Reincarnated as the favorite of an obsessive goddess: gave me a system-Chapter 48: The last try.
Kai opened his eyes before the rest of the camp showed any signs of life. He sat up slowly, feeling the cold early morning air seep into his bones. Beside him, Lyla slept with an expression of peace that contrasted violently with the tension he felt vibrating in the air.
He stood up and walked toward the edge of the wagon circle, sensing a powerful presence.
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
Enemy detected.
Type: Human. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞
Approximate Threat Level: B.
Distance: In front of you.
"They’re here," Kai whispered.
"And they haven’t bothered to hide their trail this time," Allice said as she approached his side. "I’ve counted at least a hundred horses. The Silver Crows have emptied their nests, Kai. They’ve gathered every mercenary, deserter, and criminal roaming these lands. They know that if we cross that border, their chance to rob us and avenge the humiliation of the pass and the Sun Bridge will be over."
Kai nodded, processing the situation. They were in open terrain. There were no structures to use to their advantage in a battle beyond the wagons. They only had the strength of their will and the training he had given the refugees.
"WAKE UP! TO YOUR POSITIONS!" Kai’s shout echoed through the camp, breaking the morning lethargy.
Everyone woke up at Kai’s command. There were no cries of panic this time. Keram and Han led the men, moving the wagons to close the gaps and wedging hardened wooden spears between the wheel spokes to create an improvised palisade of thorns.
Tomas, still carrying the weight of his betrayal, was the first to take his post. His hands, bandaged and still dirty from the night’s labor, gripped his spear with a strength born of pure desperation.
He was not eating full rations by Kai’s order, and his stomach growled, but his eyes were fixed on the mist. He knew this was his only chance for redemption, the only way his son could look at him again without shame.
"Mira, to the top of Lint’s wagon. You’ll fire non stop, we have plenty of arrows," Kai ordered as he mounted Valira. "Thorne, take the right flank. If they try to surround us, kill them without mercy, we can’t let them get close. Roshia, stay in the center with Lyla. I need you both to keep the fire away from the supplies, fire is these bastards’ favorite attack."
Lyla approached Kai just before he spurred the mare. Her face was serious, stripped of its usual playful joy. She placed a hand on his knee, a gesture of support that Kai felt through the leather.
"Please take care of yourself. There are too many of them."
Kai placed his hand over hers.
"Don’t worry. Together, we are very strong."
A line of riders, equipped with high quality armor and long spears, appeared about two hundred meters away. Behind them, a mass of infantry on foot ran with axes and short swords. They were the Silver Crows in all their ugliness.
The leader rode at the front, his face grim and full of anger. He had been losing every fight against this small caravan. At the Sun Bridge, he lost a squad leader. When they raided during the two nights, they lost again. The mountain pass had been an even worse humiliation. He could not endure another defeat.
There were no parleyers. There were no warnings. He raised his mace and pointed toward the caravan.
"KILL THEM ALL!"
The cavalry charge began with a thundering roar that made the ground vibrate. A hundred horses launched into a gallop on an open plain was a sight capable of breaking the nerves of veteran soldiers.
"Mira, now," Kai said quietly, almost like a prayer.
From the top of Lint’s wagon, the first arrow pierced the wooden shield of the lead rider, went through his chest, and exited through his back, pinning itself into the ground with such force that it vibrated for seconds.
Mira fired again, and again.
Her fingers moved with a mechanical, almost inhuman speed. Every time her bow sang, a horse fell or a rider was torn from his saddle. The vanguard of the mercenary cavalry became a mass of colliding bodies, breaking the momentum of the charge before they even reached the wagons.
"HOLD! POINTS UP!" Keram ordered desperately.
The clash was brutal. The mercenaries who managed to bypass Mira’s arrows slammed into the wall of wood and thorns. The oxen bellowed in terror, but the wagons surprisingly did not budge. The refugees, shoulder to shoulder, thrust their wooden spears into the chests of horses and the gaps in the men’s armor. It wasn’t an elegant fight, it was a butchery of survival.
