Physics The Greatest Magic

Chapter 15 - 16: Bandit Raid

It had been 6 days since they had started travelling. So far, they hadn't encountered any other monsters, and they continued to use the frozen meat and other fruits as food. For water, they relied on John's water magic.

To be honest, John wasn't sure if his water was clean or drinkable, so he would use ignis to heat it up and filter it.

So far, the journey has been great for them. Yesterday they finally got out of the forest and now all that they could see around was mountains and wild animals.

John didn't know what kind of animals they were, but David said they were neutral and won't attack needlessly.

'Tomorrow we'll finally Arrive at Atlas, I'm so excited!' John thought.

"John, are you listening?" Ariel asked.

"Wha- Yes?" John replied.

"I was asking, who's turn will it be to go on a lookout tonight." Ariel questioned.

Ariel seemed as if she really wanted to keep watch. John wasn't sure why, but he was guessing that it was her way of helping. After the first day, since John didn't end up waking her up for her turn to keep watch, she got really mad, so now they take 4 hour turns.

But since they can't tell the time, it usually ends up being inconsistent. 

"Would you please go first today?" John politely asked.

"Of course, you can count on me." Ariel said with a proud expression.

"Than-" 

Before John could finish the carriage stopped. The sun hadn't set yet, and the horses had already taken a break, so John was confused.

"John! Ariel! Bandit's a lot of them." David shouted.

'Oh, so it's finally time. I was wondering when there would have been a bandit development and honestly...' John wondered with a little excitement.

"I was starting to get bored." He said.

John told Ariel his plan, and they walked out of the carriage and stood at the front.

"Uhm.. Bandits. If you do not wish to die a meaningless death, turn around. This carriage barely contains anything. Do not waste your troops!" John arrogantly said.

The bandits let out a loud laugh as they saw 2 kids start talking about them dying. There were around 7 of them on the hill to their left and 8 of them on the hill to the right. All of them had Bows pointed at the carriage.

The hills were around 50 meters away from the carriage; it seemed like a good spot to raid people if they ever went under or through the middle. John knew it was suspicious.

They weren't shooting at the horses because they thought that they had resigned since they weren't moving. Horses were worth a lot, after all.

Ignoring John's warning, the bandits began to approach them. The 7 of the left rushed at them with their sword while the 8 on the right kept watching with the bows.

John already knew that bandits were coming since.

"Um David.." John said.

"What's wrong? You can't beat them?" He replied.

"Uh no not that, it's just I'm going to do something I tried when everyone was asleep, so don't worry," John said.

"Alright, let's see what you can do," David replied.

"Okay. Sphaera Glacies" John muttered.

On the instant John said the word, a Sphere of ice slowly started to rise from the ground around the carriage, covering both the carriage and the horse.

It was difficult to explain how it looked. You weren't able to tell that it was forming a sphere at the beginning, since it didn't instantly cover the top. It waited for the circular walls to reach the top before covering it.

This spell was really hard to learn, not to mention secretly too. It took 4 days to actually properly use it. But now, as long as John knows what radius he wants, he can form any sphere as long as it's not too far from him. He might even be able to improve the distance over time.

"Well then, what do I do with them?" John asked himself.

John wasn't planning on killing them. There was no reason to, and he didn't think he'd be able to bear that thought. John also told Ariel not to kill anyone, and that they were only going to subdue them and sell them off to the guild if they could.

"What are you guys waiting for!! ATTACK!!" Said one of the bandits on the hill alongside the archers.

The 7 bandits who had stopped in their tracks after seeing the ice sphere form began to rush at them.

"Ariel! You ready?" John asked.

"Yes!" Ariel said as she nodded.

Ariel, in her casting position, waited for his signal.

"Now!" John said.

"Ventus tormentum" Ariel muttered.

Ariel wasn't able to use Ignis or Glacies. She wasn't able to properly grasp the composition of water as she didn't exactly know what was hydrogen. As for ignis, the moment John mentioned Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour, she looked lost.

On the instant she muttered those words, the pressure in the air in front of them increased and expanded before bursting towards the direction of the bandits at high speeds. Without knowing how to react, they tried to dodge, but it was too late.

They got hit by an overwhelming pressure which caused them to get flung back to the wall of the hill. After hitting the wall, some fell unconscious while others looked immobilised.

"Whoa..." John unintentionally let out.

Ariel's inability to use other elements of magic is precisely that which makes her wind magic this strong. Instead of focusing on improving control with all the elements except for earth at once like John. She had been focusing solely on improving her control with 'Ventus'.

So John decided to teach her the only other wind spell he had created. Wind cannon 'ventus tormentum'. While John could use it, he never expected her to be able to learn it too. John explained the process to her 4 days ago, yet somehow she was able to execute it perfectly.

John only managed to learn how to use it the day before yesterday, despite already knowing the concept. 

'She has immense talent.. I'm looking forward to seeing what she looks like in the future.' John thought.

"That was amazing, Ariel!" John said.

Ariel, who seemed surprised at what she did, showed him a pleased smile before collapsing to her knees.

"Are you out of energy?" John asked.

"Yes.." She said.

"That's fine, you already took out half of them, get some rest inside, with David." Ariel nodded as John princess carried her to the sphere.

John placed his hand on the ice and a hole big enough to fit both of them in opened. The remaining Archer bandits who froze after seeing Ariel's wind cannon had now started shooting arrows at their ice cube. But it was useless, puny arrows would barely scratch it.

John laid Ariel down on the back of the carriage and turned to David.

"Wait just a moment. Their boss has been hiding, and he doesn't look like he'll come out anytime soon, so just sit back and relax."

David wordlessly stared at John and just nodded his head. As if he has seen something that shocked him.

