Time looked as it was slowed, as the arrow was flying through the air. Looking at the trajectory, a faint smile formed on his lips. As the smile was finally formed, the time became normal again. That instance, the arrow hit the side of the wolf, who was approaching the child.
With a faint whimper, the wolf took a few small steps, before his body started to become heavy and fell down to the ground. That instant, both the child who was pressed to a tree, as well as the wolf's gaze turned towards him.
The eyes of the boy, which were filled with tears, had a glimpse of hope restored to it. As for the wolf, its eyes were ignited by the fur that it felt from losing a kin.
Wanting to take revenge, the wolf turned his direction towards Otto as he found a new, but dangerous, target.
Before the wolf could even more, Otto had already readied another arrow. Seeing the wolf change its target, the smile on the face of Otto became dangerous as he slowly drew back the string of the bow. Closely watching the trajectory of the wolf, he concentrated on the path that the wolf was taking.
Because the wolf was running with the arrow that Otto shot in mind, its trajectory was not straight. Instead the wolf was running towards him zigzagging.
'Just a bit closer… A little more… Now.' With that he loosed the arrow. He had to wait for a longer moment that he had hoped.
Arrow flying through the air, the wolf noticed the arrow which was approaching him quickly. With an inward growl, the wolf decided to change it trajectory again.
As the wolf change its direction, the arrow only managed scrape the wolf instead of hitting it. The speed of the wolf slowed a bit, however, because there was no major damage it kept on rushing towards Otto without any stop.
'Damn, I don't like this. The wolf is too close for me to fire another arrow. Maybe I can hit it with a fireball?' Quickly making up his mind in the short time period, he dropped the bow and started to concentrate his magical essence.
The footsteps of the wolf were getting closer, as he closed his eyes. The world stopped at that point. At least, that is what he felt. The magical essence, hidden deep within him, activated and started to violently rush. Before long, a stream of essence started to flow. Moving through his body, the essence flowed towards his hands. To his palms.
Opening up his eyes, a small fireball formed on top of the palm of Otto. The wolf had moved significantly closer. It was just a few feet away, about to lunge his body forward.
Looking the wolf directly in its eyes, he noticed that the wolf had doubt hidden behind the fierce look in his eyes. The wolf got shaken by the fact that Otto managed to conjure a fireball. The reason the wolf did not back off was because the ball was rather small, so it was certain that nothing major would happen to him, even if the fireball hit.
Throwing the fireball towards the wolf, the only thing he could hope for now was that the it would hit the wolf and damage enough that it would be thrown away from its course.
Because of the distance, the fireball did not have to travel too far. Because of this, the magical essence did not fade away and remained at a high power.
Because of this close distance, the wolf also had not the proper time to evade and dodge the incoming attack once more.
With a boom that echoed in the forest, the fireball managed to hit the wolf. However, it was not stopped, as it still continued to charge. The charge slowed down however, until it actually came to a stop.
Eyes wide open; Otto could not believe that he would hit the wolf in the first place. But also hit it in such a way that the wolf would stop moving, was beyond his expectations. Looking again at the location that the fireball managed to hit, he noticed that it was in the vicinity of the arrow that scraped the wolf. Because of this, the impact that occurred was increased, as it hit surpassed the thickness of the skin and directly managed to injure the flesh directly.
Happiness filled his face as he was looking at the wolf's body, which was not lying on the ground beneath his feet. Not dead yet, the wolf gave out several low growls as it looked dead in the eyes of Otto. Willing to finish off the wolf, he took out his hand axe and aimed at the wolf. However before he could even act, he was stopped by the surrounding sound.
Due to the explosion, the other wolves, which were distracted by the horse corps, looked at the direction of Otto. Seeing one of their kind about to be slain, they all gave out a loud howl.
'Damn, this does not good. Why do I have to be the one in this situation?' Otto asked himself as he was grinding his teeth. The smile on his face disappeared as he was looking a bit more nervous and worried.
Angered filling their eyes, the wolves slowly started to make their way towards Otto. Clearly with getting revenge on their mind.
"Protect the young master!" Orders were being shouted from a bit deeper into the forest. "Charge!" Not a moment passed by, and around twenty armed men charged towards the location where they were at. At the helm a middle-aged men, who looked like he was the one in charge. Their targets, the wolves that were about to charge towards Otto.
Getting attacked out of the blue, the wolves were surprised and did not know what to do. Their position was disorganized and all over the place. Not knowing what to do, they were attacked without any mercy.
The older, more experienced wolves managed to provide a stiff resistance, however as the numbers of the armed men that entered the fray was higher, the situation soon resolved in a positive result for them. Before long, even the resistance of the alpha wolf was restrained.
Not knowing what happened, in an instant the whole battlefield changed. Currently dozen of wolf corpses filled the ground, as the blood slowly formed into small pools all over the ground.
Ignoring Otto, the armed men all ran over to the child, which was still pressed against the tree. However his eyes were locked at Otto.
