Chapter 393: Screwed

A few minutes earlier.

"More and more people are joining us. Is that good or not?" Vera asked, watching how more and more students were coming to their location.

Considering they kept giving their location away, it was only natural for the independent students who didn’t know what to do to come to them. At least they would be safer in this group.

Their numbers reached three hundred in just a few minutes.

Auric looked around. "For now, it’s a good thing. We don’t know what’s going to happen next, but there’s a chance that it will worsen the situation. I don’t know who the spies are, but we have no other choice but to let them in.

"If we are closing ourselves off, even after dealing with these beasts, we have to deal with the enraged citizens."

Unfortunately, that was the case. If they were too heartless, the citizens would become enraged. They wouldn’t even care about the fact that Dermania had facilitated the enemy to let this happen.

"For now, we should just continue to the wall. Once we reach the wall, the chance of that kind of thing happening is going to be reduced. After all, the moment the wall is breached, the city will be destroyed. They won’t try that kind of trick." Ellia agreed with Auric, but she was sure that the chance of it happening was low.

"Besides, if we keep up this pace, we are basically forcing them to do things that they won’t have the time to even complain about or cause a ruckus over. As long as the instructors are able to hold out against the enemies, everything should continue smoothly." Katarina reassured Vera.

Vera scratched the back of her head. "Sorry. I have been trying my best to see ahead, but I guess I’m not as smart as you guys, except for Ellia, of course."

"..." Ellia just rolled her eyes.

Auric chuckled. "That is fine too. If you can’t see ahead, you just need to be careful of every step and react to the change. For now, let’s just continue like this, but watch out for our surroundings. I don’t want any of us to get injured because we let our guard down."

"Yeah. Those students might attack us. In fact, a lot of teachers are coming to our position, right?" Ellia narrowed her eyes.

"Most likely. According to the report, the UK and Esfrata are sending the instructors to the front line to buy time. It looks like Lech-Aistia is also helping, but they need a bit more time to reorganize themselves. The problem is Dermania and Granda," added Katarina.

Auric didn’t say anything else. He had asked Lindwurm to watch over their surroundings. He didn’t want to play around this time, knowing full well that the situation could worsen at any moment. He hoped that the instructors could last long enough until they reached the city.

However, even though the students kept coming, the instructors did not.

On the one hand, he should be relieved because no one was strong enough to cause a problem. On the other hand, he was wondering what the instructors were doing.

Lech-Aistia was trying to hold the beast wave as well, so how about Granda and Dermania?

Granda might not like him after he defeated Nicholas, but they shouldn’t be doing everything they can to eliminate him. After all, Nicholas was here. They wanted to keep him safe.

How about Antonio? He had yet to be found, so Auric felt something was wrong.

Auric narrowed his eyes as he heard a report from Katarina. "We are approaching the rendezvous point. The plane is going to arrive in two minutes. We should reach there in one and a half minutes. As soon as we arrive, we are going to create a small fortification just to prepare for the worst while everyone is boarding in an orderly manner."

Auric opened his mouth, wanting to reply. However, he abruptly stopped because Lindwurm suddenly warned him.

"Ehm, Auric... I don’t think we’ll be able to escape." Lindwurm sounded concerned. It was as if he saw something that was truly big enough to prevent them from escaping.

’What’s going on?’ Auric asked inwardly.

"The beasts are coming from the southeast."

"!!!" Auric widened his eyes and hurriedly turned around, even if he had to stop his advance.

His action caused his team to stop right away, as they felt concerned.

"Auric?" Ellia and Katarina called his name, asking for an explanation.

Auric continued to look in the direction Lindwurm pointed until he saw dots in the sky. The dots became bigger and bigger until they were clear enough to be identified as beasts.

There was also a cloud of dust rising in the distance.

The rest of the girls were also looking in that direction, wondering what made Auric stop.

They didn’t ask for an explanation any longer. What happened was clear.

