Chapter 23: Chapter 21: Chase

  9 a.m. Sun has yet to fully arrive in the sky. 

  Vincent not long ago for the first time entered the beast forest zone.

  He removed his hood and make his mask to cover only the lower part of the face, chin, mouth, and nose. He remembers movies from Earth, and assassins almost always cover only the lower part of the face, leaving the upper part open.

  As Vincent got deeper, he began to encounter some beasts, but those beasts all were peaceful, so upon seeing Vincent they scattered away instantly. 

  'I might meet a magical beast that will be out of my league.' Vincent ran further, but not too fast. 

  As he continued to run, the only dangerous thing that he sensed was the howls of earth wolves from far away. They can use earth magic to cover their bodies with a thin layer of protection.

  "Vincent, are you okay?" Suddenly a voice rang out inside his head.

  "Yes, Anna. I'm in the forest already. I will call both of you out when I will find a somewhat safe place for a tent." 

  "Be safe! I don't want to see you hurt, you understand?" Anna solemnly said.

  Vincent's heart warmed.

  "Will you 'treat' my wounds if I get hurt?" Vincent teased her a little.

  "Of course. Who am I for you?" Anna smiled.

  "My mother as well as my wife."  shamelessly answered Vincent as he continued to run ahead.

  "Pervert…" Anna blushed and 'cursed' him slightly.

  "Well, you chose to be the wife of this pervert. You know… when we reach Bern town and settle down, you better be ready, sweety. I will properly 'take care of you." Vincent calmly said as he looked into her eyes.

  As Anna remembered their sex from yesterday, unknowingly, her cave started to become wet a bit. 

  She hastily stopped their talk.

  Vincent just nodded slightly with satisfaction. After they accepted each other and have a good, passionate sex session, Anna became his woman, his wife. 

  As Vincent run towards the Bern town, he noticed a high waterfall nearby by its sound. 

  Since he didn't encounter aggressive magical beasts, he decided to stay here and use this waterfall to advance his water element by absorbing water particles and deepening his understanding of water by sitting under a waterfall. 

  He fully undressed and jumped into the river. He swam towards a rock right under the waterfall.

  The river was quite deep, around 10 meters. 

  He neared the rock and climbed up. Sat up comfortably in a cross-legged position, he placed his hands on his knee and closed his eyes.

  After closing his eyes he began to sense little water particles around him. Most of them were on the bottom of the river. He slowly starts to absorb them. The more he absorbs, the better skills he will manage to use in the future. 

  After a few minutes, he decided to go to the bottom of the river and see the difference in absorption amount compared to the waterfall.

  …

  Inside the carriage. 

  "Ughh, this is so boring… I really hope that some beasts or bandits will attack us, so our guards can entertain me a bit."  

Ron Teren annoyedly said while looking outside the window.

  "The fewer problems we will meet, the better it will be for us." Uncle Greg said with closed eyes.

  'Looking for a groom for me is for my own good, huh? When we arrive, I will reject everyone who is not pleasant to the eye. Maybe some prince from the Torn Empire can somewhat fit my standards, but I highly doubt it either.' Bella thought to herself when suddenly she heard a guard's voice.

  "We have a problem here." the leader of the guards said when he neared the main carriage.

  "What is it? Beasts or bandits?" Uncle Greg opened his eyes and asked.

  "Bandits. They blocked the road with fallen trees." The guard leader said.

  "Sigh. Prepare for the battle." Uncle Greg said with a low tone as he moved out of the carriage.

  "Do your job, guard leader Norton." Uncle Greg said and climbed up onto the carriage. 

  It doesn't look like an ordinary group. Even after my arrival, the nearly 3rd rank magus didn't scare them.`` A solemn look appeared on his face when he saw a few silhouettes emerge from behind the trees on each side of the road.

  "Throw!!" the bandit leader commanded to all around him.

  All bandits throw the bottle made of thin glass with blue liquid inside.

  Uncle Greg who was a wind magus on almost 3rd rank reacted as fast as he could. He pointed with each hand to cover the little area around the main carriage with a wind barrier. 

  The bottles are all detonated the moment glass breaks and liquid inside comes into contact with the wind. 

  *Boom!~*  *Boom!~*

  Each bottle explosive area was around 3 meters, and more than 20 bottles were thrown.

  All guards that were outside a wind barrier were blown into pieces as their blood, flesh, arms, and legs were everywhere. Only 5 guards with guard leader were untouched out of 15 as they were in the wind barrier.

  'Damn… If I just have more of these things. It's a pity that I can't even buy one of those. Just too damn expensive. Our client really wanted those kids inside badly.' The bandit leader's greed for those things rose. 

  'This is bad, very bad. These explosive bottles are too expensive for bandits, especially to have so many of them. I've also bought a few with great difficulty. Since they have so many of them, their employer should be a very rich person. Fuck. I can easily escape if I want to, but if something happens to those two kids while I escape … I am doomed.' Uncle Greg cursed his bad luck as he looked at the devastated area around the wind barrier. 

  "Guard leader, bring those two kids and run into the forest, there should be a town on the west not too far away. I will open the way for you and try to win enough time. Fast!" Uncle Greg ordered and jumped down. 

  Guard leader hastily entered the carriage and grabbed Bella and Ron.

  Uncle Greg already killed 3 bandits as his wind blades sliced their heads clean. 

  "Tomas, run into the forest and bring the rest of the guards with you. Do not worry about me, if I want to escape, they can't stop me. Go!" Uncle Greg said to the guard leader.

