Malik could feel somebody glaring at him. Before he could react, there was a piece of stone flying towards his skull.

The next moment, the stone that had been targeting Malik was deflected by a sword with a loud clang. Victor was suddenly standing above him, panting.

“You are the enemy of my god, now you must die, you scum!” Nico screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Father, what is happening?” Malik asked as he quickly backed up.

“Malik, run now!” Victor yelled at the top of his lungs.

Shit, why did he attack me? He mentioned something about a god. Was it because of that negative symbol? What does that mean?

As Malik was frozen, his thoughts were racing, and his heart was beating out of his chest. There was a crazed look in Nico's eyes. A simple fact was clear for all to see: he wanted Malik dead.

“Do what your father says and get your ass over here!” When Malik turned around, he noticed his mother's eyes were bright pink and full of fear.

Seeing his mother act so out of character snapped Malik back to his senses. Malik, listening to his mother, rushed to her side while Victor held off Nico.

“Nico, I know you're a follower of the monster god, but attacking a child…” Victor paused for a moment, his whole demeanor changing. “...and no less my son.” With those words, Victor raised his sword at Nico.

“It doesn't matter, any person with a negative star against the god of Monsters is a sworn enemy to me, no matter what. If I have to kill you too, I will!” Nico said as he put his hands on the ground.

The next moment, three magic circles appeared, then a Minotaur emerged from one of them.

Also summoned was a wild boar and an eagle. They were big, so big in fact that their weight made the entire Temple groan, as if about to collapse.

“Everyone run! Elizabeth, make sure to keep Malik safe!” Enzo screamed while shoving Nova and Ennio down the stairs to get them to safety. 

The only people with a weapon on them were Victor and Enzo; the rest were empty-handed. Their only goal was to get the kids to safety.

“Paula, stay behind and back them up. I'll take the kids and Elizabeth with me. Amara, you do whatever the fuck you wanna do!” Lars yelled at the top of his lungs and picked up the two boys next to him. Then he started running.

“Right, got it, honey!” Paula yelled, then stayed back.

“I'll be sure to protect Malik!” Amara shouted. She ran with Elizabeth and Malik as they made their way downstairs.

“Will they be okay!?” Malik yelled, but his mother did not reply. Making their way downstairs, they met up with Lars, Nova, and Ennio.

“Let's get out of this place as soon as possible!” Lars yelled.

“What about father?” Malik questioned.

“Hell, kid, worse things have tried to kill us. This time we were just rusty and unprepared for this surprise attack, that's all.” Lars said, then, without giving Malik a time to reply, grabbed Nova and Ennio by the hands and started running.

Not waiting for the temple to collapse, Elizabeth and Amara started to run. Elizabeth grabbed Malik by the hand and dragged him with them.

Heading outside, the group saw the temple shaking, then a second later it collapsed on the spot.

“Father!”

“Mother!”

“Dad!”

All three boys screamed.

Not even looking back, Elizabeth dragged Malik behind her. 

Running through the chaotic streets, Malik and everyone else were shocked at the events that transpired. There were people simultaneously watching the fight and fleeing. 

Then, when they were halfway to the exit, something flew out of the rubble.

“It's the eagle!” Lars yelled. The eagle had its eyes only on one person, Malik.

“Shit, get the other kids out of here! They're in danger, let's split up!” Amara yelled, taking Malik by the arm, and starting to run. Elizabeth hurried right behind them.

They ran away from the others and ran to the left of where they were.

Fighting could still be heard behind them. As Malik looked back, there was a boar following after the group and a minotaur still fighting Enzo.

“We have to beat them or they'll cause chaos in the city!” Malik yelled, thinking about all of the civilians getting caught up in this.

“I will not lose you like I lost my sister!” Screamed Elizabeth while taking Malik by the arm and dragging him away.

The boar quickly caught up to them. It had eyes for only Malik. It charged head first at the child, growling, lowering its head to gore Malik to death. 

Elizabeth leapt in front of Malik, glaring into the boar's eyes. She aimed her hand, palm first, at the boar. The very next second, lightning flashed, trapping the animal in a web of lightning.

“It will only be frozen for a minute, let's run!” Elizabeth yelled.

“I don't care anymore! Attack anyone who was in the temple!” Screaming at the top of his lungs, Nico yelled the command to his familiars.

Now in the street, Victor and Nico started to fight with swords, Nico made one out of earth magic while getting out of the rubble.

Just a little bit further ahead was Enzo and Paula battling with the minotaur. Above them was an eagle circled around them, both about the height of a house.

“Elizabeth, we need to help them.” Amara stated, sounding stressed.

“I know, but what about the kids?” Hesitation filled Elizabeth. To the core of her soul, she wanted  to help out her friends so badly. But protecting her child and the other kids came first. Now that the monsters were attacking all of them, she had no other choice but to agree, seeing how she couldn't outrun them.

“As long as they stay by us they will be safe, we can't outrun these things, so we might as well fight them.” Amara voiced her concerns to Elizabeth, hoping she will see reason.

Elizabeth knew she couldn't hesitate and there was only one right choice. Nodding her head she readied herself for battle.

                          ++++++++ 

Fighting on the rooftops, Nico was sending a barrage of attacks at Victor, but Victor deflected all of Nico’s attacks, over and over again. Victor started to learn Nico’s attack patterns and all of his little habits.

