It turned out that Lucas consideration of Lady Almistraus’s nose was a bad idea. Lucas considered that having the guards back around him had given him a sense of security that had made him behave idiotically. What kind of stupid fool would stay in an unsecured location where people had tried to kill him because of a bit of a smell?

The answer, apparently, was Lucas.

It looked like the slaves were revolting, except that it was clearly not motivated by a desire for freedom. Groups of rag wearing slaves, armed only with low quality farm tools, charged at the carriage and the guards around it, screaming at the top of their lungs.

“What on earth is going on?” Lucas had no idea what he had wandered into. He also supposed he wasn’t on earth, so that phrase really couldn’t be used…

“I have no idea!” Volen was panicking, covering his head in his hands and curling up on the coach bench. “The slaves must be revolting, but I cannot believe that they would! The guards will slaughter them!”

“Sometimes people are willing to die for ideals,” Lucas noted. “In fact, they often make the most fearsome opponent of all.”

“I do not think this is a revolt.” Lady Almistraus was calm as they heard the guards cut down another group of slaves. “Do you hear what they are yelling? Calling us filth and unclean, I did not think the Cult of the Land would have such a hold here.”

“Cult of the Land?” Lucas asked, he had a bad feeling that he didn’t actually want the answer.

“They believe that the demons are the true rulers of the land, and that humanity is not fit to live here.” Terrasin explained, “Further, they believe that when the demons defeat humanity, they will be rewarded by being sent to a paradise. It is utter nonsense.”

There was a thump on the top of the carriage and suddenly a guard shouted out, “Lady Almistraus, please get out of the carriage!”

Lucas could smell smoke, and was that sound crackling? The guards did not wait for an answer, but pulled the three out of the carriage, where Lucas saw that the roof was on fire. Someone had thrown a torch on top of it.

Slaves were everywhere, and the guards put them down ruthlessly. But some of them did not go down so easily, they moved faster than the others and fought with skill and strength beyond what a slave would possess. Some were even armed.

“Watch out!”

A small group of slaves broke past the guards and headed for the trio, without thinking about it Lucas picked up a sword from a fallen guard and stepped in front of Terrasin.

He cut down the first slave, but Lucas had no skill with the blade and it became lodged in the bones of the slaves spine. He did not bother to try and pull it out, but simply let go. A female slave swung a hand scythe at him and Lucas had no choice but to block it with his arm, he hissed in pain, but was thankful that the scythe was to dull to severely hurt him.

Prefering not to kill a woman, he simply punched her and threw her away, taking the scythe away from her. If she stayed down, Lucas would not kill her. If she continued to try and kill him, well, he would regret it for a bit, but he had no intention of dying because something made him uncomfortable.

The last slave did not last long before Lucas used the scythe to cut his throat, leaving a panting Lucas covered in blood, both his own and the slave cultists. The woman on the ground growled and grabbed a rock, struggling to rise. With regret, Lucas stomped on her neck, killing her.

The fight felt like it had taken far longer than it really had, and the guards had cleared up the rest of the attackers. If they could use this opportunity to make it back to the city walls, they would be safe with reinforcements from the military. Overall, the entire fight had been less than fifteen minutes, with Lucas’s personal fight being only a minute or two of that.

“Lor- I am sorry, I mean, Lucas.” Terrasin grabbed his bleeding arm to examine it. “Thank you for protecting me, but please take care of yourself. Your life is more important than mine.”

“My actions are a product of my society,” Lucas replied, distracting himself from the pain with rationalism. “A man who wouldn’t step in front of a woman in danger is not much of a man. For that matter, you should value your own life more. I have no intention of dying, and neither should you.”

They made it back to the wall without further incident, but Lucas would likely always worry that he might be attacked from here on out. Fortunately, these ‘cultists’ were idiots. Perhaps everyone in this world was, focusing so much on the concept of a ‘hero.’ Had they no concept of self reliance? All the cultists had needed to do to ensure the demons victory was torch all the fields, the armies would collapse as soon as the food ran out.

Still, Lucas supposed that a modern person simply thought differently than they did. Like a puzzle, answers are always easier to see when you know them already. Given that humans had not likely had all that many internal wars with an external enemy, they probably lacked the concept of how war with humans worked. Well, perhaps that is for the best.