Lawrence immediately pulled his horse to quickly divert off the main path, but instantly noticed that the hills on both sides of the road were blocking him, forcing him to continue along the main road. With hills blocking his view and movement, this was a perfect place for an ambush, and he walked straight into it.
"So they were waiting for us until the perfect moment." Lawrence said this to indicate that escape was impossible.
Seconds later, a horse jumped in front of Lawrence's cart, catching him by surprise. He immediately pulled hard on the horse's reins to stop the cart in order to avoid a collision. The horse let out a disgruntled scream, and raised his two front hoofs into the air.
The horse lost his balance, and staggered sharply to the right, bringing the whole cart with it. The cart violently rocked left and right, causing crates at the back of the cart to tumble and bash against the wooden sides of the cart. Lawrence was thrown from side to side of the driver seat, gripping the rope with all his strength, so that he won't be flung out of his cart by the furious shaking.
The cart steadied, allowing Lawrence to sit back up and regain his composure. Taking a quick glance at the situation at the back of the cart, boxes of nails and strips of wood were everywhere, and some of his goods were badly damaged from the rocking. Holo was rubbing her head groaning, appeared a bit dazed, and probably took a light hit on her head.
Thankfully, the crates containing the nails did not break, which averted Lawrence's worst-case scenario. The situation would be a hundred times worse, if the nail crates did break, and Holo would had been be rocked along with hundreds of sharp nails in the back. In his mind, Lawrence couldn't even picture how horrible that situation will become.
Tossing that thought to the back on his mind, he returned his focus to the current situation, which could be considered a traveling merchant's worse nightmare.
The bandits were moving in circle around the cart like hungry sharks circling around their prey before they devoured it. As they continue to circle around Lawrence, they were picking up the yellow-brownish dust on the road, thus creating a dust smokescreen. As a result, Lawrence could not clearly see the riders, but their weapons were clearly noticeable, as the iron tip of their spears and swords sparkled and reflected sunlight into Lawrence's eyes.
Lawrence reached around his back to grab the hilt of his dagger, getting ready to defend himself and Holo.
Like common nightmares, this wasn't the first time he was in this kind of the situation in his seven years of traveling. He recalled that his master told him that if he was being robbed by bandits, the most important thing was to remain calm, and addressed the situation with a clear mind. Another important thing you need to do was to put on a strong a composure that was not too aggressive but not too submissive either.
A loss was unavoidable when you were being robbed, so a smart merchant would do whatever he could to minimize his losses.
Although this was easier said than done, it was actually really simple if one knew how bandits operate and their tactics. Similar to a business deal, if the merchant knew their competitor's strategy, he would have a huge advantage over his competitor.
The common strategy bandits use was to instill fear into to the person they are robbing, which causes them to be passive and submissive, and making it easier for them to rob him of all his possessions.
They had several tactics to do this. First tactic was confusion. By confusing the person, they stripped the person the of his ability to clearly assess the situation and make decisions. It further disoriented the person, causing a sense of helplessness and anxiety, which further hindered their ability to make proper decisions.
Lawrence was aware that the bandits were trying to confuse him when they dangerously leaped into Lawrence's path to forcefully and quickly stop his cart. Also, by creating a dust screen, it obscured Lawrence's view of the environment and situation, disabling him from gathering information from his surroundings.
Instead of succumbing to the feeling of helplessness and anxiety, Lawrence took this opportunity to calm himself down. Knowing that he had Holo by his side, it greatly helped him. He started to observe what he could about the riders. If one was unable to make a clear decision because of a lack of information, then he must observe the situation and gather as much information until he could make a proper decision.
As the horses circling around Lawrence gradually slowed down, the dust screen also died down. This finally allowed Lawrence to clearly see the bandits and the situation.
The bandits came to stop, there were four in total, one in the front, left, right and back. There were about the same age as Lawrence. A black mask covered half their face, showing only the top half of their face.
