“James, why are we leaving without an escort?” asked Amy.

“That giant weasel of a sheriff says that we are somehow to blame for the death of all the mercenaries last night, and has ordered us to leave town immediately or be thrown in prison.”

Jack ran up next to James and Amy, and said, “The wagons are ready to go. I’ve dressed all the kids up to look like adults and armed them with weapons. With any luck we will fool any gangs into believing we have a full escort of mercenaries with us.”

James was trying to keep his composure for everyone else, but he knew if they were attacked, they were as good as dead. There were 10 adults and 18 kids in the convoy of five families and six wagons, but none of them were skilled in combat or hunting, they were all merchants. James wasn’t even sure they could survive if a pack of wolves attacked them. However, he did know that they would all fight to the death to protect their children.

“I made those fools leave town without their escort,” said Sheriff Gilda.

“What happened to all the mercenaries that were supposed to take them to Rolling Dice?” asked deputy Rod.

“They either got themselves killed, or they skipped out after getting paid up front. I don’t really give a shit. What I know is those merchants are going to be easy pickings.”

“What about the Mayor?”

“What about him. No one is going to know.”

“O.K., so what’s the plan?”

“I’ll be about 20 minutes behind you after I round up a little help from a few of the others that know how to keep their mouth shut. Now get going and see which direction they take at the junction, and leave a sign for us to follow you, and stay out of sight!”

Jen’s eyes narrowed suspiciously when she noticed the man leave Big Money following the caravan. Twenty minutes later when another group of 15 people hurried out after the merchants in the same direction, she knew for sure what was going to happen.

Jen messaged, “They just left following the caravan. There are about sixteen of them in total. One tracking the merchants and fifteen following further behind. I believe in a couple of hours when the caravan has to stop to rest and feed the oxen that are pulling their wagons. They will make their move.”

Tamako replied, “What do you want to do?”

“We’ll follow behind, and when the bandits start to make their move against the merchants, we’ll move into the woods for cover and concealment, and hit the group of bandits from their flank.”

James was driving the oxen hard trying to make good time, but just a few hours outside of Big Money they stopped to water and rest the oxen for a short break.

“James!” called out Jack from the rear of the caravan.

As James ran to Jack’s position he hollered, “circle up and get your weapons ready everyone.” James knew there was only one reason Jack would call out to him like that. His heart fell to his stomach as he quickly counted 16 bandits strolling down the road towards them like they had nothing to worry about.

James hollered out, “Stop right there if you know what’s good for you!”

Sheriff Gilda laughed, “Whatcha going to do to stop us Big James!”

James was stunned as he recognized the voice, “Is that you sheriff?” James was pissed, he figured she must have run the mercenaries out of town to force them out here by themselves where she could rob them and kill them.

“James, we don’t want to harm you. Just peacefully lay down your weapons and give us your money and wagons. Then we will let you and your families keep going to Rolling Rock.”

Before James could say anything, lightning bolts came out of the sky striking all 16 of the bandits.

As James and Jack were trying to pull swords out of their scabbards, they watched all but three of the bandits drop to the ground dead. Sheriff Gilda immediately twisted and threw her great spear into the forest, just as another spear came out of the forest piercing her through the chest. As Gilda was pulling a potion from a storage ring on her hand, an odd piece of metal flew out of the woods smashing the potion before she could get a chance to drink it. A scream of pain came from the woods, but then a small woman leaped about 15 feet through the air from the edge of the forest, and after landing, she kicked Gilda in the head so hard her brain splattered all over the remaining two bandits.

James motioned for Jack to back up with him to form a tight perimeter with the other adults around the children.

After the little woman splattered that bitch’s head like a watermelon all over the two remaining bandits, one of them turned to run, and the little lady cut him down before he took a step, but then she had to parry the axe the other bandit was swinging down towards her face.

Tamako was a little disgusted at the bandit’s poor technique, but she knew he had just been hit with a lightning bolt. She reversed her parry of his axe into an upward swing sinking her sword through his shoulder and half way through his chest. She let go of her sword and pulled a small hand ax from her waste and smashed it down through his helmet and skull. She checked to make sure all the bandits were dead before heading to check on Sam’s condition.

After Jen threw her Ninja star at the big women’s potion, she turned to Sam who was screaming on the ground with a spear through his side.

As Jen started to grab for the spear that was impaling him, Sam yelled in pain, “Wait! I’ve already healed myself.”

“But the spear is still in you, let me get it out!”

“Fuck it hurts!, but just wait a second!” he screamed in pain.

Jen’s multi-focus was aware that Tamako had already killed the remaining bandits.

Sam was in terrible pain and was having a hard time talking, “Before…I…cast another heal…..yank the shaft out only after you snap off the tip!”

Jen grabbed the tip of the spear with both hands and while snapping it off yelled, “That’s what she said!” Then she yanked the shaft of the spear out of his body.

Sam used his legacy heal tattoo and cast a mana-heavy general heal over his entire body. His ass was now burning, but he could feel his insides mending back together, as he just laid on the ground trying to deal with the pain, while allowing the enchantment to wash over his body.

Tamako returned to where Sam and Jen were, and after seeing that Sam was going to be O.K. said, “Why didn’t you dodge?”

Sam looked flustered, but replied, “I was behind a tree that was two feet thick! I didn’t think the spear would punch clean through the tree!”

Tamako looked disgusted, and said, “That’s what you get for thinking instead of dodging! Next time you see a weapon heading towards you, Dodge it! God you’re an idiot!”

Tamako turned around walking back onto the road to loot the bodies. Jen said to Sam, “She was terrified that you were going to die, and she’s upset that she let you get hurt.”

“That’s not what it sounded like to me!” said Sam.

“Well, you’re not a good listener! And she was not the only one worried!” Jen said as she continued to watch over Sam and offer him some water to drink.

About 20 minutes passed while Sam just laid on the ground casting minor heals on himself; then he started laughing.”

Jen looked both pissed and curious, and said, “what are you laughing about?”

Sam raised his hand for a fist bump, and quoted Jen, “That’s what she said! That’s going to be a hard one to beat!”

Jen didn’t rise to the bait and just got up and walked towards Tamako.

“Hey! Don’t leave me hanging!” Sam called to her after she didn’t return his proffered fist bump.

Slim hadn’t been worried after he watched Sam almost instantly cast a heal on himself after being struck with the spear, but he was glad when he could sense that Sam almost got Jen to laugh when offering a ‘fist bump’.

Slim strolled over to Sam who was still laying flat on his back resting, and proceeded to climb up on top of him and sit on his chest, and said, “Clean my fur until they get back!”

Sam half laughed, and said, “whatever,” but reached up and started scratching Slim behind the ears.

“Slim, do you know how that big bandit knew where I was to throw her spear at me?”

“My guess is she had activated a reaction skill before she approached the merchants.”

“What’s a reaction skill?”

“A skill that allows you to immediately react to the point of an attack from any direction. It’s good for reacting to hidden attackers or to an ambush. Depending on the person’s skill level with it, the skill can stay activated and ready for an hour or two. After it is triggered by an attack, there is usually a cool-down period for 20 to 30 minutes before it can be activated again.”

“That’s pretty cool!”

“Do you know what’s even better?” asked Slim.

“No, what!” Sam said excitedly.

“Dodging!” Slim said, as he jumped off Sam’s chest heading over to Jen.