Chapter 399: Reaching the City

As soon as the instructors stepped up their game, the beasts started getting pushed back.

Seeing this chance, the students began to retreat. Auric was running around, treating their poison while heading toward the beasts. This way, they could continue fighting even after reaching the beasts.

But as they expected, they found the plane that was supposed to bring them back had already fallen from the sky. It was burning like crazy, making it seem as if no one would still be alive after all this.

"Really?"

"There was a big hole in the center. Someone must have struck it down."

"Who?!"

"Could we help anyone inside? Are they still alive?"

"Do we even have time for all that? We are being chased by the beasts. If we waste too much time, they will catch up."

Seeing the situation, Auric couldn’t help but squint his eyes. The energy started flashing in his vision.

A dead human would release their energy back into nature. There was basically nothing left that could bind their energy to their body since the heart had stopped functioning.

So, Auric was searching for an energy signature resembling that of a living human. He didn’t have much time, so he had to search for everything.

Of course, he didn’t play around this time. Without hesitation, he even asked, ’Lindwurm, help me!’

Auric found someone. ’I got one at the back of the plane.’

"There is one more in the center, not far from the hole and two more in the front."

’Four in total, huh?’ Auric’s expression turned solemn. If he left them behind here, no one would probably say anything. After all, they were just trying to survive, and the beast wave was about to reach them.

However, it would definitely leave a bad taste in his mouth for a while, especially with the fact that his ability allowed him to find their location easily.

Auric took a deep breath before raising his hand. "Group up!"

"!!!" Ellia, Katarina, and Vera had gotten used to Auric’s weirdness. It was clear that Auric was trying to save the people trapped inside.

At the same time, this also meant that there were survivors.

They rushed toward Auric, wondering what he intended to do.

This time, one more person would be coming. That person was none other than Gloria.

"On me." Auric suddenly leaped onto the ship.

"What is he..."

"Is he planning to search the plane?"

The others were dumbfounded, but there were no instructors to stop them since they had all stayed in the rear to give them a fighting chance.

"Are we also going to look for the survivors?"

"There’s no time."

"We just have to get back to the base."

Most students kept running while looking away from the plane. Some students were hesitating, wondering what they should do. They ended up stopping for a moment to see if Auric was going to come out or not.

A few people were quite stunned by Auric’s actions, but Timothy suddenly remembered one video. It was a video of Auric locating the artifacts without looking.

Auric might be trying to find people the same way he found artifacts.

So, he decided to follow Auric.

"..." Clarice didn’t really want to enter, but the problem was that her two rivals—Ellia and Vera—had already gone inside. Even Timothy chose to follow.

If she didn’t do anything, she might end up getting scrutinized.

Clarice shouted, "All of you continue to the city!" before leaping into the air.

Auric stopped at one location and said, "Ellia, Vera, hit this spot hard! Katarina, get ready to cover the spot below us. We can’t have someone dying because of this."

Ellia and Vera glanced at each other, understanding what they were supposed to do.

They immediately struck the part Auric was pointing at, causing the roof to collapse.

Bam!

Katarina placed her hands on the floor and used her power to create a barrier, catching all the rubble.

"We will help as well!" Timothy and Clarice had found them.

"Suit yourself." Auric nodded and jumped down without hesitation. The others followed right after.

They protected themselves from the fire by using their energy. Timothy was also helping by spraying his pure water element to suppress the fire.

They reached a small hallway with one door not far from them. Auric rushed to this door, trying to open it, but he couldn’t do it.

"Move!" Ellia waved her sword, blasting the door open.

Auric entered the room and found a guy half-dead after being smashed by a cupboard. He was still breathing.

Katarina snapped her fingers and knocked the cupboard away. Timothy said, "Let me bring him out! I’ll ask Selena to heal him first and try to suppress the fire from the outside."

"Got it!" Auric didn’t even bother to check on his condition. There was simply no time for other things.

