Chapter 4: Bandits

A/N: If you want you can read it, there are some changes from the original during battle, though most of it is still copy-paste.

ARTHUR LEYWIN'S POV

Just from what I could see, there were at least thirty bandits. Our current situation was unfavorable at best, as both our path forward and our retreat back were blocked off by bandits wielding swords, spears, and other close-range weapons. On the mountainside to our right, there were archers positioned atop a cliff, their bows aimed at us, while only the steep edge of the mountain with the looming fog beckoned to our left.

Jasmine, Durden, and my father seemed to be fine, with no visible injuries, but Helen had an unhealthy pale complexion that seemed to be a result of the arrow jutting from her right calf.

A bald man with multiple scars deforming his face and the body of a bear carrying a giant battle axe spoke out. "Look what we have here. That's a pretty good catch boys. Leave only the kid and the girls alive. Try not to scar them too much. Damaged goods will only sell for less," he snorted with a smirk that revealed a nearly toothless mouth.

Damaged goods...

I felt my body temperature rising; tensing from a smoldering anger I hadn't felt towards someone in a while.

Being sheltered in the bubble of my home had almost made me forget that any world has its own share of trash like him.

I was ready to rush towards this brute, almost forgetting the fact that I was now in a four-year-old's body when my father yelled out, "There are only 4 mages and none of them seem to be conjurers! The rest are normal warriors!"

Faint mana fluctuations around a person's body made mages distinguishable compared to normal humans, only apparent if studied closely. Whether they were augmenters or conjurers, making an inference based on the physical structure and the weapon they were holding gave me a pretty solid idea.

I could visibly see how quickly my father reverted back to his former adventurer days when he had once led the Twin Horns as his expression held the wisdom that could only come from experience. He donned his gauntlets, shouting, "Safeguard Formation!"

Adam quickly arrived behind us as he faced the back of the road, spear pointed, while Jasmine and Helen came to our left with both of their weapons unsheathed, facing ahead. My father and Durden faced the mountainside, positioning themselves to protect us from the archers overhead. Meanwhile, Angela maintained her position, preparing another spell as she kept her wind barrier active.

"Gather and guard my allies O' benevolent Earth; do not let them be harmed!"

[Earth Wall]

The ground rumbled as a four-meter earthen wall transmuted up from the ground curving up in front of Durden.

Using that moment, my father burst forward, raising his gauntlets in a guard position against the arrows towards the enemy archers.

Moments later, Angela finished her spell and unleashed a torrent of wind blades, aimed at the front and back of the path. That was apparently the cue as Adam and Jasmine shadowed behind the wind spell, arriving in front of our distraught enemies who were covering their vitals against the flurry of blades. Helen remained, her arrow nocked and bow drawn, imbuing the tip with mana that shined in a faint blue light.

It didn't take a genius to realize that this arrangement was ideal for protecting valuable goods or people. With two layers of protection from the conjurers and an archer mage ready to snipe anyone who managed to cross the assaults of Adam, Jasmine, and Father into the defense line, it was a standard, yet, well thought out formation.

"Warrior coming your way, Helen!" Adam shouted as he dodged the swing of a mace, delivering a precise swipe to the jugular of the unfortunate bandit. His eyes widened as he dropped his weapon, desperately trying to seal the fatal wound with his trembling hands as blood spurted out through the gaps between his fingers.

Mother was holding me firmly in her bosom as she tried to shield my eyes from the scenes of gore happening around us. Fortunately for me, she wasn't looking down at me so she didn't realize that I could see fairly clearly.

Meanwhile, a scruff, middle-aged man wielding a machete lunged towards Angela, hoping to disrupt the spell. Although the windblade spell didn't seem all too powerful, it provided a painful distraction that was keeping us on equal footing, despite our lack of numbers.

I tried to free myself to block the man before he got in range to attack Angela, but before I could pull myself away from my mother, it was already over.

The fierce sound of the show came only after the arrow had done its job. Helen's shot had carried a force powerful enough to pierce through the armored chest of the machete-wielding bandit and lift him up and back a half-dozen meters, nailing him into the ground.

I took a brief moment to take a mental note: wise men ought not to piss off Helen.

Helen's eyes narrowed as she nocked and drew another arrow. Focusing, I could faintly see the mana gathering in her right eye as she shut her left. Soon, another reinforced arrow streaked through, followed by a sharp hiss, ignoring all opposing air resistance as it closed in on another enemy fighter.

This man vaguely resembled a smaller Durden, except with a more muscular and more angular of a face. His brows furrowing in concentration, his giant sword, which was his height, had somehow reached the arrow in time, generating the sound of a bullet hitting metal. The enemy fighter slid back but wasn't harmed as he anchored his greatsword into the ground, using it to balance himself. However, before even had the chance to smirk in contentment, a second arrow pierced through his forehead. It was a grim sight, seeing the light drain from his eyes.

