Chapter 402: Began

"!!!" Everyone widened their eyes, following the explosions. These two explosions could mean everything. They were actually waiting for Joker to drag the Rank 7 ape away before causing the explosions.

The beasts obviously saw those two holes as an opportunity. The ditches outside the wall had been filled up with their bodies, so they immediately entered the city.

"NO!" Some soldiers screamed. They couldn’t lose the city because this was where they and their families lived.

Some were merely thinking about the possibility of failure if they let the city get destroyed like this.

Auric widened his eyes. He couldn’t help but realize this was the opportunity that the organization had created for themselves.

First, they wanted to divide the numbers further. Then, if they attacked, they could easily take down the people who got separated and blame everything on the beasts.

Second, this could be a distraction from an important matter. With two such holes, the wall could crumble, creating an even bigger hole.

How did they prepare the explosives? There could only be one possibility. When they returned to the city, some of them actually went separate ways to plant these explosives.

Auric couldn’t help but ask, ’Lindwurm, did you notice anyone leaving to plant the explosives earlier?’

"Your hypothesis is incorrect. I’m afraid this is not the work of soldiers or the spies among us. Rather, it’s the work of the citizens. There are citizens who are working for them. They won’t expect anything from the citizens... However, I couldn’t exactly find out anything in this situation. I was too focused on the beasts outside the wall."

Auric was the same. Hence, he thought of two options. He could stay here and deal as much damage as possible. He had his role as someone who cured the poison, so he could still help others. At the same time, the number of beasts from the small beast wave had been reduced significantly.

He might be able to leave his post for some time. After all, the city needed a lot more firepower down there, judging by the rate at which the beasts were entering the city.

If the city were flooded with beasts, the consequences would be severe.

However, if Auric chose the second option, which was to go down. He would be facing constant threats from the spies.

Of course, this might be an opportunity as well. If he could lure out the spies to kidnap him, things would change. They didn’t need to worry about the spies’ desperation in completing the task and could focus on dealing with the beast wave.

"..." Auric’s expression turned solemn. The pros and cons were about equal in his mind.

In the end, Auric decided on the second option.

"We’ll go down there."

"!!!" The team was startled, not expecting Auric to pick this option. It would be extremely dangerous for him to go down, but he had made up his mind.

Of course, he wasn’t going to throw his life away for nothing.

"I will go with you." Timothy, who had been fighting alongside him, volunteered to follow.

However, Auric shook his head. "No. Instead, I have a small favor to ask."

Timothy frowned, listening to him first. Auric gave him a small instruction, which surprised Timothy.

Timothy even had to ask for confirmation. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Timothy clicked his tongue. There wasn’t much time to think, so he agreed. "Fine. I’ll do that."

"In that case, let’s go!" Auric nodded at Vera.

"Go!" Vera was the first to head to the edge of the wall and jumped off.

The others, including Stella, followed right after.

Vera activated her wind element, allowing them to slow down and land smoothly on the ground.

Auric said, "Get ready. We are going to kill the beasts while becoming bait. Ellia, Vera, Glor—I mean, Stella. You three will handle the front. Katarina and I will support you from behind."

"Roger."

Since Stella was the strongest, she was the one leading this time.

As expected, the beasts were flooding the street.

Stella sped up and started taking them down. Ellia and Vera followed right after, clearing up the rest.

They proceeded so swiftly that there was basically no chance for Auric or Katarina to even assist them.

Auric heard Lindwurm’s assessment while he was watching everything from the sky. He shouted, "Continue forward and turn to the left on the second block!"

They followed Auric’s command. As expected, Auric led them toward the heart of the problem.

As soon as they turned around, they saw a large horde of beasts gradually flooding the city.

"We’ll use this road to loop around and try to seal the hole."

They sprang into action without saying anything, killing all the beasts in their path, no matter how many there were. Katarina and Auric hit the beasts with their abilities so that the beasts couldn’t attack them from a distance.

Once the three girls arrived, they butchered all of those beasts.

Of course, a few instructors were also jumping down. They really needed to seal the two holes and somehow prevent the wall from collapsing.

The beasts that had entered the city were extremely dangerous, so they needed to stop them as well.

Auric was still formulating his plan, but it looked like others were the ones going to decide it for him.

When they arrived at the hole, there were already several instructors trying to patch the holes.

