Thunder Strikes!

"Fire Burst!"

Xu Dahuang's battle cry cut through the school's eerie darkness. A torrent of blazing flame split the night and streaked toward the Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat with blinding intensity.

The creature felt the heat at its back. Cunning as always, it reacted on pure instinct and lurched sideways to dodge.

The move caught Mo Fan off guard. *This thing is that perceptive? The captain's Release speed is already incredibly fast — and it still sensed it.*

The Fire Burst was clearly going to miss. Demon-Beasts weren't wooden training dummies that stood in place and waited to be hit.

"Dodge?"

"Much good it'll do you."

Xu Dahuang's smile was pure mockery.

The flame struck right where the Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat had been a heartbeat before — a clean miss, by all appearances.

"Blast!"

Then Xu Dahuang snapped out the technique's suffix.

The flame that had been burning lonely in midair suddenly erupted. White-hot light surged outward, and a compact knot of fire detonated at the point of impact.

**BOOM!**

A scorching fireball exploded. Waves of force and heat radiated outward from the landing point in all directions with breathtaking power.

Crimson — everywhere.

A three-meter radius was consumed entirely by searing red. The detonation hammered the Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat — the same creature that had congratulated itself on a clean dodge — squarely in the body.

The air shuddered. The flash was blinding.

Shielding his face against the glare, Mo Fan caught a glimpse of the creature's fat body engulfed in crimson, blasted five or six meters through the air before smashing into the cafeteria wall.

The Ape-Rat thrashed desperately in the corner. Every shred of predatory ferocity had vanished. It had become nothing more than a sewer rat blasted half to pieces.

Mo Fan's mouth fell open into a silent O.

*Unreal.*

Fire Burst: Blast. That domineering detonation left the agile Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat with absolutely nowhere to run. All that burning, all that bone-scorching — nothing came close to the raw directness of a point-blank explosion.

"Is — is that a third-level Fire Burst?"

Mo Fan hadn't imagined the captain had already pushed the skill that far. One hit had nearly one-shotted the creature.

*If I'd known Fire Burst: Blast back when I ran into that Gloom Wolf Beast, one shot would've taken half its health. No running, no waiting for the stalactites to line up — it's not like those things grow everywhere, and Demon-Beasts aren't exactly polite enough to stand under one on command.*

*Incredible. That was genuinely insane.*

In that moment Mo Fan's chest surged, hot and restless as the fire waves still churning through the air. The thought of reaching that level himself set his drive to train blazing.

Once he mastered Fire Burst: Blast, Yu'ang wouldn't stand a chance. And that old bastard Mu Zhuoyun? He'd slap that smug look right off his face.

*Alright. No matter what it takes — I'm getting Fire Burst to the third level before graduation. I'll leave every last one of those Mu Clan people speechless.*

The squad moved with practiced, veteran efficiency. They knew the wounded Ape-Rat would bolt, so Feishi and Guo Caitang had already sealed off its path back into the cafeteria with their skills.

"Graaaah——!"

The Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat let out a guttural roar and — completely against all expectation — hurled itself snarling straight at Guo Caitang.

She blinked. She'd positioned her Ice Vine to freeze the creature's escape route. It had never crossed her mind that it would still have the strength to make a desperate, all-or-nothing lunge.

"Xiao Ke — Water Control — now!" Captain Xu Dahuang's expression darkened in an instant.

Xiao Ke's face went pale. She scrambled to link the Water Element Star Trail with her Mental Intent.

But nerves had cost her a half-beat — Water Control couldn't Release in time to intercept.

Guo Caitang had faced danger enough times to trust her body before her mind. She bit down hard and threw herself sideways.

The dodge wouldn't get her completely clear — but if she could shield her vitals, losing an arm was still better than losing her life.

"Lightning Seal: Serpent Mark!"

Just as the rest of the squad's hearts lurched, streaks of violet lightning crackled into existence a short distance away.

The arcs lashed across the Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat in wave after wave. Each crack of electricity tore flesh open. The Serpent Mark coils wound themselves tighter around the creature's body, driving current deep into its muscles and robbing it of all coordination.

The Ape-Rat collapsed mid-sprint. It pitched face-first into the concrete and skidded to a halt right at Guo Caitang's feet, twitching.

She stared down at it for a stunned moment — then sprang back several meters with agile grace. She turned, expression caught between disbelief and something she couldn't quite name, and looked at the new squad member with his soot-blackened face.

"Good work, Fan Mo."

"God, is this Ape-Rat some kind of variant? It's more savage than a One-Eyed Demon Wolf — half-dead and instead of running it still went for the kill." Feishi shook his head, visibly shaken.

"I have told you all, over and over — do not let your guard down. Do *not* let your guard down!" Xu Dahuang's roar shook the air. "Guo Caitang almost died just now. Lucky for us we recruited a Lightning mage today — Lightning can paralyze a Demon-Beast's muscles. Without that, what would've stopped this thing from going out swinging?"

"I'm sorry — I'm sorry, it was my fault." Xiao Ke's voice barely held together.

"An apology means nothing when someone's dead." Xu Dahuang turned his glare on her and didn't let up. "If that had gone wrong, you could stand at her grave and say sorry all you wanted — she wouldn't hear a word of it. You are the only mage in this squad with a defensive capability. That means you keep your Star Trail ready in your hands every single moment, every single second — do you understand me?"

Mo Fan watched, genuinely taken aback.

He'd expected the captain to rattle off a few sharp words and leave it. He hadn't anticipated Xu Dahuang turning on that gentle girl and tearing into her like this.

But Xu Dahuang wasn't wrong. Each mage in a squad filled a completely different role, and together they formed a single functioning unit. One fatal slip at any link could cost not just one life but every life — because a Demon-Beast could kill in the span of a heartbeat.

Xiao Ke bit her lip and said nothing more. It was plain she understood exactly how serious a mistake she'd made.

Guo Caitang showed no sign of blaming her. She was still watching Mo Fan.

A moment ago, she'd genuinely believed she was done for. And then this rookie — this complete newcomer — had moved like thunder itself and pulled her back from the edge.