“When faced with a foe you cannot defeat, you flee!”

After educating his child, Sam’s father drew his blade and placed the boy behind him.

“Now come!” he said valiantly. “I’ll take the vanguard while you bring up the rear. We kill our way back home!”

Without waiting for a response, he lunged at the nearest dire wolf!

The blade whooshed in the air before barrelling towards an oncoming claw from the beast.

Shwick!

The beast released a pained howl tinged with incredulity. Its paw had been severed in a single strike!

It didn’t get to ponder anything further though as its vision was obscured by a blade’s gleam that heralded the coming of death.

Shwoop!

With one swift motion, the dire wolf’s head was severed from its body.

The resulting thud seemed so loud that the remainder of the pack paused to understand what had just happened.

One of their own had been slain so easily. Were they not the aggressors?

Sam, who was also running after his dad seemed to draw confidence from the kill. His blood boiled as if he was the one who had just slain the beast

They aren’t that strong! He thought to himself.

The remaining wolves however, seemed to become more frenzied as they immediately lunged at the pair.

Sam’s father however, continued to carve a path forward with relative ease. He was careful to always be within an arm’s reach of the child to make sure the boy didn’t bite off more than he could chew.

On the other hand, Sam was being pushed around like the baby he was. He would parry one blow and stumble a few paces backward only to notice another ferocious claw aiming for a previous blind spot. Mounting a hasty defence, he was often almost slammed to the ground from the sheer power of the beasts but his father’s arm - or foot – would stabilise him.

On the most recent occasion, he managed to crouch under a wolve that had leapt at him. He immediately took the opportunity to stab into the wolf’s underbelly. However, he didn’t manage to withdraw his sword in time and the beast nearly flattened him with its body. He managed to hastily roll out of the way only to immediately be met with a gaping maw seeking to chomp his head in a single gulp!

With a loud roar, he drew all the power he could and slammed the flat of his blade on the wolf’s lower jaw and redirected the jaws of death away from him. The wolf, however, had so much forward momentum that Sam had to spin to leverage the overwhelming force. The manoeuvre made him nearly lose hold of his blade as he fell onto his knees.

Hah! Hah! Hah!

Panting heavily Sam was beginning to get dizzy. That last sequence had drawn out everything he had.

“On your feet, boy!” A voice thundered over the growls of beasts as he heard a loud smash from above him.

His father had just punted a wolf that was pouncing towards him a few dozen meters away. He then pulled the boy up to his feet and gave him a quick inspection to make sure he wasn’t injured.

“We are almost there, boy!” his father bellowed once more. The shock brought Sam’s view into focus once more.

Gritting his teeth, Sam nodded heavily and followed closely behind his father.

Sam learned from his previous encounters. He never tried to injure or fell any beasts like his father did. He had learned by now that he couldn’t kill these wolves. He merely dodged the attacks as he tried his best stick as close to his father’s back as possible. For the attacks he couldn’t dodge, he would parry.

Sam had gotten more adept at parrying and could now significantly mitigate the force of the wolves’ blows. Even if he couldn’t dissipate enough of an attack’s force, he would use his footwork and agility to disperse the force as he bundled forward with as much speed as he could muster.

At the front of the blood carved path, Sam’s father noticed the boy’s actions and nodded inwardly.

Sam didn’t know when but at some point, the wolves’ attacks became less and less frequent. Finally, the attacks stopped all together. Sam was still panting heavily when he slowed to a jog and then a quick walk.

His father hadn’t stopped moving in front of him but Sam noticed that the terrain and the region of forest they were in was quite familiar. He turned to look at where they had come from and noticed a few dire wolves eyeing the pair. They didn’t come closer, however. It was like the region of forest they were in was some forbidden zone for the beasts.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Turning back, Sam finally saw a region that was brighter compared to the dank forest they were in. As a field of well tamed and organized plants came into view, Sam realized that they had finally returned home.

Stretching his gaze beyond his father walking in front of him, Sam made out a quaint one storey cottage reminiscent of the Victorian era. There was a cobbled walkway that snaked its way through a 100-meter radius compound in which the house was centred. The walkway stretched from the entrance of the house to the gate while the surrounding field was laden with green grass that was just tall enough to make one feel relaxed if they trod on it barefoot.

The compound was mostly empty but towards the periphery, there were vegetable and herb gardens set up that gave the homestead the vibe of a married couple that retired young. It was a stark contrast to the cruel and unforgiving wilderness beyond the fence’s boundary. Like an oasis in the desert, the homestead looked peaceful and unblemished.

