Ioha grinned back at the drivers. “Sorry, guys, these usually go in the other direction.” He hoisted another blob onto the wagon. By now, he wasn’t certain they’d make it back before sunset, and currently giving up and return to the temporary camp seemed like the better option. “Looks like we have a gash. I’m honestly not sure I can handle this after dark.”

  “After dark. Aren’t you E-rank?”

  “C-rank assessment, so this is OK as long you two can see incoming attacks.”

  “Arrogant little shit, isn’t he?”

  A guffaw. “Yup, Nanami’s little shit.”

  “Hey, I’m not small!”

  “OK, Nanami’s big shit. We’ll return. You’re right, there’s no way we can dodge D-rank spiders in the dark. Anything that gets past you will shred us.”

  Ioha locked one of those to the ground with shield and field. Then he stabbed downwards and released the shield. Two stabs and one twist later, the spider made the blobs company on the wagon.

  “Guys, if this continues, why don’t you just wait for the outbound wagon at your camp?”

  The driver nodded. “Just get us there first.”

  A sound solution. Ioha tanked the wagon all the way out of the zone. The attacks didn’t let up until half an hour before they reached the border. By that time, another two spiders and over a dozen blobs lay on the wagon.

  “OK on your own from here?”

  “Go rescue the outbounds!”

  Ioha nodded and ran back inside the zone. He barely saw two hands waving after him as he picked up speed. Without a wagon to protect, he covered a lot more distance, even if he had to settle for the most economic of his running enhancements. Their real camp lay deeper inside the zone, and he hoped he had stirred up the hornets nest to create a D-rank event close to the border. If he hadn’t, then the camp risked being caught up in a breach. Despite his need to find the outbound wagon fast, he still collected carcasses as they went down. They added little burden to him, and the loose and open backpack was specifically designed for collecting them while fighting.

  An hour later, he met the outbound wagon and its escort. Half a group extra, just as Ioha preferred. That left the perimeter patrol intact at the camp, which was more important than manning the defences around the clock.

  “Situation?” Ioha wondered.

  “Better than yours. Archers back! Mage!” Viking girl didn’t look too happy as she settled into a defensive stance by the wagon.

  “My bad, forgot I brought shit with me.”

  A few taunts later, the two archers downed all incoming blobs, while he and Viking girl made short work of the spider. The mage waited a little to the side and looked for anything to suddenly appear and attack the drivers.

  “With the four of you, we can punch through. Fine with that?”

  Both drivers smiled. They looked at the addition to their load. “Sure!” Ioha’s catch paid for the upkeep of both companies for a week. Of course, they wanted to punch through. And they don’t even know about the extra loot with the inbound.

  “Fine. Hikari, by my side! Archers and mage defend the wagon!”

  Viking girl still looked unhappy, but she lined up to his right. They had done this once before but never on this scale. With her shield, he didn’t need to protect himself from his spear side, and she simply chopped up everything he caught under a layer of aura shield and field after she slammed it to the round with her own shield. That gave him the freedom to do the same to his left. Behind him, the two archers and the mage made certain whatever reacted to his taunts were sufficiently damaged before they charged inside the reach of partisan and axe. The mage also doubled as a scout and collector.

  This wasn’t a patrol. It was marching while fighting, and they made surprisingly good progress. Three hours later the attacks petered out, and an hour after that they joined the inbound wagon and its crew.

  They stared at the overloaded outbound wagon. “What the hell?”

  “I know. We need those supplies, though, so I can’t have you go back to Halfpoint.”

  “How do you plan to transport them all?”

  Ioha looked at the wagon. “If we leave three collector sacks, it should be possible.”

  The driver shook his head. “Kiddo, leave the transport to me. Four sacks.”

  That left them with a single sack for the trip back to camp. “Fine, four sacks.”

  Ioha’s loot from the day before changed wagons, and they all went to sleep with just a rotating single guard. With nine people there, it was almost like a holiday.

  When morning broke, the outbound wagon with its two drivers rolled away toward Halfpoint, and Ioha prepared to lead the escorted inbound wagon back. They had just started moving west when a voice hollered from the east.

  What the hell? What the actual hell? A long caravan of poorly contained military overkill slowly caught up to them. This was not a company, nor a subjugation. This was an extermination raid.

  “Young Questingtank. Been a while.”

  “Sir Ironsnake. An honour to meet you!” Rede the greybeard was an unexpected sight out here.

