As he flew backwards from the force behind the sudden attack the world seemed to slow to a crawl for just a single moment. The conjured earth that made up the wall broke apart and dissipated into nothing slowly revealing the crowd of riders he was protecting himself from.

  When he did land Arthur landed on his back and continued backwards into the base of a tree that disoriented him. His vision went blurry and his ears filled with ringing as he tried to see what the riders were doing. While still half dazed he gripped the tree and forced himself up, his eyes never leaving his opponents.

  When his vision cleared enough he could see the riders slowly closing on him with their crossbows trained on him. One of the few good things to come from this was that he could get a good look at them all. They were coordinated, like they were in an army at one point. The one in the robe stayed back while the three remaining with crossbows closed the distance, the small giants of caution in their eyes being the only sign of emotion shown.

  As best as he could with the fading ring in his ears Arthur stood straight and readied himself to cast another spell. It would need to be defensive to keep himself alive, but it needed to be strong enough to survive that spell that shattered the first.

  ‘That was at least a tier four spell. Of what type I don’t know, but I can cast tier five spells. I just need nearly a minute, fifty seconds to be precise.’

  A small grin formed on his face as he watched the riders closely, they wouldn’t give him another opportunity to cast anything. He would need to be quick and hide in the trees where the horses would have trouble following. He could pick them off one at a time if he needed.

  But before he could even start formulating a plan, two sets of sounds, each from a different direction, started and were getting closer.

  The most obvious to Arthur was the sound of several pairs of boots running towards their position. He could see and hear the men carrying torches getting closer, likely the sound of the fight drew their attention and they wanted to see what was happening. The other sound however…

  The riders looked towards the source of the second sound which sounded an awful lot like a horse running towards their position.

  ‘But that can not be.’ Arthur thought to himself as he readied himself to take cover behind the trees. ‘I know Calavia is long gone, she wouldn’t risk her life after I told her to leave. She did as I asked the last time. So it must be someone else.’

  When the riders quickly turned to point their crossbows in the direction of the sound a small ping of hope and worry shot through Arthur. It meant that whoever it was they were not on their side, but Arthur couldn’t think of anyone who could arrive so quickly.

  That was when he saw the fire and the little feeling of hollowness started growing.

  Silently he hoped and pleaded with whatever deity controlled the unknown as he stood still as a statue. Two of the riders managed to race out of the way before the massive fire spell collided with the ground and knocked the third off his horse and onto the ground.

  Within a moment Calavia rode into view atop one of the horses the couple had bought. She disregarded the riders who had for the moment lost the will to fight and rushed towards Arthur as fast as she could.

  A swirl of thoughts went through Arthur’s mind. Mostly questions asking why she didn’t listen to him like the last time, why she was acting differently this time.

  But he didn’t have time to think about that, and Calavia had none either. The front right leg of the horse was suddenly severed and fell face first to the ground with Calavia still atop. Calavia was tossed off head first towards Arthur and she raised her arms up and over her head in surprise and fear. Though she did land on her arms they were enough to prevent any serious injuries.

  Calavia ended just a meter and a half away from Arthur who quickly closed the distance and tried helping her up while asking her why.

  “Why didn’t you leave!? You could die out here!” He said with a panic stricken voice as he started pulling Calavia towards the trees to hide.

  They had nearly reached the trees when two sharp sounds came from behind. Calavia grunted in pain and slumped towards Arthur. For a moment he didn’t notice as the panic and adrenaline filled his mind, but when she stopped moving her feet he turned to see the bolts sticking out from her back.

  On pure instinct he raised his right hand while his left kept Calavia stable, within a second another earth wall was conjured up that was followed by two more. Arthur turned his back towards the walls and started casting a restoration spell to see how bad the wounds were. As Calavia’s breathing slowed Arthur hands moved faster and faster as his mind was flooded with information. He didn’t have much time but the wounds were within his skill to heal, he wouldn’t have much time but it was something he could do. That was until the first wall he conjured shattered and broke with the impact of a spell.

  His eyes turned back as he felt the magic within the first wall slowly dissipate into the surrounding earth and air. Without waiting he started casting a tier three spell called ‘Earthen Bricks’ that conjured a very powerful wall of earth far stronger than what he quickly conjured up before. With that set of protection in place he turned back to Calavia and started healing her internal injuries to stop the bleeding.

  He ignored the feeling of the other two simple earth walls shattering and breaking as just a second could spell the difference between Calavia living and dying.

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  Arthur could feel his heart beating through his chest as he kept his hands and mouth moving, sweat dripping down his brow as the bleeding slowed just enough to allow Calavia to look back up at him as she laid on her side.

  “When I die I want you to kill the bastard and everyone in that damned cave they hide in.” Her voice was weak as she spoke and tears poured from her eyes like one of the old fountains in the northern district of Antium.

  “Don’t talk like that.” Arthur quickly replied, unwilling to entertain such an outcome. “We are going to be fine, all three of us.” Just as Arthur was about to start removing the shafts of the bolts, the strong wall he conjured up suddenly shook with much more force than before as something collided.

  Arthur instinctively shielded Calavia as dirt was tossed into the air. He looked her in the eyes unsure of what to do, that was when Calavia took his hand and told him what to do.