They were strangely well kept for a band of bandits; their hair was cleanly cut, and their clothing was very casual, like the clothes people would be seen wearing in a city. The clothes were also in good condition, and not the tattered or torn clothing like the other bandits he encountered before. They also appeared physically smaller and frailer than Lawrence. If they got into a fight, Lawrence would probably have no trouble defeating them one on one.
Looking at the hills beside him, he saw three more riders silhouetted on top of both the hills. They were most likely observers watching the situation from the top, and intervene if the situation got out of hand.
"So that makes ten in total." He said under his breath.
Lawrence was not surprised when he saw more bandits on top of the hills, but rather expected it. Another common tactic bandits use was intimidation by overwhelming numbers and weaponry. Basically, it was a scare tactic with the purpose of forcing the person to submit to you through fear. By achieving this, they would have full control of the situation.
To avoid falling into clutches of their scare tactics, one must remember that bandits were also human beings, trying to seek a living using a dirtier and unjustified method, instead of bloodthirsty creatures. Their goal was to rob their target, then get out of there as fast as possible. Killing the target was meaningless and would complicate the situation. If they really wanted to kill, they would have done it right at the beginning.
The bandit in front of Lawrence took out his sword from his sheath, and pointed the sword at Lawrence. Lawrence was momentarily blinded by the sunlight that reflected from his silver sword.
"You two, get out of the cart, and don't try anything stupid." Lawrence guessed that he was the leader of the group, because his sword and sheath was higher quality than the other swords the other bandits were using.
Although Lawrence knew that the bandits would rather not resort to violence, they will if their target decided resist. Since they have the advantage in numbers and weapons, Lawrence had no choice but to comply. However, this is not submitting because of fear, Lawrence was basically trying to guarantee the safety of himself and Holo.
Similar to a business deal, if one was in a disadvantage, one must wait for the right opportunity to make a counter attack. In order to do that, they must let them think they were in full control of the situation, but in reality, they were not.
Lawrence turned his head back, and saw that Holo was looking at him. He gave a nodded signaling that we were getting out of the cart.
They both got out of the cart, and were led away from the cart to the base of the hill by the other bandits. Lawrence saw a cart carrying three people and drawn by two horses pull up besides his cart. It probably belonged to the bandits, so that they could easily transport their stuff back to their hideout.
The three people got off the cart, and quickly began loading Lawrence's cargo into their own cart. Lawrence felt a sharp pain in his heart as he watched his assets gets stolen in front of him.
Within a few minutes, they have finished moving the items. The three people went back on the cart, and sped off around the base of the hill, instantly leaving Lawrence's line of sight.
The leader raised his hand into the air, and performed some kind of signal to the other bandits. When the leader lowered his hand from the air, two of the bandits got on their horses and galloped in the same direction as their cart.
The other six bandits on the hills disappeared as well, leaving only two people with Lawrence and Holo.
Lawrence guessed that the bandits joined up with their carts to act as escort as they made their back to their hideout. But this induction made Lawrence feel uneasy, because it was unusual for a band of bandits to separate before they were done robbing their target.
Holo also seemed to sense that this was strange, and remarked.
"Wow, they must be in a hurry to leave, I wonder why?"
"I don't know. Must have been scared that they will be caught by a band of knights or the local guards I think."
Although Lawrence wanted to know why the bandits had separated so quickly, he had no time to ponder about that right now.
With the most of the bandits gone, only the leader and the guard that was keeping watch of him and Holo remained. The two that were left were probably here to mop up the situation, and to steal whatever else Lawrence had on his body.
"They have just made a fatal mistake." Lawrence whispered to himself.
The leader walked up to Lawrence and Holo, wearing a grin as if he had complete power over them. He probably wanted to strip whatever we had left on our bodies. Since Holo's clothing was luxurious, he probably thought that we had jewels and gold coins in our wallet.
He went and confronted Holo first, thinking that she was the weakest link because she was a young girl.
