Ultimate Level 1

It had taken a while to calm Tanila down after he shared that information with her, but eventually, they joined the others in their wagon and slept soundly.

Fowl had stayed up all night, keeping watch over the woman whose only covering was the blankets put on her and the ropes wrapped around her.

The following morning had gone about as well as Max could hope for. Lydia had wanted to protest she needed to use the restroom and a few other issues, but after Max’s simple statement that, again, she could choose death or obedience, she bent under his gaze.

Max stayed with the carts and two of the caravan men as the others went into the woods and collected the loot and whatever supplies they could find. The men drove two wagons full of goods and other supplies through a twisting forest road and reached the camp well after midday. The horses had all been brought with them, and Fowl seemed excited upon their return.

Lydia, on the other hand, looked as if she had sucked a lemon.

A few other caravans had passed them as they didn’t move from their spot. None stopped after learning they were fine, and some bandits had been killed.

They wouldn’t leave till tomorrow since there wasn’t enough light left in the day to make moving worthwhile.

Max watched Lydia try to find a way to loosen or break her bonds as they broke camp. He would stand outside the wagon and use his skill to see her struggling, flexing against the ropes.

Every time he came to check on her, she would stop, and each time, he tightened them.

She was in a foul mood this morning, frustrated at seeing the goods she had worked so hard to steal following the other carts toward Peltagow.

“What will they do with her? I mean, I’m assuming it’s jail or death?”

Tanila nodded, looking up from her book, watching the red-headed woman glaring at them. “Based on what we found and saw, I don’t know how she will be allowed to live,” she replied but gave a shrug as she turned back to her book. “Who knows, though. You humans and your courts sometimes make things impossible to guess the outcome.”

Max nodded, understanding the truth of that statement. Sometimes, it did seem that way.

“I’m surprised she didn’t fight. I half expected her to. Everything I felt told me she would.”

Putting a finger on the page she was reading, Tanila closed the book and looked at Max.

“You don’t have a clue, do you?”

“About what?”

“You couldn’t see your face. The way you looked at her. How you spoke to her. I was nervous that you would kill her no matter what. It’s not that she doesn’t deserve it, but how you looked when you faced her down was a little like when you almost attacked Fowl.”

“But… I mean…” Max tried to defend himself, but he couldn’t. The truth was he had wished she would have fought back. Knowing how strong she was. The desire and hunger he felt yearned for that. “Was I that bad?”

Tanila chuckled as she nodded. “I doubt many would have fought against you. It was a scary sight seeing you covered in blood like that.”

Grimacing, he nodded. It took a good part of the morning to get clean. Chainmail was fantastic against weapons, but blood flowed right through it.

Halfway through the day, a shout came from the drivers, and Max and the others moved to the front to see what was up.

“A patrol,” Lincoln, their driver, informed them. “Capital guards to keep the roads safe.”

Max heard Lincoln scoff after he said that, everyone keenly aware that none of them would have probably lived if Max and his team weren’t with them.

“I’m Sergeant Douglas, and word on the road is you have captured and killed some bandits.”

Max nodded as he watched the group of five soldiers studying them.

“We did. There were thirteen bandits we killed and captured their leader. She is in the cart behind us. I will warn you, she is a bit of a handful.”

A couple of chortles came from the men behind their commander, who ignored them and nodded. “I’m going to assume you are willing to give a report. Do you wish for us to take the prisoner off your hands?”

“While I do wish that, I am not sure how easy that would be for all of you,” Max replied, grinning as he spoke. “Perhaps it would be better if you saw for yourself.”

Twenty minutes later, Sergeant Douglas was on his horse, leaving one of his privates with Max and the caravan.

“I appreciate your willingness to keep her with you longer. I can’t imagine that she has been easy to deal with. We had reports of bandits moving around in this area and to the south, but trying to find a group is not always easy.”

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Max nodded and shrugged. “What’s two more days with her? Having your man with us to help keep watch at night is about as much as I can hope for.”

The sergeant turned and gave a few last instructions before he and the other four men hurried back toward the capital.

“Well, Private Felix, I am sorry you got roped into this, but hopefully we can tie these loose ends up soon.”

Everyone groaned at Fowl’s joke as they climbed back into their wagon.

“As the sergeant said, I’m glad to be able to assist.”

Nodding, Max moved to his spot in the wagon as the private got on his horse and followed along the side of the cart.

“What have we gotten ourselves into?” Max asked as the cart started moving again.

Tanila laughed and picked her book up from where she had left it. “Only the gods know, but it sure seems like they enjoy giving us a hard time.”

One never knows how much they enjoy sleeping until they don’t get enough. Fowl had helped watch Lydia during the night as he could fall asleep without problems during the day. Max had tossed and turned, worried about his friend, but that first morning he woke up after not having to watch Lydia or worry about her was amazing.

Private Felix had stayed up all night, keeping her outside and tied to one of the logs. She had complained at first, declaring the indecency of it and more, but one look from Max had ended her complaints while he was around.

