Street Battle Against the Ape-Rats!
"Wind Trail · Flash Step!"
Zhang Xiaohou was quick to seize the blood-soaked Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat's attention. Riding the speed of his second-level Wind Trail, he wove nimbly through the tangle of haphazardly parked vehicles. Every time the creature lunged with its savage claws — every time it raked at his chest — all it ever caught was the swirling pocket of air he'd already left behind.
"Monkey, watch out — there's another one!!" Mo Fan had climbed to the roof of the bus and immediately spotted a shaggy, tusked silhouette crouching in ambush behind the advertising panel at the bus shelter.
Zhang Xiaohou was sprinting and weaving, one giant rat in furious pursuit. He had no attention to spare for a second Ape-Rat's position.
Mo Fan had found the second creature by watching the drift of his Demon-Tracking Powder.
These Demon-Beasts had spent their entire lives in a world where the strong preyed on the weak. Their hunting instincts far outstripped those of humans who had grown soft in city comfort. Even Mages who had never truly hunted could be cut down just as easily — as Zhang Yinglu had proven. She was a Wind Element Mage, and she had never known she was supposed to keep her Wind Trail primed and ready at every waking moment...
"Look — its neck is extending." Zhou Min had spotted the Ape-Rat lurking behind the bus shelter panel and spoke urgently to Mo Fan.
He looked. Alarm shot through him.
A Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat's arsenal went far beyond claws and fangs. Its most terrifying weapon was the crimson beam it fired from its pupils — a force powerful enough to punch clean through a human body.
Right now, that creature had Zhang Xiaohou locked in its sights.
"Light Radiance: Blind!"
Xue Musheng's voice rang out, measured and carrying.
A sphere of milky-white light blazed into existence directly in front of the Ape-Rat's extended neck. The radiance was so ferocious that the paint on the advertising panel looked ready to blister and peel. Inside the bus, students slammed their eyes shut — and still felt the searing brightness burn through their eyelids.
The Light Radiance detonated point-blank in the creature's face. Blade-like shafts of brilliance drove straight into its wide-dilated eyes. Its corneas ignited, the burning spreading rapidly across the entire surface of its eye sockets within seconds.
The Ape-Rat, a heartbeat away from firing its crimson beam, was instead rendered completely blind. It lurched about in an unbroken cascade of agonized howls, slamming into parked vehicles and streetposts with no sense of direction.
Only then did Zhang Xiaohou realize there had been a second Ape-Rat hiding behind the shelter panel. He shook off the creature still snapping at his heels, changed direction sharply, and sprinted back to rejoin the group.
"Thank you, Teacher Xue!" He was still catching his breath.
One Ape-Rat, blinded and out of the fight. As for the remaining one — once the squad had time to connect their Star Trails, that beast wasn't going to get another chance at any of them.
The first to strike was Mo Fan. Of everyone present, he completed his Star Trail the fastest. His third-level Fire Element magic gave the surviving Ape-Rat nowhere to run: a torrent of furious, explosive flame erupted directly in the face of the creature that had killed Zhang Yinglu.
**WEET WEET WEET WEET WEET—**
The explosion set off a chorus of shrieking car alarms all down the block. Shattered glass rained from every vehicle window in range under the force of Mo Fan's Fire Burst: Blast.
The Ape-Rat was hurled backward into the locked metal shutter of a bubble tea shop. Every hair on its body had been charred to ash; its flesh had split open to expose bone riddled with glass fragments.
Xue Musheng turned to look at Mo Fan — at the student who had just reduced a Demon-Beast to ruin with a single controlled strike — and surprise flickered across his face, followed by unmistakable relief.
*Third-level Fire Burst, indeed. One blow, and a Demon-Beast couldn't rise. With Mo Fan in the Vanguard Squad, at least we won't be annihilated.*
"That filthy beast — I'll skin it alive!!" Wang Sanpang and Zhang Xiaohou were both shaking with rage.
Just moments ago, that creature had murdered their female classmate. In a few more days she would have walked through the gates of Magic University. Instead she'd been killed by this hideous thing. Who could keep that kind of fury from rising up from somewhere deep?
"Don't go near it. It isn't dead." Mo Fan's voice cut through sharply.
Wang Sanpang had barely taken a step toward the creature — intending to avenge Zhang Yinglu — when the Ape-Rat, which had looked as good as dead, suddenly exploded upward. Its killing fangs lunged straight for his face.
The color drained from Wang Sanpang's face. He threw himself sideways on pure instinct.
The fangs came down on his shoulder instead. They tore away a chunk of raw, bleeding flesh. Every member of the squad drew a sharp breath.
"You filth — die!" Xu Zhaoting's fury broke loose. Lightning Seals coiled and twisted around him like electrified whips, lashing the treacherous Ape-Rat in a relentless barrage.
Lightning Seal: Frenzied Lash hit with brutal, direct force. The strikes flayed the creature's flesh into a bloody ruin, and the cascading electrical arcs that followed left it unable to so much as twitch. It could only curl in place and howl in agony.
Wang Sanpang half-crawled, half-rolled back to the bus. Blood streamed freely from his torn shoulder. His face had gone the color of chalk, his eyes still wide and glazed.
Xu Zhaoting, Zhou Min, and Zhang Shuhua unleashed a sustained combined barrage, reducing the Ape-Rat to pieces.
This time, the creature was dead beyond any doubt.
And yet no one in the squad felt even a trace of relief.
This was what a real Demon-Beast was.
It could kill in a heartbeat. One moment's inattention and a Mage ended up in the ground.
"I... if you hadn't warned us, Wang Sanpang would've ended up like Zhang Yinglu." Xu Zhaoting said it in a daze, his gaze still somewhere else as he spoke to Mo Fan.
Xue Musheng gave a single heavy nod. Even he hadn't imagined that their so-called elite squad — the finest students Tianlan Magic High School could assemble — would take one dead and one wounded in their very first encounter with Demon-Beasts.
"Mo Fan." Xue Musheng's voice was deliberate. "You seem to understand Demon-Beast behavior better than any of us. I want you to take point and lead the tactical calls. He Yu and I will focus on protection." He walked over to He Yu, who stood in a blank stupor, and his tone grew sober. "He Yu — I know this is a cruel thing to say right now. But you saw with your own eyes how Zhang Yinglu died. This is not the time to be crouching on the ground shaking, and it is not the time to weep for the dead. Whatever it takes, the next time a Demon-Beast attacks any one of us, I need you to Release a Water Element defensive skill. If you cannot, the nine of us who remain may never reach the Quarantine Safe Zone... and the four thousand people following behind us will lose any hope of direction."
"I'm sorry — I'm so sorry — I truly am — I... I can't complete my Star Trails..." He Yu's face was streaked with tears. She was terrified — terrified that she would end up just like Zhang Yinglu.
"Do everything within your power," Xue Musheng said quietly. "The moment you understand that Releasing even a single Water Control could save one of our lives — I believe you will find a way."