That afternoon, Raylo led his Knights out to "visit" the irascible mother on the Black Water Riverbank.
The afternoon sun was languid, but the air around Black Stone Town was faintly tinged with tension.
The rat-catching operation organized by Old Buck was proceeding in an orderly fashion. All around the town's periphery, one could see freshly dug pits and simple traps.
The air was filled with a faint, earthy smell and the scent of a special rat-repelling herb.
Every High Tier Magical Beast was a precious asset and a powerful source of support for any Lord.
The Armored Rhinoceros was a Tier Three Magical Beast, with combat prowess comparable to a Tier Three Earth Knight.
The Pegasus was a fine prize, but its movements were erratic, and it was extremely difficult to capture. Raylo had arranged for two Knights to patrol the edge of the forest in shifts, but they could only lie in wait for an opportunity.
Although the Armored Rhinoceros had an irascible temperament, its powerful defense and charging power meant that if one could be raised from infancy, it would become a veritable mobile fortress on the battlefield.
An hour later, the group, traveling light, left Black Stone Town and headed south.
The Black Water River was not particularly wide. It meandered south of the Black Stone Mountain Range, forming a stretch of lush and fertile riverbank.
The terrain on the south bank gradually rose, and the vegetation grew denser, consisting mostly of low shrubs and drought-resistant grasses, with a few gnarled Black Iron trees growing tenaciously in between.
A faint, musky odor hung in the air—the characteristic scent of an area frequented by large Magical Beasts.
The experienced Ed took the lead, pausing from time to time to inspect the tracks on the ground and survey their surroundings for any sign of movement.
"Lord, look here."
Ed crouched down, pointing to a set of massive hoof prints on the ground.
The prints were sunk deep into the soil, their edges sharp. They had clearly been left not long ago.
"They belong to an Armored Rhinoceros." Bolin also leaned in for a look, his expression grave. "Judging by how fresh the tracks are, it must be nearby."
Raylo nodded, signaling for them to press on while heightening his own senses to their absolute limit.
After his breakthrough to Official Knight, his five senses and Spiritual Power had been significantly enhanced. The slightest rustle of grass in the wind, even subtle fluctuations of the elements, could not escape his notice.
They advanced another few hundred meters, and after passing through a dense thicket, the view suddenly opened up before them.
It was a relatively flat stretch of river valley, with several massive boulders scattered near the riverbank.
And in the center of the Valley, a behemoth was resting.
It was the size of a small, mobile hill, its entire body covered in a thick, rough carapace that looked like black metal, reflecting the sunlight with a dull, dark sheen.
Its head was massive, and a single, incredibly thick horn jutted out from above its snout, the tip glinting coldly.
Its four limbs were thick and powerful, like stone pillars supporting its heavy body.
It was the Tier Three Magical Beast, the Armored Rhinoceros!
At that moment, the Giant Beast seemed to be dozing. Its heavy breathing sounded like a bellows, and each exhalation sent out a wave of heat that made the surrounding blades of grass tremble.
Beneath its belly, two smaller rhinos, also covered in black carapaces, were nestled against their mother, playfully wrestling.
Their carapaces were still tender and grayish-black in color, and their horns were only just beginning to take shape, giving them an endearingly clumsy appearance.
Raylo's gaze shifted back and forth between the Armored Rhinoceros and her two calves, his own heart beginning to beat a little faster.
After observing for a moment, Raylo noticed that while the mother rhino appeared to be dozing, its ears twitched from time to time, a clear sign that it remained highly alert.
The slightest sound could startle it.
Just then, a clueless Tier Two Magical Beast, a Demon Hyena, stealthily poked its head out from a nearby thicket, drooling as it stared at the two wrestling calves.
It had just crept out of the thicket, not yet having had a chance to properly survey its surroundings, when the Armored Rhinoceros, which had been lying down, snapped its eyes open!
They were a pair of blood-red eyes, filled with savagery and madness!
"ROOOAR—!"
A world-shaking roar suddenly exploded, and the entire Valley seemed to tremble.
The Armored Rhinoceros's massive body shot up from its resting position to a standing one in an instant, with almost no delay.
It locked its sights on the hapless Demon Hyena and stomped its hooves, digging deep pits into the hard earth.
The next second, it moved!
Like an out-of-control, heavy Siege Hammer, it charged the Demon Hyena with irresistible force!
Its speed was astonishing!
It was completely disproportionate to its massive size!
Its heavy body thundered across the ground, causing the earth to tremble slightly.
From the start of its charge to reaching its target, it took barely the blink of an eye!
The Tier Two Demon Hyena had no time to react before the charging Armored Rhinoceros slammed directly into it!
"SPLAT!"
With a sickening thud, the Demon Hyena, like a fragile rag doll, was instantly smashed into a bloody pulp of flesh and Bone Shards, unable to even let out a scream.
The Armored Rhinoceros's momentum didn't falter. It charged forward for dozens more meters, shattering several waist-high boulders in its path before slowly coming to a stop. It shook the blood and gore from its head and let out another intimidating roar, as if declaring its sovereignty.
Hiding behind the rocks, Raylo and his men watched, their hearts pounding as cold sweat beaded on their foreheads.
"My God..."
Ed swallowed hard, his face pale. "That speed... it's as fast as a warhorse at full charge. No, even faster! And that impact..."
Bolin was equally horrified. "If that thing hits you head-on, even in full Heavy Armor, you'd be turned into a pile of meat paste."
Both Great Knights were battle-hardened veterans, but faced with such a direct display of a Tier Three Magical Beast's terrifying Power, they couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness.
They knew full well that they weren't fast enough to dodge the Armored Rhinoceros's charge.
Raylo's eyes, however, only grew brighter.
'Fast!'
'Astonishingly fast!'
'But that speed... it seems to be only in a straight line.'
Raylo's mind was racing.
'The Armored Rhinoceros's charge is incredibly powerful and extremely fast, but when it smashed the Demon Hyena and the rocks just now, it barely changed direction at all.'
'A charge that relies on immense weight and brute force can't be agile. It must have poor turning ability.'
'And it's clearly easy to provoke, especially when its calves are involved.'
"Its speed is indeed fast, but it's not impossible to counter," Raylo said in a low voice.
Ed and Bolin both looked at Raylo in surprise.
To them, the scene they had just witnessed was a display of absolute, hopeless power. How could the Lord possibly say it could be countered?
"Lord, what do you mean?"
Ed asked, unable to imagine any way to block or dodge an impact like that.
"We don't need to block it, and we don't need to dodge it."
"We'll make it run away on its own."