I woke up with sweat dripping down my face. Something was wrong. I couldn't place my finger on exactly what it was, but my instincts were screaming at me to pay attention to my surroundings. My Mother was sleeping right next to me while holding me in her arms. It was difficult to move around in her arms, but I managed to squeeze out of her embrace and lay on the other side of the bed.

I closed my eyes and started focusing on my surroundings. It was too quiet. The manor was always quiet during the night with little to no sound, but it was never this quiet. I cut off all of my senses until all that was left was my hearing. My Qi bubbled inside of me as I forced as much Qi as I could manage into my ears. I extended my hearing range to cover the whole manor. I could hear nothing at all. Hearing nothing at all is more indicative of danger than hearing something. It wasn't a natural situation if there was no noise whatsoever. I focused more... something was moving in the darkness... a mouse maybe? There was some shallow breathing, almost imperceptible from the middle of the 2nd-floor hallway. Why would someone be sleeping in the middle of the hallway?

"Mom, wake up." I shoved my mother with a little Air Flow spell, yet she didn't respond. "Mom!" I yelled at her and shoved her a little harder the second time until she woke up. "Darius, do you need to go potty?" "There is someone in the house, mom!" "Of course, there is always someone in the manor, son." I didn't know the word for assassin yet so it was hard to get the point across.

I yelled, "Mom, someone has entered the house from outside!"

Her eyes sprung open, finally understanding the implications, and her whole body jolted out of bed. "Assassins..." She whispered before grabbing her gear next to the bed. She whispered assertively, "Darius, get behind me now!" She changed into her armor while I stood behind her. She grabbed some small round metal balls and threw them at the windows creating a barrier, and did the same for the door coming into the room. After she was dressed she said, "Darius, no matter what you see stand right behind me at all times." "Yes, mom!" I could barely cast 1st Circle magic. A group of assassins that could move so soundlessly that I couldn't hear them even when focusing, is not a group of assassins I could currently handle.

"Darius, follow me with Wind Steps!" She opened the window on the right side of the bedroom it seemed like one she could barely fit through, but she waved to me and dashed straight out of it. I followed suit as quietly as I could, but right outside the window a man covered in black from head to toe came from a shadow and stabbed straight at my mother. She dodged the stab by moving toward the assassin with wind flowing all around her, and then struck down with her hand which immediately grew to be a large flaming sword. The assassin was cut in half, and she immediately whispered, "Darius, let's move!" I chased after her as she ran across the rooftop. She managed to run almost completely silently, but it was difficult for me to manage the same with magic. I could move silently if I moved slowly or ran with just my legs, but I just didn't have the same control over the magic that my mother had. I could hear my mother curse under her breath, "Shit." We jumped off the roof onto the ground and started running, but we barely made it a quarter of a mile before seeing men in black coming from all directions. We were trapped.

The head of the assassins had a white star on his right shoulder, and a white plain mask covering his face. The leader was dressed in all black just like all of the other assassins, but strangely his mask was the simplest of the group which also made it the most memorable. He walked forward and said, "Well, well, The Red Lion is more sneaky than I imagined. It would have been an eternal embarrassment for us if you actually managed to escape from us." My mother glared, but I could tell the way she looked at that man meant he was a problem. "Mom! Let's run!" I knew right away my being here put her at a significant disadvantage.

"He's as smart as we've heard. I'm guessing he's probably another prodigy with his parents being who they are. We can eliminate a present threat and a future threat tonight."

The air began to change, and my heart started thumping a familiar thump. A feeling I hadn't had in quite a long time. My mana was spreading through my body flowing from my chest to the rest of the body. Babump, Babump, Babump. I focused my mana throughout my entire body and focused my qi into my eyes. Babump Babump Babump. My mother looked like a predator about to pounce on prey at any moment. The assassins got in stances shifting forward inch by inch while preparing their weapons and spells. Babump. The leader with the white star was preparing some kind of large spell as he was forming a large amount of mana. My mother moved before he could activate his spell.

She dropped a handful of metal enchantments on the ground by my feet setting up a barrier. All of the assassins moved, they looked so slow in my eyes, yet faster than I could currently react to. The man with the white star stood and changed his actions he sent a flying dagger forward while all but one of the assassins sent long-distance spells toward us. The air vibrated from the spells: wind blades, daggers, flaming swords, and ice spears coming from all directions toward my mother. There was one assassin who tried to cover the gap in the spells by closing in with dual swords.

My mother stood still without moving, and right before the attacks hit, her whole body was set ablaze. Fire erupted from her body igniting the air around her. Her body was encased in a fiery armor, and her hands grew flaming claws. She set up barriers right as the spells struck, and counterattacked. She dashed towards the assassin that had chosen to enter close combat range and grabbed him by the head cutting straight through his skull. It happened incredibly fast. The other assassins began to move right after the first one died. I could see one of the other assassins move behind her while one of the other assassins ran toward me. She flashed backward intercepting the man who was running towards me before stabbing the man through his chest with her hand. Two other assassins managed to close the gap in distance and launch a series of attacks at her. My mother ducked before sprinting towards the two men's attacks. The sword strike went right above her head while the other assassin sent another ice spear at my mother's chest. She rolled out of the way before slicing the air with flaming claws. The men were bisected, and both fell over dead.

"Mom!"

The man with a white star took the opportunity to attack right after she killed the two assassins. She barely managed to dodge a lethal strike as she leaped closer to me. The flaming armor and the barriers she had set up were pierced straight through. I watched as my mother's side was cut deeply. Rage boiled deep within me.

"Oh, you've got reflexes."

