They frowned upon seeing their current situation. Needless to say, it was quite bad.
From what they could see, there were at least thirty bandits. Their situation was unfavorable at best, as their paths, both to advance forward and escape were blocked by bandits holding swords, short knives, spears, axes and other closed ranged weapons.
Archers were positioned atop a cliff on the mountainside to their right, their bows aimed down at them, while only the steep edge of the mountain, with the looming fog below, beckoned on their left.
Jason, kelvin and Luna showed no visible injuries, thanks to their quick thinking and reaction speed, they were able to come out unharmed.
The walls of the carriage had given way due to Lyon's spell, but the ice barrier still protected them.
A scarred, bald man with a muscular body and a eagle tattoo on his right shoulder approached them, settling the giant battle axe he carried against his shoulder. He's most likely the group of this group.
"Well, well, well, What do we have here boys? A fine catch I must say. Leave only the girls alive. Try not to mess them up too much, damaged goods sell for less." The bald man snorted.
"Damaged goods?" Kai's blood began to boil with rage. He almost forgot that trash like them existed. Trash like him deserve to erased from the very surface of the world. Nearly forgetting the state of his body, Kai was about to rush the bald bastard before Kelvin yelled out.
"There are only four mages, the rest of them are just normal warriors."
Kai hadn't learnt how to distinguish between a mage and a normal human, so he trusted Kevin's judgment.
"Battle formation!" Kelvin shouted out
Kelvin quicky arrived at the back of the carriage facing the road behind them, Luna moved to the left with her weapons in hand while Lyon was preparing another spell. Jason and Elsie was facing the mountainside, positioning themselves to protect them from the archers.
Jason immediately casted an earth spell, the ground rumbled as it transmuted into a massive earthen wall. Seizing this moment of distraction, Elsie dashed towards the enemy archers as she slashed through the flurry of arrows.
At the same moment, Lyon had already finished his spell and unleashed several massive ice lances in front and the behind the carriage. Luna and Kelvin shadowed the ice spell to arrive in front of the unaffected enemies and cut them down with their weapons.
"Enemy coming your way, Elsie!" Kelvin shouted as he dodged the swing of a mace and slashed the unfortunately bandit with his scythe. The bandit was completely cut in half.
Kai could only stand helplessly as he watched the gore scene before him.
"Why am I so useless, I can't do anything but watch." Kai mumbled as he clenched his fist in anger. He was disgusted by his weakness. He had the power to help but he's unable to use it.
Meanwhile, a middle aged man wielding a long sword was rushing towards Lyon, hoping to disrupt his spell. But that was a foolish decision. Before he could react, he was impaled by one of Lyon's ice lances and died instantly.
Lyon's eyes narrowed, looking for his next target until he found one. Soon, a lance made out of ice shot through the air, ignoring air resistance as it closed in on its target.
This man had brown hair and a muscular build. With his brows furrowed in concentration, he somehow managed to use his giant sword which was easily as tall as him to block the ice lance. The impact caused him to slide several feet backwards.
However, before he even had the chance to balance himself, a ice lances pierced through his forehead. It was a grim sight, seeing the light drain from his eyes.
Luna was fighting against a mage that uses wind magic. She was having a hard time dodging his fierce wind attacks. She seemed to be at a disadvantage; she can't get close to the enemy to land a solid hit.
The enemy had realized how much she is struggling, and he licked his lips in delight.
"Hey little missy, how about you come me. I promise to train you well, all night long."
The very thought made Kai shudder. But at this point, all he could do was clench his fist in frustration. He was aware of his weakness and his chances of winning in a fight was close to none.
Looking at the scene before him, the battle was reaching its peak. The bandits had not anticipated that every member of Kai's group to be capable mages. Because of that error, all the melee fighters were dead, the only ones left were the mages and some scattered archers on the run.
Luna was still fighting against the wind magic mage, the arrogant look on his face had completed vanished and his body was dripping blood from various cuts all over his body.
Kelvin was enraged with a mage using water magic. Kelvin's flexible movement and precise use of his scythe remained Kai of a death god. He was dominating his opponent with ease. He clearly had the potential to be one of the best wind magic users.
Thundering collisions caught Kai's attention. Apparently, both Elsie and Lyon are fighting the bandit's leader. But what surprised him was that the bandit's leader was pushing them back.
Both Elsie and Lyon were B rank so in order to push them back that bald bastard must be an A rank. Just their luck.
Suddenly, Kai heard a faint whizz sound to his left. On instinct, Kai jumped to the side and managed to dodge the incoming arrow aiming for his head. If he was any later than that, he would have died.
"Damn it, screw this. Elsie and Lyon are fighting against a mage, same for Luna and Kelvin while Jason was dealing with the remaining archers so, huh?" Kai suddenly remembered. weren't there four mages.
Kai quickly surveyed his surrounding, looking for the last magic and eventually found him. On the mountainside, one of the scattered archers was standing with his hands together, aimed at Kai's direction.
The fourth mage had camouflaged himself in the midst of the chaos and retreated to a safer distance.
Shit!
There wasn't much time to react as the huge volume of pressurized wind shot towards his direction.
Kai's mind raced, thinking of a solution.
To his right was Luna was fighting against the wind magic magic and to his left was kelvin fighting against a mage as well. And both of them were at the edge of the mountain.
If he was to dodge, both Luna and Kelvin would get caught up in the attack and they will be thrown off of the mountain by force.
"No choice, huh" Mumbling so, Kai unsheathed the dagger he always carried around in case of emergency and imbued it with mana while so reinforcing his body with mana. He knew he could not dodge the attack, but he will at least take down the mage with him.
After willing mana into the dagger, Kai threw the dagger like a boomerang towards the mage, who was still concentrating on the air cannon.
The dagger travelled a great distance and finally, it met its target. It pierced through the mage's neck, a direct hit and the mage will be dead soon. The mage let the air cannon falter but unfortunately it still had enough force to push Kai off the cliff.
The spell slammed into Kai, knocking every ounce of air from his body and most likely breaking his ribs. Even as his vision darkened, he saw the battle coming to an end.
Elsie and Lyon managed to kill the leader with Kelvin's help, Luna had just killed the wind magic mage and Jason was desperately trying to conjure a spell to save him.
But it was too late, the spell had knocked Kai was too far.
"That's strange, I never thought that I was the kind of person who would sacrifice himself for others." Even so, Kai was comforted by the fact everyone was okay.
Kai began to lose consciousness as he fell down the mountain.