“Wake up, Mom! Please!” I tried one last time. Stay in control. Don’t let it loose. Deep breaths. I look towards the shield dome and notice it is starting to fade from the top. We’ll have company soon.

Remove the two warriors, and the archer. Restrain the mage. He might have the antidote or the water affinity to cast the spell. The two warriors are overconfident of their abilities and underestimate me as an opponent. That will be the death of them. She’s not dead. She just needs healing!

Templars are trained in compartmentalization of their emotions, so that we can remain calm in battle and not lose our reason. If you must show emotion, do so in your own time, not in a fight. Don’t look at her.

This Shield Wall will protect her cor- HER BODY. Healing magic is strong in this world, she’s not dead. She just needs stronger healing. They’re slavers, we’re worth nothing to them if we are dead, right?

“I hope you’re ready for us, pretty lady. Don’t worry, your son will likely be sold to some wealthy countess or other noble. They like their male servants to look girlier, like your boy.” they said, and I heard them getting closer. They might be on their guard, and don’t know my mother is de- needing healing. I lean beside my mother, and pretend I am terrified of what is happening and why my mother is unconscious. It only requires half the effort on my part. Don’t look at her. Don’t look.

“Here we are, lit- What? Those arrows are Gren’s, when did the bastard hit her. She must have healed herself before she passed out. Gren’s a cold bastard, but damn if he’s not good using those poison arrows of his.”

Poison arrows? Deadly? Did you kill my mot-

“Yeah, he’s more likely to shoot you than be friends with you, but damn if the arrows don’t make transporting the slaves easier. As long as they get the antidote quickly, they survive with barely any effects to lower their price”.

I look at them like the most terrified child ever, “Please, can you give my mommy the antidote? I promise we’ll behave… What do I call you misters?” I plead to them. Not yet.

“Well aren’t you a polite brat.” The grisly man with the sword said to me, not taking his eyes off my unconscious mother. Keep the act up. “Name’s Rolf, and this ugly troll here..” He points to the other man with the great axe, “.. Is Sven. As for the antidote, nothing we can do. Gren keeps it locked up and secret. Maybe if you beg him enough” Rolf and Sven laugh at the scared appearance of mine.

“Look weak to the strong, and strong to the weak. Lower their guard, and strike”. My training from my previous life reared its head, and I long since mastered it. My only advantage is my magical ability, and that only helps if they’re caught off guard. Ignore the pain. Ignore the anger.

Sven looks lecherously at my mother and says, “Rolf, what do you say we knock out the kid and have our fun before we set off to the slave market?”.

Rolf lets out a laugh and says, “Impatient to start, are you? Take care of the kid, and I’ll start setting the mood”. I understand now.

I have had enough.

“You two will be the first since coming to this world.” I tell them both. “Huh? What are you talking about boy?” Sven asks as he approaches me. I grab the ground and use it to launch myself forward to close the distance, and hold out my right hand, fingers spread out like a wing as I channel my mana to infuse my hand with the Tier 1 Wind spell, Wind Blade. It places a wind mana edge around my hand, and mimics a transparent green blade. “What are yo-”, and Sven does not have the chance to finish speaking before I slice my infused hand across his throat, cutting deeply into the unprotected flesh.

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There’s the first. I will slaughter them.

Sven falls to the ground, frantically trying to hold the wound close as the blood has no intention of stopping. Before witnessing his last few breaths, I use the momentum of the first strike to dash forward besides Rolf who only just noticed Sven hit the ground, panic starts to set in his eyes as he realizes what had happened to his friend. You don’t deserve these quick deaths. I need to hurry so that I can try and save my mother.

He has a better reaction time than Sven, and starts to reach for his sword, but it does not matter. The underside of the lower jaw of humans is a weak point, and perfect to kill with bladed weapons. I swing the infused hand point first of the blade upwards into the underside of Rolf’s lower jaw, and puncture his head cleanly. He froze in shock from the damaged nerves, and was quickly fading as well.

That’s two.

They were not my cleanest work, but that was not a matter of concern at the moment. I pull the bladed hand out of his head and kick him to fall away from my mother, so as to not land on her. In what felt like an instant, I had killed two people for the first time in this world. The warm red stains on my body are a callback to my past as Callum. A past that is serving me well at this moment.

It had to be done to protect my mother and I. It was the right thing to do.

