The sudden braking caused the entire carriage to sway, sending Lady Laurena and William tumbling inside.
“I'll go down and take a look.”
Once the carriage stopped swaying, Tyr opened the door and stepped out.
“Alright.”
William nodded, drawing a longsword from his side and holding it in his hand.
Meanwhile, a fight had already broken out outside.
Initially, a few mercenaries wanted to negotiate first, unwilling to start a fight so easily.
This was an old tradition among mercenaries. If they encountered bandits blocking the road, they would first show off their cultivation and negotiate, offering a reasonable price to get the other party to leave.
Because whether they were bandits or mercenaries, neither side wanted to get injured easily.
After all, healing potions were no cheap commodity for them.
Of course, the negotiated price would naturally be paid by the employer.
This was also why, under normal circumstances, merchants rarely posted escort missions at the Mercenary Guild.
Instead of paying twice, they preferred to train their own armed forces.
Only small caravans without the capital to train their own armed forces would choose to post escort missions at the Mercenary Guild.
After all, bleeding money twice was better than having all their goods plundered by bandits.
But this time, the opponents clearly had no intention of negotiating. The moment they met, their swords and sabers slashed toward vital points.
Caught guard, one of the mercenaries had his neck pierced straight through, losing his life instantly.
“Damn it, we've run into a tough crowd.”
The remaining mercenaries fell into defensive stances, their faces turning extremely grim.
Even if their first thought had been to negotiate, they hadn't completely let their guard down.
Yet they had still been killed in a single strike, which could only mean the opponents were incredibly strong—definitely not ordinary bandits.
“Charge together!”
The fierce mercenary who had clashed with Tyr earlier shouted, charging forward with his longsword in hand.
But the opponents were clearly professionally trained. Their moves were clean and precise, completely incomparable to these self-taught mercenaries.
Furthermore, the fierce mercenary quickly discovered that there was actually a Fourth Circle among the masked men.
On the other side, just as Tyr stepped down from the carriage, three masked men dashed over and surrounded him. Their sharp swords sliced through the air, whistling with sound as they slashed toward his vitals.
However, they quickly realized that Tyr, who had just been surrounded, had suddenly vanished.
“Shring!”
A sword unsheathed. The three masked men heard only a sharp chime, followed by a cold sensation at their necks.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Three heavy thuds resounded as the corpses of the three black-clothed men collapsed to the ground.
Having dealt with the masked men who had come to ambush him, Tyr spread out his divine sense to cover the surroundings.
He quickly discovered that over a dozen more masked men were hiding around the carriage.
Clearly, the target of these masked men was not the caravan's goods, but Lady Laurena and William.
【Baina】
Constructing a magic circuit with the magic power in his body, Tyr took a step forward. His figure merged into the wind, vanishing on the spot.
Inside the carriage, William watched Tyr's free and easy figure, recalling the strength he displayed in effortlessly killing the masked men, his face filled with dejection.
If he had trained hard in the Sword Prison back then, would he now be able to confidently step down from the carriage and fight the masked men, instead of being forced to cower inside like this?
No, if he had been able to survive the first round of elimination, his family wouldn't have lost their baron title, and he wouldn't have fallen to such a state.
At this moment, over a dozen masked men were still hiding in the woods on both sides of the carriage.
They had been observing Tyr from the beginning. After seeing him effortlessly slay the three black-clothed men, they completely concealed their presence, planning to wait for Tyr to leave before attacking the carriage.
“He's gone.”
Tyr's speed in the Baina state was too fast for them to track with the naked eye.
Before they could even search for Tyr's location, one of them felt someone appear behind him.
Immediately after, the hidden masked man felt a sharp pain in the back of his heart.
He lowered his head with difficulty, only to find a blood-stained blade piercing through his chest.
He wanted to scream, but a hand had already covered his mouth from behind.
“Shh, don't speak. It's normal to feel dizzy.”
Schlip!
The longsword was pulled out, making a soft, muffled sound.
Gradually losing consciousness, the masked man collapsed to the ground. In his final moments, he turned his head to look behind him.
He saw nothing. There were no footprints, nor any traces on the bushes.
And such incidents continued to occur in succession where the masked men were hiding.
Within a few minutes, the dozen or so hidden masked men were dealt with one by one by Tyr.
Stepping out of the woods, Tyr turned his gaze toward the area where the masked men and the mercenaries were fighting.
The dozen or so Silver mercenaries were being completely suppressed. They were mostly Third Circle transcendents.
Facing the masked men led by a Fourth Circle, they were utterly defenseless and slaughtered.
“Stop! We're willing to leave and wash our hands of this caravan!”
After clashing for a while, the fierce mercenary had already realized that the opponents were not bandits at all.
With their clean and precise sword skills, seamless cooperation, and mutual offense and defense, this group of masked men was clearly a disciplined knight order.
And to be able to afford such a knight order, there must be a noble backing them.
Although he didn't know why a noble would target a small caravan, and even go so far as to mask themselves,
he knew very well that as a mere mercenary, even if they won here, being targeted by a noble would only lead to a miserable death in the end.
As for fighting to the death for their employer, they possessed no such integrity.
These mercenaries, who lived on the edge of a blade, accepted missions to make money, not to throw away their lives.
After guessing that this might be a dispute between nobles, his first thought was to flee.
But the opponents clearly had no intention of letting them go. After the fierce mercenary proposed to leave, the enemy's sword strikes became even more ferocious.
“Damn it!”
The fierce mercenary's face turned extremely grim. He now understood that the enemy clearly intended to silence them all.
As time passed, their casualties grew heavier, with several Silver mercenaries already lying in pools of blood.
It was already hard enough for them to fight opponents of the same realm, let alone with a Fourth Circle leading the other side.
“Ah!”
A scream rang out as another Silver mercenary beside the fierce mercenary was killed by the Fourth Circle masked man.
In the blink of an eye, only five of the dozen or so mercenaries escorting the caravan remained.
Just as the Fourth Circle masked man pointed his sword at the fierce mercenary, Tyr finally rushed over.
In truth, he had dealt with the ambushing masked men very quickly, but these Silver mercenaries simply died too fast when facing a masked force led by a Fourth Circle masked man.
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