Under the Veil of Night

"Can you still fight, Randy?" Dean sneered.

Randy frowned. He straightened his body, enduring the pain on his back without a change in his expression. "What do you think?"

Dean snorted and frowned at the door heading down. Even if they managed to use the stairs, they would have to fight numerous battles again. Even in their normal conditions, it would take at least a few hours as they didn't know how strong their enemies would be. However, they had already depleted their stamina and were dead tired.

"The rest of the building can collapse at any time because of the acid," Kanae spoke up. "We don't have much time left."

"What's your plan, little brat?"

Kanae pointed to the side of the building. "There are emergency stairs on the exterior wall of the building, right? Are they still intact?"

One of the people hurriedly ran to the side of the building to check the stairs. Upon seeing that the metal stairs were still relatively fine and reached the bottom floor, he cheered. "The stairs are here. We can use it to get down."

Dean frowned slightly. "How do you know that there are stairs there?"

"This long building is a dorm, which means there should be an emergency exit in case something happens," Kanae replied. However, in the next second, she thought that her reasoning was not entirely convincing. Still, she couldn't possibly say that she used to play in this building, right?

"You came prepared, brat," Dean eyed Kanae suspiciously. He turned around. "Let's go down."

Without waiting for further commands, they reached the stairs and headed down orderly but rapidly. The monsters didn't come to the stairs, but the condition of the stairs itself was not the best.

Clang!

"Be careful, some of the steps are broken because of the earlier fights and tremors," Randy instructed.

"Yes, Boss."

Going down the side of the building, Kanae scanned the surroundings. There were several buildings in this school, but many of them were already completely destroyed. The buildings that were still standing were already in ruins for the most part.

"We're lucky that this building is still standing," Tommy commented.

"Yes, we're lucky," Kanae agreed.

"We've reached the ground."

They cheered the moment they reached the ground. Only the three leaders were relatively more composed as they understood that the fight was not over yet. Looking towards the building, Randy put his hands on his hips.

"Let me destroy this dorm building. The rest of you can just fight against the other monsters."

Dean arched his eyebrows. "How do you plan on destroying it?"

"Did you forget my specialty?" Randy snorted. "I'm going to blow this place up, so you two and your members should go away."

"You don't have to tell me. I'll willingly go away," Dean snickered and strolled away leisurely. His members followed behind him as they dealt blows to the surrounding monsters.

Kanae, Jason, and Tommy followed Dean to reach the nearby field. Despite all the mess, this place provided the most spacious view for keeping a lookout. Resting with the Lore Group members, the three of them took out their canned food and started eating.

"Captain, your appetite is just as great as before," Tommy remarked.

Kanae nodded. "I need to replenish my energy before treating my wounds."

Looking at the numerous wounds that Kanae was covered in, Tommy couldn't understand how this girl still managed to stand firm and walk like it was nothing. He was pretty sure that he wouldn't have been able to do it.

"How many bones have you broken, Rei?"

"I didn't count," Kanae smiled wryly. "But I'm pretty sure that some of my ribs are fractured from all the fighting before."

"You're not allowed to fight anymore," Jason frowned.

"As long as it's not necessary, I don't want to fight either."

They were not the only ones eating; those in Lore Group were also eating delightfully. They were glad that they could get out of that nightmarish building. However, Dean was still standing and looking into the distance. There was one person he had not yet seen so far, but he stayed wary as he knew that this person was quite strong.

"Stand guard," he suddenly instructed.

A person slowly came towards them from a distance. His appearance was still pretty neat, despite the fact that the fight had already lasted for days. It was as if he hid from every single confrontation.

"Oro, Tom, step back," Kanae abruptly stood up. Her eyes were fixed on the man who came. "He's dangerous."

The man stopped several meters in front of Dean. "Long time no see, my friend, Dean."

"I'm not your friend, Carlo," Dean frowned. "As I thought, the Oval Group Vice-leader is nowhere to be found. It turns out, you never came to the main building at all."

The man called Carlo smiled. "You got me. Now, hand over the vial."

"Unfortunately, the vial is not with me," Dean replied.

"Not you? Randy says that he doesn't have it either, which means, it should be among the members," Carlo scanned the surroundings before locking his gaze on Kanae. "Naturally, that person should be the next strongest."

"Carlo…."

Before Dean could say anything more, Carlo sprinted towards Kanae. The girl managed to react in time and evade the sudden attack, but the kick that followed soon after hit her stomach.

Crash!

*cough*

Propping herself up, Kanae readied her guard and welcomed Carlo's next attack. From what she just experienced, she was sure that this person's strength was more than what Dean and Randy previously displayed. Since the two were only able to exert half of their power, this meant that Carlo was still at the peak of his condition.

This cheating man must have hidden himself to wait for this chance at the end.

The two traded blows as Kanae got hit continuously. In the end, she was pushed back and crashed into the railings.

"That's pretty harsh," Kanae wiped off the blood on her mouth with the back of her hand.

Carlo crossed his arms. "Naturally, now hand over the vial."

Tommy was about to step up, but Jason held him back. He understood that neither of them could possibly stand up against Carlo. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Dean standing by the side. His gesture was clear; he wouldn't help them out.

Kanae coughed and took the vial out from her pocket. "Here, you can have it."

Throwing the vial to Carlo, the man caught it delightfully. He broke the seal and downed it in one go.

"Boss, is it fine to hand over the result of our hard work just like that?" the man beside Dean asked worriedly.

"My goal was never the vial," Dean crossed his arms.

"Boss?"

Dean smirked. "Do you realize where you're standing right now?"

"We're in Lima School."

"You're correct," Dean was still looking at Carlo as he explained. "Not everyone can step into this place. I just came to take a look at what they have in store for us."

As they talked on the side, Carlo felt sudden pain coursing through his head.. The pain was so intense that he crouched over and screamed like a madman.