As both “Kan” and Clive were talking about the lighting strike they were once again interrupted by a different sound. This was now the sound of the village alarm bell going off. It wasn’t just one alarm bell going off though, it was all of them.

“Be careful, Kan. Evacuate the villagers and if you see any enemies, run away.”

“Ok, Mommy.”

The three of them got ready and a very familiar message Kan heard many times echoed throughout the village.

““BRING US CLAIRE RENNER OR BE EXTERMINATED!!! YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS BEFORE THE MASSACRE STARTS!!”

Everyone in the mayor’s house rushed out, ready for battle. In a matter of seconds fighting began throughout the village. From his position, Kan could tell that those who announced the message had come from the plaza. These men were all dressed in black just as he remembered. There were around 30 of them.

“This is what you get for not following orders!”

A man dressed in black raised his sword and was about to slash a young child. Kan grabbed a rock and threw it with all his might. The man dodged it but that was enough time for three villagers to surround and defeat him.

“Hurry, let’s get to the center of the plaza.”

“O-ok.”

The little girl he just saved was shaking out of fear. Her eyes were filled with fear and confusion but Kan smiled confidently at her. Even though he was filled with worry about the overall situation, he couldn’t show this to the little girl. Who was this little girl supposed to look towards for hope if not him?

“It’ll be fine. Big brother Kan will keep you safe. We’ll definitely drive the bad men away.”

“Ok.”

The little girl mustered up the courage and began running with Kan. As they got closer towards the center of the plaza, Kan could see the barricades that were set up. Multiple fences were erected and stacks of wooden boxes were used to block the entrances into the plaza. Since there were only 3 entrances into the plaza, the villages were relatively fast in barricading themselves.

“Your Mommy’s right over there. Stay with them while I go help around.”

“Ok.”

Kan began running around the plaza noting which villages were here and weren’t. The more he observed the happier he got, most of them were here while more villagers were still coming. It wouldn’t take long for all the villages to be safe and sound. Their preparations weren’t in vain.

“TSUNAMI!!”

“Why is there a giant wave at a time like this!”

“Fuck!”

A giant wave was approaching the village at a quick pace. The villagers were already struggling to fight against the men in black and felt hopeless when a giant wave came. The only person who wasn’t worried was Kan. In the sky was his mother, his mage locksmith Master.

Her hair flowed wildly as a giant green magic circle appeared in front of her. The very next moment a giant blade of wind came down and slashed the wave in half before it could even reach the village. Cries of agony were heard as the tsunami was cut in half.

After the wave was sliced in half, blood splattered all over the town. Bodies dropped from the sky but they weren’t human, they were the bodies of sea creatures with humanoid shapes.

“Don’t stop fighting! It’s not over yet! There are fishmen in the water. Golems awaken!!”

The villagers roared at Claire’s incredible feat. From behind the enemies, golems started attacking the confused enemies. None of the enemies expected there to be golems in the village and was immediately pushed back.

“Golems!?”

“Shit! Why are they so strong!?”

“Weren’t they just supposed to be regular villagers!”

Surprised at the villagers’ ferocity and the golems, the enemy’s organization was thrown into chaos. With the support of the Dragon’s Den formation and high morale, the villagers were winning. That was when animalistic roar pierced through all of the ears of everyone in the village. It was the roar of the beastmen that Kan had heard from his memories.

“Beastmen are approaching from the forest!”

“Alright men, half of you follow me towards the forest. Clive, you and the others deal with the men in black and fishmen.”

“Alright, stay safe.”

Claire flew through the air while men and golems followed her from the ground. Claire’s decision was a wise one since beastmen were strong against physical attacks but weak against magic. The magic circle in the plaza dimmed but the other mage locksmiths were still maintaining it. Claire and all the other mage locksmith had been trying to complete the teleportation spell but now that she was gone, it was proceeding at a slower speed.

“Claire Renner is gone. They can’t do anything without her. Attack!!!”

“You underestimate us if you think you can defeat us with Claire gone.”

The man trying to insight energy in the group attacking Clear View immediately went silent as an arm pierced through his chest. Clive threw the person’s body away as he glared at the enemies in front of him. Facing such an intense amount of pressure, the enemies took half a step back and fear could be seen on their faces.

“I-it’s only one person. If we kill him then the rest will be easy. Attack!!!”

A group of five immediately charged Clive but the other villages weren’t just going to let this happen. The all-out battle continued again but this time the villages and golems were gaining the edge over the enemies.

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While this was occurring, Kan had been behind the fence supporting the fighters outside of the fence. He couldn’t do much but he would help through throwing rocks, daggers, or shooting magic here and there to distract the enemy.

“Thanks, Kan.”

“More enemies, Mal.”

With Kan’s help, Mal turned around before her rapier swiftly stabbed into the vitals of the enemy in black. This was the rapier wielding woman who was part of the patrol group. Kan could tell that she was a lot stronger than he had thought. It was obvious that she hadn’t even used 5% of her true strength when fighting him.

“Alright, stay back, Kan. Let the adults handle this.”

“Ok. Stay safe, Mal.”

“Kan, I need your help!”

Hearing Jane’s voice, Kan immediately ran towards her. She has been helping Doctor Frank heal the wounds of the villagers. In front of Jane and Doctor Frank was Ponpo who Kan had just talked to earlier. His right hand was gone and he was screaming in pain.

“Hold him down, Kan.”

“Ok.”

Jane healed his arm but she couldn’t heal it completely or else she would run out of mana so both Doctor Frank and her combined her powers and herbal medicine. She would heal it to a certain point and Doctor Frank would apply medicine afterward.