"Second fatal mistake there", Lawrence had to use all his strength to suppress a grin that was surfacing on his face.
"Hey you, take off your hood". The leader smiled cockily at Holo.
Holo stood firmly with her eyes looking straight at the leader, producing a low growl at him that seemed somewhat threatening. Showing no signs of obeying him, the leader eyes lit red, furious that Holo didn't listen to him.
"Disobedient bitch, when I say take off you hood, I mean take off your hood right now!" The leader yelled in a loud voice.
Holo continued to stare at him with unwavering eyes, like she was mocking him, but without saying any words or making any movement.
The leader clenched his hand into a fist.
'I'll teach you to know who is in control here"
He raised his fist into to air, and threw and hard punch towards Holo's face.
Holo skillfully evaded the punch, and immediately kicked the leader right in his groin. He fell on to his knees clutching his lower area, and groaning in pain.
The bandit guarding Lawrence was surprised by the turn of events, and immediately ran toward his leader in order to subdue Holo. By doing that, the bandit left himself completely open for Lawrence.
Before the bandit got out of Lawrence's reach, Lawrence firmly grabbed the bandit's left shoulder to stop him from moving. He then placed his foot behind the bandit. Lawrence pull the bandit's left shoulder back towards him with all his strength. The bandit stuttered backwards, tripped on Lawrence's foot, and fell down hard on the ground.
Before the bandit had any chance to pull himself off the ground and retaliate, Lawrence took out his dagger hidden in the left side on his waist belt, and pointed it at the bandit's face.
The bandit laid on the ground, not daring to move. The tide had turned in Lawrence's favor.
Beside him, Holo continued her assault on their leader. Right after the leader fell to knees in pain from Holo's kick, Holo slammed her knee into the leader's face. His entire body fell on his back with a loud thud. Holo immediately pounced on top of his body, pinning him with her weight. Raising her hand into the air, she swirled her fingers into a fist, and punched him hard in the face.
"Disobedient bitch, am I!"
Holo gave him another punch.
"Teach me a lesson?" Another punch followed.
"How about I teach you to respect other people's belongings!" She punched him two more times.
By this time, the leader's face was full of bruises from Holo's relentless beating, like he was trampled by a herd of goats.
Even though they had robbed him of him of his possessions, Lawrence could not help but feet pity for their leader, who was now facing the full extent of Holo's wrath.
Turning his attention back to the other bandit who on the ground in front of him, the bandit watched him closely, not attempting move or resist. Lawrence began to think about the next course of action he should take. He turned to the bandit and revealed a sinister grin.
"If you do not want to end up like your leader over there, I suggest you cooperate with us. The local authorities would be greatly interested in seeing the both of you, and would love to get to some information from you about your groups of thieves."
Lawrence was feeling elated. Not only would he get his goods that were stolen compensated, he would also get a hefty sum from the local authorities for turning in the two bandits. In a business sense, he had turned a situation, which was a going to be a certain loss, to a situation where he had made a profit.
This will definitely be one of the stories he would be telling the other merchants about his achievement in turning the tide of a robbery.
However, the bandit did not show an expression of defeat or fear like he expected. He was grinning back at him, like he fell into some sort of trap they had planned. He then said two words to Lawrence.
"Not today."
Immediately after saying those two words, the bandit pulled out a knife from his pocket, catching Lawrence by surprise. Because of his excitement over his grand feat, Lawrence did not notice that the bandit had slowly and sneakily moved his hand into his pocket. The bandit threw the knife towards Holo, who was still on top of the leader.
Holo immediately jumped hard to the right, her shoulder hit the ground, and rolled a few short steps away from their leader's body. Her high reflexes allowed her to narrowly dodge the knife that was thrown at her.
Lawrence instantly turned his attention to Holo to see if she was okay, but then he felt a large stabbing pain in the back of his left knee, causing him to lose his balance. He fell on to his knees, and instinctively placed his two arms on the ground in front of him to support his upper body, so he did not fall flat on the ground.
