Chapter 4 - Twin Horns

[Luz Pov]

It had been a day since that whole situation, Arthur and I were eating our lunch at that moment, while we could hear an argument going on in the other room. We both gave a very strong sigh thinking about the situation we were having, we could even hear Alice pretending to cry and then return to the discussion.

I still couldn't believe it. Yesterday when I had awakened my mana core, they came saying how crazy that was, and that, due to some complications, they didn't want to talk to us about, I could now consider them both mother and father. So did that mean I was Arthur's foster brother? If so, at least it's good that the closest person to me would be my fella, Arthur.

"Art...how long do you think they'll keep bickering?" I said, already finishing my lunch, but seeing Arthur playing with his food.

"Maybe they'll stop this afternoon. I'm sorry this is your first impression of your new family." He spoke while looking in my direction.

"Relax, my first real impression was when they pulled me out of that bloody scene." I was drinking the glass of juice that Miss Alice, or I could say, mother Alice, had given me earlier.

After a few minutes, it seems the argument is over, I could see my new brother's face go in shock. Apparently it was not normal for these conflicts of ideas between our parents to end so quickly. I could see them going back to the kitchen, and I saw slap marks all over Reynolds' face, which ended up making us laugh a little.

With everyone already finished eating lunch. I could see my dad's eyes flickering our way.

"I thought Dad lost the argument." Arthur whispered to me, and I shook my head, showing that I had thought the same.

"Well, boys! Your mom and I talked for a bit. Even though you're young, you both have formed mana cores, and since I want you to-" Reynolds spoke, but soon Alice nudged him in the shoulder, making him do a little cough, self-correcting. "We want you to show the world how special you are. We're going on a trip to a city where we can look for some tutors."

When he said that, our eyes widened in surprise, apparently the only reason Alice had accepted it was because the tutor was someone professional, and not our silly father.

The rest of the day was the beginning of packing the travel backpacks, while they took their necessary things and Arthur took his wooden sword and some books, I took the clothes that Rey managed to save from the remains of the ambush, being the only thing that left over from the former owner of my current body. During that night, while i shared the same bed with arthur, i was trying to focus the memories of the original soul that i absorbed, unfortunately not getting results with the exception of a headache.

"Hm... Xyrus... the floating city..." I thought a little about what my foster parents had said, having given up on looking at the old memories for now.

The place we were going to was called Xyrus, a flying city that was founded to be the base of an amazing academy for mages, the trip would take 3 weeks to get to the nearest teleport portal, because if we went there really without using portals, it could take months.It's in those moments that I hate a non-tech world. Remembering the other floating cities I've visited in my other lives, I went to sleep, building a mental image of what this place would be like.

That morning, before breakfast, was when I discovered the real reason my new mother had accepted this trip. I learned that they were former adventurers, and their ex-party had stopped by here, in Ashber, and were on their way to Xyrus anyway. So, nothing more fair than getting a ride and having protection along the way, because in the streets we would pass, there might be attacks by bandits or wild animals.

As we drank coffee, I could hear my adoptive father talking about the members of his ex-party. For what I understood, there are 2 conjurers and 3 augmenter, I had confidence that nothing would go wrong, because a long with them, my father was a B-Class augmenter, my mother was a rare Emitter, and even though we were kids, Art and I had enough knowledge to know how to act in times of danger.

By mid morning, we were ready to head out, reaching the inn they were staying at in Ashber. Art and I saw them out in front, near the stables.

"Fellas, I want you guys to meet our sons, Arthur and Luz! Go on, introduce yourselves." Our father exclaimed, after hugging his ex-party members.

"Hello. Our father has told us great things about his fellow Twin Horns members. Thank you for traveling with us to Xyrus. We'll be in your hands" I saw Arthur saying this while he gave a slight half bow.

"Hello hello! Our father said about many adventures they had together, I would love to hear these same stories from your perspective, thank you so much for helping us out in this travel." I said trying to be humorous, interested in knowing more about the group.

"HAHAHA, what is this? Is this child really your son, rey? such manners!" The one who said that, carried a spear, so I thought he was the one called Adam, and from the way he commented, it was obvious that this question was referring to Arthur.

