The same man who had a confident expression on his face earlier now had one of absolute fear as he stared at Landria approaching him.
He gritted his teeth and gathered mana from his mana core before chanting a few unknown words.
"Frost Concentration ~ Howl of a thousand spikes!" He shouted out as a magic circle appeared behind him.
swwwhhuiiiiii~
A cold wind suddenly circulated across the surroundings fiercely.
raising his hand, multiple three inches long icy spikes began to form in the air.
Fwwhii~
He waved his hand forward and they came slicing down with speed.
Landria jumped sideways dodging a lot of the icy spikes.
However, they were too many of them shooting at him so, at a point, he had to join both his arms together and raise them in front of him to block.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
The icy spikes shattered as they made contact with the dark scales covering his forearm.
Step! Step! Step!
Being unable to pierce through the scaly armor, Landria began stepping forward.
By the time the duration of the magic spell ran out he was already in front of Fabian who had his eyes widened in astonishment and fear once again.
A single icy spike should be able to skewer a person, yet they were unable to penetrate his scales.
Except for a few bruises and small cuts on the side of his face, Landria was okay.
Slash!
Landria slashed out again.
Plop!
"Arrrggghhh!" Fabian's screams rang out as blood jetted out of where his right arm was initially located.
He fell to his knees, screaming and crying in pain as he had now become armless.
Landria stood in the same position for a while.
'Kill him! Kill every one of them,' He heard the voice in his head speak again.
Raising his arm with the dagger still in his grip, the runic symbols on the dagger glowed even more brightly.
Just as he was about to slice downwards, Laura screamed out his name.
"Landria!"
He paused and regained a little bit of clarity.
Turning around, he could see the looks of the astonished town folks and Laura standing by the side with a worried expression.
"The kids," She voiced out once again.
The instant Landria heard this, he ran forward and jumped on one of the Flether wolves.
Patting the body and grabbing hold of one of its horns, the Flether wolf charged forward with speed.
The villagers moved out of the way as he passed through their midst with speed.
In a few, he had disappeared into the distance while riding on the wolves.
-
Bang!
"Haha finally it's opened," One of the bandits voiced out after successfully breaking open the door of a house.
The bandit behind had two kids struggling to free themselves from his grasp.
"We only need one more," He voiced out.
The one who had just broken in stared at the four kids shrinking backward within the house.
"Which one should we take?" He said while staring at the two boys and girls.
"Don't come any closer," The eldest in the household, held out a garden tool, pointing it forward like a weapon.
Just as the bandit was about to step forward the one outside the house said something.
"Someone's coming... huh? it's a kid... Arrrrrghhhhhh!"
A flesh penetrating sound reverberated across the place, along with a scream.
The bandit within the house heard that and was about to turn around when he noticed the kids smiling.
"Big brother Landria," They all screamed out at the same time.
It was at this moment he sensed the presence behind him.
The instant he turned around, he was met with a blow to the face.
'How did he creep up on me so fast?' These were the bandit's last thoughts before he passed out.
"Big brother Landria..." Mira ran towards Landria ignoring his current scary looks and hugged his waist.
Landria looked down and reached out to pat her head as his eyes slowly returned to normal and the scales on his body retracted.
***************
Within a massive hall, people dressed in purple and black leather jackets moved around the place.
There was a beast emblem on the back of their jackets which proved they all belonged to some kind of falcon.
These people emitted different types of powerful aura. A mixture between magical and beastly as it would seem mana favored them.
The biggest similarity between all of them was the fact that they all had snow-white colored hair.
A massive statue of a mystical beast with twelve eyes, four massive wings, and six extra smaller wings could be seen positioned in the middle of the large hall. It had four curved horns and a massive snake-like tail.
A few people were standing in front of the statue with their palms joined together like they were praying.
Suddenly...
Shinnnnnnnnnnnnn~
The left eye of the statue emitted a radiant white light.
The people in the vicinity were startled as they stared at the pillar of light it emitted shooting straight through the roofing and into the skies above.
"This phenomenon... Impossible... it can't be..." One of the men in a purple jacket voiced out with a tone of disbelief and fright.
Everyone outside the hall, moving around the vicinity stared at the pillar of light shooting towards the skies and moved towards the hall with speed.
"The prophecy... This means the gathering is upon us..." Everyone in the hall understood what this phenomenon meant but was still shook with fright and disbelief not expecting that they would ever be alive to witness the phenomenon.
"Summon Masa! We have to find out who ours awakened within!" One of the purple jacket men pointed at the ones with black jackets while commanding.
They nodded and ran out of the hall.
Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!
The hall had turned noisy after the pillar of light dimmed down and the eye of the statue returned to normal.
Behind the statue, a weird sign had appeared on its back.
')|||('
No one spotted this yet.
*************
-Riverbeak Town
It was late in the evening at this time and Landria was sitting in the house with Laura and the rest of the kids.
"Big Brother Landria was so awesome he knocked out the bad men with a single strike," Orion voiced out with a look of excitement.
"Big brother Landria is my hero," Mira said happily while jumping.
Landria smiled as he stared at the four kids still talking about what had happened earlier this morning.
Viktor and Mara boasted of how Landria would be able to defeat every single person in town.
This was a lovely scenario for Landria and he was happy that he successfully protected everyone but he couldn't forget that there were still some problems.
'I was never that brutal with my strikes... I always held back unless I was battling with a beast,' Landria thought.
During his battle with the bandits, he felt like he was in control, and at the same time, he wasn't.
He was unhinged and didn't care about killing them which was something he would originally worry about when battling with actual humans.
He had never really been in a life-and-death battle with humans before.
It was mostly training but they always told them to be ready to kill and had them witness killings.
'The voice in my head... I could hear it clearly this time. It has a hold over my actions. What is wrong with me?' Landria was very disturbed about this.
He was also confused about the form he took during the fight. He had never been able to do that before, especially being able to absorb mana from so far away.
He felt stronger and faster than normal compared to the boost he got whenever he used spells relating to physique improvements that he learned from his father.
'I should not be able to take the form of a mystical creature till I become a full-fledged Royal bodyguard at the age of eighteen,' Landria thought it might be a transformation relating to the Lebenoire bloodline within him but it was usually impossible to take the form of a mystical creature till the age of eighteen.
The young Lebenoires in training would undergo a test when they were about to become full-fledged Royal bodyguards which would link them with the power of a mystical creature.
From there on they would be able to use this power to transform into one of the mystical creatures, improving their strength by leaps and bounds.
Landria hadn't undergone this test since he was still sixteen.
Landria also felt it was dangerous when he took this form since he couldn't control his actions well enough due to the contradicting voice in his head.
While Landria was in his thoughts, Laura called out to him.
"Landria," She voiced out and gestured by turning her head to face the door.
Landria instantly understood what she meant and followed her outside.
Outside the house, a few men were waiting.
As Landria and Laura approached, they couldn't help but stare at him with mixed expressions on their faces.
"I have brought him here not to be chastised by any of you," Laura said with a stern tone.
"If anything you all should be grateful because he saved this town," She added with a glare.
"It's fine Laura, they have every right to be scared," Landria said with a benevolent tone while stepping forward.
"Why have I been summoned?" Landria proceeded to ask.
"What you said earlier, can you truly do it?" One of them voiced out with a tone full of expectation.
Landria stared at every one of them present here and could see the longing in their eyes as they waited for his answer.
"Yes,"