashia looked at him, silently sending a message.

  Ryker nodded, handing several talismans to his lovers as covertly as possible. The women accepted it before hiding it, waiting nervously inside the carriage as they knew the enemies would soon come.

-x-

  Two hours and the bandits had surrounded themselves while remaining hidden. Ryker and Mashia just let them be, wanting to see if they going to use their numbers or be more cautious. For a caravan with no protection, they just asking to be robbed.

  In essence, their group looked like that, seemingly a young master bringing several women while heading to the capital. In essence, they seemed to look like some unreliable.

Sure enough, the bandits showed themselves, holding their weapons threateningly, "Give everything you have, including the women and we will let you off, if not, you going to meet a horrible death.