Chapter 5

(Ashborn's POV)

"There are only 4 mages and none of them seem to be conjurers! The rest are normal warriors!" My father yelled at his team, informing them about enemies.

'Their only options for ranged attacks are only with bows. Moreover, those are merely some bandits. ' I concluded and wanted to hurry to assault the guy with a battle-ax, as he was most physically gifted.

Unfortunately for me, my mother didn't let me go, nor did I force her to permit me. So being a lovely son, I stayed with her. Angela's barrier was still working, but I doubt it can stop those bandits.

Father reverted back to his former adventurer days when he had once led the Twin Horns as his expression held the wisdom that could only come from experience. He donned his gauntlets, shouting.

"Safeguard Formation!" Yelled out father.

Adam swiftly arrived behind us as he faced the back on the road, spear pointed, while Jasmine and Helen came to our left with both of their weapons drawn, cladding ahead. My father and Durden faced the mountainside, positioning themselves to protect us from the archers overhead. Meantime, Angela upheld her position, preparing another spell as she maintained her wind barrier active.

"Gather and guard my allies O' benevolent Earth; do not let them be harmed!" Durden cast a spell and a 4-meters high earth wall emerged in front of him.

[Earth Wall]

Using that moment, father burst forward, raising his gauntlets in a guard position contrary to the arrows towards the enemy archers.

Moments later, Angela finished her spell and unleashed a torrent of wind blades, aimed at the front and the back of the path. That was apparently the cue as Adam and Jasmine shadowed behind the wind spell, arriving in front of our distraught enemies that were covering their vitals against the flurry of blades. Helen remained, her arrow nocked and bow drawn, imbuing the tip with mana that shined in a faint blue light.

At the same time, I formed arrows entirely made out of mana, on my hand shooting them towards bandits which were endlessly coming from all sides. Mana-arrow being transparent, it wasn't visible for others so neither bandits nor mother could see the missile.

'I should try and not waste strength on those things. ' I considered how weak I was in this young human body, I had to preserve my energy.

Even if I use a large amount of my mana to enhance my body, it will still feel the strain since it's only 4-years-old.

"Warrior coming your way, Helen!" Adam shouted as he dodged the swing of a mace, delivering an accurate swipe to the jugular of the unfortunate bandit. Bandit's eyes widened as he dropped his weapon, desperately trying to seal the lethal wound with his shaky hands as blood spurted out through the gaps between his fingers.

Our mother was trying to shield me and Arthurs's eyes from such a scene. Mother's eyes were looking up and she couldn't notice that we could clearly see what was happening.

Meanwhile, a scruffy, middle-aged man wielding a machete lunged towards Angela, hoping to disrupt the spell. Although the wind blade spell didn't seem all too powerful, it provided a painful distraction that was keeping us on equal footing, despite our lack of numbers.

Arthur was ready to block him and so was I, but Helen clearly shot down the guy with an arrow. It shot through armor.

The man tried to balance himself with his machete, but before he could do so, I formed another mana arrow on my hand and shot him directly in the head, opening his skull for exhibition.

Mother, Arthur, and Helen widened their eyes at this puzzling scene, but it wasn't a moment to think about this, so they quickly returned to their senses.

Jasmine was engaged in an intense duel against an augmenter, whose weapon was a long chain whip. It looked like Jasmine was at a disadvantage since the range of her two daggers was lacking. She was doing all she could to dodge the erratic movements of the whip.

"I'll make sure to treat you really 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. " he hissed, followed by another lick of his lips.

The blind confidence of this guy made some doubts emerge in me. Are some humans that idiotic? Even though this guy is an augmentor, even compared to Jasmine his mana-pool is incomparable. I could end his life with one man-arrow, without him realizing this.

Then I glanced at Durden, who was preparing some other spell.

"Take heed, Mother Earth, and answer my call. Pierce my enemies. Let none of them live."

[Rupture Spike]

Dozens of earth spikes formed and shot towards bandits, some of them could still dodge though. I wanted to attack with a mana-arrow, but I felt some pain in my right hand.

'This body cannot hold an extensive quantity of mana...' I, however, still shaped a mana-arrow and shot it at the archer, managing to hit him in the chest.

Durden was glad since he looked recognizably drained from the previous spell, with his jaw clenched as beads of sweat ran down his pale face.

I noticed my mother taking out her wand after this, her hands trembling. She then shook her hands, put her wand back, and tightened her grip on us even tighter.

The battle was coming to its peak. The bandit group had not suspected that every one of our group members would be capable mages. Because of that calculation error, all of the melee fighters were dead, the only ones alive, being the four mages and a couple of dispersed archers on the run.

Jasmine was still having trouble with the perverted chain user, but the arrogance on his face was wiped clean by this time, with a couple of nicks and cuts on his body dripping blood.

