Bab 77: CHAPTER 77: CARAVAN
After moving forward a few hundred feet, Night was able to reach out with his perception and see the situation over the large sand dunes.
Through his perception, Night noticed two groups fighting. One was a group of around 150 demons traveling in a caravan. The other group was around 25 human bandits. The demon caravan group was mostly made up of women, children and weaker individuals. After observing the battle for a second, Night realized the power distribution among the parties involved.
There appeared to be two low level Demigod demons and a few other late Foundation Stage men that were fighting off the 25 human soldiers. The humans seemed quite powerful too. From Night's review of the situation, the human's had a mid level Demigod and a low level Demigod. Both seemed stronger than the two demon demigods. The Foundation Stage men were about on equal footing.....however, the humans outnumbered the demons two to one.
Initially, Night had not wanted to get involved and didn't plan on a interfering with the skirmish. However, he noticed that the demons would soon be overwhelmed despite their superiority in numbers. The human soldiers were just slaughtering everyone...men, women, children....it didn't matter. One of Night's hang ups on telling the freed slaves to become bandits had been harm to innocent people. He really didn't have a stomach for it. That's why he had harped on that as a condition for them to become bandits.
The harming of innocents was one of the things that bothered Night. Deciding to put an end to the situation, Night rode forward on the scorpion in clear sight toward the fighting.
When the two groups saw a lone individual heading towards them, they actually increased in battle intensity.
"Quick, capture a few of the women and take as many goods as you can. Then retreat," one of the human demigods yelled to his squad of men. The men seemed to respond instantly and began to focus their efforts on snatching people.
Realizing that the situation was escalating quickly, Night stood up on the back of the scorpion and jumped into the sand. Then with a burst of strength, Night shot forward to the battle.
In a few seconds, he arrived in front of one of the two human demigods.
"Who are you?," the man said, "This is none of your business. Leave."
Having already pulled his set of daggers out from his waistband, Night didn't even respond. These humans were even killing kids.....trash like this needed to die.
Seeing the weapons drawn, the demigod prepared to fight. Since the sun was out directly overhead and there was basically no cover in the desert, Night really couldn't make use of his Shadow Concept to hide and attack. However, he had grown exceptionally strong. Technically, he was a Level 1 Demigod and he had mastered Body of Strength skill. From his estimation, the man in front of him was only a Level 1 Demigod. It shouldn't be that hard to fight....he had killed a Level 4 Demigod before.
Night darted toward the weaker of the human demigods and instantly clashed with weapons. Night's two knifes met the short sword in the bandit's hand. Feeling his superiority in strength, Night pulled one of his knives back while keeping the other engaged with the sword. Since he now had a free knife and the man was using both hands on his sword, Night managed to hit the human demigod in the side of the head with his full strength. However, the man was still alive. Not because of Night's mistake.....but because he had used the pommel of his knife instead of the blade. He wanted the man alive for several reasons.
Opening up his soul perception, Night was going to attempt to lock the man in a dream. However, when he overlapped his perception of the soul space and real world. He could see glowing orbs in the place of the people on the battlefield. It was crazy. He had never done this action during a fight before. He had only used this method to track resources in the mines and to train his soul.
Night actually felt like he picked up a new skill.....well, it was an old skill....he just figured out how to use it better. Since he had been practicing overlapping his soul perception between the real world and the soul space to train, Night now realized that it was an excellent way to determine the strength of people. With his regular perception, he could be aware of everything in the physical world. When he overlapped, he could sense the soul strength of the people within his perception range.
"Misery, can you see these orbs?," Night asked in the soul space.
"Yes," Misery responded, "I can see them clearly."
"Attack and kill that one right in front of me," Night said as he pointed over to one of the bandits.
In the soul space, Misery moved forward and grabbed the man's dream orb and crushed. With her new strength, she could easily destroy peak Foundation Stage cultivators.
In the real world, the man whose dream orb was crushed.....just collapsed to the ground. No one could see what happened
'Why hadn't I tried this before?,' he wondered to himself. He really knew too little about his powers. His godmother had told him his backwater world didn't know anything.....seems like she was right.
Seeing the man collapse, Night grew excited. However, Misery didn't seem that impressed.
"Why are you so excited? We have done that before and you never seemed so excited," Misery said.
"Misery, it is the middle of the day and the guy wasn't even asleep," Night said mentally to let her know why he was excited.
"What!!," Misery exclaimed, "That's amazing."
Realizing he had an opportunity, Night quickly said in his soul space, "Grief....quick....these men are harming innocents in a caravan and I need help."
The plainly dressed school teacher turned Ker quickly appeared next to him. Misery had been educating her over the last couple of days on their existence as a Ker. She understood the situation much better now and had started to look up to Misery as an older sister.
"These are the orbs that can be killed," Night said as he pointed out the 22 normal bandits.
Misery guided Grief along as she showed her what to do.
See that the two women had the situation under control, Night immediately turned to the remaining demigod bandit. The whole involvement of his Ker had only taken a few seconds.
The two demon demigod had noticed that Night had taken out one of the bandit leaders and had immediately moved to double team the remaining leader. Even though the man was a higher level demigod, he actually seemed to have better battle prowess than the two combined lower level demigod.
Seeing an opportunity, Night quickly moved forward and appeared behind the battle distracted human demigod. Swinging another punch forward, Night managed to knock out the man. He had actually had an easy time of it all.
'I guess it turned into three against two, so we had the number advantage,' Night thought before looking around the battlefield.