  “Do you mind if we accompany your escort?”

  Ioha stared at the column behind them. Well over a hundred, plus the logistics. We’re their escort? Yeah, very funny. Ha ha! “You’re welcome.”

  Verina was there, as was the insane combat healer from school. Ioha sniffed and groaned. The air was heavy with aura extensions. Yeah, they really need us to protect them. He looked along the column and noticed how two groups broke rank. Coming up with hands waving, Harvali Terendala and Derina Wari led a party each. Of course, they had to be here as well. Ioha waved back. He could just as well wait a little to organise his escort squad.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be at school?” Derina greeted him when they caught up.

  Ioha glared back. “I had a minor falling out with the staff.”

  “Enough for an extended leave?”

  With a shrug, Ioha turned his interest back to his squad. Derina knew exactly what happened at Spellsword Academy before summer. “Hikari, by my right! Archers defend the wagon! Mage on lookout and collecting!” Viking girl fell in beside him and behind them Ioha heard the drivers urging the horse to move on. The wagon creaked alive, and he started on the march back to camp. At his left, just far enough not to interfere with his partisan, Rede matched his steps.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Why are you here?” Ioha asked.

  “The adventurers guild contacted us a month ago.”

  “And?”

  Rede coughed. “Deliveries from Halfpoint kept increasing in volume. You kids are making far too much money.”

  Nanami’s company were hardly kids, but Ioha nodded. Two months earlier the patrols verified a continuous bleed, and starting a month ago it escalated to an intermittent gash. If it ever got as bad as a breach, Nanami planned to send two full parties for help, and defend the camp with the rest.

  “Maybe. If you excuse me, it seems I have a column to escort.” He moved ahead and made his best to pretend he didn’t hear the overpowered monstrosity behind him split up into two columns and file up with their baggage train secured in the middle.

  An hour later the stench grew stronger as usual, and soon after that blobs and spiders rushed them from the forest. Just out of petty, Ioha targeted anything aiming for the main column with his strongest taunts and forced the rest to follow tunnels walled off with shields where his archer could pick them off at will. The few spiders that got through, he and Viking girl killed when they were immobilised under his shield and field death trap. Their mage ran around collecting carcasses and lobbed them into their wagon. During longer lulls in the attacks He cleaned his squad, very clean was enough, and they continued their marching battle west.

  “You’re doing this every day?” Rede asked once during a long stretch without any monsters.

  Ioha strengthened his sight with aura, made certain nothing was roaming around them, and looked at the greybeard. “Escorting the wagons got harder, but the patrols are strong enough to keep the fights short.” Another glance along the treeline. “The members are getting stronger by the week, which helps as well.”

  “And you?”

  “Outdoors skills mostly. I’m getting better at handling a spear.”

  “And your spellsword abilities?”

  Ioha shrugged. “Stopped calling myself a cat a while ago. I’m a tank. Well, protector of the line, it’s called here.”

  “You know Verina can feel how your aura has grown stronger since we last met?”

  Ah, yes, she was the one who took notes. “Well, it’s been half a year since then. I guess you learn a lot in a border zone.”

  A thin smile spread on Rede’s face. Then he smacked. “I guess you would. It’s not like school, is it?”

  Ioha scanned the trees again. “No classroom lectures. I miss the theory. Training’s the same, though. Plus, we get more excursions here.” Something moved. “Sir Ironsnake, you might want to give your raid a heads-up. I won’t be able to grab all of that.” Ioha pointed at where shadows emerged from between the trees. “Archer, kite! Mage, slow them down!” He left the road and rushed northeast so he could cover as much of the column as possible. He cursed because he had to add fireworks to every spell to protect the members of the raid from walking into his traps. A few seconds later, he had his grid of shields and fields set up. His old aura taunts wouldn’t be enough by itself, and Ioha added a roar of challenge he acquired less than a week earlier. It was still far too weak but added another layer to his mental attacks. By his side, Viking girl saw what was coming and backed away a few metres before Ioha released his swirling maelstrom of razor blades. A few straggling monsters received a single target taunt each, and after that, he made ready to receive a chaotic mass of blobs and spiders. Before they reached him, he split the horde with barriers to keep the numbers manageable.

  Damn! Too many of them. Ioha raised his battle standard. Hope no one sees it. Viking girl did. Her eyes shone with admiration and steadfast loyalty. Damn!