"Young master! Thank the Gods that you're alright." A middle-aged man walked in front of the others as he spoke those words. Getting on his knee, he whipped of the durst on the cloths of the kid they called "young master". The look of the middle-aged man was as if he was inspecting the "young master" for any scrapes or wounds.
Instead the "young master ignored the middle-aged man, as he pushed him away with the back of his hand and made his way slowly towards where Otto was. His eyes never let the direction that Otto was.
Surprised by this, the middle-aged man staggered. Even the rest of the armed men were surprised at the sudden reaction of the "young master". Following the path that he was taking with their eyes, they finally noticed the presence of Otto.
Having killed the wolf in front of him with his axe, he was faintly covered in blood. Even the axe which he held in his hand had blood dripping from it.
Some of the guards were directly guarded against Otto the moment they saw him. Some of the armed men directly walked in front of him, weapons drawn and aimed at him. "Lower your weapon! Get to the ground!" The armed men started to shout.
Not sure what to do, Otto angrily bit his lip. 'This is your thanks for saving your "young master's" life? You are all the same!' Otto thought, as he slowly started to lower himself.
As Otto bent down, the "young master" spoke up in an angry voice. "How dare you! To treat the one that saved my life in such manner!" A clearly furious voice was extruding from him.
Hearing this, the armed men were a bit reluctant, but in the end put down their swords. However, they were still clearly guarded against Otto. Especially as the "young master" was getting closer to him.
"Thank you for saving me." The "young master" said as he arrived in front of Otto. Extending his hand, he continued, "I am Kyle Jaeger, son of Theodor Jaeger and heir to the Jaeger house."
Not knowing how to react, Otto was a bit frozen at the spot. He just looked mindless to Kyle and followed his hand. After noticing that Kyle nodded his head and signaled to extent his hand, he finally reacted. Extending his own hand, as well, Kyle firmly grabbed the hand and started to shake it.
"You… You're welcome." Otto said unsure. He definitely did not know how to react.
At this point the middle-aged man walked forward. "Sorry for the behavior of my men. They do not know how to properly behave in front of saviors." As he spoke those words, he looked at the men with an angered look. Clearly he was displeased with the behavior they showed towards Otto. There was a look in his eyes, as if he was about to punish the men when they returned.
Quickly looking the other direction, the armed men felt a bit ashamed of themselves. Some even looked at their feet out of embracement.
"Where do you live kid? Why are you alone in the forest? Do your parents allow such a thing?" The middle-aged man asked.
The initially questions were generic, so there was no specific reaction. However, the moment he started to ask about his parents, the face of Otto turned dark. His eyes started to flare up, as he instinctively looked at the middle-aged man with a murderous expression.
Taking a step back, the middle-aged man instinctively put his hand on the palm of his sword. However, he quickly regained his composure and calmed down. "I see that this is a sensitive subject. I am sorry for asking." He said in a calmed voice.
Instead of replying, Otto calmed himself down and looked towards the ground. Slowly shaking his head he spoke in a low voice, "My parents… they were killed by bandits…"
Hearing those words, the middle-aged men felt ashamed that he even dared to ask something like that. Even the other men surrounding them were ashamed of their behavior.
On the other hand, Kyle spoke up in a happy voice, "That is good…" The moment he spoke those words, he realized what he said, and directly tried to correct himself. "No I mean… uhm… well, I wanted to invite you to come with me. Given that you are alone, this would become easier." Those words, even with a happy tone, were said soft. He was scared that his initial reaction was a bit too overboard.
Hearing these words, the middle-aged man reacted with a surprised tone, "Young master, are you…" But he could not finish his words, as he was cut off by the Kyle.
"I have witnessed your strength. Therefore I want to repay you for helping me. If you follow me and enter my household, you will be able to train within the castle. This will help you out immensely. Even the court mage Alexis will be happy to know that you can use magic."
Hearing those words, a shocking gasp expression could be heard from the surrounding men. "Magic? At such a young age?" the men were whispering between each other.
"Oh-ho, is that really the case. If it is like that, then I am sure that even the lord will be willing to take you in."
"Great! If that is the case, we can directly leave." Kyle said with an excited voice.
Being quite until now, Otto spoke up softly. "I… I would like to… but I need to take some stuff from my shack." His eyes were sparkling with excitement. He would finally be away from this location. Get to a far away location, where he would be able to train even better. As those pleasant images formed in his mind, he heard the echo of a girl crying. 'Boter, don leve Mia!'
It was as if a sword pierced his heart as he started to think of the little girl. "Mira." He whispered to himself. Looking back up at Kyle, he asked with a determined look. "Can I bring someone with me?"
Kyle looked surprised. "I thought that you had no one?"
At those words, Otto answered with a determined voice, "There is this one girl. She is the only real family that I have left. Can I take her with me?"
Initially Kyle was taken aback by these words. However after a short notice, he nodded with a smile. "If she is as promising as you, I would love to see her with us."
Determination building up in his eyes. Looking at the direction of the village, he whispered to himself. "Wait for me Mira, I will free you from this place!"
…