It looked like the instructors had also noticed what was currently happening, especially Mr. Green, who reacted as soon as Auric stopped. After all, he focused on Auric’s safety.

"This..." Mr. Green gasped. He could easily catch up to the rest of the students, so he was focusing on what he needed to do.

Auric bit his lip.

’What is going on? Another beast wave? Are they using the same strategy as the one they used to take down our city? No, this strategy is perfect for separating the students.

’They might have realized that it’s better to separate us first. So, they separated us from the instructors, since the instructors were forced to hold the rear.

’No, the most reasonable action when facing such a large beast wave is to go back to the city and take advantage of the fortifications. We have to wait until the reinforcements arrive.

’However, the enemy also thinks the same way. Now that we are apart from the main group of instructors, we don’t have enough people to stop the incoming beast wave. Further splitting up is impossible. There might be a lot of instructors here, and a few of them are even Rank 6.

’Still, if we’re talking about a beast wave that is affected by the Rank 7 beast, there should be many high-ranking beasts as well.

’No, wait. Don’t tell me... the instructors from Dermania are actually leading this beast wave? They’re taking advantage of the situation and trying to destroy us like this? That’s the most reasonable explanation. Or maybe I’m just feeling paranoid and thinking about them negatively.

’Either way, this beast wave is completely unexpected.’

When they came closer, Lindwurm actually warned him. "Auric... these beasts... they are being coated with poison."

"!!!" Auric’s face turned grim. Everything clicked in his head immediately. The Rank 7 beast wave was a trap.

They just wanted to separate the instructors and the students. He almost forgot that the organization’s goal in creating the poison was actually to eliminate the talented younger generation.

When there was a gap in their production of top powerhouses, the society would decline severely.

This time, their target wasn’t him alone. It was all the students.

His prediction might be correct. The organization might have finished developing the poison for Rank 3 humans. No, they might even have prepared it for Rank 4 humans.

In other words, all these beasts might be coming to either kill them or simply humiliate them.

Either way, it didn’t change the fact that the organization was trying to kidnap him. If they let the students survive, Auric could still heal them.

But if they managed to kidnap him, the students would fall into despair even if they survived.

Auric couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. "We... might have been outplayed by the enemy this time..."

Auric didn’t know what to do in this situation. First of all, there was no more defensive magic item from his father. In other words, he had to fend everything off by himself.

In addition, God Mode was unavailable because he no longer had the defensive item, so he wouldn’t be able to lead the battle. Then again, these people wouldn’t lower themselves to follow his orders quietly.

Katarina was startled. "Do you have no other plans for this?"

"I’m still trying to come up with a plan." Auric found the shocked Mr. Green and rushed toward him. "Mr. Green!"

"Auric!" Mr. Green was having a hard time coming up with a plan as well.

"I have bad news. These beasts... they have poison. I’m afraid the organization has been planning this attack from the beginning. They want to separate us from the rest of the instructors. In other words, we are the main targets this time.

"There is one problem. If they’re also targeting students from all nations, they might have prepared to reveal themselves to the world."

Mr. Green turned cold. "As expected, they want to announce themselves to the world by eliminating these students. That terror... ugh, I can’t even imagine what will happen next."

Auric said, "Yeah, the problem is that... if they’re really going to reveal themselves, won’t they send agents to make sure they accomplish their objectives?"

"!!!" Mr. Green had just realized that the situation looked even more concerning than he had originally expected.

If those people were coming, that meant they would be hit from not two but three directions, not counting the main beast wave.

That was right. The second beast wave came from the southeast. The enemy would definitely launch a pincer attack by moving their people. They didn’t want to clash with the beasts themselves, but the students had no choice but to fend them off if they didn’t want to die.

At the same time, he was worried about the city. Considering the poison incident, it was only natural to think that they might have prepared an attack from the city as well.

Mr. Green couldn’t help but say, "We’re screwed."