Reborn: From Nothing

Cassius has reached 7 years of age alongside Octavia who is a few months older. His magic has reached a point where it is truly dangerous. Though he never goes all out anymore. His swordsmanship is still subpar, but that is mainly because of his lack of muscles.

Octavia has learned to control the magic in her body. But she seems to be incapable of casting attack magic. Magic has no legitimate categories, but spells are given labels based on general usage. These are attack, support, defense, and utility. Spells can have multiple labels, such as attack and support magic, but spells like that are rare.

Attack magic is exactly as it seems, its purpose is to damage or kill another combatant. The purpose of support magic is to grant an ally an advantage in a fight. Defense magic is meant to block attacks. Utility magic is any spell outside of those three.

Cassius excels at attack and defense magic primarily since those revolve around creating visible and understandable elements in the real world. This can be raising the ground up for a shield and reinforcing that earth with magic, or casting fire in some direction. A lot of attack and defense magic exists outside of logical understanding, such as spells that push objects with just magic.

Octavia has seen some success in support magic, she is far behind Cassius in skill, but she has still managed to cast physical enhancement spells on other people. This is a difficult feat, as physical enhancement is almost always a spell swordsmen cast on themselves. It is substantially more difficult to cast it on others. She has also used low-tier recovery magic.

It was night, just a couple weeks after Cassius’ 7th birthday. He and Octavia were in the yard reading books together. Cassius loved books on magic and its logic, and Octavia enjoyed books on history. Marcus was gone on a trip, and Julius was in the yard with the two of them.

Suddenly a note dropped from the sky into the lap of Octavia. Cassius was just within distance to read it.

‘I have Theophania. If you want to see her again come to the forest to the south, a campfire will be visible. Approach it, tell no one. I am watching you, if you tell a single soul she will die. Do not resist and you will be unharmed.’

Huh? What the fuck? So suddenly? What’s going on?

OK, be calm. Obviously, the right move is to communicate with Claudia somehow.

But can you even do that? Pass a message to her without the stalker noticing? No, neither Cassius nor Octavia has a spell for that…

Wait what? Octavia gets up and walks out of the house. Cassius follows…

No no no no no

This can’t be happening!

Damnit!

“Where are you going?”

Julius asks the two of them.

“Just for a walk to the bakery Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius own. Don’t worry we’ll be back in 30 minutes certainly.” Cassius calmly responds.

This is the worst. Best case scenario they get out of this alive for a ransom… worst case they could…

Fuck!

This is not the time to be thinking about that. Ok, how do I get them out of this situation?

The only thing I can do is guide Cassius to making the best decision. Fighting is out of the question, in mock battles even with magic Cassius is always hopeless. Octavia being there will hold him back as well.

Getting them to turn back is… out of the question. My mind is connected to Cassius’, so I know how hellbent he is on getting Theophania back. No, he doesn’t really care about Theophania, but he knows Octavia will save her no matter what.

Ok, so an exchange of money for life will be how they get out of this… the dagger! That thing is surely worth a fortune. If he can talk his way out of this using the money from the dagger given to him years ago by Theophanous, he can get out of this I believe… hey they are both Theos… damn it now is not the time to notice that!

I conveyed the idea to Cassius the best I could, and he realized that is an option. They have reached the edge of the wall, and some smooth talking to the guards allowed them to leave alone.

The campfire is definitely visible, they are burning something that makes the smoke pitch black. When she sees this Octavia freezes. She should, not only is she a child but she’s walking into a trap. I can tell she is a scaredy cat.

But this doesn’t stop her, she takes a glance at Cassius and walks forward. She was left all alone, Theophania was a mother to her…

It’s obvious she is going to go save her… obvious? Why did I use such a word? Would I have done the same for my mother?

The woods are dense, it’s a small patch, outside of the walls. The reason it was never cleared was because of the uneven footing making it impossible to haul lumber out. Glowing moss covered the ground, the trees were short compared to those in the forest outside of the capital, but still limited light heavily. Shrubbery got in the way of their walking.

