Never Giving Up

High in the sky, was a tsunami of ash and rock falling at great speeds. And below, was a stone clad carriage with three wheels moving as fast as possible towards safety. The carriage was just under 1000 feet from the start of the tunnel, however, it was packed with people coming from the houses lined up against the side of the mountains.

"Father, I need you guys to keep going, I will kill as many beasts as possible while staying safe." Elijah turned to tell Don his plan while pushing the carriage.

"I can't allow that." Don replied but it was too late, Elijah was already moving towards the beasts with his superior flight ability.

Blazing lions, poison salamanders, earth rhino's, water toad's, and ice bears were all fighting each other while moving towards a large concentration of people. Suddenly, a large chunk of them were split completely in half by a tiny mage flying in the air.

Instead of manipulating the environment, he opted for a horizontal space slash that slayed more than fifteen beasts running in the center of the road. Seconds later, different battle cries were heard as a symphony of elemental attacks shot in the direction of Elijah.

Elijah's plan was to kill off as many beasts as possible who weren't paying attention to what was in front of them, and then to use their own attack against them to once again massacre another large group of beasts. A large oval pearlescent and translucent rimmed portal appeared in front of Elijah, the largest one he had ever conjured. The portal absorbed a large amount of the beast's attacks and sent them flying toward their creators.

In the background, Don saw a flash of all kinds of colors as he looked back. His son was giving them a fighting chance.

After quickly changing positions by using the smoke and chaos as cover, Elijah once again swung his hand in a horizontal motion close to the ground. "Eight more down, an uncountable number left to go…"

The towering ice bears were the biggest worry of Elijah as the more beasts he killed, the more of these ice bears he saw. After taking a glance closely at his space slash attack that he could only use 2 more times, he noticed the bears were reacting to it every time. Instead of joining the chaos and killing their brethren, they continued walking as wounds from the beasts around them added up on their thick fur bodies.

"It seems these ice bears have half a brain." Elijah retreated after saying those words. He needed to regain as much mana as possible and prepare for a final attack, or a final reflection. All they needed was more room and to solve the situation that is holding up the people from entering the walls.

However, something changed Elijah's train of thought. In the midst of battle, he completely forgot about the aftermath of the eruption. The ash and rocks were nearing closer. How could he be so careless? How could he get lost in the bloodshed?

"We have to move faster, get inside the carriage and I will speed us up!" Based on Elijah's performance so far, Don and Mitch only slightly hesitated before following along. With his hands palace on the underside of the carriage, Elijah sped up while struggling to keep moving in a straight line. Too fast would spell death, and too slow would spell death.

"WHY IS EVERYONE STANDING HERE?! WE NEED TO GET INSIDE!" The moment the carriage reached the beginning of what seemed like a line of people begging for their lives, Don stood up in the carriage and saw a disgusting scene. The guards were still charging silver coins for entry into the city.

Elijah flew up 10 feet into the air to see them. However, he could not intervene, he is the only reason why anyone here would survive.

"GO DAD!" Elijah screamed at the top of his lungs. Don knew exactly what he meant, and got to work at solving the dilemma of the gate. The reason why the people did not gang up on the guards due to almost everyone having magic was that the guards on the inside were watching and could easily keep the gates shut if they wanted to.

Solely based on his eyesight, Elijah knew there were hundreds of beasts scattered behind them. It was impossible to guarantee the safety of everyone by killing them himself, but if he used the environment, there was a chance.

Elijah quickly pushed the carriage further towards the gate and in the process caused a lot of people pain by squishing them.

WHOOSH!

The instant Elijah flew into the sky, he started to feel tiny pieces of ash landing on his face. This was a necessary process required to time what he was about to do perfectly.

15…

9…

3…

2..

1…

"NOW!" Elijah screamed to himself to give him a boost in confidence. He quickly flew down to the ground while erecting a massive curved and pearlescent spatial barrier in the shape of a quarter of a sphere, and fit it perfectly with the wall. The sight of people being torn apart while running for their lives burned his soul. However, he knew what he was currently doing would save more people…

Elijah's core was burning due to the amount of mana he was using to manipulate the environment. If he had done it any sooner, his spell would have been destroyed by the beasts who detected magic being casted.

"Genius!" Mitch saw me struggling and joined in the process of creating a stone barrier underneath Elijah's space barrier, and within the nick of time as well.

"Ahhhh, I-I can't keep this up any longer, please tell me you are finished!" Elijah said while laying on his back with his right hand in the air. Deafining sounds of rocks blasting apart into smithereens were repeating over and over.

Luckily, while Mitch was focusing on reinforcing the barrier, he yelled for other earth mages to help him, which successfully created a barrier the moment Elijah passed out.

Being a mage doesn't mean you can use offensive magic. The imagination is the tool of your magical spells. For someone who has lived a comfortable life of using their affinity as a utility, they effectively trap themselves into a certain way of thinking. In other words, their mind is closed and unable to receive new information, which affects the spells they can imagine.

How would you even conjure something you never saw, thought of, or experienced yourself?

The moment every crack was filled with a thick stone barrier, the minimal amount of light had turned into complete darkness within the area of the barrier.

"Elijah! What happened to Elijah?!" Don returned to the carriage while stumbling over the people on the floor, as well as the carriage.

"Don't worry, he just ran out of mana. H-he saved us!" Mitch was full of tears and relief after seeing Elijah's performance. Although, he assumed he saved them from the beasts. No one in this world has experienced a volcano before, albeit knew what a volcano was.

"The guards are letting everyone through the gates! Hurry and start running!" Don adamantly told everyone in the carriage and the surrounding area to start moving forward, but was interrupted by a loud explosion.

BOOM!

Loud footsteps of people running away, and shouts of people saying to run were drowned out by the chaos that ensued the stone barrier. The impact of the explosion threw Don into the side of the carriage with Elijah in his arms. Everyone besides Don and Elijah were trapped within the movement of the people trying to save themselves.

"Dammit! My back!" Don's back made direct contact with the carriage and sent a sharp pain down his spine and legs. "ELIJAH! I NEED YOU! WAKE UP!!!"

"Argghhh…" Elijah slowly opened his eyes and realized the situation around him. A gaping hole in the sole reason why he is still alive, and outside that hole, was a barren wasteland of smoking black ash and rocks. Dozens of ice bears were slowly walking out of the ice coffins they made to protect themselves from the ash. 

"Father…" Elijah stared at his father with a broken expression. He was alive but had blood pooling around his hips.

The only option was to fight, this man, his second father, cared for him so much. With all his experience under his belt, how could he not try and save him. Elijah's starry blue eyes became indifferent to his inevitability as he slowly stood up.

At the top of his small lungs, he practically blew out his vocal cords as he said, "YOU WILL NOT KILL ME!!!"