----------------------------------------------3rd Person POV----------------------------------------------

In the face of the somewhat tall rock wall. The bandit ambush team are left in awe.

As the other bandit group members tries to make a hole in the wall, the negotiator immediately relayed his orders.

"Everyone, stop pursuit. Gather all the wounded around here. Healers and medic, start with the critically injured. Bury the dead and loot the valuables. The management knows what you have and haven't, so don't even think of pocketing things to sell."
"Gin, is it alright not to follow him? We might be late but the combat team is on its way to intercept him. We could still help capture that dwarf magician."

As the negotiator is instructing his team, one of the leaders of a blockade ask him for their lack of action, while squatting down and peeling armours, weapons and supplies from a bandit corpse.

"It's fine, we who can use magic are rare outside the city walls. We incurred a lot of damages in this one fight. The boss would understand if we don't help. Let those muscle brained idiots do their work."
"Are you just saying that because you don't get along with the leader of the combat team?"
"That is part of the reason but no matter if we go or not, that idiot will complain either way. Start the signal that they escaped after you are done with that. We need to at least follow the procedures."
"So it's okay if the dwarf gets a head start?"
"It's fine, we wasted a lot of his mana. Even if he is a dwarf known for their sturdy defense, he won't be much of a problem against those mob of muscle brained idiots. Even if he did escape, the fact that we already softened him up down is a good defense for us. It would also work against that numskull to let go of a weakened magician."
"I guess it is."

As the blockade leader finished looting and burying the corpse, he bundled together a few pieces of wood and a bundle of leaves from the fallen trees as a result of the battle.

As the fire grew fiercer, the smoke eventually formed a column that towered above the wall, completely visible from the position of the oncoming reinforcements.

On the dust cloud rushing towards the ambush spot on the beach, the reinforcements spotted the signal that shows the target escaped but was weakened by the initial ambush team.

"Those soft bodied magicians. They can't even do their job properly!"

A huge boulder bodied bandit screamed loudly as he vigorously rush towards the ambush spot.

"You bastards! We will intercept the escaped prey! The dwarf better not escape! The magic group should have forced the target to use up most of his mana but don't expect too much! It is the magic group we are talking about! Attack with all you have! Show that dwarf magician the power of our combat team!!"
"""Yes, sir!"""

A unison of powerful reply responded to their leader's declaration.

"This is why you can't trust magicians. They throw a couple of magic and they're done. You can't rely on something that loses its effectiveness that fast. Look at these arms, these legs, this body of mine. These could endure the full battle until I win or die!!"

As the golem-like bandit was boasting about his muscles while posing, while running. A small dust cloud rose just behind a couple of boulders.

Pushing himself with an explosive step every few metres as the wind propels him forward with astonishing speed, is the target of all the bandits in the area. The dwarf magician who hasn't introduced himself to his pursuers.

"Haha, there he goes! Looks like he has a lot of pep in his step. Looks like I was right, those damn slackers didn't do a damn thing!! Everyone, stop!"

An instant smokescreen appeared as a hundred or so brawny bandits came to a halt. Each one hulking over the common men and women, while holding clubs meant to disable the dwarf and not accidentally kill him.

"All right, the rat is escaping this way. Everyone spread out, only attack in groups of five while blocking his possible escape paths! When the engaging group is disadvantaged, retreat and let other groups to take over. The one behind the dwarf would replace in the engagement. Remember, we are not here to kill him but to capture him, however, we can soften him up so it would be easier to persuade him back at the base. Let us give the interrogators at the base a little help, This little bit of work is nothing for us in the combat team. You ready, you bastards!!!"
"Yes, sir!!"

As soon as the leader is done instructing them on the general strategy, they bursted out of the dust cloud and spread out with the leader at the centre.

"You won't escape dwarf magician!!!"

The leader screamed as he spread his arms while charging towards the dwarf, preparing to tackle and hold him down.

His team members are now spread in group of fives spread on either of his side like the extension of his spread arms to capture the dwarf.

Meanwhile, the targeted dwarf has already spotted the oncoming charge of the reinforcements. His mana is still low from fighting against the magic team but thanks to the mana regenerating accessory he got from the auction, he is steadily recovering. However, as the equipment is a percent scaling type, the dwarf who only has a decent amount of mana can't spam huge spells like he did during the ambush at the beach.

As things would be extremely disadvantageous to him if he clashed against combat specialist, he tried avoiding them by going to the far left but the speed and the spread of the reinforcements are too much for brill to avoid. Neither the left nor right flank gets closer when he charges in either directions.

