Chương 41: The Beasts

Jasper looked alarmed. He turned to Reynolds.

"Are you certain?" Reynolds nodded, out of breath.

"I saw them coming out of the forest. Ran back as fast as I could, screaming bloody murder the whole time to warn the others. They can't be far behind me. We have minutes at best." Mayor Sedius's eyes widened in horror.

"The Beasts in Silver Creek? That can't be… why us?" He rubbed a shaky hand over his face.

"We need to run! We need to run away. I'll go wake my wife." He turned around, but Oliver grabbed him by the back of his nightshirt and dragged him back out of the door.

"It's too late to evacuate the village."

"But not too late for us to run away!" Oliver looked at him, eyes narrowing in disdain.

"You're the mayor. The leader. You can't just run away and leave the rest of the village to their fate. There're women and children here, Sedius. You're a mana user. You need to fight them!"

"I'm just rank 2, Detreyo. With almost no experience."

"No useful skills?" Jasper asked.

"None. My parents were preparing me for an administrative track." Oliver let out a frustrated grunt, but Evan put a calming hand on his shoulder.

"If he has no combat skills, he needs to hide with the rest. We'll take care of the Beasts."

"What about Jasper?" Luca asked.

"Alexandra sent me to only investigate, but I'm not going to stand by and watch while these criminals abduct innocent people. I'm a member of the Guardian Guild after all. My skill set might not have a combat focus, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve that could come in handy."

"Reynolds, Mayor Sedius, run from house to house and warn the people. Tell them to flee if they can, and hide if they can't," Evan said. His heart was thumping in his chest, and somewhere at the back of his mind cold fear had taken hold, but despite that he felt calm and focused. The same way he used to feel in the hospital when one of his patients experienced a medical emergency.

He was used to high-stress, life-or-death situations, and that certainly came in handy now, because both Oliver and Luca looked scared, and even Jasper, despite his higher rank, was obviously not entirely comfortable heading into this fight. Evan had no idea how strong the Beasts were, but he knew they needed to distract them long enough to allow the villagers to flee or find a safe hiding spot. Hopefully, if they could hurt them enough, they would abort their attempt to abduct the people of Silvercreek altogether.

"We'll redirect them to the marketplace," Evan said.

"That will leave the roads clear for the people to run away."

"Good idea," Jasper said with a nod.

"How do you intend to do this?" Luca asked.

"I doubt they'll follow a polite invitation."

"I'll go and meet them. Get their attention, then use my teleport skill to get away from them again. I think if I piss them off enough, they'll follow me to the marketplace."

"We'll try to set up defenses there," Oliver said.

"Be careful, Evan. Just taunt them, avoid engaging them while we're still too far away to help you."

"I'll do my best," Evan promised before he set off. He raced through the streets, dodging villagers left and right who'd left their houses in panic, alerted by Reynolds and Sedius's warnings. Evan reached the edge of the village, and in the distance he could already see the Beasts approaching. They were walking at a leisurely pace, unmoved by the terror their arrival caused. One of them, the largest, pulled a wooden cart that hovered a foot above the ground. That must be the cart Jasper had seen in the memory.

The one they used to transport the paralyzed villager to who-knew-where, to do who-knew-what with them. Evan waited for them, fists clenched, taking deep breaths to steady himself. For a moment he considered rushing forward to meet them head on, but the further away he went from the village, the more difficult it would be to draw them back to the city center where the rest of his team were preparing their defensive position.

He threw the idea out and instead used the time it took the three men to come to him to study his enemies and check out their weapons and armor. All three wore relatively simple armor: leather and chainmail, looking well-worn. The largest, a giant of a man with shaggy brown hair, carried no weapon. The second one was also tall, but spindly. He carried a crossbow.

The shortest, a stocky man with dirty blond hair, walked a few steps ahead of the others, and just by his body language alone, Evan could tell he was the leader of the group. A battleaxe hung from his belt. The leader spotted him from a distance and leaned over to the spindly guy, saying something to him. A grin appeared on both their faces. They were getting close now. Evan heard his blood rushing in his ears, but he stood his ground.

"Look at that," the leader snarled.