After 15 minutes of walking through the forest, they saw it. A campsite alongside a creek. On one side stood a man in a cloak with a mask over his face. He had black hair and slightly tanned skin, he was muscular and had a scar over his left eye. He wore a sword at his waist.

Tied up by the fire was Theophania, gagged and squirming. I imagine she was telling them to run away. There were 2 more alongside the swordsman, an archer and a mace wielder. The swordsman’s voice was deep when he said,

“I thought I told you to come alone… no matter. You walk across the rocks there. They are slippery, but you’ll be fine if you fall. Stay put boy, I’ll kill you.”

Cassius, despite being a child was unphased by this threat. No, he was terrified, but he put on a bold front. He stepped in front of Octavia.

“Please wait, I don’t know what you are after, but please take this as compensation and leave all of us alone.” He took the dagger from his waist and showed it to the group. “It was made by a master elven smith for this prince of the United Elven Kingdom himself. It will surely be worth a fortune no matter where you sell it.”

“Sorry kid, but you can’t squirm your way out of this with money.”

“With this kind of money, you will be set for life! Can you not turn a blind eye to us?”

“I told you, kid, no. Now walk over little girl or I’ll kill the maid.”

Upon hearing this, Cassius made up his mind. He slammed his foot into the ground, creating an earthen wall to separate Theophania from the three men. He told Octavia to get behind him and drew his dagger. Cassius made up his mind, to kill or be killed, he will protect her.

“You just fucked up kid… all you had to do was turn the girl over and you could live… and by the way, don’t try to bargain when killing you and stealing the dagger is the obvious choice. As much as I hate to make the Arc-Knight of the kingdom my enemy, I’ll do what I gotta do.”

There really is no way to get out of this huh? I concentrate and draw all the mana I can up from Cassius… If he really is going to fight, I’ll do what I can.

The first spell is flamethrower. Flames blue, orange, and red shoot out from Cassius’ hand. Spraying all around the vicinity of the men.

“Take Theophania and run!” He instructs Octavia, who promptly agrees. She forsakes the rocks for wading through the creek. When she reached Theophania she untied her hands, but before she could get to her feet the mace wielder approached.

Second spell, ice bolt. His spell gets in between the man and Octavia. This slows him down just to cast spell three an extremely deep fog.

Fourth spell- no not fast enough. The swordsman appears beside Cassius while swinging his thin gladius upwards.

At that moment I was sure of it, Cassius would die, and there was nothing I could do… But just as the blade approached his neck another appeared. A familiar spatha wielded by a familiar 15-year-old blocked the attack. Julius appeared, and he was pissed.

Locked blade to blade with the swordsman he grumbled angrily,

“Who do you think you’re attacking?”

“The Arc-Knight… no he’s too young.”

“Close, I’m his son.”

“Aww, brother protecting brother, how touching.”

As they had this exchange, the girl and her maid emerged from the fog. As he saw this, Julius pushed his blade hard, throwing the swordsman off balance. Then, the opportunity came to kick him into the water. Seeing an opportunity, he leaped forward to finish him off, but an arrow came at him. He was fast enough to dodge, but only barely.

Eyeing down the archer, blade at the ready, Julius spoke,

“Cassius, take those two and run. Cast whatever spell you need to throw them off your trail and get away in time. I’ll hold off them off.”

“Brother let me fight too!”

“You caught them by surprise, that won’t happen again. You are useless, run away.”

Cassius took the words to heart. He knew Julius was telling the truth. Just before he took ran away with the girls he spoke the words to Julius.

“I love you brother.”

He ran.

Casting another fog, burning trees, and launching up a flare, he did everything to get them off his trail and draw the guards. Until he escaped the woods, notifying the men at the gate who promptly ran to support the young Julius.

