As Leah and Day were cleaning up the dinner table and Rea started to do the dishes, loud bells began to clang in the distance. Rea paled.

"That's the village alarm," Rea muttered. "Kids, go quickly and pack your-"

Boom!

The backdoor of the Moondrop home next to Rea suddenly crashed open and pelted her with small chips of wood from the broken doorframe.

The first thing Bell noticed, even before he could turn around to see what was happening, was the smell. It was the metallic stench of blood, like that found in a butcher shop, except this was a hundred times worse and was mixed with the flavor of feces and rot.

He watched in horror as a grotesque, black, dog-like creature slowly rose up from the ground after having forced its way into the house through the backdoor. One of its eyes was scarred shut and the other one was blood red. Bits of flesh were missing from its face, and it had large tumor-like growths spurting from various parts of its body. It sniffed the air and purple drool fell from the edges of its mouth, which sizzled on impact with the floor.

Bell could feel a heavy, dangerous pressure emanating from the creature, and he stiffened in fear. His thoughts had stopped save for a single one that screamed at him to run, but even so, his body did not move.

Rea stared at the sudden intruder incredulously, her eyes wide in shock. But her shock was only momentary.

Her eyes shifted instantly to her children, who were frozen in place. In that instant, Rea began rapidly cycling her mana.

She clapped her hands and a spiraling ball of green mana formed between them. The creature responded to this sudden energy signature by jumping back and growling angrily at her. She used a finger-casted spell to change the shape of the ball into several tens of arrows that hovered in mid-air between the creature and her children. She grimaced as several other similar creatures entered the house through the broken door.

"What are you kids doing?" Rea yelled, not looking back at them to keep her eyes on the creatures. "Hurry up and run away! Head to the square and find help!"

"Why are… why are these things here?" Leah gaped. "What happened to the wards?"

"Hurry and go!" Rea urged again, desperation trickling into her voice.

"C'mon sis," Day whispered, lifting her to her feet. "Let's listen to mom." Leah gulped and nodded. Day lifted Bell who was still frozen, tucked him under one arm, grabbed Leah's hand, and dashed out the door.

They could hear the sounds of battle begin behind them, with several crashes and yelps of pain filling the Moondrop house.

…

Outside the house, a chaotic scene greeted them under the faint, eerie glow of the mana crystallites overhead and various fires that had started throughout the village. There were several villagers running away from the area to the right of the three siblings, where they could see tens, maybe hundreds of those creatures fighting against a small group of guards. Some of the creatures were breaking through the guards and managing to take some of the villagers down, leaving mangled and bloody corpses on the ground.

The putrid stench that Bell had smelled in the house was just as thick, if not thicker, outside.

Leah doubled over and threw up, whereas Day collapsed to the floor, sending Bell tumbling onto the ground, rolling forward, stopping only to be face-to-face with…

Miya, Kana's mother, laid lifeless on the cobblestone path of their home, wearing a mixed expression of shock and horror.

What the fuck? What the actual fuck? What-

He stared into Miya's pitch black, dead eyes and felt his throat seize up in panic. Bell would have screamed if he could, but he could not make a noise.

Instead, he heard a higher-pitched scream from down the cobblestone path.

Bell wrenched his eyes from Miya's and saw where the scream was coming from.

Down the path near the lake, Taka Oakenheart was bloody but barely holding his own against two wild beasts using his golden-glowing claws to scratch at them if they got too close. Was he reinforcing his claws with some sort of magic? Behind him was the small, curled-up figure of Kana. She was screaming.

Something sparked inside of Bell and he managed to force his body to hop past the dead Miya and move towards the small Guardian child.

C'mon. Faster. Faster. FASTER DAMMIT.

Compelled by something that he couldn't put a finger on - hope? courage? desperation? - Bell moved as fast as he could towards Kana. To do what, he didn't know.

All he knew was that he couldn't just stay still.

Seeing the tiny white blob charge forwards towards certain death, Day and Leah also snapped out of their daze and screamed at Bell to come back. They dashed forwards as well, casting the only attack spell they knew. They didn't know how to use finger-casting nor imbue their mana with the elements yet, but they could at least use the basic force spell, magic missile.

