At night, the five of us would take turns standing guard while Galban rested alone in his tent.
We were all expected to sleep outside. Not that I expected equal treatment or anything.
I created a shelter and encouraged everyone to sleep inside, but Balibadom and the others refused, saying that it would be harder for them to notice any monsters that might approach.
That seemed like a legitimate reason to sleep outside, to be honest.
I felt a little uncomfortable using the shelter myself, but Elinalise stepped in.
"There's no need to feel bad, Gino. We have our own way of doing things, and we'll be more useful if we're well-rested tomorrow," she said.
That made sense to me, so we ended up sleeping in our little hut after all
It was definitely more restful than the alternative.
Two of us would stand guard at a time for the entire night
I had assumed that one would be enough, but apparently, it was safer that way when you had a group this size.
We would change shifts every night.
On our first night, I was paired with Carmelita.
"Hello, I guess we'll be working together tonight, huh?" I muttered
"Yeah, Don't fall asleep," she grumbled
"Well, I didn't plan on it," I said with a shrug.
Although we technically had a job to do here, staring silently at nothing in particular can be quite boring.
The two of us eventually started making small talk.
"Thanks for the help, The other day," she said with a slight smile.
"Oh, you're welcome. It wasn't a big deal," I said.
"You're strong, so is the other one, The woman," she remarked.
Carmelita the "Bonebreaker" was a warrior by profession and would be turning twenty-one this year.
Her weapon of choice was a broad, thick-bladed sword over a meter in length, which she swung ferociously in combat.
It seemed that many of the warriors in this region were partial to such huge weapons.
Balibadom also carried a huge sword.
There seemed to be a lot of big monsters with thick, sturdy shells around here.
It made sense to use weapons that wouldn't break easily.
As much of a swordsman as you were, you wouldn't want to try and cut a hole in an iron plate with a small, thin rapier.
Her combat style also seemed to be somewhat unique, from what I'd seen.
"Your wife's sword is too thin, though, you can't kill anything with it," she said seriously.
"Actually, you might be surprised, It's a magic item, and she knows how to use it, I've seen her cut Gryphons, Oh, and just so you know, she's not really my wife, we're just friends heading to Rapan together," I muttered.
"But you're sleeping with her, aren't you? When is a succubus coming?" she said.
"Eh... well yes, but not in that sense," I said
"So she is your woman" she grumbled with satisfaction.
"I don't know why that would make her my woman" I muttered
"When a succubus comes, men get aroused, women sleep with them, it's the way of things in the desert," she said
"Oh?..."
Carmelita went on to explain the connection between succubi and the way bands of warriors worked in the desert, sounding rather proud of herself.
Nowadays, succubi can be found all over the continent.
The species was originally native to the southwestern region, and their numbers were relatively low, but in the war four hundred years ago, Laplace had deliberately encouraged their reproduction.
It had been part of his plan to break the stubborn resistance of Begaritt's warriors.
Succubi were deadly against men.
Their pheromones could incapacitate even veteran fighters with a strong will.
If two of them approached me at once, or if one appeared right in front of me, I had no confidence at all in surviving.
Over time, the warriors of the Begaritt continent had adapted to their circumstances.
Each band began to travel with a number of women.
At first, these were usually slaves or prisoners of the demons, but the warriors soon realized that non-combatants held them back.
The women had little stamina and constantly needed to be protected in battle.
The warriors pondered the matter.
They racked their brains for years and finally came up with a solution: they could train the women to be combatants as well.
Exactly the kind of solution you'd expect from a Conan the Barbarian party.
And so the women warriors of the Begaritt continent came into being.
Honestly, the culture shock was real. I had read about tribes with similar arrangements in my old world, but... it was definitely hard to understand. I couldn't even convince myself that it was sexy
I looked at Carmelita for a long moment, trying to understand things from her point of view
when she noticed my gaze she blushed. "I appreciate it, if a succubus appears I can help you" she murmured and I just nodded.
...
As our group moved east, the land around us became increasingly green.
Kinkara's place was in this direction, and a large jungle just beyond.
I found it a little strange that a jungle could exist so close to a barren desert, but we weren't going to get the chance to see it this time.
When we reached a large vertical rock that someone had left as a reference point, Galban changed our course and we began to head north.
After three days of traveling in that direction, we came upon the main regional highway.
It was not paved, let alone actively maintained; it seemed more like the natural product of countless travelers moving in the same direction.
However, compared to the sandy terrain we had traveled on, it felt firm and reliable
under my feet.
That suited me.
"Sir, we might encounter bandits now that we're on the road, I think we'll manage just fine, but if things get bad..." Balibadom muttered
"I'm paying you good money, aren't I? Just worry about keeping the cargo safe," Galban grumbled.
