A few more days passed without incident and we finally made it to the foot of the grand mountains, which were....grand.
All the way the four of them kept trying to master the feint step, as I had nothing better to do I kept watching them try and fail. Jasmine was the first to do it and demonstrated it to Arthur, he just applauded at her. It was one of the basic moves Grey had taught me. Well what she doesn't know won't hurt her.
The rest weren't far behind on mastering it, so by the time we reached the foot of the mountains all of them had mastered and altered it to fit their fighting style
Next we had to ascend the mountain to reach the teleportation gate.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to make the teleportation gate atop a mountain.
The front carriage consisted of Durden who was holding the reins in the front, with father besides him to keep him company. This carriage was carrying our luggage.
Helen was currently seated on the top of the second carriage, the one I was riding in, scouting for any abnormalities. Angela sat in the back carriage with my mom, Arthur and me, while Adam walked behind us, keeping guard. While Jasmine steered the carriage, she kept staring back at Arthur as if wanting more techniques.
What is she five?
That reminds me Art and I turned four during our journey to the foot of the grand mountains. Mother surprised us by procuring a cake from....somewhere. When did she get the time to even make it? But hey I ain't complaining, I put a smile and thanked her. While the others simply gave us hugs(this time i made and exception and fell victim to the death hugs of Angela) or pats in the back Jasmine gave Arthur a short knife and showed me some tricks and advantages of dual wielding. Most of which I had already learned in my old life but hey its the thought that matters.
Along the way to the top of the mountains Arthur and I learned more about mana and its two manipulations. We were discussing about hoe useful forming a cloak of mana around ones body would be when suddenly Helen shouted.
"BANDITS! PREPARE TO ENGAGE!"
I heard footsteps from our right and rear.
"Submit, O' wind and follow my will. I command and gather you around in protection.Wind Barrier!" instantly a gust of wind formed a tornado around Mother, Arthur, Angela and I. The tornado then shaped into a sphere around us.
Angela was busy concentrating on keeping the barrier from dissipating while arrows kept bombarding it.
Within seconds the tarp covering the carriage was torn away and I got a better view of how screwed we were.
________________________________________________________________________________
There were at least 30 of those bastards, blocking our path forwards and backwards we were trapped.
The bandits on the ground wielded swords, spears and other close range weapons while the ones on the mountainside atop a cliff had bows aimed towards us firing arrow after arrow.
Most of the party seemed to be fine but Helen seemed quite pale, probably due to the arrow embedded in her right calf.
A bald man with a heavily scarred face and the body of a bear, carrying a giant battle axe, spoke out. "Look what we have here. Pretty good catch, boys. Leave only the girls and the kids alive. Try not to scar them too much. Damaged goods will only sell for less,"
How bout I damage your goods? Damage as in smash to a pulp
Now I haven't felt genuine anger in a long while, most of the fights I won and people I killed were simply orders nothing else. Often times the enemy tried to anger me so that I may lose concentration and become reckless, but it never got to me.
Yet this filth, managed to enrage me more than I ever remember feeling. I almost rushed forward with as much killing intent I could muster when mother caught me and Art and tried to shield to shield us from the bloodshed going on.
My father then yelled out"There are only 4 mages and none ofthem seem to be conjurers! The rest are normal warriors" I could now see how quickly my father returned to his ex-adventurer days leading the Twin Horns, his expression was one of wisdom only possible with years of experience.
"Safeguard Formation!"
Adam was behind us brandishing his spear, with Jasmine and Helen to our left as father and Durden faced the archers parrying the arrows to the best of their abilities.
Meanwhile Durden cast a spell,"Gather and guard my allies, O' benevolent Earth; do not let them be harmed!"
[Earth Wall]
A four meter earthen wall rose in front of Durden.
At that moment my father dashed forward taking down multiple bandits with his augmented fists.
A bandit sneaked behind him and went to strike him, I was about to scream out when an arrow pierced through his chest. Looking towards Helen I saw her nodding towards father.
"Warrior coming your way, Helen!" Adam shouted as he dodged the swing of a mace wielder,delivering a precise swipe to his jugular killing him.
Jasmine was currently engaged in an intense duel against an augmenter, whose weapon of choice was along chain whip. She seemed to be in a disadvantage since her daggers didn't have much range. She was doing all she could to dodge the erratic movementsof the whip.