I needed a plan for the archer and the mage. Gren was in the trees, and was the only one with the antidote, so I needed to be careful with him. It would be easier to deal with the mage if I knew what his affinity was. Wind is known for speed, Fire for power, Water for support, and Earth for defense. Based on his build, I can rule out Wind and Earth, since mages of those affinities train their bodies to better use the magic.

I could throw a fire spell into the air as both a distraction, as well as a signal to alert anyone nearby to come help with my mother, and hope they are friendly. Even though I was covered in the blood of the two men, I still placed my hand above my mothers chest over her heart, and cast Healing Hand on her slow beating heart. The poison was above my capabilities to heal, but I could prolong the duration the poison will take to be fatal and buy more time to finish this. A few more minutes is all I need.. Please hold on, Mom. I can’t lose you, Mom.

Her breathing regained more life, and I smiled at her. “I don’t know if you can hear me, Mom. We are going to make it through this, okay?”. Reaching into my pouch, I grabbed one of the metal scraps roughly the size of a pen.

Two more. Remove the mage, restrain Gren. I only had enough mana for a handful of spells at most, and mistakes were not allowed.

I take another deep breath to calm my rising anxiety about my mother. Retrieve the antidote, and the rest will be fine. This is nothing compared to the wars I’ve fought for less than is at stake here. The first person to teach me what love can feel like. I am unworthy of my parents' love, and they shower me in it anyways.

The mage only knows that my mother is a water mage, and probably thinks Sven and Rolf are… Handling my mother first. I can use the Tier 1 Fire spell, Flame Darts to try to ignite his robe. It can provide a distraction while I use a Wind Blade infused metal scrap to cut the tree limb Gren is on, and then use two Shield Walls to restrain Gren when he reaches the ground.

Deciding on this, I sprint out from behind the Shield Wall protecting my mother, and cast Flame Darts once the mage is in sight, and six small flames the sizes of pebbles scatter from my hand and quickly shoot towards the mage’s robe. The mage started to chant, “O’ Water, provide me your loving em-” and before the spell finishes casting, four of the Flame darts hit their mark, and I misunderstood the potency of Fire magic, as I watched the mage’s robe quickly set alight when I expected embers. All of you will burn for your sins of harming my mother. Some more literally than the rest.

“AGHHHH!!!!” The mage was set ablaze and dropped to the ground rolling trying to put the flames out. The magical flames were not that easy to put out, and the man stopped moving and screaming as the flames still blazed. It made me hesitate for a second, as this was the first time I have burned a man alive. The smell was awful.

I could see Gren in the treeline now that I know where the arrows came from. He was surprised to see a kid burn the mage alive as well, and was slow to nocking an arrow to his bow. I infused Wind Blade into the metal scrap, and launched it the best I could towards the tree branch Gren was standing on. This body is too weak.

The accuracy left a lot to be desired, but the wind blade scrap mostly did the job of slicing into the branch, and Gren’s weight finished breaking it off the tree and he started falling to the ground.

He landed on his left leg and I heard a loud *crunch* as his leg caved in on himself, breaking the leg and bending it to his side. He started to scream in pain while I ran to him and infused Shield Walls into both my legs. Once the spells were ready, I took a large leap towards Gren and slammed my feet into the ground, both feet sending two lines crackling through the earth towards Gren and Shield Walls lifted out of the ground and slammed into his arms pinning him down to the ground as he continued to scream.

With him broken and immobilized, I walked up to see him face to face. Searching his person, I found multiple small vials of a purple liquid, which looked to be the same color as the poison on the arrows, and three bottles of a milky white liquid. Purple is poison, the white must be the antidote.

Ignoring the screams of Gren, I ran back to my mother’s side, and tilted her head up as much as I could with this body, and poured her the vial of the milky white liquid. There was no time to interrogate Gren for the correct dosage of the antidote, and I had no intention of healing his wounds to get him to talk either. If this harms my mother in any way, Gren will wish I had killed him instead.

I held my hand to the sky, and used the last of my mana to cast a Tier 1 Fire spell, Fireball. It flew high above the tree line and exploded making a loud noise and noticeable signal in the sky. A signal and a risk, and the mana deprivation has me feeling sleepy. I grab a rock nearby and when I feel the sleep start to overcome me, I slam the rock into my thigh as hard as I can. The pain of the blow keeps me awake. Until help arrives, I will watch over her.

Please, let me have made it in time to save my mom.