Faith

Art, listen carefully. After the healing spell activates, they're going to try to capture your mother at all costs. After I'm healed enough, I'm going to engage the leader and try to buy more time. I think I can beat him, but not if I have to worry about protecting you guys. Take your mother back down the road and don't stop; Adam will open up a path for you."

"No dad! I'm staying with you. I can fight! You saw me! I can help!" Consideration for being mature eluded me. It seemed like at this moment, I was really acting like the four-year-old I was on the outside, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to leave behind my family whom I've grown to love and friends who I've bonded with so much this past week and a half.

"LISTEN TO ME, ARTHUR LEYWIN!" Father agonizingly roared. This was the first time hearing his voice like this; the kind of voice that one would only use for desperate measures.

"I know you can fight! That's why I'm entrusting your mother to you. Protect her and protect the baby inside her. I'll catch up to you after this is over."

His words shook my mind like thunder.

Protect her and protect the baby inside her…

Suddenly, everything clicked. Why she was acting so paranoid. Why she was clutching me and making sure nothing got even close to us. Why both Durden and Angela were guarding us with defensive spells, instead of just one of them.

My mother was pregnant.

"I was planning on telling you when we arrived in Xyrus, but…" Not finis.h.i.+ng his sentence, father just looked at me sheepishly; still pale from the blow he received from the bald, axe-wielding boss.

"Okay, I'll protect Mom."

"Atta boy. That's my son."

My mother finished her chant at this time and both she and my father glowed in a bright golden-white light.

"Sonova— One of them's a healer! Don't let her get away!" the leader roared.

I quickly grabbed my mother's arm with both hands and tugged at her to move while reinforcing myself with mana.

We reached the area Adam and the dual-wielder were battling a dozen meters down the road.

"Art, hurry down, I got him!" Adam barked as he kept his opponent at bay.

The dual-wielder was obviously frustrated by the inability to neither reach me nor mother because of Adam. We hurried down the slope when I heard a faint *wizz* sound to our left. Acting on instinct, I jumped up, bringing my wooden sword up and reinforcing my whole body and the sword to withstand the blow of the incoming arrow.

A splintering crack resonated as the arrow met the wooden sword. Fortunately, the arrow wasn't reinforced with any mana so, even though the force pushed me back, I was able to regain balance mid air by using the force of the shot by rotating my body and redirecting the arrow away. I landed on my feet a bit less impressively than I wanted to, throwing away what was left of my wooden sword.

"What the— Ugh!"

…Was all I heard from the a.s.sailant before he was promptly impaled by an arrow fired by Helen.

"GO!" she exclaimed, nocking in another arrow and firing it at the leader of the bandits to support my father.

That was weird.

Currently, Jasmine, Adam, and my father, along with Helen, were each fighting a mage.

Wasn't there four?

"Damien! Forget the plan, don't let them live!" The leader barked out.

Who was he commanding?

"… respond to my call and wash all to oblivion!" a faint voice finished chanting.

[Water Cannon]

From the mountainside, one of the scattered "archers" had his hands brought together, aimed at me and mother. We were tricked. He had camouflaged himself during the chaos. He wasn't an archer or even an augmenter. He was a conjurer!

s.h.i.+t!

I didn't have much time to react as a huge sphere of pressurized water, at least three meters in diameter, shot towards us, increasing in size as it neared.

My mind raced trying to come up with options.

To my immediate right was my mother, and to my left were Adam and his opponent not far off; and behind me, of course, was the edge of the mountain. Even if I could dodge this, mother wouldn't be able to and she'd be forced off the ledge of the mountain.

What should I do?

"Dammit!" I let out a roar unfit for a four-year-old!

Willing all of the remaining mana left in this cursed body, I tackled my mother, propelling both of us out of the way.

I quickly realized my forty-pound-body didn't carry enough momentum to push both of out of range of the water cannon.

No choice!

If I was going down, I was going to make sure to take that b.a.s.t.a.r.d down with me!

I channeled mana into my arms and pushed my mother farther down, out of range. In that moment, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as my mother's eyes slowly widened in panic and disbelief. She might get a pretty bad bruise from the push, but minor bodily injuries were the least of my problems at that moment. If she didn't want to get hit with another spell I had to get rid of this conjurer.

Unsheathing the knife Jasmine gave me from my waist, I imbued it with mana. What I was trying to do I had only done with ki in my old world, never with mana.

After willing mana into the knife, I threw it like a boomerang, aiming it at the conjurer, who was still concentrating on the water cannon. Barely curving around the edge of the giant cannonball of water, I heard the firm thud of the knife meeting skin.

The mage let out a shrill howl of pain followed by a string of curses indicated that the mage wasn't dead.

Losing concentration, the mage's water cannon lost shape, but unfortunately, there was still a surge of water strong enough to push me off the cliff.

Time for plan B.

Plan B was just in case my initial throw couldn't kill him. I managed succeeding in the gamble of Plan B, and that was creating a thin string of mana attaching the knife, currently engorged somewhere in the conjurer's body, to my hand.

I tugged back on the mana string just as the spell rammed against my body like a brick wall, knocking every ounce of air i had in my lungs and most likely breaking my ribs. Like a fish caught on the line, I could hear the mage's scream over the gus.h.i.+ng tide of water as he was helplessly dragged down with me by the force of his own spell.

Even as my vision began darkening, I was able to see the battle coming to an end. Father and Helen had just managed to kill the leader. Angela, providing Jasmine with backup, allowed them to put the whip-user on his last stand. Meanwhile, i spotted Durden as he was desperately conjuring a spell in order to save me, but I knew it was too late; the spell had knocked me too far away.

Still, I was comforted in the fact that everyone will be okay. Maybe the only thing I would regret being unable to see my baby sibling.

With that, I felt the cold grip of sleep steal me away.

d.a.m.n… I had always wanted to be an older brother.