Only a Light Ball Busting

With his mischievous plan in mind, he gets himself ready with his wooden sword out pointed towards Adam. With both sides ready Art makes the first move.

He quickly starts to circulate mana around his body, explosively increasing his power. He kicks off from the ground charging straight ahead towards Adam with speed not normal for a 4-year-old. Adam, feeling confident goes on defence, positioning the pole diagonal in front of his chest, waiting to block and parry Art's attack.

Just as Arts sword swing has nearing the pole, Art suddenly vanished and appeared again this time behind Adam. Adam was shocked with the speed of Art's movement and quickly readjusts his pole to block the side swing and then counters with a diagonal swing from his pole.

Art's ducks down angling his enhanced sword to redirect Adam's swing before going for a vertical slash on Adam's chest. Forced to back off, Adam takes a swift step back.

Already prepared for this, his legs which where already positioned to attack sprung Art's forward. It was at this moment that Adam realised the vertical slash was a faint to bait him into a position Art wants.

Using the same trick as earlier Art's speed momentarily increased and ended up right below Adam's crotch. Using the sword in his right-hand as bait Art makes a slash aiming for the right leg. Adam quickly moves his leg out the way, unfortunately he still underestimated the 4-year-old too much.

Arts left hand was curled up in a fist and enhanced to the best of Arts abilities. Being too late to notice since it was timed near perfectly with the sword swing. Arts fist collided directly on with Adam's balls.

As the experienced adventurer he is, he held back the pain. Though that momentary second, he had to readjust his mind, Art went for another ball busting punch.

Adam now knew Art played dirty and was fully ready for another ball punch. Pivoting his body to avoid it he countered with a swift attack using a bit too much force. Art barely manged to block it with his sword but the force was too much.

Arts small body was sent flying back meters while Adam got pushed back a few feet and was in a position ready to attack. A swift slap to the head though suddenly knocked Adam off balance and sent him face first into the dirt.

Alice quickly rushes over to Art and uses her healing magic to fix up the scrapes caused by flying across the ground. Once Adam got up off the ground, he quickly storms over to Rey awkwardly as the adrenaline starts to disappear and the searing pain from having his balls directly punched starts to kick in.

"The fuck have you been teaching that little monster, Rey! He went straight for my balls without hesitation, even used mana to enhance the hit and a faint so I wouldn't see it. Did you throw him into the wilderness or something and have him fight bears since he was a baby?"

Averting his eyes awkwardly he coils back in fear, feeling ominous vibes coming his way from Alice. "Umm… I didn't teach him that. He learnt that on his own."

Alice quickly questioning the one trying to escape her grasp. "So, Art. Is this what you have been studying?"

"Umm… Yeh I learned some stuff from watching father train and a bunch of the books. Some of it was also self-learnt through trial-and-error practicing in my room."

Alice sighs while Reynold thanks the lord for Art not saying he learnt it all from him. 'God knows what Alice would have done to me.'

Adam appearing in front of Art who is still being healed and resting questions him. "Hey kid, you're going to need to teach me some of those moves of yours. Your movement was insane and super hard to keep up with."

"Haha, sure but I don't know how well I can teach you."

'Thank god I practiced the movement technique from King Greys memories. Though my mastery over it is still rough unlike King Grey who spend years of battling to perfect it. I only have a year of quiet testing in my room, using the practice method left in the memories.

Though it seems Jasmine also wants to learn the technique, since I remember her being a genius and learning it after only a few days in the original.'

Alice soon cut in however and expressed her opposition. "Its already late and Art is exhausted and hurt. If you want to learn it, do it tomorrow evening. Now if you excuse us, me and little Art have to go get ready for bed."

After the spar, things started to wind down for the night and everyone got ready for sleep while also doing a rock, paper, scissors over who does first night watch.

…

The next morning, they packed up, made sure the fire is fully put out and left. They kept all the skinned wolf hide since they can sell it for a bit extra profit, but due to limited space they where only able to take one wolfs worth of meat. Which is enough to last them a few days at least.

Back on his comfy chair of Angela's thighs, Arthur just sleeps since there isn't much else to do. Well, it looks like sleeping to others watching him, but instead he is meditating just without having his legs crossed.

His core is still in the black level so he meditates at least a few hours everyday and half of his 8 hours sleep every night. Even with only 4 hours sleep, because he can take in minimal amounts of Ki from the air, that is enough to reduce the fatigue to nothing and makes him feel fully rested.

