"Hehehe, I warned you that this place is dangerous. I see that you already have playmates right after leaving us. Since you are so eager to take on the dragon's road, allow us to give you the best treatment we can. Release Tim!!"
"Graaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!"

*thump* *thump*

They have giants here!?!? Where did you get giants? Also, if you have giants, why didn't they use it when they ambushed us? Actually it might have been because its hard to hide a giant.

However, why is there a giant in the continent of the dwarfs? I can understand the goblins, hobbits and half-lings but a giant?

"Hey victor, Why is there a giant in our continent?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Hmm? Is it common sense that they live in this continent too? Well this might be bad, I need to think of an excuse to cover this up.

"This is the first time I have seen a giant."

Say the truth but keep it as vague as possible to make them understand. This way, their imagination will fill up the vague spots using the most reasonable thing they could think of.

"I guess you barely travel away from mithril town so you haven't seen one yet."
"Uh, yes, right. Explanation please!"
"Giants usually live in tall mountains, the ones that doesn't have mines. From what my grandfather told me they used to live near the mines but the golems keep bothering them but they are stronger than them so it doesn't matter that much for them. We used to battle them over the mine from time to time but it stopped when the hero made a deal with them. The rock hero relocated them on mine-less mountains. He also set up a mountain range for them to live as a community so we rarely come in contact with the."
"I also know about them, my family frequents their territory to trade. They have a lot of specialty products especially fireworks. They have the biggest and most elaborate firework display in all the continent. I hear that they test how it looks inside a huge warehouse to make it perfect. They also have good source of materials so they can play with it more."

Of course they would have a lot of materials. I hear you can get saltpeter from manure, I don't know the full process but I imagine a huge lump of giant's poop would give a lot of saltpeter.

"Victor, Any other race I should know about?"
"Well there are the trolls but they mostly live in the canyons so the chances of meeting them is low. They are one of the earliest bandit groups and they are tough so its best to run away when you meet them."
"I see, they don't trade?"
"When it comes to trading, leave it to me!"
"I know you want to contribute to the conversation chatterbox but please don't start with that kind of introduction. You are an apprentice merchant who changed jobs into a blacksmith, don't act like some expert."
"Tsk, let me have a cool moment too. Anyway, trolls don't trade since they only want food. They attack everyone they judge as weaker than their group, they take everything they can use and leave the wreckage. They don't just take your food but also make you food.You don't trade with food, right? This makes trade with them impossible."

So they swallow everyone they come into contact with. Modern world fantasy says that trolls have amazing regeneration so they eat a lot, which explains their eat all attitude. I also read that trolls blood make good potions but I have heal. I don't really see a need to attack them so I will ignore them if I meet them.

"So victor, I think one of the two mounted army graduates with the remaining army student group will charge the bandit group behind us or will all of them charge over?"
"Its more smart to leave the group while the mounted officers charge the bandits. The problem is that it needs both of them to defeat the giant, this forces the group to also charge and deal with the bandits."
"Then it would leave us undefended, unless the teachers move. Does this mean we have to defend ourselves now?"
"The teachers won't move unless someone's life is in danger since they are also grading the military students. If something happens then we need to handle ourselves. If we do move then it would hurt their scores however our safety takes priority."
"Of course our safety would be our priority."

*Chaaarge* *Hop* *Jump*

"Raaaaaaahhh!"

Looks like they all charged to the bandits at the back, leaving our caravan undefended. It is good since they can contain the enemies and keep them occupied. It is much better than taking a passive defensive position on the caravan. However, it only works if there are only two forces of enemies. If a third party joined in then the guards won't be able to react fast enough to reinforce the undefended middle.

"The show is over fellow travelers, could someone pass a shield here at the back. Ah, don't forget to keep blocking the front opening with a shield."
"Are we going to be okay?"
"We should be, the teachers are still there but they won't move unless our life is in danger. Did you even listen to our conversation before?"
"T-then we won't get hurt!"
"Don't be happy yet, they won't block a move that only hurts us. We may have graduated but because we graduated that they need to teach us how harsh the world is. Now shut up and close the entrance at the front with the shield."

From here on out, we need the ability to take care of ourselves. If we fail then there won't be a safely net anymore. We also need to pay for the mistakes we make, whether its money or blood.

"Aaarggghhh!!!"