Then, he cried. He is not the type to abandon his brother. But he knew if he stayed, he would just hold Julius back. Still, he felt that in his heart, he sentenced his brother to death.

...

Julius POV

Cassius and his fiancé escaped, along with the maid. I don’t know exactly what happened, I just followed them because I felt something was weird. I never imagined this though.

The first fog lifted, granting the mace wielder enough visibility to join the fight. The swordsman fell back behind the mace wielder. The archer stayed at the ready in the distance, waiting for me to leave an opening big enough to get a clean shot on me.

I steady my breathing. Gather my mana. Physical enhancement, as high enough of a level as possible.

“You sure you should have sent the boy off? Without his help, you’ll die!”

“Nah, I don’t need help to kill people on your level.”

I taunt back. But I don’t know if I can actually do this. I lied when I said Cassius would hold me back, but he seems to have believed me. I have never had a real fight before. Not against either monster or humans. I’ve only sparred.

But still, something tells me I can win… what is this overflowing confidence?

I step forward, looking the mace wielder in the eyes…

But

He is not my target.

I threw a knife at the swordsman behind him. My only dagger.

And leap over the river, I never knew I could jump this far. My left leg lands on the dirt. An arrow flies at me. But I anticipated the trajectory.

The arrow is parried, and I sprint forward. He draws another arrow but it’s too late. I swing my blade and the wooden bow shatters to pieces. But my blade does not stop, not until it cleanly removes the head from the bowman.

One down.

The swordsman is fast, even faster than me. If he did not have to parry the knife he could have gotten here before I did.

Still continuing the movement from when I chopped the first one's head off, I spin around and block his blade. The mace wielder runs up from behind him and swings his weapon.

The mace wielder is slow, but he is powerful… I can tell just by looking at him. There is no blocking that mace from reaching its target.

I leap back to near the edge of the open area. Even with the archer gone, I am still at a disadvantage. Individually, I could probably beat them. But together, they are beyond my level.

As I think that I remember my father. He can not cast magic. In almost every battle he went into, he was at a disadvantage.

Despite my confidence, will I still lose?

What would he do at times like this? There is no need to ask, I already know. When at a disadvantage physically, use your mind.

The terrain is suited poorly for agility-focused battles. The creek blocks my escape to the left. The trees around are thick, I can’t leap back without looking first. I don’t have any weapons other than my sword.

Creek?

“RAAAAUUUUUGHHHH”

The swordsman leaps with all his strength just as I stab my blade into the ground.

I then quickly push it up. Just before he reaches me mud is flung into his eyes. I use the opening to duck down, his blade misses, and I kick him out of the way. If I stabbed him, I wouldn’t have enough time to dodge the mace flying at my face.

The swordsman tries to regain his footing, to no avail. The terrain is manageable if you can see where you’re going, but he can’t see.

Just as a mace flies by my face he reaches to grab me with his left offhand. My blade was ready, I knew he would do that. I cut his left arm off and taking advantage of the fact that my sword was now above my head, I swung diagonally and cut off a second man’s head.

The swordsman at this point had wiped his eyes. He thought I would challenge him with my blade. So, I threw it at him. It swung side to side as it approached him. He had to duck low to avoid it.

His legs were still in the muddy creek, he did not have enough time to dodge my next attack. So, he blocked. The mace I stole from my previous victim easily shattered his small sword. His chest caved in from my attack.

“You… you fucking monster, to think, the Ark-Knights kid would be so…”

“You would have never been forced to face me if you left my brother and his friend alone. Now tell me, why did you turn your blade on him?”

“I... won’t… tell.”

“Then take your secrets to the afterlife.”

I finished him off, not before he cracked a smile. I follow his eyes. Hm… I’m bleeding. When did this happen? Ah, it was before Cassius ran. When I first engaged the swordsman, an arrow struck me at some point.

I was hit in the stomach.

The blood is warm. It didn't hurt until I noticed it.

It's bleeding quickly.

I’m losing consciousness.

Cassius