Seeing the threats around them disappear, the two demon demigods breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking at one of the other men nearby, the man that appeared to be the leader of the caravan looked at the man besides him and said, "Check on the injured and figure the damages."
He then turned to look at Night, "Thank you for you your assistance. My name is Enok. I am the organizer of this caravan...and this entire caravan owes you their lives.....myself included."
The man actually seemed to have some linger fear over Night. It wasn't that he had knocked out the two demigods. It was that the other bandits had just randomly died on the spot without any noticeable sign of injury. That made him nervous.
"No problem," Night said seeing the fear in the man's eyes, "We are fellow travelers on a similar path. My name is Night."
"Greetings, Night," Enok said while looking at the unconscious bodies of the two demigods, "What do you intend to do with these two?"
"If you have a tent I can use for privacy, I would like to question them for a while. I would like to know some details about who they are and where they come from," Night said with a grin.
"Yes, we can setup a tent. After these events, the caravan might as well stop and regroup for the night," Enok said while looking at one of the men at his side.
"Great. Where are you headed?," Night said. He had two reasons for this question. One he was actually worried about these people. Two, he knew it would be easier getting to the city with a large group....or easier getting into the city with a large group.
"We are going to the City of Setting Sun," Enok said.
"Wonderful. Do you mind if I travel with you from now on, I can offer some additional protection and...it is kind of lonely wandering the desert by myself?," Night asked.
Enok immediately had a pleasant looking grin on his face. "Of course...Of course. With your strength, our chances of getting to the city will greatly increase. We should be able to make it to the city in about four months of travel."
All of a sudden, Night heard Misery fussing about something in his soul space.
"Excuse me for a moment," Night said to Enok in aggravation. Enok just looked at Night as he strolled over to an area of the sand covered in blood.
"Grief, why did you do that? Night might not be happy," Misery said to the other Ker.
"That fierce child was dying, so I saved her soul. Night will have no objection," Grief responded with her usual calm demeanor.
"What happened?," Night asked as he walked over to the two women.
"Grief took the soul of child. See it over there," Misery said pointing to glowing orb that was sitting over by itself. It was unattached from a body.
"What?," Night said in shock. This woman had been all about protecting children....then she goes and kills one. Anger flashed across Night's face.
Seeing Night's face, Grief's normal calm self slighted shifted to worry as she immediately began explaining, "The child was dying from a really bad injury from the raiders. I saved her soul and brought it here so she could be at peace."
Night still looked unhappy as he asked, "Why would you do that? The child's soul can not remain here forever. That wouldn't be fair. Did you at least speak with the child about what you were doing first?"
Suddenly, Grief seemed to be insulted by Night's words. She actually yelled back at him, "Yes, this child agreed to be your servant for a chance to keep fighting. This child is a warrior. Her family was just killed by these raiders. Even with her father dying in front of her, she managed to pick up her knife and fight on despite being cut up by the raider's sword to the point of death. Even laying on the ground with her body cut up she was still trying to kill the man. She is a perfect candidate to be just like Misery and myself. The more soldiers in our tribe, then the better we can protect others."
Both Night and Misery instantly went through a shift in their mentality toward Grief. They both seemed to be locked in thought. Misery's harsh look softened and she looked over at Night. He seemed to be struggling with the whole concept. After a minute of consideration, Night came to a decision on the matter.
'Why not?," Night thought, "If I can save people this way and increase my strength at the same time.....Why not?"
"Okay, keep the child's soul safe for now. We will continue this discussion later...don't ever do this kind of stuff without my permission," Night said.
Taking his focus back away from his soul space, he looked around the battle worn caravan. He saw the bodies of a family laid in a really bloody area. A girl's body was nearest to a fallen bandit. He looked pitifully at the family as he walked up. A father, a mother, and two siblings. All dead. The sight of the girl completely disturbed him though. She appeared to be around 16 years old. Half of her arm was missing and it looked like she had been stabbed several times. There were wounds all over her. Despite the damage, her corpse was still holding tightly onto a sword and had a glare towards the dead bandit.
'Damn.....', Night said as he looked over the carnage that had happened at this spot.
"Misery, you and Grief go speak with the girl. Make sure she understands everything about becoming a Ker. I'll be back here to talk with all three of you in about an hour. I need to take care of some stuff first," Night said as he continued to look around.
After finishing up with the two women, Night picked up his scorpion and went back over towards the two unconscious demigods. He tossed the two men on the back of the scorpion with plans to move them to the tent when it was ready.
While he had only been gone for a few minutes, Enok had already had some men assemble a tent off to the side. His accommodations were ready and waiting when he arrived with the two men slumped over his scorpion's back.
Night exchanged a few words with the Caravan leader then began to get started on his work. The caravan leader still seemed to have some fear of Night and quickly went on his way after making sure he was taken care of properly.
After dragging the men inside, Night performed a physical search of the two men. If they were bandits, then they should have some good stuff on them. Since Night didn't get his pick of supplies from Manco Oasis, he really wanted to gather some items of value before arriving at the demon city.
After a few minutes of searching, Night was delighted. He had found a wonderful treasure on one of the unconscious demigod bandits.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
BrokeButton
BrokeButton The Keres (Ker, individual) were a group of death spirits that personified violent death in Greek mythology.
They are very similar to the Norse mythology Valkyries.....but on the other end of the spectrum.....Norse Valkyries were more of lovers of heros and would shuttle men to Valhalla.... the Greek Keres were vicious and more focused on destruction....
Interesting reading if you are into ancient mythologies...
Hope you are enjoying Volume 4 so far. Thanks for reading.
Status Power Mingguan
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