This looks bad. The giant has a huge spear and he is posturing to throw it at us. Our mounted army graduates are charging as fast as they could but there is a chance that they won't make it. They charged at the enemies too soon. I understand that they don't want to bring the battle close to the ones they are supposed to protect but if the enemy is half a kilometre from us let them come closer first because if something happens, you can charge back to deal with it. For example, the situation where a giant is hurling a spear at the passenger carriage. Even if they are charging, they are too far to come back and they are too slow to completely negate the danger.

"Victor, it looks like we need to move."
"I'm not strong enough to block a giants spear throw."
"Why would we block it? It would just damage the shield! Do you want to repair a badly dented shield? If it was only dented then we could make do. What if it broke the shield? Do you want to reforge it? We will parry it."

I do not want to forge a shield in the middle of a bandit infested road. The shield is so thick that you need sufficient heat to make it easier to shape. I may have enough mana to do it without the heat but I don't want to show off since I am still on the combat healer's radar.

"I'm not strong enough to parry a giant's spear throw either."
"That is why I will help you, jump just before the giant let the spear go."

You are better in fighting but I am better in strategy and wisdom. Also the fact that I have more experience based on years of video games, books and various movies.

"Where is the shield I told you to pass. Hurry it up or face the arrows from this side!"

*Slide* *Grab*

Almost,,,,,almost,,,,. The giant is lining up his aim.

The charging iron rhinos are near but it looks like a photo finish moment. I don't want to take that chance.

The giant finished aiming and it's building up the power to throw the spear.

"Jump!!!"
"Hup!!"
"Grab my arm and the other side of the shield! Stomp on my signal!!"

The army graduates actually made it to the giant but the giant already let go of the spear. They missed it by a quarter of a second. I need to time this so we apply our full weight on the flat side of the spear point. The point looks like a malnourished pyramid that has bladed edge. There is no flat bit we can hit but if I time it to land on the two edge, it would minimize the damage our shield will take.

The spear is travelling fast but it should arrive in three...two...

"Stomp!!"
"Haaaaaaahhhh!"

*Stomp* *Claaaaang* *Shiing* *Thwaannggg* *Fall*

The landing can't be helped. Once we stomped we need to keep our weight on the shield to redirect the arrow but since we are only chaging the direction downwards, we need to deal with the bending shaft of the spear to toss us in the air. I could land safely if I have good air but it actually tossed me into the edge of the carriage's roof.

"Victor, how are you?"
"I got bounced into the carriage. A couple of our fellow graduates fainted from me hitting them."
"Bruised or broken?"
"I think they are only bruised. The ceiling took most of my momentum."
"The combat healer would heal them later. Do you have the shield with you?"
"No, it bounced somewhere."
"I have it brill. It bounced into the cargo carriage, the mining teacher passed me the shield when I took a look."
"Pass it back here please, the dry-vegetable bandit group has a lot of arrows."

*Slide* *Clink* *Clank* *Tink* *Tink*

I'm glad we succeeded but even if we didn't, it looks like the teacher had it handled. As I was falling a moment ago, I saw a shadow of a giant pickaxe on the roof. It seems that they thought we would die if it hit so the teacher positioned himself near us to deal with it in case we failed.

"Tsk, to think they would escape that. It looks like they have reserve forces left behind."
"What should we do Captain?"
"I thought we could get easy revenge while their main force is busy, it can't be helped. Signal the retreat."
"What about tim?"
"Let him cover the retreat, losing a giant would be a waste but he is too slow. Give him support while we retreat and maybe we can shave down their fighting strength."
"Right away!"
"Hehehe, Don't think I would let you go just like this. Every time you meet bandits, we will watch at the background. When you are exhausted, hurt, and powerless, you will know my revenge."

I heard that because of your very clear voice. The battlefield is noisy but since there are barely anyone talking, aside from the occasional battle cry and pained grunt, so I can treat those as background noise.

This would work if the giant could occupy all of the rear team's attention.

"Rookies handle the giant, archers hop on and help us clean up the bandits."

They might have left us to defend ourselves but at least this group is smarter than the team at the front. If the group at the front charged at the bandits then they would have already reduced their numbers and maybe they would have routed already.

Seeing the current situation, they should finish taking care of the bandits in an hour. We still have an afternoon today, I hope its peaceful. It is always a wonder how a person's mind can switch so soon. I wished for excitement a few days ago yet I want nothing more than boring afternoon for now.