The first two days of travel passed uneventfully, marked only by the steady rhythm of wheels on stone and the occasional growl of mountain predators keeping respectful distance from the well-armed caravan. Aiden rode in comfortable anonymity among the other passengers, listening to merchants discuss trade routes and fellow adventurers share stories of profitable contracts in the capital.
The routine was almost peaceful. Morning departure before sunrise, steady progress through mountain passes carved by generations of commerce, evening camps in defensible positions where guards maintained professional vigilance while travelers shared meals around carefully controlled fires.
Too peaceful, Aiden realized on the evening of the second day, watching the guard rotations with eyes trained by six years of studying patterns for weaknesses. These mountains are supposed to be dangerous, but we haven't encountered anything more threatening than a few curious wolves.
The caravan master, a grizzled veteran named Korvain who had been running mountain routes for two decades, seemed to share his unease. The man's weathered face showed the kind of professional paranoia that kept merchants alive in hostile territory, and his increasing tension suggested he felt something amiss with their unusually quiet journey.
"Double the watch tonight," Korvain ordered as they made camp in a natural clearing surrounded by tall pines. "Something's not right about this trip. Twenty years I've been running these routes, and bandits don't just disappear because we wish they would."
The attack came an hour before dawn, when the night watch was at its most vulnerable and most of the caravan slept deeply in the bitter mountain cold.
Aiden woke to the sound of steel meeting steel, followed immediately by screams that cut through the forest quiet like blade through silk. His detect ability flared to life automatically, revealing multiple awakened signatures approaching the camp perimeter with the coordinated precision of trained professionals.
Not bandits, he realized as he rolled from his bedroll and reached for his weapons. Adventurers.
Through the pre-dawn darkness, he could see figures moving with tactical efficiency between the wagons. They wore the kind of quality gear that marked guild members rather than desperate outlaws, and their coordinated assault spoke of extensive combat experience.
"Ambush!" Korvain's voice cracked across the camp like a whip. "Form defensive positions! Protect the wagons!"
The caravan guards responded with practiced speed, but they were outnumbered and caught unprepared. Aiden watched three of them fall in the first exchange, cut down by attackers who combined awakened abilities with professional weapon skills.
Corrupt adventurers, he understood with sudden clarity. Probably the same kind of territorial protection racket I encountered in Millbrook. They stage fake bandit attacks to justify their security contracts, then rob the caravans they're supposedly protecting.
A crossbow bolt whispered past his ear, close enough that he felt the wind of its passage. Time to stop analyzing and start surviving.
Aiden's Armaments of Frost activated as he drew his dagger, but instead of simply enchanting the blade, he let the ice magic flow across his entire body. Crystalline armor formed over his leather gear—not solid enough to stop a direct hit, but sufficient to deflect glancing blows and provide protection against the kind of minor wounds that could prove fatal in extended combat.
His Iron Skin defense layered beneath the magical armor, hardening flesh and bone against impact. The combination made him significantly more durable than his appearance suggested—a crucial advantage when facing multiple opponents.
The first attacker came at him with a longsword wreathed in flame, the awakened steel burning bright enough to illuminate the hatred in the man's eyes. A professional fighter, probably C-rank or higher, confident in his abilities and equipment.
Aiden's Basic Sword Work had progressed beyond simple competence during his weeks of practice. The blade techniques he'd absorbed from slain guards combined with his own growing experience to create a fighting style that was crude but effective—focused more on killing efficiently than looking impressive.
He deflected the flaming sword with his frost-enchanted dagger, sending up clouds of steam as opposing magics met. The temperature differential created visual confusion that he exploited immediately, stepping inside his opponent's guard to drive his blade toward the man's throat.
But the adventurer was too experienced to fall for such a basic tactic. He twisted away from the thrust, using his superior reach to force Aiden back into defensive posturing.
Need distance.
Aiden disengaged with a backwards leap that carried him fifteen feet from his opponent, then immediately cast Icicle Spear. The crystalline projectile formed and launched in a single fluid motion, aimed at the adventurer's center mass.
