"Preston!"
"Father!"
Some hundreds of meters away from the manor, in the middle of the wide street, Cleodana, Kiely, and Herman watched Preston getting torn apart and swallowed by the horrifying beast. They teared up and screamed in pain and sorrow.
All around them, many people saw their town's mayor getting brutally killed and were heartbroken, but they didn't dare to stop and rushed toward the town's exit gates.
At this moment, they heard a loud rumble from one side of the road and noticed the stone buildings being knocked down while countless people screamed in pain.
Soon, they all saw the figure of a giant gray beast, which looked a lot like a rhino. It was nearly as big as an adult elephant with two nearly two-meter-long horns on its nose, charging and destroying houses and buildings while killing whichever humans it saw. It was so huge and heavy that whenever it moved, the entire street trembled. Countless people were either stabbed by its long horns or trampled to death under its thick legs.
Everyone paled watching the scene. They were so horrified that they froze on the spot. The aura of the beast was filled with so much bloodlust that they felt there was no escape—only death.
However, they soon snapped out of it upon hearing the cries of the dying people and buildings crumbling. They all screamed in desperation and fled madly in whichever directions they could.
Seeing so many people running down the wide street, a deep desire to impale and trample them all erupted inside the raging rhino.
The raging rhino was a species that loved charging and stabbing anything in front of it with its horn. It loved destruction, and thus it was named as such.
Cleodana also noticed the rhino, and it was heading their way. What's worse, it had locked onto her mana wielder's presence.
Kiely and Herman completely froze, watching the brutality of the beast. It was their first time seeing a mana beast so close, experiencing its presence with their entire beings. They were just eight years old, so they were filled with so much despair and horror that their brains and bodies completely shut down.
Not only that—the desperate cries of people, the scent of blood, urine, and sweat, and the ferocity of an unstoppable, giant beast—all of it dug deeply into the twins, making the impact of the experience far worse than merely seeing a beast.
"Raging rhino, and it's at adult rank 1!" Cleodana recognized the beast and was further filled with hopelessness.
Though an adult rank 1 beast could theoretically be taken down by ten rank 2 mana wielders, it was still far beyond what a single early-stage rank 3 mage like her could fight and win. She was also not a capable fighter, not to mention most apprentice-rank mages were terrible at close-range battles, especially against enemies that charged forward without hesitation.
If only there were a few more capable warriors around the area, then they could have halted it long enough to help everyone get away...
She quickly grabbed both her children and dashed toward the east. Thankfully, the crowd had thinned a lot, and the street was wide enough for them not to get stuck.
Yet this also helped the rhino chase after them. Even though it was taking its time killing every human it stumbled upon, it was still fast enough to get closer and closer to her.
At this moment, she noticed a rank 1 mana wielder jump onto the roof of the stone building beside the street and then start leaping from one building to another. Her eyes brightened at the sight.
Just as she was about to jump, she saw another rank 3 mana wielder rush forward and behead the previous rank 1 in one swift attack.
Her expression sank.
There were more invaders than just these beasts—possibly the beast tamers themselves.
She was filled with despair.
She gave up on sticking out by running on the roofs.
She glanced at her two children in her arms and was filled with reluctance and worries for their future.
There was no other option. They had to go by themselves, and she had to try her best to hold the rhino off as long as possible.
"Herman, Kiely, you both need to escape. I-I cannot go with you," she said with a sad voice, but her tone was firm.
Hearing this, both came back to their senses, and their eyes turned red.
"W-what... No, no, Mother, please don't leave us. Father has already left..." Kiely broke down and cried.
She still couldn't understand what was happening. Just half an hour ago, they were chatting and laughing inside the office—now both her parents were leaving them behind permanently.
What were they supposed to do? Where were they supposed to go? They didn't know anyone or anything in the world.
Cleodana felt even more terrible watching both her children's desperate and fearful expressions. She knew that even their survival was in question—even if they somehow survived the rhino, the beast tamers wouldn't let them go. And she couldn't do anything to prevent that. The best she could do was die earlier, buying them even a few seconds more.
She took a deep breath, glanced behind, and saw the raging rhino knock down another stone house while killing a few more humans beside the street. She stopped and put both her children on the road.
She gently patted both their heads and smiled. "Don't worry. Let me accompany your father. You two should survive and live on for our sake." With that, she gently pushed them. However, Kiely stumbled and fell down.
She noticed Kiely's legs were trembling—she was in no state to run. So Cleodana didn't hesitate and put Kiely on Herman's back.
"Mother..." Kiely sobbed.
Herman took Kiely on his back. His eyes were soaked with tears—and also with rage. He swore if he could survive this day, he would grow stronger and take revenge one day.
Cleodana caressed Kiely's cheeks. She noticed the vibrations on the street getting stronger—obviously, the raging rhino had resumed its charge.
"Go..." She pushed Kiely's back—who was on Herman's back—urging them forward.
Herman stared at his mother in reluctance but didn't hesitate and started running with the crowd toward the east.
Kiely kept looking back at her mother with tearful eyes.
Cleodana smiled at them, then turned around to prepare her spell.
Above her right palm, a few-feet-wide mana circle appeared, glowing with a mesmerizing bluish-white light.