"A valiant defender." The large man who was pulling the hovering cart laughed.

"That's a new one. Usually they just scream and run around." Evan swallowed down his fear. If this was going to work, he couldn't just stand there in silence.

"I'm not surprised to hear that," he said coolly.

"Your ugly mug is a truly frightening sight." The man he'd offended growled, deep like a bear, clenching his fists and flexing his massive biceps. The leader stretched out his arm to hold him back and tilted his head quizzically. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"You're a mana user, boy."

"Yes," Evan answered through clenched teeth. Something about the man's cold gaze was unnerving—cool and calculating. Despite being the shortest of the trio, he had the most intimidating aura. Now that they were close to him, Evan got a good sense of their power levels. They weren't anywhere near Alex, but he was certain they outranked him, especially the blond guy. He needed to tread very carefully.

"What are we going to do with him, Rat?" the big man asked.

"Does the Professor want mana users?"

"Shut up, Bear," the spindly man said sharply.

"You know we're not supposed to talk about the Professor. But no, we have no use for him."

"So we can just kill him?" Bear asked, a manic glint in his eyes. His muscles seemed to bulge even more, making him look grotesque. A cold smile appeared on the leader's face.

"Absolutely," he said gleefully. A moment later, a giant rat tail sprouted from his backside, whipping forward so fast Evan barely had time to react. Only his [Teleport] skill saved him from being hurled to the ground by the man's disgusting, muscular naked tail. The unexpected miss wiped the smile off Rat's face.

"Spider, knives!" he barked at the spindly man. Before Evan had time to properly reorient himself, a throwing knife came flying at him. He ducked, but two more followed in short succession, forcing him into a very ungraceful dodge that made him stumble to the ground. Bear lifted his battleaxe with a laugh and charged forward. He covered the distance surprisingly quickly for such a large man. Evan tried to get back on his feet, but Bear was already looming over him, battleaxe held high above his head.

Evan rolled to the side just a split second before the heavy axe slammed into the ground inches away from him. While Bear tried to pull his axe out of the mud, Evan activated [Teleport] again. He ended up a few feet away from Bear, still on his back, but with enough room to heave himself back onto his feet.

Rat's eyes narrowed, clearly surprised he was using a mana-intensive skill like [Teleport] again so soon, but Evan didn't hang around to explain to him that he was able to regenerate mana much faster than most mana users, including him and his cronies. He just turned around and ran for his life. Evan sprinted down the main road, which was still filled with villagers running around in panic. Some were clutching children, others were dragging bundles of hastily gathered possessions or helping the elderly along.

Behind him, he could hear the heavy footsteps of the Bear as he chased after him. Another throwing knife from Spider whizzed past him, and this time, despite his best effort to dodge, it nicked the unarmored part of his upper arm. The sharp pain of the cut was followed by a concerning tingling sensation spreading from the wound. [You have been afflicted with Necrotizing Poison] Evan had worked in health care long enough to know anything containing the word 'necrotizing' was not something he needed right now.

Or ever. But certainly not right now, while he was literally running for his life. Gritting his teeth, he pushed the quickly increasing pain to the back of his mind. At least he had gotten the Beast's attention, just as he'd planned. The market square opened ahead, deserted, thankfully. At least they didn't have to worry about villagers getting caught in the crossfire during their fight. His friends had quickly piled up barrels and crates into a makeshift barricade.

Oliver stood in front of it, near the central well, boots planted wide. Luca was right behind the barricade, while Jasper stood further back, eyes half-closed, expression distant, as if listening to something no one else could hear. Evan came to a skidding stop.

"They're close," he said, breathless.

"Crossbow, knives, axe, and that rat guy has a super creepy tail." Oliver nodded, jaw tight.

"I'll fend them off as long as I can while you and Luca use your ranged attacks." Evan vaulted over the barricade, joining Luca's side. Luca glanced at him in concern, pointing at the injury on his arm.

"Do you need healing?"

"Not yet, my health bar still looks good. Save it for later."

"Okay, but—" A crossbow bolt from Spider slammed into the barricade, just a few inches away from where they stood. Rat stepped into the market square without hurry, rat tail swaying, ready to lash out. Spider and Bear followed close behind. Spider was already reloading his crossbow, chuckling softly.

