Sincerely I was happy to see this development… I had never witnessed a fight until now! Moreover in this one I could or rather I needed to participate… There were three persons at the Core Formation stage on the other side. It was impossible to rely on only just Garrick to handle this, and besides if they got past Garrick, I’d have to fight for my life anyway…

  There was only one issue that kept me rooted in place while Garrick already got out and started talking trying to dissuade the bandits before starting the fight. Besides the three people at Core Formation, there were twenty to thirty people at the gathering stage. There were more than ten armed with bows, ready to shoot.

  “Get down, lay on your bellies. Now!” I growled in a hushed voice, then I broke the supports of the benches and used the long plank that formed the seats to have it become a second wall on the side of the low wooden beams of the carriage... Actually, it would be good to better clarify this, aside from Cassia’s all the others could be categorized as wagons. I simply did not like that word because it made me think of trains, not horse drawen vehicles.

  However, it still would not be safe for the rest if a fight broke out… How could I share this defensive measure… I couldn’t yet project aether far from my body… Manifestation lower body core types also struggled with this I could only have an even harder time than them…

  It was impossible for me to jump over without alarming the enemy and drawing their fire… It was one thing to resist the fist of a gathering stage and another to block the arrow shot by one… So, what other option did I have? I thought back to Earth and remembered about sound channeling effect… But that required ultrasonic waves…or did they… I quickly tried to do it.

  Building a large parabolic disc out of aether. I used aether to create a sound. A high pitched one, but low enough that it would not spread to the enemy lines.

  I hit the jackpot! It worked, the kids in the other wagon in front of ours were confusedly looking around, trying to figure out what they heard. They saw me with the strange large purplish dish before me and their eyes went wide.

  I tried growling the message I wanted to transmit into my gut so that I could get the right vibration to pass to the aether. After all my parabolic dish was aether made, I couldn’t be sure any other wave carrier would be affected by it. After two minutes I projected it this time with all the force of my aether and spirit. The result, I hoped was heard as far as the first carriage in the front, after all I already surpassed the limits of what I thought I could do to do this much. Soon I had clear view till Cassia’s, as all the kids till there had heard my message.

  I steeled my heart and calmed my breath. Focusing to my utmost I prepared myself by charging my fists and the surroundings of my fists with as much aether as I could control at once. I strained myself to reinforce my body and…

  I launched myself towards the place with the most archers concentrated. I flew like a cannonball and landed in a flash. Five gathering stage archers were taken down at once, but I was also dizzied by the aetheric blast… After all I pretty much detonated all I could gather around my hands, I no longer had control over it, so it wouldn’t distinguish between friend or foe…

  At that moment I saw a purplish flash… An arrow heading towards me… In my dizziness I couldn’t do much but look hopelessly at it. ‘I fucked up… I guess this is the end… Will I get another chance?’ I did my best to bring as much aether and solidify it in front of me, but there wasn’t enough time… I closed my eyes and used even that sliver of mental power, shutting off all unnecessary thoughts, just so I could bring more aether in front of me faster.

  But the piercing impact didn’t come. I opened my eyes and Cassia was in front of me having knocked the arrow away…

  “Stop dawdling!” She said angrily. “You attack I’ll cover your back…”

  I exhaled loudly… I didn’t even know when I stopped breathing… I stood there a bit longer and saw how Cassia was deflecting the arrows… She wasn’t stopping or touching them, she was altering the aether flow to make them deviate. She jumped forward then backwards to leave behind aetheric flows that moved away from the trajectory of her body.

  I was a fool… I didn’t need to defend I needed to explode, no matter how much aether those arrows carried a purposeful explosion would deviate them… ‘There’s still a lot to learn in this world…’. I came back to my senses the dizziness leaving me. And I answered Cassia’s words.

  “Don’t fall behind then!”

  Using an idea I had on the spot; I jumped up high and forward at an arc as if I would plunge in a pool. I condensed aether under the soles of my feet and detonated it in a controlled way to let myself be carried forward faster by the blast. Together with actually jumping while enhancing myself with aether I reached a height of about four meters. Along I started condensing a spinning cone in front of me.

  Less than half a meter in width and about half in length it was enough to protect me from archers shooting from my front. As I started falling headfirst, I continued detonating aether under my feet driving myself forward like a missile.

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  This time I was ready for the blast and instead of taking it head on I rolled forward and let it push me out and away. The plunge took only two people however as the others managed to retreat seeing me throw myself like that. However, six others were injured to different degrees due to the stones thrown out by the explosion.

  My legs were shaking.

  The multiple blasts took their toll on my muscles and I felt my legs almost paralyzed. I clenched my teeth and used more aether to stop the shaking and soothe them. But I couldn’t stop… Not yet when plenty of enemies were still before me! The rest of the instructors were fighting too. Even Vane was not hiding and was seriously confronting the thieves. In total aside from the six I had in front of me and the seven I directly took out relying on ambush tactics two were dealing with Cassia, and eleven were held back by the five instructors while Garrick was barely holding on against the teamwork of the three Core Formation thieves.