Jasmine was engaged in an intense duel against an augmenter, whose weapon was a long chain whip. It looked like Jasmine was at a disadvantage since the range of her two daggers was lacking. She was doing all she could to dodge the erratic movements of the whip.

By now, it was evident the enemy had realized how much she was struggling as he jeered while licking his lips. "I'll make sure to treat you real well before we sell you off as a slave, little missy. Don't worry, by the time I'm done training you, you'll be begging to stay with me," he hissed, followed by another lick of his lips.

As everyone was busy and not paying attention, I decided to help her by distracting him. I picked up a small rock that had been dislodged from Durden's earthen wall by the impact of arrows and gathered fire mana at its end. I aimed it towards the person with the whip and ignited the mana, shooting it at his head. Unfortunately, the force was not enough to make a significant impact, but it did distract him as he looked for the source, giving Jasmine the chance to deliver a lethal blow to his right hand. 

Believing in Jasmine's prowess to finish him off, I surveyed battle. 

There was no one from our side injured besides Helen, who had bound the wound on her calf. Fortunately, the arrow wasn't lodged in too deep, thanks to Helen's mana reinforcement; by the time she wound it, the bleeding had stopped, but throughout this whole time, my mother had a constant look of paranoia, her face pale with worry. I couldn't help but notice that her hand kept reaching for the wand in her robe until she decided to draw it back, at the last minute. Her eyes never stayed fixed on one place, always turning left and right, trying to look out for anything that could harm us.

While a little confused at first, I dismissed it; mentally concluding that, since she wasn't an adventurer for too long, unlike my father, she was simply not used to situations like this.

The battle was coming to its peak. The bandit group had not suspected that every one of our group members would be a capable mage. Because of that calculation error, all of the melee fighters were dead, the only ones alive being the four mages and a couple of scattered archers on the run.

Jasmine also seems to be almost done with that perverted bastard.

Adam was engaged with a dual-sworded augmenter. His fighting style reminded me of a snake, with his flexible maneuvers and sudden attacks.

He should be considered one of the rare elemental augmenters with a water-attribute style.

Reinforcing the shaft of his spear to be flexible, his attacks were a mirage of quick thrusts and fluid swipes. The battle looked to be in his favor; the dual wielder had wounds that were profusely bleeding as he desperately tried to parry the onslaught of attacks.

A thundering crash shifted my attention away from Adam's battle. My father had been knocked down against the debris of what was now left of the [Earth Wall] spell and was struggling to pick himself up as blood dribbled down from the side of his lips.

"Dad!!" "Honey!"

I rushed out of the wind barrier, kneeling in front of Father, my mother following immediately behind. I could see the panic written on her face as she nervously contemplated what she could do.

I didn't know why she wasn't healing him, maybe because she was so startled, but just when I was about to suggest it, my father cut me off.

"Cough! Alice, listen to me. Don't worry about me. If you use a healing spell right now, they'll realize what you are and try that much harder to capture you. They'll be willing to sacrifice a lot more if they know!" he stressed, his voice in a low whisper.

After a brief, trembling hesitation, my mother took out her wand and began chanting. I would've assumed that her stammered chanting was caused by seeing her husband injured, but for some reason, it felt like she was almost... afraid of using her magic.

Father turned to me after giving up trying to persuade his wife.

"Art, listen carefully. After the healing spell activates, they're going to try to capture your mother at all costs. After I'm healed enough, I'm going to engage the leader and try to buy more time. I think I can beat him, but not if I have to worry about protecting you guys. Take your mother back down the road and don't stop; Adam will open up a path for you."

"No Dad! I'm staying with you. I can fight! You saw me! I can help!" Consideration for being mature eluded me. It seemed like at this moment, I was really acting like the four-year-old I was on the outside, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to leave behind my family whom I've grown to love and friends who I've bonded with so much this past week and a half.

"LISTEN TO ME, ARTHUR LEYWIN!" Father agonizingly roared. This was the first time hearing his voice like this; the kind of voice that one would only use for desperate measures.

"I know you can fight! That's why I'm entrusting your mother to you. Protect her and protect the baby inside her. I'll catch up to you after this is over."

His words shook my mind like thunder.

Protect her and protect the baby inside her...

Suddenly, everything clicked. Why was she acting so paranoid? Why was she clutching me and making sure nothing got even close to us? Why both Durden and Angela were guarding us with defensive spells, instead of just one of them.

My mother was pregnant.

"I was planning on telling you when we arrived in Xyrus, but..." Not finishing his sentence, Father just looked at me sheepishly; still pale from the blow he received from the bald, axe-wielding boss.