"Oh, this is going to be fun. They're actually going to try." Once again, Rat held his companion back.

"Don't waste your time. Bear and I will deal with them. You go collect some villagers for the Professor." Oliver reacted instantaneously. Both hands outstretched, he summoned [Iron Root]. Thick, knobby roots broke through the pavement of the marketplace and wrapped around Spider's legs. Spider crashed to the ground, unable to move, but Oliver was now exposed to attacks from Bear and Rat. Both men lunged at him. Bear swinging his axe above his head and Rat whipping his tail through the air.

Oliver managed to slow down Bear with a [Gravel Strike]. Pebbles and dirt sprayed into the large man's eyes, drawing an angry shout from him as he slowed down to wipe the dirt off his face. Rat, however, slung his tail forward and slapped Oliver right in the side. His armor prevented the worst, but the muscular tail was strong enough to throw him to the ground. His sword slipped from his grasp, skidding across the pavement. Rat came after him, tail already hovering in the air, ready to strike again.

It was Luca's [Current Pull] that saved Oliver. Luca's skill wasn't strong enough to manipulate an object as large as a grown man, but it was strong enough to take hold of Rat's tail. With a grunt of exertion, Luca whipped his hand around to control the pull and managed to drag Rat by his tail.

The man lost his balance and went to the ground, being dragged another few feet before Luca lost his focus because Bear had recovered from the mouthful of gravel and was running at their makeshift barricade like a wild berserker. Evan brought him to a full stop by throwing a [Comet Shot] at him. It hit him straight in the chest, exploding in a rain of sparks loaded with celestial energy, hitting both Rat and Bear. Oliver was back on his feet, but his [Iron Root] had lost its grasp on Spider.

The man had slipped away without Evan even noticing. He'd been too busy defending against Bear and Rat.

"Jasper, Spider is gone. Can you detect where he is?" Jasper closed his eyes, focusing for a moment.

"Yes, I can see where he is, but he's too far away from us to go after him."

"But we have to," Evan protested.

"He'll paralyze the villagers and—" Rat's tail slamming against the side of his head cut his sentence off violently. Evan went down, seeing stars, and by the time he'd managed to recover from the blow and was back on his feet, Oliver was engaged in a brutal fight with Bear, sword against bare fists, while Rat went for Jasper and Luca. Luca tried to slow Rat down again with his [Current Pull], but this time Rat dodged to the side so fast Evan was sure he'd just activated a skill.

Luca pulled out a dagger, but Rat whipped it out of his hand with a sharp wave of his tail. Despite still feeling slightly dizzy, Evan raised his sword and jumped back into the fight. He blocked a strike from Rat's axe that would've impaled Luca, giving his healer friend a chance to put some distance between himself and Rat.

But that meant it was now Rat against Evan, and his lackluster sword-fighting skills were no match for Rat's violent barrage of strikes and hits, especially since that tail of his was basically a second weapon. Sweat was running down Evan's back and his arms ached as he desperately tried to defend strike after strike, occasionally giving himself some breathing space by using [Teleport].

He felt the effects of Luca's [Healing Mist], refilling some health points she'd lost to the necrotizing poison from Spider's throwing knife, but it was only a drop in the ocean against what the fight demanded of him. Rat outranked him, and it showed. Evan was already running on fumes, while Rat had an evil grin plastered on his face that told Evan he hadn't even started fighting properly yet. He was just toying with him.

Oliver had the same struggles with Bear, who towered over the already tall Oliver and was unleashing a deadly barrage of blows. Luca tried to support both of them at the same time, but he was running very low on mana and, unlike Evan, he needed a good night's rest or a mana potion to replenish his mana pool. Evan teleported away just as Rat's tail came down on his head and followed up with a quick [Comet Shot]. He missed by a few inches.

His concentration was slipping, impeded by his general exhaustion, and despite his regen, his mana pool kept slowly dwindling under the constant demand of desperate [Teleport] escapes. Rat was already coming after him, lunging forward with his axe raised high. Evan raised his weapon, muscles burning from exhaustion. And then… Rat stopped.