“I was planning to tell you when we arrived in Xyrus, but…” My father didn’t finish his sentence, just looked at me sheepishly, still pale from the blow he had received from the bald axe-wielding boss.

“I’ll protect Mom. I promise.”

“Atta boy. That’s my son.”

Just then, my mother finished her chant, and both she and my father glowed in a bright golden-white light.

“Son of a—One of them’s a healer! Don’t let her get away!” the leader roared.

I quickly grabbed my mother’s arm with both hands and tugged at her to move, reinforcing myself with mana as we went.

A dozen yards down the road, we reached the area where Adam and the dual-wielder were battling. “Art, hurry, I got him!” Adam barked, keeping his opponent at bay. The dual-wielder was obviously frustrated by his inability to get past Adam to reach me or Mother.

As we hurried down the slope, I heard a faint whizz 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 the incoming arrow.

A splintering crack resonated as the arrow met the wooden sword. Fortunately, the arrow wasn’t reinforced with any mana, so even though the force of the impact pushed me back, I was able to regain my balance in midair by using the force of the shot, rotating my body and redirecting the arrow away. I landed on my feet—a bit less impressively than I’d wanted to—and threw away what was left of my wooden sword.

“What the—” I heard the assailant say, followed by a grunt as he was promptly impaled by one of Helen’s arrows.

“Go!” she exclaimed, nocking in another arrow and firing it at the leader of the bandits to assist my father.

As I turned to grasp my mother’s hand, I heard the bandit leader bark, “Damien! Forget the plan—don't let them live!”

Who is he giving commands to? Adam and Jasmine were each fighting a mage, my father and Helen were working together to battle the third—suddenly I remembered. Weren’t there four?

“…respond to my call and wash all to oblivion!” a faint voice chanted.

On the mountainside, one of the scattered ‘archers’ was standing, his hands together, aimed at me and mother. We had been tricked. The fourth mage had camouflaged himself during the chaos and retreated to a safer distance.

Shit!

There wasn’t much time to react as a huge sphere of pressurized water, at least three yards in diameter, shot toward us, increasing in size as it neared. My mind raced, trying to come up with options.

To my immediate right was my mother, and to my left, not far off, were Adam and his opponent; behind me, of course, was the edge of the mountain. Even if I could dodge this, Mother wouldn’t be able to—she’d be forced off the edge of the mountain.

What should I do?

“Damn it!” I let out a roar unfit for a four-year-old.

Gathering all the mana remaining in my small body, I tackled my mother, propelling both of us out of the way. But I quickly realized my forty-pound body couldn’t carry enough momentum to push us both of out of range of the water cannon.

I had no choice. But if I was going down, I was going to make sure to take that bastard down with me!

I channeled mana into my arms and pushed my mother further down, out of range. In that moment, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. My mother’s eyes slowly widened in panic and disbelief. She might be badly bruised from the fall, but such minor injuries were the least of my problems at that moment. If I didn’t want us to get hit with another spell, I had to get rid of this conjurer.

Unsheathing the knife Jasmine had given me from my waist, I imbued it with mana. What I was about to try was something I had only done with ki in my old world—never with mana.

After willing mana into the knife, I threw it like a boomerang, aiming it at the conjurer, who was still concentrating on the water cannon. The knife curved around the edge of the giant cannonball of water moments before I heard the firm thud of the blade meeting its target.

The mage let out a shrill howl of pain, followed by a string of curses that proved he wasn’t dead.

Losing concentration, the mage let the water cannon falter, but unfortunately, the surge of water was still strong enough to push me off the cliff.

Thankfully, I had a backup plan. I had created a thin string of mana to attach the knife—currently lodged somewhere in the conjurer’s body—to my hand.

I tugged back on the strand of mana just as the water rammed against my body like a brick wall, knocking every ounce of air out of my lungs and most likely breaking my ribs. Like a fish caught on the line, the mage screamed over the gushing tide of water as he was helplessly dragged down with me by the force of his own spell.

Even as my vision darkened, I could see the battle coming to an end. Father and Helen had just managed to kill the leader. With Angela’s help, Jasmine was able to bring the whip user down to his knees. I also spotted Durden—he was desperately conjuring a spell to save me, but I knew it was too late; the spell had knocked me too far away.

Still, I was comforted by the fact that everyone would be safe. The only thing I would regret, I thought, was being unable to see my baby sibling.

With that, I felt the cold grip of sleep steal me away.

Damn… I always wanted to be an older brother.