A Survivor

"Don't worry, I'll handle this..."

A figure jumped over the wooden wall before landing outside of the town, he brought with him a spear that is taller than his own body. But the despair that the townfolks are feeling right now disappears upon seeing the man.

"Sir Idris! He's back!"

"T-Thank god, we're finally saved!"

Just from the reactions coming from the townfolks, it's clear this man named Idris is well-known.

Even though their small town doesn't have many people, only maxed at a couple of hundred people, there's one Mage amongst them that had always kept the town safe. Other Mages that the town has are still green, and one of them recently disappeared in the forest.

Idris was the Mage that guards the small town, his son also had just become a Mage recently.

Upon seeing the fire dancing in a spiral on the spear in Idris's hand, another can't help but comment in awe, "Sir Idris has never failed to save us, he's also trying to be a good role model for his son. Luke is a lucky boy to have such a fearsome father..."

As the fire cloaked the entire spear, Idris gazes at Mathias before planting the spear beside him.

Clang!

"Disgusting creature, you're not leaving this place alive. I will make you pay the fee of disturbing our town's peace with your life!", Idris declared, picking up his spear and started sprinting forward straight at the unknown creature.

Even though the creature is big, Idris is not intimidated at all.

Out of the Supernatural he has defeated, he had once defeated an Orc and an Ogre which both are way bigger than himself. Because of that, the imposing and muscular frame that Mathias is in right now doesn't make him hesitate at all.

Swoosh!

With precise and handy movement, Idris swings the spear as if it was the extension of his own arms.

A fierce flash in his eyes can be seen as he thrust the spear forward with one quick momentum, but Mathias's reflex was inhuman as he even had the chance to calmly look at the thrusting fear before dodging it in the last second.

Upon seeing this, Idris frowned but he didn't stop his attack right there.

Concentrating the blazing fire at the tip of the spear, he cleaved the spear in a circular manner, aiming for Mathias's neck. But Mathais blocked it with his black steel claws, stopping its force right on its track.

Instead of backing away as his attack fails, Idris smirked as if he was on top of this fight.

Mathias glanced down and saw Idris's hand is already conjuring a fireball that is the size of an adult's head, it seems he had already planned for a fluke and hit Mathias with a fireball. "I got you now", he mutters before slamming the fireball right on Mathias's face.

Boom!

As if they were watching a gladiator match, the townfolks erupted in excitement.

With the fireball that is conjured by a second-circle Mage such as Idris that can explode a huge boulder, there's no way that a feeble head of a Supernatural creature can sustain that kind of force. Everyone expected the explosion to blast Mathias's head cleanly.

Expecting the same as the others, Idris also smiled as he knew that he had won.

But as the townfolks have already celebrated the death of the unknown Supernatural creature, they heard a painful scream coming from their front which instantly takes their breaths away. Looking back to the fight, their eyes widen seeing what they are seeing right now.

Instead of having his head blasted off, Mathias doesn't suffer anything from the fireball.

Glaring at Idris that tries to kill him with the fireball earlier, Mathias didn't hesitate and lunged in with his mouth open. Clamping half of Idris's arm with his fangs, he then twisted his head to the side before pulling away.

Splash!

"RAARGHH!!!"

Seeing that his arm got completely ripped off, his eyes were filled with terror as he screamed.

Although he has been working for one of the noble families' guilds and has experience in fighting various Supernatural creatures, he has never been wrong to judge whether he can beat a Supernatural Creature or not.

Even as a second-circle Mage, he knows that there are Supernatural creatures stronger than him.

Idris is not arrogant enough to try and take on a mission that he can't possibly finish. But he has met with a third-circle Supernatural creature that is classified as a City-Class Disaster, and even then his fireball spell can do something to it.

But on the contrary, this creature in front of him is way out of his league.

Not only that it was an unknown Supernatural creature that came out of nowhere, but it ate his fireball as if it was nothing. Mathias is clearly way stronger than even a City-Class Disaster, and he proved it quite clearly.

Clang!

With his arm torn from his body, Idris stumbles back as his spear falls to the ground.

Many things started to flash inside his mind as he regretted being too confident against an unknown Supernatural creature. Most of his confidence comes from the fact that this forest doesn't host anything stronger than second-circle Supernatural creatures, but then Mathias happened.

Under the gaze of many, Idris looks up before he saw an open jaw heading towards him.

Crunch!

Like many of the Ghouls that were killed by Mathias earlier in his rampage, Idris's head got bitten completely off as blood gushed out of his headless corpse. It takes not but a moment as the townfolks snapped out of their daze when Idris's headless body falls to the ground with a thud.

Aooouuu!

As if he had taken pride in his kill, Mathias howled to the sky once more.

