The Beginning Of The Ruler
Chapter 07: What I Want

Just from what I saw, there were at least thirty bandits. Our current situation was most unfavorable, as our path forward and backward were blocked by bandits wielding swords, spears, and other melee weapons. On the mountain slope to our right, there were archers positioned on top of the cliff, their bows leading to us, he said, while only a steep mountain edge with towering mist beckoned to our left.

Viona, Dicky, and my father looked fine, with no visible wounds, but Helen had an unhealthy pale complexion that seemed to be caused by an arrow sticking out of her right calf.

A bald man with many scars damaged his face and the body of a bear carrying a giant battle axe spoke. "Look at what we have here. Catch a pretty good boy. Let only the girl and the boy live. Try not to hurt them too much. Broken items would only be sold cheaper," he snorted with a grin that revealed his almost toothless mouth.

Broken stuff…

I felt my body temperature rise; tense from the burning anger I had not felt for a long time against someone.

Being shielded in my bubble of home almost made me forget that any world has its own piece of trash like it does.

I was ready to rush towards this beast, almost forgetting the fact that I was now in the body of a four-year-old when my father shouted, "There are only 4 witches and it seems like no one is a witch! The rest are normal soldiers!"

The faint mana fluctuation around one's body made magicians distinguishable compared to normal humans, only noticeable if studied carefully. As for whether they were Augimenters or Magician, making conclusions based on their physical structure and the weapons they held gave me a pretty solid idea.

I could clearly see how quickly my father had returned to his adventurer days before when he had once led the Twin Stars because his expression held a wisdom that could only be gained from experience. He put on his gloves, shouting, "Formation Guard!"

Anton quickly arrived behind us as he faced the back of the road, the spear pointed, while Viona and Helen came to our left with both of their weapons unsheathed, facing forward. My father and Dicky were facing the mountainside, positioning themselves to protect us from the archers above. Meanwhile, Angel maintained her position, setting up another spell while keeping her wind barrier active.

"Gather and guard my benevolent ally O'Earth; don't let them get hurt!"

[Stone Wall]

The ground rumbled as a four-meter high earthen wall was transmuted from the curved ground in front of Dicky.

Using that moment, my father exploded forward, raising his gloves in a guard position against the arrow towards the enemy archer.

Moments later, Angel finished her spell and released a burst of wind blades, leading forward and behind the path. It was apparently a gesture when Anton and Viona shadowed behind the wind spell, arriving in front of our desperate enemies who covered their vital tools from the sword attack. Helen remained, her arrow lifted and the bow pulled, filling the tip with mana that shone in a dim blue light.

It does not take a genius to realize that this arrangement is ideal for protecting a valuable item or person. With two layers of protection from the Magician and an archer mage ready to shoot anyone who made it past Anton, Viona, and my father's attacks into the defensive line, it was a standard formation, ' he said, but well thought out.

"The soldiers are after you, Helen!" anton shouted while avoiding the swing of the mace, delivering a punch right into the neck of the poor bandit. His eyes widened as he dropped his weapon, trying desperately to seal the fatal wound with his trembling hand as blood spurted out through the gap between his fingers.

Mother hugged me tightly in her chest as she tried to protect my eyes from the gore scenes that were happening around us. Fortunately for me, he did not look down at me so he did not realize that I could see clearly enough.

Meanwhile, a middle-aged man holding a machete lunged towards Angel, hoping to interrupt her spell. Although the wind blade spell did not seem to be very powerful, it provided a painful distraction that kept us on equal footing, even though we were short on numbers.

I tried to break free to block the man before he was within range to attack Angel, but before I could pull away from my mother, it was over.

The ferocious sound of the show came only after the arrow did its job. Helen's shot had carried a force strong enough to pierce through the armoured chest of the bandit wielding a machete and lift it up and back for half a dozen meters, nailing it to the ground.

I took a moment to take a mental note: the wise man shouldn't have upset Helen.

Helen's eyes narrowed as she pulled and pulled another arrow. Focusing, I could vaguely see where gathered in his right eye as he closed his left eye. Immediately, another strengthened arrow shot out, followed by a sharp hiss, ignoring all the opponent's air resistance as it approached the other enemy fighters.

This man vaguely resembled the smaller Dicky, except his face was more muscular and more angular. His brows furrowed in concentration, his giant sword, whose height, somehow reached the arrow in time, produced the sound of bullets hitting the metal. The enemy fighter slid backwards, but was unharmed as he stuck his greatsword into the ground, using it to balance himself. However, even before he had a smirk of satisfaction, a second arrow pierced through his forehead. It was a gloomy sight, seeing the light flowing from his eyes.

