“It’s too soon to celebrate. Our guess is that we have only a bit over an hour before they realize the only possible strategy on how to deal with us.” Nick seriously pointed out.

“And that would be?” Rushdi got nervous.

Even with his experience, he had to think some more to find ways to deal with enemies if he was in attackers position in the current situation. But these Southern mercenaries not only knew of a plan, they were confident it was the only one that could work.

“Burn us down, obviously.” Nick shrugged, “There hasn’t been rain for few days and the grass is dry. The wind is light, but it should be enough.”

“So you want to suggest us to follow your earlier proposal?” Qi master Zaki asked.

“I’m only a guard here. Vice caravan leader Rushdi, what are your orders?” Nick turned to the middle aged man and seriously asked.

“Stop playing games.” The latter got angry, “How certain are you on our success?”

“Hundred percent.” Nick confidently said, “The one who will most likely get slightly injured is you and the two Qi masters who will fight the Qi master on the other side. But if I’m not wrong, he will run away as soon as we start the massacre. The rest will disperse, but we still have to clear up the majority so they can not gather enough forces for another attack. Former slaves will most likely run towards the east and south therefore we should be safe after that.”

“Fine! Let’s move out.” Rushdi didn’t want to waste any time and turned towards Clayton, “Where did they come from?”

Clayton motioned for the rest to follow and swiftly mover towards north east.

“Caravan leader Solomon, you should stay here as the only Qi master. I’ll leave four of my people to make sure nothing happens to the camp while we are away.” Nick whispered and disappeared as well.

YunYun was already waiting full of excitement while Steven and the girls were left to ‘guard the camp’.

According to their plan, Nick and YunYun followed the Qi masters and fifteen minutes later already could discern the spot where the attackers had set up their temporary camp. There were tens of people taking care of hundreds of horses while several hundred surrounded someone and were in a fiery discussion.

The Qi masters from caravan didn’t come here to talk about the weather and instantly jumped in the middle of this flock of sheep. It turned out just like Nick predicted – most of these people were freed slaves without any combat experience or weapon skills. And the few people who could be considered warriors were nothing much against the Qi masters from the caravan.

In an instant a total chaos broke out and continued for the next ten minutes, but afterwards only Qi masters along with Nick, YunYun and vice caravan leader Rushdi stood in the center of the battlefield. Every single person was covered in blood and even organ parts from head to toe, but exactly how Nick predicted, the only one injured was Rushdi. Although he only had few shallow cuts on his chest, it was mostly his pride that was hurt.

“How the hell did you know?” He angrily shouted at Nick obviously pointing out at his evil prediction.

“Sir, you are a good leader, but your fighting style is to honest for a large skirmish. One on one duel is your forte, but you might loose against a cunning bastard who is weaker than you, to not speak about defending against crowd of desperate ex-slaves who were surrounding you.” Nick said as he spread his hands – there really was nothing more to it. He exchanged few blows when Rushdi hired them and knew the man was not a real fighter.

“Sigh, the kid is not wrong.” Old Qi master Zaki said, “What now? Do we gather those horses and leave?”

There were quite a few horses still around and they could gather a decent herd here.

“I would advise you against it, but it’s your choice, of course.” Nick unexpectedly said. Even Clayton and YunYun looked at him in confusion.

When he saw the way others were staring at him, Nick sighed, “Isn’t it obvious? We didn’t kill the Qi master or may be masters and many other regular warriors escaped. They all are hiding somewhere nearby in the darkness. Not only those are unnecessary variables that endanger us, but if we leave horses for them we won’t need to worry about future attacks, at least on this trip.”

“Your meaning is – after we go back, they will appear to gather what’s left and with easy means of transportation leave?” Rushdi was experienced after all and quickly realized the logical proceedings of the following events.

“Exactly. Many will run alone, some in small packs, but the leader will gather the core and start all over again in another place.” Nick smiled.

The experts didn’t discuss much longer. Having more horses would be convenient, but not having them didn’t change much as well. And most importantly – they already achieved what they came for.

After returning to the camp they were received with loud cheers and the caravan leader Solomon announced extra alcohol for everyone during the next fair. Order was quickly restored and most people went to sleep while the few others guarded them.

Nick volunteered for the first shift again and sat looking in the distance deep in thoughts.

“It was so exciting!” YunYun whispered as she sat beside him.

“Sigh, I disagree. In fact I think it was horrible.” Nick was depressed, “With two of us alone we killed over hundred people tonight. They were enemies and we had to do it, but they still had something they wanted to live for or someone they loved. Ah! I dislike killing so much in this world, but every situation shows it’s inevitable. Sometimes I even want to do it and it is so unlike the old me.”

“The ones who killed your family?” YunYun quietly asked.

“Ye.”

“I’ll help you.” She tried to cheer him up.

