9 - Caravan

Still moving north for a few more days, the seemingly endless forest had transformed to a rocky wasteland with grass, boulders and sparse bushes. Since Tom and Lisa had met the gryphon knight a few days prior, Lisa had barely spoken a word, at least during the day.

"Nnnn… Arg!"

At night she was tormented by nightmares and stirred relentlessly, no matter how many times Tom woke her up she still continued to be tormented. Moving during the day, Lisa spent most of her time getting carried by Tom as she was too exhausted to move, that was the only time she seemed to get any kind of decent sleep, but that sleep never lasted long as Tom would need to shoot monsters who were approaching them. 

Although it didn't happen too much at first, these monster encounters were increasing with a worrying frequency.

"Lisa, contact."

"Mmm."

Waking Lisa up gently as he sat her down, Tom brought out his M-909 rifle and took aim ahead, zeroing in on the group of green skinned creatures of differing sizes and number of extremities wearing everything from rags of leather to captured equipment, although most of them were entirely nude, but all of them without exception were armed with rusted weapons, rocks or primitive clubs.

"Fucking gobs."

Squeezing the trigger, Tom hit the first target at a range of 600 metres centre mass, punching a centimetre wide hole through its chest. Not waiting for the first target to fall, Tom reacquired the next target and popped a round through its head before moving onto the next, then the next until the remaining started fleeing.

CORRUPTED_CREATURE(S)_DESTROYED

500_POINT(S)_AWARDED7750_POINT(S)_AVALIBLE.

END_OF_REPORT.

"Clear… Are you good?"

"Yeah."

Lowering his rifle, Tom made sure Lisa was good to walk for a while before he switched magazines and loaded a fresh one from his empty plate carrier and popped the partly depleted magazine into a backpack he had gotten from his resupply the day before.

Setting his tempo after how fast Lisa was moving, Tom continued heading north together with Lisa.

Although he had raised the idea of doubling back when the monster encounters first started becoming more frequent, Lisa was against it, so the pair kept going.

Around noon, Tom and Lisa finally found a sign of civilization, not only did a somewhat paved road cut through the seemingly endless wasteland, but there was also a caravan within sight.

A caravan being attacked by monsters, but still, it was an improvement.

"I'm engaging!"

Seeing the dire state of the defence, Tom immediately opened fire and started thinning out the herd of monsters while wreaking havoc on their organisation, so before Tom could kill more than a dozen, they started retreating.

CORRUPTED_CREATURE(S)_DESTROYED

900_POINT(S)_AWARDED8650_POINT(S)_AVALIBLE.

END_OF_REPORT.

Clutching his spear as he watched the group of goblins finally break away, Simon hadn't even noticed the strange sounds which had accompanied every strange goblin death because of how fast his heart was beating. In addition to a short spear, Simon was also equipped with a light hind shield and wore a beat up leather gamson over a half rusted chainmail. Not having seen civilization for over a week, Simon's clothes and armour were stained with mud and monster blood, while his blue eyes had heavy black circles underneath them and a scruffy beard was growing on his face while his blond hair was getting long enough for it to curl.

"... What the fuck was that?"

"No idea, but it scared that Pack of gobs off so I ain't questioning it."

While Simon didn't have energy to think about things, his partner Ruth was used to worrying for the both of them, and she was very worried about why multiple goblins had their heads turned into pink mist seemingly out of nowhere. From the position on top of one of the armoured carriages, Ruth put away her bow as she scanned the surroundings while keeping her long brown hair out of her face. Similarly to Simon, Ruth wasn't in the best of shape after being on the road for so long, but unlike her partner she only had mud caked on her leather gamson.

"People over there!"

Finally spotting something out of the normal, Ruth got Simmon and the thirty-odd other adventurer's attention. As a small crowd gathered to meet the approaching figures, a person popped their head out of the armoured carriage Ruth stood on top of to ask her a question.

"Is the attack over?"

"Yes boss! It's safe to come out now."

Jumping down from the armoured carriage, Ruth met the merchant who was the owner of the caravan she was guarding, an older mild mannered man by the name of Ulf.

"What happened exactly? Were we reinforced?"

Having spent quite a few years as a travelling merchant, Ulf was aware of the kind of trouble they had gotten themselves into and expected the fight to take quite a bit longer.

"Yeah, I think so, a pair of travellers are closing in."

"... Okay, let's go see what they want then."

Both aware that there was no such thing as a free lunch for widely different reasons, Ulf and Ruth joined the other adventures and reminded them to be aware as they waited for the pair of travellers to arrive.

The travellers were a lass with red hair and bright green eyes guarded by a man around 30 years of age with black hair and dull blue eyes wearing strange equipment and wielding an even stranger weapon.

"That's close enough strangers, what do you want!?"

Stopping the travellers from getting too close, Simon put forth his spear as he addressed the pair.

"Hello! I figured you guys needed some help with those gobs."

"You're the one that killed those gobs?"

"Yeah."

While Simon and the others were a bit sceptical of the travellers, the merchant Ulf had heard of something which resembles the kind of weapon one of them held.

"Prove it!"

"Okay, right away."

Turning to the side, the larger traveller pointed at a gob corpse and shot its head, turning it into a red mist before he asked.

"Good enough?"

"... Yeah."

With the traveller having proved himself, Simon stepped back as Ulf took over.

"Greetings, traveller. My name is Ulf, and I am the leader of this caravan. You've made your case, that you can aid the safety of this caravan and therefore you are welcome to join us as long as you abide by the rules I've set… If you fight for us, you stand with us. That means if you try to run in the middle of a fight, you're one of the monsters and we'll treat you accordingly."