Adam was engaged with a dual-sworded augmenter.

My attention suddenly shifted to the sound of the crash. Father had been knocked down against the debris of what was now left of the [Earth Wall] spell and he was struggling to pick himself up as blood dribbled down from the side of his lips.

"Dad!!" "Honey!" Arthur and Mother cried out, as they quickly rushed towards him.

I, on the other hand, followed them, while covering their backs when they got out of the wind barrier. When they approached father, mom for some reason struggled to start the healing process.

"Cough! Alice, listen to me. Don't worry about me. If you use a healing spell right now, they'll realize what you are and try that much harder to capture you. They'll be willing to sacrifice a lot more if they know!" Father stressed his voice in a low whisper.

After a brief, trembling hesitation, my mother took out her wand and began chanting. Father then gave up to persuade mother and turned to us.

"Art, Ash, listen carefully. After the healing spell activates, they're going to try to capture your mother at all costs. Later, when 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!" Arthur yelled at father.

"LISTEN TO ME, ARTHUR LEYWIN!" Father roared at Arthur.

"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. "

'Baby inside her? ' Even my eyes went wide after hearing this. So this bundle of mana in her belly, was baby all along?

"I was planning on telling you when we arrived in Xyrus, but..." Father couldn't finish his words, Arthur cut him off.

"Okay, I'll protect Mom. " Arthur said firmly

"Atta boy. That's my son."

Mother has finished her chant at this time and both she and my father glowed with bright golden-white light.

"Sonova— One of them's a healer! Don't let her get awa-!" The leader roared but then was interrupted by pain in his hand where he was holding the axe.

He looked at his hand and saw a hole in it, blood was dripping from it without stopping. My mana-arrow pierced right through it, my hand felt great pain after this attack.

"Father, sorry... I can't finish this alone. Can you lend me a hand? " I requested. I can probably make another mana-arrow, but I don't know if I could use my right hand after it. So I will use it in extreme situations.

Little smile krept on my face, who would have thought I'm requesting help, quite humiliating... More reasons to get back strength.

"Ash... Arthur, go take your mother. " My father commanded Arthur.

Art immediately grabbed mother's and ran towards Adam, not giving her time to argue.

"Ash, stay here and support me from afar. " Father said and I nodded.

The father then rushed towards the scar-faced guy and I stayed behind observing him. There weren't that many bandits now. I can only feel the presence of only five.

When I was trying to feel those guys, scar-faced pinned my father down on the ground and brought his ax high in the air to swing it at him. I was lucky enough to predict, so when I arrived there, I quickly wrapped my hand around him.

'This guy has a tough body... ' I thought, while also feeling great pain from channeling mana in my body.

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

'Who now?' I wondered since I couldn't sense anyone who had enough power to finish us all.

I later felt some amount of mana gathering near Arthur and mother. They weren't aiming for everyone, but weak ones. Obviously...

'They won't be able to evade... ' I stared at figures of Art and mother, behind them was the edge of the mountain, on the other side was Adam and his opponent.

"Dammit. "I heard Art roar out.

I almost forgot about the guy whose hand I was holding right now, his endurance greatly reduced after losing too much blood, at the same time father was punching disgusting scar-face with all his might.

Meantime, Arthur used a knife that Jasmine gifted him. Art threw a knife at the conjurer, after hitting him, Art pulled the mana string that was attached to the knife.

Unfortunately, Art still fell down. It was actually time to get serious, I channeled tons of mana in my left hand.

I then put it on his face.

*Crack*

A few cracks could be heard. I willed more mana in my hand and absolutely shattered his skull. Scarface's lifeless body fell down on father. A lot of blood was gushing out of it.

I didn't wait for my father and rushed towards my mother. I formed another mana-arrow and shot it at Adam's opponent. Arrow went through the bandit and nearly hit Adam.

I quickly made my way to the edge of the cliff, while also spreading all my senses to check how Art was.

'He's alive... ' I could sense his mana signature and his condition through it.

Thereafter all of a sudden somebody attempted to invade my mind. Which of course turned out to be fruitless for whoever tried to do this.

'Who dares to penetrate my mind.' I asked telepathically.

'Child, Rest. I'll take care of your brother. ' Said a mysterious voice in my mind. Since it called me a child, it definitely didn't know who I actually was.

'Who you might be?' I queried.

'That doesn't matter. I'm someone who will lend you a hand, I will save your brother.' So it was actually "She" all this time, also she isn't lying.

'You better... I remember your mana signature. I will track you down and kill you. ' I threatened her.

'I don't want to provoke such a person as you.' She playfully responded, at least I couldn't detect any lies in her words, that's good for me.

I stopped augmenting my body with mana and let the darkness consume my sight. Prior to completely falling unconscious, I once again warned her.

'If by month Arthur won't be with us... You won't be able to close your eyes even after death.'