"!!!" The instructors noticed their arrival as well. One instructor found Auric and shouted, "We are going to close these two holes as much as we can. There are still beasts in the city. I want your group to handle all those beasts. You are good at finding things, right? Then find those beasts for us!"

The instructor recognized Auric’s ability in finding artifacts or even humans. Auric had shown it when he entered the plane and rescued four survivors.

So, this might indeed be the most reasonable job for Auric.

Auric nodded. "Understood."

Auric was the first to turn around, while Stella couldn’t help but say, "I don’t like this. Are we really going to search for those beasts? Isn’t it better to just kill more beasts and be closer to other instructors?"

Auric said, "Clashing with them is the last thing we should do. For now, let’s just search for those beasts. If you find anyone needing help, just bring them to the shelters I’ve created prior to this. Since I have established them before, they won’t suspect anything."

"So, how are we going to do this?"

"I have to go to the highest building here. It’s probably the hotel. I need to monitor everything from that place and send you guys to deal with the beasts."

"Okay." Katarina nodded.

Stella said, "You guys do it. I’m not leaving his side."

"!!!" Auric frowned. "What?"

"What? My job is your protection, not dealing with this mess." Stella shrugged.

Auric looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.

Stella looked away. "If you are thinking whether I have changed, then yes, I have changed. This country has thrown me away, so I’m under no obligation to protect it. Then again, I was a soldier, so while helping people was also my duty, taking orders was my priority."

"Then, if I order you to join them?"

"Sorry, but my current priority is your mother’s order." Stella shook her head.

"Let’s cut the chatter. We will be fine." Ellia nodded. "Just proceed with the plan."

Auric sighed and stopped arguing. It didn’t look like he could convince Stella.

What he didn’t know was that she had experienced a similar situation before. The order had perfectly separated Auric from the rest of the group, meaning he really needed protection. No matter what kind of plan Auric had in mind, she needed to focus on him.

"Go!"

Of course, the reason Stella was worried was Lindwurm. She didn’t know about Lindwurm.

Even if Auric was completely focused on other things, Lindwurm would be there to monitor the situation. In other words, if anyone was approaching, Lindwurm would have let him know.

However, Auric couldn’t reveal Lindwurm’s existence. So, it was only natural that Stella was worried, especially given the fact that Auric had lost the protection of his magic item.

As soon as Auric reached the top of the hotel, he asked, "Can you hear me from here?"

"I can hear you."

"Yep."

"We’re ready!"

The three girls answered in succession.

"Okay. Katarina, head east. There should be a lot over there. Vera, go north and then travel east. Ellia, go west and sweep in the clockwise direction. You can probably hear the ruckus they make."

With Auric monitoring the situation from above, the three girls no longer had any hesitation in their path.

Meanwhile, Stella was looking around the building, making sure that no one was coming.

It looked like the enemies had been orchestrating this moment. After all, Lindwurm actually gave him a warning only three minutes after he reached the hotel.

Auric passed the message. "Stella, right."

"!!!" Stella was startled, since Auric didn’t even glance. She rushed to the right side and checked everything below.

Suddenly, she saw a flash of light not far from them. The light flew toward them like a bullet.

She hurriedly struck it with her spear, trying to crush it. To her surprise, the strength of this bullet was much more powerful than she originally thought.

"Tsk!" Stella clicked her tongue and chose to deflect it upward.

The bullet ended up flying into the sky and caused a massive explosion that would have engulfed half of the hotel if it really hit.

The people were shocked, but they only thought it was the work of the beasts.

Meanwhile, Stella knew better what kind of attack it was. "A Rank 5 instructor? No, this might be more than that... The power is that of a Rank 5, but the toughness is greater than what I would expect from a Rank 5 human. A Rank 6 lowering their power to camouflage their attack as one from a beast?"

This was the biggest reason Auric chose to go down. If he remained on the wall, he believed that the spies would attack him there, which would also cause even more damage to the wall.

When that happened, even soldiers and other students would get hurt. They were already overwhelmed with the beast wave, so losing so many students and soldiers would definitely hurt them.

That was why Auric chose to lure them away. This way, the city wall wouldn’t collapse. He tried to go as high as possible, not only to look around but also to get away from the civilians.

This hotel had been fully booked with instructors and students. No civilians were around. The employees had also gone to the shelters since they basically had nothing to do in the building with no one around.

So, it was a perfect place to avoid casualties.

Auric muttered, "So, it’s time... to get rid of all these people."