“Thanks, Kan. Carry him over there for now.”

“O-ok.”

While carrying Ponpo, Kan felt a rage in his heart that he had never felt before. He was angry at all of those who were injuring the villagers. The screams of pain and agony couldn’t escape his ears as he walked past the other injured villagers. Kan realized that he was truly naive, he believed that he could save everyone without any injuries but he couldn’t.

“No, it’s because I’m weak. If I were stronger, I would be able to save everyone.”

Kan lied Ponpo down and was going back to support the others but that was when the worse outcome occurred.

“Monster tamers from the forest with the beastmen!”

“Wyvern riders flying from the mountain pass!!”

“Shit, there’s even more enemies. Where are our reinforcements!!”

“Shut up and keep fighting! It’s do or die!”

The faint hope of them surviving was shattering inside of Kan. There were 5 different groups attacking the village which differed from any of the memories he had ever seen. The most in the memories were only 3 groups but now it was 5.

“Someone lead golems that can use magic to support Claire and notify her that more enemies are coming.”

“I’ll go, Daddy!”

“W-what!? No!”

“I’m the fastest and I’m not a fighter so it won’t hinder your fighting power!”

Kan pleaded as Clive struggled to make a decision. He really didn’t want to send his son into danger but it was the most viable option. If they lost even a single combatant then they would be pushed back by the men in black, the fishmen, and the new group of enemies.

“Arrrghh, fine but stay safe!! Run if you meet any enemies!!”

“Ok.”

“I-I’ll go with you, Kan!”

From the side, Leo decided to go with Kan. Kan smiled at him as the two of them began running towards the forest. The golems were too slow so the two of them decided to go ahead of the golems to notify Claire.

Kan was in his own thoughts as he thought about the preparations that he had made the day before. It wasn’t much but it would definitely help defeat some of the enemies by the forest.

“[Burnout]!!!!”

Hearing Leo shout, Kan was surprised to see that a sword a nearly sliced off his head. Leo had blocked the sword and began his flurry of attack since he only had 20 seconds before [Burnout] ran out. Not wasting any time, Kan grabbed his daggers and began attacking the enemy with Leo. The two of them used all of the skills when fighting against this man in black but all of their attacks were blocked.

“Pesky brats.”

“Leo!!!”

Leo was kicked away as his body became limp. He was out of energy and could only watch as the man in black continued to attack Kan. Suddenly the man in black stopped attacking as Kan jumped away.

“Oh, I didn’t realize it but aren’t you the brat I failed to kill.”

Kan immediately realized who’s voice this was. It was the man who tried to kill him with the pecan pie and the enemy who lead the men in black to attack the village. It was George.

Kan didn’t say anything but coldly stared at George. George had wronged him to many times that Kan would never forgive him. This situation in the village was all because of him.

“Oh, what at good glare. Are you angry at me! I love this kind of face.”

“Shut up.”

Kan watched George’s everyone move as he backed up towards Leo. Although he was furious at George, he knew that he couldn’t beat him and that he had a more important mission. He needed to see if Leo was fine and then group up with Claire.

“I can’t wait to see the despair on your parents’ face as I torture you in front of them. I already had enough joy torturing the villagers but it’s incomparable to the joy of seeing a parent watch their child having their life taken right in front of them.”

Kan didn’t say anything but threw two daggers at George while grabbing Leo and running away. Kan unlocked his body with all his might but it wasn’t enough to get away from George. A second later Kan felt a sword whizz past his head but not looking back he continued to run.

Right behind him, George was laughing in joy as he continued to chase after Kan and Leo. If he wanted to, he could easily kill both of them but he wanted to enjoy their despair.

“Run! Run! Keep on running!”

“Go, Leo!”

Kan threw Leo into a building before turning around and attacking George. He knew he didn’t have a chance of beating George but his hoped lied in Leo escaping. With two daggers in his hands, Kan began a barrage of attacks on George but this didn’t faze him at all. Kan’s attacks were all being countered.

Earth magic raised from the ground to grab George’s leg but it didn’t reach him. Jumping back, George escaped while sending his right foot at Kan. With a split second, Kan brought his arms up to block the kick but even then he was sent flying back.

His arms were aching and his body was drenched in sweat. Kan was barely holding on while George was still perfectly fine. Since there was some distance between them, Kan began throwing daggers at George but he was slowly running out of daggers.

Suddenly a horn was blown. It echoed throughout the village but Kan didn’t know where it was coming from. What made it worse was that Kan didn’t remember this horn ever being blown in any of the memories.

“I guess I can’t play anymore.”

The aura around George changed and the pressure from him was suffocating. Kan prepared himself but he couldn’t calm himself down. That was when a sword appeared right in front of him and the only thing he could do was jump back, but the sword followed him. The sword was an inch away from him.

“Jump, Kan!”

Hearing Leo’s voice, Kan focused all of his energy on his legs and jumped into the sky. Looking down, he could see George surrounded by 10 golems. Magic was blasted towards him as he dodged them.

“Tch, I’ll get you later kid. You better save your pretty little head for me.”

Seeing that George had left, Kan’s legs gave out and he finally had time to catch his breath.

“Are you fine, Kan?”

“Y-yeah, thanks, Leo. Let’s get going.”

Kan was relieved that Leo had made it on time with the golems. When Kan had thrown Leo, Leo had gone to get the golems to help them and luckily they made it on time. Now that they were out of danger, they proceeded to the forest area.