Looking better at him, Adam looked like the energetic type who talks a lot, with red hair tied up in a messy, flame-like fashion. It made me have a genuine smile, it reminded me a lot of some friends I had in groups from other lives. But that smile ended when I noticed my brother being picked up, while his face seemed to be suffocated by the large breasts of one of the Twin Horns women.

"Awww. Isn't he just too precious? You should be glad that he doesn't look like you Reynolds." That's what she said, as she seemed to hug my brother tighter.

My goodness, that woman had gorgeous blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and gave off a whole royal princess vibe. I couldn't believe it, she was totally my type of woman, at least physically, but I can't get too excited, our age did what I was thinking been unlikely to happen.

"Hun.. excuse me, little boy." I turned to see a large man with a deep voice. He was at least 2 meters tall, and as I watched him, he gave me a light pat and I let him pass. "Angela, you are hurting him" The same said while saving my brother from that beautiful trap he was.

"So, my queen is called Angela?" I thought about it, but then I slapped myself wake up of this, I was in the beginning of this new life, wtf is wrong with me?

I looked at my brother who was being carefully placed on the ground by the giant, managing to notice how impressed Art was to see someone that size. Maybe it was the childish part of his mind asking to be carried on his shoulders.

In seconds, he seemed to recover from that and looked around, I was looking in the same direction. We saw a woman who seemed to be the youngest of the group, when I saw her, I noticed that the way she was dressed and pose was very like as Glaipper, one of my best friends from my first life.

She soon realized that we were looking at her, she simply made a "mhm" while giving a slight nod and the turns away. I noticed that she had two small daggers in the hip area, from the information our father gave earlier, it was easy to assume that this was the wind augmenter, Jasmine.

"Wow.. a woman of few words.... How charming." I whispered, and I could see Arthur seeming to agree with me.

At that moment was when we met the last of the 5 members of that group, we saw a woman approaching and stroking our hair, I looked at her body, and I could see well that atmosphere of "We can do anything if we believe " that emanated from her smile. I noticed her armor, it seemed to be very light as her bow in the back, she didn't seem to have elf-ears, but I could sense an elf-like essence in her body... She is a half-elf?? Welp, if she is, I dont see a problem in that.

With all the Twin Horns introduced to us, Arthur beckoned me over to the carriage, where we could be seated. I saw my brother augmenting his legs to climb up there, since it was a little high for him, and then I did the same. Even though I was on the same level, my movements seemed more natural than his.

After our party finished loading in all ofour travel necessities into the 2 carriages we were taking, we strapped in some mana beast with the appearance of giant lizards, Art gave me one of his books and flip some pages, apparently it was a basic encyclopedia, and there I saw what those creatures were, D-class monsters that were more efficient than horses for travelling montain terrain.

[Arthur Leywin POV]

By nightfall, the once distant montain range seemed to have doubled in size. I wondered how big the Grand Montain Range would be when we reched the foot. Needless to say, I was excited to get out of the tiny outpost that was my hometown, Ashber.

We eventually stooped to set up a camp near a small cluster of boulders. This was good for not having so much wind to give us problems with the campfire. I first noticed now, that my body of a 3 years old needed a lot of rest. Despite beeing asleep for most of the way. I still felt a bit heavy-eyed after being awake for a mere few hours.

With the campfire and a couple of tents setted, I saw my mother and father talking with the Twin Horns about old times, Luz was in my side, watching the fire burn there. That's when we saw Helen going near and sitting on my other side.

"I heard your pops say that you're some kind of genius mages... Is it true you're already awakened?" Helen said looking at us. And I just replied with the truth, saying that I awaken my core first, and after this I helped Luz doing the same thing.

She began asking how I felt when we had awakened and what color our mana core corrently were. By this time, a couple of curious ears perked up as Adam asked " Reynolds, do you mind if I test the little ones?"

I saw he trying to ask some ridiculous thing, no one would accept a grown adult fighting children under 6, but after seing their faces, I guess these thoughts had never occurred to anyone here. Only our parents seemed at least a bit hesitant.

"Okay, but be careful, I have not started to teach them how to properly fight. I only teached them light strengh and mana exercises until now."

