While everyone was asleep from the eventful day they had just had, the priest was still awake staying in a large tent he had set up outside of town. While he hated these remote little towns due to the smells and muck in the village, he loved the silent and beautiful nights. Under the quiet of the night the priest was writing out a report to send to the central temple in the capital city. He stretched out lazily after being hunched over, recounting everything in excruciating detail. When he did his chair let out a low creak, being made from old wood. When he was done he left his tent and took in a deep breath of the cool night air.
He made his way slowly back to the platform to clear his mind and relax, while he was excited about his promotion he was still first and foremost a priest. These platforms were considered the places closest to the gods. So whenever he needed to think or calm down he always went to these platforms to feel close to the gods. He sat down on the top of the alter and let out a short prayer that everything would go well and that Naurius would safely make it to wherever he chose to go for his education.
After uttering his prayer and calming down he walked back out to his tent, but when he got to the edge of the little village he saw faint lights off in the distance. A long line of torches stretched across the distant horizon. The priest paused his steps, he gasped in fear and shock, and the blood seemed to drain from his face entirely. He did some quick calculations in his head and estimated that they had about an hour before those distant lights were upon them. He turned around back into the town and wove a spell circle to life in front of him to amplify his voice.
“Raiders! Everyone wake up! There is a night raid approaching!”
Quickly everyone in the village woke up and exited their houses, gathering in the town center. The priest rallied everyone together and told them they had ten minutes to gather precious belongings then he would leave with whoever would come. The whole town became a panic as everyone quickly gathered the most precious items that they could carry and waited fearfully in the town center. Once the ten minutes had passed the priest took everyone out of the town, with the 50 minutes they had until the raiders would reach the village, they should have fled far enough by then to avoid them entirely.
Once the priest had been leading the group for about 20 minutes or so and they had calmed down enough he look through the group. However, he quickly noticed a missing person, or more accurately three of them. Naurius and his parents were nowhere to be seen! The priest felt a burst of panic and pulled one of the people from the group out and told them to keep heading west and they would reach a church. This was the one he was based in and its closeness to this village was why he was chosen to come to this place. After that he quickly ran back towards the village, he would sooner swear off the gods than let an innocent child, let alone a once-in-a-lifetime genius like Naurius be killed when he could stop it.
He ran at his top speed but didn't dare to weave together an acceleration spell. The woods were too dense and he needed to conserve the mana he could use in case he needed it to protect Naurius. The last thing he needed was to suffer from mana burnout while in the middle of a fight with raiders. As he ran he wondered why in the name of the gods none of the three of them had gotten up to evacuate?! If the raiders didn't kill them he was going to beat some proper sense into them!
Back at the village the three of them were still fast asleep, Naurius’s father had exhausted himself hunting that damn deer. His mother had run across the entire village more than a dozen times to get ingredients together. Finally, Naurius himself had eaten too much cake, something he was defiantly not used to, and got a sugar rush, ultimately collapsing after bouncing around for an hour. Due to this all of them were in deep sleep and wouldn’t simply be woken up by loud noises occurring near them. As they slept, unknown dangers got closer and closer by the minute and the priest was rushing at full speed to try and save them from these dangers.
The priest arrived at the village completely out of breath despite regulating his breathing the entire time. He had even gained a point in Endurance for gods sakes, out of breath he continued to move at a brisk pace towards Naurius’s home, when he reached it he didn't even bother knocking. He directly walked inside and looked around for the three of them. He woke up Naurius’s father first as he was the biggest and most useful as a deterrent. Then he woke up Naurius himself and lastly his mother, he had to shake each of them almost violently to get them to finally wake up.
When they did, however, they saw the look of panic and the breathlessness of the priest and instantly snapped awake fully. Except of course Naurius who was still tired from crashing so hard. The priest quickly explained that raiders were coming and they had to run, now! They didn't have time to grab any extra belonging that took more than five seconds. Hearing that Naurius’s father grabbed something off of the top of the fireplace. It was the nicest thing in the house, a small wooden box that fit in the palm of the hand and had leather sewed onto it.
With that, the three of them quickly put on their shoes and ran out the door behind the priest. The priest knew they didn't have time to get very far, they would probably just make it to the woods and then need to hide. As they were nearing the edge of the forest the hollers of the raiders were audible to the group of four. The priest’s expression blanched, he had underestimated how quickly the raiders were moving. He only had a single option left now, he had to choose. He had a spell that could make it so that anyone in a specific bubble he cast wouldn't be visible to anyone outside of it for up to six hours. However, the area covered was barely a meter! He grit his teeth and whispered to Naurius’s parents.
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The two of them looked at each other and wordlessly came to a conclusion nodding in agreement. Naurius’s father kneeled down to his son's eye level and said.
