Fae, Kane and Dalen made a huge impact on the battlefield.
Fae went berserk, sending bandits flying with every strike, sprinting around the battlefield, infiltrating the ranks of the bandits, and causing general mayhem as she chopped down their numbers. She instantly tripled the rate at which the bandits were falling.
Dalen and Kane stayed closer to the inner sections of the convoy. Preventing any of the bandits from being able to cripple the means of transport.
Dalen's Martial Art defensive in nature, allowing him to ensure not a single bandit or could pass through him. His imposing developed physique easily withstood anything the bandits mustered up with ease, he was like an invulnerable tank.
Kane on the other hand, zipped around the inner sections of the convoy, taking out the bandits who circled around Dalen and tried avoid him entirely. He bolted faster than most of them could react, cleanly dismantling their attacks and knocking them out.
The three of them flipped the flow of the battle a perfect one-eighty degrees almost instantly.
"Oho, look what the cat dragged out." Feilin chuckled as she watched the trio of Fae, Kane and Dalen clean up the battlefield. "Good call boss. If we simply ambushed them like we normally do, we might have been the one to get ambushed instead!"
"Hm..." The golden-haired man frowned, as his golden eyes sharpened.
"Hmph!" Vale snorted. "They're just three brats! We should just jump in and annihilate them."
"They're decent." Han yawned. "But we have a numeric advantage."
"What's wrong boss?" Feilin asked. "They have three Martial Artists, isn't that the end of the problem?"
"Just a thought..." He murmured.
"Thought?"
"If you were the Lowminers transporting thirteen Sky Crystals through a dangerous valley with a known bandit group that has a record of targeting Sky Crystals, with a minimum of one Martial Apprentice, possibly more." He paused glancing at Feilin before continuing. "Would you hire only three Martial Apprentices?"
"The Lowminers are careful and cautious but decisive when they have the means to obtain their objectives. So why hire only three Martial Apprentice bodyguards?" He squinted his eyes in suspicion.
"You're overthinking this, boss." She sighed with exasperation.
"...Possible." He admitted. "It just occurred to me that if this was indeed the case... Then Lowminers have hired someone with great intelligence and insight."
"Regardless, we'll proceed through immediately." He said. "We have gathered enough information on them. Vale, Feilin and Han, you guys jump in. I'll lay in wait and ambush one of them while they're fighting you, then we crush them four-on-two."
"Four-on-two. Where's 'he' anyway?" Feilin asked.
"...Late." The man sighed. "Now go."
The three of them nodded, before leaping off the cliff and sprinting down.
For a moment, the golden-haired man was alone, before calling out.
"How long do you plan to hide?" He said, to seemingly no one.
"How rude." A voice from the shadows replied, before walking out. "I was busy, you know."
"What are you here for?" The golden-haired man asked.
"Our patron expects you to succeed. The thirteen Sky Crystals must be procured at all costs."
He glanced at the masked figure with his sharp golden eyes. "You're supposed to be of help to this operation and to me. Instead, you're running around prancing accomplishing nothing."
The masked figure chuckled. "Doesn't look like you need much help." He replied, gesturing at the three Martial Apprentices from the Martial Union.
"Don't worry, I'll save you if things go sideways... Prince Rajak Di Kandria." The masked man whispered, before melting into the shadows once more.
Rajak snorted lightly, before turning to the battle.
"One small step at a time... and eventually this country will be mine." He whispered, with a flash of determination across his face.
* * * * * * * * * *
Rui watched as his friends cleaned up the battlefield, admiring their prowess. All three of them had gotten stronger.
('Good.') Rui nodded. ('With this, level of power, we should be fin-')
Suddenly his senses caught onto something.
A figure jumped out of the woods slamming into Dalen at incredibly high speeds.
BOOM
"Dalen!" Rui and Milliana immediately head out, but in that exact moment, two more figure flew out of the forest, attacking Kane and Fae.
In just a moment, three Martial Artists had attacked his friends!
Thankfully, the ambush hadn't resulted in any casualties. Dalen was tough enough to withstand the ambush, Kane narrowly managed to avoid the attack entirely while Fae simply countered with a palm attack.
"Awwww, the ambush failed!" Feilin groaned exaggeratedly, smiling savagely, as she leapt back from Fae. "Guess we'll have to do this the hard way!"
Suddenly she sensed something at her back.
A fourth Martial Artist had appeared out of the blue!
Rui had charged up at top speed with Flowing Canon, launching his most powerful strike. He had timed the attack perfectly, getting her just as she disengaged from Fae, completely focused on the latter.
WHOOSH
Rui executed the technique perfectly, but where there was supposed to be his target, now was empty air.
She had disappeared, in a moment.
"You're careless Feilin." Rajak said to her as he put her on the ground. "We need to retreat, for now."
Rui's eyes shot wide open as a random golden-haired and golden-eyed man appeared out of nowhere, extricating his target to safety.
('He's fast! Only Kane could pull something like that.')
Just as Rajak, Vale, Han and Feilin began distancing themselves from their targets.
BOOM
They narrowly avoided being stomped as their escape route was cut-off by three huge impacts.
Feilin, Vale and Han stared on in shock as three more masked Martial Artists almost crushed them to the ground, cutting off their escape routes, even Rajak couldn't help but feel shocked.
Rui, Kane, Fae, Dalen and Milliana quickly took their spots around the important carriages of the convoy, forming a wide perimeter protective arc between the inner convoy and the four bandit Martial Artists.
The three Lowminer bodyguards were on the opposite end, boxing them in.
And in the center were the four bandit Martial Apprentices.
In the span of little over ten seconds, the number of Martial Apprentices on the field had risen from three to eleven!
Not a single one among them was unsurprised.
