Chapter 80: The Ambush – Part They knew this was the first carriage, so they would be letting it pass by. But it wouldn’t be long before the next got here. With that in mind, she told them the plan.
“Once this one is out of sight, each of you should wait by one of the trees. When the carriage gets to the middle, you burn the rope and send the trees down. You might need to give it a push if it doesn’t drop instantly.”
The girls nodded.
“I’ll be on the other side of the road, and while the tree dropping startles them, I’ll charge in and take a few down. You then start firing at the ones on this side. Then I’ll grab Ameril and we all head back to Teagan’s village.”
That was all that needed to be said, so Olivia dashed across the road. The carriage coming towards them was still quite a distance away, so her moving across could hardly be seen.
Now all they had to do was wait.
…
“How much longer till we reach the town.”
“Oh, not long now my lord. A few more hours and we should be there.”
“Good, good. After everything that happened, being out in the open like this worries me.”
The carriage that was currently passing must have belonged to some powerful noble. He had around a dozen or so guards around him, all wearing pristine armour. But while pristine, she was sure it was because they kept it well maintained, not that it was brand new and had never been used.
The looks in their eyes, and how they were constantly monitoring the area around them, told her they were good at what they did and were not strangers to combat.
But, while a terrifying sight, all they had to do was wait for them to pass. They were close to the road, they had to be in order to see what was going on. But thankfully with all the foliage and trees, they were hidden enough. Especially with the natural camouflage that Olivia’s skin tone gave.
At least that is what she thought…but was proved wrong when she locked eyes with one of the guards.
How the man saw her, she didn’t know. But, once he did, he brought his weapon up into a ‘ready for combat stance’. And once he did, all the other guards around the carriage did the same.
She started to panic, and she was sure Lyrika and Philly were feeling the same as well, thinking they were going to come after her. But, the guards and the carriage just continued moving. She guessed, that their priority was keeping their passenger safe, not running off to fight someone. Rushing into the trees could lead them into an ambush, and would leave their passenger with fewer guards. Plus, really, the display of them all being ready for combat was more than enough to put a whole group of bandits off from trying to attack them.
…
The carriage eventually moved on without further incident. Even Lyrika and Philly gave a long sigh once they were out of earshot.
And that is when they heard the sound of more hoofs hitting the ground.
Looking both ways, thankfully there wasn’t one coming from the other direction as far as she could tell. That meant the one they could hear, was the one they were after.
Getting everything ready, she pulled out the invisibility potion as well as three bottles of mucus. Then she pulled her morning star off her back and moved a little closer to the treeline by the road.
Across from her, Lyrika and Philly each moved over to one of the trees. Lyrika then took her bow off her back and made sure she had her blunted arrows all ready. Philly did the same with the slingshot and checked her bag for the mucus bottles.
They were all ready to go. As ready as they could be, Olivia thought.
There may have been another way to do this, but right now, this was the only plan and the only option they had.
…
The sound of hoofs got louder, and they also heard footsteps, which were then followed by some voices.
“Hey, fancy hitting the tavern once we drop the princess off? Might be able to have some fun with a couple of good-looking girls.” One of the guards on said.
“Sure. But you know we can’t get drunk. We need to be back for the changeover.”
“Come on. Why do we even need to keep guard of her in the town? Can’t we just lock her in her room and be done with it.”
“Don’t be an idiot. She’s managed to escape from her home several times since she got back the last time she ran off. If she gets away when all of us are guarding her in Caldaria, her parents will kill us for sure.”
“No, they won’t.”
The guards went on and on, talking about how annoying their situation was and how they would keep the ‘princess’ secure.
As everything came more into view, it was clear to see that these men were much more disorganised than the ones with the last carriage.
And that Ameril’s statement on what the carriage looked like was accurate.
Trees and shrubbery had obscured the view as the carriage travelled down the road, but once it got closer to them all, they could clearly see what it looked like. She was even sure she heard Lyrika say “What the-” when she saw it.
Like the carriage that her parents rolled up in back in the town of Cassus, it was over the top and ostentatious, showcasing their riches in a horrible way. Why they would send a carriage like this into the forest she didn’t know. A bandit seeing this was like them looking at a retirement plan on four wheels.
But enough on the ridiculous carriage, they had work to do.
The number of guards was as Ameril had said, and they were positioned so that three were on either side of the carriage.
And it didn’t take long for them to be right in front of her.
*creak*
The guards all stopped talking as they tried to figure out what the noise was. As they looked around, they saw nothing. That is until the driver of the carriage pulled on the reigns of the Umbrea to stop them moving.
One of the guards was about to shout at the man, asking why he had stopped. But that was before he noticed the massive tree tiling and ultimately falling down onto the road.
*thud*…*thud*
They were surprised by a second thud. A couple of the guards turned around and saw the second tree that had fallen down behind them.
They were all quite slow on the uptake, probably not having expected anything to happen on this journey, so only a few had actually gone to pull their swords out.
Olivia on the other hand, had just downed the invisibility potion, and as Milly had said, it was almost instant. She couldn’t see her own hand which was very disorientating, but the best thing about it was that it somehow affected the things she was touching. She didn’t know how it worked. It might be that once ingested it formed a field around the person, or it could be that it radiated an invisibility spell around her affecting the things she touched. Whatever it was, it meant that her clothes, morning star and the bottles she held could not be seen.
And that was her cue to run out from the trees.
She stayed as silent as she could and headed towards the nearest man. As she got closer, she threw the potion bottles towards to other two men, further down the carriage. She realised that with what she was about to do, having those bottles on her person would not be in her favour.
The bottles flew out of her hand, one hitting the nearest man, but the other two missed their mark, with one hitting the floor and the other, the side of the carriage.
Throwing them as she did was a long shot and she knew it. But either way, it had done its job.
The one who was hit, ended up getting hit on his crotch. She hadn’t been aiming there, obviously, but alls well that ends well, as the mucus completely coated that area of his trousers going so far as to also coat most of the top half of his legs.
The bottles had also worked as a distraction, the other man having turned around to look behind himself to see what had hit the ground. He even when so far as to bend down analysis it more. That is until he heard a massive thump and saw the carriage shake in the corner of his eyes.
Olivia had completed her charge and flew straight into the nearest man. The force of the hit lifted him into the air very slightly and sent him straight into the ornately carved hardwood and bejewelled carriage. He smashed into the surface hard, cracking and slithering the woodwork as he did. It had been such a hard slam into the carriage that it knocked him out instantly. This may have also been attested to his armour possibly being more of a hindrance than a help in that situation, his head having been knocked around in the slightly too big helmet that he wore.
The guard struck with the mucus saw all of this happen, but he could not see the assailant. All he saw was his colleague fly into the carriage and crumple to the floor. Not knowing what it was that attacked him, he readied his sword in case whatever it was showed itself, and started to move backwards towards the other guard behind him. As he did though, he started to struggle with just bending the top portion of leg backwards, meaning he could only shuffle to get there.
The one who just got up from crouching unsheathed his sword as well and readied himself. Just in time to see the massive form of an Orc materialise before their eyes, and head straight towards them.
But, while the potion had worn off, Olivia saw this as a win so far and that the battle was going quite well. She just hoped that Lyrika and Philly were having the same luck on their side.