Damian looked ahead into the deep forest and strained his hearing to the limit. There were no scouts in their little party, so he had to rely on his good old hearing to not get surprised by a monster or anything else that might be waiting for them on the way.
Damian had deliberately chosen this new path to avoid any backup plan that the assassins might have for Lucian in case she survived the attack. He did not know who attacked her but he definitely did not want any more such mess, in his escape. Emberlock was a small town but many passenger or merchant carriage rides could be found going away to the south. Once they reach the town Damian could just ditch his unwanted guests and finally be free. Lucian and Rosie can find the lord's villa on their own. They should be able to do, at least that.
It had not been even an hour riding, when Damian heard a faint growling, mixed with firm steps crunching dead wood. He stopped his horse, while raising his hand quickly. Others also stopped, while looking at him with questions in their eyes.
The sounds became louder and louder, yet it was still too faint for his companions to hear.
"Why did we s..."
"Shssss!"
Damian shushed her before the monster could hear it and come their way, but it was useless. The walking steps turned to running, the direction was clear it was now coming right at them. Damian unsheathed his sword and climbed down from his saddle. In just another minute, two towering giant figures rushed out of the dense forest, one green and other brown; ugly as hell rushing directly towards the horses.
"Trolls!" Someone yelled behind him most likely Lucian.
Damian finished forming the magic circle with his one hand, that he was busy doing since he heard them. Five sharp air blades flew towards the running trolls, injuring the green one who was ahead of the other and piercing an important organ of the brown one; who noticed the blades later because of green one being in front. The brown troll stopped his charge and screeched in pain, yet the green one continued and started swinging his big muscled hand towards Damian.
With one powerful jump while aiming his sword, Damian cut off green troll's hand, then landing on his chest Damian delivered a powerful kick which propelled him backwards where he landed on his feet, creating a little distance between the two.
The giant troll screeched an angry howl and lunged towards Damian with double the ferocity, yet jumping above the monster's powerful punch Damian delivered a simple thrust from the monster's blind angle that pierced it's throat and a stream of blood flew out of it. Killing it in a single blow.
The other troll was still on the ground grunting heavily, Damian could see it's wounds healing at a fast rate; which was the specialty of mountain trolls. Before it could heal completely, Damian opened one of his scrolls that he kept in his pocket and activated it. In a few seconds a giant and powerful stream of flames covered the brown troll in a blinding flash. The jet of flames only lasted for few seconds but when it ended only ashes remained of the powerful troll.
It was one of the improved fire rune scroll, that Damian had managed to make in limited time after his ascension. With his improved stats, now he could pour his own mana into the rune scroll to enhance the effect and even make it faster. The only drawback was that it took some time to activate just like his other rune scrolls, which makes it inefficient in fighting if used without making the enemy immobilized first.
Damian collected some of the bleeding troll's blood, since it was a necessary ingredient for a powerful healing potion, then they continued their journey. From start to finish except saying 'trolls' both of them had yet to say anything at all. And the silence broke the very next second Damian was thinking about it.
"Master Damian is so powerful..." Rosie started.
"You used spells without chanting.. How?" And of course Lucian joined in.
"Stop thinking about nonsense things and start thinking about how to survive. And next time please do shut up when I tell you to shut up!" Damian replied.
"Don't you think you are being a bit too harsh on our lady..?"
"Your lady brought two trolls - who were just going on their way towards us with her stupid question, if you want respect then help me and not make my life difficult than it already is."
"...." Lucian opened her mouth but decided against saying anything.
They continued riding which had already became annoying with Damian trying to continuously stay on high alert for any monster signs. They stopped in between for breaks, to eat and rest for a while other than that the party continued non stop riding.
Another big group of goblins noticed their presence even after going a long way around them. One dumb goblin; god knows what it was doing so far from his pack, saw them and started shouting, calling others towards them.
With a long and tiring battle they finally managed to kill them all. Damian was stinking with the goblin blood. Lucian was also fighting by his side, and despite being a mundane the goblins were no match for her sword technique; which was way better than his. And it seems like the sword of the bandit spellsword helped her in someway to overcome the power gap. Rosie just stayed with the horses, since she was a mundane human who had failed her ascension many times and did not have any warrior class job. Lucian was also covered in goblin blood just like him.
"You did good..." Damian said.
She just glared at Damian and walked towards Rosie. After riding like that for another hour or two; a small stream of water revealed itself from the dense forest. There was also a small cave a bit further down river which Damian found out after observing the area. So they camped there for a night. Cleaning himself in the stream was the only good thing Damian had felt that day.
He may have an improved stats but he was still a kid and under level 30. Such a day filled with constant fighting and a state of high alert was taxing for his young mind. After eating they found a good spot in the cave for themselves and laid down. Before everyone fell asleep Damian had to assign a watch duty.
"Who's going to take the first watch?" Damian asked while laying down.
"Aren't you the strongest?" Lucian said with a hint of haughtiness.
Damian ignored her.
"I'm dead tired, one of you keep watch for some hours then other replace her; I will go last." Damian closed his eyes after giving the simple instructions.
It just felt like seconds before Damian received a gut wrenching kick on his stomach; very rudely waking him up. He was just going to curse at whoever the hell it was, when he finally noticed what was really going on.
A group of rough looking men with unkempt beards and rags for clothes had surrounded the whole cave entrance. There were more than 50 – 70 bad smelling men armed with swords and axes. Two men were holding Lucian from her two sides and Rosie was also receiving the same treatment. The men were looking at two women like hungry beasts ready to pounce at any moment.
Real mountain bandits.
Damian looked around and realized that the bandits had tied up his arms; his sword was also missing. He could summon his spear and burn his bindings but it would take time which surrounded by so many bandits, he definitely won't have. Since they could just interrupt him at any time.
Other option was chanting, but it also took absurdly long time, he could activate his scrolls but he had to unroll and point them first - fighting against a group like that was a dumb choice. He could also overpower them with his stats but he had to find a better opportunity for that also.
The bandits forced him up and started dragging them somewhere with them. The way some of the bandits were looking at him; sent chills down Damian's spine, the only reason they would leave a kid alive after looting everything from him was...
No, no he could not get distracted. Damian just needed a chance and with that he could deal with this miserable lot. This was nothing.