3 Bandits…

I wasn't disturbed for the rest of the day, aside from the bouncing and overall uncomfortableness of a wagon ride with stiff wheels on rocky roads. I didn't exit my cocoon for anything except the lunch we ate at noon and then later into the night when we were all sitting around a campfire and just finished dinner.

I had been pulled into Angela's lap and I didn't complain as with the combination of the warm food, slightly chilly night air, and the softness and warmth of her "pillows" behind me I found myself nearly about to fall asleep again. Why does it seem anytime I'm about to get some real rest these people decide to interrupt it.

"Hey Rey, mind if I test little Art and Rhys?" I honestly thought I imagined Adam's question at first as some part of a nightmare trying to stop my sleep, but when I felt my arm being grabbed and my body being pulled away from Angela I knew it was all too real. Arthur was at least on his feet, but I was being dragged behind him as he pulled my small body with minimum effort.

"Alright, but take it easy. Rhys is only a conjurer." Reynolds called and they all looked to him.

"What elemental affinity does he have?" Helen asked from beside him and my father nervously looked to Alice, who just sighed and nodded.

"Well, actually it would be more accurate to say he's an emitter like Alice." All their eyes went wide and they gasped audibly before focusing in on me. I was currently still lying on the ground looking up at the sky regretting not having moved from the meteor or star or whatever crushed me. I was pulled up, by Arthur and I reluctantly held my weight up as I swayed gently.

"A healer, huh?" Adam said with a grin as he pulled out a stick he had found. Is being a healer really that rare that they would have all reacted like that? Arthur placed a hand on my shoulder and handed me my sword as he gripped his own. I held it loosely in my right hand while my left hand remained tucked into my pocket of my pants.

Arthur took a more serious stance with both hand holding the sword tightly to his right side and crouched down in preparation. Adam smirked at us and reinforced his stick with mana as we reinforced our wooden swords similarly. He ran up to us quickly and Arthur dashed forward to meet him. I scanned the scene and walked slowly forward just behind and to the right of Arthur.

Arthur did that familiar feint step of his and now instead of being in Adam's left where it seems he would be, he was now on Adam's right which was unprotected. I could pretty much see how this would play out from here, Arthur isn't going to be as fast as a veteran adventurer no matter how skilled he was in his last life.

Adam's eyes went wide for only a moment as they narrowed and he pivoted on his right foot. Arthur was able to dodge the resulting upward swing and changed his own tactic from a stab to a spinning swipe which connected with Adam's left ankle. Arthur saw Adam fall and went for another attack , but I saw Adam drop to a split and try to sweep Arthur's legs who leaped over them.

Right as Adam began to swing his stick I appeared from the side and brought my sword down with all the speed and force I could muster. To him it probably seemed as if i appeared out of nowhere and I suppose I kind of did. I had been staying just out of his vision by maneuvering myself behind Arthur and lightly manipulating the shadows.

Not enough to be obvious, but enough that I was already tired with even the small amounts of movements. With no other choice Adam had to choose between defending mine or Arthur's strike and he chose mine due to ferocity with which it was approaching. Instead of his forearm where I had been aiming for, my blade caught his stick and it barely budged.

Then he rolled on his knees to pop back up on his feet but caught a stray strike from Arthur's sword on his free hand. When he stood up he was panting lightly and inspected his hand where Arthur's blade had hit. It was already swelling and he winced when he flexed his fingers. Thankfully this seemed to end the battle and I flopped onto the ground with a loud sigh.

"What are you tired for brat! You barely moved that whole fight, and you didn't even get hit." Adam said mockingly, but the rest of them were staring at me and Arthur had a strangely smug look on his face as he rubbed a finger under his nose.

"That proves it. If Adam actually didn't notice then Rhys has a terrifying bit of skill himself." Helen said mostly to herself, but Adam turned to the rest of the group.

"What do you mean? The little brat just appeared out of my blind spot, I had been focusing on Arthur the whole time. What's the big deal?" Adam questioned as mother healed his swollen hand.

"Well Adam, Rhys was moving. He had been mirroring Arthur's movements nearly perfectly sticking to his shadow cast by the fire. You couldn't see it because you were focused on Arthur and he was staying just out of your sight. When you went for that final blow he dashed out of the shadow with a vicious strike. I imagine if you had chose differently you would be dealing with a broken arm, or at the very least a fracture." Reynolds said as he picked up my tire form.