Tomas took a gash to his forearm, but he did not let go of his spear. Screaming with a fury he didn’t know he possessed, he pushed back a mercenary trying to climb over the wheel of his family’s wagon.
"YOU WON’T ENTER HERE!" He drove the spear into the attacker’s thigh.
Seeing that the formation was holding, Kai decided it was time to go on the offensive and break the enemy’s morale.
"Valira, let’s go!"
Kai rode into the middle of the mercenary infantry. He pulled his daggers from his inventory, causing many present to fear the man standing before them. He spun on Valira’s back, slashing the throat of a man trying to impale him. He leaped from the saddle, letting Valira kick an attacker’s face, and landed on his feet.
"That man isn’t normal!" the mercenaries shouted, recoiling in horror.
Allice also began her attack. She didn’t fight like Kai, she executed. She moved through the enemy ranks like a specter, leaving behind a trail of men collapsing to the ground clutching their throats, unable to understand what had hit them. Within minutes, the Crows’ chain of command began to crumble.
Thorne, on the right flank, was a wall of destruction, sweeping away three or four men with every blow.
"IS THIS ALL YOU’VE GOT?!" Thorne roared, his laughter mingling with the din of steel.
Roshia, from the center, held off attempts to burn the wagons. Every time they hurled fire spells toward the carts, she raised her hand and recited an incantation that extinguished the flames in mid air. She also cast a spell that froze the ground beneath the attackers’ feet, causing them to slip and fall before the refugees’ spears.
The mercenary leader, seeing his band of a hundred men being humiliated by a caravan and a handful of warriors, rode toward Kai. His face was flushed with rage.
"I’ll cut off your head and carry it on a pike!" he bellowed, swinging a heavy, spiked mace.
Kai did not run. He stood still in the middle of the bloodstained plain. He waited until the last millisecond. Just as the horse was about to trample him, Kai slid across the ground between the animal’s front legs. With a sharp movement, he sliced the tendons of the poor horse’s legs. It fell face first with an agonizing neigh, tossing the mercenary leader through the air.
The man rolled across the ground, his armor crunching horribly. Before he could catch his breath, Kai was over him. He slammed a boot onto the man’s chest and buried the tip of his dagger into the joint of his helmet.
"Look around you," Kai hissed, his voice a cold whisper that cut deeper than steel. "Your men are fleeing. Your greed has been your grave."
The mercenary leader coughed up blood, his eyes reflecting absolute terror.
"Who... who are you? A brat couldn’t..."
"I am the man who is going to finish your kind," Kai replied, and with a swift, certain movement, he ended his life.
Seeing their captain fall, the remaining mercenaries lost all will to fight. They threw down their weapons and ran south, disappearing from the plain. Silence descended once more, broken only by the heavy panting of the combatants and the sobs of relief from the women and children emerging from the wagons.
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
All enemies have been defeated.
LEVEL UP!
You have 2 points to distribute among your statistics.
Level: 31 (275/800)
Kai stood tall, covered in dust and blood that was not his own. He looked at his team. They were all exhausted, but alive. The refugees watched him with a mixture of awe and a devotion that was beginning to feel unsettling.
"Round up the oxen. Secure the loads," Kai ordered, his voice still vibrating with adrenaline. "We won’t stop here. I want us inside the Terminus border before the sun begins to set."
The caravan set off for the final time in this stage of the journey. They moved at a much faster pace, driven by victory and the desire for safety. Finally, they arrived. After everything they had been through, they were finally within the territory of Terminus.
"Find a place to camp far from the main road," Kai instructed Thorne. "Tomorrow we will find a village for these people. And after that... after that, we go to the capital. I want to see with my own eyes what is happening, I want to see these supposed sea monsters that are causing this shortage. And as soon as I see them, I will finish them and this situation once and for all."
Lyla approached him and took his hand, interlacing her fingers as she always did.
"I’m sure you will, but we have to be careful, Kai. If we keep this up, our names will start to be in every conversation. And that might reach the gods."
Kai nodded, he knew perfectly well the consequences this could all have.
"I know, but saving the lives of thousands of people is more important."
