Leon was aware of his mistakes this time and became determined not to repeat it, although he had a few lives worth of experience so far none of them had any battle experience that could help him in those situations.
With his fathers help, Leon drained some blood from both of the Rackters as well as a small core from each of their chests, this was the beast core which they used to manipulate mana and control their element. Unlike a human spellcaster that would form more mana cores as they progressed, a beast would only have one that increased in size with each rank in a stage and then compress down again when going up to the next stage, this increased the density and purity of the mana in the core.
After dealing with the remains of the battle Leon and his father went back to the cart and set off again, they travelled for another half an hour before seeing another group of travellers in the distance, there seemed to be four of them on a cart with the strongest being at apprentice rank six. Needless to say, if they had met the ambush they would have been wiped out in no time.
Once both carts drew close together there was just enough space to pass through, Kane decided it was best if he gave a warning about the ambush that was due to take place.
"Roughly thirty minutes in the direction you are going there was an ambush waiting for you, a pack of over twenty Rackters with the leader being comparable to rank one disciple, we've killed off most of them including the stronger ones but half of them still managed to escape so you may want to be careful as you go."
The driver's face became pale when he heard the strength of the pack leader and thanked the heavens this father-son duo were strong enough to clear the path.
"Thank you, fellow traveller! If not for you and your son I fear we may have not made it home this time" at this time his attention turned to Leon "What! Rank.. rank seven! how old are you!?"
"I've not long turned nine fellow traveller, I just got lucky and opened my first mana core early due to certain circumstances." Leon played down his experience of course.
"Once more I have to thank you both if we ever meet again I promise I will aid you both however I can." with this the carts separated and went their respective ways.
Leon and his father kept up their journey through the gorge and after another nine hours of travel they were getting close to the exit, they had found a few more Rackters on their journey and Leon dispatched them swiftly and kept his fathers advice in mind maintaining smooth progress as they went. Leon had gotten adept at finishing off the Rackters and had even managed to kill a rank one disciple level Rackter in fair and open battle. It took him a short while to do so as he needed to draw it into making a mistake, but he eventually finished it off by creating a small explosion to have it move away from him and ending its life with a wind mana needle through its open mouth and detonating while pinned into its spine through its neck.
Darkness was beginning to descend as they left the gorge and the Rackters behind and not far in the distance a well-fortified wall could be seen with a large building inside the compound.
"What's that father? is it a tavern for travellers? It seems a bit more like some lords castle with those fortifications."
"Well this close to the gorge it can't hurt to have a sturdy wall to protect you, but the main reason is that beasts tend to appear more often on this side of the pass than what we have on our side." Came his father's reply.
"Do they not get hunted over this side or is there just a larger quantity? I don't understand why it would be so different as it's still the main road." Leon asked still unsure of the circumstance.
"Both are correct, there isn't such a large quantity of hunters over here as it's easier to trade for food than it is to hunt for it which means there are more beasts in total, they do get culled periodically but not to the state where they wiped out completely."
"So they treat them as a pest problem instead of a threat to one's life? that's reassuring for the general populace I'm sure..." Leon replied with a hint of sarcasm.
"It can't be helped, unfortunately, this close to the border no kingdom wants to deal with the problem as who really knows whose jurisdiction it falls under, the borders move rather frequently after all." Kane was just as aggrieved about the situation but nothing could be done about it, he just had to remain alert to avoid the dangers.
On the surface, Leon understood the principles behind the logic but he still couldn't bring himself not to resent the kingdoms a little.
Leon and his father soon arrived at the tavern and settled in for the night after some refreshments, they slept peacefully for the night.
During their meal things were not as peaceful as it seemed though, the owner of the tavern had watched them carefully and once they had left the main communal space to head to their rooms he quickly wrote a message out and passed it to a man drinking at the bar.
"Get this to the guild as quick as you can, I've had their threats looming over my head for too long and will be glad to be rid of them," he said to the man, although he seemed relieved a flash of guilt passed over his face when he looked over to the stairs.
"I'm sorry Kane but I've had no choice in this, it was my family or you, you would make the same choice I'm sure," he said to himself quietly.
...
It was early in the morning when Leon and his father set off once more, they still had a week of travel to before they made it to Ashton and that was if the made good time.
