Blessings of Faith Pt. 01

"Things can get dicey out there, but we'll keep you safe."

Celeste smiled, "We'll protect you if shit hits the fan." Her face dropped as she suddenly realized she had just sworn in front of a holy priestess.

Helena laughed good-naturedly, "I'm not some cloistered nun, you don't have to worry about swearing around me."

Celeste nodded, though she still seemed quite contrite.

Austin had brought the rest of the group over for introductions, him leading with a devotion to the Lady, which surprised Miles as he never knew that he was a follower. "Welcome priestess, I am Austin, the leader of the White Wolves and follower of the Lady of Devotion. Please allow me to introduce the company."

Everyone introduced themselves briefly and Helena introduced herself, asking that they simply refer to her by name and thanking them for allowing her to join them for the mission. As some of them spoke, Allen came up to Miles, "Seriously? A priestess too?"

Miles looked confused, "Yeah? Do you have a problem with her?"

"Of course not, but you got two gorgeous women with you, and I got none. How about sharing the wealth man?"

"Oh, sure Allen, go right ahead, take a run at Celeste. Let me know how that goes for you." Miles gestured invitingly to Celeste, who was spinning her knife idly, smiling at him sweetly.

Allen grimaced, "You know what, I'm good. I like my testicles where they are, thank you."

"Over at the Elaine's Kiss?" Miles offered with a grin.

Allen slapped him on the shoulder, "See? You get me."

***

Fluctuations

The merchant Jalal arrived just past dawn, with a dozen guards. Where the prior guards had been skittish, with gear that showed wear and tear and little maintenance, these were seasoned professionals. Their armor showed use, but also great care. Each carried themselves with the calm assuredness that Austin and the other veterans did, constantly moving their eyes and scanning the area while appearing relaxed.

Austin stepped forward and grasped forearms with the new guard leader. They spoke briefly, and parted ways amicably. Jalal asked about the new member who was accompanying them, but upon Austin's explanation and then finally recognizing her, he seemed delighted that she was joining them for the journey back. This only fed into Austin's nagging doubt that something was still amiss.

Helen brought out the new horses that Samir had procured while in town. Aurora and Tobi were among them, with Tobi still pulling along the laden cart of supplies. This time they had prepared a lot more food as they were spending the client's money and not their own. All horses had their leads loosely tied to the cart and would be at the end of the formation. Helena and her steed would ride between the cart and wagons, where Harun would be keeping watch.

Before heading out Samir wandered over to the cart and re-secured some supplies with Austin.

"Two other groups leaving around the same time; one north and the other east. Didn't see any cargo exchanges and our group loaded up early in the morning. If they're taking something out, it'll be small."

Austin grunted his acknowledgement, dropping a small bag amongst the supplies. "If it goes bad, use this and we'll regroup."

Samir nodded, palming the bag casually, and headed to the front.

***

Thes new guards were much more accomplished in the field than their predecessors and were divided into multiple groups. While they still kept half their numbers with the caravan, the other half provided close range scouting. The Silver Wolves were instead used as long-distance recon, responsible for identifying ambushes, finding traces of dangers, and preparing a safe location for camp.

The group moved through the grasslands at speed, reaching the forest in only a few hours and then heading inward. Miles sped ahead, securing a location along the route that had good sight lines. He checked the trail, noting that some horses had passed a day or so earlier, but only a few in number. Based on the depth, they appeared to be lightly loaded. He kept this in mind as he continued off the path to look for other marks of passage.

That odd sense was prickling up his arm again as he spotted Helen in a small clearing, inspecting the trees. She noticed him approach and signaled him over.

Miles moved to her slowly, remaining silent and scanning the forest. When he closed, she pointed at a covered pit with ashes in it. Miles leaned down and inspected it. It was cool, nothing recent as of today, but large enough for a group of people to warm themselves around and cook something. Miles signaled tracks on the path for horses, and Helen nodded. Helen signaled through short whistles for the others to take a look while Miles tracked which direction they had gone.

