Hidden well among the clumps of trees, Blink could see the crimson and yellow silhouettes from behind the trees march towards the river where their visages became clear to him.
Blink counted more than fifty of them. They were all wearing the same gears as Tovric and his nine men.
They were all soldiers of Tarask. Of this Blink couldn't be any more certain.
The troop's leader was a middle-aged man of around Tovric's age. His beard went down to his chest. His voice wasn't particularly loud nor imposing. It was actually raspy one could even say it was a little squeaky. But when he spoke, everybody snapped into attention. Not one of his men dared to look elsewhere until he had finished talking.
Blink was in a dilemma. If these were just bandits with a few soldiers thrown in, he would have already attacked them. But as they were soldiers with a leader who kept them in order, Blink knew he didn't have the slightest bit of chance of beating them in a head-on confrontation.
–"Should I use magic?" –
Blink dismissed the thought right away. He was still within Ragha and knew it would not take a lot of hard thinking to connect him to the incident. Until he could steer clear of Ragha, Blink determined to not use magic in a fight against bandits or invading troops.
But just as quickly as Blink dismissed the idea of using magic, an idea suddenly lit up inside his mind.
– "Of course, how could I forget about that? I can mix in a few [[Rock Hurl]] as well; make them think there are hidden enemies raining rocks on them." –
Blink could control a fist-sized rock and make it zip across a distance of a little over ten meters using his mental energy. It was the result of intense training in mental energy manipulation for which he spent two hours each day.
As for [[Rock Hurl]], the effective range of the spell was 15 meters.
To be able to cast the spell, Blink needed to move into the clump of trees closest to the river. Getting there wasn't the problem. The soldiers were likely to pick the spot to rest up and await breakfast in.
Blink had to decide quickly.
Without hesitation, Blink moved into the spot right away. The men were still busy filling their gourds and washing up. Some of them decided to strip down and take a bath. Blink knew his window of opportunity would be gone if he hesitated then.
He decided to aim first for the few soldiers who were attentively checking the surroundings. He inwardly praised them for having the sense to assign guards at such a time.
Blink needed a cover. He anticipated that the soldiers would take cover among the rocks to his right. And if he wanted to beat them he would have to move among them and use the cover of the rocks to pick them off a few soldiers at a time.
–"That just might work." –
He brought out Master Tszarek's sword and Tovric's shield. His trusty beastmaster taming rod was no longer enough to do the job. This time blood had to be shed if he hoped to defeat the enemy.
After taking a deep breath, Blink cast a [[Sweeping Wind]]. The spell was actually an upgrade of the failed version of [[Whirlwind]] when he was starting to practice the spell. He turned that failed version into a personal spell, which he called [[Light Breeze]] and [[Sweeping Wind]] was its upgraded spell model.
When [[Sweeping Wind]] passed along the nearby shore of the river, it stirred up sand which blocked the soldiers' view of the trees where Blink was hiding. Immediately, fist-sized rocks struck the soldiers who stood on guard for their comrades, taking them out of the fight right away. The first wave of rocks was followed by a hail of smaller stones that Blink sent out using mental energy.
"Ambush!"
"Take cover behind the rocks!"
Shouts of command immediately rang out. The surprised Taraskan soldiers weren't given any moment to panic by their leaders. They acted as commanded and rushed towards the rocks.
Blink rushed with them before the cover of [[Sweeping Wind]] dispersed.
When Blink got to the rock he aimed for, he found two soldiers hiding behind it. One was naked while the other one didn't even have his shield nor his sword.
Blink normally would not have wanted to stab at an unarmed enemy. But this was not a normal situation. Neither did he have the luxury to indulge his own morality. He stabbed the naked soldier to the chest before he could scream for help.
The other soldier was looking the other way and didn't see Blink when the latter joined them. He was only alerted when he heard the loud thud of a body falling beside him. Seeing his buddy dead on his feet, he screamed in horror as he looked at Blink. The latter cut off his scream right away, snuffing his life with a slash to the throat.
This was going to be a long fight, and Blink didn't want even just one soldier attacking him from behind.
Though it wasn't his first human kill, Blink still felt sick to his stomach. After all, those earlier kills weren't intentional but happened mostly because the enemy dodged the wrong way and were struck where their vitals were. He shook off the feeling by taking a deep breath and grunting as quietly as he dared.
He checked the next three rocks to his right for live bodies. There was one to the left, three in the middle and none to the right. He sent a wave of rocks all around once more to keep the pretense of an ambuscade. Then he rushed the lone soldier to his left.