The first few days went by without any trouble and they spent their nights in relative safety, but Kane still felt uncomfortable. Leon had also noticed that in every establishment they stayed at they seemed to be getting watched, never by the same person but he couldn't help but feel that there was a specific reason for all these individuals.
"Father have you noticed as well?" he said nondescriptly not wanting to draw more attention.
"Yeah, I have. I didn't think they would still hold on to this idea of theirs after this long but they must have had someone watching for when I came back." Kane whispered.
"Well, I can expect the situation will be different than last time. They will definitely not use the same ambush point, is there anywhere coming up that would make a good point for them to take advantage of?" Leon asked in a whisper, Kane pondered for a short while after taking a drink of his ale.
"There is a point coming up tomorrow, a small copse of trees making for a blind bend in the road, apart from that there is only where they tried last time."
"Well we can only assume it will be there, how should we deal with it? conveniently fall into there trap? or should I just blow the entire place up from a distance?" came the straightforward response from Leon.
"We can't blow it up, a small local village uses the place to catch some small wildlife and forage for some food, it won't be good to deprive them of their food source," Kane answered after a short while.
"So we should act like we are caught before springing a counter trap? I can probably create some earth mana needles under their feet and launch a surprise attack if they haven't sent anyone too strong out."
"Yeah that would be a good start, the element of surprise will work in our favour but it's a problem that both of our main spells are fire-based, we have to be careful not to set the trees on fire otherwise we could just let loose and enjoy ourselves," Kane said with a disappointed expression.
They decided it was best to finish their meal in silence, only then heading back up to their room to continue discussing their plans for the following day, preparation is key for survival and they couldn't afford to let anyone spying on them know they had been discovered.
...
The next morning came swiftly and both Leon and Kane felt well-rested and ready for what was to come. They travelled for six hours in peace only occasionally having to drive off or kill a beast that followed the scent of the horses, the small woodland came into view in the distance and slowly they drew closer to it. The sun was shining brightly but under the cover of the trees, the visibility was lacking and of some concern.
"You were right father, this is most likely the spot where they will attack, we have made our plans but I feel like we should amend them slightly. It's too dark in there so if we don't use a light source we open our selves up to being blinded suddenly, it also gives away the fact we know of the ambush if we don't act like normal travellers and use a light source to see inside." Leon said while assessing the situation.
"Not a bad assessment, it wasn't so dark in there three years ago so I wouldn't have thought about it. We will go with your suggestion, light a torch and attach it to the carriage" Kane spoke in return.
A few minutes later and a quick draft of mana, Leon had lit and firmly attached two torches to the front corners of the cart. they were drawing closer to the woodland but both of them still saw no signs of an ambush, whoever was in there was doing a good job of concealing their presence.
Although the woodland wasn't large it would still take roughly thirty minutes to travel through due to the shape of the path, it wasn't a straight road as it wound through the trees like a serpent with one particularly sharp curve halfway through which created the blind bend. It was at this point in the road that both Leon and Kane expected the ambush to take place.
Throughout the first part of the woodland, there were only the sounds of the wind and local wildlife to accompany them. As they drew closer to the point of ambush Leon started to prepare his mana, they expected an initial wave of spells as soon as they came around the corner and they were not disappointed.
As soon as they came around the bend they heard a shout of "NOW!" from one of the ambushers, Leon sprung into action and sent out a large wall of compressed air, although this was not a spell, this basic mana usage was a great way to cause fire spells to detonate early, he followed it up with condensing the earth needles as far in the distance as he could.
As expected among the first spells sent at them, two-thirds of them were of the fire element. the last were earth and wind with none of them having the water element.
The fire spells detonated when hitting the wall of air and caused the air spells to dissipate as well, only the earth spells managed to make it through. Kane sent out his crimson flame sword and deflected these few boulders to the side of the road and with this, the initial barrage was dealt with.
Leon and Kane sent their sense in all directions to get an idea of the strength and numbers of their attackers, in front of them were fifteen apprentice-level spell casters and two disciple rank spell casters. There were another five spellcaster around them, two on either side and one bringing up the rear.
"They prepared more than we expected father, should we switch plans? I'm confident I can extinguish any fires after all." Leon asked his father.