"Hehe, Rhys isn't as lazy as he seems." Arthur cheerfully noted, seemingly trying to heap all the attention on me.

"Arthur's feint was something as well." The ever quiet Jasmine commented and everyone seemed to be hit with a sudden realization.

"Ya! How'd you do that?!" Adam, Helen and Reynolds called out and I could see Arthur sweat drop at their intensity, but thankfully I was placed back into my original spot of Angela's lap and was allowed to sleep. And sleep I did for the rest of that night.

A few days later I was for some reason pestered by Helen about Arthur's feint step.

"What now?" I asked with disinterest as we were currently resting the Skitters, the mana beasts that had been pulling our wagons.

"How does he do that feint step?!" Helen whisper yelled to me and I just frowned.

"I don't know." I responded and she put her whole head in my view blocking out the sun. I gave a lazy glare, but she didn't seem to notice or she just didn't care.

"But you copied him perfectly that night! You have to know how to do it." I sighed loudly and sat up on my elbows as I looked at her.

"Exactly I copied him. I don't know how to explain how it works, I just know it does when I do what he did. If you want figure it out watch Jasmine, she's the closest to getting it." I said before flopping back on to the ground with a great sigh as the sun was no longer blocked. I heard her movements as she left and was happy, that should get her off my back about the move. It didn't seem that complicated did it? I guess I did come from a world of anime's where they do even crazier movements, but still.

A little while later was our birthday, and mother somehow produced a cake. Arthur was looking at it skeptically, but I just shrugged and dug into it. Jasmine gave both of us a small knife as a present and I could see Arthur tearing up. Was this present that substantial? Perhaps I should repay Jasmine one day for this gift. For now I'll just strap it to my waist.

That's when it happened, just a couple days after our birthday I was laying on my blanket in the back of the wagon next to Arthur who was pouring over the same mana manipulation book he had been reading since we were babies.

"Bandits! Prepare to engage!" Helen yelled and Arthur snapped up, I just kind of sat up and looked around, but the canvas covering the wagon blocked my view. Mother quickly snatched us up and tucked us into her arms as Angela began to cast a spell.

"Submit, O' wind and follow my will. I command and gather you around in protection.  Wind Barrier!" The barrier rounded off into a sphere surrounding the 4 of us and as more arrows pierced the covering over the wagon and subsequently deflected by the barrier causing even more holes we were able to see outside. There were a lot of bandits. I'm normally not one to get scared or nervous but seeing so many bandits had me thinking back to all the shows and books I had read.

Bandits would kill the men and then take the women and children. Children to be sold or used for pleasure and same for the women. Not particularly a situation I wanted any of our current party to face and certainly not myself. Mother's embrace didn't provide much comfort either as I knew she didn't have much in the way of combat capabilities, and she didn't like healing.

Arthur seemed to be radiating anger and I couldn't blame him, this situation was not ideal and there wasn't much we could do. Well there was something I could do. I wriggled slightly and got better look at the fight. Jasmine was fighting a man that had a long chain whip and seemed to be giving her trouble. I tried manipulating the shadows around him to trip him up but I guess due to the distance I wasn't able to cause much more than an annoyance.

But annoyances were something right? I began manipulating shadows across the battle field as best I could, but I guess a black core is not good for this kind of stuff has I was soon breathing heavily and sweating. Mother seemed to take this for fear and snuggled in closer, partially obstructing my view.

"It's okay Rhys, Arthur. We'll be okay." She muttered and I could see Arthur looking at me, it seems he noticed that i had been using mana. My energy was already drained from manipulating the shadows when a loud crash could be heard and I looked to see our father lying in the debris of the earth wall Durden had conjured at the start of the battle.

""Dad!"" Me and Arthur called and for the first time I felt true panic. I had never had to see my parents from my last life take part in such a battle and Reynolds and Alice had begun to grow on me as my new parents. Before I could react Arthur had rushed out the barrier to our father and mother chased after him, hesitantly I remained in the barrier for while I watched over them.

