The Runic Alchemist

Damian had never been in a worse smelling ditch before, actually he had never been in any ditch before at all.

He waited till the rowdy crowd tired out and fell asleep. It was a really bad place to wait out, but somehow he braved through. After an hour of silence between the three of them finally Rosie spoke up,

"Thank you.. I... I don't know what might have been... If... If..."

"Don't waste your energy... We need to think of a way to escape from this place..."

Lucian replied in empty darkness. The voice was at least a relief that they were not alone.

"Don't worry, we will be fine. I just needed them to drop their guard."

Seeing how their voices seemed on the verge of falling apart Damian gave them some reassurance.

"Are you saying you have a plan to get us out..?"

"Yes, just follow what I say this time, and we will be out of here before morning."

There was no reply but Damian had a distinct feeling of hearing exhaling sounds as if they were holding their breath for a long time.

Another hour and half went by and it became absolutely quiet except for the forest sounds. It was well over 3 or 4 am according to Damian's guess. It was finally time for a counterattack.

Damian summoned his spear and in seconds the dark cave became bright as day. It was a good thing they were in a ditch, still if someone was keeping watch he must have noticed it.

Damian directed his mana into the bracer on his arm and connected to his storage, grabbing a dagger he changed his focus to reality and stopped the mana flow. In a few seconds the sharp dagger had cut through all his bindings and he was finally free.

Damian cut loose his comrades with the dagger and brought another sword out of his storage and gave it to Lucian who was staring at the fiery red spear in a trance. She grabbed the sword absent-mindedly and then turned towards him.

"You have a soul-bound weapon !!? How?"

"Stop the nonsense, Are you ready ?"

Her grip tightened on the sword hilt and she looked straight at Damian, fire burning in her eyes.

With one air blade spell that he drew with his spear, the wooden bar of their cage broke through. Damian with his enhanced stats jumped out of the ditch and pulled the others out by a rope, he had found back in one of the carriages while looking for food.

A few meters away two guys were sleeping, which Damian assumed were supposed to guard them. With two silent thrusts below their ears both died, bleeding from their necks.

Mostly everyone was sleeping, Damian could see everyone sprawling out in the open, either drunk or just plain sleeping. However this wasn't all who were present when they came here, some were missing.

In the distance, a fire was burning on the lookout position near the gate. It wasn't clear weather he had noticed or not, but Damian did not care. A group of Light-Walkers were nothing to him.

And so he started slaughtering the defenseless men who were sleeping peacefully, to never wake up from their sweet dreams. He wasn't alone though, Lucian despite having weaker stats was far more faster and efficient than him, killing people left and right. There was no hesitation there, seeing her Damian realized why she was so mature for her age.

In a world like this, children has to grow up soon or they would be left behind. There was no time for a safe environment for growing up, either you make it or you die trying.

At last realizing something was off, the lookout guard started shouting loudly, which made the rest of the guys wake up however they were still drunk and the opponents were monsters in flesh. Despite some of them having a first rank job of bandit and other, it did not matter at all. Even Lucian was able to cut down two at a time with her superior technique and newfound ferocity burning in her eyes.

A large group finally came running towards Damian from the other side of the camp who was led by the same ugly 'Boss' as before. They all had weapons, but they too looked like they were drunk.

Unfurling his scrolls Damian started throwing air blades and rock bullets with fire runes in mix towards the charging band of filthy bandits. Some got pierced and died immediately, many were injured heavily and were bleeding out, still some 10 of them managed to close the gap and attacked the small figured boy, only to be surprised by the power each of his sword swings held.

Three people pushing him at once couldn't even budge him from the spot and instead got pushed back. Damian himself was surprised by how low levelled this people were. Even the hellhounds put up a good enough fight, this lot was just a soft muscles and shouting nuisance.

Cutting them down was easier than cutting wood. The leader seemed a bit skilled but it was useless against Damian. Damian estimated the leader's strength to be equal to a normal knight, or maybe win over one but two might be very well his end if he ever met them which he never would.

With one jump and charge, a head rolled next to other men which made them freeze on the spot.

Their leader was dead with just few exchanges. And the monstrous boy was not stopping at all.

It took about 20 minutes but at last it ended. Damian and Lucian had killed them all. The whole camp was painted red, just like their swords.

After resting for a while Damian checked all the bandits for anything useful and of course found nothing worth having. Even their food was stinky and moldy like their owners. Damian noticed many women's dresses lying here and there, the women however only God knew where they were or what they had gone through. Well they won't be able to do anything, anymore at all.

Finding their horses and cleaning themselves in the stream of water they were ready once again to travel the land. The day had broken through at last and morning breeze was a welcome change from bloody environment of the bandit camp.

Damian still felt sleepy but he had rested enough for the journey so he braved through, his improved stats were a great help in his quick recovery, despite his body still being that of a child.

Lucian and Rosie were riding in his left and right instead of his behind like usual, the change did not go unnoticed by Damian.

"Listen you two... Our problem is not that whether or not we can defeat a monster or enemy but weather or not we can avoid them. Listening is hard for such a forest but focus and you will be able to hear the unnatural sounds. I alone can't always be alert."

Damian thought it necessary to teach Lucian to do the thing that he might not be able to do alone. They were lucky that no overpowered monster had come across their path yet, but the luck won't stay like that forever. And with sleep deprived and tired body it was better for two people to be ready than one.

"I will try..."

Damian nodded at Lucian and continued riding in silence. The journey had just started. They still had to go another 6 days like this to reach EmberLock.

Today they won but not everyday will be the same.

And as if to give his thoughts a life, the next adversary proved his point.