Chapter 181 Ambush

Moving along the well trodden path in the woods, the convoy was well protected. With every person being a soldier of the first Tier, it was a fool's errand to try and attack them. Even so, there was nobody that was on edge, especially the people who knew about what happened. 

Carian had asked Galen and Lucas to keep it a secret for now. A simple request, yet everyone knew it was unavoidable. Carian simply wanted more time to figure out a way to soften the blow for Thurin.

In order to keep it hidden, they first had to get rid of the body, the smell of a rotting corpse would put their entire group off. Erasing the body and smell with Dark magic, Lucas left no clue behind.

Thurin was closely guarded in the middle, while Carian took the front and Galen protected the back. While Lucas was riding with Thurin they talked about whatever they could think of. 

"Did you know I have a special steed? It's from a line of race horses that are used in the Colosseum, I named it Thunder. It's cool, right?", his horse was completely black, making it look like a purebred steed. Not that Lucas understood a lot about it, all he cared about was how good the horse was. And since Thurin was the only one with a black horse, he stood out. 

'That little kid stands out way too much, anyone could tell he's a special target.'

'Does that matter now? There should be nobody capable of killing us, except some beasts.'

'Then who killed the Tier 3? Even if I told you to be an arrogant asshole, don't become stupid. For all we know, there's an army of those barbarians coming after us.'

'That seems even more unlikely. Although you make a good point. Should we be wary of any Tier 2 individuals?'

'Why are you asking me?'

'You're the combat expert, you decide our stance on that.'

'Hmm, I think their Tiers are weaker than our Ranks. I would guess that a Tier 3 is a Rank 2,5. A Tier 2 is something like a Rank 1,8 or 1,9?' 

'What an odd way of categorizing them.'

'If I could experiment on their bodies for a bit, I could give you an even more detailed comparison, if you'd like.'

'No thanks. We'll have plenty of opportunities in the future anyway. No need to be in a hurry.'

The group continued on as Lucas asked Thurin about the capital, the Colosseum seemed like an interesting visiting spot. People apparently fought for the people's entertainment and depending on your result you could even get special rewards. It was a basic system, but perhaps that's what made it so attractive. 

While they were talking happily, Lucas always kept an eye out for anyone that might approach their group, but nobody came. Eventually Carian asked Lucas to ride with him for a while. They moved to the front together and had some privacy. 

"Lucas, I want to ask for a favor."

"We signed a contract to help one another, I'm obliged to help if it's within my capabilities."

"I know, but still...", Carian paused for a moment before continuing on. "I believe we will have to go to war with certain factions in the capitol. If I'm correct, Alexander's faction will be trying to capture the throne, this will inevitably lead to a dispute and fight."

"That seems to be the most logical path. I assume you or the Emperor have a faction as well that will support us."

"That's correct, the Emperor's faction is the strongest of them all, but we'll have to convince them. But that's not what I want to talk about right now. It may be a foolish request...", Carian faltered again, he was thinking of a way to bring his internal troubles into words. 

Lucas didn't mind that Carian took his time, he didn't spot anything dangerous in the area and had his hands full understanding his runes in the meantime. 

"What I'm about to ask doesn't have to be done according to our contract. My goal in the future fights will be to protect Thurin, not only physically, but mentally. I would like your assistance with that."

"I don't think I fully understand."

"I have seen the Emperor a few times, even when his children were alive, never have I seen him smile. Even when he was just a general, he was rumored to not have any emotions. He might be a strong man that drove back the barbarians, but he lost his soul in the process. His heart was dead. I don't want Thurin to go down the same path."

"Won't he be at the back of the army? Or are you planning on using him as another Iron Fist that will scare others?"

"No, I don't even want him to fight, he should avoid the battlefield. Stepping into war either breaks you into pieces or leaves terrible scars that will be kept until the day you join the Stars."

"Speaking out of experience?"

