Chapter 90: Chaos in the City Park
’The weather is nice, and the air is fresh. It seems like today is going to be another great day.’
Ren, who was sitting on a wooden bench under a shady tree, smiled softly.
While he was enjoying the surrounding view, Virelia walked toward him with ice cream in both hands.
"Here." She gave him one before finally sitting next to him.
"Thanks." He ate the ice cream immediately. "I didn’t know we had a park like this in our town."
Not only was entry free, but there were also several food stalls inside. And on top of that, the scenery was no less beautiful than the paid ones.
It was as if the park was built purely to help people relax and escape the cruelty of the world, not to make a profit.
"You have never visited this place before?" She was a little startled as it was quite famous among middle-class and lower-class families.
"No," he shook his head. "This is my first time coming here."
"You sound like someone who never leaves the house." She giggled as she teased him.
"Of course not. I just never visited tourist attractions before." His predecessor’s daily routine was working at Sylvie’s coffee shop, going to study at the public library, and returning home.
He was not someone with privilege, so he had to work hard every day and save money for his future.
Visiting tourist attractions would only make him less productive and waste his precious time.
"Then, you should thank me for taking you to this park. Don’t worry. You don’t need to give me money. Just say, ’big sister, you are beautiful and kind like an angel,’ is enough." She tried to take advantage of the situation to get him to praise her.
"Didn’t you take me here to repay me for saving you from the thugs?" he refused indirectly.
Virelia crossed her arms over her chest and pouted her lips cutely.
"Hehe." He chuckled softly.
While they were chatting warmly, magical creatures were walking through a green portal inside an abandoned building.
Just like awakeners, gates were also divided into nine ranks.
Anyone could identify the rank by its color.
From the easiest to clear to the hardest, they were green, yellow, orange, blue, pink, cyan, purple, red, and dark.
A green-colored gate meant the magical creatures inside were 1-star. Normally, their leader was a powerful 1-star beast.
In rare cases, the leader could be a 2-star, but that almost never happened.
As for the numbers, they were not fixed.
At least, each portal had fifty beasts inside.
"Gggrrrhhh..."
"Gggrrrhhh..."
"Kreeeaaak..."
One by one, they walked out of the abandoned building.
The moment they smelled human, their instincts kicked in. Their eyes gleamed with hunger, and they rushed toward the source of the scent right away.
Visitors still hadn’t realized this because the building was located in a secluded corner of the park.
"Mark, should we play billiards tonight?" a red-haired man named Ryan asked.
"Sure." Mark agreed right away. "Let’s tell the others after this."
"Alright." Ryan nodded.
As soon as they walked out of the public toilet, a horrifying sight greeted them.
Magical creatures killed other visitors ruthlessly, and blood flowed on the ground like a stream.
The duo stood frozen for a moment.
When a goblin noticed their presence, they came to their senses and ran for their lives.
"Magical creatures! There are magical beasts near the toilet!" they kept shouting to warn the others.
However, they were late since the park was already filled with monsters.
"No... no... please, don’t kill me. Aaaggghhh!"
"Run! Leave this place now!"
"Someone! Press the emergency button! Hurry up!"
Most visitors ran away in fear.
They were only ordinary people. They would die if they tried to stop or fight the magical creatures.
The same thing was also done by the awakeners.
The number of enemies was too much for them to handle, so they chose to save their families and leave the park.
At the same time, Ren and Virelia were still chatting happily. They were still unaware of the situation since they were quite far from the gate.
"Are David and the others back yet?" Ren asked curiously.
"Let me send a message to the group." She took her smartphone out of her pocket.
But just as she was about to open the app, screams of agony reached her ears.
"What’s going on?" Curiosity emerged in her heart as she turned her head toward the source of the sound.
"Why do they look scared?" Ren rose to his feet and approached them.
The blue-haired man noticed them and immediately shouted, "Run! There are many magical beasts in this park!"
Both Ren and Virelia were stunned.
’Magical creatures?’
