The stomping of hooves verberated amongst the towering rocks around us. The coachman was barking at the horses, giving out instructions while pulling on the reins to reinforce his words. The carriage leapt in the air for a split second before it fell onto the ground. It looks like the wheels met another rock.

While the carriage did have some suspension, the ride was still bumpy. Gladio had to occasionally hold onto the fishbowl to not waste any precious saline water. Alevanine seemed to be in a daze, which is to be expected. And me? I have motion sickness… As my forehead felt many sensations, primarily pain, a deep sense of fatigue overwhelmed me.

“Oi driver, mind avoiding all the rocks in the way. Having the carriage leap every now and then is not very cosy!”

The driver ignored me. In this situation, he was the only carriage driver I could find that was willing to take us to where we need to go. He probably thought of us as arrogant nobles or merchants due to the relatively large sum we offered him. He was probably laughing on the inside at our misery.

As the carriage made a sharp turn, we were slammed into the walls of the carriage before having some respite. We were then slammed into the other end of the carriage. And again, and again. It seemed like there were many sharp turns in this junction.

The carriage, for some inexplicable reason, stopped. I peeked my head outside the window. Some men appeared in front of the carriage. Judging from their belongings, they most likely did not have friendly intentions. Well-armed with iron weaponry and tough leather armour, this was no tea party. There was even a bowman who has already slot an arrow into their bow, ready to fire at will.

The driver turned around and inexplicably smiled, “I’m sorry, gentlemen. It seems this is where the ride ends. Now hand over all your belongings if you still want to live.”

“Alright. But let us not fight. There’s a risk that comes with every battle. I can give you some things if you let us go and continue to bring us to our destination.”

“It seems you still don’t get it do you, young master? Why would we want the scraps when we can take it all!” The coachman laughed and leapt off the front of the carriage. At the same time, the bowman finally let go of the bowstring, letting loose an arrow. I immediately dived onto the floor of the carriage, allowing the arrow to strike the wall behind me.

“Should have probably seen this coming….” I mumbled. I looked over at Gladio, hoping for him to salvage the situation somehow. He brandished his scimitar, but he also was squatting on the ground. While Gladio was highly skilled, I knew he could not take on an entire brigade of bandits. Even if he could win, the losses were just too heavy to even be considered.

“I assume we’re probably surrounded. From the footsteps and the shouts, it doesn’t sound like they have too many men. There are probably two men on each side of the carriage door and maybe one behind us. Surrender is out of the option; we’ll be left for dead.” Gladio explained the situation coolly before looking at me for my orders.

“Well, I can’t use my abilities here in this carriage. We’ll need to launch a breakthrough. If only we could get a flashbang to minimize casualties…” I murmured, looking around the carriage for any object that would distract the bandits temporarily. As I settled my eyes on the fishbowl containing the shark girl Alevanine, I gave a wry smile.

Alevanine seemed to be extremely afraid, in sharp contrast to her usual self. When she looked over at the eyes of her master, she quickly turned around. As she turned her head to look at me once more, she quickly retracted her head and began shivering slightly.

“Lene, that was some nice acting!” The man hollered at the other man running towards him. Lene was dressed in a typical coachman’s attire except that his was white in colour. Visible sweat marks could be seen appearing on his tunic.

“Capaneus… sigh. That was scary. The customer had this extremely scary bodyguard. When I occasionally looked behind me, all I received were his stares. I don’t think this will be as easy as last time.”

“Relax, we got them trapped. There’s no way for them to go.”

Whizz! An arrow flew past the men’s ears. Capaneus turned around only to see his archer comrade getting another arrow from his quiver. He then turned around to look on ahead. Something shiny was reflecting light into his eyes. As his eyes get used to the new foreign object’s reflected light, he realized it was a giant fishbowl. There seemed to be a shark lady in there?

“Isn’t that shark slave part of their travelling retinue? Why did they toss it out? Offer of surrender?” Lene thought about it and continued observing the situation.

“Lene? What the hell is that?” Capaneus demanded.

“It’s one of their companions. They are one of the Sea People. I, too, have no idea why a Sea Person is doing so far away from the Tigris Sea….”

One of the bandit’s men came over to the fishbowl began inspecting it. He curiously moved closer to the fishbowl. As his hand went near the bowl, a sudden surge in the water’s movements can be seen. The next thing the bandits’ knew, the shark slave’s jaws sunk into the man’s hand. As the man hollered in pain, another arrow was fired away. Alevanine quickly released her jaws and dived back into the fishbowl. As the water splashed in the tank, the arrow whizzed past above her.

The burly bodyguard quickly rushed out of the carriage and body slammed into the bandit with the injured hand. The bandit collapsed on the ground, unable to get up for a while.