"Yes, although Scholars aren't normally on the front, I volunteered to see what the war was actually about. I was naive, incredibly stupid and most of all ignorant. I know what can happen when men lose their rationality. That's why I don't want Thurin to end up in the same place."

"But you're fine with me going?"

"I was kind of expecting you to be excited about going to war, but perhaps that's just me being prejudiced."

"It's fine, I am somewhat interested in how that would go, but more so because there are some things I would like to experiment with."

"Oh, well, I hope you won't do anything too unethical."

"What are you talking about? I just need to see how strong I am compared to typical soldiers."

Carian needed some time to come up with a suitable response, to him, Lucas wouldn't have brought this issue up for no reason. 

"I'm willing to let you experiment on my body if it means you'll cooperate.", if he could offer himself as a subject to make Lucas satisfied so that he wouldn't use innocent people, it would put his mind at ease, or at least a little.

"Deal.", Lucas didn't even need a single second to think it through, his response was as fast as it could be. Carian laughed weakly and was glad that he picked up on Lucas's request. 'A deal is made by both sides giving up something.' 

"While I'm very glad that we reached an agreement, there are some people approaching us on foot. I'm sensing 6 people in front, 4 to our left and 5 to our right. The strongest presence is in front of us."

"I see, how much time do we have?"

"Perhaps 10 seconds? More if we stop here."

"Do my men stand a chance?"

"They seem to give off the same amount of mana, so I would assume so."

"Good.", Carian nodded softly before pulling on his reigns. He looked back at the convoy behind him, and with a single shout. 

"Everybody! Prepare to be ambushed, we have 4 people coming from our left and 5 from our right, protect the young lord with the best of your abilities!"

All the soldier immediately started looking into the forest for any kind of movement and were prepared to fight. Some got off their horses to make sure their movements wouldn't be limited. Seeing all the soldiers get in a battle ready stance, Lucas thought back to the fights with the Terrabears. 

"You're men are quite well-trained, aren't they?"

"Hmm? No, not at all, when I first saw them I knew they were leftovers from the main army.", Carian was quite calm despite their predicament, he trusted Lucas to accurately estimate their ambushers' strength. He had been in enough battles to not let his emotions take over.

"This group is part of the young master's assets, I'm just managing them. As a scholar, it only makes sense to teach them about everything I know about fighting. It took a lot of training to get them to this point, and I believe there's still a lot of room to grow."

"I see, then I look forward to seeing them in action.", Lucas said, but he was more excited to see what he could do himself. After all, he hadn't directly fought with anyone here, so he wondered how strong his magic would be against their strengthened bodies. 

"Carian, I'll take their leader and see what I can get, can you handle the rest?"

"Of course, since they're with less than us and still came to fight, that means they have a certain goal. I believe they're after the young master."

Lucas nodded, he didn't know what their actual goal was, but if he had some time with their leader, he would most likely get some intel. Lucas got off their horse, he knew how to ride it, but fighting on it? He never learned that and didn't want to make any mistakes. Their ambushers were on foot anyway, so he would rather have more control over his own movements. 

Seeing them approach, they were somewhat hidden. Without a day night cycle out in the wilderness, there was no opportune moment for an ambush. The only thing they could do was disguise themselves to be as hidden as possible. 

It didn't take long before the middle of the convoy was attacked. Looking back, Lucas saw the soldiers conjure up a large rectangular shield with a spear. 

'Basic equipment.'

'But easy enough to use even a young farmer could do it.'

Their opponents had strangely curved swords made out of mana. Seeing the pure blue lights clashing against each other, Lucas thought to bring Asta here when he had the time. He would appreciate the magic here. 

Realizing his own opponents were about to be here, he summoned a basic transparent shield around him and started to create spells inside his body, letting them circulate inside his body Lucas started to think on how to approach the fight. 

In the end, he just wanted to fight their leader, a Tier 2. Moving forward, he saw the people rushing at him. They kept running towards them without stopping or even acknowledging him. He was a Starborn, yet these people didn't seem to care.

