10 Unfortunate Events

"Damien! Forget the plan! Don't let them live!" The bulky leader roared.

Hearing this, Artha paled. She turned around, seeing a conjurer that previously disguised himself as an archer. Despite the fact he was facing a woman and two kids, the man didn't hold back, firing a large water blast.

Artha tried out another theory of hers, releasing some mana from her core. A gust of wind formed in her left hand as she tossed the ice blade to it. Getting into a throwing stance, she threw the gust of wind and the blade at the same time, resulting in the wind pushing the ice blade.

The conjurer paled as he saw the knife approaching. Quickly releasing his spell, a powerful wave of water shot forth, kicking up dust as it moved quickly towards the three girls. Unfortunately for the conjurer, the ice blade stabbed itself into his chest.

Damien coughed up blood as the ice blade hit him. Nonetheless, he paid it no attention, but focused on strengthening his spell. The water cannon got bigger and faster as it approach, leaving Artha with no choice.

Pushing her mother and the unknown elf out of the way, Artha once again manipulated her mana core for what she thought would be her last time. Damien realized too late that the ice blade had a string made of pure mana attached to it.

Before he could do anything, the string tightened, pulling him towards the girl. He tried to resist, and was actually winning against Artha, who augmented herself with mana. Unfortunately, the water cannon struck Artha, sending her flying off the cliff as she once again pulled on the mana string.

That resulted in Artha being blasted several meters away from the edge, with the conjurer quickly following. Adam leaped towards Durden, killing all of the fighters near him before shouting at him to catch Artha.

Durden quickly conjured a palm from the side of the mountain, intending to catch Artha. Sadly, she was too far for Durden to catch her. All Durden could do was have the earth move close enough to touch her, but even then, Artha was unconscious, so she wouldn't be able to hold on.

Seeing what the other leader had done, the lanky leader snapped at him. "What the hell are you doing?! Do you have any idea how much those three are worth?!"

The other leader was taken aback, but quickly snapped back. "Like hell I care! I've lost all of my mages and most of my fighters!"

"That kid would've made up for the loss!" The lanky leader augmented himself with mana, preparing to fight.

Before either of them could react, a dozen or so blades of wind attacked them, quickly followed by multiple arrow, and then followed by stone pillars. The two leaders had no time to react as the wind blades sliced them to pieces, the arrows pierced their chests, and the stone pillars shattered their ribs.

Seeing their leaders crushed like that, the remaining fighters began to flee. Their ranks were scattered, their mages dead, and their leaders dead. They even lost the elf girl and the human mage.

As if that wasn't enough, they lost their conjurer to a kid.

It was a humiliating defeat.

All of the bandits ran away, leaving their leaders to die. If they were even alive, that is. They all ran away without hesitation, leaving any unfortunate bandits to die. Although the twin horns and Leywins wouldn't usually kill a group of bandits, they were clearly not in the right state of mind.

Reynolds ran to the edge of the cliff, willing to jump down. "NO! NO! NO!"

Before Reynolds could jump down, Durden held onto him, stopping him. Reynolds glared at him, seeming to lose all sanity. He knew it was too late, but he couldn't just stand still.

Reynolds jerked wildly in Durden's arms, trying to free himself. "Let me go! She could still be alive! Let me go!"

"Pull it together, Rey!" Adam snapped, helping Durden hold him in place. "It's not easy to accept, but there's no way she could've survived that fall."

"Pull yourself together, Rey. Your wife needs you." Durden added.

Reynolds crumbled to the ground, tears flowing down his face as he pounded on the ground with his mana infused fists. The ground cracked beneath Reynolds' outburst, and he snapped. Letting out a roar, he started crying.

***

Reynolds woke up, seeing Helen pressing a wet towel to his forehead. Seeing him awake, Helen gave him a sombre smile, unable to muster up any words of comfort as she helped Reynolds sit up.

Recalling what happened, Reynolds held his forehead in his hands and began denying everything. "This is a dream, right? Please tell me I'm going to wake up and see my daughter playing with Jasmine and Adam."

Helen dropped her head down in guilt, still unable to muster up any words of comfort. "I'm sorry…"

Hearing Reynolds' voice, Durden walked away from the campfire and opened the tent's flap before walking in. Durden looked at Reynolds with red eyes, showing that he, too, was taking this incident roughly.

Durden took a deep breath and started. "Reynolds, I can't possibly imagine what you feel like or how much it hurt you, but your wife needs you. She's blames herself, Rey. We all remember Lensa and how Alice handled what happened to her. She thinks you hate her."

Reynolds sat quietly, not looking up to meet the friendly giant. "..."

Suddenly, Durden slapped Reynolds roughly, nearly forcing his head to hit the ground. Reynolds' vision blurred as he felt the pain from Durden's slap engrave itself into his mind.

"We had to stop Alice from killing herself, Reynolds!" Durden snapped, his posture still the same as when he slapped Reynolds. "This isn't the time to weep and cry! Get off your sorry ass and take care of your only remaining family!"

Seeing the always composed Durden snap like that shook Reynolds and Helen. Artha's death impacted all of them. Helen's usually charismatic and leader like behavior was gone, Durden's patient and calm personality was gone, and Reynolds' rational and experienced personality was gone.

Reynolds stood up and nodded weakly. "I'll go see her."