The massive mutilated man let out a howl of agony for a brief moment before I watched the lights of his eyes die out. Then all at once, the soldiers around me cried out for their beloved captain and began to charge forward.

I quickly pulled out some of the remaining Shards, threw on my Speed Aura to the max, and began tossing the Fireballs at groups of the men looking to take revenge. Three of the fireballs took out a handful of angry men. I was surprised when one of them, who had been gravely hit, removed a green stick from somewhere and held it up to the sky.

Another group to my right must have also seen the man pull the object out and begin shouting for him to stop. The dying man ignored them and seemed to pull a thread or string at the stick’s side. A bright crimson flare shot up into the air. The group of soldiers who had seen the man with what was a flare was already running in the opposite direction.

The other groups who were much closer to me now all stopped or fell over while trying to stop when they spotted the bright flare shoot into the dimming sky. I crushed two more Shards, tossing them towards them, blowing a few off their feet, and outright killing others.

I had a terrible feeling about the flare and began running in the direction of the orphanage. My Speed Aura got me far enough away as I felt the air behind me erupt, throwing me off my feet and tossing me some meters in front of me. I couldn’t hear the sound of the explosion as the initial blast must have blown my eardrums.

I felt my Mana straining and cut my Speed Aura off. Looking at my Mana, I cursed at how close I had come to burning my channels out. If that blast had knocked me out, I would have been fucked.

[ Mana: 348/2500 ]

Picking myself up, I looked behind me to see just a handful of the Soldiers still moving. Where the man had been who shot off the flare was a crater about five to six meters in diameter. The buildings on either side of the street were practically flattened. Not wanting any of these men following or giving their leadership my description, I chose to turn around and make sure they wouldn't be able to ever report back up their chain of command.

I grimaced after using a handful of my Shards to silence those still alive. I had almost no Mana I could use and six of the Fireball Shards left. I gave one last look around the crater and began running towards the orphanage. I was seriously out of breath and felt I could keel over at any moment.

As I turned around and ran back down the same street yet again, trying to find the orphanage, I felt Luin in the distance. She felt groggy but alright. I angled towards where I could feel her presence and began running as fast as possible without my speed enhanced. A minute or so later, I felt rage coming from her, then pain. I began to panic and threw on the Speed Aura at fifty percent to try and keep the little Mana I had left. I turned a corner and spotted Luin, Luke, Owena, and one of the Beastkin children two blocks down the road and in front of the orphanage.

In front of the group were two groups of soldiers. The man out front was pointing a sword at Luin, who had Owena holding onto her legs like Luin had done so many times to me when she was little and less evolved.

The man seemed to laugh and then shot forward, his sword going for Luin’s chest. I could barely see an arrow coming from the second floor of the orphanage and hit the man in the shoulder. He stepped back and began shouting while pointing his sword at the window.

I cut off my Speed Aurora a block away, my body screaming at me.

[ Mana: 285/2500 ]

Luin turned and barked something at the kids. Owena and the Beastkin child ran into the orphanage. Luke stood his ground at Luin’s side. The soldier with the sword pointed the sword at one of his men and seemed to be yelling at the man. The rest of the ground began stepping back towards the far end of the street.

I watched as the man turned back to Luin, and I could just make out the bastard's smug smile as he pointed his sword back at Luin. Then I saw his grin vanish and the whites of his eyes as the flames spewed forth from Luin’s mouth and washed over him. The man went down in agony. I heard his screams as I ran down the block towards them.

My brain went full-on dread, and I began screaming at the top of my lungs for Luin to get the kids out of the fucking building. Luin, hearing my screams turned to look at me just as one of the men removed the same green stick from his inventory and held it in the air.

I kept yelling. The world around me seemed to slow down, I was still running forward as fast as my legs would carry me, but I felt I was running in mud or honey. I watched as Luin looked over at the man who had just shot the red flare over the orphanage and then turned to run inside the orphanage.

Luke stood on the street, looking at me, then up at the glowing red sphere in the air. What seemed like minutes later, he turned and ran to the building just as the orphanage sprouted Ice. Luke ran into the wall of Ice at the door. Luin had just used the Ice Sphere spell and knew what was coming. My heart went out to Luke.

A movement to my side pulled my attention. I looked over to see a blue Fireball, like the ones I’ve always used, flying towards and in front of me. The Fireball exploded, hurtling me backward and away from the orphanage.

As I slowly sailed through the air, I tried to see who had thrown the spell at me but failed to see anyone. I looked up slowly to see the massive fireball from the turtle snakes outside the walls. The massive fireball struck the flare, then immediately shot down on top of the orphanage and annihilated the building and throwing wooden shrapnel in every direction.

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I watched everything happen in agonizing slowness, still sailing backward through the air. I watched as Luke was blasted off his feet as he struggled to get back up. His body flew across the street and into, then through the wall of the house before it too was blasted apart.

The soldiers knew what was coming and seemed to have had a shield ready that deflected the blast and the projectiles hurtling towards them. As I felt my legs slowly hit the packed dirt beneath me, time seemed to have sped up, and I slammed down, knocking the wind out of my lungs and briefly blacking out as my head hit the ground.

