Chương 47: Chapter 46: Brewing Battle, Baby Concerns

The last villager hurried through the church doors, and several older men immediately shoved them closed behind her. Wood struck wood as the bar dropped into place. Ren's heartbeat hammered harder against his ribs. He had known this moment was coming, prepared for it, and had lived through versions of it before. It was something he should be ready for… Yet his body apparently did not care. Experience merely made it a little easier to look past the immediate threat.

The hurried voices outside became muffled behind thick wood, and Ren twisted one hand into Elna's dress before reaching sideways until he found Tessa. She squeezed his fingers immediately. Ren squeezed back. Elna's arm closed more firmly around both of them. The church was crowded. Families packed the benches and the open floor between them, children pressed against parents while older villagers murmured among themselves.

Bundles of food, blankets, water, and whatever else people had managed to bring rested beneath seats and against the walls. Ren shifted in Elna's arms until he could see the entrance properly. Additional boards had been braced across the doors, with heavy furniture dragged close enough to reinforce them if the first barrier failed. Another change from the past loop, undoubtedly influenced by Hadrik. It was surprising how even simply informing the man about the invasion and big goblins could affect so much.

Butterfly effect in action, baby! Ren's racing heart calmed down, and his grip on Elna's dress loosened slightly. And with nothing better to do, he started looking around, looking for the familiar figure of his Master. For any hint of Little Yara's dark hair tied with red thread. Or her small, serious figure. Probably looking busy even now! He searched past the bodies between Elna and the far wall. But she wasn't there. He leaned farther to one side.

Elna adjusted him automatically before he could get much of a better angle. Still nothing. Ren could walk now, talk well enough to make adults uncomfortable, scheme, hide, and manipulate mana. So obviously seeing over people remained beyond him. Typical. He still wondered where his Master was. Little Yara could simply be deeper inside the church. There were places Ren could not see from their location, and half the crowd vanished behind somebody's back whenever Elna shifted.

Or his little Master might have sheltered somewhere else. Ren's fingers tightened again. Her house was well outside the village proper. If the goblins approached it before getting to the village proper– But Little Yara had told him not to worry about her. So Ren tried not to. … Though that move wasn't very effective. Still, she had been preparing medicine for the whole village, making charms as he suggested, and keeping training tools around for students she did not even have yet.

If Little Yara said she had somewhere safe to be, Ren had considerably more reason to trust her planning than whatever his imagination was currently producing. Tessa leaned harder into Elna's side, and Ren realized he had started squeezing her hand again. He eased his grip. He needed something else to think about before he spent the next hour inventing increasingly terrible things that might be happening to his capable little master. Ren opened his Status.

[Status] Name: Ren Marric Level: 5 [463/1600 EXP] Unspent Stat Points: 0 Attributes: Strength: 7 Dexterity: 7 Balance: 3 Vitality: 5 Intelligence: 9 Willpower: 6 Concentration: 8 Knowledge: 3 Resources: This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Health: 50/50 Stamina: 41/41 Mana: 10/37 Focus: 12/24 Skills: Discipline Lv. 8 Observation Lv. 9 Listening Lv. 6 Memory Lv. 8 Calculate Lv. 3 Athletics Lv. 14 – Initiate Language Lv. 16 – Initiate Expression Lv.

13 – Initiate Mana Sense Lv. 11 – Initiate Mana Manipulation Lv. 10 – Initiate Interpretation Lv. 6 Appraisal Lv. 9 Sleeping Lv. 9 Composure Lv. 7 Analysis Lv. 5 Planning Lv. 12 – Initiate Body Conditioning Lv. 7 Resting Lv. 10 – Initiate Throwing Lv. 5 Stealth Lv. 2 Flexibility Lv. 5 Numbers had the great advantage of staying where he put them, and that calmed Ren down. No matter what happened during the loops, the System was a constant he could rely on.

Ren still had plenty to learn, but compared with the fumbling baby controls he had started with so long ago, the improvement was enormous. He also had to admit that it was Tessa's and Little Yara's handiwork as much as his own. The thought of his Master brought his attention back to Elna's basket. Two wrapped charms sat beneath cloth and emergency supplies. His master's magical grenades!

Ren still felt an inappropriate flicker of pride whenever he remembered that she had actually made them, simply because he had rambled on the distant possibility of such being useful. However unlikely they were to actually use them. The problem was that the church gave them very little room to use anything designed to explode, flash, or release force. Stone walls surrounded them, and villagers filled nearly every usable stretch of floor.

