“Mommy, what’s going to happen to us?”

“It’ll be fine Kan. Mommy will protect you.”

“What about Daddy?”

“He’ll be fine. Don’t you trust Daddy. He’s one of the strongest combat locksmiths.”

“Yeah! Daddy will be fine.”

In truth Claire was extremely worried about what’s happening right now. She didn’t know if the village was going to be fine or whether Clive would live. She was extremely anxious but she couldn’t show it to Kan. She had to stay strong for Kan and take him away to safety.

“There she is. Chase her and capture her alive!”

The men had finally caught up with Claire and Kan. Claire increased her speed and ran. She didn’t care that the men were coming from all over the forest because she knew she could handle them if they came one at a time.

A man in black clothing ran towards them and attempted to grab Claire’s leg but before he could, he had already fallen into Claire’s trap. When the man ran towards them Claire had locked the hardness of the ground away and the man fell into a deep hole of mud where Claire immediately unlocked her lock and the ground harden around the man where he suffocated to death.

“Shit, don’t get too close to her. Slowly surround her and corner her then we will all attack her together.”

More and more black clothed men started together and the situation was becoming worse by the second. Initially there was only 5 men and she had killed 1 of them and hoped to kill more but they stayed there distance from her. A few minutes had passed and Claire could now see that there were about 15 figures in the surrounding forest.

She could see that some of them had blood on their clothes or weapons and she knew what had happened. She was furious at these men attacking her village where her friends lived but she had to stay calm. If she lost her cool then the men would take advantage of that and attack her so she stayed calm.

The men started to attack her because they had more numbers. Although they didn’t fully attack her, they did light attacks to wear her down. There would be an occasion dagger thrown or arrow shot at her but they were deflected in. In the beginning it wasn’t hard at all for Claire to block these attacks but being attacked by 15 men was tiring on her body. Slowly wounds could be seen on her body and blood came out. None of the attacks had hit “Kan” at all, Claire did her best to block all the attacks.

Kan could only float with Claire and watch with worry. Even though he knew these were all just memories it was still painful to see his mother get injured. Every injury she took made Kan more and more angry but also sad that he could do nothing to help. All he could do was watch as Claire got injured and pray that she would be safe.

What Kan didn’t see when he looked at Claire was that “Kan” also had the exact same expressions as he did. “Kan” also felt and angry and sad every single time Claire got injured. He felt hopeless in this situation.

“Mommy is there any way I can help.”

“Don’t worry Kan, Mommy will protect you.”

They ran and ran but the black clothed men were still right behind them and there were now 20 of them that Claire could see. What Claire heard in the distant worried her, she could hear the sound water rushing and falling. In a few more minutes Claire had arrived at a extremely large river with a waterfall at the end of it. When she looked down the waterfall and saw that the distance down was extremely long. No person could survive that sort of fall.

“Kan how would you like to help Mommy.”

“What can I do Mommy.”

“Grab some rocks and can Mommy leave it up to you to protect Mommy.”

“Yeah I can do that.”

This was the only solution Claire could think of to escape this situation. She was confident that she could kill 20 of these men and with Kan’s help it’ll be a lot easier. Claire’s aim wasn’t to kill all of them though, it was to dwindle there numbers so it would be harder for them to find them when they run away.

“Mommy I got the rocks. What should I do with them.”

“When those scary men come out of the woods throw the rocks at them ok. Make sure to hit them really good.”

“Ok.”

The men arrived from the woods and surrounded Claire and “Kan”. “Kan” began throwing the rocks at the men. If it was just a regular 8 year old boy throwing the rock then it wouldn’t hurt too much but “Kan” was a combat locksmith. Each rock that flew from his hand would be the same as an adult man throwing at their full strength.

The initial rocks thrown at the men didn’t hit anyone. Although the rocks would hurt if it hit, these men weren’t hit by it because they were experts in fighting and could dodge these rocks. The most that came out of “Kan’s” rock is a minor inconvenience to them and this was what Claire was hoping for.

The men that dodged “Kan’s” rock lost their focus for just a moment but this moment was enough for Claire to lock the mana around them and keep them in place. As they were kept in place Claire had already slit their throats with blades of locked air. In their initial attack they had already killed 5 men.

“Good job Kan. Let’s keep this up.”

“Ok Mommy.”

Although the same tactic did not work again, the men had become more wary of “Kan’s” rocks so there was more leeway for Claire to attack. Another 10 minutes passed and they had killed another 3 men, now there were only 12 left. This made Claire even more confident in there escape because every person they killed made it easier to kill the next person.

In the next moment Claire’s joy immediately disappeared. From the forest came out another 30 men and now both her and “Kan” had to face 42 people. Claire had no confidence in protecting “Kan” and defeating these men.

“Claire Renner surrender right now and we’ll spare the rest of your village. We only need you and the secrets you hold.”

“Hah, like I can trust you.”

Claire outright refused the man’s conditions. She already knew that they would not keep their word. Everything that had occured today was all planned and no one else should know about it so they would erase everyone involved in the incident. Instead she turned around and looked at “Kan”.

“Kan, i’m sorry I have to do this. This may be the last time you see Mommy. I’m so sorry and goodbye.”

“Wait Mommy, what are you doing. I can still fight.”

“Goodbye Kan.”

Claire had thrown “Kan” off of the waterfall. She had made a special bubble around him which would ignore all the elements around him so when he hit the water he wouldn’t feel anything. This was the only way she could save “Kan” but the plan was not over yet. She still had to buy him time so he could float away in the river down below.

“Hahaha, now it is time to vent my anger out on all of you.”

‘Mommy.’

The entire time Kan could only watch with tears in his eyes. Claire had sacrificed her own life to save his. Although it was not him it was still “Kan”. Without a moment of hesitation Claire had saved “Kan’s” life and Kan could only watched as this all happened. He felt immense grief at what was about to happen.

Claire summoned an enormous magic circle in the sky. She was preparing to use her utmost limits. In the moment that Claire activated her magic, a blinding light flashed through the sky.

Once again Kan appeared in complete darkness.