  Those three were very motivated and fierce. Seeing me and Cassia, two talented people… I’d be making a lot of money if I were to be sold as a slave while Cassia could be used to ask for ransom money… Apparently the Aurelian household was amongst the richest of the middle noble families… As for how I knew this… Those three were shameless and were trying to wear us down by shouting their evil plans…

  I forced myself forward detonating aether behind me again. With an aether clad fist I detonated again sending one of the thieves before me to clash into another while letting myself be carried backwards closer to a third. I kicked hard a stone from the ground using aether to force its trajectory and aimed for the thief’s head. The guy used a knife to block the stone.

  Meanwhile another two shot arrows at me. I once again detonated aether behind me and hurled myself forward. I was consuming more and more of my reserves. Now I was using an additional construct to protect myself from the detonation. I punched the gut of the guy I targeted with the stone and I swear I never felt a sensation as gross as that. The abdominal muscles of the guy gave way and I felt my hand pass through and tear the organs and the intestines. It was hot, wet and sticky and the smell that spurted out as I pulled my hand back made my stomach churn…

  I pulled away and continued rushing. Soon the six were lying in pools of blood and other bodily fluids releasing a disgusting stench. The books in my past life never mentioned how most bodies would start pissing and releasing all sorts of fluids as life left them… especially when the damage to the internal organs was gruesome…

  Out of breath and panting, my entire body had the irresistible urge to tremble and stop moving. Luckily the pain had yet to catch up to me… If I were an ordinary person with my reckless outbursts I’d have long since depleted my reserves of aether, but I had no choice… I did not know any aether arts or any other fighting technique so I could only rely on my huge pool. But the fight had not ended.

  No matter how many of these gathering stage bandits I defeated as long as those three Core Formation ones were still alive, we were doomed. I once again jumped ready to rush into the fight to support Garrick. The group was formed out of a quick striker wielding a dagger, a swordsman with a longsword and a shield bearer. All three weapons were artifacts.

  The shield bearer had noticed my movement and rushed towards Garrick bashing him away. Then the other two got behind him. The shield was raised to meet me head on as a curtain of aether was starting to form enveloping and protecting the three of them. As I started to fall, I urged all the solid chunks of aether from my pool. I accelerated them and shot all of them out, shouting.

  “Starfall!”

  Unlike what I wished I did not have time nor the mental capacity at that moment to make them fly more chaotically so there were about ten streams of such shards each with two or three pieces. With my speed added to the speed at which they were shot out the first shards shredded the curtain leaving holes behind. The first ones were destroyed in the process however they cleared the path for the ones behind.

  All three of them were injured by my attack and the curtain dissipated. The one with the worst injuries was the shield bearer as he was the slowest and could not avoid the shots. This slowed him further, the other two were hardly impeded by the injuries.

  Garrick rushed back and was intercepted by the swordsman. The dagger wielder retreated further back quickly prepared to hit if the opportunity arose. Meanwhile I fell, propelling myself forward while enhancing my body with aether and hardening my fist as much as possible. I smashed forward into the center of the shield with all my force. A familiar wet crunch resounded and a sharp pain assaulted my senses from my fist to my elbow.

  I had most probably crushed some of the bones, but I did not have the time to check or bother myself with it. I made use of the momentum of my body to roll forward over the shield and deliver a kick to the dagger wielder. He blocked and rushed back using the force of my kick to create distance, then repositioned himself so that his distance from me or Garrick was similar.

  The shield bearer did not fare much better. The injuries he suffered on his back and legs worsened with the impact and blood spurted out as he staggered backwards. With the jump I had made, his stagger only brought him closer. We both turned around and I delivered another aether clad fist, that he prepared to block with his shield. Only this time, in order to save aether I did not detonate it.

  I made it vibrate as hard as I could. The figure of my fist made three-four faint purplish afterimages as it connected with the shield. This time the result was disastrous for the shield bearer as his arms gave out and with a lot of crunches his forearms turned to mush.

  Seeing this I did not hesitate and struck again this time detonating the aether and sending the shield bearer flying with the shield pressed onto his chest. Unfortunately, I did not manage to stop myself from flying back. The dagger wielder rushed towards me, stopped my feeble body and stabbed down parallel with my neck. I did not even have the strength left to cry out in pain as I felt my vision blur and my body collapsed.

  I saw the thief prepare to stab down and finish me off decisively. A sword tip stopped him as it pierced his chest. The bandit was thrown to the side, and I saw the bleeding Garrick look down at me. He had stopped the guy from directly killing me, but I doubted I’d survive… Some more happened, I think he rushed to help the others…

  I had lost the sense of touch and I could no longer hear anything… Somehow, I felt cold… a chill was taking over me. I felt reluctant to end like this, but aether no longer answered my call while I had long since lost touch with my Jing or Qi. Darkness took my vision and slowly my consciousness faded into silence…

  Patreon! See what happens to Cato after the fight.