If the charms became necessary, they needed some idea of what was happening outside and somewhere safe to throw them. Ren looked toward the doors again and realized how little he could actually tell from down here. The battle was hidden from him, and so was the road. More importantly, so was Bren. His father was somewhere outside with the defenders. Ren's gaze moved around the church until it caught on the narrow stairs climbing along one wall.

The building stood only slightly taller than the surrounding houses, but the upper floor should still give him a better view than Elna's shoulder and a room full of frightened villagers. He tugged her sleeve and pointed. His mom followed his hand toward the stairs, though she hesitated instead of moving. Ren kept quiet. His family already knew what he could do. The rest of the village did not need to hear a baby suggesting better battlefield observation positions while they waited for goblins to arrive.

Tessa understood anyway.

"We can see from upstairs," she whispered. Before Elna could answer, a voice rose from the front of the church. Ren turned toward Sister Calia standing near the gathered villagers. He knew little about her beyond what other people had said and the few times he had seen her during earlier loops. Apparently repeatedly dying before learning much about the local church had left a gap in his education. She was praying now, her steady voice carrying beneath the anxious murmurs around the room.

Several villagers joined her while others simply listened. After a little while, Ren realized he was breathing more easily. The fear and anxiety had not disappeared entirely. His heart still beat too fast, and his fingers were still wrapped around Tessa's hand, but the emotions no longer pressed quite so tightly against his chest. Conversations around them quieted. A crying child settled against his mother's shoulder, and Tessa's grip loosened enough for Ren to notice.

He looked back toward Calia, wondering what it was about. A skill, perhaps? Or faith itself doing something? It was certainly in the realm of possibilities, assuming it was even a thing that the System tracked. Then again, there was magic here, so why not the power of the divine too? Another thing to investigate later. Goblins were already approaching the village, so local theology would have to survive without his immediate attention. Elna adjusted Ren against her hip.

"All right," she murmured.

"Upstairs." Tessa stayed close as they moved. The upper floor was smaller than Ren expected, mostly storage and a few rooms tucked beneath the roof, but the windows were exactly what he needed. Elna carried him to one overlooking the village, and Ren leaned forward until her hold stopped him from going any farther. Defenders waited behind the prepared positions while barricades blocked the easiest approaches between buildings.

A few villagers carried water and supplies behind them, and he could see smoke already rising from a distant part of the village. For several seconds, nothing moved beyond the outer houses. Then the goblins arrived. Ren's fingers tightened in Elna's dress as the first green-skinned shapes appeared between the outer houses. They were still far enough away that individual movements blurred together, little more than quick figures spreading into the village streets.

Ren leaned forward as far as Elna's hold allowed, trying to keep them in sight whenever roofs and walls swallowed them. Too far out to matter yet. The defenders were waiting much closer to the center, behind the barricades Ren could actually see from the church. Waiting for the invaders to come to them. More goblins slipped between the houses. Ren lost some of them almost immediately and hated that. The battle hadn't even begun and it was already proving to be a challenge to keep track of everybody.

Especially when half the village consisted of roofs, walls, smoke, and narrow gaps that showed him exactly enough to worry. Just not quite enough to know how much to worry exactly. The unknown really was the worst. Then the first goblins reached the outer barricades. Ren's grip tightened again. A spear thrust through one of the gaps. The goblin jerked backward and disappeared. Another tried to climb over and caught a stone to the face hard enough to send it tumbling down the far side.

More shapes crowded behind them, but now the defenders were moving too, shifting along the line. Tessa leaned closer to the window and pointed at another couple of goblins getting speared.

"We are winning!" Ren kept watching. Winning was ambitious. Although the first group was slowly getting obliterated with no casualties. Things were looking good! A few goblins peeled away from the barricade and vanished between buildings. Ren tracked one long enough to see it reappear farther along the line, where several defenders shifted to meet it. Another threw a burning stick onto the edge of a roof. Too far from anybody to react. But countermeasures were taken before, and the fire didn't spread far.

Ren's attention left the fire almost immediately. A roof could burn, and a wall could fall. The material things could be rebuilt. They just had to survive to fix it later. He caught more movement arriving. A larger shape stepped into one of the gaps between the houses. Another followed it. And another. The second wave was here, and the battle for survival began once again.