An incident on a secluded road in a forested area…

The forest…

A beautiful and lush tropical forest, filled with the sounds of cicadas, bees, and birds.

Varied and vibrant forest vegetation rises on both sides of the secluded forest road.

However, there are more than just trees and forest fauna here…

A luxurious, patterned carriage, made of a rare and expensive type of reddish wood, travels along a secluded road in the forest. Two horses are harnessed to this carriage. The driver (a young human dressed in a dusty doublet and gray cloth pants) skillfully controls the horses in harness, occasionally urges them.

In front and behind the carriage, two pairs of horse guards are trotting.

These horsemen look like skilled and dangerous warriors, who are dressed in expensive mithril armor. Their faces are hidden behind close helmets. Each of them has a scabbard with an elegant bastard sword attached to his belt.

These four armored horsemen look like persons who are accompanying someone influential...

Who is sitting inside the carriage?

The answer to this question is not clear.

The cavalcade continues to move rapidly along the road...

When suddenly a deafening crack of breaking wood is heard somewhere nearby!

Two large trees fall in the path of the two horsemen who were riding in front of the carriage. The trunks of the trees were cut off at the base.

The two horses do not have time to react: the trunks of the cut trees break their front legs. The crippled horses fall to the ground and neigh loudly from hellish pain.

Their riders also fall. One armored horseman fell extremely unsuccessfully - the horse, maddened by pain, crushed the leg and torso of this warrior with the weight of his body.

The warrior tries with all his might to get out. But he can't do it: because of the fall, his leg is clearly broken, the crippled horse is moving its hind legs and its hooves are a threat to anyone who tries to come close.

Because of the awkward position, the base of the close helmet presses on the warrior's throat, making it difficult for him to breathe.

The warrior takes off his close helmet with his left hand.

He screams in pain and tries to call for help.

In response to his words, something flies rapidly from the bushes on the left side of the road...

A sharp dagger.

The iron tip of the dagger plunges into the warrior's nose and pierces the flesh all the way to the depths of the skull.

At that moment, the second armored warrior (this rider was also riding in front of the carriage, but he managed to deftly jump off the saddle at the second when a fallen tree broke his horse's front legs) snatches his weapon from its sheath.

An elegant one-and-a-half sword that emits a faint bluish glow.

The warrior shouts to the coachman, who was **** to stop the carriage (because now, due to the fallen trees, the carriage will not be able to go further along the road): "We are under attack! Hide!"

The coachman jumps off the carriage and tries to hide.

At this time, the two remaining armored warriors (who were riding behind the carriage) stop their horses and dismount. They also snatch their weapons from their sheaths. Two more elegant longswords of elven workmanship emit a faint bluish glow in this wooded area.

One of these armored warriors, holding the sword in his right hand, makes a gesture with his left hand towards the bushes from which, probably, the dagger was thrown.

He pronounces the words of the attack spell.

Four clots of energy shining with a bluish light separate from his palm and quickly fly towards the bushes, leaving behind a barely noticeable trail of glowing sparks.

The next moment, a cry of pain is heard from the bushes.

Obviously, the spell has reached its target.

The carriage door opens slightly from the inside.

The influential passenger is clearly displeased and wants to inquire about the essence of the unpleasant incident.

The warrior, who successfully attacked the enemy hiding in the bushes, loudly says: "Don't worry, sir! Now we will destroy this scum!"

The carriage door closes again. The passenger has decided to stay inside and wait.

The warrior nods to his companion and they both prepare to cast the same attack spell again.

A perfectly reasonable plan: to kill an enemy hiding in the bushes with long-range magic.

However, something they had not yet foreseen suddenly happens.

About ten meters behind the carriage, a vague silhouette quickly jumps out of the tall grass on the right side of the road.

This person looks like a tall and muscular half-orc male, dressed in dirty and worn-out clothes. His grayish-green hooded cloak is covered in holes and dirt. In his hand is a long iron sword.

He lets out a deafening, furious roar and rushes at the two armored warriors, swinging his weapon.

This event clearly caught the two armored warriors by surprise and interrupted their attempts to use long-range attack magic again. The half-orc manages to get close to these two persons to start a melee fight.

His iron sword manages to deliver several powerful blows to each of the two warriors.

But...

Their mithril armor easily repels these blows, despite the power of their delivery.

The blows only make the warriors stagger slightly.