“Victor, once everyone knows about your son, he's dead!” shouting at the top of his lungs, Nico said these words that were full of hate.

“I'll kill you before you can spout a word about it.” Stabbing forward in a daring move, Victor slashes off Nico's hand, the one that was holding the stone sword.

“Robin, come save me!” Giving a command to his eagle, Nico yelled for the bird to help him. Swooping down from the sky, the eagle came down and knocked Victor off the roof with a powerful claw kick.

Tumbling down the roof, Victor fell to the ground. Running towards him were Elizabeth and Malik.

Elizabeth got down and started healing Victor. While she was saying the incantation, Victor called Malik over to him, and with a wave of his hand, a portal opened. Sticking his hand inside it, Victor took out a small-looking book.

“This is an ice grimgar. You can only handle the first 10 beginner spells; do not try any of the intermediate spells.” Victor handed the book over to Malik.

Taking the book, Malik flipped over its contents. Each of the first 10 pages contained one of the 10 spells his father had mentioned.

Using his familiar, Robin, Nico flowed into the skies making the clouds hide him. That gave Elizabeth time to finish up healing Victor.

Then the next second they heard a humongous boom behind them. The boar was rampaging going after Ennio, Lars and Nova, destroying the city in the process.

Amara ran after the boar. She didn't have a weapon in hand nor a plan to fight. All she did have was her emotions. Amara was the type of person to let her emotions cloud her judgment.

The boar ran chasing after Lars and the two boys. Lars ran while holding the boys similar to a way someone might carry luggage.

“Father, where are you running to? It looks to me that we are running to a dead end.” Nova stated with concern.

“Haha, my boy, luck hasn't run out yet. We're going to get weapons from an Adventures knick knack shop owned by a friend of mine.”

At the end of the alley was a shop with a wonky looking tilt to it; it looked old and discolored, and was on the brink of falling down.

Getting out of the boar sights, Lars ran into the wonky looking shop carrying the two boys. Letting the two boys down, Nova and Ennio looked around the shop. The shop looked like a hoarder's dream—it was lined to the brink with random knick knacks and weapons. The swords, bows, axes and spears covered all of the walls. The aisles were thin, and their dust covered the whole place.

“Hey, Lars, long time no see. It seems loud out there for some reason.” The shop keeper who apparently knew Lars said with a smile.

“Long story short, Nico went mad, summoned his familiars, and is currently attacking the city. I need weapons, and if you have any spell books, I also need those.” The shop keeper looked shocked as he heard the boar screams. The boar rampagaged and started destroying the surrounding building looking for the others.

“You can pick any weapons you want, I know you have a keen eye for them. As for the spell books, I only have 2 of them. Let me go in the back to get them.” Immediately springing into action the shop keeper ran to the back of the shop where he kept his excess goods. 

Lars looked around the shop for weapons. Scanning the whole area, he picked out a red battle axe, which had a razor sharp tip. He also chose a brilliant pale white looking sword for Amara.

Returning from the back in a rush, the shop keeper brought out 2 books and 1 knife. 

“Here you go. I also added something as a back up weapon just in case. Make sure you save the city.” The man said, handing Lars a purple looking scabbard and two grimgars.

"What type of knife is this?" Lars asked, taking the knife out of the scabbard. The blade somehow looked almost like a lime and was bubbling and green. It also somehow looked slick, like oil spilled on water. 

“It's a poison dagger; the best weapon I have in my shop. I'm giving you this so my shop and home doesn't get destroyed, so you don't have to pay. Also, about the 2 grimgars I’m giving you—one of them is a beginner in earth magic while the other one is an intermediate in water magic. I hope it helps.” 

“Thank you, it will help out a lot. Now go and hide and keep your family safe.” When Lars said this, there was a bang at the front of the shop. Like something was slamming into its warped walls.

“It’s the boar! It sniffed us out!” Nova announced.

“Nova, Ennio, take these grimgars, we need to get out of here! Drew, is there another way

to leave this building?” Lars asked, grabbing all the weapons. He was ready for battle.

“Yeah, there's a back entrance, follow me!” Running towards the back of the store there was a door that led to a back alley, which then led to one of the side roads.

Getting on the side roads they kept on running, and parted ways with the shop keeper who helped them. What they saw behind them shocked all of them. The whole shop had been run through. After demolishing it, the boar went on a rampage destroying all the other nearby shops in the process.

Then it found what it was looking for. It looked Lars and the kids dead on, then proceeded to roar. Running towards them the boar ranged on Lars. The man stepped in front, handing the dagger to Nova and the white sword to Ennio.

“Both of you, find Amara and hand her this sword. I'll fend off this boar till I get back up, now go!” Following Lars’s orders, Nova and Ennio look around for Amara. They started running through the streets calling for her name while Lars fended off the boar.

Then they heard their names being called.

Running on top of the now destroyed shop, Amara ran behind the boar, slid underneath its legs, and ran past it. 

“Mom, catch this!” Ennio threw the sword to his mother while Nova took out the dagger and ran to Amara and Lars to help out.

“No, Nova! Get back and use magic, you don't know how to wield a blade yet!” shouted Amara to Nova.

Listening to her orders, Nova fell back with Ennio and looked through the stone grimgar.