11 Witnessing a True Battle

After Breakfast, the Transporting Company handed out brown bags with rations for lunch and dinner.

In order to avoid stopping and keeping efficiency in mind, Breakfast would be the only stop the convoy would make in a normal day.

Of course, having to stop three times a day to serve a formal meal would take much more time out of the travel the convoy could make in a day, so this much was already reasonable.

The cycle of breakfast and travel, breakfast and travel repeated for many days.

As for Jilun, a farmer who was always outside doing something, being forced to coupe up in a small moving box that shook with every pebble the wooden wheels ran over wasn't exactly comfortable.

Jia, though, seemed unbothered at the temporary change in lifestyle. Instead, she took great pleasure in the vast amount of time she spent with him over the past days.

Today would mark a week since the departure from the Village of Quadel. The trip so far was very smooth. The expected encounters with magical beasts were seemingly avoided so far, until today.

***

"Stop the Carriages! There's a magical beast ahead!"

In front of the convoy, a large purple spider, the size of a carriage on their own, stood blocking the path in the tall forest.

The passage the convoy had to take through the woods was very narrow within itself, so while the size of the spider may not seem jurassic when compared to a normal road, it in itself was enough to completely block the convoys way of travel.

The protectors who were situated at the head of the convoy dismounted their carriages. Unlike the standard residential carriages, the ones that housed the protectors came with doors on all faces of direction. North, East, South, and West. This allowed them easy access to spring into action should need be.

Along with this addition, they also had a single window that wrapped around the carriage, allowing them to see an enemy or magical beast that may approach from any direction.

Jilun watched the whole ordeal from his carriage. He noticed the very exotic and strange weapons the protectors carried. As Jilun had only seen arms such as the bow and sword, witnessing all of these new weapons excited him. This was because, to him, the way of use of the various oddities would be witnessed in the manner of a show with this oncoming battle.

This also doubled with the fact that had never seen a real battle before. He didn't count the encounter with the Green Tiger as such, though even if he witnessed Jia's performance, one would call that slaughter anything but a battle.

The various eyes of the Purple Spider tracked the many dismounting protectors.

"A Hade Spider, I haven't seen one of those in a long time!"

One of the seemingly more experienced of the group commented. He was an older man, already seeing the birthing of white hairs on his beard and head. He, in comparison to the other protectors, used a weapon that Jilun recognized. It was a long, silver colored spear.

At the head of it, a green-like transparent jade stone adorned the crown of the polearm.

"You maybe just forgot, Old Man!"

One of the younger of the group responded in laughter at the old mans remark. The man I'm question turned around to face him, seeming to have absolutely no concern with the monstrous spider ahead of them.

"Haorun is the name! And the only person forgetting is your mom when she sees you come home with half of your face gone!"

"Yeah yeah, Hao-runs! You have so many wrinkles on your face that the spider will mistake you as one of these century old trees!"

Haorun snorted as he turned around to face the spider. He lifted the spear up to the front of him, the tip of the spear facing towards the head of the beast, who stood only 20 feet away. Its legs moved in a breathing motion as it stared down at the protectors.

"That spider is already three times the size of the Green Tiger, I wonder how they will handle it..."

Jilun spectated the scene when a small, shorter figure step out of the protectors carriage.

Jilun was inwardly surprised as the figure seem much more petite compared to the other bulked protectors. This person wore a hood that covered their entire body, it was black in color and did well not to reveal much of the being themselves.

"I wonder why that protector is wearing a hood?" Jilun stared at person with curiosity.

Jia's eyes followed his as they also rested upon the new figure that had entered the stage. The moment Jia's eyes focused on them, they shone a dangerous red.

Back at the 'stage', Haorun suddenly stumbled as he fell to the floor, his eyes widening in fright.

He had suddenly felt a monstrous intent, one he had never felt before. Though it left as fast as it came, one could not mistake the sheer fear it had caused him.

"Leader!"

It was pure, pure murderous intent!

While the other protectors may not be able to feel such a thing as him, his sense was formed from the many fights with dangerous people whos only accomplishments in life is murder, allowing him to easily identify similar intents.

But even theirs was not even close to the level of which he had just felt. Haorun nearly blacked out from just his body's shock alone in the moment.

The Hade Spider took this as an opportunity as it lunged toward the group.

"Watch Out!"

The protectors were too late to react to the sudden attack of the Hades Spider. They were distracted by their fallen leader and only noticed the Spiders forward when it was too late. Haorun, being the leader, was furthest forward from the group. This sealed any of the other members of the group from helping him, as no one besides Haorun could match the speed of the spider.

This was the worst possible situation for the protectors. Haorun had the most experience in the group, and unironically, also was the strongest. Should they encounter any beast above their grade, not only would they die, but the entire convey would join them. For these reasons, experienced protectors were assigned to every group in order to avoid needless losses, but it seemed a blunder caused a fault with that system.

The Spider shot forward, immediately closing the distance between Haorun and itself. But at the corner of one of its eyes, the spider saw a shadow.

*Swoosh!*

A black figure suddenly appeared in front of Haorun, intercepting the lunging spider.

*FLISHHHH*

A sliver light flashed in and out of reality for a moment. Within the next, purple liquid exploded in all directions, decorating the frontal carriages in purple. The body of the Purple Spider suddenly split apart, a perfect line forming down the middle.

Jiluns eyes widened as he stared upon the hooded being that had suddenly appeared on the field, the cloak no longer hiding the figure of the person.

Her pink hair cascaded down her back, still falling down with the inertia of her movement. The combat uniform she wore perfectly accentuated her curves and voluptuous body. The cloak flew up to reveal two sword scabbards hung from each side of her waist.

Her pale white skin displayed its youthfulness with not a single freckle or wrinkle to blemish it. Though her back faced Jilun, he could see the dominance radiating just from her stance.

"It's a girl?"