"...They're here."
Li Tianyu's voice was low, tight as a drawn bowstring. The words barely left his lips before the air shifted.
A sudden gust swept through the forest, too sharp, too cold. The leaves stopped rustling. Birds scattered with a chorus of shrill caws. Then—
Thwip.
The first arrow struck. A sharp hiss, then a grunt—one of the vanguard guards toppled from his saddle, blood spraying from his neck.
"AMBUSH!"
The forest exploded.
From the shadows burst masked figures in mismatched robes and dirty armor, howling like wild beasts. Crude sabers, rusted spears, and blades pulsing with unstable Qi sliced through the underbrush as they charged—dozens of them.
"Shields up! Formation!"
Captain Zhao's voice cracked through the chaos like a whip.
Horses screamed. Steel clashed. The Li guards snapped into formation with practiced speed, but the assault hit like a hammer. Arrows rained down from both flanks. Two more guards fell—one clutching his shoulder, the other with a shaft embedded in his thigh.
Li Tianyu was already moving. He flung himself from his horse, landing hard on one knee, sword flashing from its sheath in a clean arc. A rogue cultivator came barreling at him, screaming. Tianyu sidestepped and slashed low—the man crumpled, gut split open.
"Fan out! Protect the wagons!"
Zhao barked, cleaving a bandit nearly in half. Qi exploded from his sword in a shockwave, sending another two attackers tumbling backward.
"Left flank's folding!" someone yelled. "Too many coming through!"
More figures emerged from the thickets, their faces half-covered in cloth, their Qi erratic and wild. Most were low-level cultivators, throwing reckless bursts of elemental energy—flames sputtered, lightning cracked and fizzled mid-air.
Tianyu ducked another arrow, blade up, breath quick and shallow. His blood pounded in his ears. His hands were steady, but his heart thundered with raw fire.
A second attacker lunged. Tianyu parried the crude blade, slid under the strike, then drove his sword straight through the man's sternum.
Another one rushed. Tianyu twisted, kicked the rogue's knee inward, heard the satisfying crunch, and finished it with a clean slash across the throat.
Beside him, Uncle Liu moved like a hurricane—saber carving elegant, efficient arcs through the chaos. A flame-wielding bandit hurled a burst of Qi at him, but Liu ducked under it and cut the man down with a spinning slash that left no time for a scream.
Zhao's voice rose again.
"Hold the line! Don't let them split us!"
The caravan was devolving into pockets of chaos. Blood splattered the ground. One of the lead wagons was aflame. Two guards tried to push it upright again, but a spear punched through one's back before he could even scream.
Tianyu spun, narrowly dodging a glaive strike. He slashed back, felt the jolt of contact as his blade cut through tendon. The attacker fell, shrieking.
This wasn't a training yard. It wasn't a duel. This was blood and panic and screaming steel.
A sharp cry rang out—one of the guards was dragged off his horse by three bandits.
Li Tianyu stumbled, sweat dripping down his jaw. A blur came at him from the side—a rogue cultivator, hands wreathed in green mist. Poison.
Tianyu raised his blade—
Too slow.
The blow never landed.
Steel split the air beside him. Liu was there in an instant, cutting the rogue down mid-lunge. Blood sprayed across Tianyu's shoulder.
"Focus, Yu'er! This isn't a sparring match!"
Liu's words struck like a slap across the face.
Tianyu's jaw clenched. Shame surged through his chest—then fury.He couldn't afford hesitation. Not now.
He took a sharp breath and dropped low, sliding beneath a wide spear thrust. His sword snapped up—cutting deep into the bandit's ribs. The man howled and staggered back, blood spraying from the wound.
Another attacker came.
Tianyu pivoted, his Wind Veil Art flowing through his limbs. He stepped sideways in a blur, then slashed across the man's stomach.
One fell. Another replaced him. No time to breathe.
He ducked a blade swipe, kicked hard into a knee—crack. The rogue screamed as his leg buckled. Tianyu spun with the momentum, blade slicing across his throat.
The air was choked with Qi, blood, and smoke. Screams echoed from every direction.
His foot caught a loose rock—he stumbled. A rough hand shot out toward his chest, wrapped in flickering poison Qi.
