5 Chapter 5 - Is This The End?

With her quick and precise steps, Deirdre arrived at the power station within half an hour, but what she saw meant that the beasts had been there for much, much longer.

Destroyed power generators, electrical boxes, fallen line towers, all smoldering, dead or wounded - both man and beast - littered the stations grounds. The workers had done their best to stop the invasion, but it wasn't enough. They weren't mages, and the small mage security detail they did have were only rank-C at best, thus they couldn't handle the onslaught of monsters. They were valiant, though. They fought with tooth and nail to protect the city's power supply. One good thing was that the barrier that surrounded the city was not affected by the overrun facility. It had its own power supply that had been built underground for thus very reason.

However, the barrier required a MASSIVE amount of power to keep it up, so this meant that certain sections weren't fully protected, so as to ease the burden of power consumption. This lack of power just so happened to be a paltry 30 meters away from the power station. It was a simple electrified chain-link fence that was but a mere 55 meter high. Granted, the voltage of the fence was enough to fry a human being in a matter of minutes, but the creatures of this world were no mere beasts. Some could withstand the shock, others had the capacity to jump much higher than the top of the fence. However, thanks to there always being at least two teams of rank-B mages stationed at or around the fence at all times, most creatures chose to stay away.

Today, those same mages just so happened to get called away, thus allowing the monsters to strike. And strike they did. They were fast as they approached the fast. Some jumped and cleared the fence with ease, others climbed, enduring the massive amounts of electricity coursing through them. Not all could endure, though. Some ended up burning to a crisp, causing a pile to slowly build up, and thus other began to use their corpses to climb over.

By the time Deirdre had arrived, the pile of corpses had just barely reached the top of the fence, allowing the beasts to climb to the top and hop over with little worry of getting shocked to death.

Without pause, she reached down to a small pouch at her hips and drew out a card, immediately throwing it toward the beasts that were on their way to the power station. The card sailed through the air for a split second before a small magic circle appeared on its back and spun slowly counter-clockwise before a massive blue flame erupted from the card. The flames rushed forward, engulfing the group of monsters and immediately turning them to ash before turning and flying upwards into the sky a magnificent screech was then released as the flames receded a bit a majestic blue-and-red feathered bird burst forth.

"Oh Great Eternal bird, Lord of the undying flame, allow this humble servant to borrow a bit of your power and burn asunder my foe!" Deirdre outstretched her hand as she skidded to a stop, where the same magic circle that had appeared on the back of the card now hovered over her palm for a bit before condensing and imprinting itself onto her skin. This was the mighty Phoenix! A bird of legend that could always rise once again, no matter how many times it died. "Come, mighty Phoenix, turn my foes to ash!" The great bird circled around the sky and began to dive toward the monsters that hadn't been caught in the initial flame. It's body began to flicker with bits of flame, and as it drew closer and closer, the flames only spread further, until two thirds of its body was a mixture of blue and red flames, the heat of which was enough to already affect the monsters.

Right as it was about to collide with the ground, it opened its wings wide, causing the descent to slow dramatically. At the same time, it released a massive wave of flame that spread out in a cone, engulfing the remaining beasts. Deirdre smiled a triumphant smile, some of the tension easing from her body. She patted the pouch at her hip. "Not my most powerful contracted beast, but it's more than good enough to deal with these creatures."

But her smile didn't last too long.

From the flames, a silhouette slowly walked forward. At first, it appeared human, but as it approached, it's features became more defined. It was about as tall as the average human, but it had four arms, along with a pair of blade-like legs. The arms themselves resembled something similar to the appendages of a preying mantis. The body was thin and pale, leaning forward just a bit. Near-transluscent wings protruded from what would be considered the shoulders, though the shoulder-like areas on this beast had morphed into a tri-spiked area, with one spike jetting upward, and the other two back. The beasts head was oblong, with no discernable mouth, a pair of antennae that twitched every-so-often at the top of its head, and two jet-black eyes that were shaped into a somewhat triangular shape, which gave the beast an angered appearance. Small, almost bone-like protrusions jutted from the base of its neck and ran down the spine, turning into a thin tail-like thing that swayed.

"Oh sh*t." Deirdre paled as she saw this creature emerge from the flames. "Of all the monsters to appear, why did it have to be this one?" she whispered, her voice slightly shaking.

The Hell Mantis. That was this beasts name. The only thing that the Hell Mantis had in common with an actual mantis were its four appendages. This thing was a walking nightmare - it boasted immense speed and high attack, not to mention it was impervious to fire and poison, it's body was a walking lightning conductor, making all forms of electrical attacks null against it. The only thing that seemed to affect was ice, but that just seemed to be more of an annoyance than an actual effective way of attacking it. The fact that it could also fly seemed to made this already difficult foe all the more of a pain in the ass. And the government had the gall to list this as a Governor-Class beast. A single Hell Mantis was capable of felling a minimum of Four Goliath War Kongs, and they were classified as Destroyer-class! How did that make sense?