A pair of magic missiles soared past Bell as he approached Taka and Kana, slamming into the closest creature on its back. The force of the missiles caused it to yelp in pain and crash into its teammate. Taka took this opportunity to dispatch the two creatures, who were briefly distracted, using powerful swipes of his golden claws. A rain of blood and purple drool showered his face and torso with each swipe, leaving patches of bubbling skin through the fur that had been burned away by the acidic drool.

The Moondrop siblings reached Kana and Taka at the same time, panting and pale.

"A-are you okay, sir?" Day managed to ask between gasps of air.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Yes, do not worry about me," Taka replied calmly, though he was breathing deeply. Bell wondered if he was really okay or just acting tough. It was surely the latter. No one would be okay with those injuries. Much less after having their wife die in front of their eyes.

"We need to go. Now," Bell urged. "The village square is probably the safest place to go."

Taka nodded, but didn't budge from his spot.

"Yes, you cubs will take Kana there," Taka declared.

"But-"

"There is no time. More of them are coming," Taka growled. "You must keep Kana safe, do you hear me? Promise me this. Now go!"

Indeed, Bell looked in the direction that Taka was staring, and he could see several wild beasts approaching. It wouldn't be long until they arrived. Bell felt his head ache.

"We promise. Be safe, mister," Leah said while scooping up the little Guardian child, to which Taka grunted in thanks and acknowledgement.

Day picked up Bell, and the four children ran away at the bequest of the brave Guardian. Bell saw the man flexing and readying himself for the battle to come. The fleeing villagers, noticing the children and seeing Taka's actions, stopped running and joined him to take a stand against the vile creatures.

As they ran, Kana cried for her mom and dad and scratched at Leah, but Leah held onto her tightly and unrelentingly. Bell saw brilliant flashes of golden, azure, and scarlet light as the figures of Taka and the others were gradually hidden by the trees that lined the path.

Several seconds passed as they ran, but it seemed like several minutes to Bell. He was still trying to make sense of the situation. Why had they been attacked? Wasn't the village ward supposed to keep them safe? What happened? Were Rea and Ella okay?

"Crud, the square is a no-go," Leah groaned as they saw a fire in the distance. From the direction of the village square, there were several creatures approaching them.

"There's only one option then," Day noted. "The mana spring." Leah nodded, and upon reaching the fork in the road, they made their way towards the rocky island as quickly as they could. Bell watched in horror as he saw the creatures follow them.

It was when they had reached the waterfall and the pond that Bell noticed something strange but hopeful.

"Wait!" Bell cried.

"What's up? We need to go up to the spring," Day urged as he and Leah skidded to a stop. Leah looked at them in confusion, still holding Kana, who was no longer struggling but was still crying.

"No, they'll just follow us there," Bell said, motioning to the wild beasts hopping from platform to platform behind them with terrifying speed.

Day cursed out loud.

"Let's go there," Bell motioned to the sign that said 'DO NOT ENTER'.

"The dungeon? But it's closed, remember?" Day asked incredulously.

"The fish I saw before in the stream are gone, and they must have done somewhere. If my hunch is right, that means that the dungeon could be open. Remember what our parents said before? They said that the dungeon showed signs of reopening," Bell explained.

"But the dungeon is dangerous!" Day protested.

"Yeah, and so are they," Bell reminded him, pointing once again at the wild beasts. They were getting closer now. "We're stuck between a rock and a hard place. At least we can try our luck in the dungeon."

Day's expression contorted in frustration as he mulled it over.

"Okay, fine," Day relented. "Leah! We're going to the dungeon!"

"What?!" Leah looked at her twin brother with disbelief.

"Just believe me. Let's go!" Day yelled, sprinting full speed down the path and past the 'DO NOT ENTER' sign. Leah reluctantly followed.

Not soon after, they reached the mouth of a deep, dark cave where the path and meter-wide stream continued inwards.

"It really is open…" Day muttered.

"Do we really have to go in?" Leah asked fearfully.

Bark, Bark, Bark!

The sound of ferocious barking nearby seemed to answer Leah's question, because she looked at her twin brother and they seemed to share a moment of telepathic communication. Altogether, they ran into the dungeon.

…

Rea let out a brief sigh of relief when she realized her children had safely left. In that instant, she launched her wind arrows at the creatures that had invaded her home.

The first volley of ten arrows pierced through the nearest creature's forehead and shoulder, and also drove themselves into the legs, snouts, and eyes of the other creatures respectively. The creatures yelped and crashed against the far kitchen wall, causing the plates and shelves to shatter and break apart. This attack didn't seem to have left a critical injury, however, because the creatures got back up quickly and charged at Rea. This was strange, but it confirmed her suspicions.

