Death Without Warning

Zhang Xiaohou stared at Mo Fan with quiet surprise after taking in everything he'd said. These were things he'd never once considered.

He couldn't honestly tell whether Mo Fan was right or wrong — he just trusted Mo Fan's judgment on instinct.

What Zhang Xiaohou didn't know was that Mo Fan was already a seasoned Hunter-Mage when it came to hunting Demon-Beasts. Years of immersion in that world had taught him something crucial: never fall for the myth that more bodies means more strength. Why did the Hunters' Alliance always send out small squads? Did they not know that larger numbers would be safer? The truth was the opposite — the larger the group, the more likely it was to draw the attention of Demon-Beast packs, and the more easily it became prey for higher-tier creatures.

The Vanguard Squad stayed small by design. If they ran into a pack, they could simply go around it. Their movements were fluid, their decisions immediate. Fight or flee — the call could be made in an instant.

But the main column was different.

If they never crossed paths with a large pack, they'd come through unscathed. But the moment a Battle-General-class creature — along with its horde — turned its attention to that mass of bodies, the entire column would be massacred. And once that happened, no one would have any say over whether they lived or died.

The Vanguard Squad numbered ten in total, with Xue Musheng serving as squad leader.

They passed through the school gates. The streets beyond were almost entirely empty of people.

Scattered garbage. Overturned stalls with their goods strewn across the pavement. Shops left wide open, abandoned mid-trade...

The moment Scarlet Alert sounded, every citizen had either barricaded themselves indoors or fled desperately toward the Safety Barrier — complete chaos. That was precisely why the school hadn't evacuated the instant the alert hit.

Even so, a large portion of the population still hadn't made it inside the Safe Zone. As Tianlan Magic High School began its march, nearby residents poured toward them from every direction, hoping to shelter under the protection of the students and teachers for the three-kilometer gauntlet of city streets ahead.

The Vanguard Squad held the front of the column. Zhang Xiaohou had climbed to a higher vantage point, and from there he quickly spotted the flood of civilians converging on them...

"This evacuation is going to top four thousand," he said, dropping back down from a stairwell landing. "There are too many people in this district who didn't reach the Safe Zone in time. They're too scared to go alone — now they're drifting in from every direction, sticking to the main column like iron filings to a magnet."

"Mm." Xue Musheng nodded slowly. "Larger numbers should help deter smaller Demon-Beast groups from attacking. But it also makes the whole column far harder to manage."

A Magic High School was nothing like a Magic University. University students had combat power rivaling a trained military unit. But high school students were all apprentice Mages under eighteen — keeping themselves alive during a Scarlet Alert was already an achievement in itself. Expecting them to protect thousands of civilians on top of that was asking the impossible.

"There's no other choice," Zhou Min said. "We can't just leave them."

"Then we move." Xue Musheng straightened. "The column's grown to four thousand. That means our responsibility just got heavier."

The group nodded and set off.

Zhang Xiaohou and Zhang Yinglu — the squad's two Wind Element Mages — took point, scouting ahead while the rest followed close behind.

Xue Musheng was clearly a teacher with a military background. He had real experience managing personnel and maintaining formations — enough that he wasn't completely without a plan facing a situation like this.

The ten of them made decent time, cutting straight down the main road in front of the school gate. Beyond a pedestrian shopping district and an apartment complex, the Safety Barrier would come into view.

The main road stretched for about a kilometer, packed end-to-end with abandoned vehicles — completely gridlocked. Not just school buses; even a bicycle would have struggled to find a clear path.

Traffic was dead. On foot was the only way through. Three kilometers — not so long, not so short — and nobody could say what might happen in between.

"There's a Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat at the newsstand up ahead." Zhang Yinglu sprinted back to the group, face drained of color, and reported breathlessly.

"It's gnawing on a child," Zhang Xiaohou added.

By the time they'd spotted it, the child was already dead. Even so, the sight of it — raw and blood-soaked — hit them like a blow to the chest.

They pressed forward. Once they rounded a bus that had jackknifed across the road, the bloodied newsstand came into view — and lying beside it, face-up in a spreading pool of red, was a boy of about ten.

"Where's the Ape-Rat?" Xue Musheng frowned, scanning the area. There was no trace of the creature they'd described.

"It was right here just—"

**Chk-chk-chk!**

Zhang Yinglu barely got the words out before something exploded from behind a parked car — a dense blur of matted fur, two enormous incisors snapping straight for her unguarded throat.

**Crunch.**

She had always looked like a frail girl. But in that frozen instant of collective horror, the Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat's jaws closed around her neck. Blood erupted in violent arcs, painting the advertising-wrapped side of the bus a vivid red.

It happened in an instant. Without the slightest warning.

Even Xue Musheng — standing right beside her — had no time to react. Zhang Yinglu's blood spattered across his face.

"Get on the bus — now!" Mo Fan's shout cut through the shock.

Everyone snapped out of their stupor and scrambled for the bus in a stumbling rush.

Xue Musheng moved faster than most, grabbing Zhang Xiaohou and hauling him aboard. The Ape-Rat lunged to resume its slaughter, but its bulk caught against the bus door.

The others piled in behind them, shaken and stumbling.

Xu Zhaoting had watched Zhang Yinglu fall. Fury ignited in him, and he began calling on the power of the Lightning Element.

Mo Fan had been about to connect his Star Trail — but something stopped him. The Demon-Tracking Powder he'd scattered was drifting in different directions at once. Ice shot through him.

"Everyone get on top of the bus — there's more than one Ape-Rat here!" he shouted.

The words were barely out before he seized Zhou Min — who was already trying to cast — and dragged her toward the bus at a dead run.

"Monkey — forget Zhang Yinglu, she's already gone! Draw that thing away, or we all die here!" Mo Fan shouted back at Zhang Xiaohou as they ran.

Zhang Xiaohou was holding it together better than most. When the Ape-Rat struck, he had already activated Wind Trail. Every instinct screamed at him to go back for Zhang Yinglu — but he hadn't truly understood, not until this moment, how few Basic-Level Mages walked away from a Demon-Beast ambush like this one.

Zhang Xiaohou's eyes had gone red.

In a single blink, a girl he'd shared a classroom with for two years was dead.

*Damn these Demon-Beasts. Damn them all.*