Chapter 9 Collateral Damage

They had barely traveled three miles down the dusty trade road when the second wave struck.

Darius yanked Mara behind an old stone waystation as arrows sliced through the air. Shouts erupted from the trees surrounding them. This new group was larger, sloppier, and far more dangerous because they clearly did not care about anything except collecting their bounty.

"They're here!" a rough voice bellowed. "The plague whore and her weak little husband! Kill them both!"

A small merchant caravan had been traveling the same route. Civilians panicked immediately. A woman screamed as she scooped up her young child and ran. Carts overturned. Barrels rolled. Goods scattered across the dirt road in the chaos.

Mara pressed her back against the stone. "These attackers do not care who dies. They will slaughter everyone here just to reach you."

"I see it," Darius replied, voice steady as he assessed the situation. "At least twelve. Mixed bounty hunters and opportunists. The news has spread faster than I expected."

A burly man with a scarred face charged forward swinging a heavy axe. "Gold for the prince's head! The empires are paying double now that he's still breathing!"

Darius stayed in cover for a few moments longer, observing their movements. How they spread out. How little regard they showed for the screaming civilians caught between them.

An arrow struck a merchant in the leg. The man collapsed, howling in pain. Another attacker laughed and nocked another shot.

Mara's tone grew colder. "This is what your survival has already caused. Chaos. Death to innocents."

Darius exhaled slowly. "Not if I can control it."

He stepped out from behind the waystation. Three attackers turned toward him instantly. He reached for Mara's power, drawing it carefully. Thin, deliberate threads of plague flowed from him. He isolated the effect with precision, targeting only the armed men closest to his position.

The lead attacker’s axe arm blackened and failed mid-swing. The heavy weapon dropped from his grip as he screamed. "What kind of sorcery is this?!"

The second hunter tried to flank but the targeted plague caught his legs exactly, dropping him to his knees without spreading further. "This isn't possible! You're controlling her power?!"

Darius kept moving, eyes tracking everything. A woman clutching her child froze near an overturned cart as one bounty hunter raised a crossbow toward her, clearly willing to shoot through the civilian.

Darius redirected the power instantly. The crossbow rotted apart in the man's hands before he could pull the trigger. The hunter howled as the decay stopped precisely at his wrists.

"Get the civilians out of the line of fire!" Darius shouted to one of the surviving caravan guards. "Move them down the road! We'll hold here!"

The guard didn't hesitate. He started herding the merchants and their families away from the fighting while Darius maintained control of the situation.

Mara stepped out from cover and watched him closely. Her golden eyes narrowed. This was not mere efficiency. Darius was deliberately choosing the more difficult path, protecting people who had nothing to do with his plans or his list.

More attackers poured from the trees. One threw a lit torch toward a cart loaded with oilcloth and dry goods. Darius caught it with a precise burst, turning the entire torch to harmless ash before it could ignite the caravan.

"Stay low!" Darius called to the remaining civilians. "Don't run toward them!"

A dying bounty hunter on the ground laughed through blood. "You really think you can save them all, prince? You're the reason we're here in the first place!"

Darius knelt briefly beside the man while keeping the plague carefully contained. "Who organized this attack? How many more groups are coming?"

The man grinned despite his pain. "Everyone heard the news. One marriage complete. The empires are panicking. You're a walking disaster now."

Mara moved to stand beside Darius as the last few attackers broke and fled into the trees. The fighting ended almost as quickly as it had started. Bodies littered parts of the road, but the civilians had escaped with mostly minor injuries thanks to his efforts.

Darius looked around at the mess of overturned carts and spilled goods. "This is only the beginning. One marriage and the world is already fracturing at the seams."

Mara studied him with new intensity. "You chose precision again. Even when it was much harder. You protected strangers who owe you nothing. Why?"

Darius wiped residue from his hands. "Because they didn't ask for any of this. I won't become the kind of force the Pantheon turned you into. Not if I can help it."

One of the dying attackers, the scarred man with the axe, laughed weakly from where he lay. Blood bubbled at the corners of his mouth.

"You think we’re the real threat here?" He coughed hard, spraying red. "They’ve already been notified."

Darius crouched beside him again. "Who exactly?"

The man smiled with bloody teeth, eyes glazing over. "The ones who truly matter. The Pantheon knows your name now, prince. They’re coming for you."

His head slumped to the side. The road fell into an uneasy quiet broken only by the distant cries of a child from the fleeing caravan.

Mara looked at Darius. "The game is changing faster than even your careful plans accounted for."

Darius stood slowly, staring down the now-empty road. "Then we change with it. We adapt faster."