Chapter 9: The Bandits and Angels(?)

( Author Note: Changing "Total Concentration Breathing" to "Knight/Slayer Breathing Technique" cause it fits more, though 'Total Concentration: Constant" will stay the same for now, I might change it )

( Author Note: Not really angels )

( Author Note: Sorry for the late post, I had to do homework cause it's the last week of school -I'm still most definitely failing- but I will try and post once a day, whether I'll post a second one depends on my mood lol-

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"Mama! Papa! Something bad is going to happen, I can feel it in my gut" Syre said to both his parents, "Nothings going to happen, we're going to protect the both of you" "Just like your parents said, we'll protect you" Helen who had been near affirmed the parents assurance, even though Reynolds had said what they said his faces had signs of nervousness and worry, he knew that at this point, it wasn't just worry for Syre and Arthur, but their baby, he knew when to trust a gut instinct he had trusted his in the past and it had saved his life, he walked to the Twin horns and had asked them to be on guard "Of course, Reynolds, We'll protect Arthur, Syre, Alice and your baby".

'Baby? I'm gonna be an older brother, how am I only learning of this now, Jesus I'm really that unobservant of people huh...? I won't be the youngest anymore? Wait… Does that mean I'm gonna be the middle child? Nooo my privileges' Syre despaired at the thought of a younger sibling, -Being the youngest child of family gives you certain privileges, like extra allowance, when you get in trouble you don't get in "trouble" with your parents, most of the time in the past when he was caught doing something, he would pull out the baby face and fool everyone-

[ Sir, that's not important, what's important is the fact that your intuition is sending you signals of danger and you've just learned you mother is pregnant, being with child will mean she has to be careful with body or it'll cause a miscarriage or injury to your mother ]

'Your right Deus, I'll have to protect her, I'll think of the child later' Syre thought his emotions were becoming complicated, and so he practiced 'Astral Meditation Technique' to gain a semblance of control of the turbulent emotions.

( Time jump )

As the party advanced through the Grand Mountain both Arthurs and Syres gut instinct had caused them to become nauseous and their faces slowly began to turn from worry, to displeasure and then to a sickly pale white as their hands became sweaty and breathing slightly haggard. Alice seeing their nauseous appearance had made them go inside, even then the feeling hadn't disappeared -both Syre and Arthur had began to distract themselves secretly preparing for a battle, Syre had started bouncing a rock from the side of the carriage back into his hands and Arthur had started to use the "Knight/Slayer Breathing Technique" as to prepare for the engagement- Alice's expression to degrade and she too began to worry about her children's safety, so when the time came when something will go wrong, and something bad would happened, she prepared to protect her children.

"BANDITS! PREPARE TO ENGAGE!" Helen had shouted out loud, causing a variety of emotions to the group, Reynolds sighed in relief because he had listened to his sons intuition, and his eyes slowly sharped he was going to protect his wife and children from the bandits, Alice's worry though hadn't disappeared and had actually worsened she held Syre and Arthur in a tight hug as to protect them, Syre eyes sharpened and had begun to analyze the bandits and the surroundings alongside Deus who had begun to point out various points of interest in the bandits and the surrounding cliff and edge, Arthur meanwhile had been a little shocked at the "Knight/Slayer Breathing Technique" abilities though his eyes had also sharpened causing all the male Leywin's eyes to look like daggers and knives staring at the bandits.

"Submit, O'Wind and follow my will. I command you, gather around in protection. Wind Shield" Angela had casted quickly as she had taken Reynolds advice and prepared the engage enemies, as a gust of wind blew and a tornado began forming around the carriage, as the tornado began to diminish -though it still blocked the vision of those inside- a bubble of wind had surrounded the carriage, this proved useful immediately as arrows constantly bombarded the carriage only to be stopped by the wind bubble one had nearly clipped Helens right calf though it was destroyed by the barrier, as the tornado finally stopped what was in view had caused all of group to worry further, they had been surrounded by the bandits.

