There was Jack, Garen, Jean, Mike, Samuel, Durden and Johnny in addition to Stephan. They were riding in triangle formation when the bandits stopped them. Once you get down from the blessed road and reach the line where there was a road with a mountainside to the right and a cliff to the left. The knights and Stephan reached that point since it was Sir Jack's idea. Jack was thinking Maddock's great solution if he survived would be to cross the cliff road to the other side and keep walking from there.
He didn't expect the man he was looking for this whole time was with them. Even if Stephan had the face of Maddock when he was younger, Jack didn't believe it was him. There was no magic that would rewind time. Furthermore, even if it was him, the magic wouldn't be kept all this time if it happened and he could cast a spell, considering how he was stripped from his abilities and the blessing.
"Seriously thinking," Stephan asked him before they set out for the journey. "Don't you think that it's wrong to assume that the man you search for has survived? There was no man who survived the mist without a blessing; he would have turned immediately."
Jack glared at the boy but he admitted he was wrong. "Every citizen of Valtrar is registered in a special register. When the person in question dies or turns into an Undead, the name disappears from there."
"So Maddock's name didn't disappear. That's shame! The man must be such a lucky fella."
"There no luck in the Plaguelands! You are dead either way. Fighting just means dying slowly."
There were archers over the cliff, their bows aimed at the party, the others had their weapons unsheathed and ready to use. Stephan stayed close to Mike's horse, looking for something to undo the chains in his sack. There was a hammer. He turned it between his hands and realized he had no choice but to use it. He got on his knees and hands then started hitting the chain with the hammer. The task was difficult as he had to twist his hand slightly to get it done.
Jack and Garen were on one side, Mike and Stephan on one, Jean and Samuel fighting back on back, switching their positions sometimes, then Durden and Johnny. However, Garen had difficulties fighting, his complexion turned pale as it seemed an arrow pierced his thigh.
"What are you doing?" Mike shouted at Stephan.
"Sorry but can't fight without breaking those stupid chains and as it seemed to you all, I don't wanna die."
"If you had a brain, you would use them."
With a head poking upward like a chicken, Stephan realized the young knight was right. Mike's shoot made some of the bandits notice him, one of them charged screaming towards him.
"Oh God!" he rolled to the side. "I am not ready to die," he slipped next to Mike who took care of the one following Stephan. "Thank you pal! Can you break this one with your sword? Just to give me enough of a cord to hang everywhere."
Without hesitation, Mike swung his sword destroying the chain into two. "No, not this way. I wanted a slightly longer one."
"Do with what you have!"
Before he could answer, Stephan clobbered a bandit's head using the thick handcuffs he had around. Everyone was taking multiple opponents at once, each with his own style, except for Stephan who was just swinging the short chains to hit the bandits faces. Garen smoothly slipped a sword from a bandit and tossed it to Stephan who caught it by chance.
"Use it well, lad. That's no toy and no sceptre."
Stephan looked at the buffs again and joined the battle like one of the knights, smiling. This whole thing excited him further and he was fighting as he never did. He parried numerous attacks. However, he couldn't kill anyone; it was Mike who finished all the bandits around them. Stephan only assisted; he used the blade, fists, acrobatics and anything within reach to survive, even the stones of the road.
As the battle seemed to take longer time to finish, a bald man with multiple scars deforming his face and a body of a bear carrying a giant battle axe walked towards the men who were still fighting. There were a few deaths but not a lot; it seemed there was a healer around. Everyone had to change their tactics and move for the heads so they could give deadly blows. Stephan on the other hand didn't take any new tactics; he had only one tactic: to fight chaotically sending all kinds of blows and hits. As soon as the rest of the bandits noticed him, they stepped back and stopped attacking.
"Look what we have here! Knights venturing outside when the night is still upon us… I hear you are looking for a certain Exile. As it happened we are also looking for him," a wave travelled inside Stephan's body. "We are looking for the man; we are in need of him and we can't leave you to progress further."
Stephan hid further behind Mike's back. Faint mana fluctuations surrounded the giant man and made his strength distinguishable compared to the other knights. Sir Jack couldn't hold his mana any further and he unleashed it. There were two kinds of magicians in the world or more like mana-users. Everyone had an amount of mana but some were able to unleash it to materialize elements while the others could simply cover their bodies with it and enhance their blows and hits.
Stephan could visible see how quickly the knights moved back to their horses who stayed in places. He assumed at first the bandits were there for the horses as the animals were valuable in the plaguelands. However, hearing the man to whom he took the body away made him shudder. Why were they looking for the man?
They didn't know about that, no one did.