Even the illuminating moon in the sky sparkled a bit as if it answered the howl directed to it from Mathias, and at that moment the townfolks started running away in terror as they lost all will to fight against Mathias.

If even Idris was killed rather easily, then none of them can kill Mathias.

What is supposed to be a tranquil night that helps the souls to rest and drift away becomes a bloodied one as souls were sent straight to God through gruesome deaths, each one of the townfolks was killed by the black steel claws, the claws of a Werewolf.

Nothing got spared as the entirety of the small town got absolutely decimated.

Only those that choose to runway earlier survived the ordeal as they already reach quite far, but even then some of them were caught by Mathias that tracked down every single one of them due to the thirst for killing and anger.

Although there are hundreds of lives inside the small town, the night quickly turns silent again.

Running away from the small town not wanting to meet with the pair of yellow eyes that terrifies him to his core, Luke is frantically moving his legs as he heard the scream and cries of terror in the distance that definitely comes from the small town.

Thanks to the Ghoul earlier, he managed to flee from Mathias, or so he thought.

Boom!

"Waah!", Luke falls to his butt when something landed in front of him.

Upon recovering and looking to his front, the hope of surviving instantly vanishes as he saw Mathias towering over him with a devious grin on his face. On top of that, he saw a head in Mathias's hand which makes his lips quiver.

Even though it was hard to see in the night, Luke recognize who the head belongs to.

"F-Father...?"

It was none other than Idris's head that Mathias deliberately brought as the anger that woke him up comes from Luke. With his keen sense of smell, he finds that Idris's scent is similar to Luke's scent and deduces that they are related.

Wanting to instill more fear into Luke, Mathias rejoices to see his expression right now.

Fear fuels him with satisfaction as there was nothing more pleasurable than seeing a prey's face slowly turn to a fearful one realizing that there's no hope of escaping, it was the end of the line and Luke knows it on a subconscious level.

Mathias then slowly approaches while flexing his claws, it was time now to feast on his fearful prey.

Not even a whimper can be heard as a slash and the sound of splattering liquid can be heard, and soon enough the night is filled with the sound of munching of flesh. It tickles the ears of the animals that can hear these sounds before they scurry away.

~

"Do we really need to check? I think they were just hearing things"

"Stop thinking light of everything, you might not know what you will find. We're at war, I hope you realize that and take this mission seriously. We may find a Supernatural Spy"

"What are you talking about, the Supernatural here are only Ghouls and Goblins"

From the distance, two people wearing a black robe that of the Black Ardent Mages travel together as the organization got a report from Khosa City that last night they heard many screams in the distance. The Knight governing Khosa City is worried that something happens to the small town inside the forest.

Because of that, these two are sent here to check.

"I think you're being too formal with me, loosen up a little. We'll stick together as a pair for at least a year", the bearded man that has a big frame said, teasing the woman beside him by pushing her lightly with his arm.

Contrary to his expectation, the woman only gives him a glare in response.

Upon receiving that sharp glare from the brown-haired woman, the man can only smile wryly before he sighs inwardly. But just as he was about to say something, both of them stopped before a frown appeared on their faces.

"I smell blood, a thick one at that too", the man said before unsheathing his longsword.

Responding the same way as the man, the woman also takes out her daggers sheathed on her waist before the both of them nodded their heads and dash towards the source of this thick stench of blood.

Passing by a waterfall and going down quickly, they arrived at an open place.

"Holy hell, what happened here...?"

Both of them saw the entire open place filled with blood and fleshy remains of Ghouls, their eyes then darted to the side and saw a small town that has its wooden wool breached from the front. Without saying anything, the two head to the small town and finds the same scenery.

Many deaths can be seen filling the entire place, but this one of the remains belongs to humans.

"Completely wiped out, it should be a third-circle Supernatural creature or higher. From the report, I know that a second-circle Mage is living here", the woman said while scanning the entire place, and her eyes then fixated on a figure at the center of the ruined small town.

Pointing at the figure, the two of them dash toward the figure before stopping a distance away.

Upon seeing the figure a closer look, the both of them realized that the figure is a teen that is holding a dead corpse in his arms. From the looks of it, the woman and the man deduce one thing.

"Only one survivor..."

Approaching the teen that seems to be naked carefully, they can hear he's mumbling something.

"Hey, it's okay... we're here to help", the man said as he steps closer.

Slowly the mumbling becomes clear in his ears as he got close enough, it seems the teen is sobbing and crying profusely, "F-Faran, I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I really am sorry. I don't know if it's going to end like this..."

Just as the man got close enough, the teen sensed him and raises his head to look at the man.

Realizing that there are two people wearing the Black Ardent Mage robe, Mathias exposes a crooked and broken smile as he hugs Faran's corpse in his arms, "P-Please help me..."