“Son, the raiders are too close, the three adults will try to distract and hold them off. If you keep heading towards the direction the sun rises from you will reach a church. Wait there for us once the raiders are gone and you can't see or hear them, okay? I want you to take this box with you, it has been in our family for a long, long time. It is important that you keep it safe for dad, alright?”
With that he made Naurius take hold of the box and nodded to the priest. The priest quickly weaved together the spell for sleep, instantly putting Naurius to sleep for at least the next hour maybe three. After that, he cast his invisibility spell over him making him completely unnoticeable. After casting these spells the priest wavered slightly and almost fell over, leaning on a tree for support. Mana burnout, he thought to himself, it felt like his muscles were on fire and they didn’t want to move at all. He had used all of the mana in his body and couldn't balance it with the external mana anymore.
Now the raw mana was pouring into his body to try and compensate, but the raw, unfiltered mana hurt like hell entering the body all at once like that. It tore muscles, slowed the heart rate, and made one incredibly dizzy. The priest took a few deep breaths, collecting himself, and then nodded to Naurius’s parents. The three of them turned and headed around the village to another part of the forest's edge before making as much noise as they could. The raiders inside immediately moved towards them and gathered.
Among the bandits was a mage, from on top of his horse he weaved together a spell. Once it was finished a gentle blue light pulsed out in the surrounding six meters. The bandit on his horse spoke out with an evil, vile smile.
“The priest has mana burnout! He must be inexperienced and have done a ritual recently! Easy prey boys, get them to tell us where the good shit is!”
The mage was apparently the de facto leader of this group of bandits, once his words were done ten or so of the dozens of bandits moved in on the group of three. When they did the priest spoke in a low voice so only Naurius’s parents could hear him.
“Shit, it’s a mage! And he has detection spells! If we let him go he will use his spells looking for loot and might find Naurius when he feels the invisibility spell!”
The look on Naurius’s father's face instantly hardened and turned dark. His eyes suddenly had a murderous intent in them. Next to him Naurius’s mother nearly jumped out of her skin, she had seen those eyes only once before. Now, honestly, she felt bad for the raiders. Nobody knew but her what her husband's class actually was, he was a berserker. Now the raiders had touched his absolute bottom line and his temper immediately flared activating his class skill “Berserker's rage”. For the next five minutes, her husband was essentially an unkillable battle god.
The hulking man straightened his posture for the first time in years, locked eyes with the mage on the horse, and let out a roar that left everyone's ears ringing. He charged with complete disregard for his own safety directly at the bandit leader who could threaten the safety of his son. The bandits jumped at the roar and all lined up with shields and swords at the ready. When Naurius’s father charged them they all swung their swords in a panic, instantly he was covered in cuts that started to bleed, once the swords pierced his skin though, they refused to go deeper as if he was made of iron. As if he didn't even feel the cuts though, he charged right through them and continued towards the mage.
The mage was flustered and panicked, he cast a few attack spells in quick secession. “Fireball”, “Ice Spear”, “magic missile”, however, it was as if the hulking man in front of him simply couldn't feel pain! He seemed like he had taken no damage past some superficial wounds on his skin. The mage cried out to his companions.
“Shit! He’s a berserker!!! Focus on diverting him and slowing him down, don’t try to kill him until his rage skill wears off.”
With that, he cast freeze on the ground in front of Naurius’s father causing him to slip and fall. From here the bandits quickly jumped on his arms and legs pinning him to the ground. It took four people per limb before they could finally hold him in place, and each of them was straining to do so. The mage got off of his horse and came over to gloat. He waited for a moment for the berserker’s rage to wear off before he did so, however. He wasn't stupid after all.
Compared to him, capturing the priest was a cakewalk and Naurius’s mother even more so. Once the berserkers rage wore off the mage spoke down to the man smiling and leaning in.
“That was a close one! You berserkers are a dying breed after all, especially one built like you. On a battlefield, you would be a nightmare incarnate one man mowing through the enemy in droves! Haha we were unfortunate to find you, but lucky that I’ve dealt with one before, look here they even left a nasty sca-“
The mage pulled down his collar to show a scar running across his neck where he had clearly narily escaped his own death. From his words, it was done at the hands of another berserker. He was unable to finish his sentence though, as Naurius’s father leaned his head up and ripped out the mage's throat with his teeth. He smiled a bloody smile as he spit out the flesh and the mage gurgled on his own blood. The mage reacted instantly though pulling out a dagger and plunging it deep into Naurius’s father's chest. As if he didn't feel the pain though, the smile never left his face, even as the light left his eyes.
After this the rest of the bandits panicked and started to flee in every direction, some being trampled to death in the panic by people with heavier classes. Their leader was dead and there was a priest that had been tied up as a hostage, nobody wanted to be here when the church showed up looking for answers. However, in their panic, they trampled over the priest as well as Naurius’s mother, from the way they looked after it was impossible to tell if they were alive or dead. Soon there was nothing in the small village except for a few scattered corpses from others who were trampled in the panic and two maybe survivors.