Ambush

Imperial Year 1188
A flat, uninterested voice awoke Asta as a small, cold finger poked his cheek. He felt the gaze of a girl bear down on him as he felt the cool dawn air hit his face.
"Iwen, Iwen." The harsh light of morning hit Asta's face as Hanna rolled the curtains away. Asta rolled over, and faced the other way. "God, you're even lazier than me." Hanna sat at the edge of the bed, and kicked her legs. "That's fine, I don't mind staying indoors all day either. If you're not going, I'm not either." Noticing some candy on the table, Hanna bounded over to the table and grabbed it. "Oh, and I'm borrowing your candy. I uh, probably won't be giving it back, okay?" As Hanna left the room, Asta was left to groggily get up.

Iwen was some fifteen years old now - Asta supposed in total, that was some twenty five years of existence. If he could even call it that, Asta wasn't entirely sure if Iwen was some kind of separate being he was in charge of, or his new, alternate self. He had decided Iwen was whatever was more convenient for the time being.

Today was the day of the expedition. Joining mercenary companies for capitol nobles and the odd wealthy commoner was not an uncommon experience. This one was one of the more low-end companies, mostly formed out of low-ranking provincial nobles as well as moderately well off commoners. Kaleia had barely managed to scrape together enough funds to buy him a ticket onto this one. An action that had earned him a deep seated guilt as well as profound thanking, but nevertheless, he told himself to thank his mother more when he got back. Adoptive mother? Step mother? Adoptive step biomother? It didn't really matter. Asta erased such useless thoughts from his head as he stepped outside. He had a job to do.

Jason was waiting outside, unusually early for a polychronic as him. He was plated in armor from head to toe, and carried with him a pair of spears as well as a bow. A horse waited right beside him.

"Jason. Fancy meeting you up this early. Where's Hanna?"

"Haha, you know me! I'm unusually awake today. Might be the excitement." Jason yawned and stretched his back. "Hanna's by one of the forward carts. You're not planning on pulling any move on her, are you?"

"Can't make any promises." Asta said slightly sarcastically as he slung his sword by his side. "You're in the forward team, right? Then I guess I won't be seeing you for a while." Asta smirked. "Enjoy being eaten alive by demons and be good bait for us, will you?"

"I'm going to piss in your water, your food, and your face if you do anything to Hanna, you hear me?" Jason shot back as Asta walked off.

"As I said. Can't make any promises." Asta said as Jason mounted his horse and began to ride forwards.

"Do you two...even like each other at all?" Hanna asked as she stuffed one final piece of confectionery into her mouth. A matchlock arquebus was slung over her shoulder, as well as a massive cleaving axe.

"Of course, we're the best of friends." Asta picked up the axe and inspected it. It was surprisingly lightweight - more meat cleaver than wood axe. "Wouldn't call him all those names if not otherwise."

"I'm not going to question how your friendship works, but alright. And give me that back." Hanna snatched the axe out of Asta's hands, and watched as the Jason and the rest of the forest cavalry team disappeared into the woods, surveying the road ahead.

The De Hallen Company had been famous for running routes between the Colakian woods. The light cavalry of the daemonic forces during the War of Light and Dark had retreated into the Colakian woods, and frequently waged war on the bands of roving feral orks that infested the system. With a simple cart system, the De Hallen had largely managed to stunt any attacks from daemons or orks, and the route was considered safe so long as you stayed with the group.

"We're all loaded up here! Trains all chained up, we are moving forwards and out!"

"Forward and out!" Asta watched as their own cart driver cracked his whip onto the horse's back.

"Alright, hang on tight you lot, because we're taking off!"

The massive column of wagons, surrounded by war carts began to push forwards, as several horses charged to the front. There weren't enough pikemen to defend against the cavalry dense forests the pilgrims were making their way through - the carts then, would be their protection. Dozens of arquebusiers, as well as older hand cannon troops lined the carts. Hardly as flashy as some of the wilder expeditions the more wealthy nobles got to join, and far more dangerous to boot - but with any luck, the war carts wouldn't fall under attack. They rarely ever did.

"Hey, how often do you see orks or demons on the road?" Asta asked the driver at the front.

"They usually shirk away when we start approaching them. They know they don't stand a chance against our war carts." As the carts moved onwards, the cart driver continued speaking. "I've been on these roads for over a decade, and I never saw anything more than a few shadowy figures every now and then. As long as you don't wander away from the safety of the carts, you're good. Pity the poor sods serving as our recon out front. They're equipped for independent fighting, but there's always a couple deaths every few years or so."

"My brother's out in front, I hope he'll be okay." Hanna shuddered. "I don't even know what I'm doing here..."

"Hey, you get to see the beauty of the forest, and trust me - the Temple of Theios is lovely. I get to see it so often that it's basically daily. The pay is good, I get to rub shoulders with future leaders, and the pilgrims always have fun stories to tell. Go talk to them when we stop for a break."

"Will do sir." Asta looked over at Hanna, who was pouring powder charges into small sacks. She looked up at him, with a look of concern. "By the way, you said that the recon cavalry team was...vulnerable?"