Timothy didn’t expect anything more from Auric. He simply grabbed the man and exited the plane through the path they had opened earlier.

The rest followed Auric to the next person. It was a guard who was supposed to head to the deck to help them, but he got punctured by a steel bar after his body was flown to the side because of the impact.

Clarice was the first to react this time. She cut the steel bar to free the guy but didn’t pull it out to avoid worsening the bleeding.

"I will bring him out!" Clarice took this opportunity to leave.

"Okay! Next!" Auric kept running, trying to reach the other side of the plane. Not far from the hole created by the enemy, there was a woman covered in rubble and wounds. Glass shards spread all over her body.

"I will bring her this time. How many are left?" Vera asked as she carried the woman.

"Just one! Katarina, you go with her. See if everything is going as expected. I don’t want other students to go inside. I just can’t afford to recover all the bodies."

"Got it." Katarina nodded, following Vera to exit through the hole.

"Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Recovery is necessary, but this one can’t be helped." Gloria tried to calm him down.

Auric simply nodded and continued to the back of the plane. This time, it was a staff member who was supposed to be acting as their flight attendant for this ship.

Her left leg had been bent in a different direction, and her left eye was punctured.

Auric simply clicked his tongue and said, "This is the last one. I can’t sense anyone else still alive other than those four. Ellia, you have the space element. Take care of her."

"Got it!" Ellia grabbed her and left using Void Step.

Auric wanted to use the Void Step, but people might see him, so he asked Gloria. "Open a path, will you?"

"Easy, Boss." Gloria took a step back and gathered her power at the tip of her spear before thrusting forward, creating a hole through the plane. It wasn’t as big as the one made by the enemy, but it was big enough for them to pass through.

Both of them immediately exited the plane and checked what had happened while they were inside. Fortunately, most students were continuing. Katarina was trying to tell those who stopped because of their dilemma to continue.

Selena was having a hard time taking care of the injured, considering she needed to constantly move.

Nevertheless, there was no one else he could find, so he chose to leave the rest of the bodies behind.

Now that his workload had decreased significantly, Auric finally had the time to ask Gloria a few questions.

"By the way, are you going to be fine with all this?"

"What are you talking about? I’m merely the person you have been training. My name is now Stella Havercard, so make sure you don’t call me Gloria by mistake." Gloria, or now Stella, winked playfully.

"Right?" Auric nodded in understanding. It looked like Maya had finished creating her new identity. So, this way, he would just say that Stella Havercard was his bodyguard, not Gloria Schaff.

"Still, is it okay for you to change your family name as well?"

"I don’t mind. There will be a long story about why I have this name when I build my own family in the future. I’m going to surpass both of my parents, and when those people realize what they have thrown away, I’m just going to smile."

Auric chuckled. "Very well. What are you going to do after reaching the wall?"

"I will stay by your side. My priority is your safety. The fact that these spies haven’t done anything yet means they might be waiting until we reach the wall to make their move. No, to be more accurate, this might be Plan B. Since the beast wave fails to kill us, they might start moving soon."

Auric’s expression turned grim. "It looks like we’re going to have a very rough day. And I still don’t know what my mother’s talking about."

"Hehehe. Sorry, but I’m not sure either." Gloria scratched the back of her head.

Auric thought for a moment. "Well, I do have a few safe places in the city. We can hide over there, but looking at the situation... I don’t think it’s possible to utilize them."

"If the fight remains on the wall, then yes. If the wall is breached and they’re retreating, you can either hide or escape with them."

"That’s true. We’ll see. That’s all for now. Let’s focus on the task first and survive this."

"Yep."

The students continued as the instructors caught up after another five minutes. Finally, after running for so long, they could finally see the towering wall of the city.

They felt relieved. Finally, they were going to be safe. Even if they continued to fight, they would have a much more advantageous position.

However, their true terror had yet to arrive.

After all, the instructors who had originally stopped the main beast wave had finally caught up.

The Rank 7 beast had arrived.