Rise of the Blood Sovereign

Chapter 80  The Caravan Moves on, Reaper Appears

As Ulon returned to the caravan, he was quickly approached by the three Silver realm combatants and the group of Bronze Knights.

"My lord, shall we take care of the caravan?" The leader of the Bronze Knights that wielded lightning asked Ulon with a cold tone.

"No, there is no need for that." Ulon waved him off before continuing toward his carriage.

"The main point of me getting out in such a way as to not alarm the enemy beforehand, even if one of the adventurers was to go and spread the word and alarm our foes, it would have already been too late."

"Simply continue acting as an escort and finish the task, then rendezvous with me as planned."

"Yes, my lord." The Bronze Knights all said in a low tone as they hurried back together with the three Silver realm combatants.

The mage glanced at Ulon once more before returning with the others and acting indifferent toward the adventurers and mercenaries that were together with them.

None of the people that were escorting the caravan dared ask them what they were talking about with Ulon as they knew better than to pry. Asking too many questions was a good way to die young in this world, after all.

Lyle and Adam made sure to stay inconspicuous, but Ulon did glance and even smile slightly at Lyle at one point, making the latter aware that he knew he was there.

Lyle didn't worry about Ulon, he had after all gained the crest of the Song family, and he knew that Ulon was a devout follower of Iodel Song, which means that he will never go against anything his lord.

Killing Lyle would definitely be inexcusable for Ulon, and the latter would probably make sure that Lyle was unharmed any time he was close to him.

That made Lyle know that no matter what happened in the last part of this trip, he at the very least would be safe with Ulon here, as the latter wouldn't allow any monster to kill him thanks to the family crest he possessed.

But the main issue that Lyle had was the fact that Ulon was here. He was the right-hand man of Iodel Song and the one that Iodel trusted the most. Leaving his side and making a trip to Orsvald with this caravan meant that something was up, and whatever was happening, Ulon was keeping it a secret since he made sure to leave Linston without anyone noticing.

'A storm might be coming, and it seems I will be located close to it thanks to me staying in Orsvald.' Lyle thought as he looked at the carriage where Ulon was currently staying at.

He could sense that two more people were in the carriage other than Ulon. One of them was the caravan master who had entered there a while ago, but the third person was a mystery. Whoever it was, they had been there since the very beginning together with Ulon.

'Is it Iodel?' Lyle suddenly thought before shaking his head.

'The city lord disappearing would definitely cause a storm in the city, there is no way he would be able to sneak out without people noticing his absence, it has to be someone else, but who?' Lyle had to admit he was quite interested in finding out the identity of the mysterious passenger, but with Ulon there, the chance of him doing so was equal to zero.

He simply took a long look at the carriage before resuming his guard.

The arrays that the caravan leader had installed were activated when they entered the forest since this was the only place where the Shadowless Tiger stayed. They had previously used the lanterns to light up the way since they were much more cost-efficient, but this was the last stretch before reaching Orsvald, and they were not going to skimp now and have a monster attacking them right before reaching their destination.

The adventurers and mercenaries were now in high spirits. With the knowledge that a Golden Knight was actually here, they were all pumped up and knew that there was no chance of their caravan being destroyed, still, they made sure to be careful since they knew that the Golden Knight wouldn't be helping them out when it came to fighting Bronze and Silver Core monsters, perhaps only high-grade Silver Core monsters and above.

Nobody had actually managed to see Ulon's face since there was a weird hue around the whole head. They were all able to see his hair and the color of it, but not the face.

Still, it was relatively easy for most of them to guess that it was Ulon thanks to him being stationed in Linston where most of them spent a long period of time in. His large sword and golden hair were quite recognizable and it was quite hard for him to stay anonymous.

Thanks to the aura that Ulon had released for a short time during the battle, the whole forest was eerily quiet. No monster dared come close to the caravan and most were still running far away from the place of battle.

The body of the Golden Core bear was strapped to one of the three large carriages by the people of the caravan and was being transported now.

Seeing the humongous body that was lying on top of the carriage made the blood of the adventurers and mercenaries boil. They all knew just how dangerous and powerful such an enemy was, and yet Ulon had defeated it without a sweat.

Two swings of his sword were all it took for him to defeat a fledging monster of the same realm as him, which spoke volumes of his power.

Even though all Golden Knights that were high-grade or at the peak of the realm could defeat the bear, not all could defeat it with such ease. Some, depending on their fight style, might even struggle a bit, but none would be heavily injured and would be able to defeat the bear with some light injuries that would heal rather quickly.

Only those that were considered powerful in their own grade would have been able to do what Ulon did, which further cemented Lyle's belief that the man had reached the peak of the Golden Core realm.

He knew that Ulon was powerful and had even read a lot of reports about the man and his strength in the past, which allowed him to have a certain estimate of the man's power from a few months ago.

'It seems he was able to reach the peak of the realm in these 7 months since Iodel had been placed as the lord of Linston, that's some fast progress, faster than most.' Lyle thought before looking ahead.

About 3 hours had passed since Ulon had dealt with the bear, and they didn't need to face any monster so far. It was now that something was suddenly happening.

Something had shown up in the middle of the road. A couple of torches were visible and there was a blockade in the middle of the road. Old pieces of carriages, shields, and even some dead bodies of monsters could be seen making up the blockade.

A couple of people were in front of the blockade, and upon noticing the caravan, they suddenly whistled and multiple torches lit up in the forest around the caravan. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Good evening to you, fine gentlemen." A man suddenly spoke as he came from behind the blockade.

"We do all of this to protect the people, and we only charge a meager sum of 1000 gold coins to caravans in order to protect them and keep the blockade up."

The leader of the so-called protectors, which were clearly bandits that had recently come to this area, spoke. He smiled at the long-range attackers that were on top of the carriages and was met with a couple of angry glares and some Bronze Knights had released their auras as well.

"My name is Reaper, we have blocked this part of the road in order to stop any monsters from coming and attacking caravans."

"Thanks to that, the casualty rate of the caravans that manage to reach here dropped considerably."

"We do all of this to protect the people, and we only charge a meager sum of 1000 gold coins to caravans in order to protect them and keep the blockade up."

The leader of the so-called protectors, which were clearly bandits that had recently come to this area, spoke. He smiled at the long-range attackers that were on top of the carriages and was met with a couple of angry glares and some Bronze Knights had released their auras as well.

"Ohh, it seems the gentlemen have been angered by my words?" Reaper asked innocently before releasing his aura as well.

The power of a low-grade Silver Knight immediately blew away the auras of the Bronze Knights and started pressuring them.

"Ah, and here I simply wanted to help you, well, you really hurt my emotions with your actions, so I will have to increase the cost to 1 500 gold coins."

"Bartering is not acceptable, so come on, hurry up with the money," Reaper said as he yawned and extended his hand, fully unaware of the stares that everyone was giving him.

After a few seconds of nothing happening, Reaper grew impatient and stared back at the caravan, only to find three new people at the front.

"Huh, are you three the leaders?"

"Listen up, I have been quite patient with you guys, if you continue disrespecting me like this, you will be forcing me to resort to violence, you get me?"

"Oh don't worry, there will be no further disrespect of any kind." The elf mage said as she removed her hood and released her aura.

Suddenly, Reaper found himself pressured by the combined auras of two low-grade Silver Knights and a mid-grade Silver Mage, which quickly prompted his face to go pale and his legs to shake.