Viona engages in an intense duel against the Augimenter, whose weapon is a long-chain whip. It seemed that Viona was at a disadvantage as the range of her two daggers was lacking. He did everything he could to avoid the erratic whip movement.

Now, it was clear the enemy had realized how much he struggled as he sneered while licking his lips. "I will make sure to treat you very well before we sell you as a slave, little lady. Don't worry, by the time I finish training you, you will be begging to stay with me" he hissed, followed by another lick of his lips.

The thought made me shudder, but, at this point, all I could do was clench my fists in frustration. Against a fighter, I have a chance; against an adult Augimenter? I don't have the confidence to win.

It hurts me to stay in everyone's protection while they risk their lives? I tried to figure out a way to help, but, so far, nothing came to mind. I could only grit my teeth and hold on.

Observing the battle, I saw that the earth wall was strong, no arrows could penetrate it. Focusing on Dicky, I saw his left hand being pointed at the earth wall as he maintained a constant flow of mana in order not to collapse. He formed a narrow gap in the middle of the wall to see my father and the archers scattering, trying to escape.

"Be careful, Mother Earth, and answer my call. Puncture my enemy. Don't let any of them live."

[Broken Nails]

After a short delay, a dozen spikes started shooting from the ground towards the bandit archers. While some managed to dodge, many of the bandits were pierced, their cries lasting only a moment before dying.

Dicky looked very tired from the spell; his jaw was clenched as sweat droplets ran down his pale face..

It was at this moment that I realized that my mother had taken out a stick. His trembling fingers fumbled before he shook his head and put it back into his robe. Instead of that stick, he hugged me tighter.

No one on our side was injured other than Helen, who had bandaged a wound on her calf. Fortunately the arrow did not nest too deeply, thanks to the strengthening of Helen's mana; by the time she injured it, the bleeding had stopped, but all this time, my mother had always looked paranoid, her face pale with worry. Inevitably I noticed that his hand kept grabbing the staff on his robe until he decided to pull it back, last minute. His eyes are never glued to one place, always turning left and right, trying to find anything that could harm us.

Although at first it was a bit confused, I ignored it; mentally concluding that, since he was not an adventurer for too long, unlike my father, he was completely unfamiliar with such a situation.

The battle reached its peak. The bandit group did not expect that every member of our group would be a capable magician. Due to that miscalculation, all melee fighters died, the only ones alive were the four witches and a few scattered archers on the run.

Viona was still having trouble with the perverted chain user, but the arrogance on her face was wiped clean this time, with some nicks and wounds on her body dripping with blood.

Anton is engaged to a two-sword Augimenter. His fighting style reminded me of a snake, with its flexible maneuvers and surprise attacks.

He should be considered as one of the rare element Augimenters with water attribute style.

Strengthening his spear rod to be flexible, his attack was a mirage of rapid thrust and friction of liquid. The battle seemed to be in his favor; the dual user had wounds that spewed out a lot of blood as he desperately tried to fend off the onslaught.

The rumbling sounds distracted me from Anton's fight. My father had been thrown into the ruins of what was now left of the [Stone Wall] spell and struggled to get up as blood dripped from the side of his lips.

"Dad!!" "Darling!"

I rushed out of the wind barrier, kneeling in front of Father, my mother immediately followed behind. I could see panic written on his face as he nervously thought of what he could do.

I don't know why he didn't cure her, maybe because he was so shocked, but just as I was about to suggest it, my father cut me off.

"Coughs! Samantha, listen to me. Don't worry about me. If you use a healing spell now, they will realize who you are and try harder to catch you. They would be willing to sacrifice a lot more if they knew!" he emphasized, his voice in low whispers.

After hesitating for a moment and trembling, my mother took out her wand and started chanting incantations. I would assume that her stammering singing was caused by seeing her husband get hurt, but for some reason, it felt like she was almost.

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

"Art, listen carefully. Once the healing spell is activated, they will try to capture your mother at all costs. Once I am sufficiently healed, I will 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. Take your mother back to the streets and don't stop; Antom will open the way for you."

"No dad! I'm staying with you. I can fight! You saw me! I can help!" The thought of being an adult eluded me. It seemed like at this moment, I was actually acting like a four-year-old outside, but I didn't care. I will not leave my family that I have loved and friends that have been so attached to me for the past week and a half.

"I know you can fight! That's why I entrusted your mother to you. Protect him and protect the baby in your mother's stomach. I'll catch up with you when this is over."

His words shook my mind like thunder.