'Interesting, could the Starborn just be a phenomenon linked to the Empire? Or are they underestimating our strength due to our missing arm?'

'Hmm, their eyes just seem focussed on killing, only the leader seems to have reacted.'

'Then they aren't from the Empire, making an assassination from the barbarians more likely, get rid of them.'

'You're talking as if you're going to give me control.'

'I am, I'll get rid of a Tier 1 to test our strength and depending on the results I'll give you control to take care of the leader.'

'Oh, leave it to me, I'll show him our strength.', in the dome, the other half of Lucas had a bright smile as he awaited his time.

Since the men didn't stop running Lucas didn't hold back, raising his arm he let out one of his spells. A Blue Fireball, a powerful spell in theory, shot out and surprised all but the leader. Dodging while running at max speed wasn't an easy thing. They were well-trained though as almost all of them jumped out of range. 

A single unlucky person was caught in the explosion. Carian was impressed by the attack, killing a Tier 1 with a single spell was some serious firepower. 

"They're stronger than I expected.", Carian didn't understand why Lucas said that, but the image of the burning man standing straight and slowly walking forward told him enough. The man was on his last legs, but their tenacity was commendable.

Carian jumped forward as he took a stable stance. Pulling his fist back he unleashed a powerful punch straight ahead of him, aimed at the burning man. The resistance of the wind the punch caused extinguished the flames and creating a hole in the man's torso. 

The body leaking blood while being burnt on the outside wasn't nice to look at. Most of the soldiers tried to avoid peeking at it since it would just turn their stomachs. Only Carian and Lucas didn't really care all that much. Compared to the other soldiers, they were calm seeing such a sight. 

There were still 5 people left in the front, one of which was about as strong as Carian.

With a few troops next to him, Carian started to fight against multiple Tier 1's. The leader of the group waited as he watched the battles in front of him unfold.

'He's smart, he's not rushing in blindly and is trying to make the best of the situation.'

'He's focussed on Carian and us, the best solution is to push him away from his little buddies.'

'Then I'll let you take it from here, don't use our aura too much, just focus on normal spells. Using our rune is too costly and gives us a headache.'

'It does?'

'Just because you didn't notice doesn't mean it's not there.'

Lucas switched personalities as his stance became a bit more unrefined. His eyes seemed to become sharper as he stared at the leader. The man couldn't tell what happened, but bloodlust started to surround him. 

Suddenly jumping forward, Lucas stomped the ground to create a slope that pushed the leader back. Jumping after him made the man realize he was alone now. He couldn't rely on his colleagues, not that he intended to do so in the first place. 

Stretching his arms out two sickle-shaped swords appeared. His appearance was intimidating, but Lucas thought nothing of it. As long as he had his shields he would be fine. 

The man stood still as he thought of the best way to approach. Lucas had the spells ready in his body and awaited his first move. With his improved senses he could tell the moment the man's body lowered slightly. The man dashed forward in almost an instant. Lucas didn't detect any kind of mana, yet it couldn't have been a physical feat.

"Here we go.", Lucas immediately waved his hand to create a field of Ice Spikes, an improvement on his Ice Environment when he fought the Black Griffin, it was more under control and actually had an offensive side now. It was a crude spell comprised of a few runes and a lot of mana to force it area of effect.

Dashing through the ice and potentially getting hurt would be a risk. Lucas anticipated his fighting style and created a situation where he had to jump to get him. Inside his body was a wind spell that would blow him away and deal a lot of damage. 

The man reached the ice field and simply rushed through the ice, the spikes breaking off the moment they came in contact with his body.

'What?!', while one side was quite surprised, the other half just found it entertaining. 

"Huh.", releasing his spell anyway, the man didn't get as damaged or pushed back as Lucas anticipated. Getting so close would only spell trouble for Lucas, then again, trying to run away wouldn't do much, the man was a lot faster than he was even with muscle strengthening. 