As they rode, Felix slept in the wagon, getting some rest for the shift he would endure that night.

Max and the others talked often about their plans once in the capital. They could choose from any of the four sections as their starting place. Each section had dungeons unique to that area, and they needed to hit level fifty before they could attempt the first floor of the tower. Fowl lamented that getting that high would take months of grinding through the dungeons.

Boredom was the worst part of the trip. Eventually, Max ran out of things he wanted to talk about with others. They couldn’t spend all day whispering, and he had given up trying to read on the road. Having only one eye made that task almost impossible with every bump they hit.

“A little over one more day,” he stated as they laid down for the night. “I’m ready for a real bathroom, a bed with a mattress, and some good bread.”

Fowl laughed and rubbed his belly.

“I’ll agree with you there. Every day, those biscuits are as hard as a rock.”

Max bolted up as a shout rang out from camp.

With no time to get dressed, he threw on his boots and grabbed his sword, opening the flaps of the wagon.

The others were rising, struggling to get up and grab their weapons right behind him.

Max stuck his head out and felt something flying toward him the second he came out from behind the protective tarp.

Instinctively, his body moved, pulling hims toward the wagon as his free hand gripped the back gate. His head turned sideways as he yanked himself down, and a dagger rotated past his cheek, catching it slightly and cutting it open.

“Goblin shite!”

It was Lydia’s voice, and he saw her cutting off the last rope as Private Felix held his throat, blood seeping between his fingers.

“She’s free!” Max shouted as he jumped out of the cart, pulled out his other sword, and ran toward the woman who took off out of the circle of wagons.

She carried Felix’s sword as she ran, weaving and darting through the opening between the wagons as she headed south.

“I got her! Stay back!”

She was fast, and Max struggled to keep her in his sphere of detection. His eye allowed him to see her white skin in the moonlight, but once they reached the forest, keeping sight of her would be challenging.

Once outside of the wagons, he cast an ice bolt, sending it streaking across the grassy area the capital kept clear of trees to prevent caravans from having to camp alongside the woods.

It slammed into her leg, causing her to stumble and almost pitch forward, but only slowing her down slightly. The red aura around her radiated brightly, as she had just killed Felix.

He fired two more shots, each of them hitting the same leg and bringing a cry from her lips as the edge of the forest loomed so close. She was slowing down and desperate for the safety she thought the trees would provide.

Sending one more ice bolt at her, Max knew this was about to turn into a melee fight. He didn’t have any armor, but neither did she.

The ice bolt hit the same spot on her right leg again, this time sending her to the ground, where she rolled before standing, breathing hard as she faced him.

“I’m not going to the capital,” she growled, sneering at Max and shaking her head. “I don’t know who you are or how you can do all that, but none of it will save you.”

Max grinned. Maybe she could see the whiteness of his teeth, but he didn’t care. Lydia had picked the wrong person to fight, and the voice was calling inside him. It had been calling for three days as she lay there bound and unable to defend herself.

It wanted him to take what was hers for himself.

She crouched low, with a slight limp as blood flowed down the back of her leg. Her skin glistened in the moonlight from the sweat forming after their small run.

“I’m going to kill you,” she hissed, spinning the sword in her hand for a moment as she watched and waited for Max to approach.

“Then come at me,” Max replied with a grin. “If this takes too long, my friends will be here, and we both know how that will end.”

She lunged and thrust with the sword, and Max used his blade, deflecting it as he read her movement. The attack had been a feint as she swung her fist, trying to hit him in the face, but with his new evasion skill, these attacks almost felt telegraphed.

Over and over, she attacked, swinging, chopping, and thrusting while occasionally adding a kick or a punch, and each time, Max danced with her, blocking, parrying, or barely evading the attack by a few inches.

He could see the look of frustration and fear on her face as Max appeared to be toying with her.

She grunted, flustered by the lack of success she was having.

“Do something!” she yelled as she moved back a step, positioning herself for another attack.

With no hesitation, Max moved toward her, his sword coming at her head-on. She moved her sword to parry, and as she prepared to attack, her eyes went wide, seeing a second sword appear in Max’s hand.

Jumping backward, she felt the sword slice her leg, a gash appearing on her quad.

Max’s swords became a flurry of strikes and slashes, nicking her and drawing blood all over her body. Over thirty cuts had appeared in half a minute, each one an inch deep.

As Max pressed the attack, Lydia stumbled, unable to withstand the salvo, and then she felt pain come from her wrist. Sparing a glance as Max seemed to give her a moment of rest, she saw her hand was gone, cut off at the joint.

She saw the flash of metal and then felt the same pain again, her other hand falling toward the ground.

“Who are you?” she cried as blood gushed from both wrists. She saw Max smiling at her, and for the first time in her life, a chill like never before ran down her spine.

Max heard himself laugh at that question. It was as if, for a moment, the fight he hadn't been himself. The thought of toying with someone like this felt foreign. It felt evil.

“Forgive me,” he whispered, his arms moving almost on their own as his swords came together at her neck.

A rush of cold came over him. He felt alive as the power flowed through him.