Supreme Magus

’Darn, this guy is an ass, but his charisma is undeniable.’ Gelm inwardly cursed. ’He gives no speeches and doesn’t act nice, but he leads by example. Tarak is so damn competent that everyone already trusts his judgment more than mine after watching him fight once.’

Lith helped the soldiers to get rid of the bodies, and once they were piled up on the roadside, he ordered them to search the corpses.

’Now I can keep an eye on everyone.’ He thought. ’If a member of the caravan is a mole and the bandits were part of the plan, the traitor now can’t take anything from the dead bandits without me noticing.’

The bandits had very little in their pockets, mostly partially eaten beef jerky.

"They must have left their horses and belongings somewhere near." Lith said. "They can’t have reached this place on foot, and without supplies or magic, they wouldn’t have survived the night in the wilds. Wait for me here."

Before anyone could raise an objection or remind Lith of his position in the chain of command, he took flight. Lith used the Eyes of Menadion to search for something with a magical energy signature and his extra five eyes to look for traces of the bandits’ movements.

’The Eyes haven’t found anything, but that doesn’t mean much.’ He thought. ’No one would waste a powerful artifact on cannon fodder. At most, whoever is behind this gave them a letter with instructions about how to deal with the aftermath of the assault that the bandits were supposed to destroy, but they kept it as insurance.’

It didn’t take Lith long to spot the clearing where the bandits had left their steeds from above, but a quick search proved him wrong.

’Nothing.’ Lith sighed. ’This was just a crime of opportunity. Those morons must have heard about the raids and thought that they could steal the cargo and frame the professionals. I’m wasting time here.’

Yet Lith’s paranoia wasn’t so easily appeased. A flick of his wrist made the snow in the clearing float, allowing him to look for freshly turned ground.

’Nothing again. Those guys were just morons!’ Lith expanded the area of effect of his spell as far as his Tiamat eyes could see, but the result was the same.

He cursed the amateur highway robbers and returned to the caravan.

"Did something happen while I was away?" He had left for less than five minutes, but a powerful mage only needed one to slaughter an entire village.

"Yes, Karlten puked his guts out." One of the mercenaries replied.

"I’ll take that as a no." Lith snorted. "Let’s move. And remember, when the real fight starts, I expect you to form a perimeter around the caravan. Don’t fight alone if you don’t have the skills. Fight as a group. There is strength in numbers."

It was basic common sense, but after seeing many mercenaries fumble with their weapons in panic, Lith felt it was necessary.

"I’m sorry, but I need to ask." Morkan, one of the few who had "defeated" Lith, asked. "How did you react so quickly and win the fight without any help?"

"Only magicless thugs would come out of their hiding spots screaming." Lith snorted. "They gave out their position in the hope that fear and surprise would make us easy prey.

"A real professional would never do that. They would have shot poisoned arrows or spells at us to whittle our numbers before charging forward. Also, they would have done it silently to exploit the ensuing chaos.

"While everyone argued between running away and helping the injured, the bandits would have snuck behind us and slitted our throats. Why fight when you can just win?" Put it like that, Lith’s question made Morkan consider a career change.

"Since we were clearly dealing with amateurs, I prioritized reaching a vantage point to end the fight quickly. I assumed that since every Snow Thrower thinks themselves better than me, they could hold their ground against someone without magic powers for a few seconds.

"My wand did the rest." Lith showed the mercenary the enchanted piece of wood.

"Is that military grade?" Morkan asked.

"Yes." Lith nodded. "Get good at what you do, befriend a few nobles, and getting one of these babies is not so hard. Do you have any more questions, or can we get back on the road?"

"No, and thank you." Morkan ignored the sarcasm in Lith’s voice and gave him a deep bow, feeling like an idiot who had survived that long on the job only by dumb luck. "Sorry for wasting your time."

"Let’s move!" A snap of Lith’s fingers conjured the noise of snapping reins, and the horses trotted forward even though none of the drivers had done anything.

Lith resumed his position on the lead carriage, wiping the snow off the road as if nothing had happened.

’Fuck!’ Most mercenaries thought. ’A mage’s strength isn’t measured in the raw amount of mana he possesses, but how he uses it. Even if I defeated Tarak, I would still be a weakling compared to him.’

The journey proceeded smoothly until they approached the second potential ambush spot.

"We’re almost there." Lith spoke with a normal voice, his words drowned by the clopping before it reached the nearest carriage, but his words were passed on by the merchants and mercenaries.

The former dropped flat on the floor while the latter put their hands on the hilts of their weapons, preparing for the worst.

’There’s no one here, but I can’t tell them that.’ Lith thought. ’I must appear competent, not a psychic.’

After they passed the second ambush spot, Lith took out his communication amulet and pressed both Solus’ contact rune and Keyla’s.

"Status update. We’ve reached the Gadora Hills. First contact with the enemy. Low-level threat, no casualties or damage suffered. We’ve just passed the halfway point through the hills. Tarak out."

"You have one of those?" Gelm asked as soon as he recovered from the shock. "Who did you call?"

"The countess, Chief. Who else do you think I answer to?" Lith replied with a snort.

"I mean, how can you afford it, and why didn’t you ask for reinforcements?" The caravan chief said.

"One, I’m that good, and two, to what end?" Lith shrugged. "This is a communication amulet, not a Warp Gate. Even if I gave our position to the nearest branch of the Association, it would take them too long to get here.

"And why would they do that? Because something might happen and you are scared? Do you really believe yourself so important? That real mages should drop everything and fly here to your rescue?"

"No." Gelm started wondering if he had eaten something rotten and a parasite was now feasting on his brain.

The caravan reached the third potential ambush spot, but nothing happened.

"Only the big one left." Lith said. "Ready your weapons and conjure your most powerful spells. Once we get past the last choke point, we won’t need much mana to get to safety."

Lith held a wand in one hand and kept the other extended to push the snow off the road. The mercenaries wished they could afford such a powerful alchemical tool as they chanted their spells and traced the hand signs.

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