‘Fuck. Ogres,’ Sam thought to himself as three of the grotesque monsters emerge from the trees.

These ogres were a pale sickly yellow color, standing three feet taller than John, with two longer teeth protruding from their lower jaws, and black beady eyes. Even though their mid section appeared to be bulging with fat, their arms and legs both looked muscular and powerful. Thanks to its limited intelligence they wore loincloths around their waists and ragged cloth wrapped around their feet, and carried basic wooden clubs that looked more like large tree branches they just ripped off.

Ogres were C ranked Monsters, and were considered a serious threat to most villages. Ogres held low intelligence, higher than an animal, but far less than a human. They were pack monsters, usually traveling in groups of around a dozen. Unlike magic beasts they didn’t possess magic stones, but they did have a tremendous amount of strength. Coupled with their thick hide that required aura or magic to penetrate, they were a terrifying force for most villages. 

Even though they possessed some intelligence, they primarily operated off instinct, mostly driven by their stomachs. Human flesh was something ogres seemed to desire over most other prey, especially small children due to practically being bite sized.

‘My parents are both B ranked adventurers so they should be able to handle these three…’

Just then three more ogres emerged from the trees behind them.

‘Wait! Was this a trap? But I read in one of my parents books, ogres had limited intelligence. Only…variant forms actually have noteworthy intelligence.’ Sam wasn’t the only one to make this realization, his parents also came to this conclusion. ‘This isn’t good. Ogres follow the strongest, and variants are not only more intelligent but much stronger too.’

In a one on one fight John can usually match the lowest variant form of an ogre, the Ogre General. However not only were there more ogres, but his family was there too. Sarah may have been a strong mage, but even she needed time to cast her spells, and these ogres were far too close to give her that time.

The family stood there watching the ogres, as the ogres watched them. The ogres snarled and growled as saliva dripped from their mouths. They were anxious, they wanted to attack. John and Sarah weren’t sure what was going on, the ogres should have attacked on site, but were holding back as if they were waiting for something.

“Sarah,” John said quietly as his eyes shifted between the ogres in front of him. “Remember that time we were surrounded by red maned wolves?”

“Yeah, I remember,” she replied as she prepared her spell.

“Good, on my mark you grab Sam and start running for the village. I’ll cover you two.”

“Hang on,” she replied and used the spell detect to see the nearby area. “There are more coming, what if they try to cut us off?”

“Then I’ll hold them off as you get help.”

Sam listened to every word and evaluated the plan for himself.

‘It took us about thirty minutes to get here, if mother and I both run like hell we might be back at the village within ten minutes. But it’ll take time to gather the others, I can’t imagine father lasting very long against this many ogres, especially if a variant arrives. What in the hell is he thinking?’

With John’s aura and Sarah’s mana both surging, Sam decided to take this chance to cast a short range detect spell to get a better idea of the situation. Upon doing so he saw even more ogres closing in along their path back to the village.

‘Shit, they’re going to box us in at this rate. We need to…’

John’s aura covered his sword making it look like it was engulfed in a dark blue flame as he swung it along the ground in front of him. Thanks to the aura a large amount of dirt flew up into the air towards the ogres, temporarily blinding them. At the same the ground in front of Sarah quickly became covered in ice, which also formed over the ogres feet, essentially pinning them in place. As soon as this happened Sarah took Sam up into her arms as she and John started running back towards the village.

The ogres behind them roared in rage, and soon were chasing after them. However they were slower and the distance between them and their prey only grew. Side by side his parents ran, Sam was held tight in his mothers arms so he could only see behind them. 

GRAWWWR!

More ogres were heard roaring ahead of them. Sam tried to turn and look, but his mothers hold on him was too strong. All he could see was just a glimpse of his father right before he sped ahead of them.

Soon after, John heard another roar from another group and saw three more ogres emerging from the trees. Channeling aura throughout his body he sped ahead of his wife and son, his sword glowing with a dark blue hue, much more controlled than previously. One of the ogres was further ahead of the others, moving to block their escape, making it John’s first target. 

The ogre swung its club at John as he moved his shield in his left hand across his chest, then swung  it out deflecting the club. With his opponent wide open John pulled back on his sword as he jumped up, then thrust it forward into its chest. Thanks to his aura his blade was able to cut through the ogres tough skin and bones relatively easily, bringing it down as the blade pierced its heart.

“KEEP GOING!” John yelled as the other two arrived, and the others from before were closing in again.

Gnashing her teeth together Sarah ran past him with John held tight in her arms.

‘What the hell!’ Sam thought as he saw his father take one more glance at them before focusing on the ogres. ‘No, this isn’t good. He might be able to handle a few, but not these kinds of numbers.’

“Mom! What about dad? We need to help him!”

“Your father wants us to get to the village and send help, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Sarah replied, her voice cracking near the end.

‘She knows he won’t make it. She’s only running because of me. He’s acting as a shield. I’ve seen this far too often in my past life. They always came back either as a cripple, or in a body bag. Damn it! I’m the weak link here. If not for me I know that…’ Sam paused as he could tell his mother was slowing down.

Once at a complete stop she lowered him to the ground and took a knee in front of him as she held him by the shoulders.

“Sam, I need you to be brave and run back to the village as fast as you can to tell the others,” she instructed with a serious tone.

“What about you?”

“I’m going to help your father. It’s going to be too hard for him to handle all of them alone and not get hurt. So all you need to do is run as fast as you can to get us help. You can do that right?”

‘Damn you woman are you out of your fuck’n mind?! I’m not even six yet! A normal child wouldn’t have nearly enough stamina for this kind of run!’ Regardless of his thought Sam nodded, as tears started to well up in his eyes. 

He may have been almost fifty mentally, but he found himself unable to avoid forming bonds like he did in his previous life. She was his mother, and she was far more loving than the one he had in his previous life. Even his father, despite the trauma his previous one left him with, he cared deeply about. Even though he still was hesitant about him, he still found himself forming a bond with him as well.

“Good, now run! Run as fast as you can!”

Sam did as he was told and started running down the trail away from his mother and towards the village. Sarah held as she watched Sam running away before turning around and running back to support her husband.

After a few seconds Sam stopped and turned to look back and saw his mother running towards the fight. He stood there with his eyes closed and fists both closed tight with frustration. 

‘This goes well beyond my desire to hide my abilities. Can I even fight those things? What level do I need to be at? The book said aura or mana are needed, and I have both, but at what level would I be strong enough? I do know this, one hit and I’m dead, so I would have to fight at long range. What I wouldn’t give for a rifle with a scope right about now.” His eyes opened wide with realization. “I may not have a rifle but I do have magic. Magic missile consumes too much mana, and magic bullet lacks penetrating power. Wind blade loses effectiveness at long range, and fireball and water sphere lack power. But…’ Sam then started piecing together an idea, an original spell of his own creation. 

Creating original spells was normally considered something only higher tier mages could do properly, however Sam wasn’t normal. He may have been lacking in his understanding of magic, but thanks to his previous life his understanding of the natural world was on a level rivaling those higher tier mages. The mana requirements of elemental magic didn’t necessarily require a large amount of mana, it more so depended on what you were trying to achieve. The larger the spell, or the more one tries to distort it from its current form, the more mana it costs. The biggest thing that held most mages back on elemental magic was understanding of the elements themselves.

‘I think this will work, but I don’t have enough mana to experiment right now. I guess I’ll just have to shoot from the hip and try to make adjustments as I go,’ Sam thought to himself after working the spell out in his head, then took off running after his mother.