Magic Beast

"Roar!"

Just as Raziel and Alice were on their way home, a broad, panther-like beast lunged in front of them.

The beast was black in color and was large with an extra bloody-red eye situated on its forehead. Its claws were sharp as blades, making it look even fiercer. Its mouth was dripping with saliva, seemingly hungry for prey, in other words; Raziel and Alice.

His body froze before the bloodthirsty beast, the aura of murder seething into the air, not only him, but even Alice was shaking in fear. Despite the screams of danger in his head, Raziel decided to act immediately before the beast turns them into mincemeat.

"Alice, run!" Raziel grabbed the frozen girl and bolted away from the scene as fast as possible. He knew outrunning the oversized cat would be impossible, but he wanted more distance from him and the beast. It was primal instinct to run away from danger, with just a wooden sword, he would be more than foolish if he thought he could fight it.

The two of them headed into the forest, trying to lead the beast to the village. If he was a regular kid, the first action he would do was most likely run to the adults. But in his case, he knew that not even the village mayor could fight the beast. He might be able to save his and Alice's life if he ran towards the village, but it would cost the death and destruction of the Rurid Village itself.

Alice was not doing so well too. It was her first time feeling the aura of such a bloodthirsty beast. It was enough to make her body go stiff and her mind blank. She wanted to scream but no sound came out. Lucky for her, Raziel wouldn't abandon her, saving her in the process.

"Alice snap out of it!" Raziel attempted to pull Alice's arm to awaken her from her trance. Which successfully worked and had brought her back to consciousness around her.

"Raziel... I'm sorry..."

She had realized what had happened and apologized immediately for being a burden to him.

"Don't worry about it, just keep running! I know a place where we could hide from the beast, hopefully, it would go away soon."

Raziel turned his head back to peek if the beast was following them, which to his surprise, nothing was to be seen. This didn't make him feel better, however, he knew the attitude of wild beasts when hungry. There was no way that drooling oversized cat would give up fleshy prey like them.

And just like he had feared, moments later, he spotted a black shadow jumping tree by tree, quickly catching up to them.

Raziel looked around him for anything he could use to his advantage, they weren't that far from the destination, but he knew the both of them wouldn't make it with how fast the beast was.

He let go of Alice's hand and raised the wooden sword. "Alice, go and run immediately! I'll catch up with you!"

"I'm not leaving you here!"

"Don't worry, I promise I'll come back," he gave Alice a gentle smile and reassured her.

Alice's eyes started to tear up, but she didn't refuse this time.

She raised her hands and chanted a spell towards Raziel. "Heal!"

Raziel felt all his fatigue go away immediately. He praised Alice inwardly, he wasn't aware that she could cast a healing spell already.

"You better come back," she said as she started running away from the scene.

"Silly girl," he muttered.

"Roar!"

The beast landed in front of the young boy.

The two stared at each others' eyes, the wild panther beast's eyes glowed with hunger and bloodthirstiness while Raziel's eyes shone with a battle-hungry expression on his face.

"You're a magic beast aren't you? A mental-type." Raziel had guessed what kind of beast it was immediately from the start. He knew that there was no way a wild beast's bloodthirsty aura could affect him that much. He judged that from the third eye, that it was a mental-type magic beast.

Three eyes were an uncommon trait amongst mental-type beasts, you would hardly find one in the wild, as most of them lived deep in the mountains.

The beast's eyes shone with intelligence, clearly understanding that his facade was revealed, but was clearly not worried.

"You are smart for a human brat, however, you will surely meet your end here!" Raziel heard another voice in his head and instantly knew that it was the magic beast telepathically talking to him.

"I never knew that mental-type magic beasts could telepathically speak. Amazing!"

Even if he was in front of the enemy, Raziel was still intrigued and amazed by this discovery.

"You still don't know your current position don't you?" the beast sneered. "Let me teach you then!"

"Roar!"

The beast immediately lunged towards Raziel, it seemed to have lost its intent to kill for now and wanted to make the boy suffer first.

Raziel smirked and knew that the beast was underestimating him. He might be a child, but his teacher, Gasupht, knew that he was not to be underestimated.

He knew that Raziel was somewhat of a battle junkie, he knew how to strategize in his head to make up for his lack of physical strength. Clearly, the magic beast didn't know the first rule on the battlefield.

"Don't underestimate me!" Raziel dodged and swung the wooden sword towards the beast's arm, seemingly wanting to slice it off. Unfortunately, a wooden sword of poor quality didn't have enough slicing power.

But this wasn't what the young boy aimed for. He brought up his right hand, revealing a gray goo on his hand. He immediately wiped it on the beast's body and jumped back.

"You!" the magic beast looked at him with his murderous intent ignited once more, this time, he dashed forward with a speed that couldn't be seen with the naked eye.

"I thought mental-type beasts were supposed to be smarter?" Raziel raised his wooden sword above his head.

"Heavy Strike!"

The attack hit the beast perfectly on the head, drilling it into the ground. With that attack, Raziel had broken the wooden sword and his arms aching with pain. It was the first time he had used his master's move, clearly, he didn't have the physical strength to use it and only ended up injuring himself as well in the process.

"I know you're still alive. Come out now," said Raziel as he stared at the small crater where the beast was.

"You... you poisoned me with this gray substance, didn't you?!"

The magic beast roared in anger, his pride was hit hard after he was outsmarted by a human child.

If Raziel could hear his thoughts, he would've laughed aloud. Other mental-type beasts would definitely shame him for falling for such an easy trick.

"Finally noticed? Are you a domestic cat that's never been to the wild before? I can't believe you don't even know that this place is surrounded by a substance that is poisonous to most feline species."

This was where Raziel wanted to lure him, a place toxic to his species and where it would be weakened considerably.

"If I can't take you with me to the afterlife, then I'll take your friend instead!"

The beast didn't know if Raziel had any more tricks up his sleeves and didn't want to die in vain. In revenge, however, it now wanted to kill Alice instead of him.

Hearing the telepathic words in his head, Raziel's body tightened and started running towards the injured beast. Unfortunately, a cornered beast was more dangerous. Even though it was not fast as before, it was still fast enough to escape from Raziel and run towards the direction where Alice had fled.

"No!"

Its last attempt action was not predicted by Raziel, who had expected it to attack him instead. He immediately chased after the magic beast with his full capacity, praying that he would make it in time.

"Ah!" Raziel suddenly heard Alice's shout nearby. With no time to spare, he dashed towards her direction, faster and faster.

He soon arrived at the scene and saw Alice cornered by the magic beast on the edge of the cliff which led to a deep abyss, which seemed like it couldn't wait to cut her apart. However, what Raziel expected to happen didn't occur, because once he was about to jump towards the magic beast, it had suddenly disappeared.

Alice looked at him and shouted, "Behind you, he's about to use a magic attack!"

Sadly, it was too late. The magic beast was successful in his sneak attack which was its personal skill, <Mind Wipe>. A powerful mental skill used by mental-type beasts that could obliterate someone's mind if their will wasn't high enough.

Raziel could feel his consciousness fading away, but he didn't want to leave Alice behind with that monster. With his last strength, he delivered a powerful strike to the neck of the beast, making a cracking sound.

"Raziel!" He could vaguely hear Alice's voice from behind him. He looked in that direction and saw the young girl with tears in her eyes, as she ran towards him.

Raziel suddenly felt his body waver, his consciousness fading slowly but surely. With his last attempt, he stood up and smiled towards the rushing Alice, before his body fell into the deep, dark abyss.

"No!"