She had learned one advanced tier 2 spell of her element in the past, but she couldn't use it at this moment—it required a steady, calm mind, and she wasn't proficient in casting it. She would also need a lot of time, which she didn't have.
So she could only use the time she had to cast a basic tier 2 spell.
However, she knew well that against a pure physical-type mana beast such as a raging rhino, their defenses were too sturdy for even her advanced tier 2 spell to deal heavy injury—much less her basic spell.
She was helpless. She could only do what she could.
Just as the raging rhino was a dozen meters from her, charging straight at her, she released her spell.
Tier 2: Blizzard Blast.
Her palm faced toward the rhino, and a dense blizzard storm gusted out of the mana circle, covering the rhino's huge figure entirely, making visibility unclear.
This spell was originally supposed to not only disturb the opponent's vision but also freeze the enemy, slowing it down. However, the raging rhino was so huge and heavy that it didn't slow down at all. It charged straight ahead and plunged its long horns into the caster's heart and abdomen.
"MOTHER!" Kiely cried out in horror as she saw her mother getting impaled by two long horns and lifted into the air.
Herman didn't even look back and just closed his eyes painfully. He didn't dare to stop and kept sprinting forward.
Cleodana coughed out blood while remaining impaled. She had a bitter look on her face as her remaining life rapidly slipped away. A mage couldn't move when casting spells unless they were too proficient and had exceptional mana control.
However, she had successfully accomplished half of what she planned. Unknown to the rhino, on her left palm, a smaller mana circle had already opened. Just as the rhino glared at Cleodana—still stuck to its nose—she swiftly raised her left palm in front of its eyes and released her tier 1 spell:
Frost Shard.
A sharp crystal-like ice shard shot forth from her left palm at close range toward the raging rhino's wide-open eye. It was too arrogant and confident and didn't bother to watch out carefully when its visibility had dropped from the previous spell. It never thought the woman would have prepared another spell while already at death's door.
Due to this—and the close proximity with lower visibility—the ice shard penetrated straight into the raging rhino's right eye.
Cleodana felt pity as she slowly closed her eyes for the final time. If only she could rapid-cast another Frost Shard to its left eye, then the beast would have been completely blinded.
The raging rhino screeched in pain and started ramming everywhere. It collided with and destroyed quite a few buildings before finally stopping. Yet the pain and rage didn't diminish at all.
Because of that woman, it had lost an eye!
An extreme anger and hatred erupted from within it.
It swiftly returned to the street and noticed the previous crowd had managed to escape quite far, putting some distance between them and it.
It had seen the woman carry two human children with her.
With its height, it quickly found the figures of both—one carrying the other, fleeing together with the crowd.
Just perfect. It would impale both of them together as revenge for its eye!
It roared and charged forward at full speed, crushing any humans in its path.
Its remaining eye stayed glued to the two while imagining how it would impale both together with the same horns that had impaled the woman.
"Herman, hurry! It's coming after us!" Kiely cried out in panic. She didn't know where her mother's body went, but she knew if they couldn't get away fast, even if they avoided getting stabbed, they would get stamped to death by its thick legs.
Herman knew the urgency. He was trying his best and was looking around to find an alley to slip into, but the crowd—though not too thick—was still blocking the way. Worse, the stone houses were built too close together, their walls blocking any escape.
Just as he was desperately looking for a way out of the road, suddenly his eyes caught a very unusual sight—or rather, a very unusual person.
A strange, tall man slowly walking toward them. Unlike the other humans fleeing away from the town center, he was walking exactly the opposite way—toward the town center.
This man was walking right in the middle of the road with such ease and calmness that it was starkly different from the panic and horror-filled crowd around him. And strangely, all the people avoided coming within a meter of him, almost as if unconsciously avoiding colliding with him.
No one had the time to observe the man, but Herman noticed him clearly as he was right in front of him. Almost as if he was heading toward him.
Without noticing, Herman slowed down and, when he came close to the strange man, halted completely.
The man was wearing a strange but beautifully designed black outfit. It covered his body, and the collars were high enough to cover the lower portion of his neck.
The strangest part was the man was wearing a very intricately designed black mask that covered only the upper half of his face. His black hair was long, and his eyes were bright red.
Herman felt as if he were staring into an abyss within those bright red eyes. They were utterly calm and indifferent, as if all the chaos around him had nothing to do with him, and he was currently on a leisurely evening stroll.
Herman and the man stood against each other in the middle of the road and stared at each other without uttering a single word.
Unlike the man, Herman didn't know why, but just by staring into those bright red eyes, his heart was filled with unspeakable horror. This fear wasn't of death, but he couldn't understand what it was. However, his body seemed to have frozen solid. He felt if this stare continued any longer, his heart and breath would also come to a complete stop. Yet, his eyes and body refused to take any instructions and remained frozen, staring into the abyss-like eyes.
"Herman! What are you doing? Run!" Kiely screamed while staring at the approaching rhino. She didn't even have the time to look back at what had made her brother stop in the middle of the road.
The beast soon appeared with nightmarish speed.
She hopelessly shut her eyes in fear and waited to get impaled by those long horns that had taken their mother's life.
BOOM!