Ambush

<Host, I have discovered who was behind Katy’s attack.>

Seth opened his eyes and looked to the side, where Katy was sleeping with her head on his shoulder. Ever since her incident, she had returned to her habit of resting on Seth’s shoulder.

‘So there was indeed someone behind it. Who was it?’

<Affirmative. King Icas appears to be behind it, but the circumstances are unknown.>

‘So a coward taking advantage of Seth’s absence but didn’t even dare to do it himself.’ Seth sighed and said: ‘Keep a close watch over him. I can’t kill him yet.’

Seth’s sigh attracted Katy’s attention, and her eyes slowly opened.

“Did anything happen?” she whispered, trying to look toward Seth’s face, but she couldn’t see him due to the low light inside the carriage.

Seth moved his hand and rubbed her back as he whispered: “Sorry for waking you up. Nothing happened. You can go back to sleep.”

Katy brought herself even closer to Seth as she closed her eyes again.

The journey continued uneventfully for a few days until Seth received a late-night notification from the system.

<A large group of blood race members is heading in host’s direction. They intend to find out the meeting results from the kings of Loss and Wrath.>

‘How close are they?’

<They will reach host’s location in about 11 minutes.>

‘Why the late heads up?’ asked Seth with a frown.

<Monitoring too many targets is now impossible with the lack of access to past records. Also, similar groups seem to be heading for the other kings.>

Seth had the system show him a broad bird-eye view of the camp the convoy settled in and a report on what everyone in the camp was doing.

‘Let’s hope the other kings are a lot more careful than these idiots…’ said Seth, noticing only a handful of guards were keeping watch while the others were sleeping.

Barely keeping himself from sighing again, he used his destruction energy to topple some trees around to alert the guards.

Since Theodor was the only one aware that he had not yet left, Seth wanted to keep it that way.

His trick worked wonders, and all the soldiers were quickly woken up by the noise, moving to investigate why the trees happened to topple over.

Katy and the rest also woke up and started whispering amongst each other, confused by what was happening outside. Seth turned towards Katy and said: “I’m going out to check what is going on. You all stay here and don’t come out no matter what happens. We might get attacked.”

After walking out of his carriage, Seth moved toward one of the guards and asked: “What is happening?”

“Some trees had fallen over, and we’re still trying to find out why.”

‘How long until they get here?’ Seth asked the system.

<Two minutes and 26 seconds.>

Seth nodded toward the guard and asked: “Can you give me a weapon? I have a bad feeling about this.”

The guard gave Seth his backup sword and returned to looking around the toppled trees with the rest of the guards.

As Seth waited patiently for the blood race to arrive, Theodor approached him.

“Do you know what is happening?” asked Theodor in a whisper.

“The blood race is about to attack. I suggest you get yourself a weapon as well. I won’t be using my energy to fight back.” Replied Seth, showing Theodor the steel sword he was carrying.

Theodor gulped and grabbed a sword from one of the soldiers as well. By now, the time was almost completely gone, and a metallic smell spread throughout the area.

One of the guards suddenly realized what was happening and yelled loudly: “Blood Plague. Quickly - “. His words got cut short as his head left his body the next moment, a shadowy figure appearing behind him.

His warning was enough to alert the other soldiers. With a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, the soldiers started searching for the enemy.

While everyone was panicking, Seth had already moved towards Icas’s carriage, his sword piercing straight down toward the ground.

The soldiers noticed his movement but didn’t think much about it until a blood mist exploded where Seth had stabbed into the ground. The blood mist soon tried to retake form, but Seth swung at it, cleaving it in two.

“They must take another form to attack and can’t do so while maintaining their mist form. Attack them as soon as you notice blood mist becoming solid.” Yelled Seth, dashing once more towards another blood race member that was materializing not far from him.

With the soldiers also starting to attack them before they could materialize, the entire camp was soon covered in a blood mist, and the torches’ light barely helped anymore.

Seth could still see clearly, but he was the only one.

It didn’t take long before more and more soldiers started dying. After the screams got too loud, the soldiers who were lucky to have lived until then forgot entirely about their mission to protect their kings and started to attack whatever moved close to them.

Seth had to keep alternating between the food carriage and King Icas’s, killing any blood wraiths as soon as they appeared.

Even with their efforts to protect themselves, soldiers kept dying one after another. After not even half an hour of continuous fighting, the screams from around the camp started to die down.

While the remaining soldiers felt relieved, thinking the blood race was close to giving up, Seth knew the truth. The screams were stopping because the guards’ numbers were dwindling, with only 20-something remaining alive.

“That should be enough.” Muttered Seth, his destruction source erupting with energy and wiping off all the wraiths.

It took two more minutes for the remaining blood fog to settle and the aftermath of the skirmish to appear clearly for everyone to see.

The ground was covered in blood and dead bodies. Also, of the remaining soldiers, not even one was unharmed.

Seth took a quick look between the terrified soldiers, and his eyes eventually landed on Theodor, kneeling on his sword on the side, holding tightly onto a gory wound at one of his legs.