"Sure, I can work with that, but if anyone here so much as looks funny at this child I'm reintegrating them into the fucking soil."

Having proven himself to the leader of the caravan, Tom scored himself a spot among the misfits who called themselves adventurers, while Lisa still kept quiet and stayed with Ulf so she didn't have to walk all day.

"Contact front, 630 metres… They've seen us."

"Wait what?"

About an hour after having joined up with the caravan, Tom spotted the first group of monsters, only these were a bit different from the other groups he had seen.

Not only did the group of 12 gobs spot the caravan at a significant distance, they didn't attack but instead fled.

"... They ran away. That's strange."

"So anyway, where are you from dude? That weapon and armour of yours doesn't look like anything I've seen before."

Completely ignoring what Tom was saying, an adventurer called Simon continued questioning him like it was his job.

"That's because I'm not from around here."

"Can-"

"No."

With Tom seriously starting to consider aggravated homicide, Simon was only saved when another adventurer finally intervened.

"Come on Simon, knock it off already!"

Keeping her partner from getting into trouble, Ruth kicked Simon in the ass when she noticed he was being rude to the new guy.

"AW! Sorry!"

"Don't apologise to me!"

Kicking the same ass cheek again to make sure it really hurt, Ruth forced her idiot partner's head down.

"We're sorry for asking so many questions out of nowhere. Right!?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry!"

Seeing the idiot at least had some sort of handler, Tom calmed down a bit.

"Apology accepted, but if he starts again I'm ventilating his cranium."

"Understood. Simon, go join the rear guard."

"But- AW! Okay!"

After sending Simon away, Ruth tried to apologise again but was stopped when Tom brought something else up.

"Have you ever seen a group of monsters run away after spotting a convoy of this size?"

"Yeah, it happens sometimes, why do you ask?"

"Because those monsters seemed like a scouting party."

Although she didn't really thrust Tom after just meeting him, Ruth had to take such a report seriously.

"I'll be right back."

Getting left alone once again, Tom glanced back a few minutes later to see the caravan leader, the woman he had just talked to and a bunch of other adventurers having a heated discussion while someone occasionally sent a glare his way. Judging by the fact that nothing was later done about his report, Tom figured these people didn't thrust him, which was fine.

(... I guess I'll need some kind of night fighting equipment.)

While he had accepted Ulf's terms, Tom didn't really give a shit about the people he was currently travelling with, the only reason he even considered protecting them was so Lisa didn't have to walk as her feet weren't doing so well after travelling with Tom day after day for the last few weeks.

Spending a few more hours at the front of the 5 carriage convoy, Tom eventually returned to the middle of the formation to check up on Lisa where the caravan leader struck up a conversation with him.

"The name is Ulf, what's yours?"

"... The name is Tom, she's Lisa. What can I do for you?"

While the merchant didn't really have a reason to thrust a newcomer such as him, Ulf's gut told him that Tom had the experience to back up his words and not just make baseless statements.

"How many gobs did you spot observing us?"

"12, they kept their distance and observed us for a bit. I figure they're going to double back at some point with reinforcements."

"Hmm… I'll be counting on you then."

As night started falling, the caravan stopped from the day and preparations for night started. While the adventurers set up tents in a small lump next to each other, the 5 armoured carriages set up to form a wall around them where adventurers on night watch stood guard. While the adventurers set up in the centre of the impromptu formation, Tom comendered one of the carriage roofs for himself and Lisa.

"... Get some sleep while you can, we're most likely going to get attacked in the middle of the night."

"Mmm, okay."

Getting some of the blood out of his feet, Tom pulled out his spare magazines and started maintaining them, emptying out the rounds before cleaning them and reloading again while Lisa watched.

"... Can I help?"

With Lisa saying more words in continuation than she had in weeks, Tom was quick to take her up on her offer.

"Sure, you remember how to reload a mag right?"

"Yeah."

Inching closer, Tom handed Lisa a magazine before he started disassembling his rifle and inspected the lower and upper receiver before moving on to the recoil mechanism in the stock.

"Here."

"Thanks."

Getting a reloaded magazine from Lisa, Tom figured it was finally time to bring it up.

"... So, do you want me to kill those knights next time they try anything?"

"Wait, what!? Why would you do that?"

Catching Lisa off guard with his question, Tom quickly clarified.

"Because you were clearly scared of that one before, and until I've fulfilled my promise you're my sole priority."

"So if I say yes you'll just shoot them on sight?"

"Sure, they serve a country which permits slavery, so it's no skin off my back."

Seeing that Tom was in fact serious, Lisa fell silent as she considered his proposal.

Perhaps because she really hadn't expected Tom to bring it up, or perhaps because it was a sensitive subject for her, Lisa took quite a bit of time to think everything through.

"No, you don't need to kill those knights on sight… It's just that… One of them took my mom a few years back."

Thinking back to that day Lisa shuddered at the sight of that blond haired captain's smug smile, while he seemed to enjoy himself at that moment, his eyes were dead cold.

"Okay. But promise to tell me if you ever spot that shit stain, I'll make sure he can't do anything like that ever again."

"... I promise."

Seeming to have mixed feelings over Tom's commitment to keep her safe, Lisa nevertheless promised.

"Now get some sleep, it'll be a long night."

With things worked out between them, Lisa quickly fell asleep while Tom stayed awake to watch over her and the rest of the caravan.

For the first time in weeks Lisa slept soundly.