Fight the Gloom Wolf Beast Again!

"He... He Yu!!!"

Zhang Xiaohou tried to scream from the depths of his throat, but a brutal wave of pain choked the cry before it could form.

A cascade of water droplets scattered before him — each one like a fragment of He Yu's life, hitting the ground and vanishing the moment they landed.

"Wind Trail!! Wind Trail!! Wind Trail!!!!"

With his heart hammering in agony, Zhang Xiaohou frantically connected the Star Trails — and at last, a current of wind wrapped itself around him.

Riding the Wind Trail, he threw himself like a madman between He Yu and a Black-Beast Demon's savage claws, wrenching her — soaked crimson — from its grasp.

He darted back with her in his arms on Wind Trail's flash-step, but blood sprayed in all directions as they moved...

There was no stopping it. The Black-Beast Demon was a surgeon of slaughter, unerring in finding the arteries of living things. Once it cut, the bleeding wouldn't stop until every drop was gone.

"Why did you use Water Control to protect me?! Protect yourself — you can't even protect yourself, you idiot!!"

"Teacher Xue, please save He Yu — please, hurry, there has to be a way!!"

"You bastard — you bastard, you bastard — I'm going to kill you, you bastard!!"

His screams poured into every ear. Just as none of them had ever imagined Instructor Baiyang was Black Church, none of them had imagined He Yu would throw herself in front of Zhang Xiaohou like this. Blood the deepest shade of crimson stained the ground everywhere, and every heart in the squad clenched.

Zhang Xiaohou held He Yu in his arms, and she looked up at him — her cheeks drained so pale they had gone faintly blue.

Her eyes were open, those dark irises filled with a storm of emotion in her final moments. Perhaps a thread of satisfaction — she had finally Released Water Domain in the heart of a crisis, protecting a life just as Teacher Xue had urged her. A thread of peace, too — on the Field Expedition, this skinny boy before her had thrown himself into harm's way to save her; today, she had repaid the debt. And more than anything else, longing — so many of the beautiful dreams every young girl carries remained unfinished.

"Ha, so the little runts have made some progress after all! I expected my Black-Beast Demons to take both of them out the moment they struck — didn't expect one would still be breathing. But this instructor has taught you one more lesson today: never trust anyone too easily. Pity it will also be the last lesson of your lives — because none of you are walking off this bridge alive!" Baiyang stood at the center of the bridge, his voice carrying the unhinged satisfaction of a man who had shed every last pretense of humanity.

The words were still leaving his mouth as the two Black-Beast Demons launched themselves at the remaining students.

The Black-Beast Demons were roughly human-sized, yet nearly twice as fast as the Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats — once they darted into shadow, their shapes became nearly impossible to track.

Against inexperienced Mages, they were executioners: capable of landing a killing blow before you even finished casting, and of evading any panicked counterattack with contemptuous ease.

"Get back!" Xue Musheng bellowed.

Everyone had already witnessed what the Black-Beast Demons could do. If they closed the distance to any of the students, the result would be the same — unstoppable hemorrhaging, just like He Yu.

On the other side of the confrontation, the creature blocking Mo Fan's path was a powerfully built Gloom Wolf Beast. It had clearly hurt its paw slamming into the shield and couldn't mount another direct assault for the moment — but its enraged eyes were locked onto him, burning with the promise of violence.

Mo Fan's chest heaved. Hearing Zhang Xiaohou's heartrending screams, rage blazed hot and fierce in his gut.

To He Yu, the sight of Instructor Baiyang should have meant absolute safety — how could she have dreamed he was something more monstrous than any Demon-Beast, more willing to devour without mercy. *Just look at him, still grinning like that* — Mo Fan wanted nothing more than to drive his fist straight through that face.

**"ROAR——!!"**

The Gloom Wolf Beast threw its maw wide open. Something churned deep in its throat — and with a thundering roar, a turbid shockwave of air slammed toward Mo Fan with tremendous force.

A storm of flying grit and stone!

This was the Gloom Wolf Beast's signature technique — a ranged assault that required neither claws nor fangs.

The dirty yellow barrage hit head-on. Mo Fan was already moving — a nimble sideways roll that carried him behind a parked van in an instant.

The van's sheet metal rang like a drum, punched full of holes as the entire vehicle shuddered violently under the bombardment.

Mo Fan pressed his back against it. His eyes blazed with violet light, growing stronger with every passing heartbeat — so intense that brilliant Star Trails of purple light began carving arcs around his entire body.

Seven Star Motes blazed within the Star Trail, passing lightning from one to the next, rapidly condensing a vast, seething seal of thunder and electricity around him.

He exhaled slowly.

Before the grit storm had even fully subsided, Mo Fan spun out from cover and faced the Gloom Wolf Beast head-on.

"I killed things like you a year ago," he said, voice low and cold with fury, not a trace of fear in his eyes. "Putting you down is no different than putting down a dog."

One hand shot up; his fist clenched hard. The lightning command was issued. The restless lightning elements in the air transformed into a volley of furious blades that rained down on the Gloom Wolf Beast.

The beast lunged to dodge — but Mo Fan had already mapped every angle of escape and sealed them shut.

Lightning Seal: Furious Strike inherited the chain-arc effect of Lightning Seal: Frenzied Lash. The moment even a single bolt grazed the Gloom Wolf Beast, every remaining seal would snap onto the target like a magnet, lashing mercilessly, driving deep into muscle and flesh.

A dense web of violet arcs crawled over every inch of the Gloom Wolf Beast, and it let out one agonized howl after another.

Its capacity for movement vanished in an instant. It could not advance a single step toward Mo Fan.

The corner of Mo Fan's mouth curved into a cold smile. Moments after the Lightning Seal's Release, his eyes shifted — vivid crimson light flared in his pupils. Somehow, at some point, his other hand had already curled into a half-fist around a churning ball of flame.

Lightning first.

Then fire.

The two most destructive forces in all of magic — this wretched Gloom Wolf Beast was about to taste them both.

Rage blazed like lightning and burned like fire. He hurled the flame with everything he had. The Fire Burst streaked straight and true toward the howling Gloom Wolf Beast — aimed directly into its open mouth.

Through countless hours of practice, Mo Fan had honed his Fire Burst Release to a precision far beyond his years. The small, purposeful fireball arced cleanly into the Gloom Wolf Beast's slightly raised maw — and vanished inside.

"Detonate." Mo Fan's eyes blazed like twin torches as his Mental Intent synchronized completely with the tier-three Fire Burst's detonation effect.

The tiny fireball looked harmless — until Mo Fan's command struck, and it erupted with full force inside the Gloom Wolf Beast's mouth.