Austin caught up with Miles and followed him as they tracked the traces of passage. The tracks eventually parted into several smaller groups and headed in different directions, which seemed to bode ill. Austin gave a sharp trill, bringing the Wolves together and then instructing them to fan outward along the path ahead. Helen and Dylan swung wide into the tree cover to the northwest, near a bend in the route, and Allen and Celeste headed to the west, on the opposite side of the path, with Dylan and Celeste giving close combat support to the two archers. Austin headed back to the caravan for an update, with Samir and Miles continuing to scout the area in widening circles.

***

The groups continued to leapfrog for another hour, with the two groups of archers and combat support leading the way and establishing forward checkpoints while the others followed. They had only been in the forest for an hour when the caravan heard the alarm signal from both sides nearly simultaneously, one to the north of a path bend and the other to the south of it. The caravan had just approached where the two pairs of mercs were set up when several arrows launched into the forest from their positions, eliciting screams from men and horses. The guards immediately closed in on the caravan, Helena taking cover by the carts as Harun moved to cover her. The guard scouts loosed arrows along the path as a dozen riders burst from the forest and headed toward them.

Each steady arrow the guards fired into the ragged looking cavalry struck home, dropping the riders down to nearly half their numbers before they even reached the front line. Had their ambush succeeded, they likely would have overrun the guards immediately. The guards braced and raised heavy spears just before impact, causing a cacophony of screams of men and animal alike as the remaining horses collapsed or threw their riders off. The guards quickly eliminated the prone riders before turning their attention to the dozens of armed and armored soldiers approaching from the front.

Where the riders had appeared lightly armored and roughly clothed, these people were armored and disciplined, raising shields to deflect arrows and bowmen to fire back at the mercs as they closed the distance between them. Two bowmen caught sight of Helen as she headed further north and around their position and snapped to fire at her, only to receive two arrows from the other side as Allen caught them both in the neck. The soldiers pivoted and raised their shields to defend from the new angle, but one took an arrow to the back as he turned, being struck by Helen's shot while on the run. While they were still advancing, the mercs' guerilla tactics were slowing them and forcing them to watch all directions at once.

Miles had followed Samir's instructions and headed perpendicular to the advancing group, staying between Allen and Celeste and the caravan, setting up unnoticed higher up. He could make out the soldiers as they approached, fending off arrows and increasing their pace as they charged forward at the caravan. Seeing an opportune moment, he stepped out and fired twice, striking the lead soldiers in the calves, bringing them and their neighbors down just ahead of the guard line.

Miles repositioned just as another group of five soldiers appeared from the foliage near him to the south, well behind where Allen and Celeste had repositioned to in order to continue harassing the main force. He noticed that there were at least two more groups approaching from the caravan's sides where the guards hadn't noticed yet, so he sounded a shrill whistle, giving away his location, but drawing attention to the new threat. The groups charged the caravan, with a number turning to Miles and loosing arrows on his position. He barely ducked out of the way as one imbedded itself in the tree next to him.

The other ten soldiers had closed nearly unmolested to the caravan, when Harun stepped from a tree and struck with a massive swing of his hammer, caving the undefended chest plate of the soldier inward and knocking him to the ground. He then hurled the hammer overhand at the next closest soldier, crushing his face with a sickening sound of snapping bones before rushing to cover and pulling two axes from his belt. The soldier's compatriots charged toward the new threat, expecting the other squad to back them up, only to notice a moment later that they were alone. A moment of hesitation was all it took as Harun hurled both axes, one taking the man's head clean off and the other embedding itself in the other's gut, causing a wheezing gasp as the air was knocked from his lungs and he collapsed.

Samir pulled his blade along the neck of the other squad's final member, having quietly silenced them all as Harun engaged the lead group. He confirmed that the priestess was still safe by the wagon. He looked towards Miles to see the young man leaping from the branches onto the ground in a roll, with three soldiers pursuing him. Samir rushed after them, keeping an eye out for easy targets along the way and throwing a knife with deadly accuracy as he rounded a tree into the eye of a man as he faced Celeste, dropping him instantly.

