The evacuation team trudged through the rugged border mountain path.
The column stretched long: at the front were the heavy shield knights led by Knight Commander Lei Ji; in the middle were the huddled villagers and wounded; at the back were a few wagons loaded with supplies and magic cannons.
Wheels crushed gravel, letting out harsh creaks. People tripped from time to time, causing panicked shouts.
Lina’s small hand was tightly clutched in Yisela’s palm. Lina’s hand was icy cold, and her body couldn’t stop trembling.
“Don’t be afraid, Lina. Stay with me,” Yisela whispered soothingly.
But her own heartbeat had already reached its limit.
The surrounding villagers all looked ashen. Some kept making the holy light cross sign as they walked, lips trembling in prayer. Some tightly clutched the only belongings they had left, constantly glancing back. A few children were held in their mothers’ arms.
An elderly woman couldn’t walk anymore and collapsed by the roadside. Her daughter desperately tugged at her arm: “Mother! Get up! Please get up!”
“You go on. I can’t walk any further,” the old woman said weakly.
“No! I won’t leave you!”
Two knights ran over, one on each side, lifting the old woman and forcing her to move forward.
Their armor was covered in dust and dried blood. The faces under their helmets were unreadable, but every time they looked back, the fingers gripping their spears unconsciously tightened.
Just then, a nauseating stench of decay drifted over with the wind.
It wasn’t an ordinary smell. It was an indescribable sour and rancid odor, so intense it felt like someone had splashed a bucket of rotten matter directly onto everyone’s face.
“Ugh—” Someone immediately doubled over, dry heaving.
Several children were startled into crying, but their mothers desperately clamped their hands over their mouths.
“Quiet! Everyone, quiet!” Knight Commander Lei Ji yelled in a low voice, but his own voice trembled.
He whirled around, staring toward the edge of the dense forest behind the column.
In that instant, everyone’s gaze followed his.
Then, the world fell silent for a moment.
Everyone stopped breathing at the same time. The wind, footsteps, wagon wheels—all sounds were sucked away in that moment, leaving only the frantic thumping of hearts in chests.
The trees at the edge of the forest began to sway.
Something was charging out from the woods. Thick trunks were knocked askew, leaves and broken branches flying everywhere.
Then, the giant beast burst out.
Its shoulder height exceeded five meters, taller than a wagon.
Its entire body was covered in jet-black mane like obsidian, each hair like a meticulously forged steel needle, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen under the dim light.
Its limbs were as thick as temple pillars, and every step made the ground tremble slightly.
But the most terrifying were its eyes. When those scarlet vertical pupils swept over the crowd, Yisela felt her blood freeze for an instant. That was the gaze of a predator.
Cold, precise, as if choosing which piece of meat to bite first.
It opened its mouth, revealing two rows of jagged fangs, and let out a fierce roar from its throat.
“It’s… it’s a platinum-rank high-tier magic beast, Nightbane…”
Someone let out that desperate murmur first.
Then, panic erupted like a flood bursting through a dam.
“Run!!”
“We’re done for! We’re finished!”
“Don’t push! Don’t shove! Ah!”
The crowd instantly exploded into chaos.
The fragile order that had barely been maintained collapsed completely in that moment. People scattered like a startled flock of sheep.
Some were knocked down and trampled by those behind before they could get up.
Mothers with children were separated by the crowd, letting out heart-wrenching cries. Men abandoned their luggage and ran desperately forward, even shoving aside those in front of them.
“Don’t panic! Maintain formation!” Knight Commander Lei Ji’s roar echoed through the mountain path, but against such panic, one man’s voice seemed so powerless.
He gritted his teeth and looked at the giant beast slowly approaching. He thrust his spear backward, his voice hoarse with rage: “Gunners, take position! Fire! Blow it to pieces!”
The few wagons carrying heavy magic cannons screeched to a halt amidst the confusion. The gunners’ hands trembled as they loaded magic shells. One man failed three times to jam the shell into the cannon.
“Hurry! Hurry up!” a nearby knight urged.
“I know! Stop rushing me!”
Finally.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several explosive magic shells streaked through the air with glaring tail flames, slamming precisely into the giant beast.
The explosion’s fire instantly engulfed its figure. Smoke and dust shot into the sky, and a wave of heat blasted toward them.
Everyone held their breath.
“Did we hit it?” someone asked hopefully.
The smoke slowly dissipated.
The giant wolf named Nightbane strode out from the smoke.
Completely unscathed.
Not even a scorch mark on its mane. It lowered its head to glance at the still-smoking crater on the ground, then raised its head, its scarlet vertical pupils full of mockery.
It slowly bared its fangs in a grin. That expression was unmistakably a smile.
“Damn it! This beast’s hide is too thick!”
Lei Ji ground his teeth. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he bellowed: “Throw the magic beast meat from the supplies! It’s a carnivorous monster; it’ll stop if it eats!”
Several logistics soldiers frantically shoved large amounts of stored raw magic beast meat off the wagons. The fresh red meat rolled onto the road, exuding an enticing scent of blood.
But Nightbane didn’t even glance at it.
It bypassed the pile of meat. Those scarlet vertical pupils remained locked on a single person—the small silver-haired figure at the front of the crowd.
Yisela.
From start to finish, it had only one target.
“It didn’t come here to feed,” Lei Ji’s voice sounded like it was squeezed through his teeth. “It came to kill!”
He spun around and shouted to the knights behind him: “First Squad! With me! Die on the charge if we must!”
Five silver-rank knights didn’t hesitate. They simultaneously wheeled their horses, leveled their lances, and roared as one as they charged toward the giant beast.
In that moment, they were like five meteors plunging into darkness.
Then, the sky changed.
The sky, which had been fairly clear, suddenly darkened in an instant. It was as if something was frantically gathering energy above the clouds, sucking away all the light.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
The clouds churned, tore, and burned.
A blinding bolt of lightning struck down from the center of the sky, carrying the force of annihilation, and landed precisely on the five knights.
No explosion. No screams.
Because it was too fast.
Too fast for the expressions on their faces to change from “determination” to “fear.”
The five fully armored knights, along with their warhorses—their gleaming armor, sharp lances, saddles still carrying body heat—all vaporized in an instant.
Only five blackened craters remained on the ground. Charred earth still smoking.
A few wisps of gray-white ash slowly drifted down from the sky. That was all they left behind in this world.