Ch. 7 King of the Yard

Madeia Carbo's POV:

I rarely looked forward during my daily runs. There was enough room for me to peek through the giant fence that surrounded our house, so I'd just stare at dad.

At first, it was awesome seeing him combine stances with kicks and punches and weird techniques I couldn't quite wrap my head around. However, the next day he just did the exact same thing.

'Kata' I think he called his routines. He practiced the same moves in the same order again and again until we could hear my brother returning from his run.

I was a bit dull until I noticed he added something new every so often. After about a week, I realized he wasn't changing things up; he was just doing more katas.

I thought my brother got slower giving us more time, but that wasn't it. I counted how many circles I ran around our yard and the numbers didn't add up.

My dad was getting faster. After about a month, he could finish all his hand to hand katas and still have time to practice knife techniques before breakfast. By the second month, he could go through several spear routines on top of hand to hand and knife katas.

By the fourth month, he would complete numerous hand to hand, knife, spear, and shield related katas long before my brother stepped foot into our yard.

I thought he'd be done, but things just got crazier. Not only did his speed pick up more, not only did he begin combining katas, but he was now imbuing lightning and flames into his movements and released such pressure it took everything I had not to go run with my brother.

But, how could I? This was everything I've ever asked for, dad's skills on full display and holding nothing back. Even when the thick fence rattled and the ground shook beneath my feet from a descending blow, I would not take my eyes away from him. Eventually, I began running just the yard portion back and forth, so our house wouldn't block my view.

Today, he was shaking the neighborhood like usual. If I hadn't seen him practice his katas at a lower speed, I would have only seen a blur of movement.

But then, he stopped. He froze in the middle of a sweep with his spear. Thinking he'd do something interesting, I stopped too and just watched him.

Suddenly, he jumped into the sky still carrying his shield and spear. I looked up and saw him 20 feet above me.

From his waist, his hunting knife fell to my side. No, it was more like it flew and I heard a quick snapping sound as it landed. I turned around and saw the knife firmly imbedded into the ground.

A broken arrow fell next to it. Then, the knife pulled itself into the air and was now floating in front of me. I followed it with my eyes and looked to where its edge was pointing.

Down the street, what I could only describe as a hoard of people was heading towards me.

Elek Carbo's POV:

As I landed, I smashed my shield into the ground and sent the knife my intent. I could feel the mana inside it pulsate and groans soon followed. I picked up my daughter and jumped back into our yard.

"Boom!"

Our house door blew apart from the inside along with a good chunk of the wall. Through the debris, I could see 5 unconscious brigands and my angry wife who sent them flying. Seeing assailants trying to climb our fence from the other side, I now understood the gravity of our situation.

My wife's wedding ring was still emitting a terrifying amount of mana and powerful wind was enveloping her. After praising myself for my excellent taste in gifts, I called out to her to come near us. The 3 of us were now in the middle of the yard, from where I had a clear view to almost all sides.

Many years ago, I ordered the lower side of our fence to be made of concrete and stone, while the upper side displayed thick logs with small gaps between them. The logs were further reinforced with steel rods, and on top of each log protruded a spiky nail.

But, seeing the number of assailants, it wouldn't help much on its own. More than 200 men and women of all sizes, carrying a weapon of some sort, were making their way towards us.

Even with my knife cutting someone almost every second, they still managed to surround us from all sides.

This time, our village's planning worked against us. I advised the mayor to expand the village outwards instead of clustering the houses. As a result, most yards had either alleys or small streets isolating them from the rest.

There was one big road, but it wouldn't help assailants. In case of an attack, they would be forced into a maze of houses and yards, encouraging them to split up and giving plenty of opportunities to the villagers to attack while staying relatively hidden.

However, my plan backfired. The maze I helped create blocked my view allowing the enemy to surround us. Our neighbors were nowhere to be seen. We were stuck.

Some of the brigands stepped forth with axes and began chopping down my fence. Some tried to climb it while others began shooting arrows between the gaps or throwing objects over the wall.

I gave my wife a knowing look and focused on my pendant. Even among split mana cores, this one was special. Its base ability was to increase the wearer's speed, and I've enhanced it with 2 huge cores, one with influence over lightning and another over fire.

I stirred that last core to its maximum, condensing as much mana as I could into a ball of flame. Our yard's gate was almost destroyed, so I willed the flame towards it. As it hit the gate, I imagined it expanding in all directions.

Reacting to my intent, the flames spread to every inch of our fence, burning dozens of assailants in the process. Those who were climbing it fell helplessly and screamed in agony.

The axe wielding brigands took a step back, and only the back end was still throwing projectiles. However, most of them missed or hit the wall, and the few accurate ones were deflected by Maia's wind.

My wife was not a fighter. But, her sharp wits and curiosity helped her rapidly master the split mana core I embedded into her ring. Its base was a tiny healing spell that could at most fix a scratch. However, the wind core I used to enhance it rivaled the ones in my pendant.

Noticing some rattling behind me, I turned to see Medeia's shaking hands slowly picking up her crossbow. I wanted to stop her but then noticed my wife placed her hands on her shoulders. Through clenched teeth, she said:

"Breathe Deia. They're just bad guys. I'll protect us, so you just aim at the ones near the gate."

"Are you sure?" I asked my wife after a moment.

"I don't know…" Tears started gathering in her eyes, but she soon wiped them off and refocused on blocking projectiles.

Deia slowly raised her weapon and released an arrow towards the flames. "Argh!" a groan was heard soon after.

Given the upcoming war, my daughter needed to learn how to fight and kill. Even so, unspeakable fury began flowing through my veins.

My knife reacted to it as more and more screams could be heard among the enemy's archers. Behind us, the flames had extended towards our house, and it was now burning as well.

I focused on the fire and willed 3 pairs of small embers to our left, right, and front. While the knife moved according to my general intentions, I had to control each of these small flames manually.

Splitting my focus to the maximum, I sent them towards our enemies. The wall of fire obstructed their view, but I could see them clearly through my flames.

I made each ember enter someone's nose or mouth. I then made it follow the canal into the brigand's lung or stomach, and once there, it violently smashed into the walls. A lung, the stomach, and sometimes the intestines were punctured causing internal bleeding, breathing problems, and almost instant collapse.

Afterwards, I'd create new embers and repeat the process. Of course, I could also send a wall of flames hurling towards my opponents, but being angry was not sufficient grounds for recklessness.

Being cautious was paramount in battle, so I saved up my energy while eliminating the brigands as fast as possible. Soon, corpses started mounting, and some assailants began to retreat only to be cut down by my knife.

"Boom!"

An iron spear, so thick it might as well have been a log, went straight through our home and was about to hit us. Even with my trained reflexes and after infusing electricity into my muscles to contract them at inhuman speeds, I just barely managed to block the spear with my shield.

Knowing it would pierce right through it, I turned it so the projectile would deviate off course. My wife worked in tandem with me by summoning a gust of wind which pushed the spear towards the same direction.

We were successful. The spear smashed through the flame wall to our right killing several of our enemies before imbedding itself into a neighbor's house.

What remained of our home collapsed in on itself. Soon, only a large pile of burning scraps was left. Behind it, we could see 5 enemies unlike the rest.