These things were definitely wild beasts, but at the same time they were not so. Normal wild beasts would have died from such an attack. In the first place, normal wild beasts would not have been able to break through the village wards. Just from looking at their appearance, it was clear that they had been corrupted with some sort of tainted energy that made them much, much stronger.

Rea used another volley of wind arrows to push the tainted beasts back again, and readied a third and fourth volley of wind arrows, feeling the drain on her mana reserves. She gritted her teeth. Her mana stores should have been at least enough for eighty arrows back in the day. This was what she got for slacking off from training after retiring as an Archer.

She swore that she would get back in shape if she got past this. When she got past this, she reminded herself.

"Come at me you bastards!" Rea shouted, extending her mana perception tendrils towards the tainted beasts as they charged at her once again. This time, she didn't just fire her arrows. She waited until the beasts were close enough that she could feel their energy. She allowed her perception to probe the beasts until-

'There!'

Rea released her third and fourth volleys of wind arrows simultaneously, which instead of flying straight at the beasts, flew in curved arcs and slammed into their sides, penetrating their ribs and the tainted core that she had been able to feel with her perception. The beasts slammed into the walls to each side of Rea, making it seem like she was parting a sea of tainted wild beasts. This time, instead of getting back up, the beasts remained laying and twitching.

Rea allowed herself one second to catch her breath before turning around and exiting the house.

What she saw sent a chill down her spine. Of course there had been more of these things outside. She cursed under her breath and rapidly dashed towards Taka and the group of villagers fighting against a horde of tainted beasts, chanting a quick wind magic spell to augment her legs with agility and strength. She briefly noticed the mangled corpse of Miya as she ran, and rage flickered into her eyes. She sent a pulse of mana down to her legs, accelerating her forward even faster.

As soon as she reached the first beast, Rea drove her augmented knee into its side, sending it skidding over the lake as it tumbled against the surface and splashed into the water. The impact had completely negated her forward velocity, and, still suspended in mid-air, Rea twisted her body and sent a powerful kick down onto the back of a second beast. The kick shattered the beast's ribs and core instantly.

"Where are the children?" Rea yelled at Taka.

"They went towards the square!" Taka yelled back, clipping a tainted beast's snout with an upward swing of the claw.

Without replying, Rea left the group and ran as fast as she could in the direction of the village square. She redirected some wind mana to her eyes to see as far as she could, and her hope waned as she saw the path leading from the square towards her overrun with tainted beasts. However, her hope was then rekindled when she noticed some figures jumping onto the rocky island at the center of the lake out of the corner of her eye.

Just maybe…

She steeled herself, leaped into the lake, and swam towards the mana spring. Upon arriving at the island, she immediately casted two volleys of wind arrows, used one volley to clear the path of beasts to the mana spring, and held the other one on standby. She then activated Archer Vision. This class-specific skill allowed the user to track someone's footsteps as long as it was relatively fresh. Several glowing, green footprints appeared on the rocky surface, leading not up to the mana spring, but to…

'What the- the dungeon?' Realization dawned on Rea's face, followed by an expression of chilling fear. She used the remaining volley of wind arrows to dispatch the beasts on the path as she ran quickly towards the dungeon entrance.

'Please be fast enough, please be fast enough, please…' she repeated in her head. Up ahead, she saw the path and stream converging into the side of the island's rocky hill. Into a seamless wall of rocky hill.

"No… this can't be…" Rea despaired, reaching the entrance to the dungeon that had now been sealed off that a group had entered inside. Beneath the sealed entrance were glowing footsteps clearly leading into it. She slammed her fist against the wall helplessly, but she knew it was too late.

Once a group of explorers was already inside a dungeon, it would seal itself off from the world, only reopening under two conditions:

Either the dungeon was cleared, or the explorers would perish.

Rea tried to steady her breath, but found it difficult to do so. She had to hope that the kids would somehow manage to clear the dungeon, but she couldn't imagine it to be possible. Even level five adventurers might find it hard to clear a dungeon, depending on the dungeon, and her older children were only level two.

Worst of all, there was nothing she could do. All she could do was hope that her kids could clear it.

She had to hold onto this single, however unlikely, hope.