In the morning, just before dawn, a servant knocked at my door to tell me that the caravan was about to depart. I did not hesitate, and went out into the street, where I took up a position in the air next to the cart that the merchant was to ride. Five minutes later, two more magicians came up there, whom I identified by the characteristic distortions of reality around them.

"So, this is the great mage who sang the Travel Song?" - One of the mages asked his companion loudly.

"No" - I answered. - "I'm not a great mage. I am the greatest magician of all time and countries.”

"Ha, ha. How is he?” – Second mage laughed – “I am Urhas. And this is Tibersah.”

"I'm Freddy Krueger."

"Where did you come from?" - Urhas continued conversation.

"From far away.” - I said evasively. - "So far away that you've never heard of them."

"I'm not surprised. Your appearance is too unusual for this land. Some people even say that you are infected with the Filth.”

“Is this someone, by any chance, not Partalan?” - I said the name of the fat man from the Tower of the Caravans.

"Yes, it was him.” - The magician confirmed my assumption.

"We have another fifteen minutes, don't we? I think I should visit this fat-ass and explain to him how wrong he is.”

After my words, all the people around froze, and then looked at me in horror.

"Are you ... are you want to have a battle of mages in the city?" – Merchant asked me, who had just come up to me.

"What's the problem?" - I was surprised. – “He doesn't even have time to understand what killed him. There will be minimal damage in the city after that. Well, unless this tower of yours falls apart.”

"If you are so offended by the vile rumors spread by the head of the Caravan Tower, then you should challenge him to a duel.” - Tibersah advised. - "Usually, duels are held just outside of the city walls.”

"How long will I have to wait for him to agree to a duel?"

"No need to wait!” – Partalan’s loud voice rang out. - "I challenge you to a duel, vile creature of Filth.”

I turned around and saw a fat-ass surrounded by five magicians. He was the strongest between them, which clearly flattered his ego.

“Oh, fat-ass arrived.” - I was surprised. - "Well, let's go outside. Marcos while you're here, continue your preparations for the trip. I'll deal with this pig until you get to the city gates.”

Partalan from my words covered with red spots and began to puff like a locomotive. I even thought that he was going to have a stroke, but he managed to pull himself together, and then headed for the exit of the city. I followed him, and two caravan magicians followed me.

Ten minutes later, we were standing outside the city limits on a large stone platform that showed signs of used battle spells in some places. As it turned out, the cool climate in the city was the result of a protective spell that covered it. But outside, winter was raging. However, the snow lay in a strange way - separate snowdrifts. However, this was a dream world, so the temperature didn't matter to me. Even minus million degrees.

The rules of the dues were simple. Two participants occupy the marked places in the arena, after which the cornermen rings the bell. And then everything is decided by the power and experience of magicians. In the end, only one must remain alive. I did not hesitate, but just took the specified place and began to wait for the start of the duel. As soon as the hammer touched the bell, I immediately used my abilities to speed up the time around me as much as possible. After that, I quickly flew the distance between me and the fat man, went behind him and sank into his fat body already well-proven claws. At the last second, the wizard was able to speed up and notice me, but he didn't have time to do anything. The power of the ritual tore his soul from body and sent it to the demons.

I canceled the acceleration of time, and the sound of a bell reached my ears. Participants only had time to gasp, as the corpse of the chief magician of city Sanagar collapsed to the ground.

"All right, let's go to the caravan." - I commented the result of the duel. - "We've already lost five minutes. However, five minutes of my time cost more expensive than the life of a local magician.”

After these words, the 'cornermen' somehow abruptly lost their enthusiasm and stared at the corpse of their leader with wide eyes. I did not bother with what I was supposed to get for this victory as trophies, but went to the city gate, from which the first cart had already appeared.

The two mages who accompanied the caravan were so impressed by my instant victory that they abruptly lost all desire to talk to me. They were only whispering quietly among themselves, which I was completely satisfied with. So, our way lay through winter fields and thickets of bushes. There were no trees or signs of human activity around, so the trip was rather boring.

