They passed through several more cities and towns, and they were now three days away from the capital. Their journey thus far proved uneventful with no attacks by bandits or monsters. Cain made sure to have his Search active at all times. Due to his enormous mana pool, he wouldn’t run out even if he kept it active all day.
As the carriage crossed over a hill, his Search spell suddenly detected something. A fight had broken out roughly two miles ahead. He could sense many monsters surrounding a group of people—and the mana of the encircled group was decreasing at a noticeable rate.
Cain told his father in a panic, “Father, there’s a problem. A fight is taking place about two miles in front of us.”
“What?! You can detect that far?!” Search was a well-known spell, but Garm was taken aback by Cain’s detection range.
“Yes. You assigned me excellent adventurers as tutors, father. More importantly, we need to hurry! There’s dozens of monsters attacking a group of roughly ten people. If we don’t hurry…!”
“Okay. Let’s have a few people go on ahead to assist them!”
Garm began giving orders from the carriage. Four knights separated from the group and hurriedly rode in the direction of the battle. Cain continued monitoring the situation ahead with Search. He noticed that mana signals from several more people had vanished.
Cain communicated his worries to Garm. “Father, they won’t make it in time. I’ll go as well.”
“Cain, you may have trained a lot, but it’s still dangerous!”
“Father, I won’t lose. I’ve leveled up quite a lot, and you saw my abilities at Lamesta. We’re running out of time—I’ll be going now.”
Cain grabbed his sword and strapped it to his waist, then jumped out of the moving carriage. I didn’t really want to show anyone this, but this is an emergency situation, he thought.
After jumping out of the carriage, Cain enhanced himself with Boost and wind magic, then accelerated forwards. He blazed through the grassland at over sixty miles per hour. Within seconds, he was no longer visible from the carriage. The guards, Garm, and his family were flummoxed by Cain’s incredible speed. Cain soon overtook the knights who had left earlier, and he continued accelerating towards the battle. The knights didn’t even see Cain even as he passed by—they only felt a sudden gust of wind blow past them.
Cain soon arrived at the scene, where he saw a group of orcs attacking a group of knights protecting a carriage. There were several stronger orc Variants wearing armor, and although the knights were doing their best, they were completely outnumbered. Only three of the knights were still standing. The other knights had already succumbed to the orcs’ attacks. Cain could no longer detect the presence of several of them. Others were barely alive.
There were Variants present, organizing the attacks of the rank-and-file orcs. Cain shouted at the knights from behind the group of orcs, “I’m here to help!” The knights looked over in Cain’s direction upon hearing his voice. They were surprised to see a young child standing there.
A knight shouted at Cain, “Kid, don’t come any closer! Run away, now!”
“Just watch me. Everything will be okay,” Cain reassured him.
“Air Bullet.”
Ten pressurized air bullets shot out from Cain’s fingertips and flew at the orcs. As the bullets hit them all square in the forehead, their heads exploded one by one. That single spell took down ten orcs. There were now twenty left.
The armor-wearing Variant, upon detecting a new enemy, began to shout orders.
“GORK!”
The orcs attacking the knights momentarily paused and began to look around for the new threat. Taking advantage of the situation, Cain cast another spell.
“Air Cutter.”
Ten wind blades flew towards the group of orcs. Upon impact, one of the orcs was cut clean in half. Others had their arms blown away. Orcs began falling down one after another.
There were only ten orcs left. The Variants were still alive, as were the orcs fighting with the knights. He might hit the knights if he used a spell, so Cain instead pulled his sword out of its sheath.
“I’ll use my sword next! Here I come!”
Cain launched himself at the orcs. Enhanced by Boost, he flew at the orcs like a projectile. He traveled roughly ten yards with a single step. He slashed out with his sword again and again, cutting the orcs to pieces. He deftly dodged the clubs of the orcs and continued to slash with his sword.
“Let’s end this!”
After taking down all the orcs near the guards, Cain turned to face the three Variants. The halberd-wielding armored Variant was shaking in rage since all their underlings had been taken out.
The three Variants roared, “GORK!” then charged at Cain with their various weapons raised. Cain unleashed magic with his left hand as he continued to wield his sword with his right.
Cain took out one of the Variants with a blast of magic to the face. The Variant’s head exploded, and its body collapsed to the ground. Cain took out a second by cutting its head off with his sword.
He turned to face the final one. “You’re the only one left.”
Cain accelerated towards the orc and slashed through it as he passed by. The final orc froze. Then its head began to slide off its neck. The final orc’s head and body hit the ground separately.
After cleaning the blood off his sword, Cain put it back into its sheath. He called out towards the knights, “Are you okay?”
He headed towards the knights to get more information on the situation, but they turned their swords on Cain as one.
“Stay away from the carriage! Stop where you are!”
Cain stopped. The carriage the knights were protecting had the seal of an aristocrat, and it looked even more impressive than the carriage used by the Silford family. Cain straightened himself and bowed.
“Sorry, I should have introduced myself. I’m Cain von Silford. I’m the third son of Margrave Garm von Silford Gracia.”
Cain’s introduction was interrupted by the sound of knights rushing over on their horses. The four knights that had gone ahead of the carriage had finally arrived. “We are knights under the service of the Margrave of Gracia, we are here to—wait, why are you here, Master Cain?”
They then saw the corpses of the decapitated orcs.
“They’ve all already been defeated…”
“This is even worse than what happened in Lamesta…”
The knights began to grumble. All four had accompanied the Silfords to Lamesta, so they had already seen how Cain’s strength firsthand.
“More importantly, allow me to heal the injured knights. I can use recovery magic,” Cain said.
The appearance of the knights from Gracia allowed the knights guarding the carriage to relax. They sheathed their swords. Cain rushed over to the collapsed knights and checked on their condition. Several of them had already passed away, but a few were still breathing. He approached them and immediately cast recovery magic.
“Area High Heal.”
The wounded knights were immediately covered in a white light. When the light vanished, their injuries had been completely healed. They were still unconscious, but there were no longer any signs of external injuries.
“What was that?!” The knights hadn’t seen this type of magic before.
“That spell cannot replace the blood they lost. They should rest and eat something,” Cain instructed. “My father should be here soon. You will be able to relax once he arrives.”
Cain understood their apprehension. A suspicious individual suddenly appeared and slaughtered an entire group of orcs—it was only natural for the knights to be on their guard.
A few minutes later, the carriage and its accompanying guards arrived at the scene. They stopped nearby and the passengers aboard the carriage disembarked, led by Garm.
Noticing Garm, the knights defending the attacked carriage lined up and saluted.