Moving his gaze from the house in the distance, Sam looked the gate that was now just a few steps in front of him. His father was already making to open the gate when he felt a sweet fragrance attack his senses. Before he could even register what was happening, he felt himself getting squeezed by his mother’s embrace.

Neva was on her knees as she caressed the boy’s black hair and held him tighter. She completely disregarded the boys mud covered face as she turned it from one side to another and even opened his mouth to check if anything was out of place. The smell of urine was completely overshadowed after being washed away by blood and grime but Neva would not have cared regardless.

There were no fractured bones but Neva noticed that the boy had twisted his ankle. Amidst the rush of adrenaline, Sam hadn’t noticed it. Neva then carried the boy into her arms with his head resting on her shoulders.

“The boy did good.” Sam’s father said finally as they were walking to the house along the cobbled path.

Neva nodded stiffly.

It was unknown when, but at some point, Sam had fallen asleep from exhaustion in his mother’s embrace.

***

“The boy is resilient,” a voice drifted into Neva’s ears from behind her. The speaker was Sam’s father.

He had silently appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. He saw Neva kneeling in front of a tub with an unconscious Sam inside. She was cleaning him up.

The tub wasn’t very large however it was large enough to swallow Sam up entirely if he ever fell asleep inside it. While Neva made no attempt at supporting his body physically, she encased him with her mana which stopped him from being entirely submerged in the water.

The mana also sedated him and prevented him from regaining consciousness to hasten the recovery and reconstruction process of his body. Sam was still young and his body possessed boundless life force and potential. He was still a seed. So tiny and insignificant that he didn’t even qualify to be termed as an unpolished jade. What Neva needed to do now was increase the seed quality as much as she could.

“The first Nexus point is approaching,” Neva said finally. There was helplessness in her tone as her shoulders drooped.

She paused momentarily to gaze into space before lowering her gaze again.

“Thank you, Aziel,” Neva spoke again with a soft voice.

The man called Aziel, who still stood in the doorway trembled ever so slightly before shaking his head. He walked up to Neva before hugging her waist as she continued to tend to Sam who was now floating in the air as she dried him off with a towel.

Aziel didn’t say anything. He just continued to hold her.

He looked at the woman before him who was caring for her child. This was the first time she had ever said his name out loud ever since Sam was born. She rarely, if ever, spoke these days. In fact, not even her son had ever heard her speak. She was content to use sign language with him. This had always been a sore point for the couple and Aziel could especially see the pain behind her smile when Sam would jokingly make a fuss about her not talking to him.

Aziel however, knew the truth!

Neva didn’t speak not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t! On the day of Sam’s birth, Aziel had sensed a terrifying and oppressive aura leak out from the delivery room. It had been so oppressive that it nearly brought his soul to the brink of collapse. The mortals who had been her midwives then had been vaporised on the spot.

The aura was immediately suppressed as quick as it appeared, however, the small leakage was already enough to alarm the world’s laws as sounds of rumbling thunder filled the sky. The earth shook and auspicious signs manifested in the dome of heaven.

It went without saying that the so-called powerhouses of the world were alerted to the phenomenon but these minor characters were of little concern to Aziel. However, he had immediately suppressed the world’s laws to stop the truly important figures from noticing.

It was at that moment that he understood everything! Neva had long known of the extraordinariness of her child. She had taken steps to ensure that a year before the expected date, she would disappear from the world to give birth in secret.

However, the brighter the light, the darker the shadow.

When Sam was born, Neva suffered a grievous injury that left her soul half crippled. It was covered with so many cracks that Aziel believed that a random breeze could shatter it completely if it was exposed!

From that day on, Neva, who used to be every bit his equal, could no longer exert more than 10% of her strength!

While she was not mortal in the strictest sense, to beings of Aziel’s level, the piddling strength she was left with was no different from being mortal.

Aziel attributed the injury to the backlash of trying to suppress the colossal energy from Sam’s birth. Strangely though, Neva’s vocal cords disintegrated as well. For this, Aziel had no explanation and Neva never spoke about it either. He had his speculations but he never gave voice to them.

For the following six years, the small family of three had been hiding out in the wilderness completely cut off from the affairs of the world of man. Aziel took care of his wife and raised his child. Neva’s cracked soul did not seem to show signs of mending, but neither did it deteriorate further.

This of course pained Aziel but he did not know how to solve the problem. Their enemies were formidable and had surely attributed the disturbance of that year to Neva’s child. With her being crippled, the wolves would surely tear them apart if they were ever discovered.

Aziel could only bide his time.