Twin Horns
"Hey kid, what are you doing out here by yourself?" The red haired man asked and I fixed my gaze on him.
I looked past him when I saw more people begin to disembark the wagons.
Another black haired woman with 2 long daggers, a giant of a man, a blond haired woman and then finally 2 people who stayed in a wagon and watched from a distance.
They too seemed greatly familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.
"I'm enjoying the sun and the cool breeze coming from the mountain." I responded to the red head before turning my face back up to the sun.
They paused for a moment before the first woman stepped in front of me blocking the sun.
I open my eyes with an annoyed expression and she just had the aura of a domineering mother.
"Kids, shouldn't be out here alone. There are dangerous beasts and bandits that roam these woods." She said insistingly and I could sense the change of mood when bandits were mentioned.
I just nodded and slid to the side to bathe in the sunlight once more.
"You're quite right miss, I'll make sure to tell any kids I come across." I respond nonchalantly only for my light to get blocked once more.
"You're the kid, kid!
We're telling you, you shouldn't be out here alone." The red hair man snaps from the side.
I look between him and the intense woman above me before pointing a finger to my chest.
"Me?
Oh then you don't need to worry, I'm an adventurer." I said with a slight smile before waving them off and once again sliding out of the shade of the woman.
She once again blocks the light the and I let out a growl of annoyance.
"I tire of these games, if you want to speak to me then do it while not blocking the damn sun."
I'm not one to usually get mad, but damn if this woman wasn't being insufferable.
I can hear just fine with the sun hitting my face as I could if she continued to block it.
Her face was one of surprise before turning to anger and her hand reached out for my cloak.
I reached her hand first and pulled her down with a dagger in my free hand just inches from her throat.
"Archers should stay in the back." I said as I breathed into her face, our faces as close as my dagger was to her throat.
"Wait! Lets not do anything we'll regret." Without leaving the eyes of the archer that was currently frozen in my grasps I respond.
"She started this by reaching for me, I will feel no regret in defending myself from people such as yourselves."
Her face never relaxed from the anger, if anything it grew from being put into such a position.
Her free hand slipped a dagger from her pocket and tried to bring it towards me.
"Helen wait!" The red haired man yelled.
The name rang familiar but I had different things on my mind.
My hand that had gripped her wrist released and I sent an open palmed strike to her solar plexus while my dagger wielding hit her wrist with the pommel causing her to drop her knife.
She now hunched over gasping for breath and I could hear the other man rushing forward.
I slipped behind her, three needles palmed in the arm that wrapped around her neck in a chokehold while my other hand held my dagger to her exposed neck.
This caused the footsteps to stop as the red haired man paused with his hands up.
However I wasn't looking for him, he was the closest besides this Helen and I knew where he was.
I was looking for the others.
The giant man had an intense look on his face, but he didn't approach, the blonde was similar except I saw a hand behind her back.
Based on her clothes she most likely reaching for a wand, since I seem to have the misfortune of getting attacked by a squad full of mages.
The man that was in the wagon before now hopped out and slowly made his way over trying to keep my eyes on him.
The woman stayed behind, and that's when it clicked that one of them was missing.
The black haired dagger wielder.
I heard whistling coming from behind and leaned so it exposed Helen's head to attack and found a rock that hit the back of her head and knocked her out.
This was a blessing and a curse as it stunned them, but it left me with basically dead weight weighing down my arms.
I fueled mana into my body and their eyes widened in surprise.
"He's a mage." The red haired man muttered.
I loosened the chokehold on Helen as it was no longer necessary, only to feel a brief surge of Mann from her as she quickly tried to move.
The getting knocked out was a faint, I was rather impressed with the quick thinking as I highly doubted this was planned.
She was strong but I feel this plan banked on me not being a mage as I blocked her elbow that went from my ribs with a forearm.
I could hear the approach of the others as our scuffle began, and I finally dug a paralytic needle into her side.
A spear came forward as Helen fell to the ground and I leaned to the side and gripped it.
He pulled back with force and hung on to reposition myself.
Dagger girl was only feet away from but instead of continuing she checked on Helen and breathed a sigh of relief.
Now to eliminate the biggest threats, conjurers.
I throw a needle at the blonde and she doesn't have time to react since she doesn't see it until the last second.
She crumples to the ground and the woman from the wagon jumps out to aid her.
2 down 5 to go.