All day we went non-stop, and in the evening the caravan stopped and set up a small camp, which the magicians covered with a protective shield.

I understood why such magic was necessary in the morning, when a small swarm of zugs appeared outside of the shield. These winged beasts tried unsuccessfully to break through the protective field. Judging by their actions, their brains were like a fly. Mages have shown class, destroying all zugs with a couple of AOE fire spells. After that, the caravan gathered and continued on its way, but today everyone was carefully looking around, so as not to miss the attacks of small predatory creatures.

The second day passed without incident, like the third. But in the middle of the fourth day, a black cloud appeared on the horizon. Everyone immediately rushed and began to drive the carts into a circle, and the magicians began to establish their protective field. Looking closer, I saw that the cloud was a swarm of zugs, which were flying in our direction at a decent speed.

As soon as these creatures got to us and surrounded the barrier, I used my fire magic to launch several fire ribbons that started spinning around the field. Like the wipers on the windshield, the ribbons cleaned the field from the zugs that were pressing on it, so that a split second later their relatives would stick to it again.

This time we were stuck in place for the rest of the day. My fire didn't just burn the zugs, it instantly incinerated them. If the corpses of these creatures did not disappear, we would literally be buried under a mountain of dead bodies. All the caravans as one said that they had never seen such attacks of zugs. In the worst cases, the swarm 'ended' in half an hour. We admired my illumination for eight hours. By the end, even my eyes were blurred by the shifting fire ribbons.

In the next morning we destroyed another small swarm, after which the caravan slowly crept forward. It was impossible to maintain the protective field in motion, so now we had to amuse ourselves by destroying single stray zugs that were always trying to grab something edible from their point of view.

By the evening of the seventh day, huge crystals appeared on the horizon to our left, glittering in the sun. These were the crystal hills that the priest in the temple had told me about. I was not even too lazy to fly to them and look closer, but alas, my internal compass was still silent, not wanting to specify directions. But when I came back from the hills, another huge swarm followed me, which kept the caravan in place all the evening of that day and all the next day. It was only on the ninth day that we were able to continue our journey, fighting off the dwindling hordes of these vile creatures.

To be honest, I already cursed the day which I agreed to help guard the caravan. If it wasn't for that, I could get to Harshuta in a day. After all, my flight speed was about sixty kilometers per hour.

Finally, the Zug hordes were left behind, and the caravaneers relaxed a little. Everyone has already discussing how they will rest in Harshuta after this trip, and magicians are not so often scan surrounding areas. As it happens, I was the one who first noticed the danger. The zugs were just small animals to me, though they had little magic. But ahead in the bushes next to the road, I felt a high concentration of Chaos energy. I immediately informed the merchant that there was an ambush ahead of us with the participation of magicians, after which all the jokes immediately ended. Moreover, the caravan stopped, huddled together, and the magicians put their crown protective field.

So, we sat under it for half an hour, until the bandits a couple of hundred meters away lost their nerve and they jumped out into the open area, approaching us in long leaps.

"Oh gods, what are these creatures?" - The merchant shouted.

I agreed with him on this issue, because it wasn't people who were attacking us. They were strange humanoids in tight black robes, with a bundle of tentacles wriggling in place of their faces. Their skin was as black as the night and shone like a disgusting oil. Also, each of the nearly hundreds of attackers were a magician. It looks like we just found out why the other two caravans disappeared.

I instantly accelerated and started attacking these creatures with fire, but it didn't make much profit. Incomprehensible cthulhanoids were extremely fireproof, and from the strongest of my spells, they slightly smoked. As soon as the first of the monsters reached the protective field, it immediately shattered with a high melodious ringing sound, not detaining enemies even for a second. I rushed to the avant-garde and plunged my steel claw into a very nimble cthulhanoids, but there was not any effect. No, the blades themselves worked fine and pierced the vile creature, but cthulhanoids did not want to be sacrificed to demons. Judging by the energy, I was already in front of the demon of Chaos, and not the weakest. He tried to grab me with his shapeless hands, more like tentacles, but I managed to jump back, cutting the opponent with my claws.