"You talk a lot for an assassin!"

My mother sent three large flaming arrows directly at the leading assassin forcing him to react. He speedily backed away while deflecting the arrows with his sword.

"Che." The assassin seemed annoyed.

My mother sent a huge wall of flames directly at the assassins coming from the other directions before grabbing me and running again.

"Mom!"

"I'm fine, Darius."

"No, mom, you need to stop the bleeding! You won't be able to run if you lose too much blood."

Mom gave me a funny look before burning her side with her palm as we ran. She grit her teeth so hard I could hear her teeth grinding against one another. Assassins were right behind us as we ran I gathered man and was prepared to shoot out a spell or two to at least distract them, but mother intervened, "Save your mana, Darius. Save it just in case."

The sweat on her brow and the pain in her eyes began to enrage me even further. If they gave me a few more years to grow I'd be able to handle as many assassins as they could get their hands on. Wings of flame shot out from my mother's back before our speed radically increased. We were heading in the direction of the city of Renee towards the Red Tower. We outsped the assassins so much we couldn't even see them anymore as we went straight over the city walls and into Renee, but as we moved across the rooftops my mother was starting to run out of steam. The fiery armor and wings which had brought us to the city so rapidly left just as quickly as they came they had already disappeared. She was moving with nothing, but Wind Steps at this point.

"Mom, we're almost to the Tower! I can see it." We had gotten so close to the Tower we were probably less than 2 minutes away, but an assassin had caught up with us. The white star had arrived.

"Huff Huff You are known for your speed. Huff, but so am I."

Three flashes came out of my mother's rings as the man was still recovering, the white star parried her attacks again. I heard her whisper, "Smokescreen." Before smoke erupted from her at the center blocking our visibility along with the assassins. She dashed while grabbing me immediately after while throwing an enchanted metal ball that continued to produce smoke. She lifted me on her shoulders while we ran at an angle directly to the left of the Tower. We went at an angle through side streets as we got closer and closer to the tower. Mother was breathing incredibly hard at this point. We skulked closer and closer, but slower and slower at the same time. I heard a zipping noise behind me, I cast Air Flow to the side of us and shoved us out of the way. I knew mother noticed, but she didn't have the mana to act. We slammed into the wall next to us and got right back up.

"Hahaha! You are making this the toughest mission we have had to date! The brat can cast magic as well? Interesting."

"Son, I'll hold him here. I want you to run to the tower as fast as you can and get help." I looked at her and saw clearly what she was trying to do.

"No."

"Darius!"

"No! I'll go with you."

I took a deep breath and jammed my qi directly to my voice box, and roared, "HELP! UNCLE JOSEPH! ASSASSIN! HELP!" It was a gamble. The moment we made a bunch of noise was the moment all of the assassins would know our location, but it would potentially lead to help quickly arriving.

"Dammit, Darius!"

The assassin didn't screw around after I screamed. He immediately attacked us. Mother covered her arm with a fiery gauntlet as she engaged in combat with the white star man. He sent a series of attacks from different angles occasionally sending chains of blackness directly from his shadow to bind her. She would rip the ropes apart with her hands before sending a rapid wind blade back. They were hitting each other at a speed that was hard for me to involve myself. I focused the Qi in my eyes to catch sight of the man. I gathered as much mana as I could while they were fighting. Fire Ball was the closest long-range spell attack I had learned. It was a 1st circle spell that shouldn't be lethal to anyone, but it was all I had. I focused intently on making the ball as large and fast as I could. Mother was getting cuts all over her body as she continued to exchange blows with the man. He struck at her with a wide sweep, as her leg finally got caught by a shadow.

"FIREBALL!" I threw it behind him as quickly as I could. I created an image for the spell. A powerful image. The image of an angry dragon letting forth an explosive fire. The fireball exploded blasting the man off course. My mother took the opportunity and struck him with her arm still barely covered in fire. He flew through several buildings from her strike.

"UNCLE JOSEPH!"

I screamed again before using Air Flow to blow as close to the tower as possible.

"SHIT!" The man dashed back and prepared to cut through both my mother and me. This was it. I couldn't respond in time, and neither could my mother. She grabbed me and covered my body with hers. Not again. Anger, rage, and fear of losing what I had overwhelmed me. In the split second, it took for him to make it to us with his sword in hand help arrived.

"You've gotten too close to the tower assassin."

Uncle Joseph had arrived immediately in front of the assassin, and his sword strike was blocked by a barrier made of flames.

"UNCLE!"

A multitude of flaming snakes erupted from Mr. Joseph as they swung towards the white star from several different directions.

"SHIT!" The man cursed again before slowly trying to back away. He was getting cornered by Joseph's strikes before he reached into his pocket.

"MISSION FAILURE, DAMMIT!"

He yelled before ripping apart a scroll that was in his jacket pocket.

"Teleport scroll!" Uncle Joseph had all his snakes come together before shooting at the man at incredible speed. The man got hit in his chest once before he completely disappeared.

"He got away! Shit! Are you two alright?" Mages started to show up in droves surrounding us in a protective net.

My mother yelled, "Scour the area! Check every inch of the city!" Joseph came over with a mage in the tower who also happened to be a healer. "Check them. I'll take charge of guarding them. Send over Linda, Jordan, and Abram; everyone else checks the city!" "Yes, sir!" "Yes!"

We were safe, but we needed to check the manor and everyone in it.

Uncle Joseph frowned before saying, "This is getting more and more complicated. We will need to investigate this as thoroughly as we can, and you two need some rest. Let's go to the Tower and talk for a bit."