The reinforcements in front of him react much better than the magic team that would run away if the negotiator isn't taking control of the situation. Seeing this, he stopped in his magic powered dash in an effort to recover stamina and mana for the inevitable fight.

Tsk, They are matching my movements with that golem at the middle. The formation is a mess, their weapons are poor and they barely have an armour. They won't stand a chance against a proper army a quarter their numbers but they are more than enough to capture me. I already got the kid as a prospect for my future lives, I can't let him die here like this. If he dies here then this whole thing would just be pointless. ,is what he thought while glaring heavily on the huge bear hug coming his way.

"Kid, it looks like we have to part here. I'll give you some money to enter the gate. Your bloodline is too unclear so I would advise you against trying to enter to the other continents. The gate guardians would squash you before you can even breathe air, why not establish a business in the walled city?"
"...But what about mister?"

The young kid matured from the delusion of his, and his father's situation, when he met the dwarf. He raged, sough revenge, and eventually hoped about his new future, especially now that the man who changed his family's life is now bits and pieces at the beach. However, hearing this sudden encouragement from the dwarf shocked him. His newly found hope of a new life after revenge, in being part of the secret organization that spans multiple continent, is slowly crumbling.

After freeing himself from a high death toll job of a bandit delivery boy, he wondered his next job would be a high fatigue labour job until he dies. Most importantly, he wondered if he would lose his mentor, the person who brought him out of his delusion and his new source of hope.

"Don't go clinging to me like that. I'm not your new father. You are free now, do what you will. I thought you grew up during this past few days but it looks like it would take a while. Listen to me! Don't use other people as a crutch to help you stand because the moment you lose them, you yourself would forget how to move forward. My organization doesn't need someone who needs to be babied their whole life. You already passed my assessment and I can see that you can prove yourself useful, so I don't care if you have to crawl your way through but at the very least prove that you can move forward by yourself!"
"I-I-I, I will! I can! You can count on me!"

As the dwarf forcefully negated the young man's reliance on him, he was then ready to live on for himself. Ambition now flooded him, not to be useful to the organization but to contribute to the ones who saved him from an early death outside the city walls while still dreaming of a reunion with his father that would never come to be.

"I never got to ask you before but what is your name?"
"..Me and my father has the same name. My father said he and my mother would likely not own anything so the only thing they could give me was their name. I'm Greg Hantel."
"Good, here are all the gold I have on me right now. Use it to pass through the gate and be a citizen of the walled city. Set aside some money for your living necessities and use the remaining money to start a business. You have a few things that you need to pay attention to. One, the organization are an elite few. Don't give up information about us no matter what."

As he was explaining, the reinforcing bandits are getting closer and closer. Noticing that he doesn't have enough time, he quickly pulled out a pouch full of gold. Next, he pulled out an insignia carved into a wooden plank, which he made when he was drunk and celebrating on the completion of his traps and defenses.

I never thought this improvised fort symbol would come in handy. It looks like I have to make an improved version of this in some kind of badge. Luckily, I made a few pieces of this, one for the gate and one for my house. I'm sure I can make a more official one when I visit him next time. ,Indeed, his moment of childish glee at making a fort in real life, combined with his drunken stupor gave birth to this insignia of a spiky turtle with a single tree on its back, covered with thorns while biting a dragon in it's mouth. He created it to act as a welcome sign for his farm, much like the grape and wine sign of the local winery but was ambushed by the princess before he could put it up.

"Two, I need you to pay attention to the hero's temple. Don't participate, I just want you to note down what kind of people failed, what kind of act they did and the same goes for those who passed."

As he list down some guidelines for kid greg, the oncoming bandits are getting closer and closer, in lest than 10 minuted, they would envelop the whole area and there would be no hope for escape.

"Tsk, They are almost here. Alright, the final thing. Even if you are part of the organization, you don't need to devote yourself to the missions. Like I said before, make a business in the city. This could help the organization but its more of a way for you to make a livelihood. Find friends, love ones, and have a family someday. The gold I gave you would eventually run out. Your parents could only pass down your name, why not pass it down along your business to your kids. Don't worry about the organization, we will contact you if we need something. You are still a recruit after all, you are on a temporary probation before can allow you to know all about us. Understand?"
"Yes!! I won't let you down!"
"Don't cry, you still need to escape to the gates. I will run to the far right over there. You run to the far left and try to circle around them. Dash straight to the gate. Don't worry about me, I can survive this. I'll visit the core in a few days before I leave this central island. I'll see you then. Ah, before I forget. The main reason for our organizations existence is to discover the truth about the hero summoning and why it happens. The world is at peace yet heroes still appear and every time they show up, the world changes with them. I'm not against the hero but most heroes want to return back home, so we want to help them return."
"..Hero...Saving...Truth! I understand, I will do my best to help!"
"Good, now run!"

