[Vol. 8] Chapter 239: Life-and-Death Escape
“Splurt!”
“Hah… hah…”
A short dagger was pulled out of the chest of a man in black right in front of her. Black blood sprayed out, staining Sasha’s already dirty and damaged leather armor with even more dark patches.
With a push, she sent the lifeless body crashing to the ground behind her. But there was no look of joy on the girl's face despite winning the fight, only seriousness and exhaustion.
Looking around, more than ten bodies of black-clad assassins lay scattered across the dense forest. Yet Sasha stood there alone, covered in wounds. In the distance, the hoarse cries of ravens echoed. After catching her breath for a few moments, Sasha carefully made sure each assassin was finished off, then turned and limped off in a certain direction.
Not long after, she pushed aside a thick patch of bushes to reveal a natural cave, an excellent hiding spot.
Inside lay a young man with black hair, dressed in a broken set of armor and wrapped in bandages. He was resting on the ground, and his weapons were untouched by his side. Seeing this, Sasha finally let out a small sigh of relief.
She entered the cave, pulled out half a bottle of clean water, and gulped it down, then began treating her wounds.
“Ouch… ow ow ow ow! Those bastards really went all out! Didn’t they stop to think, if I die, where are they gonna find this guy…?”
Miss Sasha groaned in pain while tending to her injuries. Then she took a badge from her storage ring, it was the insignia of an Apostle from the [Light Worshipper Church], and stared at it helplessly in her hand.
What kind of mess is this…? Sigh.
A few days ago, Sasha had been leading her Xavier Merchant Guild caravan when they found this unconscious man lying by the roadside.
The deputy leader found the badge on him and immediately handed it to Sasha, the caravan captain. But soon after, a group of mysterious assassins suddenly appeared. Their first attack was swift and deadly, killing the unsuspecting deputy leader on the spot and giving them a brutal wake-up call.
These people were ruthless and clearly trained professionals. Realizing the danger, Sasha immediately ordered the caravan to move out overnight at full speed, aiming to reach the nearby Saint Tyr City to seek protection.
By right, they were only about a day’s journey away from the city. Sasha thought that even if the assassins were bold, they wouldn’t dare strike on a public road full of travelers. As long as they pushed hard and hurried along, there shouldn’t be a big problem. But…
The unexpected still happened.
First, more than half of their horses and mounts suddenly died during the night, slowing their movement by at least 70%.
Then came the repeated attacks.
Fortunately, there were some high-ranking individuals traveling with the caravan, and since the eastern region of the Holy Empire was close to a battlefield, the Merchant Guild had invested heavily in its guards. Ordinary bandits wouldn’t stand a chance, and even a full squad of a hundred holy knights would have a hard time beating them head-on.
Maybe that’s exactly why the enemy didn’t want to fully reveal themselves. The assassins didn’t go for a direct fight. Instead, they kept using hit-and-run tactics, ambushing lone members, shooting poisoned arrows from afar, and constantly harassing them, all while sticking close behind the caravan.
Although Sasha led her guards in strong counterattacks and managed to kill some of them, the caravan wasn’t a formal army or a mercenary group. There were many non-combat people and valuable goods. After several clashes, the losses began to grow, further slowing down their journey.
Sasha didn’t know exactly how many enemies there were, but the assassins’ attacks had never weakened, not even a little. In fact, they seemed to be getting stronger as time went on. This hinted at something important.
The enemy was getting more reinforcements. Meanwhile, the caravan’s armed forces were limited. If this continued, the attackers would just grow stronger while the caravan grew weaker. At this rate, they might not make it to Saint Tyr City. They could be completely wiped out on the long road there.
To prevent that from happening, Sasha carefully thought things through. After a brief discussion with a few team leaders in the group, she made a very bold decision.
She would leave the caravan and go in a different direction, taking only the wounded young man they had rescued.
Sasha was almost certain that these mysterious assassins were targeting that injured young man. Otherwise, it was far too much of a coincidence that the attacks began so soon after they found him, and that the attackers were willing to chase him at all costs.
No matter what their true goal was, this whole situation had nothing to do with the Xavier Merchant Guild. Logically speaking, for the sake of the more than a hundred lives in the caravan, she, being their captain, should’ve abandoned the young man to protect the rest.
But the enemy had killed her deputy right from the start, and many of her people had already died in the fights that followed. The grudge was already deep. Sasha couldn’t accept just walking away and swallowing such a loss.
And there was something even more important—
Back during the Fourth Demon War, if the [Light Worshipper Church] hadn’t stepped in to help, she and even President Xavier might have died in agony from the plague of [Defilement]. Sasha was someone who remembered kindness. So even if it meant risking her life, she had to get involved this time!
Sure enough, things played out just as Sasha expected.
After giving clear orders for what the others should do next, she left the caravan with the unconscious young man, pretending to flee. Just as she guessed, the assassins who had been attacking the caravan from the edges didn’t continue chasing the main group. Instead, they all turned their attention to the much smaller target, her.
Their attacks became more obvious and aggressive, proving her theory right.
These people had likely been scattered widely, trying to find that young man. But the ones who had gotten the message and gathered so far still weren’t enough to take on the caravan’s guards in a direct fight. That’s why they had been using hit-and-run tactics, to slow down the caravan and buy time for their main forces to arrive.
Since their numbers were limited, they shifted focus to chasing her instead. This meant they no longer had the manpower to go after the caravan. Even though they surely knew the caravan would eventually reach Saint Tyr City and bring back reinforcements like the Holy Knights, there was nothing they could do about it.
In other words, it had become a race against time.
And now, Sasha had been dragging this burden of a man through forests and mountains for over three days, fighting, hiding, running nonstop.
The assassins hunting them were clearly growing in both numbers and skill. Even for someone like Sasha, a top-class warrior with Sky-level strength, it was getting harder to hold out.
The fresh wounds all over her body were proof enough of that.
“Sigh… By now, they should’ve already reached Saint Tyr City,” she murmured.
“Counting the travel time and the time it takes to meet the bishop and explain everything, reinforcements should arrive tonight or maybe tomorrow… but who knows if I’ll last that long…”
The brown-haired girl gave a tired, bitter laugh as she pulled her leather armor back over the clean white bandages she had just wrapped. Her once-lively ponytail had lost its shine, now drooping weakly over her shoulder, dirty and dull.
“You guys better hurry... If you take any longer, all you'll be able to do is collect our bodies…”
“Cough…”