The World Dragon's Heir
Chapter 173: Bait and Switch

Chapter 173: Bait and Switch

Dominic and Alexis moved on foot so that they weren’t risking one of the Regiment’s mechanical horses if they should get caught while travelling.

They shouldn’t be at too much risk, they both appeared to be Nobles, and could act the part, which would make them less likely to be mistaken as deserters. But if that were the case, they were both well armed and armoured.

It wouldn’t be too difficult for either of them to take down a small patrol, if the patrol wasn’t using any magic.

The light was fading, so they would pretend to be setting up camp along the route that the patrol was going to take, not far from where the men were expecting to launch the ambush.

But like all well laid plans, this one did not survive its first encounter with the real world.

"You, setting up the tent. Who are you and what is your business here?" A deep voice demanded.

Dominic put the mallet down and stood to greet the visitor.

"This is the best road, if you can even call it that, from Staptontave to Midgexe. Our convoy was attacked two nights ago, so my wife and I are making our way on foot, of course." Dominic replied.

"And who might you be?" The soldier repeated, as Dominic had skipped that part of the answer.

"Earl Nick of Totbu. Whom might I be addressing?" Dominic asked.

The soldier frowned. He didn’t know any Earl of Totbu. In fact, he had no idea where Totbu was. But something about this strange man and his wife, travelling alone and on foot, without any retainers or guards, seemed wrong to him.

"Boys, search them. I do believe that we’ve got a pair of new volunteers for the camp." The unit Commander instructed his men with a grim chuckle.

Dominic smiled at him. "I believe there might be some misunderstanding."

The soldier sneered and opened his mouth to retort, just in time for Dominic to pull his pistol and put a bullet through his forehead.

The patrolmen froze, unable to process the fact that this young Nobleman had just murdered a Major from the Dagos Army in cold blood.

Then, explosions tore through the outer edges of the group, and Dominic’s hand flew over the action of the revolver as the closest guards tried to rush him.

Alexis had a mace and shield equipped, both glowing with holy magic.

"Ambush. Bastards set a trap for us!" Someone was shouting in the distance as the sound of hooves on soft dirt joined the explosions.

Then rifles were firing, and Dominic found that he had enough room to hurl fireballs at the enemy.

The sweeping charge by the cavalry had launched a hundred mortars into the general vicinity of a group of five hundred soldiers, who hadn’t even seen them coming in the fading light. Calling the situation a battle was being extremely generous to the Dagos soldiers’ odds of survival.

Dominic felt a sharp pain in his shoulder as a crossbow bolt hit his Mage Armour spell, but it didn’t break.

That was sure to leave a bruise tomorrow, though.

He added the necessity to increase the level of the Sorcerer’s Spellbook to his list of future tasks, and then hurled an Arcane Blast into the crossbowman, healing the bruise as it formed.

Beside him, Princess Alexis whistled the retreat call, and the cavalry broke off their attack, firing a few final rounds, and then charging toward her and Dominic, who hurried to pack the decoy tent back into his Storage Cube.

It was a stolen Dagos military tent, but he wanted to use it again later.

They were grabbed by the mounted riflemen and swung up behind the riders for the charge back to camp, while Commander Dax laughed.

"You know, that might have actually worked better than the actual plan. They were so distracted by the possibility of getting to capture a Noblewoman that they weren’t even watching the perimeter.

Every eye in the patrol was on the two of you." He joked.

Princess Alexis chuckled. "You have a point. We do make lovely bait, don’t we? We should work that into the next few ambush plans. If the enemy stops and gathers to talk to us, they make perfect targets for the mortar launchers.

I didn’t see any extremely off target mortars. Were there any issues?"

Dax shook his head. "No, they worked perfectly, and everyone was able to more or less guess where they were going to end up, even though it was their first shot. Very intuitive.

However, they’re nearly impossible to reload in the dark while on horseback. That’s why we put them away and switched to rifles."

"Well, no weapon is perfect. But a hundred against a five hundred soldier patrol was far more than needed. Did you even all fire?" Alexis asked.

"A few of the men still have their first round in reserve. But we put multiple mortars into the transports. Someone is going to realize that we didn’t loot those soon, though." Dax replied.

Alexis nodded. "I’m counting on it. Have your scouts inform the locals that there are disabled trucks full of supplies here, and see what they do. If we’re pushing their willingness to work with bandits too far, we can move on.

However, if they’re willing to loot the supplies for themselves, I say that we can trust them enough to stay a bit longer."

Dax saluted her, then broke away to have one of his men send a message. They weren’t far from the nearest village. The men there should be able to get here not long after first light and pretend to render aid to the survivors, while looting the convoy clean.

The soldiers dropped them at camp, and Alexis clapped Dominic on the shoulder.

"And that’s a job well done. Dagos will pay heavily for mistreating their citizens. Even after we leave, I wouldn’t be shocked if the locals formed a new ’bandit group’ that started to make the tithe gathering groups go missing." She announced.

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