Supreme Magus

It was hard to brag when the other guy barely acknowledged your existence or remembered your face.

"Tarak of Cerea, nice to meet you." Lith said with a straight face whenever someone tried to rub their victory in his face.

"Why are you introducing yourself again? We’ve already exchanged pleasantries at the beginning of our shift!" Jalen, the most recent winner of the unofficial contest of magical prowess, said in outrage.

"Did we?" Lith stared at him in utter confusion. "I’m sure you did a good job since I would remember you if you slacked off."

"A good job?" Jalen echoed, his nostril flaring and his face reddening from incredulity.

"Yeah, that’s what we get paid for." Lith tilted his head to the side, making the magico feel like the biggest fool on Mogar. "Is there something you need my help with?"

"No, I just came to offer you a drink." Jalen actually had brought nothing, so he handed Lith his own tankard.

He did it not out of friendship, but because he couldn’t live with making a pathetic exit right after such a pathetic entrance.

"Thanks, much appreciated, whoever you are." Lith took the beer mug with two hands. "It would have been polite of you to introduce yourself after I told you my name."

The other magicos burst into laughter, ruining Jalen’s plans for an honorable retreat and making him inwardly curse Lith. To make matters worse, Lith wasn’t even being sarcastic.

Without Solus, remembering names and faces of people he didn’t care about was beyond him. He remembered his travel companions only by nicknames related to their most outstanding characteristics, like their pungent smell or crooked teeth.

All things he couldn’t use as monikers without starting a fight.

The following day, Lith went to talk with Gelm as soon as he woke up.

"We have to be careful today, Chief." He pulled a map of the area out of his pocket dimension without even saying good morning. "Here, here, and here are the perfect spots for an ambush.

"Also, there’s a very bad choke point here, and it gets even worse if there are big trees in the area that the bandits can cut at the last moment to box us in. In their shoes, I’d pick this as the attack spot.

"The hill road is all twists and turns, and there is nothing we can use for cover if they throw big spells at us. Once the fallen trees cut our retreat path, getting out of there alive would be nigh-impossible.

"We would have to ditch the horses and move on foot, and with the snow covering the terrain, anything but the paved road is a trap in itself."

"Thanks for the warning, kid, but do you really believe we didn’t realize it on our own?" Gelm grunted as he put on his suspenders, gesturing to his assistant to get him a cup of strong, hot tea.

"I’m not saying that you are incompetent." Lith replied. "I’m just pointing out that either you are incompetent or our enemy must have a few aces up their sleeves. Otherwise, Countess Lark wouldn’t have sent me here."

Gelm turned red, but he couldn’t argue with facts.

"Are you saying the other spots are safe?" He asked, hoping to bait Lith into making a fool out of himself.

"No. As I said, they also are perfect spots for an ambush. They are far from safe." Lith talked with the calm, lecturing tone of a teacher dealing with a dumb student. "I’m just pointing out that whoever attacks us before we reach the hill road is either a normal bandit or expendable pawns meant to waste our strength.

"We’ll pass through all these places today. If we consume too much mana before the real ambush point, your magicos will be worse than regular mercenaries since they will lack both the swordsmanship and the vigor of someone who didn’t waste years practicing magic."

’And here I joined the club of the biggest idiots on Mogar.’ Gelm thought. ’I think I finally understand why Lady Lark sent this guy to help us. He’s not just a pain in the ass for his allies. He’s also a scourge on his enemies.’

The caravan chief assembled the combat personnel for an emergency briefing and shared with them Lith’s assessment of the situation.

"If we get out of here alive, we have to thank Tarak for this." Gelm closed his short speech by giving credit where credit was due, hoping Lith would go easy on him when submitting his report of the mission to Keyla.

"Why? What did I do?" Everyone turned to look at Lith, and he stared back at them as if they had gone insane. "I just stated the obvious. If you want to thank me, at least wait until I deserve it."

Gelm and most of the magicos choked on their breakfast, while the merchants’ muffled laughter broke the morning silence despite their best efforts to suppress their hilarity.

A few hours later, Lith was still on shift as Snow Thrower when the caravan approached the first potential ambush spot.

’Glasses, glasses on my nose, where the hell are my foes?’ He never engaged in a fair fight if he could avoid it, so he wore the Eyes on Menadion when the caravan was still at a safe distance from the choke point.

’Right there, my king. Kill them all so we can go home.’ He replied to himself as he spotted a dozen people armed with steel blades and bearing at best bright red mana cores.

He didn’t react or say anything, remaining silent and steady as a statue as he always did to avoid chatting with his assigned partner.

"Ambush." Lith said in a flat tone when a bandit emerged from the woods, letting the rest of the caravan realize the danger they were in.

The bandits were still yelling their battle cries and the merchants screaming to prepare for battle when a rain of ice arrows ended the fight. Everyone turned around, finding Lith standing on the roof of his wagon with a wand in hand.

The high ground gave him a perfect view of the area and a clear line of fire on his enemies.

"Why are you staring at me? What if there are other bandits? Can you dodge arrows that come from behind?" Merchants and magicos cursed, unaware that Lith had already triple-checked that no enemy was left alive.

"That was quick thinking and even quicker action." Gelm gestured to the magicos to make themselves useful and move the corpses off the road. "Yet I have to ask. Why didn’t you spare at least one of our attackers to interrogate them?"

"To learn what? Where do not buy our equipment?" Lith pointed at the cheap fur-lined jackets and boots of the bandits and their standard-quality weapons. "Do these guys look like someone who can have caused you so much trouble?"

"No." Gelm had to admit after studying the corpses and noticing the bandits weren’t well fed either.

"My point exactly. These guys are incompetent idiots at best and unwitting bait at worst. They could only buy the real bandits time to stage a real ambush. The longer we stay here, the more we’ll play into their hands. Let’s get a move here!" Lith yelled, and everyone obeyed.

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