"There are considerable amount more than last time, so maybe go with plan B?" came Kane's reply.
"No problem. I will handle the ones in front then if you quickly take out the ones flanking us, you may need to assist me with the two at the back."
"You've got this son, just follow the plan," Kane said with confidence.
Leon drew upon his fire and wind mana and created his perfected firebomb, once it stabilised he waited until the dust began to settle and he could see again before readying his attack.
He had prepared five earthen needles behind the group, he singled out those at a further distance and left those that had congregated together, after finishing his preparations he launched all five of his needles to the back of the ambusher's heads.
The outcome came as no surprise, due to the mana fluctuations in the surrounding area the needles went by unnoticed by the ambushers. Those five targets had their heads pierced and subsequently blown up when he expanded the mana rapidly once more.
The rest of the group barely had any time to register what had just happened before a small blue flame landed at the centre of them, a quick blinding light was all they saw on their one way trip into reincarnation.
Although it took some time to explain, so far the battle had only lasted a few breaths of time. The disciple rank spellcasters at the back had just enough time give out a shout of warning before their group had been wiped out. Leon drew from his water mana which he had not used too frequently and formed a large body of water that started boiling rapidly as it also extinguished the flames of his spell.
The two disciple opponents began to make their own moves finally and their spells we're ready, one was a fire spellcaster and the other of the earthen element. a crimson sword, very much like his fathers sprung into existence as well as a lance of earth compressed tightly giving off a rich metallic lustre.
These two spells we're above the rank of what Leon could contend with, he could hold on and maintain a balance with them by diverting them away but he couldn't dissipate them as he had done with the others.
Even more troublesome was the elemental barrier spells both of the spell casters formed. Leon had no chance of breaking these spells unless he increased the output of his firebomb but that wasn't an option with both him and his father still in range.
He hurriedly formed those fingernail-sized above each of his fingers and continually threw them one at a time towards the flame sword and earthen spear, using the explosions to deflect them away. He had no chance at all of breaking the fire barrier but the earthen one was slightly easier to deal with as he was the weaker of the two enemy combatants, he could only hope his father could join his side as soon as possible.
He used one hand to form spells for defence repeatedly and in the other, he started accumulating a large number of firebombs, he was reaching his limit mentally once he had formed a total of twenty firebombs on both hands.
His plan was very simple, wait for his father to come and aid him by attacking the fire spellcaster while he bombarded the barrier of the earthen spellcaster. If he could form just a small crack in the barrier it would be enough to break it as well as the concentration of the enemy, with this that seemingly metallic spear should dissipate and give him the opportunity to launch a fatal blow.
He didn't have to wait long before his father's shout came from behind.
"Leon! I'm on my way!"
"Father, take care of the fire disciple, I can only hold on for a short while longer!" Leon replied out of breath with sweat pouring out of his entire body.
His father's crimson sword flew over his head and collided with its counterpart giving Leon his opportunity. In quick succession, he launched all of his defensive firebombs and blew the spear to the side, while simultaneously throwing his other sixteen prepared spells straights at the enemy. The first ten explosions only rocked the barrier slightly while the other six one by one slowly started to make small cracks.
The spear once more flew straight at him, but just when it got into range and a split second away from skewering him like a wild boar, his final firebomb made contact with the barrier and shattered it in a flash of earthy yellow light.
...
The earthen spellcaster was concentrating hard on delivering the final blow, he had seen many friends die in the blink of an eye to what seemed to be only a small child not even ten years old yet. The spell this child was using was completely against what logic dictated, what was meant to be an easy job for him of just killing off a single disciple rank spellcaster and his young son had gone drastically off it's intended path.
He could feel his barrier being bombarded but his opportunity came at this moment, he saw his opening and used all of his will to maintain the barrier and throw his spear with all he had to kill this evil child.
Just when he sensed he was about to succeed, the final explosion shattered his barrier. The impact on his will power caused his mind to go blank and his hold over the spear was lost and it instantly dissipated into particles of yellow light.
Just when he snapped back into reality the first and final thing he saw was a small blue flame flash into existence directly in front of his face as if it had teleported.
'This was not how things were meant to go..." were the final thoughts of this spellcaster. his dignity and life lost to a child of only nine years old.