For the first time I felt no bit of laziness in my body as I surveyed the battlefield, there weren't many left of the bandits but they hadn't been fighting as hard as we had. They were able to come in behind their perished fellow bandits and were much fresher where as our party was beginning to slow down.

Mother pulled out her wand and began to cast a healing spell on father even though he tried to stop her, he ended up giving up and looking to Arthur.

"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 and Rhys back down the road and don't stop; Adam will open up a path for you."

Arthur was now the one trying to persuade Reynolds that we could help them, and at that I jumped down from the wagon and knelt next to them with a determined expression.

"I agree, we can help." I said, I hadn't only been sitting in the wagon I had been recovering my mana at the same time as was more or less full.

"Listen to me you guys! I know you both can fight, that's why I'm entrusting your mother to the both of you. Protect her and protect the baby inside of her." He half pleaded and I felt my heart thump at the mention of a baby. Mother was pregnant? I whipped my head to her or specifically her belly as she continued to emit a green light from her wand.

"We'll do it. Right, Arthur?" I turned back and with a commanding voice that caught them both off guard, but Arthur thought for only a moment before nodding seriously as well.

"Attaboys." Reynolds said at the same time mother finished her chant and his injuries began to heal rapidly.

"One of thems a healer! Don't let them get away!" One of the bandits called, but me and Arthur had already grabbed mother's hands and took off running back down the path we had came. There was a faint whizz and when I turned around I saw that Arthur and blocked it with his wooden sword which cracked and splintered from the impact.

"Damien! Forget the plan, don't let them live!" The leader yelled and I felt mana beginning to be formed behind us. One of the archers had actually been a conjurer this whole time, there weren't many options and with the chaos of everything I couldn't find a way out of this. My one redeeming quality was my critical thinking and nothing was coming to mind, the one time I wasn't being lazy and my brain couldn't help me.

"Damn it!" I hear Arthur's childish voice roar and the next thing I know me and mother are being pushed forward just as the water blast rushes past us. Without even needing to look I know who it hit. Sound faded and my eyes narrowed on the form of Arthur being pushed over the edge of the cliff. My heart beat faster than it should have been able to and now for some reason everything seemed to clear up in my brain.

Nothing bogging it down as I watched my twin getting blasted out over a huge drop off and my mouth hung open and my eyes were wide with tear pricks. Even though my thinking was clear I couldn't move my body, no signals from brain would move my limbs or the mana in my body. It had only been 4 years and I knew we both weren't really 4 year olds, but I had still grown to care and love for this family.

Was it my fault? Surely the main character of this world isn't supposed to die yet. Has my being here disrupted the world in some kind of morbid butterfly effect? Though while I was thinking this Arthur was still fighting, he threw the knife that Jasmine had given us and I could see a faint string attached to it and I could feel the mana coming from it.

Mana strings… How had I not thought of that with all the Naruto I had watched? The knife connected with the water mage and sunk deep due to the mana Arthur had imbued into it. As Arthur began to fall the string held tight and dragged the mage with him and as Arthur disappeared over the edge I felt the paralyzation leave my body.

My heart thudded loudly, almost covering the sound of the blood rushing through my ears. I could feel my eyes begin to burn with tears and then I shut them tightly. I squeezed them as hard as I could, hard enough to see spots in the darkness and I slammed my fists on to the ground and I let out a pain filled yell.

"Nooooo!" I barely felt the flare of mana within me reacting to my grief and stayed clenching my fists hard enough for my nails to pierce skin and bleed. I thought my hearing had faded out again, but when I heard the rustling from mother beside me I looked overt as she sat up staring over the edge of the cliff with a despaired look.

I sat back on my knees with my butt on the heels of my feet with my arms at my sides. I looked around and saw father rush towards us, he scooped me up and embraced me and mother together. But my eyes just looked at the carnage from the battle with the bandits, and I could see the others staring at me in sadness, but I could also see a bit of wonderment. I scanned across and saw the dead bodies of the bandits they had been fighting.

All of the remaining ones were littered with holes all over their bodies, ranging in sizes from a needle to a garden hose. Then I felt an intense pain where my mana core is located and let out a loud anguished cry as I lost consciousness.

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Whoops, 3k words. Didn't mean for that to happen.

Cheers. See ya next time.