But after a couple of seconds, they both regain their composure and begin to attack the half-orc with their elven-made longswords, which emit a faint bluish glow.

A couple of blows are parried.

The half-orc manages to dodge another blow from the sword.

But, despite the agility of this guy, his sword is clearly not capable of withstanding for long the enchanted steel weapon, which is made by outstanding elven craftsmen.

Another blow from the elven longsword simply breaks the iron blade in the middle.

The second armored warrior tries to go around the enemy and stab him from behind...

The half-orc mutters incomprehensible words and a crimson flash appears around his body. Sparks of magical fiery energy form a translucent spiked armor around the half-orc's body. This magical translucent crimson armor exudes heat that affects the two armed opponents. This unnatural heat makes them both feel a burning pain and recoil.

The green-skinned attacker took advantage of the momentary confusion and pounced on one armored warrior, striking with a fragment of his iron sword at the base of the close helmet.

The half-orc knocked the enemy to the ground.

The blow causes the close helmet to fly to the side.

The blue gaze of the stunned half-elf warrior looks at the half-orc's face. Which is imbued with beast rage.

The next moment, a powerful blow from a fragment of an iron sword breaks the bones of the half-elf's skull.

One more blow!

The iron turns the half-elf's face into a bloody mass of flesh and bone fragments.

Taking advantage of the favorable moment, the second armored warrior delivers a slashing blow with his enchanted steel bastard sword to the half-orc's back. As he approaches, the warrior feels a surge of pain - after all, the magical translucent crimson armor that covers the half-orc's body continues to emit heat.

But despite this, the blow reaches its target.

The half-orc, growling in pain, rolls on the ground, throwing away the fragment of his iron sword and grabbing the weapon of the warrior he just killed with his right hand.

He awkwardly rises to his feet.

Blood is pouring from his back.

It is obvious that he is seriously wounded.

However, a blow from an enchanted elven longsword would have been fatal for this half-orc - if there was no iron chainmail under his clothes. And one more thing: probably, part of the damage from the blow was eliminated thanks to a strange spell of the magical translucent crimson armor.

In the right hand of the half-orc now is the same weapon as his opponent.

An elegant longsword of elven workmanship, which exudes a faint bluish glow.

The armored warrior moves towards the enemy, rapidly striking.

The half-orc is clearly weakened by the wound - he barely parries the blows with his blade. Meanwhile, another armored warrior with a longsword walks around the front of the carriage, trying to come to the aid of his companion and help in the destruction of the half-orc.

And he almost succeeds...

However, a couple of seconds before the half-orc's successful attack, the silhouette of another person runs out of the bushes in front of the carriage, who is obviously a participant in the attack on the carriage.

Compared to the half-orc, this figure is short, thin and, to some extent, feminine. The facial features of this person clearly indicate her half-elven origin.

Fiery red hair that reaches just below the shoulders. A gray strand of hair in the area just to the left of a slightly wrinkled forehead. The look of emerald-green eyes that exudes fatigue and grim determination.

There are clear signs of injuries on the half-elf's body: his clothes have holes in several places that are slightly smoking (these seem to be signs of magical damage in some places of the body).

This half-elf holds an iron dagger in his right hand.

He runs closer to the carriage and pronounces the words of the spell, stretching his left hand forward.

A stream of crimson sparks breaks from the fingers of his left palm, forming a fiery cone directed towards two armored warriors who are trying to surround the half-orc and hack him to **** with their swords.

A fiery cone of burning crimson magical energy engulfs one of the figures of the armored warriors and the figure of the coachman, who was hiding next to the carriage and tried to escape at the most inopportune moment.

The coachman lets out loud screams in which the highest degree of torment and pain is felt. His figure, engulfed in flames, falls to the ground. He rolls on the ground, trying to put out the flames.

Unsuccessfully.

A few seconds later, all that remains of this guy is a charred corpse.

The armored warrior withstood the damage from this spell more successfully. Probably, his mithril armor helped him survive.

His back is engulfed in flames, he turns towards the half-elf and slowly moves towards him.

The warrior is slowed by pain and burns.

He swings his blade, aiming for the half-elf's head.

The half-elf deftly jumps to the side and...

He runs even closer to the enemy!

At extremely close range, swinging and attacking with a longsword is not at all convenient.

The half-elf took advantage of this and delivered a quick blow with the tip of the iron dagger into the viewing slit of the close helmet.

Due to the pain of the magical burns, the armored warrior did not have time to react to the enemy's swift maneuver.