'Deus, show me the location of each bandit as well as the current surrounding area, also show me a type of list that'll update with the deaths or knock out of the bandits'

[ There are 36 bandits, 14 currently blocking your path forward all of which have various types of of short-long ranged weapons like axes, swords, spears whips, etc, 14 currently blocking your retreat all of which have various types of short-medium ranged weapons such as daggers, swords, spears, and 8 bandits currently located on a ledge to your right, 4 of those bandits poses a mana core and the 4 others are equipped with bows and arrows ] as Deus spoke in his mind a indicator appeared in his top left vision [ 0/14 bandits in the front, 0/14 in the back, 0/4 mages, 0/4 archers ] which would update as they were defeated.

A giant man slowly strode to the front of the bandits and began to speak "Look at we have here boys, Pretty good catch eh? Leave the women and boys alive, try not to scar them too much, they'll sell for less and you don't want that do you?" as the bandit leader commanded the bandits with his "charismatic" speech all of his underlings had begun to cheer. As he spoke all of the men including Arthur and Syre had their eyes narrow further or their hands clench in rage.

"Hey Arthur, you watched me practice throwing stones right? You think you can throw like that? I can't really do much damage with my current strength" Syre whispered to the clearly pissed off Arthur who had smiled at his little brother's idea "Of course I can… Can you be my spotter then?" Arthur whispered back "Of course I can" Syre smiled back at him, their mother who hadn't been listening to the conversation between the two boys as she was observing the situation gripped them tighter in worry.

"Safeguard Formation" Reynolds commanded in a strict tone, as he slowly had begun to relive his adventuring days, "Haha, he's back, Adventurer Rey is back" Adam yelled in excitement and arrived at the back of the carriage, spear at the ready he smiled "You guys ready for a little one two?", Jasmine ran over to the back of the carriage while shaking her head at Adams antics, Reynolds and Durden walked to the mountain side getting ready to the face the mages, Helen and Angela kept their positions near the carriage, Helen drawing her bow and getting an arrow in place drawing its string back and faced the front of the carriage, while Angela readied another spell to both protect the inhabitants and attack the enemies.

"Gather and guard my allies O' benevolent Earth; do not let them be harmed!" Durden yelled as four meter earth wall appeared from the ground blocked the mages and archers vision, using this cover and momentary shock of the archers, Reynolds burst through the side of the wall with his gauntlets in hand he grabbed an archer by his head and pummeled him until unconsciousness picking up the body as a meat shield he rushed to the nearest archer and used the body as a ram causing the second archer to fall unconscious from the sudden shock [ 2/4 archers ].

Angela seeing this used a spell that unleashed a torrent of Wind Blades that were aimed at the bandits at the front causing their rudimentary formation to quickly come undone from the bodies being sent back causing a domino effect that caused those pinned under to be put out of the fight momentarily [ 4/14 bandits in the front defeated, with another 4 being trapped or pinned under bodies, 8/14 in total ].

Jasmine and Adam taking advantage of the distracted bandits at the back defeating a total of 3 bandits before the bandits collected themselves and begun to attack the duo, however the two of them were too skilled and had defeated another 4 of the bandits [ 7/14 bandits in the back ], Helen released her arrow that she had been charging up with mana to the bandits at the front which had pierced through two bandits who were trying to help some of the ones who were pinned [ 10/14 bandits in the front ].

Helen then turned around swiftly drew and arrow and shot it at a bandit who was trying to sneak attack Adam who was fighting off a mace wielding bandit, Adam heard the swish of the arrow and splash of the bandit thanked Helen in his mind and swiftly slashed the bandits jugular causing the bandit to stop fighting and try to desperately seal the wound shut by putting his hands over his throat [ 10/14 bandits in the back].

Another bandit this time from the front seeing the carnage that had been caused by Adam, Helen, Jasmine, Reynolds and Durden had caused decided to attack Angela as she had just used two spells 'She ought to be out of mana or nearing limit' he though, as he began running towards the woman with a wide and manic smile he was suddenly knocked out by a stone that had been thrown by Arthur under Syre and Deus's spotting [ 11/14 bandits in the front ] Helen who was just about to kill the man with an arrow swiftly changed her target to another bandit who was trying to run away [ 12/14 bandits in the front ] she then turned to the boys, Syre noticing her gaze gave her a thumbs up and a bright smile causing her to smirk.

