Chapter 392: Hope and Despair

"Incoming!" Supervisor Jacob shouted.

The beasts were encroaching on their positions and bulldozing everything in their path. The cloud of dust spread from one side to another.

"How many are they?" Head Instructor Callahan frowned. "This won’t be easy."

"I know. From my experience, there should be at least forty thousand beasts... This is definitely bigger than anything I’ve seen in my entire life. Even a beast wave led by five Rank 6 beasts only has about twenty thousand..."

"As expected, there’s a Rank 7 beast among them." Head Instructor Callahan nodded in understanding. "We won’t be able to stop them even with fortification, you know that, right?"

"I know. I’ve asked for reinforcements." Supervisor Jacob nodded. "All we need to do is wait."

"Okay. I’ve also given confirmation to my people. I believe they’re going to dispatch fighter jets to assist us with some bombardments. Hopefully, those fools aren’t going to slow us down for various reasons, especially politics."

"That’s what I loved when I was just a soldier. I didn’t have to deal with that shit." Supervisor Jacob chuckled.

"Heh..." Head Instructor Callahan scoffed before raising his fist. "It’ll be an honor to fight together with the disciple of the renowned Yoh."

"The honor was mine, Lancelot." Supervisor Jacob nodded. "How come Merlin was the one handling everything?"

"She is simply superior in that kind of stuff. I’m just good at preserving and taking responsibility." Head Instructor Callahan chuckled. "Anyway, happy hunting."

"Happy hunting!"

Both of them had a fist bump before they leaped forward from the top of the tree.

Seeing their movements, a wave of roars alerted the beasts. In an instant, numerous lights flew into the sky, trying to bombard the instructors.

Supervisor Jacob simply looked up and positioned himself in the spot where the beasts wouldn’t hit him. The same applied to all the instructors.

Supervisor Jacob took a deep breath.

"Kh..." He felt a sharp pain in his body when he circulated his power, but he managed to endure it.

He looked at the beasts gradually coming toward him. Other instructors had started to release their respective attacks, trying to kill as many beasts as possible.

The explosions reminded him of the past when he was still on active duty.

He couldn’t help but hear his master’s voice.

"Hahaha. Jacob! You are enjoying yourself. I have told you to restrain your power so that you have more than enough energy to handle anything that might suddenly come to you, but... I guess your firepower is really the one I like about you."

"Firepower? I’m just making things simple. This is just a fight, not politics. You don’t have to do all that."

"Hahaha. I know you’re going to say that. Just have fun! We are seeing hell almost every day, so it’s best to have as much fun as possible whenever you can."

"Fun, huh?"

Supervisor Jacob took a deep breath before taking a step forward. "On the battlefield, things are so simple. Just kill the enemies before you. No need to think about other things."

The supervisor’s avatar appeared on his back. That avatar turned into particles and flowed into his body. A crown of ice formed on his head. Many ice blades formed on his back and joined each other, creating a pair of wings.

"It’s truly been a while." Supervisor Jacob felt excruciating pain in his body, but he didn’t stop circulating his energy. That energy flowed faster and faster in his body until eventually, he released everything forward.

"The world shall be frozen!"

As soon as he waved his hand, the ice energy spread forward in a half-circle area.

The beasts that were trying to pounce on him were covered in ice. Some beasts had jumped in the air, so once they turned into frozen statues, they dropped to the ground and shattered into pieces.

More than a thousand beasts were actually frozen by a single attack.

Of course, a portion of them managed to escape from the ice, but a lot of low rank beasts were unable to escape.

"So, that’s the famous man who is known as the Eternal Winter." Head Instructor Callahan chuckled. "I really can’t lose to him, can’t I?"

The beasts were also coming toward him, since Callahan took a spot slightly away from Supervisor Jacob so that he could kill as many beasts as possible.

Now that they had gotten close enough, Callahan grabbed the sword at his waist.

"Drawing blade as a greeting..." Callahan muttered as he gathered everything on his sword. Because it was still sheathed, all that energy was contained within the scabbard.

However, the pressure from that energy alone caused the ground around him to shake and some trees to crack.

Callahan took a step forward and drew his blade with lightning speed.

The sword strike spread wide and far at lightning speed, slashing more than three hundred beasts in one go. Unlike Supervisor Jacob’s power, his slash was easier to stop because of the nature of a sword strike.

The beasts naturally had tougher hides, so slashing one would reduce that power. After slashing three hundred beasts, it finally became weak enough and disappeared.

However, his sword strike was so much faster than even Ellia, Vera, or Clarice. Because of that speed, no beast in front of him could stop it.

Of course, the woods ended up getting sliced down as well.

The other instructors were also killing the beasts with everything they had. They might not have the same level of power as Supervisor Jacob or Head Instructor Callahan, but they still managed to drag a lot of beasts in their initial attack.

With their combined strength, killing two to three thousand beasts in their initial attack was easy.

Unfortunately, fighting a war against beasts was not easy.

As soon as they understood the kind of opponents they were facing, the beasts immediately adjusted their positions.

More and more high-ranking beasts were moving forward.

Even Supervisor Jacob had to jump away as a massive flame pillar almost engulfed him.

"..." Supervisor Jacob narrowed his eyes and raised his head, finding a massive caterpillar covered in red flame.