The tip of the iron dagger pierced the warrior's right eye and sank deep into his flesh...

Another body falls to the ground and convulses in agony.

At that moment, the carriage door swings wide open.

A tall elf emerges from it, dressed in dark gray silk pants, leather boots, an elegant waistcoat, and a luxurious dark blue cloak.

He says in a haughty tone: "How irritating... incompetence..."

He raises his hands and pronounces loud words of a spell in some ancient dialect of the elven language.

A stream of sparks and glow comes from his palms, which forms a powerful lightning-like beam of magical energy.

This beam of magical electrical energy strikes in the direction of the two fighting persons.

A half-orc and an armored warrior armed with a longsword enchanted by elven magic.

They both fall under the blow of this magic spell.

But the damage to the half-orc's health is much more significant.

The power of the magic blow throws his body three meters away from the road.

His body shudders in convulsions of pain.

Residual discharges of electrical energy continue to torment his flesh.

The armored warrior also received damage from the spell.

He can barely take slow steps and he moves with the last of his strength towards the half-orc's body.

Having approached, he raises his sword to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy.

At this second, the half-orc strains the last of his strength and makes a quick thrust in an upward direction.

Despite the pain and exhaustion, the half-orc did not let go of the sword in his right hand...

Thanks to this, he, and not his opponent, was able to deliver the final blow.

The tip of the enchanted elven longsword strikes the narrow gap between the base of the close helmet and the mithril plate armor.

The tip of the sword pierces the flesh in the chin area.

The corpse of the armored warrior falls on the body of the half-orc, partially pressing his body to the ground.

A tall elf, dressed in luxurious clothes, slowly gets off the carriage and says: "Am I really **** to finish the job myself? I must find more skilled servants..."

He raises his hands and begins to pronounce the words of a new spell...

However, he did not take into account the fact that there was another enemy hiding behind the carriage...

Before the elf managed to pronounce the final words of the spell, he feels a sharp and sharp pain in his back.

The silhouette of the person who came up to him from behind seems familiar to him...

The wounded elf falls to the ground.

The silhouette bends over him.

The person holds a bloody iron dagger in her hands.

The elf lies on the ground and winces in pain.

He looks into the face of the one who stabbed him in the back.

The elf's eyes widen in surprise, and he speaks excitedly: "Jerome?! It's you! Some monstrous and absurd mutual misunderstanding has occurred! This is all a mistake! Please take the bag of healing potions from the carriage and give it to me - I need to treat the wound... Everything will be fine - you and I will return to our castle... Don't worry - I'm sure everyone will be understanding towards you... It's obvious that you are not to blame for anything. This vile half-orc is to blame for everything. He deceived you and made you run away... I forgive you, Jerome. I have always loved you. After all, I am your father."

These are not just words.

When these words are spoken, a faint, barely noticeable glow lights up in the elf's eyes.

As if the power of suggestion of these words is increased by some hidden magical influence.

However, the half-elf, who is bending over the body of the wounded man, only grins in response: "Yes... I know... You are my father... That is why I am here..."

The elf's uncomprehending gaze looks fearfully into the face of the owner of the bloody dagger...

And the next second, something happens that the elf did not expect.

A quick stab with a dagger in the throat.

Another blow.

A new blow.

A blow with the tip of the dagger in the face.

A dagger stab in the eye.

A series of random blows to the already dead body.

A few minutes later, the half-elf, whose hands, clothes and face are covered in bloody splashes, gets up and goes to the carriage.

He takes a small bag from the carriage.

The half-elf examines the trophy: in the bag are several healing potions, a couple of scrolls and a solid amount of money (about 10 gold coins).

He takes all this and puts it in his shoulder backpack.

After this, the half-elf takes two enchanted elven longswords and packs them into his backpack.

Then he goes towards the half-orc's body and helps him to his feet.

The half-orc is clearly feeling very bad due to the many wounds. It is doubtful that he will live long if urgent measures are not taken.

The half-elf makes him drink two healing potions.

After that, the two go somewhere deep into the forest, leaving behind six corpses and a couple of crippled horses, which continue to convulse in agony.

The last words spoken by the half-elf before the two disappeared into the forest: "Try not to die, Oolok... We both still have much work to do. Atheral Hyureeno was only the first goal. We must do what the one who grants us powers demands... If we die and fail to complete the task, I fear that we will both experience something much worse than ordinary ****..."