Durden who was still keeping the flow of mana towards the Earthen Wall, formed a small slit in the wall and looked to see Reynolds who enhanced his legs with mana and jumped off of the archers he had already defeated like a trampoline this caused both of them to groan in their sleep, he reached third archer tried to reach for his dagger only for his hand to be caught mid grab, Reynolds then twisted his arm and flipped him over his shoulder -in a similar fashion to a judo flip- which blocked a shot from the fourth archer, while the third archer was down Reynolds kicked him in the throat causing his throat to close suffocating him, quickly he rushed to the fourth archer who had started to draw his bow, reaching him he grabbed the arrow that was about to be released and snapped it between his hand like a twig, using the remnant of the arrow he stabbed the archer his eye and then proceeded to palm slam the broken arrow further into his eyes and into skull and brain, killing him [ 4/4 archers defeated ].

Durden, deciding that he didn't need to provide support, stopped the flow of mana into the Earthen wall and turned to bandits and a mage who was hiding behind them "Take heed, Mother Earth, and answer my call. Pierce my enemies. Let none of them live." causing the ground in front of him turn into spikes skewering the bandits that were guarding the mage(1), the mage turned to the spikes that rushed towards him and watched as it skewered the bandits quickly jumping away from the spikes he turned his back to Durden and focused on Jasmine and mage(2), and Adam and mage(3).

Jasmine who had been fighting the mage(2) who wielded a long chain whip, she was at a disadvantage as he wielded a long range weapon while she wielded a pair of daggers, "I'll make sure to treat you real well before we sell you off as a slave, little missy. Don't worry, by the time I'm done training you, you'll be begging to stay with me," the mage(2) said with a lecherous grin as he swiped the chain whip towards her, just as she was about to dodge a spell came in from the first mage, this had caused her to choose to dodge 'I can either dodge the mage(2)s chain and get hit by the mage(1)'s spell which will leave me open, or I can block mage(2)'s chain and dodge the spell by mage(1) this'll be troublesome as his arms are being reinforced with mana' just as she was about to make a decision a rock suddenly came barreling in and intercepted the mage(1)s spell causing it to blow up midair, this allowed Jasmine to dodge the chain whip by lowered herself and then used Arthurs footwork skill to appear in chain whip mage causing him shock, she then stabbed his throat and heart causing him to die.

Durden who was running towards the mage(1) trying to stop his spell however his mana had all been used up so he couldn't reinforce his limbs, deciding to use a little more stamina he rushed towards the mage who had just launched the spell and watched in shock as his spell was interfered with by a rock just as he was going to complain Durden bashed his head like a gorilla banging on a rock causing him to fall unconscious [ 2/4 mages defeated ]

Adam who had been fighting the mage(3) was at a stalemate as the both of them wielded spears and had a similar level of master, Adam who had been in the stalemate used Arthur's footwork skill and suddenly appeared next to the mage(3) however his footing had come undone as the ground was turned loose causing him to slip, the Mage(3) noticing this swung his spear towards Adam in a show of his own dexterity Adam caught himself on a single hand and then flipped himself into the air and swung down towards the mage(3) who was still mid swing and Adams spear slashed towards him causing his body to split into two "Sheesh, that was gruesome, Sigh, that was tiring" he said as the blood splashed over his body and face, Jasmine who heard him also had begun to take deep breaths [ 3/4 mages defeated ]

As Jasmine and Adam ended the fights with the mage, the bandits at the back quickly tried to attack them while they were taking a breathing, this had proved to be a fatal mistake as they had just baited them to attack, the two of them swiftly defeated the bandits at the back [ 14/14 bandits in the back defeated ], the two of them swiftly turned and ran towards the front of the carriage as to help Helen and Angela out only to find Helen drawing her bow with an arrow swiftly shooting the last of the bandits [ 14/14 bandits in the front defeated ].

