21 - Convoy days

The Edwardo merchant convoy moved under the protection of the tanks, from day one it was clear that the tanks had a positive impact on the merchant convoy's survival as they drove off magic beasts with machine gun fire before they got close, this allowed the convoy to move faster than expected and by the 5th day they were already a day ahead of schedule, this made Erick smile from ear to ear, after all, the faster the merchandise arrived in the capital the higher the profit margin would be, as for Merlin? Well, he was somewhat bored, most days he would be laying on top of one of the King tiger's turrets, basking in the sun like an old man, he had already accepted the quest for the upgraded android crew

[Ding! Quest received:

Escort the Edwardo merchant convoy to the capital

Fail condition: Loss of adventures/merchants 0 / 25]

Merlin felt that this quest was in the bag already

'Though the only thing that can go wrong is during the night… If I panic and fire a canister shell then that's easily 25 adventures dead… Although I really want to let a canister shell rip...'

Merlin agonized over this quite a lot, since the 2 Centurion Mk 3 were in the rear they didn't see any combat, they basically just looked pretty

'Though they really do look good…'

Merlin switched gears as he noticed the barrels of the tanks began to turn to the right side, Merlin picked up his binoculars and looked out onto the field to the right of the road, and saw a family of framers working the field with a domesticated magic beast, when the family noticed the merchant convoy on the road they stopped working and waved, Merlin waved back as he sent out a mental command

'Easy… Turrets front'

At his mental command, the tanks pointed their turrets to the front again, then he put his binoculars back into his inventory before he decided that he needed to talk with someone, then he climbed off the King tiger's turret and jumped down on the engine deck before he jumped down and landed on the ground, he currently had the Centurion Mk 3's in the back follow the convoy's speed while the tanks in the front drove 10 kilometers an hour until they were about 500 meters from the first carriage in the convoy, then they would hold and scan until the first carriage was about 50 meters away they would drive again, Merlin walked towards the merchant convoy and soon spotted Jane in the crowd, she was walking and chatting with a group of adventures, though when she spotted Merlin she waved at him at once before she jogged over to him and asked

"What's up?"

"Nothing much, I'm just a bit bored of sitting on the turret all day"

Jane showed a smile before she took his hand

"Come, I'll introduce you to the others Merlin"

"Sure"

Merlin followed Jane over to a group of adventures that consisted of 3 men and 2 women, Merlin raised his hand and greeted them

"Hi"

"Yo! We meet again kid"

The first one to answer was Josh, the almost 2-meter high swordsman who had blocked Merlin's way right before the first round of negotiations

"Hello, the name's Rey"

Rey was another man who obviously wasn't human with a body covered in scales which included a long scaled tail and vertical split eyes, he wielded a spear

"My name is Ken, nice to meet you"

Ken was another man wearing a robe and staff with a monster core embedded into the top end, he obviously was a mage and wore a pair of thick glasses

"...Julie"

Julie was another non-human with long and pointy ears and emerald green eyes, she wore light armor and carried two shortswords on her hip, besides that she wore a long scarf around her neck which covered her mouth and neck

"Hello! My name is Felica, I am a beastkin!"

Finally was Felica who was seemed like an energetic young woman, she wasn't human either with two big triangular ears on her head which were covered with brown fur and a long bushy tail that seemed to wag at near speed of sound, she was wearing priest-like vestments and carried what looked like a ceremonial mace on her hip, Felica approached Merlin before she sniffed him a couple of times and nodded before she proceeded to smack him on the shoulder as she spoke

"Alright! I remember your smell now Merlin, Welcome aboard!"

Merlin scratched the back of his head as he nodded and spoke

"Thanks, Felica"

Just as Merlin was about to shake hands with the rest of the adventure group he suddenly looked to the front again as he muttered

"Give me scope control…"

As Merlin focused completely on the scope Josh asked Jane

"What is it he's doing?"

Jane showed a smile and spoke

"He shares vision with the tanks… They've probably spotted something again"

Ken pushed up his glasses and nodded before he asked

"I see… Does that mean that he can see from the point of view of all tanks at once?"

Jane shrugged

"I don't you, you'll have to ask him yourself"

"Sure…"

Felica gazed at Merlin's back for a bit, just as she was about to say something Merlin muttered

"Fire when ready"

Both Felica and Julie reached up and covered their ears, right after they did one of the tanks ahead, the BT-5, send off a shell, then Merlin's left eye seemed to regain focus before he nodded and spoke

"...And that's that, sorry about the noise people"

Ken quickly asked

"What was it?"

Merlin sighed before he answered

"A pack of wild dogs"

Josh sighed before he complained

"With you stealing the show Merlin there's hardly anything for us to do…"

Merlin showed a slight smile and spoke

"Safe is best, is it not?"

Felica nodded before she spoke

"As a healer, I think that the bite of a wild dog is one of the worst, it always gets infected…"

The others nodded before Julie spoke

"I hate wild dogs…"

Josh eventually caved and spoke

"Alright, alright… Even I would hate to lose a limb to a wild dog…"

Merlin sighed, the adventures were getting restless from not having fought anything the past 5 days, while the merchants were happy that the convoy was making good pace the adventures were getting twitchy, some were worse than others, of course, Merlin had noticed that verbal arguments over the last couple of days were getting more frequent, but as long as the adventures were starting fights he wasn't going to do anything about it, that night the problem solved itself as the adventures made a fighting/brawling tournament, though it had nothing to do with Merlin as he needed his sleep, it was only around midnight he woke as the hatch of the king tiger he was sleeping in opened and he woke up as he called out

"Jane?"

Soon Jane's voice heard

"Merlin, it's me… I brought some loot"

"Loot?"

"Yeah, I won the fighting tournament let's share it, come on up"

"Sure…"

Merlin climbed up and sat down on the turret next to Jane that then covered herself and Merlin's shoulders with a blanket as she spoke proudly

"The finest wool blanket from the capital, this was sponsored by Erik that enjoyed the tournament a whole lot"

Merlin showed a smile under the moonlight as Jane took out a brown paper bag and a bottle

"Here's a bag of Jerky and with it a bottle of mead from the north, have a taste!"

Merlin took a piece of jerky and put it in his mouth before he nearly coughed, it was very salty, Jane showed a knowing smile, like a kid that had successfully pulled of a prank and handed him the bottle of mead to was hit down, Merlin took a swig and found that the mead, although very sweet still had the taste of a low-grade spirit, as he saw Jane's proud expression he praised

"This is some good stuff"

"Right? Am I not amazing for winning such prizes? Oh right there's also some rock candy, but I am saving that for tomorrow evening, so look forwards to that"

"Will do"

The two of them chatted, ate, and drank into the early morning before they went to sleep under the wool blanket, even though they still slept back to back they felt closer than before…

The next morning the convoy was ready to move, still, there were no sign of Merlin or Jane, Geo showed a knowing smile before he ensured Erik that they would soon get underway and walked up to the two's King tiger before he climbed up and knocked on the top hatch and opened it up and called out into the dark interior of the tank

"Anybody home?"

Merlin woke with a set before he shielded his eyes for the sunlight that came from the cupola hatch and asked

"What time is it?"

Geo showed a smile as he spoke

"It's time to move, wake up Jane, and let's get rolling!"

Merlin nodded

"Sure… Tell Erik that we'll be rolling in 5 minutes tops"

"Got it"