Looking to his injured knee, he immediately knew what happen. The bandit, who was under Lawrence captivity, threw his knife towards Holo to distract him for a quick moment. Then, using the distraction as an opportunity for a counter attack, the bandit rammed the hilt of his sword at the back of Lawrence's knee, causing him to fall.
The bandit immediately got up from the ground, holding his sword to his side. He looked at Lawrence with bloodthirsty eyes, planning to kill him and Holo.
The bandit raised his sword to the same level as his waist, and prepared to a take swing to decapitate Lawrence. Just before the bandit took his swing at Lawrence's head; Lawrence mustered up his willpower and suppressed excruciating pain from his injured knee. Using his injured knee, he took a small and quick leap towards the bandit, and successfully sliced the arm that was holding the sword using his dagger.
Then bandit screamed in pain, and dropped the sword to the ground.
Lawrence landed face first into the dirt, grasping his left knee and groaning in pain.
The bandit's face grew red, filled with bloodlust, and his right hand was dripping with blood from the deep wound Lawrence inflicted on him.
The bandit hastily walked toward his sword to pick it up and finish Lawrence once and for all. Just when the bandit was about to pick up the sword with his uninjured hand, Holo tackled him, and caused him to tumble down the hill.
Holo remained in front of Lawrence to protect him.
The bandit seeing that his plan didn't go as he expected, and that he and his leader was injured, rushed to his leader, who was still laying on the ground after being beaten into a pulp by Holo. With one angry glance at Holo and Lawrence direction, he dragged the leader off the ground and ran towards their horses.
Using his uninjured arm and all his body strength, the bandit placed his leader on the back of his horse, and galloped away as fast as they could over the hills.
"It is finally over". Holo said with a sigh.
Holo went to Lawrence's side and helped Lawrence sit up.
"Is your knee okay?" Holo asked while checking on his knee.
Lawrence was still clenching his knee with his hands, but the pain had mostly subsided as long as he did not move it.
"Why don't you go into your wolf form and chase them down." Lawrence said half-heartedly.
He turned his face and looked at Holo, who returned with a furious expression.
"What did you just say? I cannot just leave you here with an injured leg! I am Holo, the Wise Wolf, it is more important to take care of an injured companion than to chase down a gang of lowly thieves. Am I not right?"
Lawrence looks at his knee, showing off a dejected expression.
"Sorry, you're right. It is my fault that the situation turned out like this. I got too cocky and got caught off guard"
Holo turned her face to sigh, and gave a big "hmph" to Lawrence.
"Of course you got overconfident and foolish. If my ears had not notice the sound of that bandit reaching in his pocket for a knife, I could have been or at least seriously wounded. And I would assume you know what could have had happened if the situation been different and I actually got hit by the knife."
Lawrence look even more depressed as he heard Holo's words. He screwed up by letting his small victory go to his head, which almost got Holo injured.
"I know. I'm sorry. I was just inexperienced in handling these situations.
"Obviously. You and the group of bandits were both inexperienced, thinking that you have won before the battle is over. Holo said as she kneeled beside Lawrence.
"You need to be a bit more careful, the bandit could have easily turned the knife on you instead of me." Lawrence looked at Holo's face as she said that. It was not anger that was reflected on her face, but one of genuine concern for him.
"But at least you and I are safe, and you did try your best to protect me. A knight does not always have to win battles; they just need to have the heart and motivation to protect the thing they cherish with all their power."
Holo revealed a happy smile to Lawrence. Seeing Holo's smile was one of the best things he could have received after this incident, as he knew that smile is smile from Holo's heart.
She was right that the bandit could have hit him with the knife instead of her. Lawrence realized that Holo wasn't really angry at him, but rather concerned and slightly relieved that none of them were seriously wounded.