"Okay, I'll protect Mom."

"Atta boy. That's my son."

My mother finished her chant at this time and both she and my father glowed in a bright golden-white light.

"Sonova— One of them's a healer! Don't let her get away!" the leader roared.

I quickly grabbed my mother's arm with both hands and tugged at her to move while reinforcing myself with mana.

We reached the area where Adam and the dual-wielder were battling a dozen meters down the road.

"Art, hurry down, I got him!" Adam barked as he kept his opponent at bay.

The dual-wielder was obviously frustrated by the inability to neither reach me nor my mother because of Adam. We hurried down the slope when I heard a faint *wizz* sound to our left. Acting on instinct, I jumped up, bringing my wooden sword up and reinforcing my whole body and the sword to withstand the blow of the incoming arrow.

A splintering crack resonated as the arrow met the wooden sword. Fortunately, the arrow wasn't reinforced with any mana so, even though the force pushed me back, I was able to regain balance mid-air by using the force of the shot by rotating my body and redirecting the arrow away. I landed on my feet a bit less impressively than I wanted to, throwing away what was left of my wooden sword.

"What the— Ugh!"

...Was all I heard from the assailant before he was promptly impaled by an arrow fired by Helen.

Another man appeared before us wielding a small knife. Willing mana into my legs and unsheathing the knife that Jasmine gave me, I lunged forward, and the man thinking of me as a kid tried grabbing me but I did a back flip landing near his legs, and swept my knife at his Achilles heels causing him to fall. 

As he was falling, Helen shot another arrow at his head, finishing him off. I was relieved because I didn't want Mom to see me kill someone.

"GO!" she exclaimed, nocking in another arrow and firing it at the leader of the bandits to support my father.

That was weird.

Currently, Jasmine, Adam, and my father, along with Helen, were each fighting a mage.

Weren't there four?

"Damien! Forget the plan, don't let them live!" The leader barked out.

Who was he commanding?

"... respond to my call and wash all to oblivion!" a faint voice finished chanting.

[Water Cannon]

From the mountainside, one of the scattered "archers" had his hands brought together, aimed at me and mother. We were tricked. He had camouflaged himself during the chaos. He wasn't an archer or even an augmenter. He was a conjurer!

Shit!

I didn't have much time to react as a huge sphere of pressurized water, at least three meters in diameter, shot toward us, increasing in size as it neared.

My mind raced trying to come up with options.

To my immediate right was my mother, and to my left were Adam and his opponent not far off; and behind me, of course, was the edge of the mountain. Even if I could dodge this, mother wouldn't be able to and she'd be forced off the ledge of the mountain.

What should I do?

"Dammit!" I let out a roar unfit for a four-year-old!

Willing mana in my body, I tackled my mother, propelling both of us out of the way.

I quickly realized my forty-pound body didn't carry enough momentum to push both of us out of range of the water cannon. I channeled mana into my arms and pushed my mother farther down, out of range. 

No choice!

I tried using the remaining mana from my other cores by gathering wind mana at my feet but I was too late, I was already far from the edge because of the impact. 

If I was going down, I was going to make sure to take that bastard down with me!

Using the knife, I imbued it with mana. What I was trying to do I had only done with ki in my old world, never with mana.

After willing mana into the knife, I threw it like a boomerang, aiming it at the conjurer, who was preparing another water spell aimed at Mom. Barely curving around the edge of the giant cannonball of water, I heard the firm thud of the knife meeting skin.

The mage let out a shrill howl of pain followed by a string of curses indicating that the mage wasn't dead.

Losing concentration, the mage's water cannon lost its composition and dissipated. 

Time for plan B.

Plan B was just in case my initial throw couldn't kill him. I managed to succeed in the gamble of Plan B, and that was creating a thin string of mana attaching the knife, currently engorged somewhere in the conjurer's body, to my hand.

I tugged back on the mana string just as my downward fall started. Like a fish caught on the line, I could hear the mage's scream over the gushing tide of water as he was helplessly dragged down with me by the force of gravity.

Even as my vision began darkening, I was able to see the battle coming to an end. Father and Helen had just managed to kill the leader. Jasmine too seemed to have killed the whip-bastard. Meanwhile, I spotted Durden as he was desperately conjuring a spell to save me, but I knew it was too late; the spell had knocked me too far away.

Still, I was comforted by the fact that everyone would be okay. Maybe the only thing I would regret is being unable to see my baby sibling.

With that, I felt the cold grip of sleep steals me away.

Damn... I had always wanted to be an older brother.

~~

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A/N: Well, I tried adding some extra context make sure to let me know so I can do better in the future. And please vote.