“Quickly! While they reload the next arrow!” Gladio called out and waved his sword. I nodded and leapt out of the carriage as well. We ran behind the carriage, encountering another bandit. The bandit gripped a short sword, and confusion was written all over his face. As the bandit quickly lunged at us, Gladio parried his blade and landed a punch with his other hand. As the bandit was knocked backwards momentarily, the swordsman finished him off by landing a strike with the hilt of his scimitar.

I opened one of the many pouches I had and grabbed some cloth scraps. I began focusing on the temperature of the surroundings. I felt the hot sunlight falling on my body, the warm soil that has been cooked under the sun and the warm air rising in my surroundings. I began transferring the heat from my surroundings into the cloth scraps that I held in one hand. The particles in the cloth began to be excited, and they started vibrating faster and faster. As the particles broke away from their bonds and began combining with the oxygen in the air, flames began to arise from the cloth scraps I held in my hand.

“Fuck! Magi!” Capaneus began to feel the same fear he once felt on the battlefield. He could feel the unnatural energy waves coming off behind the carriage. The man on the other side of the carriage seemed hesitant to approach. Desire to run began to spread all over his men.

“Look! There’s only one way to stop a magi! Rush them before they finish their spell! Charge!” Capaneus hollered out.

“Yahhh!” A man cried out a battle cry and ran behind the carriage. The clashing of metal against metal can be heard. After a while, a body flew from the back of the carriage. He lay slumped against the wall of the canyon.

A cold breeze blew past them. The archer’s bow began to shake, but the archer was still unable to let leash his arrow. “Why are your comrades always so useless…” Capaneus thought to himself as he looked at the battle-useless Lene beginning to creep further away from the battle.

“Lene! Even if you run, there is nowhere else for you to go!”

Lene gulped nervously. And he began running away…

As Capaneus’ mouth opened to chide his comrade for running away, he quickly kept his mouth shut and focused on the scene in front of him. He began running to the carriage. The cold winds grew stronger and stronger with each step he took. Fear started to set in, and past traumatic memories began to slow his footsteps.

The next thing he knew, he was halfway to the back of the carriage. Suddenly, a young man popped out from the back. He had a menacing smile on his face. He held a blue ball of flames flickering harmlessly in his hands. Some frost could be seen growing on the ground around him. With a glance in his direction, the blue flames were shot towards him. Its speed was incomprehensible, and in a second or so… No in half a second or less, it appeared right in front of him.

“Fuck…” Capaneus thought as the blue flames engulfed him. Even with his armour on, it felt as if the air was punched right out of his chest. He could even feel the armour bending due to the impact. He felt the cold hard ground beneath him as he was knocked onto the floor. Gasping for breath, he could only think of a single word, “Fuck”. The dark empty void greeted his eyes soon afterwards.

“So gentlemen! From now on, you are my property! I don’t know whether I can fetch a good price for you all… But let’s do our best!” The voice of a young man echoed throughout the dark empty room. Flashes of light greeted him occasionally.

“Capaneus!” An all too familiar voice greeted him. As his vision returned, the face of the coward who ran away greeted him.

“Lene! You… ah!” Capaneus began gasping for breath once more. His chest felt extremely tight, and it was hard to breathe.

“Calm down. Your chest is extremely injured. Luckily, you had your armour on, or you’re a goner…” Lene mumbled.

“So you woke up, huh? Sigh… I’ll have to give that speech all over again. Now I understand why teachers hate repeating things when students never pay attention. Cough! Alright, let me put it bluntly. Since you’re a captive, you’re now my property!” The young man from before boastfully declared.

“You’re friend over there was found collapsed on the ground a couple of miles down the road … Ok, maybe your ex-friend? Doesn’t matter. Don’t do anything funny, or my friend over there shall deal with you all.” I pointed over to Gladio, who was controlling the reigns of the horses. Men lay about the carriage, injured from the previous battle. I did not bother wasting precious medicine on them. I’ll leave it up to their constitution and see whether they’ll live or die; we’ll say that fate has decided to reap their lives. It can be said as something out of my hands.

The man who I have used a fireball spell on was really injured, and he was highly likely going to pass without a health potion or two. Health potions are not a cure-all. They speed up the recovery of the body’s natural systems. But I don’t plan on wasting such a costly medicine on a mere captive.

“That fireball was better than last time. I did not notice any smoke coming out from the flames.” Gladio remarked.

I shrugged as discussing complete or incomplete combustion with a swordsman would be a waste of time.

“Umm… Jay, just now… what do you mean by Alevmon, I choose you?” Alevanine decided to speak up.

“Uhh. It’s just a random statement that I randomly thought up. Nothing special.”