Celeste utilized the opening to move to her left and slide the other attacker's blade down hers and digging the knife in her off-hand into his side to the hilt. As the man gasped, Celeste drove her short sword through his throat and disengaged to support Allen, who was firing arrows as fast as he could load them into a group of soldiers that had separated him from the others.

The arrows bounced off their shields as they formed a wall. Allen smiled as they lifted their shields, blocking their view as he dashed to the left and watched Celeste strike the center one with a backhanded grip on her knife through the neck and the one to his right with her short sword into his kidney. The third soldier moved quickly to engage her with his sword while keeping his shield up to block incoming fire, but Allen had already repositioned. He fired two arrows into the man's back, causing him to stumble forward into her waiting sword. Celeste kicked the man off her blade and looked around to see Samir chasing after Miles and his pursuers.

Miles was desperately dodging the arrows of two very determined archers as he dove over a bush and pulled his sword. The soldier immediately behind him smashed through the offending bush and barely fended off a strike to his throat, warding the incoming blade to his left with his own sword. This caused him to twist precariously and unbalance him. As he attempted to slash at Miles backhanded, he was already too late to recover, and felt a sharp blade press through the soft palate of his jaw and into his brain as Miles drove Austin's blade up into his skull.

Miles never stopped moving, pulling his blade free as he moved around another tree, another arrow striking just behind him.

Samir stepped onto the bracing leg of one of the archers, causing him to fire his arrow wildly into the air. He didn't have a chance to do anything else as Samir's left hand casually tilted the man's head up and his right slit his throat open. As he tried to gurgle a warning to his partner, Samir had already embedded the knife he had used to slit his throat with into his partner's back. The man sank to his knees, gasping for air as blood flooded his lungs, when he felt the knife slide from his back and embed itself in his eye socket.

***

Austin was perpendicular to the caravan north, placing himself at a right angle to it and Helen and Dylan's position. He was moving through the woods, keeping an eye on the battle and looking for the mastermind of the attack. This group was trained and organized, but not something they couldn't handle now that the ambush had failed. The guards alone might have been able to handle this. Just as he'd predicted, he saw another group of five soldiers surrounding a tall man in regal clothing, completely out of place in the forest. Austin didn't wait for him to act and instead fired his arrow at him. The arrow sailed true, heading for his right eye, when it suddenly fell out of the air, having lost all momentum.

Austin's eyes shot open and he barely had time to get behind cover as flames leapt across the ground, engulfing the tree he was behind. The heat was intense, and he could feel his skin crackling. The blast only lasted a moment, but he was already on the move, heading back to the caravan.

***

Celeste was at a stalemate with two cloaked men, unable to get away. They would rapidly reposition to keep her between them, their coordination flawless. She was considering her options when Miles came diving out of the bush, avoiding an arrow from the ill-fated archer near Samir. Miles snapped out of the roll and charged the opponent on her left as she also moved to support, catching him between them before the other could respond.

Miles slashed at the man's neck with his sword from his left and the man bobbed seamlessly beneath it, coiling his sword around his head to block Celeste's strike from the right. He pivoted his left leg back, facing him toward the pair while his partner stalked closer from their right. He held only a single short sword in his right hand, his other hand held like a talon. Miles recognized the style that had tormented him for several months.

They could hear Austin's shrill retreat signal but couldn't disengage as these two likely had hidden weapons like Samir and would just kill them if they turned and fled. Miles glanced at Celeste, and she nodded as they both charged forward, moving in concert, to strike at the man in front of them.

Miles swung his blade low at the man's legs from his left while Celeste struck him high on her right, but the man smoothly hopped over the low swing, landing his body facing Celeste and parried the high strike by coiling his sword around his head and then countered with a slash at Celeste's back as she passed. Celeste caught the blade with a similar coiling maneuver, resting her weight on her back leg lightly, slashing at his neck again. The man stepped back on his right and ducked beneath the slash and bringing his sword down to parry Mile's second-strike low to the legs, but instead caught a knee to the face from Celeste's feint. He stumbled momentarily before realizing that Miles' strike was also a feint and took the lunging blade to the gut.