“Move and take care of your king. What are you all staring like idiots for?” yelled Seth, startling the frozen soldiers. Those in somewhat decent condition quickly rushed to support Theodor.

Theodor threw Seth an angry look, but Seth shrugged and said: “Your Majesty. You better quickly think about our next move. No horses are left alive, and the blood race will surely return.”

Ignoring Theodor, Seth dropped his sword into the small lake of blood at his feet and started walking towards the food carriage.

“It’s me. I’m coming in.” Seth shouted before lifting the curtain and looking inside.

The women were all gathered in the corner, holding each while trying to control their fear.

Katy heaved a sigh of relief once she noticed Seth was alright and asked: “What happened?”

“The Blood Race attacked, and we fought them off.” Seeing that everyone inside appeared relieved, Seth continued: “Don’t be so quick to rejoice. The situation is still bad.”

“There are barely 20-something soldiers left alive, and all the horses were killed in the fight.”

After explaining the situation, Seth told them to remain in the carriage as he stepped outside and headed towards King Theodor’s tent.

King Theodor and most surviving soldiers were inside, treating their wounds while discussing what to do next.

Seth’s arrival made everyone stop talking, and Theodor said: “Everyone leave. I need to have a word with Otis alone.”

The soldiers nodded and dragged their injured bodies away, bowing respectfully toward Seth once they passed by him. After everything settled, they understood Seth’s deeds by the pool of blood Seth between the food carriage and King Isac’s.

Once only Seth and Theodor were left, Theodor asked: “Where’s that bastard Isac? Did he die?”

Seth chuckled and stood down, grabbing a blanket from the side to clear the blood from his face before speaking: “He’s passed out drunk in his tent. Did you decide what you’re going to do next?”

Theodor smiled wryly and ignored Seth’s question as he asked: “Why didn’t you help us? So many of my men died, and for what?”

“Because the other kings were also attacked. That’s why I didn’t help.”

Theodor looked confused for a moment before sighing in understanding: “You wanted to sell the story that you are gone… if we had managed to survive without any losses….”

“See? It was not that hard. Get ready to go into hiding.”

“Hiding?” asked Theodor, looking confused once more.

“If you want to live, your only option is to hide somewhere until Ronald sends troops here to check on your condition, which he will for sure do as soon as he gets news about the attacks, but that will still take at least a week or so.”

“But won’t the blood race manage to easily track us? We can’t even tell where they’ll come from.” asked Theodor.

“I’ve already taken care of the ones tracking us earlier, so as long as you leave this place before more of them arrive, you should be fine.”

Theodor frowned and asked: “Does this mean you plan on leaving?”

Seth’s lips arched up in a smile as he asked: “If I remain here with you, who is supposed to go and inform Ronald of your new hiding place?”

“Oh.” exclaimed Theodor before muttering: “I hope the others can survive as well...”

Even if it was still night, the entire camp started moving again after Seth finished his discussion with Theodor.

Icas was woken up by his remaining soldiers and updated on what had happened, while the women started helping the injured soldiers walk and carrying as much food as possible.

Seth was the one who helped Theodor, and everyone walked for an entire day and night until they found a good hiding spot inside a thick forest, away from any beaten path.

Once there, Theodor gathered everyone and explained how they were supposed to wait for backup from the Hope Kingdom.

“But how are the Hope Kingdom’s troops supposed to find us here?” asked one of the soldiers, immediately finding the problem with their plan.

Theodor turned towards Seth, motioning for him to step forward, before explaining how Seth offered to go ahead and walk back the way they came, hoping to survive and inform King Ronald.

The entire place fell into a still silence, everyone understanding that it was a suicide mission.

Katy, who was in the back with the other women, started crying silently, her eyes not leaving Seth’s face.

After the small meeting, Seth accepted everyone’s thanks and walked up to Katy.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, he smiled and said: “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

“Why do you have to go? Can’t someone else do it? Why does it have to be you?” asked Katy hysterically, her voice loud enough that everyone could hear it.

Worried that Otis might reconsider and run away, Icas looked furious and was about to yell at her when Theodor placed his arm on his shoulder and signaled him to remain silent.

Seth placed a finger on her lips, stopping her from speaking further, and kissed her forehead before saying: “Hey. I am the one with the best chance of making it. Can’t you see the others all have different kinds of injuries?”

Katy moved her head to the side, away from Seth’s finger, and said resolutely: “I’m also not injured, and they will not look for an alone woman. I can do it.” Turning towards the two kings, she asked: “Your Majesties, please let me go instead. With Otis here, there will be one more hand to protect the camp.”

Theodor wanted to let Seth convince her otherwise, but Icas immediately said: “Why don’t you two go together then? If the blood race finds us, we’ll still be dead. This way, at least, there will be fewer mouths to feed. As your king, I order you two to head to the main road and announce king Ronald of our location.”

Seth frowned, but Katy immediately bowed towards Icas and grasped tightly onto Seth’s sleeve. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

‘After you’ve outlived your usefulness, I’ll make sure your death is as slow and painful as possible.’ After silently deciding Icas’s fate, Seth turned around, gently holding Katy’s hand.

“Fine. We’ll both leave.”