Chapter 132 Journey to the wasteland 5 (2/2)
Casper also pulled out a silver tag with a grin on his face
Mars talked for a bit with Casper until the caravan started to move, besides Casper and his group another 4 groups had taken the assignment to protect the Karvan caravan for a total of 6 groups including Mars' group, all the groups spread out and covered the caravan in a tight formation that left no gaps as the caravan slowly moved west...
3 days later the caravan entered the first 'dangerous' area a forest road were orks had been spotted before, orks were class 3 humanoid magic beasts with the head of pigs and a body that was mostly shaped as a mans with five fingers on each hand they could and was know to use tools and weapons which made them a danger to face in close combat, but their inability to use magic and born dislike of bows made them easy targets if one kept them at a distance just like now, a group of close to 20 orks stormed the caravan but a hail of magic and arrows later there was only one left, they were simply too easy targets
”I call dibs on the last one!”
one mercenary yelled out as he drew his great sword and ran towards the ork to face it in close combat, the reason why the other merc's let the one slip though was simply that they had been bored during the last 3 days and watching a fight was a good way to pass some time and improve their moods, this was also approved by Karven that stopped the caravan and watched the show
”here I go!”
the mercenary raised his great sword and slashed down on the ork which responded by meeting the slash with its own club, Mars gave a yawn seeing this slow paced fight and walked out into the killing field and gathered the magic beast cores from the orks he had killed, some of the corpses was still smoking after being hit by Mars' fire magic but he simply cut them open and removed the cores, when he was done there was a loud applause so he turned and just managed to see the final orks head hit the ground, the merc that had killed the ork let out a loud and proud laugh, Mars gave a sigh and walked back to the caravan, Chloe stood and waited for him
”did you get some cores?”
”yeah but I don't know why I bother they are only a drop in the lake at this point...”
”oh.... so there's a difference in the cores too?”
”yeah the higher the class the more I get from them”
”I see...”
Chloe looked like she fell into deep thought, this caused Mars to give a sigh before he laid his hand on the top of her head and ruffled her hair
”Mars?”
”don't worry so much about”
”but you want to get stronger right?”
”yeah I do, but I'm plenty strong right now”
”okay...”
Chloe still didn't look entirely convinced but still gave a nod...
as the days traveled turned to weeks some changes happened, first the group of mercenaries got a lot closer, even Mars that usually couldn't be bothered knew most of the other merc's by name secondly the terrain changed from mostly being fields and forest to a more... dead appearance, Mars looked out over the dry ground that stretched for miles on end only dotted by a few large boulders and withered trees, there was also a few tumble weeds which Victoria found great joy in chasing around, also the things attacking the caravan had changed, at the start of the trip it was mostly magic beasts but now it was mostly bandits that attacked the caravan
”how many times have we been attacked this week anyways Casper?”
”hmm... 3 times, no 4 times, there was that one time were your magic beast sprung an ambush and killed them all before we had a change to do anything”
”oh... yeah, that's right... well then 4 times it is... well it's about to be 5”
”you sense something?”
”yeah a group of 16 hiding behind a boulder about 700 meters away.... on the right side of the caravan”
”man your hearing is amazing as always...”
”thanks.... ENEMY ATTACK!”
upon hearing Mars' yell the caravan stopped and the mercenaries spread out around the caravan looking for any signs of an attacker, but after sometime of nothing happening one of them called out to Mars
”where are they?”
Mars pointed to the side as he drew his sword
”right side 700 meters, 16 of them, behind that boulder”
the first time Mars had made a call like this one the other merc's had doubted him which caused some to be injured, but that was all in the past, now they followed Mars' orders with blind faith. The mercenaries spread out and approached the boulder were the enemies were said to be hiding, soon they reached the boulder and circled around it and found... a group of demon travelers resting in the shade of the boulder, the group of demon travelers was frightened seeing the group of armed mercenaries suddenly appear, but the group of mercenaries quickly lowered their weapons and explained the situation with slightly awkward looks on their faces