Angela and Alice just keep chatting with each other, trying not to be too loud as they want to let Art rest. Occasionally they would make a short stop for toilets and lunch but for the most part they kept moving for over 13 hours with the only major delays being when the lizard creatures need to move slower in order to regain stamina.

That is the reason these lizards are more widely used than horses. Although horses are quicker, the lizards have a special trait in that so long as every few hours they can slow down to a light jogging pace their stamina will recharge without having to actually stop. Making them the best carriage mounts for long distances.

Occasionally Art would check around on the surroundings or chat with Alice and Angela but was never for long, as there wasn't much a 4-year-old can talk about with grown adult women.

When night once again upon them, they parked up and set up camp and got rid of any threats lingering nearby. Once that one done though an excited Adam and Jasmine appeared in front of Art and snatched him away so he could train them of that movement technique he did. Rey and Helen also joined in later, leaving Durden, Alice and Angela to chat amongst themselves.

…

"So, you just have to cross your back leg over your lead leg and then kick off with mana while you let your body almost fall, then you have to keep your balance while you rocket through the air and finally retract in your lead then extend it once gain in front to stop your momentum quickly."

Art has been giving them tips on how to learn the technique for a few hours now. 'Wow, Jasmine really is a genius. It's only been a few hours and she is already near a basic form of it. Adam on the other hand, somehow keeps getting his head stuck in trees.

Well, I've told them how to do it and spent a few hours practice myself, so I'm going to go grab dinner before maybe a light spar with father and then sleep/meditation.

…

Several days later the group could be seen relaxing and bathing in the basin of a waterfall. Rey, Durden and Adam could be seen jumping off high rocks into the water while also playing mischievous pranks on the women and each other. Art spent most of the time taking advantage of his young age to bathe with the women since non thought the wiser of a 4-year-old boy.

Everyone had fun finally being able to let lose a bit after many days of stuffy travel. They also spent the time to get some actual training done since they planned to spend quite a few hours at the waterfall basin.

Helen, Adam, Rey and Jasmine all spent that time to learn the "Faint Step" from Art. They all showed tremendous progress in understanding the technique but Jasmine above all the others. She had not only learnt it enough to use in combat but also started to learn a few other techniques from King Greys memories which she practices along with Art.

Arts fifth birthday also passed in which everyone gave him a present. Even the shy and reserved Jasmine stepped forward to give him a dagger.

After having their few hours of fun, they used Angela's wind magic to dry everyone off before getting back into the carts and setting off. Art was somewhat different this time and removed all the book and other stuff from his sack and replacing them with food, rope and even the dagger Jasmine gave him.

Although they thought it weird, they left it be since it doesn't really matter anyways. The lizards started up again and continued forward along the path. Unlike before where Art stayed in Angela's embrace, he quietly sat on the bench meditating and thinking.

'Todays the day. I remember in the manhwa that the attack happens the same day of the waterfall. I have already removed the books and other useless stuff from my sack. Instead, I've put the stuff I will need to survive like a drink container, rations, rope and a few other things. I also stole a set of Jasmine's clothes ready for when I save the elf girl.

Now all I need to do is patiently wait till the attack happens and look out for the crucial moment where I must jump off the cliff with that man. I have helped the group by posing hypothetical questions to help them deal with the exact situation coming up. In which they each gave answers and improved on how to deal with it and fight against it. Hopefully it should give the party a better chance compared to before, though I just hope it doesn't get in the way of my chance.'

Soon the terrain started to become rocky, and in the distance, Art could see the cliff section where the bandit attack will happen. He steadied himself, calming down his nerves and focused on staying on plan.

The traveling continued and they soon neared the dreaded ambush spot. Amongst light chatter within the group, the sudden sound of arrows flying through the air instantly made them on guard.

First to react was Angela who cast a wind protection spell to prevent the arrows from hitting Art, Alice and herself. The rest of the group soon followed by drawing weapons and emitting a cold killing intent.

People appeared from the cliff line, most with bows drawn aiming directly at them. People armed with swords and axes sprung up from the think grass, and skinnier people emerged from small rock cracks with daggers.

In the middle of the people up top, a shirtless man appeared with a vicious grin and blood-stained axe. "Men, leave the women and child untouched. As for the males, kill them. Males don't sell as high a price as good quality women and children."