From afar, they could fully see the bubble's light that seemed to envelope the village they had been searching for all this time; the path they followed led straight into the village, and Melavan confirmed the sight they saw as the village they had come for.

  ?The group hurried their already exhausted feet, getting closer to the village. But the beast, after rising from the ground to be a towering entity, approached them from behind and got close to them at an incredible speed.

  ?As the one to guard the group from behind, Joshua saw the approaching beast. And his gaze landed once again at the nearby soldiers running in front of him. They were slow—slower than the beast—and with their current pace, they would definitely get caught by the beast; and as the one to stand last in the group, Joshua knew he wouldn't be able to escape if he continued to stay like this.

  ?His mind started to spin, thoughts running through it like lightning across the dark sky.

  ?"Why am I protecting the weak? Because that is how I was trained. I'm a savior and a ruler that would govern a land in the future, and for that, I need people—people that believe in me, people that have trust in me, and people that feel safe when they are around me. That is how my father trained me and taught me.

  ?And yet, right here, right now, does the thing I'm doing truly matter? Does saving these few lives truly earn me the merits I need? Does risking my life to protect them grant me anything in return?"

  "I don't know, I don't know the answer to that. Now, all I want deep within my heart is to let go of everything, and to fly like a free bird into the sky. But I'm afraid if I did that, I will be lost within myself; the me right now would be different; the me that lived for the past fifteen years would disappear if I let these new feelings take control of me. I won't change, I won't let myself change, but I will accept these things that give me new inspiration. I will use these gifts to create a better me and not a new me."

  ?At once, Joshua's feet came to a halt. He no longer ran; instead, he turned, facing the approaching towering beast.

  ?It was as fearsome as it was massive, and its roar was enough to shake the heart and burst the eardrums.

  ?But Joshua was able to endure it, his gaze landing on the beast and his mind coming to believe the things he saw in the light panel. With blind trust in his unknown skills, he rushed at the beast and rose into the sky.

  ?In his class skills, the feathering , the flying skill glowed for ten seconds, and Joshua flew into the sky, ignoring the pulling of gravity toward the ground.

  ?The gigantic beast took no notice of an insignificant being like Joshua, but its arrival at the whole group brought its crab-like legs to stomp at him. Joshua, now floating in the air, flung himself toward the beast and landed on its worm-like body above the countless crab-like legs.

  ?Once he landed, he felt his body becoming heavier again; the ability to fly like before had disappeared, and thinking of it, he had indeed been in the air for ten seconds, and it was almost in the last two seconds he landed on the beast's body.

  ?After that, Joshua ran along the body of the gigantic beast and headed straight to its face. His speed was immense, and he used his second skill to increase his already impressive speed by a huge margin. The beast had already approached the group, and the group almost got into the bubble wrapping around the village, but the beast lifted its countless crab-like legs and struck at the group with immense force. At the moment, Joshua was already near its face, and his blade shone as he swung it, slicing it across its eye.

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  At once, the beast screamed, and its strike at the group came to an abrupt halt. It stomped backward while roaring, one of its eyes bleeding out while the other kept looking around for the cause of the damage. The beast shook violently as it stomped backward, causing Joshua to lose his blade upon the beast's face and fall down. However, he landed his feet on the surface of the beast's body, taking momentum and jumping away.

  ?At the last moment before he jumped, the beast's eye finally took notice of him, and its rage was shown as its worm-like face frowned like a squeezed tomato.

  ?With the jump and momentum, Joshua landed fast onto the ground, and the place he landed was fortunate, into the bubble surrounding the village. The fall was heavy, and Joshua rolled on the ground after the fall to bear the pressure.

  ?The enraged beast saw Joshua on the ground, and its countless legs moved upward like scythes and landed on him as it entered into the bubble. Joshua lifted his head up from the ground and searched for his blade, as it was lost from his hand in the moment he landed. But it was too late; the scythe-like legs fell upon him, their sharpness reflecting in his eyes at the last moment.

  ?The threat of death was clear on the razor-sharp edge of its leg, yet Joshua showed no fear; his eyes kept on looking for his weapon even as the scythe-like leg landed on him.

  ?From afar, Sedric and Melavan gazed back, seeing Joshua on the ground with the razor-sharp leg falling upon him. Sedric hurried and rushed back to him for aid while Melavan hesitated, but their speed was not enough. And before them, something else rushed at the beast and Joshua.

  Only Melawn, with his precise eyes, was able to catch a glimpse of what was rushing past them, and what he saw was a hammer.

  ?It wasn't a regular hammer but one built for war; its upper part where the strike happens is larger than a human head, and its handle that attaches to the middle of the cube-shaped top is as long as half a human height.

  ?With incredible speed, it rushed at the beast that entered into the bubble-shaped circle surrounding the village, and with a powerful force, it landed on the beast before its razor-shaped legs fell upon Joshua and sliced him.

  ?The stroke from the hammer sent the beast scrying backward, and through its body, a clear mark of crankings started to appear. And after a moment, the whole body of the beast shattered into to countless pieces, all of which turned into some unknown tiny beings once again that ran away from the circle surrounding the village.

  ?After the defeat of the beast, the hammer flew up into the sky, disappearing from everyone's sight, and both Sedric and Melavan did not manage to see any sight of it again.

  ?As they wondered what it was, Joshua got up from the ground and walked to pick up his sword that had fallen a considerable distance away from him.

  ?"Welcome, welcome. It must have been a terrible experience on the outside, but fear not; now you all can be safe here."

  ?An old and caring voice reached the soldiers' and others' ears, and turning back to the village, Sedric and Melavan saw that it was an old man wearing a brown-gray robe speaking to them.

  ?"Are you the chief of this village?" Sedric asked, attempting to guess the identity of this man.

  ?"I am, and I welcome you to this village. Please be at ease and treat this place like your home. If it makes you feel better, there is another group like you in here that came here just recently; maybe you two groups know each other."

  ?Said the old man, as he gestured to Sedric and his group into the village. Joshua had already joined the group within that short time. With his increased speed from the changed body, even the walking pace of his is faster than a regular human when he needs it to be.

  ?"There is another group like us? If what you're saying is correct, they could indeed be someone we know of. Lead us to this group."

  ?Said Sedric, showing no special respect for the old man; and the old man took no offense at his words. With a kindly gesture, he turned back to face the village road and walked in while Sedric and the group followed him from behind.