TBATE: Shadows Of The Past

Chapter 8 - A Fated Collapse

[1st POV - Cain Leywin]

"Submit, O' wind, and follow my will. I command and gather you around in protection. Wind Barrier!" Instantly I felt a gust of wind forming a protective shield of wind around mom, Angela, Art, and me.

Arrows constantly bombarded the barrier, only to get redirected in another direction.

I immediately stopped my exercise as soon as I heard Helen's yell, and stood next to mom and Art, watching the attack directed towards us by the bandits.

Mom suddenly pulled us close to her, trying to shield us with her body. Her efforts didn't seem necessary as the barrier redirected all the attacks thrown at us.

Within seconds, the tarp covering the carriage was torn to shreds, giving me a clear view of what was happening outside.

We were completely surrounded, and I struggled to come up with a strategy to defend against the attack.

If I weren't in this wretched child body, I would have already given orders to the Twin Horns and Dad.

From what I could discern, there were a total of thirty bandits, and our current situation was unfavorable since they had blocked off our front and back, with archers positioned near the mountainside on our right, aiming their bows at us.

I noticed that Jasmine, Durden, and Dad seemed to be unharmed, with no apparent injuries that I could make out. However, the same couldn't be said about Helen, as she had a very pale face right now due to the arrow embedded in her calf.

A bald man with multiple scars deforming his face, carrying a giant war axe spoke out. "Look what we have here. Pretty good catch boys. Leave only the girls and the kid alive. Try not to scar them too much. Damaged goods will only sell for less." He snorted with a smirk plastered onto his deformed face, revealing his mouth that had no teeth inside.

Damaged goods..

I felt my mind go completely blank, my eyes turning into the deep, bottomless and lifeless eyes that my past life was known for.

I knew that people like these bandits were everywhere, and I honestly couldn't care less what they did to anyone else as long as it wasn't my family or friends who were the target of those bandits.

I didn't consider myself a hero, nor did I have any illusions of being able to cleanse the world of its filth. I was just an ordinary person, and like most humans, I was inherently selfish.

Although I was prepared to fight and even take the lives of some of the bandits, my intentions were interrupted by Dad's urgent shout, "There are only four mages and none of them are conjurers! The rest are regular warriors!"

One could discern whether a person was a mage by observing the faint fluctuations of mana around their body. As for determining whether they were an augmenter or a conjurer, making a guess based on their body structure and the weapon they wielded could provide a solid indication.

However, this didn't apply to me. Whenever someone attempted to check my core or perceive it, they would find nothing, as I lacked a mana core. This puzzled my parents, but they eventually gave up trying to comprehend why they couldn't see through my core. Instead, they focused on accompanying my brother and me on our journey to Xyrus, where an expert could examine my mana core properly.

I didn't go to fight the bandits or try to help my father as I grew cautious at the fact that there were four mages, all of them augmenters.

Normally, I could defeat a normal warrior who hadn't awakened. In lucky cases, I could defeat a trained mage by taking them by surprise. However, I couldn't defeat a mage in a head-on battle, much less four mages. That is, of course, without using my trump cards.