"What happened here?" Panmich's mother questioned coldly, as if she already knew everything was his fault.
"I-I swear it wasn't my fault; we were just talking normally when she shrieked, I even hit my head in panic, look, a bump is already forming." Panmich defended himself and showed where he had struck his head.
"Lia, wake up, darling!" Reny softly slapped Lia's cheeks again and again.
"Go bring some water," Panmich's mother ordered.
Very soon, Panmich brought a glass of water back to his room and drank one himself.
After a few minutes, Lia finally woke up.
"Hey, hey, sweetie are you okay?" Reny softly asked.
"It's cold…" Lia replied, her whole body shivering.
"Don't worry, everything's fine, your mama is here, let's go see a doctor." Reny wrapped her arms around Lia.
"I'm sorry, we weren't able to stay for dinner." Once outside the front door, Reny said.
"Don't worry, go to a doctor first, you can come anytime you feel like it," Susan assured.
"Thank you; give my love to the others."
"Will do"
After that, Reny and Lia drove away.
*Vroom*
The next day, aunt Reny gave a call to my mother, telling her that Lia was fine, and the doctor said that nothing was serious, it was only because she had used her power for the first time and had overexerted herself in the process.
"She used her powers? But, I didn't see anything different yesterday…"
"Well, Reny mentioned that even Lia doesn't know yet what her powers are, but the doctor is 100% sure that what occurred yesterday was due to overexertion of her magic powers."
"Hm, that's pretty normal, after all, it's been almost six months since she stepped inside Rank 9…anyway, I know she will figure it out, eventually"
"Well, I'm going out for now, will come back later. Bye."
"Be careful"
.
.
.
"I should probably head back now…" Panmich muttered and made his way towards his house, it was already evening, by the time he decided to return.
Halfway from his house, Panmich stopped dead in his tracks.
'What is this weird smell…?' Panmich sniffed, the nauseating smell was coming from the park on his left side, and without any further thought, he moved towards the park.
*Gasp*
'W-what the hell is that?!' Panmich stuttered.
What he just saw was something he would never forget again.
There was a grotesque creature in front of him, right in the center of the park.
The creature was at least twice the size of a dog. Without any fur on it and reptilian-like skin, spikes protruded from its spine and ran all the way down, reaching the tip of its bloody tail.
*Suck*
The Dog-like Monster sucked on its prey, a woman who was turning rapidly into a husk.
Panmich didn't know it, but the sight he was currently witnessing was being enacted by a Stage 9C beast, also known as a Chupacabra.
The Chupacabra was a monster coming from a branch of the dog family, they had some traits like those of a vampire, and they liked to suck the blood from their prey with their front three canine teeth. They didn't have any special powers of their own, they were just a superhuman version of a normal dog, a "Superdog."
They had weak defenses and were very agile.
'I need to get out of here, fast…' Panmich thought, as he glanced at the dried husk of a child right next to the Chupacabra.
With a heavy heart, he slowly dragged his feet backward.
*Ring*
His phone rang at the worst possible moment.
Panmich flinched and quickly took out his phone to silence it.
With a pale complexion, he turned his head in the direction of the park and caught sight of the chupacabra sprinting in his direction.
"Fuck!"
Without any further thought, he ran in the opposite direction.
Panmich rotated his head to take a look at the monster dog chasing him. 'It will catch up to me before I even reach my house…Change of destination, I will go to the Rodrigo branch, they will have at least one Ranker to fend off this dog'
Panmich ran as if his life depended on it, well, actually, his life really did depend on it.
'There's a shortcut just up ahead…' Sweat was pouring like rain from his head, and his legs had also begun to hurt, but that didn't slow him down for even a second.
'The next alley…' Panmich entered an alley on his left. He knew this area well enough from the times he had previously visited.
He might have barely reached the branch if he had continued just like that, but luck said otherwise, the shortcut he took was definitely a shortcut; a shortcut to his death.
"WHAT THE HELL?! A half-built wall stood in Panmich's way, though it was half-built, it was still double his height.
*Thud*
He tried climbing it but fell on his ass.
There was a metal ladder on one side of the alley's wall. He could try to reach it but unfortunately it was even higher than the half-finished wall.
He could reach it if he tried jumping after climbing the half-built wall, but then again, if he could climb the wall, he wouldn't be down there.
*Growl*
Shaking, Panmich hurriedly turned around, the Chupacabra was slowly walking towards him at a leisurely pace.
"S-stay away!!" Panmich stuttered. He picked up a wooden plank that was resting against the wall and took a defensive position.
"I will kill you, I swear!" Panmich put forth false bravado and tried to appear strong, but his heart thumped like crazy and his trembling legs gave him away.
The Chupacabra closed the distance, when it was just three steps away, Panmich put full force into his arms and swung the plank at the big dog.
*Swish*
The Chupacabra easily sidestepped the clumsy attack and pounced on Panmich before he could go in for a second attempt.
"Argh"
*Growl*
The Chupacabra's snout was just a head away from Panmich's face, saliva dripped on his cheeks, and his nose was hit with a heavy smell of blood and filth.
"No, no, no…S-stay away from me!" Panmich sniveled, his whole body tremoring under the Chupacabra's paws, but the beast didn't care and directly pressed his canine teeth on Panmich's neck.
"Arrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhh"
A primal scream left Panmich's mouth, but after a few minutes, it died down, along with Panmich himself.
I just wanted to be a hero; I don't want to die... Someone, please save me... He begged till his last breath, but alas, no one was there to hear him, apart from the monster dog, who was busy sucking.