Chapter 307 | Attack II

Chapter 307: 307 | Attack II

Beyond the barrier, faint silhouettes appeared. People outside had noticed. A bright attack struck the dome from the opposite side, and for an instant the impact illuminated the black surface from within. The darkness swallowed it. The people outside remained outside, and the people inside remained trapped.

Gridlock stepped into the courtyard and extended a cautious thread of mana toward the barrier overhead. His face tightened immediately, and he withdrew it. "Don’t touch it carelessly."

Cole looked at him. "How strong?"

"I can’t tell. It isn’t behaving like the facility’s formations."

A man near the fountain suddenly launched himself into the air. "Move aside!" He carried a heavy blade glowing with concentrated mana, and several people shouted for him to stop. He struck the dome.

"KA-BOOOM!"

The sound rolled across the compound. For half a second, a pale crack seemed to spread through the shadow, and then the surface twisted.

The man’s attack disappeared into it, and a violent backlash hurled him down. He crashed through the branches of a tree and struck the courtyard hard enough to break the paving stones. People scattered, and a woman rushed toward him.

"He’s alive!" she shouted. "Get a healer!"

Dexter looked up. The apparent crack had already vanished. There was no opening, no weakness they could exploit—just darkness.

His fingers tightened around his phone. At home, there was a protection formation. There was a Transcendent guardian. Mira, Selene, and Lyra were safer there than they would have been beside him. He held on to that thought and put the phone away.

Suddenly, a long, tearing noise. Every head lifted upwards and they saw three thin lines had appeared beneath the shadow dome—one over the eastern training buildings, one above the central courtyard, and the third near the equipment halls to the west. The lines widened as space ripped apart.

Cole’s voice turned sharp. "Weapons!"

"ROOOOOAR!!!"

The first crack opened with a roar. A black shape fell from it, then another, then dozens. Dark wolves dropped onto rooftops, balconies, and the paved paths between the buildings.

Each was larger than an ordinary horse, with thick black fur and long limbs that bent low before springing forward.

Their eyes glowed a cold violet, and shadows clung to their jaws and streamed from their backs as they moved.

One landed on the roof of a reception booth, and the structure collapsed beneath it. A guard turned, and the wolf struck before he could finish drawing his weapon.

He disappeared beneath its weight, and blood splashed across the white wall behind him. The courtyard erupted.

"Monsters!"

"Fall back!"

"Protect the civilians!"

The second crack widened, and something shrieked inside it. Then the sky filled with wings. Wind-thorn Bats poured through in a thick, twisting swarm.

Their bodies were narrow and gray-green, their wings stretched across long jointed fingers, and thornlike growths lined their backs and tails.

They moved with unnatural speed, and the air bent around them. A cluster swept over the fountain, and their wings beat. Thin blades of compressed wind sliced downward. The fountain split, water bursting into the air.

A man standing beside it raised his arm too late, and he screamed and fell. Several others dropped behind the stone benches as more wind blades carved across the courtyard.

The third crack opened wider than the others. A huge green hand gripped its edge, and then a reptilian figure stepped through. Green Lizardmen.

The first landed on the roof of the equipment hall, crouched, then straightened. It stood well above the height of a man, with overlapping green scales covering its muscular body, a ridge of spines running from its head down its back, and a long tail that struck the roof behind it. It carried a crude black blade.

More followed—some wielded spears, others carried heavy clubs or hooked weapons made from dark metal and bone.

Unlike the wolves, they did not immediately scatter. They looked. Pointed. Roared commands to one another. Then they began moving toward the facility’s entrances and connecting passages.

Dexter saw one point at the administration building, and another group turned toward the main gate.

His stomach tightened as he realized that this was not a random spill of monsters, at the very least, some of them understood what they were attacking.

A wolf crashed through the restaurant’s front window. Glass exploded inward, and the server who had taken their order stood directly in its path.

Bulwark moved, his shoulder striking the creature before its jaws reached the young man.

"Bang!"

The wolf flew sideways through two empty tables, and Bulwark planted himself between it and the diners.

"Behind me!"

The restaurant changed in an instant. Tables overturned, people screamed, and a cook emerged from the kitchen holding a knife, saw the wolf rise from the wreckage, and froze. Cole thrust out his arm, and plasma flashed.

The wolf twisted—the attack burned across its shoulder and struck the floor behind it. It howled. The sound was wet and furious, nothing like a projected monster.

Dexter’s hand closed around the hilt of his Void Star Saber, and the weapon appeared in a flash. Its quiet hum reached him through the chaos as the wolf lunged again.

Bulwark caught it beneath the jaw, and its claws struck his chest. His shirt tore. This time, it eas real as blood spilled.

Dexter stepped beside him, and the saber moved once and the wolf’s head fell, its body crashing against the broken table.

For a heartbeat, the server stared at the corpse, and then Dexter caught his shoulder.

"Kitchen. Take everyone who can’t fight."

The young man stumbled.

"Move!"

He moved.

Outside, the facility had become a battlefield. Heroes were fighting in scattered groups—some had responded quickly, forming barriers around injured people and younger trainees, while others were still trying to understand where the attacks were coming from.

The monsters punished every moment of hesitation.

Dark wolves raced along the paths, dragging people away from broken formations.

Wind-thorn Bats swept across the open spaces, forcing everyone beneath roofs and overhangs.

The Green Lizardmen advanced through the confusion, smashing doors and cutting off escape routes.

An instructor near the fountain killed two wolves with a sweeping strike, but before he could recover, a rain of wind blades fell around him. He raised a shield, and a lizardman’s spear struck from the side.

He staggered, and three trainees rushed to help. One never reached him.

Dexter’s grip tightened.

Cole stepped beside him. "We need the staff and civilians out of the open."

"There’s no exit," Blitz said.

"Then we make somewhere to hold."

Gridlock looked back into the restaurant. "Kitchen should have a service corridor. Thick walls with fewer windows."

Dexter nodded. "Use that. Keep the injured behind it."

Bullet Spear Man was already scanning the courtyard. "Wolves coming right."

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