After spending some time with the fire, Marcus wanted to close his eyes to rest. It was a big decision for him.
He was not much of a camper back on Earth, and now the place where he is going to camp is the wilderness of an entirely different world with many risks that ordinary Earth cannot compare to.
"I would like to see and test out if Spirit Wolf works while I am asleep."
He then, within his mind, ordered Spirit Wolf to wake him up if anything got close and rested his head on the tree trunk and closed his eyes for a moment.
He woke up after some time.
Due to being in the wilderness, he could not enter deep sleep, so he knew that he just slept for about two hours at the most.
Spirit Wolf was still beside him, awake and alert, and kept looking at the area to protect himself against any danger.
"Okay."
"This is good enough for me," he said and then got up.
After he put some snow on the fire, he went to his horse and hopped up as he started riding it.
While he rode, Spirit Wolf followed them closely.
Marcus thought for a moment, and then Spirit Wolf vanished like it never existed.
After about one hour, Marcus stopped for a moment.
The night was about to end, so his capability to see around himself increased a lot.
He noticed something in front of him: three humans.
The distance was about seventy meters.
"Who are they, I wonder?" he asked.
While he was looking at them, one of them turned his head and looked at him.
He then touched others, and all three of them looked at him.
Not much time later, they started coming towards him.
Marcus just waited.
He was not scared of three fur-armor-wearing humans, most likely Nords from what he can see at all.
As they come to ten meters of distance.
One of the men, a burly Nord, spoke.
"Oh."
"Hi, friend."
"Who are you?"
Marcus smiled.
"Just a traveler, friend."
"Are you guys hunters?"
As he asked, two nords, young and more amateur, murmured.
"Yeah..."
"We are hunters."
The burly and more experienced Nord spoke in a kind tone.
"Would you like to sit and drink with us?"
"Let us tie our horses to this tree."
The burly nerd pointed to a tree three meters away.
Marcus looked at the eyes of the man and smirked.
"They are fools."
"Do they really think that people just let go of their horses, the only way to escape from them, just because they want to drink...?"
"I wonder if people eat this bait."
Marcus now had two choices. Either he can go on with their words or react to events.
Or, he can just decline and run with his horse.
They may try to chase him, but it is a much safer option.
"I still need to test some things." Marcus thought and hopped down from his horse.
As he landed on the ground, two young Nords looked at each other with smirks.
They thought whatever they were doing was working.
On the other hand, burly and older Nord looked more neutral, and it was clear his thoughts were not like the younger ones.
Not much time later, four men sat down; two younger ones prepared the fire.
"So, do tell me, people," Marcus started.
"What are you guys really doing here?"
The older Nord looked at Marcus and then asked.
"You know?"
Marcus smiled.
The older nord then let out a cold breath and asked.
"What made it so easy to see?"
Marcus laughed a little and said.
"Your clothes and the behavior of these two friends of yours."
"The fact that you are Nords and formed a group to hunt and you carry no bows..."
The older Norse laughed and nodded.
"Yeah..."
"Now, when you put it like that, I can see it is easy see that we are bandits."
Marcus nodded and smiled.
This time, one of the young Nords asked. He did not expect to be known this quickly.
"But if you knew that we were bandits. Why did you not escape but already tie your horse and can sit close to each other?"
The other young one added.
"Are you not scared of us ?"
Marcus got up from the ground and then smiled.
"Of course."
"Why would I be scared of three bandits?"
These words felt weird. It was not easy to understand for Nords.
The older Nord, on the other hand, looked at the face of Marcus for a moment.
"You are a Breton..."
"Your robes, clothing style, and choice of words..."
"Are you a..."
"Mage?"
Marcus let out a cold breath and then said to himself in his mind.
"I already killed a bandit."
"Killing bandits..."
"It should not be a moral problem for me."
His eyes went cold for a moment. Old Nord noticed something had changed, and then he shouted.
"Attack!"
"Kill him!"
As he said these words, two younger ones brandished their swords from their belts, and a spirit wolf manifested just beside Marcus, and then half a second later.
Older Bandit shook his head, and then a flame burst started coming from the hands of Marcus.
The Spirit Wolf lunged at one of the younger ones and then started fighting with it.
"Fuck it!"
"Where did this wolf come from?" he shouted as he tried to kill the wolf that was crushing his left arm.
The pain made it hard to concentrate.
While,
Old Nord jumped back to escape from the fire, but it was no use; even more fire started spraying towards him.
"IT BURNS!"
"IT BURNS!"
Three seconds of fire melted the face of Old Nord.
At the same time, due to coverage of the fire, the last young Nord bandit did not have any chance to get close to Marcus.
The shouts and pain made the younger one that fights with the wolf lose attention, and it gave enough time to Spirit Wolf to lunge towards its neck and crush it.
In just ten seconds, Old Bandit was half dead on the ground with a melted face, and the other young one had its throat crushed.
Marcus turned to the last bandit and said.
"So, you are the last one."
"It is not the same, right?" he said.
"Killing and raiding caravans and vulnerable people is not the same as fighting against a mage..."
As he said these words, he got close to the young bandit, who was about to shit himself due to terror and fear within his body and mind.