All schools taught that Destroyer-class was above Governor. In fact, the classes were as follows:

▪️Nuisance-class - Small creatures, usually only strong enough to cause minor damage and light injury to others. Rank-E and D mages were capable of handling these beasts.

▪️Terror-class - These beasts, although still classified as small, were usually bigger than Nuisance-class, though some were also just as small. They just tended to be a bit more dangerous because they could cause more damage, as well as prove to be a danger to humans, possibly even lethal. Usually high rank-D, as well as rank-C mages would deal with these.

▪️Lethal-Class - Just like the previous class names, this class was just as it implied. Beasts that were classified Lethal-class were very capable of causing death. There was no size for these beasts, they were just straight up deadly. You had to be at least a rank-B mage to handle Lethal-class monsters, and even then it was recommended that you not attempt to go alone. A party of at least three was highly suggested.

▪️Governor-Class - Whoever named these monsters Governor-Class was an idiot. But that was besides the point. These monsters had intelligence. Their level of intelligence was unknown, but they were fearsome. They had the ability to kill nearly an entire city if they weren't taken care of in time. Rank-B mages better be fully prepared for a drawn-out battle if they wanted to fight monsters of this class. Even Rank-A mages needed to be careful when dealing with this class. There were only two exceptions to this classification - 1. The Hell Mantis. This human-sized walking blender had destructive power that was no less than Destroyer-class. It was speculated that because they had abysmally low defense was why they were classified as Governor and not Destroyer. After all, if one could get past their overwhelming offense, the Hell Mantis was all but a goner. But that was only if you could pierce that crazy offense; and 2. A beast known as the Manticore. Not much was known of the beast except that it was even deadlier than the Hell Mantis. These were the only two exceptions to the Governor-Class.

▪️Destroyer-class - These beasts were walking tanks and battleships. If Governors could kill an entire city, Destroyers could level them. They were terrifying. Not just because they were so strong, but also because of their sheer size. There had yet to be a Destroyer-class monster that was smaller than 80 meters in height. Goliath War Kongs, for example, were around 90 meters, making them one of the smaller Destroyer-class monster. Ironic considering that they were called Goliath, which meant they were supposed to be gigantic. Only Rank-A mages in groups of fifteen or more could deal with these beasts.

▪️Goliath-class - this was a special class. There were only four Goliath-class monsters. First were the dragons. These monsters were massive, especially because they all differed from one another. Some were flying serpents that stretched far beyond where the human eye could see, while others dwelled in the deepest parts of the ocean, as if the immense pressure didn't exist for them. Second were the Angelus Flies. At first glance, they looked like messengers of heaven descending while wearing ornate masks (none of which were identical to another), but those wings on their backs disproved this. They were an ugly grey, with visible brown veins running across. Not to mention, where the legs should have been, a bulbous lower half that ended in an enormous single stinger was there instead. They resided within the clouds, though, never coming down to the ground. Where their nest was, no one knew. Third were the blue whales. Yes, regular blue whales. These magestic creatures of the sea had mutated and grown even larger. Though compared to the water dwelling dragons, they were but infants, they were still quite huge. Plus, they had become quite vicious, attacking all that crossed them, whether it be another whale, or even a dragon. Finally, there the elementals. These were living embodiments of the elements. Fire, water, wind, earth, thunder, darkness, light, and the Rainbow Cloud. Though it's name made it appear harmless, the Rainbow Cloud was probably the deadliest of the elementals because it commanded all the powers of the elements. Just like the dragons, the elementals also boasted high intelligence. These four beasts had the power to wipe out an entire country, possibly even a continent, but instead chose to seperate themselves from the world, living in isolation. Man chose to ignore them, so they ignored man. Rank-S and above were required to deal with these Goliath-class monstrosities, should the need ever arrive.

▪️Reaper-class - This was a world breaker. A living catastrophe. A physical manifestation of pure death and destruction. Should one ever appear, mankind could once more find itself on the brink of extinction. Rank-SSS mages had to deal with a Reaper-class, though no one was sure if they would actually be powerful enough. They liked to believe that these powerful mages would be, but unless one actually appeared (which one had yet to do so), they could not be certain.

Deirdre clicked her tongue. It was bad enough that she hadn't heard the initial warning siren, but now she had to deal with a Hell Mantis. She knew she didn't have the greatest luck, but she was hoping that it wouldn't be so terrible that another Hell Mantis would appear.

Fortunately, one didn't. Unfortunately, something else did.

"What the..." she trailed off as she watched a large shadow leap from within the flames to land quietly next to the Hell Mantis. Her eyes widened, and she took a step back. "But, how...?" Her voice quivered as it trailed off. Before her, standing next to the Hell Mantis, was the ever-elusive Manticore.