The Scalehide Demon-Mother

Outside the gymnasium, a man stood balanced between the towering horns of a massive azure-blue beast, his sharp gaze sweeping over the enormous building below.

"My men have confirmed it — the parasitic creatures are called Scalehide Demon-Soldiers. Under normal circumstances, Scalehide Demon-Soldiers cannot transmit through blood. I believe what we're dealing with now has undergone a mutation and evolved into something entirely outside our records." A strikingly androgynous man in a fitted leather jacket stood below the great beast, addressing the man above with utmost deference.

"Humans have been concocting every manner of magical compound and running experiments on live Demon-Beasts — that some mutated monster eventually crawled out of it is hardly surprising. But the fact that one of those monsters has appeared inside Pearl Academy is something I will not stand for! This is the Blue District! Most of the people here are freshmen and Basic-Level Mages. Against creatures with parasitic capabilities like these, they have absolutely no means of fighting back!" The man atop the beast spoke with barely contained fury.

Every hunter among them understood: in a city as vast as Magic City, Demon-Beasts running amok was always a possibility. But for it to happen at a mage academy — the most sacred of all institutions — it would send shockwaves through the entire magical community.

Why had the barrier protecting the academy failed to stop the Demon-Beasts from slipping inside? How had the situation been allowed to fester this long before anyone noticed? Was the City Demon-Hunting Squad good for nothing? In the end, it had taken an Azure Sky Hunting Firm operative following up on a routine commission to finally uncover the truth.

If this had gone unnoticed for another week or two, the entire district might have become a Demon-Beast nest.

"Yes — we were negligent." A squad of mages in neat orange uniforms stood off to the side, unease written plainly across their faces.

They were one of the City Demon-Hunting Squad's units, responsible for the zone surrounding Pearl Academy. Any Demon-Beast that threatened the lives of civilians in this area was their mandate to eliminate immediately.

"We still have no way of estimating exactly how many Scalehide Demon-Soldiers are inside. And according to intelligence my people have gathered, if these creatures determine that their death is certain, they will initiate a collective self-destruct. This collective suicide is essentially a method of channeling their remaining energy back to the Scalehide Demon-Mother. Furthermore, once this ritual is triggered, every parasitized individual will be drained of all life force and die instantly." The leather-clad man said.

"In other words — we can't afford to tip them off?" Commander Xi Ming asked.

"Precisely. At minimum, we cannot allow the Scalehide Demon-Mother to detect any large-scale mobilization on our part. The moment she does, she will abandon every parasitized person inside that gymnasium."

Hearing this, Demon-Hunting Squad Captain Liang Yujie's brow furrowed.

Across from him, Scholar Li — standing in for Dean Zhu — had gone pale.

There had to be six or seven thousand students in that gymnasium. Around a thousand of them were using the public facilities; the overwhelming majority were packed into the main hall watching the idol celebrity's rehearsal. Heaven only knew how many had already been parasitized.

If they charged in right now, every parasitized person would trigger self-destruct at once — it would be a campus massacre. Scholar Li could not shoulder that responsibility, and neither could any of the department heads assembled here; they would all be held to account.

"So we just stand here and do nothing?!"

"Kill the Scalehide Demon-Mother. Once the mother dies, every Scalehide Demon-Soldier under her will perish on its own." The leather-clad man said.

"How powerful is the Scalehide Demon-Mother?"

They were still in the middle of this exchange when a small girl walked up, cradling a tablet in her arms.

"Little girl, go home — this is no place for you." Department Head Zhou Zhenghua said urgently.

Lingling paid him not the slightest attention and walked straight up to the man in leather.

"Come here, Lingling." He greeted her with a warm smile, as if welcoming a little sister.

"You drama queen," Lingling said bluntly, "you didn't make too much noise setting up the perimeter, did you?"

"Relax. I did exactly what your sister told me — we moved very carefully. See how far back all us experts are standing? If it weren't for the risk of that wicked Scalehide Demon-Mother killing those parasitized kids, we'd have charged in long ago and wiped the lot of them out. Pests like these are beneath notice for me and Commander Xi Ming." The flamboyant man said.

"Little one, do you have any ideas?" Commander Xi Ming asked.

As the Azure Sky Hunting Firm's prodigious young demon-hunter, Lingling had already made something of a name for herself in the Hunters' Alliance. Commander Xi Ming had heard of her reputation for shrewd, resourceful thinking.

"Unless I'm wrong, the two green-scaled creatures my partner and I encountered earlier were a female and a male. We killed the male on the spot. The female — the Scalehide Demon-Mother — is most likely hiding somewhere inside the gymnasium right now, using her Demon-Soldiers to harvest the nutrients she needs from the students." As she spoke, Lingling opened her tablet and walked the assembled leadership through what the digital map was displaying.

Everyone crowded in to look. The gymnasium on the map was scattered with a startling number of red dots — and since these creatures were mixed in among the students, sending in even the finest fighters would be useless. They had no way of distinguishing normal students from parasitized ones.

"From what I've observed, these red dots move erratically — spreading out, attacking wherever they please — but a certain number of the Demon-Soldiers consistently return to one particular spot inside the gymnasium." Lingling extended one small finger and pointed at a section of the map.

"That area is..."

"The automated lift platform in front of the main hall's large screen." Zhou Zhenghua said immediately.

"That platform is normally kept suspended in mid-air with safety netting around it. It's rarely used — only when a major celebrity wants the dramatic effect of descending from above... Actually, the idol performer who's rehearsing today would be using it for the actual concert." Scholar Li added quickly.

"There should be a door on the platform connecting to the third floor. The third floor is where the celebrity dressing rooms, green rooms, and press suites are. Once a performer is ready, a small corridor on the third floor leads directly onto the lift stage."

"Lingling — are you saying the Demon-Mother might actually be hiding on that platform right now? From that height, she'd have a commanding view of the entire main hall!" The leather-clad man said, genuine surprise flashing across his face.

"Yes. The only reason I pinpointed her location was because I noticed the Demon-Soldiers all converging there — they're delivering the nutrients they've harvested."

"No time to waste — send someone in immediately and take her out!"

"We can't. Your perimeter operation has probably already put her on alert. The Scalehide Demon-Mother is clearly intelligent — she positioned herself at that height specifically to maintain Control over everything. If we move in recklessly, she'll sense us before we even get close."

"Then what do we do? We can't just sit here forever."

The assembled group fell into frustrated silence.

The Scalehide Demon-Mother's power was nothing these seasoned mages couldn't handle — the problem was that she was effectively using thousands of students as hostages. One wrong move, and it would be mutual destruction.

"Lingling, you mentioned earlier that you and your partner killed the Scalehide male. From what you described — your partner is actually inside the gymnasium right now?" The flamboyant man said.

"Yes. He's a student here. He went in ahead to save people."

"Your partner sounds quite capable. Why not have him go after the Scalehide Demon-Mother?" The man said, his voice soft and languid.

Lingling turned it over in her mind.

True enough. With everyone else unable to act without risking disaster, it really was the only viable option left.