As Adam, Jasmine, Helen, Angela and Durden finished their fights turned over to Reynolds, the man looked like a berserker as he rushed towards the axe wielding bandit leader, the bandit leader swung his axe down towards Reynolds with mana reinforcing his arms and the axe head, Reynolds taking advantage of the opening within the bandit's stance as the man hadn't been trained properly with the axe, he gripped the axe from the handle, enhancing his arm with mana he yanked it out of the bandits arms who was sent tumbling towards Reynolds, Reynolds then flipped his grip on the axe and swung upwards towards the falling bandits neck "No one, and I MEAN NO ONE, will threaten MY FAMILY" he screamed to the bandit leader who at this point began to regret his decision in attacking this carriage, the bandits leader neck and axe head swiftly met and the axe sliced through it entirely decapitating the bandit, Reynolds began to take in deep breaths and slowly looked at the sky and screamed. [ 4/4 mages defeated ] [ All enemies have been defeated ]. ( Author Note: Whoohoo, first fight scene, I hoped it was good, I tried to make it as realistic as possible…. within a fake world that has mana ,aether, dragons, monster… you get the idea… )

'Holy shit, that was epic' Both children thought as they watched their new father decapitate a man with his own weapon.

( Some time later )

As the group began to slowly converge to the carriage they set off -not noticing that mage(1) had awoken from Durden's bashing- as they got to driving the carriage's wheel had suddenly fallen off, the carriage stopped near the cliff's edge. "Must've gotten damaged by a star arrow during the fight" Reynolds said and jumped off of the carriage with Alice soon leaving Syre and Arthur on the carriage, the Twin Horns had also jumped off the carriage to begin scouting the area, while Alice and Reynolds had talked about the fight.

"FIRE BALL" a voice emerged from the cliff they had just left, soon a gigantic fireball approached the carriage at a blinding speed *BOOM* it sent it over the ridge and into the forest down below "THE KIDS" Reynolds screamed as he ran towards the burning wreckage of carriage still ablaze on the cliff, "Gust of Wind" Angela quickly put out the fire however nobody was there, as they looked over the edge they had found a horrifying scene, Syre was hanging off of a tree root while desperately holding onto Arthur. ( Author Note: You think Arthur won't meet Sylvia because the bandits were defeated this time around? )

"Let go" Arthur told his little brother with tears gracing his eyes and face.

"NO, I won't lose another brother if I can't help it, Last time I failed this time I won't" Syre rejected instantly tears also had begun to blur up his vision.

"Its okay, I'm not even your real brother, Syre… Just let go, they won't blame you, you know? How could a one year old hold the weight of a 4 year old? Just let me die, I've already experienced a life full of adventure. You haven't had a chance of adventure, hell you haven't even properly expirienced life... Just take this chance while you can, would you?" Arthur rejected his rejection.

"No, You are my brother! Remember a couple of nights ago? When we were going to sleep, you called me "Little Brother" and I called you "Older Brother" So just please, we'll survive, I'll find away" 'Dues, begin to create a solution, there has to be one' [ I'm sorry sir, but at this point there is nothing you can do to save the both of you, with your current status is just not enough even with the mana boosting your physique, Currently, only one of you will be able to survive ]

'You're the GOD IN THE MACHINE the DEUS EX MACHINA, Live up to your name please just please… Don't don't let him die...' Syre thought in anger which slowly had turned into sadness as the reality of the situation had begun to settle in his little heart.

"Syre… You need to let go… there's nothing you can do, right now I need you to survive, Can you do that for me little brother?" Arthur said as tears fully graced his face and he smiled a little, then without even Syre knowing Arthur slipped his hand out and began to fall.

"NO!" Syre's grip on the branch had lessen due to shock, as he regripped the branch his other hand began to sway as he saw Arthur fall towards the forest, *SNAP* the branch had snapped, him regripping it and his tightening grip had caused its snap which caused his fall, the fate of the two were unknown to those above as they watched the scene unable to hear anything.

The world turned gray as everything seemingly stopped.

"Is this the one?" A being with short white hair, his face body were perfectly proportioned making him looks as if he was sculpted by the gods, he had golden eyes but the feature that attracted all attention were his two red horns that sprouted from his head, the being said as a portal formed next to Syre who was falling but was stopped midair not that he could perceive anything at this point"

"Yes, Yes it is Micheal…'' a second being said, this one looked similar to Michael however rather than white hair he had blue hair and a single horn.

"Very Well, You grab this one Azazel, I'll tell the Asura nearby of our purpose" Michael replied back and disappeared back into the portal, Azazel then grabbed Syre and created his own portal and slowly began muttering as time resumed "So this is the human who'll help us out? Doesn't seem like much"

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3557 words for this chapter

( Author Note: Its 2:41 I ain't got time to double check this chapter, I'll reread this and the previous chapter later today as I've been busy )