As soon as I was able, I blinked away the stars and pushed myself to my feet. I finally felt the brunt of the blue Fireball on my arms and legs, then the trickle of blood at the back of my head. I pushed through the pain and began running down the road and towards the laughing soldiers in front of me. I could no longer feel Luin, and my rage began to rush forward.

The first three soldiers each ate a Fireball special. The following two shared one just as they turned towards me as pieces of their friends hit them. The bigger cluster of soldiers were all yelling as I neared them, two Shards crushed and screaming towards the group. The two explosions took most of the group down or out of the fight.

The largest of the group had shielded himself just in time and remained unharmed. I pulled my hammer from my belt, holding onto the leather strap attached to its handle. I began to spin the hammer around. As I passed one of the men groaning on the ground, I swung the hammer around one last time and slammed it down onto his head, splitting it like afternoon dessert with a flash of light.

One of the men from the group was just picking himself up when I spun the hammer around, taking him in the shoulder with a flash. He crumpled to the ground. Seeing the gleam of light on his shield, I tried something. I had no idea if it would work or not. I let the hammer go. It flew at the last soldier sitting behind a magic shield.

I then tossed my last Fireball from a Shard right after the hammer. The hammer struck the shield, but instead of the third enchantment going toward the man, I saw it shatter into thousands of shards of dull light just as the Fireball passed the now nonexistent shield and right into the large man’s chest.

The man was vaporized from the waist up, his legs toppling over a second later. I retrieved my hammer, putting it back onto my belt. I looked at the bodies and willed them to dissolve into colored dust, but nothing happened.

I heard a groan and then crying coming from the destroyed building in front of me. Thinking of Luke, I began running forward. Seeing movement at the back of where the building stood, I began picking up planks of wood, and pieces of stone, throwing them far to the side.

The last large plank I picked up made my heart almost jump out of my throat. I began crying as I looked down at the bloody and scraped-up boy. Luke had a large piece of wood through his midsection, blood everywhere. His left eye was swollen shut, and he looked up at me with anger in his eyes.

“Save Owena! Please, save her!” he yelled at me. His hand gripped the large splinter sticking out of his side, the blood almost black. “Please, save her first!”

I didn't have the heart to tell him. I knew Luin was gone. I felt the moment she died, if she had died then. Then what about the kids?

“I’ll try. You hold on, ok?” I said as tears were coming like an oncoming storm.

I gave Luke the best smile I could muster and turned around. I rushed over to the orphanage hoping anyone still lived. I could hear no sobs, no crying. No movement, the area was deathly quiet until I heard another explosion in the distance. I was making my way towards where I remembered the kitchen was, hoping some of the kids were inside the bunker.

As I walked around the crater's edge, I could see where my bunker had been. One of the walls had caved in, and I could see inside. Not a single body, living or dead, was inside. As I turned to look around, I saw blue fir under a large piece of wall and rushed forward.

I pushed the chunk of the wall off Luin and looked down at my beloved companion. Her body was missing large portions but she seemed to have a smile on her face. In her arms was the body of Owena. The poor girl was still clutching tight onto the doll I had bought Luke to give her.

I began to sob even more as I bent down and pulled the small doll from her corpse’s vice-like grip. I looked up into the darkening sky and wished it had been raining to cover my tears.

I was ripped from my agony by Luke’s shouting of her sister’s name. I jumped over the rubble and ran towards Luke, Kiszo’s dagger in my hand. Luke would not truly die if I could do anything about it.

“Luke, I’m so sorry. Your sister, my Luin, none of the others made it. I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry. But I can save you, kind of.”

“No! I don’t want to live without Owena! *sob* I promised her *sob* we would always be together! No! Owena! No! *sob* Why did they have to attack us!” Luke kept yelling between sobs and gasps of pain.

“You can come back with Luin, Luke. When I die, Luin and I are reborn again. I’m what your legends call a Hero. I can bring you back with me. You can help me take revenge on those who took your sister and the city.”

“You’re a *sob* Hero? *sob* like from the stories *sob* my ma told us? *sob.*”

“I am. I can’t take you to a healer. I don’t have Mana right now. I can only Bond with you, as I did with Luin.”

“But I promised we *sob* would always be together.”

“I don’t know what to say to you, Luke. I can try and save you. Once I do that, I’ll try and find cores, so I can regain Mana and try and open a Void gate to bring everyone to the Mythtide Adventurer’s Guild. Their healer can resurrect everyone. But first, I need cores.”

“Fine, promise me you’ll send Owena before Luin, please! Promise!”

“I promise!” I said as I cut my wrist wide open and allowed the blood to spill out onto Luke’s chest.

The boy’s eyes went wide before mumbling to himself. I waited and waited, but I could only watch as the light in Luke’s eyes died out. I was about to scream again in rage when my left forearm began to burn. I looked down as the outline of two daggers crossed one another and burnt into my skin with the rune for ‘0’ at the center.