[Wind]

As the tale of righteousness, made on the spot by the lying dwarf, begin to fascinate the kid and fill him with a new sense of pride, the sudden signal followed by the large blow of hair woke him up to the still dangerous situation before them.

As the ground was relatively dry on the current terrain a burst of debris was lifted with the magic but it wasn't enough to cloud out the whole area of the battlefield.

"Hmmp, As expected of a magician. You think magic will solve all your problems? Haah, this is not enough if you want to escape. Everyone!! Don't lose sight of him!"
"Raaaaaaggghhhhh!!"

Their thunderous war cry echoed on the field as they veered towards the direction the dwarf run to. However, they didn't notice the small shadow escaping their net. Not that they would care since the only target is the dwarf magician but if the negotiator was still following them, he might capture the kid as a bargaining tool to make the dwarf easier to make a deal with.

He is running with his fastest speed but with his poor physique and short legs, it is still taking a long time to go around the charge of the combat team. However, the combat team is chasing the dwarf running on the opposite direction which would eventually give the kid a good space to escape through.

The dwarf, seeing this, smiles happily as he put more power to his dash in an effort to make a wider space for the kid to escape.

More than five minutes have passed, the kid already cleared the wide bandit net made of the combat team and is on his way towards the gate. The clash between the combat team and the dwarf was about to happen with the combat team leader taking the first attack, as his subordinates surround the dwarf waiting for their turn to fight.

"I finally have you, you little mouse. Don't think you can escape us. hahaha!"
"Isn't it normal to introduce yourself first? I though your group wanted me to do some-"

As he was trying to buy more time to make sure they won't catch up to the kid when he escapes, the team leader suddenly lunges toward him with arms open ready to capture him but he evaded it by ducking under his arms, taking advantage of the size difference between them.

"Haah! Enough talking, we can do all that troublesome stuff after we have you in our custody!"
"Wait, I think you are going too agress--"

For the second time, the hulking leader of the combat team tried to tackle the stalling dwarf, and he evaded it again. Quickly realizing that he can't distract this bandit like what he did to the negotiator, he changed tactic and decided to delay the fight as long as possible.

Every time the combat team leader charges, he ducks to the side and evade. This went on for ten minutes before the combat team leader suddenly jumped back into the encirclement.

"Huh?"
"Hah!!"

*Whack*x2

Confused, the dwarf kept staring at the combat team leader but suddenly heard a group of people charging behind him. Surprised by the sudden attack, he couldn't react in time and suffered a couple of club strikes on his back.

"He is stalling for time. He keeps looking towards the gate so either a reinforcement is coming or he sent someone ahead. He also isn't that good at battle. It might be due to him buying time but he didn't throw a single attack despite me goading him on, I even slowed down from time to time to leave an opening. This is too boring for me, you guys go and have fun. Oi, those at the back scout the way towards the gate. If you notice anything unusual, signal us right away."

It looks like this bandit isn't a boar that mindlessly charge to his enemies but an elephant studying my every moves. I can't let them leave yet. ,thought the dwarf as he slightly panics about his situation.

[Wind Slash]x5

In an effort to take the attention of the combat team, the surrounded dwarf randomly fired wind magic projectiles but the power of each slash is only enough to give them shallow wounds that bleed a little, if it doesn't hit their leather armours. However, the only one who paid attention to him are the group of five fighting him. The group at the back are lightening their load and started to camouflage themselves to scout the the gate.

Thinking that he needs to make them occupied with himself more, the dwarf decided to fight them seriously. He wanted to save some extra mana to use as another big diversion and speed boost but the situation calls for him to use it all on offense and take down as many as possible.

As he was readying to let loose, the group of five retreated and the next group of five behind him suddenly attacked. However, the dwarf already have his guard up so he easily evaded every attack and even stole a club from one of the five.

Not giving time for the five to react, he immediately jumped the bandit he stole the club from and proceeded to swing the club like a baseball bat, almost sending the bandit's head off. It might not have been enough to send his head flying but enough to kill him. The other four noticing their fallen companion rushed towards the dwarf, one aiming for his head to force him to defend, two attacking his thigh to limit his mobility and the last one encircling to his back by using the blind spot created by the bandit aiming for his head.

The attack was well timed and well coordinated, any normal opponent would be too occupied to block their face, and even if the opponent could defend, the strength of three people would be enough to break their defense and the sneak attack from behind would sandwich the force of the attack instantly disabling, or killing, the target. However, the target being almost half their size proved a difficult problem for their attack, as their combined attacks are crowding a limited area. They are trying to combine their attacks but brill's small build along with him lowering his stance made the club attack of the bandits stack like a wall.