Holo helped Lawrence stand. Lawrence leaned on Holo's shoulders to help him walk, and Lawrence slowly made their way back to the cart.
"So what is our plan for now, Lawrence?"
Lawrence, who just sat back at the driver's seat, signaled the horse to continue forward. The cart seemed so big and empty when there was nothing in the back.
Lawrence sighed.
"Well, we have no choice but to continue to the next town, where I can get access to some of my money I had saved up."
Holo jumped from the back of the cart to the driver's seat, and sat next to Lawrence.
"Will we have enough for lodging and food?"
Lawrence turned his gaze to Holo, and gave a smile and proudly announced with the confidence of an experienced merchant.
"I am Kraft Lawrence, a member of Rowen Trading Guild! The guild protects us merchants from robberies and other situation like these. Fortunately, there is a firm in Revattle, where I can go get compensations for the assets I have lost. Also, because of my amazing yet inexperienced merchant skills, I still got all the money in my wallet, so I have only lost my cargo. An expense that can be easily covered."
Lawrence said this to cheer Holo up, and also to make himself feel better. But getting compensation from the guild was not as easy as it just sounded.
"Well that is good to hear, so how long till we arrived at Revattle again?" Holo questioned.
Lawrence's proud expression turns into an troubled expression that says "here is the bad news".
"Well from here, we won't arrive till tomorrow afternoon."
Holo's ears eyes went wide and her ears went straight up
"Not until tomorrow! Then, what are we going to do about the food for dinner tonight?"
Lawrence sighed again.
"We have no choice; we won't have any food until we reach Revattle because all our food supply was stolen."
Holo's ears drooped down, realizing that this cannot be helped.
"Fine, But I am going to eat whatever I want in Revattle." Holo demanded.
Lawrence was too tired and demoralized to argue with Holo right now, so he decided that he would just submit to Holo's demands. After all, she did save his life back there.
"Okay, okay, you can have whatever we want when we get there."
The cart was silent except for several brief conversations for the whole afternoon, as each looked at the never ending road ahead of them
The sun went down, and the stars lit brightly over the darkness that covered the night sky.
Lawrence could not sleep because of the cold air. All the covers were stolen, and he hadn't had anything to eat since this afternoon, so the cold night was even harsher tonight. He was extremely exhausted from the incident in the afternoon, and desperately wanted to get a good night sleep.
However, to his side, Holo was hugging and resting on her tail, and was sleeping soundly.
Lawrence could not help my feel envious, since the fur looked so warm and soft. Looking at Holo, Lawrence knew that he would not get a decent rest without Holo's fur.
Lawrence wrapped his arms around Holo's sleeping body, and pulled her closer to him, so he could get some relief from the cold air with Holo's warm fur.
Holo's was awoken from her sleep to see that Lawrence was embracing her.
"What? What do you think you are doing Lawrence?" Holo cried out in surprise when Lawrence pulled her closer.
"Please Holo, I'm cold." Lawrence said tiredly.
"So you want to treat me as some kind of blanket to keep you warm at night"
Holo was interrupted when Lawrence's embrace grew tighter, pressing their bodies closer together.
"Please, just for tonight." Lawrence said half asleep.
After hearing Lawrence's tired voice, Holo decided to cooperate.
"Fine! Since you are injured after all, I will lend you my fur for tonight. But I better get a nice reward for my services."
Lawrence yawned.
"Fine ...fine..." They both cuddled against each other in order to share each other's body heat, and Lawrence quickly fell asleep.
Holo looked at Lawrence as he fell asleep in her arms. She wondered how long ago was it since she slept with another person with their arms wrapped this closely around each other. This sensation of having someone so close to you as you pass the night was not something she disliked. In fact, she felt a sense of comfort in it.
"Lawrence, you fool…" Holo said sleepily as she also started to fall asleep.
Lawrence rested his chin on top of Holo's head between her two wolf ears. Within a few moments, they both fell into a deep slumber in each other's embrace.