The man deflected it with his flaming sword, but the impact threw off his balance long enough for Aiden to close distance again. This time, he led with Exploit Weakness—his misdirection causing the adventurer to misjudge his approach angle just enough for Aiden's blade to find the gap between helmet and gorget.
Blood sprayed across the frost-covered ground as the man collapsed, his awakened flame dying with him.
One down.
But the victory was temporary. Around the camp, the situation was deteriorating rapidly. The caravan guards were skilled but outmatched, facing opponents who combined superior numbers with awakened abilities. Korvain himself was bleeding from multiple wounds while trying to coordinate a defense that was already failing.
Then Aiden heard the horn call that made his blood run cold—a long, mournful note that echoed across the forest like the voice of approaching doom.
Reinforcements.
More figures emerged from the tree line, these bearing the colors and equipment of a legitimate adventuring party. The Granite Shields, if Aiden remembered correctly—a well-regarded group based out of Drakmoor City with a reputation for reliability and professional conduct.
Except they were attacking the caravan alongside the obvious bandits.
The entire thing is a setup, Aiden realized with growing horror. Multiple adventuring parties working together to rob caravans while maintaining plausible deniability. They can claim they were responding to distress calls and arrived too late to save anyone.
A merchant named Aldwin—an elderly man who had been complaining about his arthritis just hours earlier—screamed as an axe took his arm off at the elbow. He collapsed beside his wagon, blood pooling in the frozen earth while his attacker rifled through goods that would now never reach their destination.
The sight triggered something primal in Aiden's chest. Not just rage at witnessing another innocent die, but fury at the system that allowed this kind of predatory behavior to flourish under official sanction. These weren't desperate outlaws driven to crime by necessity—they were privileged members of a respected institution choosing to abuse their position for profit.
Just like the overseers. Just like Aldric. Just like everyone who thinks power gives them the right to destroy the innocent.
His frost magic responded to the emotional surge, drawing on reserves he didn't know he possessed. But instead of forming the familiar shapes of icicle spears or weapon enchantments, the power spread outward in all directions like a shock wave of supernatural cold.
The temperature around Aiden plummeted twenty degrees in an instant. Frost began forming on weapons, armor, and exposed skin within a fifteen-foot radius. The moisture in the air crystallized into glittering clouds that made breathing painful and movement sluggish for everyone caught in the effect.
[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: Frost Aura (Uncommon)]
[Creates a zone of supernatural cold that slows enemies and enhances ice-based attacks]
The ability's activation caught both allies and enemies off-guard, but Aiden was the only one prepared for the sudden environmental change. His attackers stumbled as their muscles stiffened in the bitter cold, their weapons becoming treacherous with accumulated ice.
He exploited the opening immediately, his frost-enchanted dagger finding vitals with mechanical precision. Two more adventurers fell before the others could adapt to the changed battlefield conditions, their blood freezing on his blade as he moved between targets with predatory efficiency.
This is what I was meant to become, he thought as another enemy collapsed, throat opened by a strike guided by Exploit Weakness. Not a victim cowering in the darkness, but death itself walking among those who prey on the innocent.
But even supernatural cold and growing combat skills couldn't overcome simple mathematics. There were too many attackers, too few defenders, and the professional skill gap was beginning to tell. Around the camp, the last caravan guards were falling to coordinated assault, while surviving merchants huddled behind overturned wagons in futile attempts to avoid the inevitable.
The battle was lost. The only question now was whether anyone would survive to report what had really happened in these mountains.
Aiden's Frost Aura continued to pulse around him, turning the immediate area into a miniature winter that slowed his enemies and enhanced his own abilities. But he could feel the energy drain of maintaining such a large-scale effect, and his reserves were not unlimited.
Time to decide, he thought as more attackers closed in on his position. Fight to the death here, or find another way to survive this nightmare.
The choice would define not just his immediate future, but the kind of person he would become when the killing finally ended.
Around him, frost continued to spread across blood-soaked ground, and somewhere in the distance, a dying merchant called out for help that would never come.
The Path of Frost and Steel pulsed with growing power, ready to teach him new lessons about the price of survival in a world where the strong devoured the weak without mercy.
But first, he had to live long enough to learn them.