Blink pushed the dead body towards one side of the other rock while he rushed to the other side.
The three soldiers were looking at their dead comrade's body when Blink attacked them from behind.
By keeping the enemy confined behind the rocks with wave after wave of rock showers, Blink slipped in and out of their hiding spots.
However, their leader must have suspected something. He called out a few names and shouted out an order to them. Immediately five voices called out the names of their men.
–"They'd know soon enough that I had killed over a dozen of them." –
Not bothered in the least bit, Blink continued with his rock and sword assault. He took down five more soldiers. This time he wasn't trying to kill them but just making sure to cut them up enough to take out fighting as an option for them. He took their weapons and stored them inside his dimension ring just to make sure.
Blink also found the unconscious bodies of a few soldiers. They were struck down by the rocks Blink threw their way. He also gathered their weapons inside his dimension ring.
Soon enough the raspy squeaky voice of the troop leader ordered his mean to clear out of the rocks and gather at a designated spot. Watching them run, Blink saw that they went for the same spot where he had practiced martial arts at dawn. It was just along the river and offered a clear view of the surroundings. The closest possible hiding spot from them would be a clump of trees about fifty meters away.
Blink took the time to go around the rocks and gather the weapons, armor, shield and helms of the fallen troops. He kept them all in his dimensional space ring. He kept in mind that he needed a lot of materials for his enchantment practice, and these bandits and Taraskan soldiers were providing for his needs.
Now, Blink had only one choice. Even if he ran away, he would be spotted and chased like some hunted animal. He must face the enemy up front. No more tricks.
With sword and shield at hand, Blink marched up to the enemy. They were lined up neatly in formation. Blink was hoping to challenge their leader in one-on-one combat.
–"He shouldn't be that much harder to deal with than Tovric. If he doesn't, I'll just smash them up real good then make a run for it. They'd be forced to leave behind some of their healthier troops to protect the wounded." –
As luck would have it, the leader of the troop stepped forward on his own. He even ordered his men to stand down.
–"What? He wants to fight me by himself?" –
Blink couldn't believe his luck. Fighting one man was definitely much better than fighting over twenty of them.
When they were close enough to size up each other. The leader of the enemy troop glared at Blink.
"I'll make you regret the day you took away that shield from its owner," the middle-aged looking soldier said.
"This one," Blink raised up the shield, "the owner gave it to me."
The other party spat onto the ground full of contempt. "You dare lie to my face, boy!" he snarled. "Now have a taste of my sword."
The older warrior charged at Blink and slashed down with his sword. Blink chose to take the blow with his shield to test the other man's strength.
–"Definitely stronger than me." –
Blink was forced to take a step back due to the considerable gap in strength.
Seeing this, the other fighter attacked Blink furiously. He swung his sword so hard like he meant to break Blink's shield.
From a viewer's perspective, it would really seem as if Blink were losing badly in the fight. Thinking like this, the soldiers cheered their leader's effort and began to anticipate the fall of the brown-robed youth who dared to face them on his own.
What they did not realize was that their leader was beginning to breathe hard while Blink was just playing them. Blink understood perfectly that he was the weaker fighter, but he also knew that he had a much higher vitality. It would be impossible for the older fighter to keep up this frenetic pace for five more minutes while Blink could still fight for an hour more.
When the enemy was starting to breathe through his mouth, Blink began to slip out of range every three or four strikes. The missed swing would open a huge hole in the older warrior's defense to which Blink would send a simple thrust with his sword and force the old soldier to jump back in retreat. Blink would pressure him for a while before letting him retake the initiative and waste more energy trying to smash Blink down with hard swings to his shield.
Quickly enough the middle-aged warrior panted heavily, his breathing becoming long and ragged. Gone was the furious pace he established at the beginning of their fight.
In a moment of desperation, Blink's opponent raised his sword high and pulled his arm back for a heavy but obvious downward slash. If he weren't tired and angry, he wouldn't have done that knowing it would amount to nothing more than an act of defiance.
Blink simply stepped to the left and pressed his blade to the enemy's throat. The man's sword was pointed down to the ground after hitting nothing but air. If he made any move, his throat would be slit before he could even have a chance swing or stab with his sword.
The younger warrior had won.
The soldiers were shocked and angry at the same time. They wanted to make a move, but they feared for their leader's life.
Blink ordered them to put down their weapons and shields then step back ten paces away.
After the men had disarmed themselves voluntarily, Blink withdrew his sword away from the troop leader's throat.