房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Those without mana pulled out concealed weapons while magicians all started casting their most powerful magic.

A few initial spells crushed against the stone armor merely slowing the beast down a bit, but soon a few lucky ones managed to get under it, severely wounding the creature.

"...!"

But the armored wolf didn\'t care about the injuries, she was focused solely on the black-haired boy. She had to make sure that he was fine.

*WHAM*

"GU-HUAGH...!"

Cat passed the red-haired boy, merely brushing against him and sending him flying in the process while a water spear pierced through her left hind leg.

"...nnn... nnn..."

It hasn\'t been long but the number of spells Cat took damaged her severely, still, she limped her way toward Zoemi.

"...nnn...!"

The first glance made the wolf tremble and let out a heartwrenching whimper – the spot where the boy\'s head should be was all bloody with occasional spots of white bones and the whole thing was steaming as if still simmering from the fire attribute mana.

"Dragon breath!"

*WHOOOOOO*

"!!!"

To make things worse, Grazio who managed to scramble his way up from the ground reached out his hand and unleashed a cone of crimson fire that heated Cat\'s stone armor to a scorching temperature.

And yet the monster didn\'t budge from the spot despite her fur being burnt off and her flesh getting cooked alive.

Cat stood tall protecting what she thought of as the remains of her master with her own body.

*STAB*

Just as the flames went away and the wolf tried to cast off her armor to replace it with another one, one of the instructor\'s spells – a water spear – make use of the window of opportunity and pierced right through the beast\'s neck.

"Nnnn...!"

Cat yelped and her feet crumbled down.

She wanted to protect her master, but that was no longer an option.

She was barely strong enough to crawl her way towards his body and snuggled her head under one of his hands as if wishing for the last one headpat...

The armored wolf rested her head against Zoemi\'s body and...

*bu-dum*

"...!"

The sound of her beloved human\'s heart filled her ear and her tail wagged one last time.

|Alive...|

|At least he... was still alive...|

The last thoughts flashed in Cat\'s brain before she succumbed to her injuries and died...

"His head should have been cleanly blown off, hurry and use dead wolf\'s jaws to make it seem like it bit it off. We don\'t have much time before the rest of the castle shows up."

The head instructor declared, ordering others around while approaching the pale Grazio.

"Young lord Victureo, are you okay...?"

He asked cautiously, putting his hand on the boy\'s shoulder.

"Hmph, of course. This is how you deal with nuisances, nothing like that abandonment plan you made us try before."

Grazio scoffed raising his head proudly and crossing his arms.

"...!"

"What, I only said the..."

The red-haired boy felt the man next to him flinch in shock so he tried to make some high and mighty speech but then he began turning around and actually saw what caused the head instructor to freeze.

The black-haired boy with more than one-third of his face blown away, with the bloodied exposed teeth and jawbones on his right side, was sitting upright while staring blankly at the mangled corpse of the armored wolf by his side.

"Wh...?! How is he still alive?! It was a fireball at a point-blank range, a manaless commoner has no chance of...!"

Grazio\'s face turned pale as a fresh sheet and he gasped in shock while taking a step back.

As he did...

*WHOOOSH*

"Huh...?!"

The horribly wounded black-haired boy simply disappeared from the spot leaving only a gust of wind that ruffled the dead monster\'s fur.

"WHERE DID HE-GBLURGH...!"

*SHING* *splat*

"...?!"

The head instructor by Grazio\'s side raised his voice but went silent after only a few words, at the same time Grazio got drenched by something wet and hot causing him to freak out, trip and fall.

"Disgusting...! What is this? H-huh...?"

*thump*

The red-haired boy tried to shake get the liquid off when the upper half of the head instructor plopped onto the ground right under his feet.

*WHOOOSH* *SHING* x12 *WHOOOSH*

Before the scream of fear built up in Grazio\'s throat, all the torches lighting up the area were extinguished by the blood and viscera flying everywhere.

In mere seconds the only beings left alive there were Grazio and a humanoid beast with half of its face horribly mutilated by flames, its obsidian eyes burning up with the otherworldly light of the stars.

"F-fireball!"

Grazio backed off on all fours but the body of the head instructor was blocking his way, so the red-haired boy had no other choice but to attack.

*WHOOOO*

The flames coiled in his palm and a bright red fireball shot at the creature that didn\'t even seem to register the attack...

*tssss*

"!!!"

As it turned out, it didn\'t even have to – the fireball reached its target, smashed against the monster\'s head, and...

...did not add to the damage the creature has already suffered whatsoever...

*WHOOOSH* *clench*

The very next second the monster disappeared from its spot again and with a gust of wind caused by its movement it appeared right in front of the shocked Grazio, grabbing his arm by the wrist.

"...?"

"~!"

The red-haired boy looked up at the creature, too scared to even let out a sound, and the monster responded with a smile...

...or rather the fangs in the exposed jaws glistened in the moonlight...

*RIIIIP*

"GHRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH...!"

Then the creature ripped out the child\'s arm as if the limb was made out of soft clay, causing the red-haired boy to howl like a butchered animal.

But the monster didn\'t stop there.

It grabbed the boy\'s head, making sure that he is watching, and raised the torn-off limb to its face, opening its jaws at full width and...

*CRUNCH*

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

...biting into it, adding a whole lot of psychological trauma on top of the physical one.