  Attacking was pointless, and he dropped his partisan and drew his broadsword instead. Razor blades got company by several strikes of the short range multi-target attack he still hadn’t mastered. Aiming was poor, but it didn’t matter with everything in front of him a writhing mass of moving wrongness. After that Ioha mechanically rotated shield walls, barriers, aura taunts, razor blades and the multi-target attack. At his side, the standard pulsed with power and Viking girl moved like a Valkyrie gone berserk. Force fields were pointless now. Like in a dream, he felt his display flashing over and over again, but he shoved the distraction away. One moment his world was a moving mass of monsters, the next he could see individual targets and then stillness.

  Standard down! It flickered out of existence. “Hikari, how many got through?” He cleaned his sword, absurdly clean, and sheathed it. Then he picked up his partisan and leaned on it before he fell to his knees. His aura was masterclass level by a wide margin now, but he had to mass cast unfamiliar spells, and they burned aura at a rate that wasn’t sustainable.

  “Fifteen, maybe sixteen targets, Sir Questingtank.” She still looked at him as if he had descended from the heavens.

  “Injuries?”

  “Minor, Sir. Our healer can handle them at camp.”

  He grinned. They made it through. “Squad, all help with the collecting, will you?” Giving them an order right now didn’t feel right.

  “Yes, Sir!”

  “A dozen of the carcasses belong to the column.”

  So most of those that got through charged too far east for him to reach them. He looked back. Yeah, no way his archers could have kept them alive all the way to his taunts. The entire treeline had been obliterated to a depth of over ten metres. They got some insane mages among them. “Sir Ironsnake, thank you for your assistance.” Ioha looked at the mountain of dead monsters by his single wagon. “Would it be possible to borrow a wagon?”

  A low murmur reached him from the column. What’s going on? Several of the party leaders made their way to him.

  A salt and pepper middle-aged woman walked right up to Rede. “Sir Ironsnake. We were told there was a D-rank company with E-rank affiliates here. No one told us about C-rank units.”

  “Sir Questingtank?”

  Ioha looked at Rede. The question was one of respect. “We’ve been here for three months straight. At least one of Captain Nanami’s parties is effectively C-rank now. One party’s worth of our E-ranks are most likely D-rank as well.”

  “May I speak with Captain Nanami, then?”

  Huh? “If she’s returned to camp, sure, but we need to get there first.”

  “Young knight, don’t play games with me. I’m not in the mood. I’m referring to your present C-rank party.”

  Huh? “I’m sorry, Ma’am. We don’t have a party here. I’m in charge of an escort squad.”

  “Look, I believe I told you not to play coy! I want to talk to whoever commanded the party that killed that.” She pointed at the heap of dead monsters.

  OK, I’m not getting out of this one. “That would mostly be me.”

  “You’re commanding the party that killed all of them?”

  “No, Ma’am, you misunderstand. I killed most of them.”

  She looked at his armour, shield and partisan. “I’m running out of patience.”

  “Sir Questingtank killed all but the ones that got through to me,” Viking girl protested.

  “You got all of them, Hikari?” A dozen? Shit she’s grown! “Good work!” And the archer got the last four, sweet.

  “Look, you twat, I’m talking to you.”

  “Sir Ironsnake, did you have an extra wagon?” Ioha had tired of the nagging woman.

  Rede nodded. “It’s on the way.”

  “Hikari, have it loaded! We’re resuming the march after that.”

  “Young knight, I’m giving you a direct order…”

  It wasn’t exactly the first time someone older tried to pull rank based on general seniority only. “Ma’am, you’re not my commander. I’m in charge of the escort. If you have a problem with that, please take it up with Captain Nanami.”

  “Listen here you…”

  “I can verify he’s in command of the escort. He also clearly referred to his commander. Please refrain from forcing him to commit insubordination,” Rede interjected.

  “I’m his superior…”

  “None of us are his anything yet. Our mission starts when we reach Captain Nanami’s camp. Right now, we are his guests.”

  The extra wagon arrived and Ioha’s squad loaded it. When they were done, the nagging party leader seemed to have regained her composure.

  “I’ll file a complaint for dereliction of duty.”

  Rede glanced at the half full wagon and glared at her. “If you feel he failed his escort duty, you are in your right to do so. I advise against it, but it’s your right.”

  They resumed their march.