Pebbles bounced slightly off the ground following the rhythmic sound of sothing being hamred repeatedly.
Lara, who had been staring at the sky for so ti, shifted her gaze to the ground then to the man standing a short distance away. He was covering his mouth and holding his stomach, barely suppressing his laughter.
"Is this your idea of humor?" The maid asked.
Ramsay burst out laughing as if he was waiting for soone to say the words. He kept at it for a while as if he really did lose control.
"I will be going, then."
"Suit... suit yourselfffffhahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Ramsay continued to laugh even as the silver-haired girl walked away. Lara had noticed that he was barely containing himself when her master confidently strode toward the horde of beasts; the whole thing was a prank from the start.
Not that she was any better. She the stone-covered beasts didn’t pose much danger, that’s why she agreed to let her master face them alone.
’He needs to learn so-’
The maid couldn’t finish the thought when she heard one of the rhinos cry again. Looking up, she saw it was the sa one that had been stumping her master, but right now it was backing away with blood spilling from one of its front legs.
For a mont, Lara panicked, thinking the blood belonged to her master. She then noticed sothing erge from the dust cloud the beast roused and stopped in her tracks. A vague humanoid figure glowing light green rose up and faced the beast.
~[ ]~
The other beasts backed away, leaving the injured one and the glowing figure to each other. The injured rhino slamd its wounded foot on the ground and lowered its head, pointing its blade-like horn extending forward.
The glowing figure stood still as if waiting for the beast to charge at him, but when it did, he turned around and started running.
The glowing figure was none other than Mark. When the Stone Rhino began stomping down on him he covered his head and subconsciously increased the output of his Force Field to its maximum, covering his entire body in its green glow.
The pain that should’ve followed didn’t co, and when he moved to check he realized the beast wasn’t attacking him anymore.
The hole he crawled out of was roughly his size which told him he was indeed hamred into the ground. The lack of pain bewildered him, however, and so did the injury on the beast’s front leg.
A strange sense of excitent welled up inside him as he realized it was a result of his Force Field. It protected him from whatever damage the Stone Rhino could have inflicted on him and simultaneously dealt a strong blow to the beast.
It was only now that he understood what the Peace Keeper ant when he said the best offense is a really good defense.
Knowing that didn’t lessen the fear he felt when its blade-like horn was pointed at him and he imdiately made a run for it.
Sadly the Stone Rhino was faster despite weighing several tons and so the distance between them decreased with each step it took.
In the corner of his eye, Mark saw Lara running toward him, but his relief was short-lived as the horn reached him and he was launched into the air.
Once again there was no pain, but seeing the world flip almost caused Mark’s bladder to loosen. He was no gymnast so controlling his landing was out of the question. If he could, however, he certainly wouldn’t have landed on the beast’s head.
The Stone Rhino cried and shook its head trying to throw him off, but Mark held on to it with everything he got. His grip kept loosening for so reason, but at the sa ti, the beast’s movents gradually slowed down until they completely stopped.
A little confused, Mark opened his eyes. He looked down and saw that his arms were buried in bloody holes all the way to his elbows.
It took him a few seconds to realize those holes were dug straight into the Stone Rhino’s head, and seeing how close of a fit they were, he concluded that he was the one who had done it with his bare hands.
No, saying it was done with his bare hands wasn’t entirely correct. After all, his entire body had been covered in the maximum output of his Force Field. That said, he still found it difficult to believe the Ability was capable of sothing like that.
Mark pulled his arms and stared at his hands. The blood and brains staining them gradually evaporated, leaving only the light green glow of his Force Field.
He noticed that it was gaining so transparency and realized its output was dropping. At the sa ti, he began to experience a slight dizziness, one that reminded him of the tis he overworked himself until he passed out.
Just as the world started to darken around him, a line of text appeared in the corner of his field of vision.
[You have defeated a Stone Rhino.]
[ 3 AP.]
~[ ]~
Sowhere inside Stonegate city, on the crumbling floor of a tall skyscraper, a man lowered his binoculars and frowned.
"Hmm..."
"What’s wrong, Clyde?" A young woman asked. She was sitting a few ters to his side, watching the dark liquid inside a small pot boil on a bonfire she started using wood from smashed furniture.
"Nothing." The man said. "I just saw a familiar face, that’s all."
He clicked his tongue and scratched his unkempt beard then the binoculars again.
"Did the Peace Keepers send reinforcents?" The young woman asked.
"I don’t think they’re after us." The old man replied. "One of them is a soldier. The other two are still rookies."
"Oh, no need to bother with them, then."
"Yeah... I don’t think they were sent after-"
The man went silent, which prompted the woman to look up at him again. At that exact mont, the dark liquid seed to rise and spill from the pot which caused her to cry out in surprise.
"Ah! My coffee!!!"
The old man didn’t seem to care about her little problem. He had a much more pressing matter at his hands.
A few kiloters separated him from the three hunting rhinos outside the city so his position shouldn’t have been exposed that easily, but when he trained his eyes on the girl with silver hair, she suddenly turned in his direction and pierced him with a glare.
He didn’t know if she could see him, but there was no doubt that she sensed his gaze on her. Smiling, the man rose up and walked away from the edge of the broken floor.
"Let’s go, Bonnie." He said. "I think I found sothing fun for us to do."
"Eh? Seriously?" The young woman looked between him and the coffee pot. "Wait! At least let put it in the thermos!"
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