John didn't pay too much attention to it and walked out of the ice sphere.

"You idiots!! Aim at the kid. Don't let him approach us!!" The leader shouted.

"So you're the leader..." said John.

The leader stood in between the archers. With magic perception and deprehendre, John could tell that he was a lot stronger than the rest of them.

John activated magic strengthening and began to rush to the hill where the other 8 bandits were. Seeing him run towards them, they desperately tried to hit him with arrows, but he managed to avoid all of them while he ran up the hill.

Shortly after, John was standing in front of them.

"So... Is that all? Well, it's good that you're all here, I wanted to try the last spell I learnt after all this time. It was the easiest one to learn." John stated.

The bandits looked frightened and confused at what John was saying.

"Well, aren't you going to attack?" John asked.

The bandit leader shouted, "Attack!!!" as he heard his question.

The bandits, who were frozen in fear, slowly recomposed themselves and hesitantly began to rush at him, while the leader stood there watching.

'I'm not supposed to kill them, and Glacies wastes quite a bit of energy so I'm glad I learnt this.' John thought.

John stood still as he waited for the bandits to attack him. The first guy to attack swung his dagger diagonally at John, which he easily evaded as he tilted his body to the right.

"Glacio" He muttered as he placed his hand on his chest before pushing him to the ground.

The part of his body that John had touched was frozen, the ice slowly began to spread through his body. He tried to break it off, but it was impossible. The way you could get rid of his ice was through fire. John had learnt that the hard way.

The other bandits now hesitated to approach him after seeing what was happening to their comrade.

"What are you guys doing, Huh!? Can't you tell that the kid is afraid of killing you?! He hasn't even pulled out his daggers, Don't show mercy." Yelled the leader.

Hearing his words, the bandits regained their morale and began to rush at John together. He evaded all of their hits and managed to touch all of them and activate glacio.

"Tch, useless fools." Said the bandit leader with a grin on his face.

John stared at him, trying to figure out what he was grinning, and noticed while using magic perception that one of the guys John hit with glacio got up and swung their dagger at him.

"Scutum glacies".

The man who felt contact with his dagger didn't hit John, but his shield instead. Shortly after, an expression of terror filled his face as the ice on his shield began to expand throughout his arm and body.

John made sure not to freeze his head, only his body, so there wasn't any risk of him dying. He did the same for all of them, ice was enveloped throughout their whole body as they remained motionless on the ground. The fight had been over in an instant.

"Come." Said the bandit leader with a grin on his face.

"You come to me, I'll wipe that grin off your face." John coldly replied.

"Don't underestimate me kid.. I'm not like those guys." He said as he pulled out his dagger.

"You're right. Even if I end up causing a lethal wound, it should be fine as long as I freeze it up." John said as he pulled out his daggers and began to circulate magic through them.

They stared at each other for what felt like minutes. The first to make a move was him. He rushed towards John and began swinging his dagger without rest in an attempt to land a hit on him. John easily evaded each swing by barely tilting his body.

"Is that all? Why don't you stop holding back? You realise what will happen if you get hit by my ice spell, right?" John said.

The man whose expression changed from a grin to that of anger started to speed up.

"That's better. Looks like you're finally strengthening yourself with magic. But you're still slow. I'm guessing the more magic you add to yourself, the stronger the strengthening. I always add a small steady amount, I wonder what happens if I add more, I'll try that out later ". John said.

John continued to dodge his blows as he talked to himself.

"Well then, I guess it's my turn." John spoke.

John parried his swing with his dagger and that caused him to go off balance, John then landed a spinning kick on his left rib. It happened so fast that he wasn't able to block it. This was a move that John copied from the guy who cheated in his fight.

The guy dropped down as he spat out blood.

"Is that it? I was expecting more.. The B-Rank adventurer must've been very strong then.. Well, Sleep well!" John taunted.

"Curse yo-" The leader cursed.

Before he could finish, John hit his head with the tilt of his dagger and knocked him out. He then casted glacies and froze the rest of his body.

"Hm.. That was unexpected. I was actually hoping for a better fight, I was even excited to try out my 'Ignis' For the first time in a fight.. I guess bandits will always be weak, whether it's the boss or not." John spoke to himself.

He knocked out all the bandits that he had frozen and unfroze them so that they wouldn't freeze to death, while they were unconscious and then dragged the bandit boss to the carriage.

The bandits that Ariel had knocked down were still motionless on the ground. John made sure to check whether or not they were alive and they were. He did this so that Ariel wouldn't worry about having killed someone without knowing.

After making sure they were alive, John got rid of the Ice Sphere he had created to protect the carriage and explained what happened to David.

"Well done, thank you for protecting us." He said with a perplexed expression.

David probably didn't know what to think. A kid had managed to take out a bandit group. 

'That surely that's probably uncommon.' Surmised John.

John went to check on Ariel and she was asleep. 

'She must've used up quite a lot of energy.' John thought.

"She tried her best to stay awake in case you might need help," Said David.

"Haha, that sounds just like her." John replied.

"Yeah.. Something's been bothering me..." David said.

"What's wrong..?" John asked.

"Who's that man that you've been dragging around all this time?"

"Oh, this? This is the bandit leader. I'm hoping that he might have some sort of bounty on him at the guild since he was pretty strong. We're going to make a fair amount from all this wolf pelt, so it wouldn't hurt to make some more from a bounty." John straightforwardly said.

David let out a loud laugh before saying, "That's a good idea. Haha".

John placed the frozen man on the back of the carriage and got on. Shortly after, the carriage began to move again, and they continued the journey while acting as if nothing had happened.

'Man... I can't wait to reach Atlas!' John thought with excitement.