Day in and day out, Cyrus waited along the path towards the southern gate while hidden in the sand. He would arrive a few hours before dawn and wait a few hours after dawn breaks before heading back through the hidden exit to continue his studies with Cato. On the 9th day of waiting, he finally spotted a slow moving caravan in the far distance.
"Ah, finally they arrived. A decent sized caravan at that, I guess that means it was arrogance all along. They think that mere numbers will work out here, pity. The larger the target the harsher the means used are"
Some time later the ground started to shake ever so slightly, barely noticeable. The vibrations slowly increased in intensity as time went on, before becoming noticeable to even Cyrus who was hiding in a pit of sand.
Cyrus turned towards the ground, putting his ear on it and listened closely.
"No fucking way…the other party who bought the information are downright insane…or maybe genius. No doubt that they somehow corralled a den of sandcrawlers into action towards this area. Knowing how vicious they are, there is no chance they ignore such a juicy caravan"
As the vibrations grew louder and louder, the caravan noticed the happening as well. Coming to a quick halt they arranged their coaches in a basic defensive formation, with strong spears filling in the gaps and archers on the tops. With practiced ease they set up their defensive line and awaited the incoming monstrosities.
As if to match their foe, the sandcrawlers made their appearance in the foreground as well. From a mere tumultuous vibration to a large oncoming cloud of kicked up sand. Ever closer they moved, until Cyrus could make out the beasts with his spyglass sticking out of his hiding spot.
"Looks like a group of adolescent crawlers, around a dozen of them. Scary to look at with their large jaws and sand colored carapaces, but this group should be able to survive…albeit with casualties no doubt" mused Cyrus.
The crawlers came into sight of the caravan as well, with commands being shouted and archers nocking their bows… the battle had begun!
Arrows flew towards the incoming beasts, most of them harmlessly bouncing off the carapaces of the crawlers with a lucky few lodging into open jaws. Three of them were felled by lucky shots whilst the rest approached the encirclement.
With a crash the crawlers smashed into the coaches, starting to tear through the wood and metal holding them together. Ever eager to get past the flimsy barriers to reach their meal. The spearmen would not let such actions go unopposed, however, and with a war cry they pushed their spears through the gaps with all their might hoping to pierce an eye or jaw. Beast after beast, in their bloodthirsty mindless rage, fell while the barriers miraculously held.
Until finally the carriage was broken through and the perfect line collapsed. The now exposed spearmen were picked off one by one as the last four crawlers broke through and charged into the now exposed center camp.
However, what awaited them was a volley of arrow fire from the other side of the encirclement and the swords of the archers who jumped onto the backs of the beasts from the nearby carriage tops.
Down went another two of the beasts to the supportive fire of the back camp archers. Down went another beast, from the brave sacrifice of an archer who jumped on its back. The other one was not so lucky, as he was promptly thrown off and mauled yet his sacrifice was not in vain. The spearmen who had finished clearing up the other side came to finish the job, making short work of the wounded and bloated crawler.
As the spear felled the last beast, a cheer arose from the survivors. Happy to have survived the seemingly unprovoked attack, they began to clean up the wounded, strip the dead, and then burning the remains.
"As expected, they survived. Now, however, the real trial for them begins" thought Cyrus.
He took another look at the aftermath, almost retching as he eyed the half eaten remains of some of the caravan guards.
"Ugh, will I ever get used to such scenes" such fleeting thoughts were on his mind as the dust kicked up once more in the distance, something approaching fast and hard.
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It was not long before the caravan, amidst their aftermath cleanup, also noticed the new oncoming forces. Not being naive fools, they quickly took up positions once more with the center carriage moving to fill in the gap that was created before.
This carriage was markedly different than the rest as instead of being large and bulky to accommodate large amounts of men and cargo it was on the smaller side. As well as of a finer make, sacrificing space for luxury and stability instead.
Fast approaching, the large cloud of dust broke into many smaller ones with the faint sounds of war cries being heard. Cyrus aimed his spyglass at the new incoming foes, counting a large group of desert raiders on horseback.
These raiders all wore white desert cloaks with their masks pulled over their faces. At their side was a long saber, tied to the horse a short spear, and on their back a pristine bow ready to mow down their foes.
"This…, these are far too numerous in number to be a mere bandit group… not to mention the fact that they managed to corral a bunch of sandcrawlers like cattle" thought Cyrus as he watched the horde of "bandits" start to circle the defensive line of the caravan. "I just need to steal some of the wine on the cargo, still, the difficulty of this just went into the sky"
As he was silently lamenting the fact that his mentor's tests are sadistic in nature, the circling horsemen began to open fire at a steady pace aiming to whittle down the defenses before possibly dismounting and charging in.
The defenders would not allow this to continue uncontested and from the safety of makeshift barricades using both the cargo and the carriages themselves they returned fire. As both sides traded blow to blow, it was clear that no matter how professional the defenders were they were simply outmatched in numbers and such attrition could not be tolerated.
Nevertheless, there was naught they could do as they were helpless against such superior numbers not to mention being both mentally and physically exhausted from fighting off the previous sandcrawler attack.
"By Mundus, what is that?!" cried Cyrus in his mind as he froze in shock and suddenly had half a mind to get up and flee.
What he noticed was that every single arrow that was being fired towards the merchant caravan suddenly froze in midair, as if someone were holding them all in place.
"A mage?! So this was the source of their arrogance. From the looks of it this is an aero mage, with the ability to manipulate the essence of the wind." Cyrus thought back to all the magical things he had seen his mentor do, not to mention all the times he would leave suddenly and come back with the stench of death on him.
With Cyrus hearing the locals cry out in joy as another local bandit group was suddenly wiped off the face of the planet.
" Still, Cato did say he was an unusually powerful mage. If someone of Cato's skill and magical might was here the earlier sandcrawlers would have probably been no problem whatsoever, unless this was a trap set by the mage"
Slowly, a figure walks out from the luxurious carriage and rose up to the top of it. A figure clad in a tight fitting white combat robe with a wide rimmed white hat resting on top long brown hair. The figure, clearly feminine in nature, raised her hands and said
" Foolish bandits, this caravan is protected by this miss of untold prowess. Begone rabble or face guaranteed death." Cried the female mage in a loud authoritative voice, most likely enhanced by a spell to reach far and wide. Behind the mage all the remaining archers climbed up top the carriages once more and took aim at the bandits surrounding them.
"A mage indeed, however, it indeed seems that this mage simply cannot match up to Cato. To ask bandits robbing you to begone and not rob is the same as announcing to the world how weak your position actually is" Remarked Cyrus, remembering one of the many lessons Cato gave him over the years.
As if the bandits could hear his remarks, they paused for only a moment before continuing their siege firing with even more greed filled fury than before. What followed next was a long drawn out siege as the bandits traded their lives for the mages willpower reserves, waiting to turn the female mage into a pincushion with their arrows.