Too close.
Tianyu twisted and rolled, the poison swipe missing by inches. He rose mid-turn, jabbing his sword into the man's gut. A crunch. A gasp. The rogue collapsed, twitching.
But more surged in.
A curved blade flew from the side—Tianyu blocked, but the force rattled through his arms. He stepped back, only for another to leap at him from behind.
"Yu'er!"
Liu intercepted the second blow, his saber carving clean through the rogue's chest.
"Keep moving! Don't stop!"
Tianyu gritted his teeth and launched forward again. He weaved through the chaos like smoke, body flickering between stabs and slashes.
One rogue had a glaive—too big, too slow. Tianyu stepped under the swing, closed the distance, and drove his sword deep through the armpit. The man choked and dropped.
Another charged with twin daggers. Tianyu ducked, took a shallow cut, then smashed an elbow into his face and dropped him with a slash.
His Qi surged. His body obeyed. He was bleeding, panting, exhausted—But he was alive.
All around, the Li guards fought back with grit and discipline. Bloodied, bruised—but not broken. They rallied behind Zhao's orders, pushing forward with formation drills.
But for every bandit they cut down, two more spilled from the trees like ants from a broken nest.
Then something shifted.
The next wave didn't charge with chaos—it came in rows. Structured. Synchronized.
A forward wedge slammed into the left flank, shields raised and spears leveled, driving into the Li formation like a cleaver through bone.
"Left column, brace! Shields up!" Zhao roared, eyes narrowing as he spotted the precision in the enemy lines. "They're coordinated—flank squads, hit patterns… they're trained!"
Another squad burst from a fallen log, casting talismans on the move. Fire and ice exploded against the shield wall—two guards flew backward, screaming. A third's arm froze solid as a frost rune detonated on impact.
Liu parried a twin strike, wheeled around, and beheaded one of the attackers in a single clean motion.
"These bastards aren't just any rogues—they're drilled like outer sect disciples."
"What?!" one of the younger guards shouted, barely deflecting a lightning arc. "Who the hell taught these bandits to run formations?!"
Zhao didn't answer. His sword cut clean through an axe-wielding attacker, Qi bursting from his blade like white flame.
"We're in a choke! They waited for the wagons to bottleneck us—they're forcing a kill zone!"
Tianyu realized it in that instant.
He'd never set foot on a battlefield before, but his mother had drilled into him how to survive in any situation.
This wasn't a random ambush.
It was a calculated, tactical assault.
They had studied the route.
Predicted exactly where the convoy would stop.
Mapped out coordinated points of entry.
Every move had been planned in advance.
One guard shouted as arrows rained from above.
"They've got elevation too! Cliff sides—ten o'clock!"
Another squad of bandits emerged from behind a downed tree, shields locked tight. They advanced as one, stabbing forward with brutal rhythm. Behind them, others carried repeating crossbows—uncommon, deadly weapons.
"Crossbows!" Zhao barked. "Disperse! Don't cluster!"
But it was already too late for several. The first volley shredded through exposed guards. Metal tore into flesh. Two fell screaming, their blood soaking the dirt as the formation crumbled.
The Li guards weren't weak. They had faced beasts, patrol skirmishes, even minor sect border conflicts.
But this one… This wasn't an ambush. It was a calculated execution—layered, cold, professional.
"This doesn't make sense—bandits don't move like this."
One guard muttered, slashing through another attacker as he shifted toward the caravan.
"They're not bandits," Liu growled. "Not really. This is a trained cult or rogue sect. Whoever planned this knew how we'd respond."
Zhao's voice rang out again.
"Regroup behind the rear wagon! Use the choke!"
Tianyu turned. The forward path was now a blood-soaked ruin—bodies tangled in the mud, fire licking the edges of wagon cloth, hooves kicking uselessly where horses lay screaming.
One of the supply carts toppled with a loud crunch, and three guards screamed as they were pinned beneath its weight.
Still the enemy came.
Relentless. Coordinated. Too many.
Through the haze of Qi and fire, the Li convoy—once proud and orderly—was now drowning in chaos. Their formation shattered. Their numbers dwindling.
And deep within the forest's shadow... something worse was waiting.