Chapter 195 - 185

Throughout human history, no animal has been as deeply cherished and beneficial as the horse. Whether they worked in the fields helping farmers carry heavy loads, dragged carriages and carts through trade routes to enable merchants to bring their goods wherever a path could be found, or served as beasts of war bred and trained to know no fear and charge directly into enemy lines, horses have been faithful companions, allowing humans to grow and develop. Floria, a small frontier town with few goods to be shipped off except for what the local adventurers managed to scavenge from the Green Ocean, didn't have a particularly large horse population. Certainly, there were some, but other beasts of burden were favored because they were less expensive and required less care. Nick, however, had not forgotten the development level of the world he now inhabited. He had seen horses employed in the trade caravan that had arrived just before the expedition and expected to encounter more as he ventured further from Floria. He had not, however, realized just what it would mean for a society capable of utilizing magic in every facet to breed horses designed solely for war. The company of royal knights thundering toward them consisted of fewer than twenty men, but all were mounted on gigantic beasts, whose galloping shook the ground like booming thunder. The smallest animal stood eight feet tall, while the largest measured at least ten. Adorned with heavy steel armor, carved with powerful enchantments, and capable of bearing the load of fully armed knights, they made for an impressive sight. Even Nick, who had faced horrors, fae, and demons alike without fear, couldn't help but instinctively tense up when he first saw them. When they entered his range, that irrational worry turned rational as he realized just how massive the beasts were and how much damage they could do. "Hyah! Slow!" The man at the front roared, causing the entire column to fan out and slow down from a full gallop to a more casual trot. The fact that beasts weighing over a thousand pounds could slow down so easily only made it clearer that these were not merely lumbering creatures, but trained, dangerous ones. The noise they made was enough to wake Rhea, who emerged from her sleeping bag, confused but fully ready for action. Only seeing that neither Nick nor Elia was preparing for battle stopped her from lobbing a vial of violently purple goo at the new arrivals. "Who goes there?!" Another armored knight bellowed, pointing a glowing lance in their direction. A quick assessment told Nick that attempting to take on the entire band of knights would end poorly. One on one, he felt confident he could overwhelm their enchantments from a distance, but twenty of them, all sitting astride formidable warhorses? No, that would be a stretch too far even for him. "Friends!" he shouted back, ensuring his voice would be heard with a gust of wind. "We've come upon a band of delinquents occupying this temple and, after they attacked us, cleared them up." A scoff could be heard as the men looked them over and saw three teenagers. But before anyone could make disparaging remarks, the man sitting on the tallest horse and wearing the most ornate armor nodded briskly, apparently unfazed by his claim. "I can see signs of battle. We are the fourteenth special company, deployed in the northern grassland sector three, to ensure no dark dwarf has slipped through our net by using a secret tunnel. If you will stand back while we perform a sweep of the area, we can take your testimony and leave you to your own means." Despite the men's clear disbelief, no one protested. Twelve horsemen scattered off in different directions, while two more took positions on either side of the ruins, effectively boxing them in. The remaining six, including the leader, dismounted, though only two removed their helmets. The person Nick had identified as the commander turned out to be a relatively young man with a strong chin and thick eyebrows. His eyes, however, were calm, and his stance didn't seem to suggest that a fight would break out anytime soon. "We'd be glad to help. In fact, I can already tell you that two dark dwarves were among those we fought, though they are both dead at the moment. I have just finished burying them over there," Nick said, gesturing to a patch of upturned earth. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. He hadn't put much effort into creating a proper tomb for them, but providing slain enemies with a resting place was an important lesson his grandfather had taught him at a young age. "You don't want to give their spirits more reasons to hang around and haunt you." That was, unless he used the corpse for empowerment; however, such rituals would have been unsettling for the girls, and more importantly, Nick didn't want to carelessly absorb pieces of others into himself without a clear understanding of what he was taking. I could have used them as fuel; that's true, but these days, that's no longer necessary. I can power most rituals on my own. What's needed is quality, not quantity. The dark dwarf could have been a great ingredient for granting himself a mind magic affinity, if that was a thing, but despite having two, both ended up becoming unusable. While Nick contemplated his bad luck, two of the still-helmed men moved to the spot he had indicated and began kicking away some of the loose dirt until they unearthed the first corpse. "We got bodies!" A surprisingly feminine voice called, making the leader grunt in assent. "Dig them out, I want to get a good look." He ordered, before turning back to Nick. "My name is Sir Leon Sadie, and I am the commander of this company. I would like to hear that story now." Although it was phrased as a request, the man clearly meant for it to be an order. Not that Nick planned to fight