The Bait

After another month, Heath, Julien, and Karina all gather for the plot. Julien had gathered Knights Sage and Kana and Mage Hulder.

Knight Sage was a shorter woman, nearly a whole head shorter than Karina. She had red hair and blue eyes with quite a cute face. She looked no older than 15, as being either an Adept Knight or an Adept Mage slows down your aging process significantly. As she had become an Adept at 15, her body has aged much slower. She's currently 20 years old. Knight Kana is also on the shorter side. She has Yellow hair and purple eyes. She looked slightly older than the other, around her mid 20's. In reality, she's in her early 40's. She's one of the strongest knights under the employ of Baron Luce. Next, the mage. His hair is a dark purple with his eyes glowing the same purple color, signifying that he is a natural necromancer. Necromancy isn't an illegal practice in most of the world now that the misunderstandings of it have cleared up. People used to think necromancy was the act of raising a corpse, which it can be. But most necromancy spells actually use a branch of summoning magic and instead bring a skeleton from the dimension of death where evil beings are sent after their death. Some countries still make it illegal, but only one follows the archaic practice of executing babies born with talent for necromancy, the Giraltine Theocracy. They follow the teachings of the false god of light Giraltine. She was a Magus who was born with a talent for light magic, the weakness of the undead. She lead many murders of necromancers across the continent and is treated as a genocidal maniac in most places.

Now that the whole group was gathered, they went over the plan.

Heath speaks up,

"Alright, Karina is going to cast illusion magic on Kana and Sage who will act like Atlas and Alvina. Sage will be Atlas and Kana will be Alvina. Hulder, make sure your hood covers your eyes and hair well. Don't want them getting spooked."

Heath looks at the people gathered around him,

"Julien, you've got my armor and spear packed in the carriage right?"

Julien nods his head,

"Indeed I do milord. I've heard news that shady individuals have arrived in the city as of late. We've killed a couple of them and they are indeed heaters."

Heath nods his head and looks toward Karina,

"How long can you cast an illusion on them for?"

Karina closes her eyes for a second,

"Around 30 minutes."

"Alright that's plenty, gather everyone, we'll get ready to leave. Once everyone is gathered, I'll need you to take Atlas and Alvina with you into your study, Karina."

Karina nods,

"Well then folks, let's get the trap baited."

Two hours later; Atlas, Alvina, Heath, Julien, and Hulder come out and walk to the carriage in the center of a line. There are around five carriages, each packed with knights and mages alike. The knights are covered head to toe in steel plate armor and the mages are clothes in robes with several small metal plates spread out on vital areas. Unfortunately the mages can't wear plate armor made of iron or steel, as they are conductive with magic. If you cast a spell while wearing plate armor, it'll cause a backfire and either kill or maim you. Small pieces don't do anything, so long as they don't touch the hands, feet, or head, as those areas are where mana is released from during spells.

For a mage to have plate armor, it needs to be made of bronze, Mythril, or Adamantium. These three materials are magic repellants and won't absorb it. Similar to rubber with electricity.

After getting into the windowless carriage, the illusions on Sage and Kana fade. Replacing Atlas and Alvina are two heavily armored knights instead.

Heath speaks up,

"Alright. Everyone outside knows what to look for right? We may know they're coming, but we don't know when or where. Hulder, cast search magic the entire time we're on Giant's peak, and if need be, after it. *whistle*"

After Heath's whistle, a shout is sent from carriage to carriage letting them know they were departing. The carriages were pulled by a species of bipedal herbivorous reptiles known as Goldies. They had golden feathers on their backs and wings on their sides, and a long tail behind them. As soon as the order was relayed, whips cracked in the air above the goldies and they started trotting forward. All along the way out of the city, people were going about their day-to-day lives. Working, shopping, playing. Some people would stop when they saw the carriages and bow, and others would scrunch their noses in disgust. Some, usually in the alleys, would be staring down the center carriage. As soon as it passes them, those people disappear in puffs of smoke, light breezes, and even just disappearing. Eventually, the carriages leave the city and come upon a cross roads. Inside the carriage, Heath and company have a map splayed out on the small table dividing the rows of seats. Heath points to a certain part of the map and states,

"I believe this ridge will be the most likely place for the ambush. It's heavily wooded and has a hill on the right side they could use to gain the upper ground. If that's the case, Hulder, I want you to immediately summon archers and have them rain hell on that position. I'll have the other mages send spells in the same area. When we're done with it, I want that hill turned into a field of mud and bones."

Julien nods along and points to another area,

"This is another area they could attack. It doesn't have an upper ground but it is incredibly wooded and there's several fallen trees for cover on both sides. Also, they're most likely to try and isolate the central carriage with either water walls or felled trees. If it's there, we'll need to turn those trees into sawdust ASAP."

Heath nods in agreement.

Hulder points out something as well,

"If it were me, I'd try to attack here."

He pointed to an area near the peak with very little road space.

"Why there?"

Sage speaks up,

"A single adept earth mage could make the cliff collapse and bury the whole squad without even a fight, or a wind mage could just shove the central carriage off and fly off faster than sound. Of course, these could be countered by our own adept earth and wind mages except for one glaring face… We have no adept earth or wind mages with us."

Heath thinks for a while and says,

"Yeah, but they don't know that. Plus, our mages all wear hair and eye coverings anyway so they have no clue what we have."

Hulder nods his head,

"True, which is why I said I would have done that. Because I know we don't have any earth or wind mages."

Everyone kind of stares at him for a while before Julien bursts with laughter,

"BAHAHAHAAAA! I forgot you have such a serious sense of humor!"

Hulder looks Julien straight in the eyes and mumbles something under his breath,

"I mean, I wasn't joking but alright."

Heath continues looking at the map, trying to spot any other places they may try an ambush at,

"Alright, those are the only two places they would have a chance to ambush at. There's some others, but they lack sufficient cover and ambushing us there would spell doom for them."

With that, everyone nodded in agreement.

Within a few hours, they had arrived at the first place Heath had pointed out. Hulder opens his eyes,

"They're not here."

Heath nods and whistles.

The knights relax their shoulders and continue on.

In another hour, they get close to Julien's location. Hulder once again opens his eyes,

"They're here."