The Beginning After The End (Early Years Book 1) (5 page)

There were at least 30 bandits from
what I could see.  Our current situation seemed to be pretty bad, as
both our front and back were surrounded by bandits with swords, spears and
other close range weapons.  On the mountainside to our right, there were
archers positioned to shoot down at us and to our left was only the edge of the
mountain with the looming fog beckoning to us.

Jasmine, Durden and my father
seemed to be fine with no visible injuries but Helen had a slightly pale face
as she had an arrow jutting out of her right calf.  

A bald man with multiple scars
deforming his face and a body that reminded me of a bear (but carrying a giant
axe) spoke out.

“Look what we have here.
 Pretty good catch boys.  Leave only the girls and kid alive.
 Try not to scar them too much.  Damaged goods will only sell for
less.”

Goods? Sell?

I felt my body heating up; tensing
from a burning rage I haven’t felt in a while.

The audacity of this swine! How
dare he!

I was ready to rush towards this
brute, almost forgetting that I was now in 4 year old child when…

“There are only 4 mages and none of
them seem to be Conjurers! The rest are normal fighters!” This time my father
shouted out.

Looking for slight mana fluctuations
around a person’s body makes mages distinguishable compared to normal humans
but only if you focused well enough.  Whether they’re an Augmenter or
Conjurer, making an inference based on physical structure and the weapon
they’re holding gives a pretty solid guess.

Quickly reverting back to his
former adventurer days he when once led the Twin Horns; he put on his
gauntlets, yelling,
“
Safeguard formation!”

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

“Gather and guard my allies O
benevolent earth; do not let them be harmed.  Earth Wall!”

The ground rumbled as a 4 meter
earthen wall transmuted up from the ground curving up in front of Durden.

At that instant, my father burst
forward with his gauntlets raised in a guard against arrows, towards the enemy
archers.

Moments later, Angela finished
chanting her spell and unleashed a torrent of wind blades aimed at the front
and back of the road.  With that as the cue, Adam and Jasmine followed up
behind the wind spell, arriving to face their enemies that were in distraught,
trying to block the flurry of blades.  Helen stayed behind, arrow knocked
and bow drawn and anchored with the tip of the arrow shining in a bluish light.

This position was ideal for
protecting valuable goods or people, with two layers of protection from the
conjurers and an archer mage ready to fire at anyone who manages to cross the
assaults of Adam, Jasmine and Father into the defense line.

“Fighter coming your way Helen!”
Shouted Adam as he dodged a mace crashing down at the ground where he was at
before promptly giving a quick swipe to the jugular of the unfortunate fighter.
 His eyes widened as he desperately dropped his weapon and tried to
seal the fatal wound with his hands, blood spurting out through the gap
between his fingers.

Meanwhile, a scruff, middle-aged
man wielding a machete lunged towards Angela, trying to disrupt the spell.
 Although the wind blade spell wasn’t that powerful, it provided a
distraction that needed to be stopped.

I tried to free myself to block the
man before he gets in range of Angela but before I could pull myself apart of
Mother and grab my wooden sword, it was already over.

Followed by a powerful “Fwoosh!”
The arrow unleashed by Helen carried a force strong enough to pierce through
the armored chest of that said fighter and lift him up and back a couple
meters, impaling him on the ground.

Mental note. Never piss off Helen.

Nocking and drawing another arrow,
Helen narrowed her eyes.  I can faintly see the mana gathering into her
right eye as she closed the other one.  After another “Fwoosh!” The
reinforced arrow streaked through, ignoring all opposing air resistance before
arriving in front of another enemy fighter.

This man reminded me of a smaller
Durden, except with more muscle and a much more sinister face.  He
furrowed his eyes in concentration and met the arrow with his giantsword that
was the same height as him.  With a sound that reminded me of a bullet
hitting metal, the enemy fighter was blown back a meter but wasn’t really
harmed as he stabbed his greatsword into the ground, gaining enough balance to
stop on his feet.  However, before he even had the chance to do anything
else, another arrow flew into his forehead, draining the light out of his eyes.

Meanwhile, Jasmine was engaged in a
pretty serious duel against an Augmenter who used a long chain whip.
 Jasmine was in a disadvantage because of the short range her two daggers
had, using all of her concentration dodging the erratic movements of the whip.
 The enemy seemed to catch on that she was having a hard time, adding in a
few provocative comments while licking his cracked 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.” Followed by another lick to his lips.