"...Yeah. Agreed," Balibadom replied
Balibadom clearly wanted Galban to consider abandoning the cargo in case of emergency, but the man had none of that in mind. Maybe his cargo was more important to him than his life.
It didn't make much sense to me, but who was I to judge?
"Are we going to be okay, boss?" Carmelita asked
"Don't waste your time worrying about that, you airhead," Balibadom replied with a smile.
"britzs, Dragonroad, I want you to stick to Galban like glue from now on. Tont, you're on the camels. Don't let a single one get away. Bonehead, you take the rear. I'll scout ahead of us and give the signal if there's anything. You better not get lost." Balibadom commanded
"Understood, Boss."
"Understood."
"Understood."
Assuming our new positions, we set off cautiously.
From the looks of it, the bandits around here tend to set up ambushes and wait for people to stumble upon them;
if you spot them early and go around them, it's possible to avoid trouble altogether.
Thanks to Balibadom's expert scout, we were able to spot the first ambush on our path well in advance.
The groups of people weren't that easy to spot with his Demon Eye, but he had managed to spot them the old-fashioned way.
We made a long detour off the road and skirted around the danger. Not many people want to walk past a dog poop they've seen ahead, right? The normal thing to do is to go around it.
In the end, this was a mistake.
Maybe Balibadom was spotted by the enemy during his scouting expedition, and they followed him to us.
Maybe he had only seen a small part of the bandits' forces, and our detour led us to their main army.
In any case, we were attacked.
...
It happened just after we had put a safe distance between us and the ambush.
Everyone was starting to breathe a little easier.
And then something came whistling through the air.
Suddenly, Tont had an arrow in his chest and fell to the ground.
I started to run towards him, intending to cast a healing spell.
But Elinalise grabbed me by the neck and pulled me back.
As I did, another arrow hit the camel Tont was standing next to.
"Run!" Balibadom shouted. "They're attacking us! They're coming from the west."
I wanted to go for the bandits but Elinalise grabbed me by the neck and made me run alongside her, eventually, I gave up and Elinalise let go.
Galban and the camels were already desperately running forward; I followed them, running as fast as I could.
There was a group of men on horseback on a hill to our left, and they were charging at us.
They were on horseback and we were on foot.
They all wore identical sandy-yellow turbans.
"Sir, we have to leave the camels! They might let us go if we hand over everything."
"No way!"
"Are you suicidal or just an idiot?"
"Protect my load, dammit! That's what I hired you for!"
"No way! There are too many of them!"
As Balibadom and Galban shouted at each other, our wounded camel stumbled awkwardly. Just as I realized he was foaming at the mouth, he staggered to the side and collapsed.
"Shit! Those are poisoned arrows!!" I warned
"Tch! They're coming from the rear too!" Carmelita screamed
Another group of horsemen was approaching us from behind, and the archers on the hill were preparing their next volley.
Most of their shots fell short, but a few were able to make their arrows fly; Every now and then, one would come dangerously close to hitting us.
There must have been fifty of them. No, a hundred. And that was only the ones we could see.
The word bandits had fooled me quite a bit. This was an army we were up against.
"..."
I tried to analyze the situation, they were attacking us from the flank and the rear, at least.
There were no enemies in front of us, that's where we should run... but no, I needed to finish these bastards off once and for all.
"Balibadom! I'm going to cover us in the fog! Keep running in a straight line!!" I shouted
"What?! Uh... okay!" he replied.
Summoning a huge amount of moisture in a wide range around us, I effectively covered the area in a thick blanket of fog, it almost seemed like we were inside or something.
No matter how talented the archers were, they couldn't shoot at us now, and it was time to stain Dragon Phoenix...
Unsheathing my sword, I rushed at the bandits, in a fraction of a second I could feel my sword cutting through human parts, I didn't need to see where, my sword killed them with one stab.
In less than thirty seconds I had killed around forty bandits, some were smart and retreated, but I didn't give them a chance. "Gino!" Elinalise shouted at me and that was my order to retreat.
Shortly after, I returned to Elinalise, where the bodyguards were waiting for me. Galban was pale and breathing heavily due to exhaustion, but there was no further damage.
Balibadom was surprisingly calm and collected, considering we had just lost another of his men.
His first attention was to redo our formation.
Far from stopping to mourn his comrade, he didn't even say Tont's name again.
He was the same professional and focused bodyguard as always. He seemed a little cold, but that was probably how things went in his line of work.
His people were used to this.
Death was a constant companion for them;
it only took one mistake or a bit of bad luck to end their lives.
This was a common attitude on the Demon Continent as well, in retrospect. It was a way of thinking I couldn't understand.
Two weeks later, we finally arrived at the Labyrinth City of Rapan.
We had reached our destination. Now it was time to get started.
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