  Bandit leader looked at their try to escape into the forest and threw the last bottle right in front of them.

  *Boom!~*

  The three guards that were protecting Tomas were blown away into pieces.

  Uncle Greg, who was busy fighting with others, noticed another bottle too late, so he managed to protect only himself, Tomas with two kids in his arms, and another guard.

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  "Move!" Uncle Greg shouted to Tomas as he saw a fireball fly towards him. 

  The fireball was more explosive than those bottles but it needed a cast time of a few seconds.

  *Boom!~*

   An explosion of 5 meters was made around Uncle Greg and his men as he protected them with a dense wind barrier. Blood already emerged on his lips. Few more of these fireballs and he will die. 

  9 bandits already died, one of them was unlucky enough to be in the range of a fireball explosion. 

  As the explosion after-effect ended, Tomas with Bella and Ron as well as another guard sped up into the forest.

  Uncle Greg was still fighting with other bandits. Since he doesn't need to protect others, the next fireball will not even scratch him. 

  "You all, after them. Those kids need to be alive, others kill. That old man is mine" the bandit leader commanded dozens of other bandits. 

  "No, you don't." Uncle Greg emerged a wide wind wall that will last only for a minute.

  "It's useless, old Greg. Those kids will be taken under your watch. Tsk, tsk.. that girl named Bella is so beautiful.. alas, she will not be mine in the end." The bandit leader stepped forward and began a close fight with Greg.

  …

  4 people continue to run into the forest. 

  "Are you not bored anymore, Ron?" Bella said coldly to her brother who was also carried by Tomas, but inwardly she was scared silly. 

  It was the first time she saw a fight with so many deaths.

  She knows clearly what might happen to her if she were to be captured. If that happens… she shivered greatly. 

  Tomas ran as fast as he could, but with two burdens in his arm, he couldn't fight.

  "Take them and continue to run, do not stop, understand?" Tomas commanded. 

  "Yes, leader!" Another guard grabbed Bella and Ron and continued to run deeper in the forest.

  Tomas takes a deep breath, turns around and sped up towards pursuers. He was also a warrior and a magus, but only at the 1st rank. He was rewarded by the Teren family with resources that allowed him to advance and become a warrior. He was also an earth style magus of 1st rank. His affinity allowed him to train the earth element, only earth element. He was 25 years old, other guards were just trained fighters, that's all.

  As Tomas saw dozen or so bandits emerge behind the trees, he knows that this day will be his last.

  …

  After a few minutes of running, the guard noticed a waterfall nearby. 

  It was quite small, but two people should be enough to hide behind the falling water.

  "Miss Bella, please take young master Ron and hide behind that waterfall while I distract them. I hope they will not notice you two. I will lead them to another place in the meantime." The guard said to Bella who looked calm, but her fast breathing betrayed her calm act. 

  Bella hesitated for a moment before bragged Ron and jumped into the water. As children of Teren lineage, they of course were taught how to swim.

  "Sister..*Sob* are w-we going to die? I don't want to." Ron began to sob as he too jumped into the river.

  "Just swim, we will not die," Bella said as she continued to swim the cold water. Her luxurious white rob was fully wet and it stuck tightly to her body. Sadly, she has quite a small chest, so there was almost nothing to look at.

  When they neared the waterfall, Bella helped Ron to climb up in a little cave behind the waterfall.

  Bella was also about to climb up when she heard voices behind them.

  "They run over there, hurry up!" One of the bandits pointed towards the place where the guard ran. 

  There were not a dozen of them anymore, only 7 were left.

  "The 4 of us will continue to run ahead, the other 3 stay here to check this place. Follow us if this place is clean." The same bandit commanded as he sped up towards the escaped guard.

  "Yes!" The 3 bandits say and began to look at the waterfall and a few caves nearby.

  Bella who was just barely behind the waterfall, noticed 3 people come closer to the cliff while others continued to run further.

  They were around 50 meters away from where Bella was.

  "Ron, hide behind the rock and be quiet, understand." She said quietly to Ron who was already inside the little cave. If she continues to climb up, they will notice and they will be doomed.

  Ron nodded and curled up behind the rock in the little cave. He was already trembling from being in the cold water and was close to fainting. 

  Bella takes a deep breath, created a thin wind barrier around her and swims to the bottom of the river. 

  She was Greg's student and wind style magus of 1st rank after all. She can stay under the water for some time if make a wind barrier beforehand. 

  Only 2 meters deep in the water could be seen from the surface. Bella already was 3 meters deep and slowly went deeper.

  Those 3 bandits already searched all the caves nearby, so they turned their attention towards the waterfall. 

  "You, go and take a look if you don't want to be beaten up." One of them said to another nearby waterfall.

  'Fuck you, bastard.' that man cursed him in his mind but still went.

  "Of course."  He jumped into the river and swam towards the waterfall.

  As he reached it, he go through it and saw a little cave behind. He climbed up and saw two little shaking legs behind.

  "Found you, hehe." bandit looked at the scared and trembling Ron, and smirked. 

  

  "Come with me kid, don't resist." The man grabbed Ron's hand and jumped into the river.

  "L-Let me go, you will die, you all will die!" Ron screamed and gathered the attention of the other two men. 

  

  "Good job! We will surely be rewarded." the other man near the river said with a grin.

  Bella didn't know that Ron was already found, instead, she was scared and shocked by what she saw at the bottom of the river.

  ...

  **********

 Author note: "Emm... I'm trying to make things spicier and somewhat more realistic. Not too sure if I'm doing things right. Tell me your opinion. 

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