When they were about to leave with the other visitors, several bird beasts attacked them.
"Aagghh..." Some people were thrown into the air while the rest died or ran away in fear.
The magical beasts showed no mercy.
They saw humans as their enemies, so they killed anyone they saw.
Ren and Virelia shifted into their partial transformation and defended themselves. While they were facing the birds, the other magical creatures arrived.
Since they were outnumbered, they could not save all the visitors.
"We will try to stop them here. Hurry up and leave this place." Virelia activated the Feather Storm innate ability to attack them.
*Roar...
Ren supported her by performing the Roar of Dominance skill.
When their souls were shaking, he raised his right hand forward and used the Lightning Serpent magic.
The blue lightning hit the wild boar, then quickly jumped to another beast. Even though none of them died, it was enough to buy time for the visitors to escape.
The brown-haired man approached Virelia when he knew she was a shifter. "Young lady, please go to the security post and press the emergency button. Let the other awakeners know about the situation so that they can deal with those beasts. If not, they will start killing people all around the park."
"Where is the location?" she asked.
"Two hundred meters from here." The grown man pointed his right index finger toward the south.
"I will go there soon," she replied. "You need to leave now. It’s too dangerous for you to stay here."
The grown man nodded before running toward the entrance gate.
"Little brother, I will go to the security post to press the emergency button," Virelia informed him.
Ren killed a deer with his dagger before he turned to her. "No! We should leave this park now."
It wasn’t that he didn’t care about the citizens’ lives. Going to the security post was the same as putting her life in danger.
He didn’t want something bad to happen to her, so he disagreed right away.
Of course, he knew some people would say he was heartless, selfish, or evil, but he didn’t care about it.
They only had one life, so they should cherish it.
He would not object if they were related to her, but they had no relationship with her.
From his point of view, throwing yourself into danger for some unknown people who might not even feel grateful for her actions was a foolish decision.
So rather than trying to become a hero and endangering herself, it was better to leave immediately since this invasion was not something they could handle alone.
"No! More people would lose their lives if I didn’t do it," she didn’t listen to him.
She instantly spread her wings and flew towards the security post.
"Zara!" Ren used the Tiger Leaps skill to follow her.
Even though he was unhappy with her decision, he didn’t leave her alone. She was his important friend, so he would not let her be alone in a dangerous place.
*Slash...Slash...
He attacked the magical beasts as he leapt past them.
He didn’t kill them because his priority was to protect Virelia.
’Lightning Bolt.’
The moment he spotted an eagle rushing toward her, he attacked it with his magic.
Boom!
The bird fell to the ground.
Like before, he didn’t kill it and quickly used the Tiger Leaps skill.
No!
It was not like he was showing mercy to it.
He would lose sight of her if he attacked the eagle again, so he decided to only open a path for her and support her from behind.
’There are more magical creatures in this area.’
His uneasy feeling grew bigger.
But even so, he kept following Virelia from behind.
"That’s the security post," she descended from the sky.
As soon as she landed on the ground, several magical creatures rushed toward her with their weapons raised high.
She quickly spread her tail feathers and launched an attack at them.
Three of them were hit and thrown into the air, while the other two managed to dodge her strikes.
But before they could injure her, Ren appeared and slit their throats in one clean motion.
*Dug...
Their heads fell to the ground and rolled for a meter.
He turned to her and said, "Go press the emergency button. I will protect you."
"Alright." She rushed toward the security post.
As if the magical creature knew what she was going to do, they dashed toward her and tried to stop her.
Ren, who noticed them, quickly used the Tiger Leaps skill and blocked their strikes.
While they were fighting fiercely, a few meters away, a two-meter lizardman was walking toward the gate with its underlings.
The lizardman had a turtle shield and a black sword.
Its aura was heavy and oppressive.
Anyone who saw it would know immediately that he was the leader of the beasts because the other creatures instinctively kept their distance and moved in sync with his every step.
Its name was Kragthar.
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