Brill was used to being attacked by a group during his stay at the knight academy, so he was calm and collected even in this situation. As they were attacking him, he heard the sound of one of them running behind him so he threw the club he stole from the bandit to distract him and took a fast back-step to escape the attack from the front. He took out a double-headed war hammer that is about as tall as him from his storage, it has a round hammer head and decorated in silver engravings, and has a distinct purple crystal between the hammers near the end of the shaft. He then proceeded to attack the bandit at the front. As they just swung their clubs at the dwarf and missed, they are left open for a couple of seconds. Using that chance, he swung the hammer at the head of the bandit that was aiming for his head. The force of the hammer mashed the bandit's head making it look like a squashed tomato.

The other three not minding the death of their teammate resumed attack. They positioned themselves in front, and to both his sides but before they could charge, the dwarf rushed to the one in front of him and swung his hammer but the bandit evaded the hammer, so it connected to the ground. The two at his side proceeded to attack him from behind but they underestimated the strength of the dwarf because by the time they approached him, he was already mid swing to his right. The hammer connected to the bandit's chest, caving it in but he was hit behind with the club. However, the his attack couldn't make the dwarf, who trained his defence and pain tolerance every vacation, to flinch. After losing 3 out of 5 of the team, the remaining two retreated so the other group could take over.

[Earth Wall]x2

As the next five bandits behind him tried to charge and the two bandit in front of him tried to run, he blocked their paths and swung his hammer at the waist of one of the escaping two and stomped on the leg of the other one, and proceeds to smash their heads next.

"Cancel the scouts, Cancel the teams!! Everyone attack but don't attack at the same time!! Stack the attack so you won't block each other!! Forget about taking turns and attack him continuously! Don't give him the chance to breathe!"

As the battle rages on, the dwarf kept taking down one bandit after another. He tried to keep the mana usage to a minimum but the sheer amount of enemies made him use it to heal, block, and sometimes crowd-control them to avoid getting captured.

Finally, after at least half an hour of fighting, less than half of the combat team remains.

Thanks to his [Holy Armour] all injuries are slowly being healed and thanks to his [Glorious Stamina], he could fight for hours before showing signs of fatigue.

"It looks like you are properly warmed up. Are you going to take our fight seriously now, I wonder?!?!?", and with that shout, the leader fo the combat team rushed towards the dwarf who was watching his enemies to see who would attack.
"Thanks but I think I wasted enough time as it is."

[Inferno]

When he received the [Master Element Mastery], the first thing he did was look up this particular spell that the princess used to corner him.

A large amount of flame blazed the whole area with brill as the centre. This showed that he hasn't grasped how to control it as he hasn't had time to practice it, and so, with him as the centre, all around him was bathed in the flames.

"Aghhh!!!"
"Water, water!!"
"haaaaaahhh!!"

The bandits are panicking as they can't do anything to defend. Panic and fright spread to the battlefield.

"Dig!! Everyone Dig!!! Dig as deep as you can then tunnel outside!!"

Although a litte panicked, the leader is still doing his job as the leader and instructed his subordinates to do the only thing they could for safety.

Meanwhile, brill was the centre of the blaze but thanks to dwarfs being born with a natural [Fire Resistance], and further strengthening that with years of standing in front of the forge, made it only lightly effective against him. If he does suffer from a burn, the [Holy Armour] cladding his body would be enough to heal him. The only problem would be not having any air to breathe but his stamina could handle not breathing for hours before fainting.

In other words, while the enemies are trying to escape the flames, he used it as a distraction to escape this place as soon as possible.

He ran towards the gate but he didn't see the boy. Thinking he safely entered inside the gate thanks to him buying time, he sighs in relief as he lines up for the returnee's side of the inspection.

"Please show me your ticket's. Hmm, I see that you came out of the death arena. I'll just need to check your I.D. to make sure this ticket isn't stolen."
"Is that why there are a lot of people in line for the returnee and barely none in the newcomer gate?"
"Ah, thank you for waiting, I checked your I.D. and it is yours. It is true that more outsiders would likely to use a looted pass from someone who came from the inside rather than pay for the newcomer fee. They are too stingy to use that money to enter, Even today only a little kid entered by paying. He probably stole it from someone since he was running with all his might, outside the city really is a place for a bunch of lawless brutes. To think they start their criminal ways that young too."
"I see, thanks for that. Can I enter now?"
"Ah, yes, everything checks out. Please enter, have a good stay."

Now that he unexpectedly learned that the kid safely entered the city, he has one less thing to worry about so he head directly towards the inn to rest.