The second shrill alarm sounded as the partner flew at Celeste's back, but she rolled forward following her knee strike and avoided the blade as it sliced the air behind her. Miles spun to his right, pulling his blade free and extended his left hand, throwing a star shaped knife with a flick of his wrist. The man used the weapon in his left to parry the weapon, leaving him momentarily distracted as Celeste lunged for him. He stepped back with his right, attempting to twist his body out the way, but Celeste's arm snaked toward him and piercing him in the side before the man could recover and block with his blade. He threw his weapon in his left hand at Miles, who simply caught it in his left hand and tossed it aside, wondering why the man even bothered throwing a blunt weapon in the first place.

They then sprinted for the caravan.

***

Dylan slid his blade around his attacker's like a snake and into his eye as he heard the signal, a shiver running up his spine. Two whistles was the emergency retreat and disperse signal. He glanced at Helen who nodded at him as they both broke for the caravan, leaving two surprised soldiers in their wake. As they ran, they were joined by Allen, who had been separated from Celeste. The caravan group had repelled the soldiers, though half their numbers were down and were reorganizing as the mercs burst through the forest.

Dylan saw Harun guarding the northside and could see Celeste and Miles running down the path at them, but he didn't see Austin. He was about to say something when a titanic explosion knocked him off his feet.

He sat up, his head ringing, to see a crater three feet in diameter in front of the guard line, which had knocked everyone to the ground. Celeste and Miles had been blown backwards while the guard had been tossed into each other. He looked around for the source of the blast as he got up, but he already knew what had done it; there was a mage on the field.

Austin burst through the forest behind Dylan, clothes singed and blackened. "To the horses!" he ordered, no longer caring about the mission. The guards, veterans of many battles, couldn't have agreed more with him as they broke rank and fled back eastward, watching another ball of flame approach them. Austin looked at the ball, knowing that he wouldn't get out of the way in time.

Just as sphere of molten flame was about to reach them, Helena rode out on her horse, her right hand held high, as if warding the ball, and her left hand folded at her chest. There was a titanic explosion, much greater than before, a reverberating sound like a shattering gong lingering in the air as the flames leapt in all directions except where Helena stood, shielding the mercs.

Austin was momentarily stunned but recovered quickly. "To the horses, now! You know where to gather!"

Helena's face paled and she swayed in the saddle, catching herself by the pommel, but rising firmly as she saw another approach the horses. Miles rode up to her on his mount as the others got on their horses, ready to bolt in different directions. "We have to go!" he shouted to her, but she remained there, her lips pale, her eyes shaking, but smiling with a quiet, steady voice.

"If I go, who will protect you?"

The ball detonated again, the screeching sound seeming to shatter the very air around them. Flames leapt all around them as Helena slumped forward, collapsed on her horse. Miles pulled up next to her as she slid off, catching her, and cradling her as he kicked his horse toward the northeast. He looked back as another fireball approached. This one, however, simply winked out, as if it had never existed in the first place. No other spheres of fire followed, and he saw Samir riding hard catching up to them.

"Ride! It won't hold them for long!"

They spurred their horses along the path, Samir eventually peeling off in another direction, nodding to Miles as he departed.

***

Miles was exhausted, barely able to keep upright, but still cradling Helena tightly to him. She had been out since the battle, and Miles tried to shove down the growing terror that she was going to die because of him. He had told Austin he would take care of her. He had said that he knew what it entailed. He had promised her that she would be safe. He blinked back the tears, trying to convince himself that she'll be okay, but Austin's words kept haunting him. "Do you know how many kids I've buried?"

It was already approaching dusk. His horse was breathing rough, having been running for hours with only minimal breaks to let it recover. He needed to take a break and build a camp for the night, and then try to reunite with the Wolves in the afternoon.