It was a Rank 6 caterpillar. He could sense tremendous energy from other sides as well. "How many Rank 6 beasts are actually coming this time?"

Supervisor Jacob had never seen an attack of this scale before. Then again, he had never faced an army with a Rank 7 beast at the helm.

With high-ranking beasts coming forward, the instructors wouldn’t be able to attack freely. This meant their killing rate would significantly go down. In fact, if they weren’t careful, they might get hit by the enemy.

Once they were injured, the lower-ranking beasts would surround them and devour them. This was the problem when facing such a terrifying beast wave.

That was why they were meant to stop these higher-ranking beasts while the rest of the soldiers would kill the lower-ranking ones.

However, it would be even more troublesome because it looked like the overlord that led the beast wave intended to take it easy.

*Roar!*

The ape leaped into the air. The ape was three meters tall and didn’t look menacing from afar.

It all changed the moment the ape released its tremendous power. The surge of its light energy caused even Supervisor Jacob to feel chills down his spine.

"Oi, oi, oi! Aren’t you the leader? Just take it easy and let your subordinates fight first." Supervisor Jacob gritted his teeth.

The caterpillar released a massive fireball into the sky and caused it to explode, sending forth meteors toward the instructors. This kind of attack was incomparable to the weak attacks launched by thousands of beasts.

Each meteor possessed the power to destroy a small area and set it ablaze.

Supervisor Jacob clicked his tongue. It looked like the ape was gathering its power in its mouth. If he stopped these meteors, he wouldn’t be able to stop the ape’s attack.

Before he could release his power, another instructor suddenly came.

He gathered his power into his fist. "Hundred-Man Fist!"

The wind from the fist spun violently and dispersed in all directions, blowing the meteors away.

"You are not here alone."

Supervisor Jacob smiled. If Auric were here, he would recognize this person. After all, this person was the one Maya suggested for Auric to learn from in regard to physical strength, Edwin McGregor.

After stopping this attack, he couldn’t do anything else to stop the ape.

As expected, the ape had finished charging its power in the meantime. The amount of energy it could actually muster was so great that the pressure could be felt even from hundreds of meters away.

"Is this the power of a Rank 7 beast?" Supervisor Jacob gritted his teeth. "Watch out, McGregor!"

Supervisor Jacob gathered all his power as the ape opened its mouth.

A massive beam flew toward McGregor. It decimated everything in its path, leaving nothing but scorched marks.

If it were released on a mountain, it might end up creating a massive hole through the mountain.

Supervisor Jacob let out an icy breath before joining his hands. "Frozen Memory."

A massive ice crystal emerged in front of him. The moment the beam hit it, the ice crystal spread to the entire beam, trying to freeze it.

Sadly, stopping this beam was easier said than done. It cracked the ice in an instant.

The ice started to break apart.

"Kh..." Supervisor Jacob’s eyes turned bloodshot as he was doing everything he could to withstand this power.

Unfortunately, even for a peak Rank 6 powerhouse like him, stopping an attack from a Rank 7 beast was still too much. If he had an ability like Auric, Katarina, Ellia, or Vera, it might change the situation.

No, if he just managed to recover from all his injuries, stopping it should be possible.

"Is this the current limit of my power?" Supervisor Jacob didn’t want to accept this defeat, but there was simply nothing he could do.

"Hey! Did you forget about me? We’re comrades right now." Head Instructor Callahan smiled as he arrived with enormous pressure coming from his scabbard. "One Sword Draw."

As soon as the ice broke apart, Head Instructor Callahan drew his blade. The earth trembled and a massive shock wave shook the area as the two energies clashed fiercely. If Supervisor Jacob hadn’t diminished the beam’s power, there was no chance for his sword strike to fight this beam.

Fortunately, this time the sword strike managed to last for three seconds, trying to neutralize the power of the beam.

"!!!" Head Instructor Callahan abruptly opened his eyes wide when he saw his own sword strike flickering. "Seriously? This is not enough?!"

Head Instructor Callahan and Supervisor Jacob glanced at each other. If they couldn’t stop it, they should dodge it. If they avoided it, they would give way for the enemy to advance. Still, it would be better than dying without accomplishing much.

As they nodded to each other, a voice suddenly echoed in their ears.

"Gentlemen. I hope you don’t forget the saying, ’Ladies first.’"

"!!!" They were startled.

An old woman leaped into the air, covered in darkness. She made a hand seal while muttering, "Tune of Darkness."

The dark energy formed multiple strings as if they were guitar strings. Rather than creating a net, they simply lined up horizontally and caught the beam that had just overpowered the sword strike.

Then, the old woman flicked her fingers as if she was playing an instrument.

The strings vibrated and shattered the beam.

Supervisor Jacob and Head Instructor Callahan were startled. They never expected to see her here.

"Head Instructor Vanessa!"

That was right. The one coming was none other than the head instructor from Dermania.

She wasn’t alone. A lot of Dermania’s instructors also came.

Head Instructor Vanessa simply said, "I don’t have a grudge against all of you, and politics can’t reach me here, so I brought all the people I’ve managed to persuade. I hope you don’t mind our presence."

While it looked like hope had just arrived at the front line, despair had just struck the group of students.

Auric chuckled in horror. "I think they outplayed us this time. Another beast wave coming from the southeast?"