him. He might struggle with respecting authority, but there was a distinction between that and recklessness, particularly when he had others to look out for. "Very well. My name is Nick, and these lovely ladies are Elia and Rhea. We have been traveling around the grassland for a while, both to train our skills and to see the world..." Recounting the story that led them to this temple took only a few minutes, as he heavily edited out their dealings with the temples, and then he began discussing the actual battle with the "bandits." Though Sir Leon's impressive eyebrows climbed up at Nick's description of how they managed being outnumbered and faced with skilled adults, he didn't interrupt, merely flicking his eyes toward where his people were still uncovering bodies. "Statue is here too," the female knight called, dragging out the bearkin that Rhea had turned into stone with remarkable ease. Eventually, Nick explained how he had tried to question one of the dwarves, only for him to explode violently. He did his best to avoid making it seem like he was holding anything back, but from the looks that the still-silent man next to the commander was giving him, it was clear he hadn't been thorough enough in his explanation. Not that he would share information about his spiritual magic unless it was absolutely necessary. "That seems to check out. I still have some questions, if you don't mind." Sir Leon finally spoke, not taking his eyes off Nick, who gestured for him to continue. "You spoke of being attacked by these… bandits. Unprovoked at that, but you didn't seem surprised at having found them. Why is that?" A strange sensation followed. It wasn't exactly a direct effect like a spell, that much Nick could tell, since [Blasphemy] hadn't activated, but he knew that if he lied, the other man would know. More likely, it was a skill the man possessed, one that allowed him to discern truth from lie not through mind reading, but through something similar to divination. It was an interesting ability for a knight to have, but evidently useful. It did mean that Nick had to coach his words carefully. "As I said before, this is not the first time we have been attacked on our journey. First by three men that had taken over a bridge, and then by a multitude of monsters. While I didn't know we would find these men, once I sensed them, I suspected they would be hostile. Something has everyone in a tizzy, and it would have been foolish to expect what were clearly lowlives to be any different." There, that should do it. He had to mention his sensory abilities, but that wasn't too strange for a mage. According to both Marthas and his own research, most developed at least one spell to check their surroundings for hostiles. Sir Leon hummed, giving the girls and him another look. It was clear he was still struggling to reconcile the brutality of the fight he'd described and the corpses his people had unearthed with their appearance. "And how old are you?" "I turned thirteen just a few days ago," Nick admitted. "What?" "What?" Twin shouts broke the standoff as both Elia and Rhea turned on him. "When did this happen? You didn't say anything!" "You stubborn damn—" A chuckle interrupted their tirade as Sir Leon finally relaxed. Apparently, seeing them behave like actual teenagers was what he needed to finally believe him. "Ah, I apologize. I didn't mean to badger you, but we have been chasing after groups like these for weeks, and this is the first time we've found them already taken care of." He lightly inclined his head, showing more respect than Nick would have expected from a man of his standing. If he had mentioned anything about his family and his position as a noble—albeit a very minor one—he might have received better treatment, but that would have brought much more scrutiny. No, Nick was content being considered an oddity. "These aren't all of them. I'm pretty sure at least four more of this group are somewhere in the area, unless they have already fled." Nick admitted, and the knight thanked him, saying they would keep an eye out. The other man who had stayed behind with the commander also inclined his head, though he didn't take his eyes off Nick. "On behalf of the Ancient and Just Kingdom of Berea, we thank you for taking care of the Crown's enemies." Sir Leon nodded, "Yes, thank you. Groups like this have been popping up everywhere, with just one or two dark dwarves coordinating things. It's actually not too strange a sight, considering that their exiles often take up banditry and use their innate mind magic to control weak-willed people, but this isn't that. These are mercenaries, typically all above level thirty but no more than sixty, which makes them very difficult to track, as they can easily pass off as adventurers most of the time." Nick hummed, filing that away. He had been curious about why what was clearly an infiltration cell of some kind was made up of so many different people, all below what he'd consider real power, but that clarified some things. If the dwarves were opting for blanketing tactics, employing untraceable mercenaries, particularly those who wouldn't require much compensation, made sense. "Now, then. For the rest of our business. I hope you don't mind sharing the camp with us, but it has gotten quite late, and we still need to sweep the temple to make sure you didn't miss anything." Rhea twitched, eyeing the men still sitting astride their massive horses, while Elia almost growled, restrained from causing a scene only because Nick had the good sense to mute her with an invisible bubble of wind. That, however, did not go unnoticed, as Sir Leon's eyes immediately moved to Elia, observing the almost unnoticeable distortion in the air before returning to him. "We would be glad to share a meal with you all," Nick said through gritted teeth. And things had been going so well.