I send fire mana through my hands into the spear until the man drops it from the heat and stares at me in anger and shock.
"Fire mage, be prepared!" He called and the other grew even more serious.
"This is quite fun, but I can't help but feel this pointless." I say between heavy breaths.
"They're only paralyzed, he's not trying to kill us!" Alice calls over.
I scoff as I hold the spear in my hand.
"Of course I'm not. I was just trying to enjoy the sun until you assholes came along." I say in annoyance as they continue to surround me in a semi circle.
I feel the big guy begin to use man and click my tongue in annoyance.
"Tsk, damn you weren't an augmenter?" I ask as I attempt to jump away from an earthen hand coming out of the ground.
It wraps around my right foot and i grimace from the pressure.
The big guy had the audacity to have a smile on his face as another hand snaked it's way to me. The other 4 also began to approach cautiously specifically looking at my hands.
I grin wildly as they approach and it causes them to pause momentarily.
I take the spear and send it back towards the red haired man as hard as I could spinning horizontally rather than the appropriate throwing technique.
The second earthen hand that was coming for me diverted and went for the spear.
The dagger wielder charged toward me as did the muscle bound brown haired man from the wagon.
"Jasmine, now!" He called to her.
She nodded as she sent a wind imbued dagger towards me.
I bring my mana to my fists and through to my dagger and slam a fiery blast onto the hand that was holding my foot into place.
It caused an explosion of debris to be sent flying and the force knocked the blade off course enough to only slice my arm rather than hit my stomach.
The dust settles and I was left breathing heavily as they all continued to converge on me.
"Hah… that was a mean attack sending a wind coated dagger." Only as the dust fully settled they could see I now held the dagger as I had pumped fire mana through my veins to catch it as it cut me.
" I mean, I'm only 9 years old you know.
Quite rude to try and kill a kid."
Their expressions were ones of shock, but all I was thinking is that I really need to try and make smoke bombs soon.
There's only so much strength I have before the only reasonable solution is to flee.
I stood as steady as I could holding the 2 blades up, Jasmine's dagger was good 5 inches longer than my own.
"Rey, don't hurt him, he's just a kid.
And he hasn't hurt any of us yet." The woman checking on the blond called to Rey.
"I know Alice, I know. But he's not giving us much choice." He responded.
And I couldn't help but feel all the pieces begin to fall into place as I realized who I was fighting.
A giant with earth affinity, Durden.
A busty blonde conjurer, Angela.
Red haired spear user, Adam.
Dagger wielding wind user, Jasmine.
Archer, Helen.
Father of Arthur, Reynolds.
And last but not least mother of Arthur, Alice.
I was fighting the Leywins and the Twin Horns this whole time.
I almost laughed at loud at the ridiculousness of it all but I held it in.
"The way I see it, I've only retaliated every time one of you attacked me.
So if anything you all haven't been giving me much of a choice."
The words seemed to embarrass them slightly as they realized they were true when replaying everything.
"Alright, well then lets just all take a second to relax and calm down." Alice said from the side, but Rey, Adam, and Jasmine still had their eyes trained on me.
As a sign of agreement i softly tossed Jasmine's dagger back to her and stopped fueling mana to my body.
The sudden exhaustion hit me hard and sent me to one knee as I clutched my bleeding arm.
The rest lowered their own weapons and just stood there absently, not really sure what to do.
Meanwhile I began cleaning out my wound with boiled water and then bandaging my wounded arm with a wrap that was coated in an anesthetic, to numb the pain.
They all just watched me in slight amazement as I dressed my wound cleanly and professionally, but I was only annoyed at their stares since it meant I couldn't just heal the wound.
Eventually Alice stood over me from my seated position on the ground and knelt in front of me with a soft but sad smile.
"Can I heal it for you?" I eye her with suspicion, but eventually nod and unwrap the bandage.
I was thankful to her for healing it, but couldn't she have offered before I had cleaned and used up one of my anesthetic wraps?
It healed cleanly with no scar and I let out a sigh, and she smiled as she stood back up.
"Thank you." I said as I looked up at her, something about looking at me caused her face to drop into sadness, but she nodded.
"You're welcome…. Uh…?" She began but trailed off so I answered the unasked question.
"Malcius, my name is Malcius and I'm a B rank adventurer."
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Bit of a longer one to make up for the short one yesterday.
Most likely will be another chapter today, but we'll see.
Until next time.