Chapter 57: Silver Platter

*David Lindner's group, the largest to leave the university*

On the other side of the street, a different group had already found its own rhythm — David Lindner, and around him the six who mattered most to holding it together: Sarah Nowak, Tobias Berger, Sebastian Krauss, Mira Demir, Julian Nowak, and Kilian Wallner. Seventy people stood behind them, split into formations the same way every other group today had split theirs. It made this one the largest force to come out of the university by a wide margin.

„Alright — just like we planned! Let's go!“ David called out, both hands already rising toward the nearest monster barreling in on them.

Unlike the other five, David didn't lead a formation of his own. He didn't need to. He moved freely along the length of the group instead, watching for whichever monster got dangerously close to whichever formation, and stepping in with his talent *Gravitational Force* before it ever arrived.

A heavyset, hound-like thing was about to attack Tobias's from the side. David barely had to move — just a small twist of his hand, a pull aimed at the beast's leg instead of its whole body. It was his first try to aim the gravitational force only at one body part. If it worked he would need far less mana to fight and could last much longer.

The monster didn't even seem to register it as an attack. But a leg that should have landed came down a fraction short instead, and its momentum did the rest, pitching the creature forward into a graceless, sprawling collapse directly in front of Tobias's formation. Just like Rashid’s and Lukas‘ formation did, spears were already waiting and landed on the downed monster. It never got back up.

The second time came only a minute later, and it was harder — a leaner, faster shape cutting toward Mira's side of the group at a dead sprint, low to the ground. David had to focus more because of its speed, but he could still catch it mid-stride with a sharper, more focused pull that yanked one foot down as if the ground itself had reached up and grabbed it. The monster went down hard, chin-first, skidding to a stop practically at Mira's feet. She didn't even need her talent for that one — a single downward thrust took care of it before it finished registering what had happened.

That was the pattern for the rest of the fight. David serving up one monster after another, delivered to whichever formation happened to be standing closest.

Sarah Nowak played s totally different but still a very important role. While fighting she shouted out whenever she detected weak spots of various monsters through her talent and informed the others. With her help every attack aimed at the weak spots and caused more damage resulting in more and easier kills.

She drove her spear through the flank of something low and cat-like, fast but fragile-footed, and as it crumpled she shouted over her shoulder. “The ones that look like mutated cats — they are quick, but their feet are sensitive! Aim there!“ Barely two breaths later, a second monster came down on her from an ungainly leap, deer-shaped and heavy-legged, and she sidestepped the landing entirely, driving her spear up under its ribs before it could recover its balance. “The deer-looking ones jump high, but they're not agile — they won't dodge well at close range!“ Then a third, one of the broad-bodied, hound-like brutes, absorbed two glancing hits off its flank before Sarah dropped low and drove her spear straight up into the soft underside of its torso, dropping it where it stood. “The big ones — dog-shaped, they are tough all over — the only soft spot is underneath!“

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Tobias Berger's talent Static Friction was built for exactly this kind of ground fight, and he leaned on it as hard as his mana allowed. What he really wanted to do was to lock every monster's paws to the pavement at once. He wasn't strong enough yet to target a wide and large field — the effect still demanded his full concentration on one small patch of ground at a time, and he was careful not to overspend what little mana he had. Still, working alone, he managed kills of his own well enough: a foot bound solid to the asphalt mid-charge, a monster suddenly anchored and struggling against ground that refused to let go and then a spear to finish it. Sometimes one hit did the job. Sometimes it took five, clumsy and inefficient, because for all his talent's promise, he was still only a beginner.

For all of David's tricks and Sarah's callouts, the most effective person in the entire group wasn't David at all. It was Sebastian Krauss.

His talent thrived on numbers, and with more than seventy allies packed into the same stretch of street, it increased his speed massivly. He didn't hold a position at all — he threw himself straight into the thick of the monsters as their own kind of vanguard, cutting in, springing back, lunging sideways, driving his spear in and pulling free before anything could answer. He didn't always kill outright. More often he left a trail of wounded shapes behind him and simply moved on to the next one, trusting the ones behind him to finish what he'd started.

*I owe Michael a lot for this,* he thought, ducking under a swipe and driving his spear into a passing flank. *I'm nowhere near good enough to call myself a professional. But these things are only Level 1 to 3 — fodder, really. If he hadn't drilled discipline and real combat experience into us in those first few hours, all the speed in the world wouldn't have meant anything.*

Mira Demir fought without leaning on David's help either, and like Sebastian, she'd built whatever she had now on the training Michael had put them through earlier. Her spear work was plain, nothing fancy about it — but her talent *Sound Wave* gave her an edge others on the line did not have: a short, disorienting shriek she could throw at a monster, either to buy herself a half-second when she was about to take a hit, or to crack open a gap in a monster's guard just wide enough for her spear to find. She wasn't racking up kills anywhere near Sebastian's pace. But by the end of the day, she'd still be counted among those with the most kills.

Julian Nowak fought in roughly the same shape as Mira, though his method looked nothing like hers. His talent *Perception Tax* let him become invisible to a targeted monster. His fighting style revolved around doing one of two things — either slip in unnoticed on the marked monster, invisible to it entirely, and put his spear straight through the weak point Sarah called out, or vanish from the perception of something already attacking him and use the half-second of confusion to turn a deadly situation or a killing blow against him into a kill of his own. His kills came easier than Mira's, cleaner too. But his talent drank mana faster, which meant fewer uses, and fewer uses meant fewer kills than her. By the end of the day he was still among the group's best.

Kilian Wallner didn't fight like any of them.

Every hit he landed came with a second one built into it, an identical strike arriving a heartbeat after the first, always in exactly the same spot. *If one hit doesn't kill you,* he thought, driving his spear home a second time before the monster in front of him had even finished falling, *then two will.* More often than not, he worked alone. But when a monster slipped past him faster than he could follow, he didn't hesitate to lean on David's gravity instead, letting it drag his target back into range before the second strike ever needed to land.