Protect him and protect the baby inside the mother's stomach …

Suddenly, everything clicked. Why is he acting so paranoid. Why is he gripping me and making sure no one gets close to us. Why Dicky and Angel are guarding us with defensive spells, not just one of them.

My mother is pregnant.

"I was planning on telling you when we got to Cyrus, but.." Not finishing his sentence, father just looked at me with embarrassment; still pale from the punch he received from the bald boss who used the axe.

"Okay, I'll protect Mom."

"That's my boy, now protect your mother"

My mother finished her singing this time and she and my father shone in a bright golden white light.

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

I quickly grabbed my mother's arm with both hands and pulled her to move while strengthening myself with mana.

We reached the Anton area and the dual users fought dozens of meters down the road.

"Art, hurry down, I'm catching him!" Anton barked as he held his opponent back.

The dual user was obviously frustrated by the inability to not contact me or mom because of Anton. We rushed down the slope when I heard a faint *wizz* sound on our left. Acting on instinct, I jumped up, carried my wooden sword up and strengthened my entire body and sword to withstand the incoming arrow blows.

The crack shattering resounded as the arrow met the wooden sword. Fortunately, the arrow was not strengthened with anything so, even though the power was pushing me backwards, I was able to regain balance in the air by using the power of the shot by turning my body and pointing the arrow away. I landed on my feet a little less impressive than I wanted, throwing away what was left of my wooden sword.

"What's a Ugh—!"

…Only that I heard from the assailant before he was immediately pierced by the arrow fired by Helen.

"GO!" he exclaimed, pointed another arrow and fired it at the bandit leader to support my father.

Thats odd.

Right now, Viona, Anton, and my father, along with Helen, are each fighting a witch.

Is there not four?

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

Who did he order?

"… respond to my call and wash it all until forgotten!" a faint voice finished chanting.

[Water Cannon]

From the mountain slope, one of the scattered "Warmers" put his hands together, aiming at me and mother. We tricked. He had disguised himself during the chaos. He's not an archer or even an Augimenter. He is a magician!

The filth! (English language)

I didn't have much time to react when the huge ball of pressurized water, at least three meters in diameter, shot towards us, the larger it was as it approached.

My mind raced to think about choices.

To the right I was my mother, and to the left I was Anton and his opponent not far away; and behind me, of course, was the edge of the mountain. Even if I could avoid this, mother would not be able to and she would be forced down from the mountain cliff.

What am I supposed to do?

"Damn it!" I let out an undeserved roar for a four-year-old!

Wanting all the mana left in this damned body, I handled my mother, pushing the two of us aside.

I soon realized that my forty-pound body was not carrying enough momentum to push the two out of the reach of the water cannon.

There's no choice!

If I go downstairs, I'll make sure to take the bastard with me!

I channeled the mana into my hand and pushed my mother further down, out of reach. At that moment, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as my mother's eyes slowly widened in panic and disbelief. He might have gotten quite a severe bruise from the urge, but a minor body injury was my least problem at the time. If he doesn't want to get hit by another spell, I have to get rid of this witch.

Sucking out the knife that Viona gave me from my waist, I added it with mana. What I was trying to do was just me doing with the Qi in my old world, never with mana.

After inserting mana into the blade, I threw it like a boomerang, directing it at the sorcerer, who was still concentrating on the water cannon. Barely curving around the edge of the water giant cannonball, I heard a loud thud from the blade that met the skin.

The witch let out a howl of pain followed by a series of curses that showed that the witch was not dead yet.

Losing concentration, the water mage cannon lost form, but unfortunately, there were still waves of water strong enough to push me off the cliff.

Time for plan B.

Plan B just in case my initial throw can't kill him. I managed to succeed in betting Plan B, and it created a thin series of mana that stuck the blade, which was currently enlarged somewhere in the body of the sorcerer, into my hand.

I pulled back the mana rope just as the spell hit my body like a brick wall, dropping every ounce of air that was in my lungs and most likely breaking my ribs. Like a fish caught on a rope, I could hear the witches scream over the rushing waves of water as he was dragged helplessly with me by the power of his own spell.

Even as my gaze grew dark, I could see the battle was coming to an end. Dad and Helen just managed to kill the leader. Angel, provides Viona with a backup, allowing them to put the whip user on her final stand. Meanwhile, I saw Dicky as he desperately conjured a spell to save me, but I knew it was too late; the spell had dropped me too far.

However, I was comforted by the fact that everyone would be fine. Probably the only thing I regret about not being able to see my baby sister.

With that, I felt a cold grip from sleep stealing me.

Shit. I always wanted to be an older brother.

...----2.710 Word----...