The Beginning After The End (Early Years Book 1) by TurtleMe

stabbed his greatsword into the ground, gaining enough balance to
stop on his feet.  However, before he even had the chance to do anything
else, another arrow flew into his forehead, draining the light out of his eyes.

 
    Meanwhile, Jasmine was engaged in a
pretty serious duel against an Augmenter who used a long chain whip.
 Jasmine was in a disadvantage because of the short range her two daggers
had, using all of her concentration dodging the erratic movements of the whip.
 The enemy seemed to catch on that she was having a hard time, adding in a
few provocative comments while licking his cracked lips.  “I’ll make sure
to treat you real well before we sell you off as a slave little missy.
 Don’t worry, by the time I’m done training you, you’ll be begging to stay
with me.” Followed by another lick to his lips.

 
    I shuddered and clenched my fists
from the frustration of not being able to do anything.  Against a fighter,
I might be able to win, but against an adult augmenter? I didn’t have the
confidence in being able to win.

 
    Was I to just stay in the
protection of everyone while they risked their lives? Could I not do anything?
I could only grit my teeth and endure.

 
    The earth wall was holding strong
with none of the arrows able to penetrate through.  With his left hand
directed at the earth wall, he willed a constant flow of mana into it to keep
it from collapsing. Durden then created a small slit in the middle of the wall
so he can get vision on my father and the archers scattering, trying to run
away.

 
    “Take heed Mother Earth and answer
my call.  Pierce my enemies. Let none of them live.  Rupture Spike!”

 
    Almost instantly, a dozen spikes
strutted out from the ground, aimed at the archers.  While a couple of
them managed to dodge the earth spikes, many of them were impaled in place,
their screams only lasting a couple of moments before their lives faded.

 
    Durden seemed pretty strained from
that spell; I could see some cold sweat rolling down his face.

 
    My mother brought me back into her
arms and held onto me tighter.  There was no one from our side injured
after Helen bound the wound on her calf.  Fortunately the arrow wasn’t in
deep thanks to Helen’s mana reinforcement; by the time she wound it, the
bleeding stopped.   But throughout this whole time, my mother had a
constant look of paranoia, her face pale with worry, her head never staying in
one place, always turning left and right, trying to look out for anything that
can harm us.

 
    While a little confused at first, I
dismissed it; mentally concluding that, since she wasn’t an adventurer for too
long, unlike my father, she’s probably just not used to situations like this
and is just worried about us.

 
    The battle was coming to its
climax.  The bandit group didn’t suspect that every one of our group
members would be a capable mage (excluding me).  All of the melee fighters
were dead, the only ones alive being the four mages and a couple of scattered
archers on the run.

 
    Jasmine was still having trouble
with that sick chain user, but he wasn’t nearly so arrogant anymore, with a
couple of nicks and cuts on his body, blood oozing out.

 
    Adam was engaged with a dual sword
Augmenter.  Adam’s fighting style reminded me of a snake, with his
flexible body and sudden movements.  He should be considered one of the
rare elemental augmenters with a water-attribute style.  Reinforcing the
body of his spear to be flexible, his attacks were a mirage of multiple thrusts
and swipes.  He seemed to be winning the battle against his opponent as
the dual wielder was profusely bleeding from wounds all over, desperately
parrying the onslaught of attacks.

 
    A thundering crash shocks my
attention away from Adam’s battle.  My father was sprawled down on the
debris of what is now left of the Earth Wall spell and is struggling to get himself up, blood dribbling down from the side of his