"If you're worried about your brother, young lady, don't be. The recon cavalry is the best of the best, so they can handle themselves. They're in charge of coming back to us and telling us when to fortify, so they're made up of our best fighters."

"Mmm, I don't know if Jason can be really be considered a part of 'the best,' but alright." Hanna and Asta sat in the war cart as it continued to push forwards. Hours passed. The sun went from dawn, to midday, to afternoon, and to evening. Through his eyes of shadows, he felt dozens of people gaze at him - most of them harmless glances. He had learned to filer those out of his mind, to a subconscious level. But occasionally, the noticeable glare of a more focused individual would occasionally bear down on him. They were little more than little specks in his mind.

"Wait." Asta felt a chill run down his spine. "I feel like something's looking at us."

The cartman looked over at Asta.

"Oh, that's just probably the demons." Asta felt a killing intent - something more similar to the assassin who had tried to kill him five years prior. "They circle around a lot. Given that the forward cavalry haven't reported to us yet, they're probably not a big deal." The cartman chuckled. "It's just a bunch of daemonic hooligans. They're too scared to attack-"

A cracking noise sounded off from the distance as a giant bullet hole appeared in the cart driver's head. A few more shots rang out, landing on some unfortunate drivers and soldiers, before everyone managed to get their heads under the protective wall of their war cart. Asta grabbed Hanna and dragged her down into cover. The pilgrims in their wagons also did the same.

"Reinforce, reinforce! We're under attack!" Asta peered out the firing port, one of the small holes on the cart, to take a look at the enemy. These were not the green-skinned warriors of the orkish tribes, nor the nightmarish monstrosities of the old dark forces. On the contrary, Asta couldn't really see much. He looked up. The sun hadn't quite set yet - both the orkish tribes and the daemonic forces usually attacked at dusk, when the sun was nearly gone - or at least that's what the guides, days earlier had told the team. Perhaps they were wrong? Perhaps this was dark enough?

Asta took a hand cannon and blindly fired it through the port. He could hear bullets streak across each other, but in the darkness of the forest and the clouds of dust kicked up by the gunpowder, it was getting increasingly hard to see what was going on. Even his eye proved to be useless. What had happened to Jason? Who were these people? These questions quickly became irrelevant in his mind as he focused on one thing and one thing only - survival.

"Hanna, we're going to have to move!" Asta quickly ran over to the body of the cart driver, making sure to keep his head beneath cover. The carts ahead of them had started to inch forwards, creating a gap in the lines Asta knew the enemy would exploit. Once the carts were caught out of formation, it would be over.

"Hanna!" Asta began to inch the machine forward, as bullets and arrows bounced off of the thick wooden wall. But Asta knew it wouldn't hold. In some areas, the bullets started to punch through, splintering the walls as they punched through.

"Dammit!" Hanna returned fire. The cart, which was had previously stopped, now started moving again. The people in the carts to the rear, which had been yelling at Asta and Hanna, now kept pace with them, as they rapidly closed the formation, a wall of thick wood giving them some degree of protection from the hailfire of bullets and arrows. Hanna reloaded her arquebus. Primer in the primer, gunpowder in the barrel, ball in the barrel, ramrod down, ramrod into the holder. She stuck her arquebus down the hole, and blindly fired. Time to reload again.

"Asta, I dropped my primer."

"Then pick it back up!"

"No I...dropped it off the cart."

"What?" Asta turned his head to see Hanna's gunpowder flask not in her hands. Turning back to the cart, Asta sighed. "Take the crossbow then, we don't have time for this!" Rounds continued to impact on the walls of the cart, and though the battle-facing side of the cart was made of hard wood, it was no stone wall. It would give with enough shots - it already had.

"I'm on it." Asta saw, out of the corner of his eye, Hanna lifting a few bolts and lifting them into the crossbow with trembling hands. She fired out of the cart. Asta could feel her eyes drifting over to him in between shots, but he ignored it. As the carts traversed deeper into the forest, he Asta could eventually hear the shots get quieter and quieter, until eventually, there was no one chasing them at all.

~~*~~

The carts were in full siege mode. Every war wagon wheeled around one another, as the danger of the mysterious enemy as well as the other unrelated threats lurked outside.

"Iwen?" Asta felt the vision of Hanna look up at him. "What do you think Jason is doing?"

"I...I don't know." Asta looked up at the moon. It was so full. It was almost beautiful. "I'm sure he's alright. I just have to keep watch until morning."

"The convoy leader told me that he will devote five of us for lookout duty tonight. Thanks for saving me back there." Hanna twiddled with her fingers. "I can't thank you enough."

"It's ok Hanna." Asta looked at his knapsack. He didn't want to sleep, his sweaty and adrenaline filled body didn't feel like it.

"No, I insist. Get some rest Iwen. You'll need it tomorrow. You're the one keeping this wagon alive after all. They're balancing the cart numbers, so it won't be just you and me tomorrow, but I still need you to be on full alert tomorrow. Are we clear?"

"I suppose we are." Asta lay the knapsack onto the wagon floor and got into it, watching Hanna overlook the cart. Asta lay there, he fell into a deep, uneasy sleep.