Chapter 76 The First Villain Appears Causing Chaos; Who Are You?

Lya turned around and grabbed the dagger she had hidden in her sleeve. "Get ready!" she yelled. "We have to leave!"

Her words were echoed by the cries of the villagers as they ran out of the rooms inside the houses of the castle and headed to the basement. The militia members followed them in panic and formed a protective wall around the women.

"Remember, we're not staying long!" Lucas yelled. "Once this is done, we need to find Kali and Kalaini!"

"Where are you going?" Xina asked nervously.

"To get help!" Lucas replied. "We have to find someone who can help us destroy this thing before the horde enters the village!"

He wasn't surprised when they reached the bottom of the stairs and found the others already waiting for them.

He immediately went to where the dagger was and retrieved it, 'Renexa didn't lie about it...' A thought went through his head.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Xina asked.

Lucas didn't answer. He quickly examined the dagger and muttered a few words. A small flame appeared on the tip, and then he threw it at the beast standing at the end of the corridor, waiting to attack.

The flames spread quickly and engulfed the monster. The creature roared in pain and tried to put itself out, but it was too late.

"Renexa, burn!" Lucas whispered as he faced the monster.

While everyone was asleep last night, Lucas had another meeting with Renexa. The bird told him that it can get smaller and start burning things around him with his command, Lucas trained a little saving his mana.

Now experiencing an attack from monsters was a perfect time for him to see the bird's real power.

"Stay close to me!" Lucas warned the group. "If anything happens, you know what to do!"

He took the dagger in his hand and pointed it at the monster.

"Burn!"

The flames spread over the beast and burned it until it finally fell to the ground.

"You killed it!" Lya cheered.

"Not yet!" Lucas said. "It's only been injured! We need to finish it off completely!"

He raised his voice and called out: "Renexa, finish it!"

Another wave of fire erupted from the dagger and hit the beast again. This time it was dead.

After a couple of seconds a white bird landed on Lucas's shoulders, it was a dove's side but looked far away from one, "is that Renexa?" Haya interrupted as he was coming closer to Lucas.

"Yes," Lucas answered.

"What did you call it?"

"A flaming pigeon," Lucas answered.

Haya opened his mouth wide to ask more questions, but Lya interrupted him, "we don't have time right now. Let's go!"

"Okay." Haya nodded.

Lya started leading the way, but Lucas stopped her. "I will take care of the corpse," he explained. "It's better if you stay together."

"But-"

"No arguments!" Lucas cut off her protest.

Lya glared angrily at him, but she knew that he was right. They needed to focus on getting out of the castle safely.

"Let's go!" she yelled and started walking.

Lucas finished examining the beast's furs, 'the system should know something about it...' But then he changed his before taking any action, 'no, even if it does know something, it will not tell me... I need to catch up with the others.'

He looked one more time at the dead-burnt beast and followed after his teammates.

******

As they entered the forest, Lucas noticed that there was more light than before. He looked up and saw that the sun had risen above the horizon.

The birds were chirping loudly and the trees all around them were swaying gently in the wind.

They soon arrived at the stream and followed it for a while.

"It seems safe enough," Lucas said.

Hopefully, we'll make it to the edge of the forest before dark."

"Yeah," Lya agreed. "We should be careful though. If those beasts enter the forest, we'll never get out alive!"

Haya followed them from behind, and Xina was next to him. Lya and Lucas were leading the way, "the monsters should have gathered here," Lya pointed at the empty-looking space with damaged trees.

The ground looked like it was burnt from something and it was in a strange red colour, "this is where they came from!" She shouted as she was ready to destroy it.

"Calm down, we have no idea how big this horde actually is," Lucas tried to calm her down. "We haven't seen any sign of them so far. Let's just keep going until we get further, then we'll know for sure. We can deal with the problem after that."

Lya closed her eyes for a second and breathed deeply before nodding, "you're right. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Lucas lifted the corners of his lips as he was trying to smile at her. "It's okay. Just stay alert." He added.

They continued their journey.

After an hour or so they reached the edge of the forest and found themselves surrounded by green trees. The sky was still bright and Lucas could hear birds singing happily in the morning air.

"Look!" Xina exclaimed excitedly.

Lucas turned his head and saw a large brown bear standing in front of the group. It was as tall as the average man and its fur was matted with dirt and leaves.

Its tail was twitching nervously and it kept baring its fangs in fear.

"Run!" Lya screamed.

At the same moment, the bear charged towards them.

"Renexa!" Lucas pointed his straightened index and middle fingers at the bear, "burn it to ashes!" He ordered to the bird that was sitting on his shoulder this whole time.

The flame burst into the air and hit the bear directly. It growled in pain and tried to move away, but Lucas grabbed it by one of its paws and pulled it closer.

"Now!"Lucas swung his arm forward and punched the bear in the face. His fist hit the creature with such force that it spun around several times. When it finally stopped, Lucas released the bear and let it fall to the ground.

"You're getting good at controlling your mana!" Haya complimented him, his tone sounded genuine to Lucas.

"Thanks."

Once the bear was finished, a crazy feminine giggle appeared in the forest, sounding like a siren, crazily laughing in the air, "do you think that would be enough to ruin us? It will be over for you soon!"

As the voice of the woman echoed throughout the forest, Lucas heard the sounds of a large herd of animals moving through the woods.

"Did someone say our name?" A voice spoke.

Lucas turned to see three women approaching from the forest.

They all looked exactly the same, as clones... Long dark hair, their hips were wider than usual, and they wore the same dark skirts. Even though Lucas could not see their faces properly, he knew they were dangerous.

He felt his blood turn cold and his body froze up.

All of them had short swords in their hands and the tip of each blade was glowing red.

"You are dead." The first one said.

"Kill the boy," the second one added, "then destroy the system with the rest of them!"

"Who-who are you?" Haya asked as if he saw a ghost.

"Haya, you don't know them?" Lucas's face turned pale as he looked at Lya and Xina having the same expression as Haya did, no one had a clue who these women were.