“How could you?”

“GOW!” The ferocious beast let out a great big roar that exuded some amount of confidence. It brought some of the villagers to their knees, and others shaking where they stood. I fell into the latter. This beast written in myths had come out of the woodwork and was chasing three innocent children. The thought that in some way I had contributed to this outcome caused a pit to start forming in my stomach.

The beast which could only be a Chimera gave chase to the children who were running for their lives. A single mistake could cost them everything. The beast was slowly catching up to the little girl in the back, and the two boys in the front dared not to look behind them to help the little girl.

The sight of this made the pit in my stomach disappear and instead be replaced with anger. Looking back towards the monstrosity, its odd combination of animals made it look far too ugly. The lack of continuity in its body, the oddly placed limbs, and multitude of different heads further contribute to this ugliness. It had started to disgust me more than scare me, causing a grimace to appear on my face.

“Quick! You three help me shoot at it!” The village leader called out to the three people still standing behind me to help.

In a few seconds, they each were holding a fireball in their hands and were aiming it at the monster. As they took aim, they fired off the flaming mass from their hands at the same time, almost as though they were the same person. The shining balls, which looked like mini suns, swiftly made their way towards the creature.

Three of them made contact with it, hitting it in different spots. The damage from them seemed almost negligible, as the beast simply ignored it all and showed no signs of burns. I looked around for the one that had yet to hit, unable to see it. Finally, I could see a fire building in the grass patch a couple feet in front of the kids. At this rate, they would have to avoid it, but the oddity would catch up in doing so.

“No! We’ve doomed them!” Cried out the mage who had caused the fire.

Seeing the situation, I decided it was time to take action. With my ring of amplification and my higher level abilities, I should stand a better chance. At the very least, I should be able to buy enough time for the old lady to gather a greater force to help fight it.

“Leader, I’m going to go help them.” I told her, while breaking into a sprint away from her and towards the monster.

“Wait! It’s too dangerous!” I heard her call out while I was running away.

It didn’t matter however, I was already too far away. She couldn’t stop me anymore. While I sprinted over, I quickly iced over the patch of fire in front of the kids from a distance. I made sure to immediately melt it to make sure they wouldn’t slip on it.

I could hear slight cheers from the direction of the village at my actions, but this was only the beginning. I’m taking that thing down before it can harm anyone. I finally closed the distance between myself and the children, being only a couple of feet away from them.

“Hey what are you doing! Start running!” The grandson had yelled out to me in concern.

Huh, I guess he’s not that bad. I raised my hand and aimed directly for the creature. At almost the same time, the azure mist released from my hand and caused the ugly beast to begin slipping, eventually losing its balance and tumbling down. Hearing the large thud, the children let out a last burst of speed and quickly got behind me, stopping.

“Thank yo….” They had begun trying to show their gratitude.

“What are you doing, hurry up and go!” I stopped them, scolding them to run.

The beast quickly got up, each of its heads trying to look around to see what had happened. Shit, that was way faster than I thought it would be. The kids had started running from me at the sight, trying to get back to the village quickly. I stared down the trash in front of me, hoping it would stay down just long enough for the children to get back.

I began summoning icicles in front of me, approximately five to test how effective they would be. I shot them towards the cocky beast at incomprehensible speeds, all of which connected with the creature. The icicles, which had only begun to melt, were embedded into areas of the amalgamation, causing some blood to be released.

The oozing black fluid emerged from its wounds and let out a putrid smell. Even I could sniff it despite being at a pretty great distance. It looked as though the blood was melting the ground itself. The look on each of the monster’s heads still seemed as though they were not looking at me, but instead past me. Most likely, the predator was still looking at its original prey instead of the far greater threat in front of it.

I looked back at the kids to see how close they were to the village. They had a pretty poor pace. It seems they were tired from trying to outrun the enemy. Like prior, the little girl had started falling behind the two boys, but not by too much from the looks of it. Looks like I’ll have to do something to keep it’s attention or else it may try something with those kids out of desperation.

I needed to get a little bit of distance so I’d have a greater chance to avoid its attacks when it made them. Immediately I guided my palm to the annoyance’s direction. A spider lily coloured radiance was let out from my hand, causing a great ball of fire to be sent towards the direction of the creature. The ball of fire was similar to that shot by the others before, but this was much larger. Not only that, from the feeling I had while it was close to me, it was definitely hotter.

The monster had no hope to dodge as the ball had connected flawlessly. Parts of its skin had started to melt after the attack. It let out another great big roar similar to the first. This time, however, I knew it wasn’t out of confidence but rather fear.

“Perfect!” I spoke aloud, confirming something I was hoping for.

The beast started to bend its knees. It was looking to pounce on me, attempting to attack me before I could conjure any more magic attacks. Realizing this, the hand I had put out originally to create fireballs once again started glowing red.

Before the amalgamation could make its pounce, a great inferno in the shape of a wall appeared right in front of the creature, stopping it in its tracks. Knowing that the creature now knew that my fire would cause it real damage, it wouldn't dare try jumping through this. I began taking a few paces backwards, keeping my eyes on the barricade I had made.

Hopefully with this, the creature should get discouraged and return to the forest. Even if it doesn't, however, I should be able to bombard it with icicles as soon as the wall goes down due to the distance I created just now. I’d prefer to do it with fireballs instead, but seeing as I haven’t gotten a chance to fully practice around with my fire magic, I probably shouldn’t risk it.

Unfortunately I underestimated its persistence. With a great big puff of wind, it expanded its wings and took to the air, going above me. The sight of watching such a large villain taking into the air stunned me. While I watched it fly above me, I realized it was still going for the children.

I tried shooting it out of the air with icicles but was stopped by the blood spewing out of the creature’s wounds. Seeing as there was enough blood to drown someone and what it had previously done to the ground, I created a mini barrier above my head with ice. The beast finally landed with a great amount of force, causing a large amount of dust to go into the air, almost as though it was an explosion.

When the dust had settled, that thing was in between the three children. At some point when they were running back, the two boys had made an even greater gap between them and the girl. You could say almost the perfect gap for the creature to land in between them. I could still see the boys running towards the village behind the creature, but towards my side I could see the girl standing almost right in front of it.

The multiple heads of the creature were preparing to attack the girl. I quickly aimed my palm in the direction of the trash, hoping I could dispose of it before the girl got injured. Summoning thirty icicles in front of me, I aimed them steady for the creature. Suddenly, I was stopped dead in my tracks.

The feelings from this morning had started to resurface, causing my hand to start shaking. I tried to steady my right hand by grabbing my wrist with my left arm. I saw the small girl standing in front of the shot looking at me for help. This only reminded me of the atrocity I had committed in the nightmare. The effect of the shaking only multiplied by this memory, causing not even my other hand to be capable of steadying myself.

The hyperventilating had started to take hold of me once again. What if I hit that girl? There’s a chance I’ll end up killing her. If I do that, even healing magic wouldn’t be able to fix that. Closing my hand while lost in thoughts, the icicles melted into water. Suddenly, the lion head of the Chimera made a sharp lean, biting into the girl's arm and tearing it off.

“AHHH!” The loud screams of agony released from the girl caused me to snap out of it.

A single sentence echoed through my mind.

How could you?