Instead, he waited until the man was close enough for Lucas to wave his hand again to release a Dark Spear, if the man was dumb enough to run through that as well then the fight was over. But the man almost instinctively felt the danger. 

Dodging it easily the ice made him lose his footing slightly, but he got right back up. Lucas didn't have another spell that was immediately useful left. 

His ice spikes broke the moment they came into contact with the man, so ice was too weak. Seeing that the man knew what to dodge and what to avoid, Lucas wanted to see how it could play in his advantage. Sadly, that would be for later as the man was already in front of him.

Waving his swords around, Lucas could barely dodge them, he was fast and used wind and muscle strengthening to boost his speed, yet he was so close to getting hit each time. 

Raising his hand a powerful stream of water shot out. The man could've easily rushed through the water stream, yet he jumped away, creating the distance that Lucas so desired. 

"Wow, you realized what I was going to do? It seems you're smarter than you look."

Using words to prolong his time to create more spells, Lucas tried to taunt the man. Despite his efforts, there wasn't any reaction. In close combat, Lucas would lose, but if he was far away, he dodged every spell. 

He needed a strategy that would either make him incapable of dodging or trick him into a trap. 

'I'll have to use our aura.'

'Wait, you're not speaking out loud? You've grown.'

'Stop being sarcastic, I can't give him any hints.'

'Why not give him a fake hint then?'

'He's not stupid.'

'Then use it, only this time you'll be bearing the pain, okay?'

'Deal.'

Since Lucas couldn't use his dominant hand, weapons were all useless to him, or that would be the case for any normal person. Summoning his Blue Flame Sword, he took a steady stance. All the while mana was being gathered in his body, not that the man could see it. 

Seeing his stance, the man bend down a tiny bit before jumping forward, his speed unlike anything Lucas had seen before. He had only a small chance, boosting his strength, he blocked one sword as the other was aimed at his side. He knew he would get hit if he didn't do anything, but that was precisely what he was aiming for.

With the strength of a Tier 2, the shields were absolutely useless in front of his strength, it only worked to slow him down.

Out of nowhere multiple mana chains appeared, catching the man in place. They were way too weak for him to be held back, but it did slow him down further. On his feet a strange Red Ice was forming, restricting him movements and confusing him. 

Looking Lucas in the eyes, a small beam of Dark Magic appeared from Lucas's chest that shot towards his. It ate away at anything and everything. Quickly pulling his arm back, destroying the chains and flexing his muscles to get rid of the ice, the man tried to take a step back. 

"Urgh!"

The first sound the man made, a grunt of pain, looking down, the Blue Flame Sword was pushed through his body where the Dark Magic first attacked. With his lungs and heart of fire, the man didn't have long to live. Still, he raised his weapons high only to get blown away by a powerful wind spell. Being so close to Lucas made it difficult to dodge, he could only take the full force head on.

The man fell on the ground, yet could still get back up. Walking one or two steps, the man had the determination to continue on. Lucas flicked his fingers, the sword exploded into a cloud of Blue Flames, consuming most of the man. 

Looking at the aftermath, Lucas was certain. He wasn't as powerful as he had hoped. Perhaps the other Starborn were powerful mages, but he truly was weak. He was something alike to a God to the people here, yet he had trouble with a single Tier 2. Compared to the first Tier or Rank, he was unstoppable, but when it came to people on his level, he was truly at the bottom. 

Even one of his most powerful spells, Dark Magic had trouble piercing through the man's chest. His body was so dense and powerful that his puny magic was almost useless against it. It was a strange awakening for Lucas. Dark Magic was the most powerful in his mind, even if everyone else didn't think so.

Yet now, it only hurt the man, it didn't even kill him. Of course, Lucas thought of a follow-up attack, he was only disappointed that he needed one in the first place. Once he reached Rank 2, he thought to be among the strongest predators here, yet now, all his projects were pushed aside as he strived for only a single thing, power.