"Hey kids, come here, Let's see what you're made of!" Adam said while he was getting up of his makeshift log seat.

I couldn't understand if he was trying to hit the egos of boys who seemed inflated, since he'd heard we were geniuses. Or if he really wanted to see how strong we were. But from the way he looked us up and down, even from our height, I felt like I was the first choice.

I took my wooden sword as Luz followed me with nothing in his hands. We made our way to the edge of our camp, where Adam would be waiting for us by a clearing, with everyone else watching the situation behind me.

"Hm. I'd say you know how to reinforce your weapon right, genius? And you? with nothing at all? Want to make me feel bad, huh?" Adam said looking at me and my brother.

It was obvious that he wanted to show dominance over us, and we could feel our parents looking at that, my mother clearly worried about what was happening, even if she could heal us later, while my father seemed to know that our "enemy" would not hit so hard.

We stared at him, we were 5 meters away from him. I started to strengthen my sword and legs as I thought about the fights I had in my past life. Getting all my focus on him, but before I did anything...

"LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" I looked to the side, seeing Luz saying that like a battle cry and running towards Adam, the same looked in shock, and when I noticed, I was too.

While Luz was going to Adam, a trail of smoke was forming from his legs. For some reason, the only comparison I could have was the smoke coming out of a car exhaust.

I soon got closer too, carefully and watching the movements that were happening. It was crazy, even with our childish bodies, I realized that Luz was fending off Adam's attacks, kicking his spear shaft. I looked back, seeing my father open-mouthed and even Jasmine having some surprised facial expression.

"I can't have all the fun, come on bro!" When Luz said that, he walked away from Adam, still with the smoke trail on his legs, and I started attacking our opponent.

Adam's expression became very serious, when he saw that I managed to dodge some of his attacks, unfortunately being hit by one in the belly area, but I moved away so Luz could give me reinforcement. He didn't seem to want to let the spear bearer breathe, already starting with a false kick to fool him and then kicking him in the ribs area from the other side. Leaving him off balance.

With his imbalance, I could see my brother do something that, if it weren't for our mother, I would have sworn quite a bit in surprise. He simply made a mini jump, turning upside down, used one of his hands to support himself on the ground and start spinning, like a pawn, hitting Adam several consecutive kicks, until he was knocked for real on the ground. Luckily, that last sequence of kicks didn't seem to have mana boost.

"WOW! Letting the mana flow freely was a great idea." My brother said, as he approached me.

We both saw our father approach Adam and help him up, while the others watched us still in shock over what had happened.

"What was that?!? I mean Arthur, you did really well for a sword fight, I thought I would get hit by most hits, not just one." Helen said as my mom approached me and went to see if the damage had been so much, it was just discomfort, but she insisted on healing.

"And you!! What was that smoke! And how did you make those moves?" She was asking Luz now.

"Well, I just augmented my legs a little, and when I started to run, I let it go, as if the mana had to guide my body, instead of me controling it"

Luz's explanation seemed a little vague, but soon Jasmine seemed to realize something and tried to warn us, if Luz really let it flow after augmenting his legs, it means that the smoke there was mana escaping from his body, if so, there was a minimal chance that, even if a core of the appropriate color, he is already showing signs of having an affinity for fire.

That's when an idea hit me, does this have to do with the red mana surrounding the others? That's how he described it when he was forming the core, as I recall.

After that, we ate a little and talked about other things, while Adam was waking up with no idea what had happened, they had to explain to him, and he looked at both of us in disbelief. Perhaps, even if Luz had hit without reinforcing his legs, the hit could have been a bit strong when falling to the floor.

[3rd Person POV]

A few days would have passed within that trip that would last almost a month, Arthur sometimes have shown some basic movements with his sword and Luz demonstrate that mana that came out of his legs, since Jasmine seemed to be the person most interested in it. Arthur was turn out to have a birthday during that period, making him gain some small treats from his new friends.

But on that same birthday, it looked like the place would get dark even in the daytime, not in the sense of the weather, but the mood of sensations. And this was even more proven, when Helen's voice was heard warning.

"BANDITS! PREPARE TO ENGAGE!"