The Power of Magic 1

Tori and his guards struggled up the mountain, exhausted and on the verge of collapse. Tori was in a miserable state—his helmet was lost, and a broken arrow was lodged in his shoulder. He felt like he was about to meet the god of death. The previous night, the town had been raided by a group of bandits. Fortunately, Tori had been drinking in the tavern at the time, while the guards who should have been on alert at the front of the town failed to sound the alarm. Most of the bandits had rushed straight to the castle, leaving only a few to plunder the rest of the town. Due to the holiday, there were only six guards at the castle, two patrolling the streets and two guarding the outer perimeter of the town. Tori led twenty guards, divided into two teams to patrol and stay on alert. When Tori and the other team saw a large group of bandits, he immediately commanded the remaining ten guards to break through the siege and escort the young lady to safety. The town's exit was heavily guarded, and the only route left was a steep mountain path leading to the stables, where they could find horses to escape.

However, Tori hadn't anticipated that the heavy snow would betray them. As soon as they started their journey, the pursuing bandits caught up. Initially, only four guards had managed to break through the siege—Tori, the young lady, the tavern owner, and one guard. The tavern owner, who the young lady insisted on bringing along, had been a hindrance due to the treacherous mountain path and the thick snow. The bandits relentlessly chased them, and now only Tori and one guard remained, with the young lady being carried by the guard. After some time, the bandits mysteriously disappeared, but the group dared not stop and continued their frantic flight. Despite the steep path, the snow was not as thick as on the flat ground, making it easier to walk—though if the path had been slippery, they wouldn't have made it this far. They had been walking since around seven the previous evening, and it wasn't until dawn the next day that they reached about a third of the way up. But everyone knew that continuing was their only hope; if they stopped, falling into the hands of the bandits would mean certain death.

"Stop! Stop, damn it!" Tori glanced behind and saw the bandits once again, waving their weapons and shouting loudly from a narrow path. Tori counted roughly twenty of them. For the exhausted group, this was a nightmare.

"Chuck, go ahead and get the young lady safely to the stables. Once there, tear down the fence, and if anyone tries to come up, roll the logs down. I'll hold off the pursuers here." Tori glanced at the remaining few hundred meters of the mountain path. They hadn't had a drop of water since last night, and after walking all this way, they were at their breaking point. Even Tori, a battle-hardened veteran, just wanted to lie down and sleep.

"Captain, you go on. I can't go any further." Chuck, one of the guards, collapsed after speaking, nearly dropping the young lady over the edge of the cliff.

"I can't go either. Even if we escape, my legs will be useless." The tavern owner lifted her skirt to reveal her legs, which were already turning blue from frostbite. They had escaped in such a rush that they hadn't had any time to prepare for the cold.

"Ah! Darlis, don't be upset... Young lady, young lady..." Tori suddenly realized something was wrong when the young lady, who had been carried by Chuck, was motionless. Rushing over, he found that she had passed out from the cold, her breath faint.

Tori was on the verge of collapse. Everything he had done had been for the young lady's safety. If anything happened to her, how could he face his lord? His mental fortitude, which had held him together, now crumbled. Everything went dark as he began to fall, but he quickly woke up as the snow melted from his head.

The bandits, seeing that the group had stopped moving, grew more eager. They had come for the young lady, and after learning from the captives that the mountain path was treacherous, the bandits rested for a while, ate, and drank before continuing their chase.

"Captain Tori! Captain Tori!" Tori, barely conscious, heard someone calling his name. He lifted his head with great effort and saw a figure rushing down from the mountain path. It was Ryan, the stable keeper. Tori lowered his head again. What good would it do? Ryan wasn't even an adult, and he had never been trained in combat. Even if he had some combat skills, what could one more person do against twenty bandits?

"Captain Tori!" Ryan, having seen the scene from above, quickly devised a plan. He knew that he couldn't lift all of them on his own, so he would have to rely on the horses. Grabbing a thick rope, he rushed to Tori and was shocked to see that none of them seemed happy—everyone was lying on the snow, their heads crooked.

"Captain Tori, quick, grab the rope. It's attached to the horses!" Ryan shouted anxiously. The pursuers were clearly bad news, all armed with weapons. Ryan quickly checked and didn't spot any archers, but seeing Tori's broken arrow made him uneasy. His magic could only deal effective damage up to 50 meters, and with archers, 50 meters was neither too far nor too close—Ryan had died once before, and he wasn't keen to repeat the experience.

"Ryan, just go. Take the young lady and report this to the lord. We can't move anymore," Tori said, his voice hoarse and weak.

"Sigh! I'll do it myself," Ryan ignored Tori's words, grabbed the rope in frustration, and began securing it around the others. First, he tied Chuck, who was wearing a helmet, so that the snow wouldn't block his nose or mouth. Then he tied Tori, and finally the tavern owner. As for the young lady, Ryan decided to carry her himself. After all, it was the young lady who had saved him that year. If it weren't for her, he would have starved to death as a slave. Though he was a slave, at least he was alive.

"Boy! Put down the people!" The bandits, now only about a hundred meters away, saw Ryan and the rope and, not understanding what was going on, became even more eager to charge.

"Niu Niu, pull!" Ryan called loudly, signaling to Niu Niu, who was directing the horses. Immediately, the rope became taut, and the three people began moving upwards rapidly.

"Healing Spell!" At this moment, Ryan cast a level one light magic spell, Healing Spell, on the nearly lifeless young lady. A ball of white light emanated from his hand and slowly entered her body. Ryan couldn't help but wonder how Niu Niu knew the healing incantation, as it wasn't something he had read in any book. But, as usual, Ryan didn't dwell on things he couldn't understand.