Ambush

"Rudeus, where have you been!? You said you were just stopping by the Adventurer's Guild and it's been over two hours, and now you return with all of these beast children!?"

Roxy seemed to have panicked when I had gone missing for a couple hours. I guess it makes sense. She had been searching for a year, not knowing if I'm alive or dead, and then right after she finally finds me, I go off on my own and disappear for hours.

"Excuse me sir, I'm afraid we do not allow pets. Additionally, there is the limit of 6 patrons per room."

An employee of the Inn we are staying at must have followed me up here when he saw me walk in with this huge dog. I forgot we were staying at a high end establishment.

"I'm sorry, sir. They won't be staying here. I just needed to let my friends know I was safe and I couldn't leave these children out on the streets on their own", I answered.

"Who are these children, anyway?", Elinalise asked.

"They had been kidnapped from their homes. I took care of the kidnappers, but they need to be escorted back home. I'm hoping someone from their village comes looking for them soon."

"In that case you should drop them off with the city guard. They will watch over them until a guardian comes to retrieve them", Elinalise responded.

"No. We can't abandon these children. We should take them back to their village ourselves", Ruijerd insisted.

"Well, for now, we should at least get them a place to stay. I think the lower cost Inns would let them stay, including the Sacred Beast, if one of us rented them a room. One of us should stay the night with them, though. I would be worried if they stayed on their own in a run down place like that."

"In that case, I will stay with them", Ruijerd volunteered.

"Me too!", Eris yelled.

Eris, Ruijerd, and I ended up staying the night with the beast children and Leo. The Inn we stayed at offered no other commodities, so we left for the market the following morning to get breakfast for us all.

I was surprised that Gyes and Gustav hadn't found us yet. I had expected them to track us down last night.

After we finished eating, Ruijerd suggested we escort the children back home.

"I'm sorry. I know I promised to take you back to your home in Asura, but I can't abandon these children. Would you come with me to guide these children home, and then we can continue on our journey together?"

"Of course, Ruijerd", I agreed. "We can't leave these kids here to fend for themselves, they would just end up being taken in as slaves."

After letting Roxy, Elinalise, and Tallhand know that we were planning to make a trip to Dedoldia Village, they insisted on joining us.

"As if I'm going to let you wander off on your own again", Roxy joked.

Before leaving Zant Port, we purchased some clothing for the children so they didn't have to travel in slaves' robes and also bought food to last us all for the journey.

Once we were all ready, we set out into the forest, towards Dedoldia Village, with Leo leading the way.

After about an hour of travel, Leo started barking and ran off ahead of us. We hurried up to chase after him, but once we caught up, we all froze in shock.

Leo was sniffing Gyes and nudging him with his nose while whimpering. Both Gyes and Gustav were laying motionless in the middle of a clearing.

All of the beast children came running to them, crying and yelling. We ran up as well, to check if they were alive.

"They're still breathing! Quick, Rudy, you heal the older man, I'll take care of this one!", Roxy immediately began chanting a healing spell on Gyes.

I, however, was scanning the tree line for any potential enemies. This was an obvious trap. I know Gallus Cleaner was invested in this kidnapping operation and there is no way he would leave these two alive in the middle of an open clearing unless it was a trap.

I noticed Ruijerds head was locked in one direction pointed amongst the trees.

'I knew it. Gallus must be hiding behind a tree or something off in that direction', I thought.

"Rudeus, what are you doing!? Hurry up and heal the old man, he's barely breathing!", Roxy was a little panicked at this point.

'Alright, I'll take the bait', I thought as my lips curled up into a small, barely noticeable smile.

I walked up towards Gustav and began chanting a healing spell, all subtly keeping an eye out in the direction Ruijerd was watching.

Sure enough, half way through my healing spell, a dagger came flying from the tree line right at me.

"Rudeus, watch out!", Ruijerd yelled.

Ruijerd rushed out in front of me and expertly deflected the dagger.

Gallus slowly emerged from the tree line, walking slowly and confidently towards us.

'Is he stupid or something? He should know he stands no chance against all of us. He probably has the rest of his men hiding in wait as well. No matter, no amount of small fry will make any difference', I thought.

I quickly finished my healing incantation and stood up. Gustav and Gyes both awoke and were coughing up some blood, but otherwise seemed to be alright.

"I heard one of your members had been masquerading as a Superd. Is it actually true? Are you the real deal?", Gallus said with a smirk. He had stopped about twenty feet away from us.

Ruijerd just glared at him. "Evildoers who would hurt children deserve no mercy!"

Ruijerd lunged his spear forward at Gallus at incredible speed. Gallus seemed surprised by this, but still just barely managed to evade by jumping backward while reaching into his shirt pocket and throwing a small bag at Ruijerd.

With my Eye of Foresight, I saw Ruijerd was about to swipe the bag away with his spear, but I figured the bag was probably a smoke bomb, or full of poison or something.

I reached out my staff towards them, intending to freeze the bag solid, but before I began to cast the spell, my vision jarred. My Eye of Foresight showed the world spinning around me vertically. I was confused for just a moment before I realized what was about to happen.

My head was about to roll.

I immediately spun around and conjured two incredibly dense stone pillars, crossing in an 'X' shape, right in front of me. But... nothing happened.

Just then, another man emerged from the tree line on the other side of the clearing. He held a greatsword in his right hand, leaning it up against his shoulder as he slowly walked towards us. He looked to be very young, perhaps around eighteen years old.

"You have great instincts", he complimented me.

I kept my eyes glued on the newcomer as I yelled, "Ruijerd! Protect Eris and the others!"

"What? No Rudeus! Fall back. Let me fight him off!", Ruijerd yelled back, but it was too late.

I swung my staff up into the air, conjuring a huge and dense earth wall behind me, covering the length of the clearing and then some, stretching over a hundred feet into the air.

'Ugh!', I winced in pain slightly.

I may have an effectively limitless mana pool, but there is a limit to how much I can expend at once. I stretched myself to my limits to conjure as large and dense a wall as I could muster. I knew that anything less may as well be a wall of paper to the man who stood before me.

This man had nearly killed me while I was searching for a way to reach Hitogami in my past life. While I have become much stronger since then, there is the fact that I am still in a child's body. This was bad. I'm not certain I can win. This could go either way.

"Wow!", the man whistled. "Impressive. And you didn't even need an incantation."

He lowered his greatsword off his shoulder and pointed it towards me. "This should be fun."

My right arm still ached slightly due to the stress of conjuring the earth wall. I decided to stall for even a little bit to give me some time to recover.

"So what brings you all the way out here, Aleksander Ryback?"