“We are now way too weak to even try. I managed to kill few of them, but there are others who could be only described as monsters, especially that one Qi sword master.” Nick replied still depressed, “And those monsters are killing innocents every day!”

“Then what are we waiting for?” YunYun pretended to be confused, “Let’s just train more!”

Nick almost jumped up from being startled! But of course! Why was he depressed? He just had to train more!

“Thank you, YunYun!” Nick suddenly hugged her and she froze feeling his warm breath and hearing his whisper so close to her ear.

Then he unceremoniously woke up Clayton, made him have his shift immediately and told YunYun to go to sleep. They had a lot of training to do tomorrow.

The following days went as usual except for the two weirdos from ‘Southern mercenary group’ who kept training in a strange fashion that bordered with a clown performance or even insanity.

During first day they ran along the caravan, but not casually while remaining near their spot – they sprinted towards the front, then back and then towards the front again the whole day long. For the onlookers the shocking part was when in the evening Nick leisurely prepared dinner for his colleagues as if nothing happened while YunYun helped him peel and cut the vegetables. It looked like they had spent the whole day lying in the sun instead of running around.

The next day they decided to ‘increase the difficulty’ and tried to replicate same thing, but while running on their hands. Needless to say, they both were half dead before noon, but for some reason still remained happy while totally out of breath. Nick even mumbled something about ‘at last understanding his main weakness’.

While being exhausted because of the morning stunt, the two mounted their horses, but, of course, not the regular way. They tried to ride while standing on one leg to train their balance. To the big surprise of the surrounding merchants and guards, they fell off only few times despite riding with their eyes closed and later even complained about the lack of difficulty.

Hyena brothers seemed to have gotten a weird boost of wrath and every morning and evening they angrily slashed imaginary enemies in front of them over and over again with the same simple slash. Of course, in reality this was the only way for the girls to improve their pitiful ‘swordplay’.

While the other guards gossiped that the Hyenas were angry because they had to stay back to guard the carriages and merchants during the grand massacre and couldn’t enjoy the bloodshed, poor girls desperately tried to improve to be a lesser burden to their friends. Unfortunately for them there was not much practice they could do while on the move and thus tried to follow Nick’s advice and practice their respective Qi techniques even though there was not much of effect – their high quality Qi techniques were mostly practiced while in still, meditative position and were not suitable for moving around.

When Nick offered to teach them his ‘own’ techniques, they politely declined. In this world probably only he was ready to give away his secrets left and right, but coming from royal and aristocratic families, girls knew the value and principles in acquiring the hereditary Qi techniques and that only some common ones could be freely shared like the ones for the soldiers in the army.

YunYun, on the other hand, didn’t care about it one bit. Soon after escaping the castle she started to practice Nick’s techniques and, in fact, preferred them to the old one which should be counted as even more valuable, at least within her own family that had history of almost a millennium. She fully considered Nick her fiancee and there was no reason for her to shy off from using his resources.

When the caravan reached the next town to have a two day fare, Nick immediately restocked his supplies and others didn’t fool around as well because the caravan will soon enter the Dark road. During the day girls were practicing their slashes behind the merchant stalls and, as per convenient coincidence, it acted as an effective deterrence to any troublemakers. Clayton and Steven were using every spare moment to increase their skills already since they left the pirate base and they didn’t start slacking now.

The two days flew by fast and soon caravan was on its way again. The surrounding merchants, servants and even guards got more and more serious and soon Nick understood why.

After crossing a small -scale mountain pass their surroundings suddenly changed.

On the both sides of the road tall and dark trees formed thick, almost black forest and from time to time steep cliffs in two to three hundred meter height rose from the ground and made the already gloomy atmosphere even more depressing and surreal. The color of the cliffs was exactly like the stones that were used to build emperor’s castle and many buildings in the center of Olava.

The most unpleasant part for the guards was their inability discern anything beyond the forest wall – few meters behind the front trees were already covered in a thick, almost tangible darkness. These trees were in some way similar to pines, but with many more thin but long branches which made the forest seem thicker. The needle-like leaves were also in dark green, almost dark blue color and it only increased the already depressing feeling.

Guards were walking along the carriages while holding their hands on weapon handles and constantly glancing around. Nick already knew the beast attacks will soon come and the most dangerous events should still happen during the night. Despite the tense atmosphere he doubted there was a risk of a large scale beast attack and the packs shouldn’t be too big to begin with.

Soon the first howls in the distance were heard and the terrified merchants and servants instinctively moved over to position themselves closer to guards. Even the Hyena brothers to them felt like angels compared to the terrifying unknown beasts within the forest and many tried to sit in carriages or walk besides them. Guards who usually were spread around now gathered in small groups of three or four to increase their defensive strength and probably mental stability as well.

The biggest worry for everyone were the horses and mules who held themselves steady during the bandit attacks, but here they got extremely anxious and were hard to calm down. In several cases they almost flipped the carriages when felt the approaching predators coming too close.