  “You need to kill him.” For a moment the tears stopped and her voice was firm. “Kill his soldiers and he will flee to his hideout. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go, his allies are unwilling to do anything else.”

  “What are you talking about? I can’t leave you here while I chase after him. I need to take care of you after we both get out of this. I need to heal your wounds.” Arthur felt the hollowness in his chest growing larger as something about her words and her tone were unnatural. Like it was someone else speaking.

  Calavia stared right back at him as the tears slowly returned but the firmness stayed. “You can’t.” Were her last words as she stopped moving.

  For a moment Arthur stayed exactly as he was doubting the reality before him. Then he called her name hoping she was just tired, then he called it again and again until the hollowness had grown to twice its original size.

  He took her in his arms and held her close as he silently cried. He didn’t know how long he was like that but the sound of his conjured wall being struck with another spell shook him to his senses, only he didn’t feel the same. It was to be expected of course, his wife and unborn child just died, who wouldn’t feel terrible after such an ordeal. Only Arthur felt something so horrible he couldn’t quite describe it.

  The hollowness in his body and soul had grown into a gaping hole, his thoughts turned the mage in the dark robes on the horse, the one leading these ‘soldiers’ as Calavia had described them.

  ‘It is his fault, she died right here because of him.’ Arthur slowly placed his wife on the ground as his thoughts turned darker. He wanted to hurt this mage, he wanted him to be afraid, he wanted to be the one to hurt him, and he wanted to do it in unspeakable ways. He wanted to do things he had never even thought of before, he wanted to hurt the mages family and everyone who has ever said anything good about him.

  He didn’t know where these thoughts came from but the gaping hollow hole in his body and soul were hungry and egged him on, practically begging him to act on what he was feeling.

  As the wall he conjured shook from impact he slowly conjured up three weapons made from earth each taking only eight seconds with his mastery of geomancy. His eyes never left the wall as the hate festered in his soul. When the wall finally fell for a single moment everything went quiet as a plume of dirt and dust was tossed into the air obstructing everyone's sight.

  When the dust and dirt had settled just enough for Arthur to see faint outlines of people on horses he didn’t hesitate. His arm shot forwards and the three earth weapons followed with three screams just moments later.

  Without waiting Arthur rushed forwards using a small amount of aeromancy to accelerate himself and keep the dirt out of his face.

  Once his vision was clear he found the three riders were dead, two lay slumped over still atop their horses while the last had been knocked off by the impact of the weapon and was on the ground while his horse anxiously trotted out of the way.

  The mage in the dark robes was still alive and despite the mask that covered his face Arthur could see in the small holes for sight that the sudden counter attack and the death of his three remaining riders was surprising to him.

  The three weapons Arthur conjured slowly returned to his side as he started walking forwards, the dark thoughts still filling his mind like the voice of a demon egging him on. Perhaps the unknown mage knew something was different or just had a terrible feeling, but he quickly turned and his horse bolted back towards where the others were still burning the fields.

  Arthur raced towards the third horse without its rider and climbed on its back. The horse made an effort to get him off when it felt a different weight on its back, but a quick tug of the reins was enough to remind the horse it wasn’t the one in charge. Arthur pulled the reins to the right and the horse followed before he gave a small whipping like motion to make the horse go forwards.

  The mage hadn't gotten very far with his head start only lasting around ten seconds, but it was enough for him to reach his lesser subordinates and shout orders at them.

  “Draw your weapons!” He shouted as he slowed just loud enough to be heard by all his subordinates and by extension Arthur. “And kill the mage behind me!” He shouted while pointing towards Arthur who was closing the distance on horseback.

  As he raced forwards Arthur raised his right hand and conjured up numerous earth bolts which he then shot towards the uncertain servants. Each casting killed at least one with several killing up to three at a time killing them and their morale. Several more were aimed at the mage but he quickly countered the simple tier one spell with an air barrier.

  ‘That was a quick cast, also strong enough to block a proper spell without significant damage. That makes it at least a tier one spell.’ Arthur thought to himself as the mage and the horse he rode picked up the pace and left his lesser servants behind. Arthur ignored those that remained and followed the mage as he aimed a stronger spell wanting to test just how powerful the barrier was.

  Arthur followed the mage through the trees and around numerous bends before he had an opportunity to see just how strong the dark mage’s barrier was. With his skill in geomancy it took just a single second to cast a tier two spell, which gave Arthur the ability to conjure a spike of earth in just a single second which he then shot towards the dark mage. The spike struck the same barrier like before, but instead of simply being defected like the simple bolts it made it about halfway through before it was stopped by the barrier.

  The case continued for hours upon hours, neither really kept track of how long they rode for as the adrenaline and fear they respectively felt was more than enough to cloud their minds. But eventually the dark mage led Arthur right back to his lair by what looked to be the evening, the sun was dipping below the horizon off to the west as the dark mage kept looking back at Arthur. As the two got closer to the cave that the dark mage called his own a handful of figures could be seen waiting outside. From a distance nothing detail could be determined about them, but when the dark mage started shouting at them it became clear they were more of his servants.

  Quickly he started conjuring up three weapons made from earth, something that was becoming a signature weapon of his.