The caravan reached Verona without problems in five hours. Marzio was used to not sleeping at night, but the rocking of the cart in which he was sitting made him a little drowsy. When morning came, he fell asleep, leaving the post to the replacement. Because of this, he did not see the city at all, although he heard that an ancient amphitheatre was preserved here, and some kind of "love tragedy" was unfolding in Verona. Then the caravan set off along the gorge of the mountains towards the town of Trento. They walked along the bed of the Adige River, which flowed out of the Alps and went far south to the sea. There was really a picturesque mountain landscape around, but Marzio did not have a chance to enjoy it enough, since he slept in the cart almost all the daylight hours, and only by the evening he replaced his partner. However, he was still struck by the magnificent view of the mighty mountains with centuries-old trees. He also felt a certain change in his well-being, which was explained by the proximity of the mountains. He read about it as a child. In the caravan with him, no one really said a word, which Marzio was not so much annoyed as worried. He felt like a stranger among the soldiers since he lived in a separate room, not in a barracks and was not subjected to daily drill and training. However, ordinary people treated him with the same respect as others.

It was only in Trento that he was able to properly inspect the surroundings and a piece of the centre when they were approaching the city. Since Marzio had no right to leave his post, he could only see the Cathedral Square and admire the ancient Trento Cathedral. In addition, he noticed that the city is strikingly different from other cities in Italy. In this Alpine city, ancient buildings are perfectly preserved, as if intact. It gave him an excruciating shiver. It was as if he felt all this antiquity, and this atmosphere chilled to the bone. He even had the idea to live in a similar ancient town one day. However, they went on. Marzio never understood the importance of this caravan and the haste with which they moved through this beautiful gorge. But service is service, even if it is imposed.

After about four hours of the night journey, Marzio sensed something was wrong. He was sitting on the edge of one of the last wagons, and only a small area in front of the road was illuminated by torches. It seemed to him that someone was watching him from the forest. Just in case, he pulled the crossbow closer to him– he still trusted it more than his sword. Although there were enough guards, the unknown danger could frighten even the largest army. Marzio could no longer tolerate this oppressive situation and asked the coachman.

'Excuse me...,' the coachman did not react immediately. The middle-aged man was apparently in deep thought.

'Tell me, don't you think that someone is watching us?'

'Uh-hmm...,' the coachman mumbled.

'I'm not comfortable driving here, you know. This is a bad forest: wolves often roam here and demons can hide in the mountains.'

At that moment, the carts began to stop. The coachman barely managed to rein in the horse, at the moment when the front carriage abruptly stopped in place. People began to shout, the guards began to fuss. Marzio jumped down from the cart and got prepared his crossbow. People were bustling around, not understanding what was going on. The young man did not have time to move away from his cart when suddenly a piercing howl was heard from the thicket of the forest. The movement began in the dark, soldiers took defensive positions, commands and shouts of civilians were heard. Marzio prepared to shoot, expecting an attack at any moment. Then a growing hum began to come from the darkness: the noise of breaking branches, rustling bushes and terrible screams.

'Demons!' someone screamed.

Immediately, out of the darkness, a lot of creatures flew out of the foliage into the light. Humanoid creatures, without any fur, with pale skin and ugly muzzles. They were goblins-semi-intelligent creatures similar to humans. Together with them, the rat-wolves, already familiar to Marzio, ran out of the forest. One goblin climbed onto a tree branch and began to scream furiously in a thin and nasty voice. For this, he immediately received a bolt in his thin neck from Marzio. The battle began. Soldiers were slaughtering demons, not letting them near the wagons, someone tried to shoot arrows at the approaching demons, and they, in turn, tore people apart. Goblins are such weak monsters, but when there are a lot of them, they pose a significant threat. In addition, some of them were armed with primitive weapons: clubs, daggers, homemade hatchets, small spears and even bows.

Marzio quickly reloaded his crossbow, hiding behind the cart, and then instantly spent the bolt on the ratwolf jumping up to him. The creature got a bolt in its skull and fell with a crash at the feet of the young man. When Marzio loaded the third bolt, he realized that in such a fight he would still have to switch to a shield and a sword. He managed to shoot two more times, killing one goblin and a rat-wolf, but soon realized that the things were bad. There were too many demons, and the guards could not cope: somewhere the monsters had already broken through to the wagons, which, because of the fallen torches, began to burn like matches. Marzio managed to shoot one more time at a goblin who was shooting at the soldiers from the bushes. Then he would be forced to draw his blade – one of the ratwolves was approaching him. With one oblique blow, he cut the throat of a demon who jumped on him and then cut off the head of a goblin standing next to him. Not all of these little creatures were armed with something: many joined the battle with no clothes at all or whatever they had there. However, their tenacious clawed paws and sharp fangs could greatly harm an unprotected person. This is not to mention blood poisoning. Marzio managed to kill another goblin: the demon gutted the corpse of the coachman on the cart. Marzio, with one strong blow, was able to cut the unconscious demon into two parts. Already all of Marzio's clothes were stained with blood. Adrenaline hit him in the head, and he realized with horror that he was even somewhat calmed and pleased when he chopped demons. But he didn't think about it for long – a wounded rat-wolf crawled up to him, whom Marzio pressed down to the ground with a sword. At that moment, globin jumped on his left arm, which had a shield in it, trying to tear the clothes on his forearm. Marzio threw him off with all his strength and, without letting him get up from the ground, stabbed him. At that moment, he realized that everyone who was at the rear of the column was already dead or dying now. The wagons had been looted, and the goblins, forgetting about the fight, were swarming in them. The rat-wolves greedily ate the corpses, both their own and others. Marzio noticed four rat-wolves approaching him and three goblins behind them. Not waiting for their attack, he quickly began to retreat deep into the column, where the battle was still going on.