I shuddered and clenched my fists
from the frustration of not being able to do anything.  Against a fighter,
I might be able to win, but against an adult augmenter? I didn’t have the
confidence in being able to win.

Was I to just stay in the
protection of everyone while they risked their lives? Could I not do anything?
I could only grit my teeth and endure.

The earth wall was holding strong
with none of the arrows able to penetrate through.  With his left hand
directed at the earth wall, he willed a constant flow of mana into it to keep
it from collapsing. Durden then created a small slit in the middle of the wall
so he can get vision on my father and the archers scattering, trying to run
away.

“Take heed Mother Earth and answer
my call.  Pierce my enemies. Let none of them live.  Rupture Spike!”

Almost instantly, a dozen spikes
strutted out from the ground, aimed at the archers.  While a couple of
them managed to dodge the earth spikes, many of them were impaled in place,
their screams only lasting a couple of moments before their lives faded.

Durden seemed pretty strained from
that spell; I could see some cold sweat rolling down his face.

My mother brought me back into her
arms and held onto me tighter.  There was no one from our side injured
after Helen bound the wound on her calf.  Fortunately the arrow wasn’t in
deep thanks to Helen’s mana reinforcement; by the time she wound it, the
bleeding stopped.   But throughout this whole time, my mother had a
constant look of paranoia, her face pale with worry, her head never staying in
one place, always turning left and right, trying to look out for anything that
can 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’s probably just not used to situations like this
and is just worried about us.

The battle was coming to its
climax.  The bandit group didn’t suspect that every one of our group
members would be a capable mage (excluding me).  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 was still having trouble
with that sick chain user, but he wasn’t nearly so arrogant anymore, with a
couple of nicks and cuts on his body, blood oozing out.

Adam was engaged with a dual sword
Augmenter.  Adam’s fighting style reminded me of a snake, with his
flexible body and sudden movements.  He should be considered one of the
rare elemental augmenters with a water-attribute style.  Reinforcing the
body of his spear to be flexible, his attacks were a mirage of multiple thrusts
and swipes.  He seemed to be winning the battle against his opponent as
the dual wielder was profusely bleeding from wounds all over, desperately
parrying the onslaught of attacks.

A thundering crash shocks my
attention away from Adam’s battle.  My father was sprawled down on the
debris of what is now left of the Earth Wall spell and is struggling to get
himself
up, blood dribbling down from the side of his lips.

“Dad!!”

I rush out of the wind barrier and
kneel in front of Father.

“Honey!”

My mother soon follows and begins
chanting a healing spell.

“Cough! Alice, listen to me.
 Don’t heal me right now. If you use a healing spell right now, they’ll
find out what you are and try that much harder to go after you.  They’ll
be willing to sacrifice a lot more if they know!”

My mom wasn’t listening and kept
chanting, desperately shaking her head.  She was stubborn all right.

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 back to engage the leader and
try to buy enough 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!”  Fuck being mature. It seemed
like at this moment I was really acting like the 4 year old I was on the
outside, but I didn’t care.  I’m not 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 in a desperate situation.

“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.”

Boom…

Protect her and protect the baby
inside her…

Everything clicked.  Why she
was acting so paranoid.  Why she was 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.

“There’s a Healer! Don’t let her
get away!”

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

We reached the area Adam and the
dual-wielder was battling a little down the road.

“Art, hurry down, I got him!”

The dual-wielder was obviously
frustrated by the inability to neither reach me nor 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 incoming
arrow.

*Paa! *

As the arrow met the wooden sword,
my body flew back.  Fortunately, the arrow wasn’t reinforced with mana so
after throwing my body into a backflip to disperse the force, I landed
awkwardly on my feet, using my hands to make myself come to a stop, throwing
away what was left of my wooden sword.

“Wha… Ugh!”

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

“GO!”  She exclaimed, nocking
in another arrow and firing at the leader of the bandits to support my father.

That’s weird.

Currently, Jasmine, Adam, and my
father (with Helen) were each fighting a Mage.

Wasn’t there four?

“Damien! Forget the plan, don't let
them live!” The Boss suddenly shouted.

“Who was he commanding?”