By now the enemy had realized how much she was struggling ashe jeered while licking his lips. "I'll make sure to treat you real well before we sell youoff as a slave, little missy. Don't worry. By the time I'm done training you, you'll bebegging to stay with me," he hissed.
I clenched my fists with enough force to draw a bit of blood. I couldn't do anything, against a fully grown augmenter I'll lose fairly quickly.
I now noticed that mothers hand kept reaching for the wand in her robe, until she decided to draw it. She kept looking around wary of anything that can harm us. Maybe she was not used to such situations?
While I was thinking this something crashed into our carriage, Dad lay there bruised with blood dripping down his mouth.
"DAD!", I yell.
"H-Honey!" Mother screamed after seeing him, in front stood the bear like bandit, Arthur seemed ready to do a suicide charge against him but I put my hand on his shoulder and shook my head.
"We aren't strong enough yet, we'll die for sure if we try to fight." I whispered loud enough for him to hear.
He nods, "Mom you have to heal dad, hurry!"
Something's wrong with mother, she's hesitating almost as if she's...afraid?
"B-but I can't" She managed to say with tears running down her face.
"Its fine Honey, my injuries aren't that critical", Dad says with a grin.
He now looks towards us," Art, Fay listen carefully, once your mother finishes healing me those bad men are going to try and harm her, I'll be able to manage their leader but not if I have to protect you three, so take your mother back down the path we came through and don't stop"
"No dad! I'm staying with you. We can fight! You saw us! We can help!" Art all but shouts at dad.
I can't help but agree, " Art's right dad I'm not leaving you behind to die"
" Listen to me Arthur Leywin , Fayden Leywin, I know you can fight, that's why I'm entrusting your mother to you, don't worry I wont die I'll catch up to you soon so until then protect her ... and protect the baby inside her"
The world seemed to stop as I comprehended what he just said, it all made sense now, why she was so paranoid and holding on to us making sure nothing came close to hurting us.
My mother was pregnant.
I was going to become an older sibling.
"I originally planned on telling you when we arrived in Xyrus, but..." not bothering to finish his sentence my father just looked at us sheepishly.
"I understand, I'll protect her at all costs"
"Okay, I'll protect Mom"
The two of us replied simultaneously
________________________________________________________________________________
"Get ready," father said as mom finished healing him,"They've got four mages on their side"
"Sonova- They have a healer! Don't let her escape" the leader roared.
Man if only I had my old body he would be long dead.
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts I grabbed mothers hand while Arthur grabbed her other hand.
Reinforcing my body with mana I pulled her away to the clearing where Adam was fending off the dual wielder, "Hurry down, I'll hold him off"
We were going down the slope when I heard the faint but still permeable *wizz* of an arrow, by the time I had taken my sword out to parry Arthur had already blocked it with his wooden sword. Unfortunately it resulted in it being destroyed.
"The hel-ugh" the archer was swiftly killed by an arrow fired by Helen.
"GO!" she yelled at us before firing another arrow to assist my fatherr
Silently I handed him one of my swords, he simply accepts it with a nod of thanks.
Jasmine, Adam, my father along with Helen were each fighting a mage.
Wait, weren't there four?
"Damien! Forget the plan, just kill them!" the leader barked out.
Shit is that the last mage?
"...respond to my call and wash all to oblivion!" a faint voice finished chanting.
[Water Cannon]
From the cliff one of the so called archers conjured a large sphere of pressurized water.
Crap, well if anything I'll protect my mother.
I glanced at Arthur, who looked like he was thinking something similar. He looked at me and nodded.
Alright, here goes nothing.
The two of us pushed our mother out of the range of the attack, Arthur had planned to protect mother in exchange with both our lives but I wont let that happen, she needs at least one of us.
So I tried to push him away as well but my small body didn't have enough mass to propel both of them away even with mana augmenting it, in the end mother was spared but both of us weren't so lucky.
"I'm sorry mom" I managed to say before I was hit full force by the spell and tumbled down the mountain.
The last thing I saw was Arthur using a mana string coupled with the knife Jasmine gifted him to take the mage down with him.
Heh, at least I could save my family in this life.