We made good progress as we doubled our pace toward the shelter. Teacher Fielding made sure to mark the route in the holographic map and sent it back to the rest of the school. Along the way, we managed to prevail over a pack of Dire Wolves and a couple of Thunder Wolves. Fortunately, the two types of monsters moved separately, unlike that time with the assault on Jing Tian Academy, and the pack of Dire Wolves was about ten, much less than the previous wave, otherwise we would be in a lot of trouble.
With our combined might and experience, we were able to slay them. I shuddered to think what would have happened if the pack of Dire Wolves was larger and led by three Thunder Wolves. Some of us might meet the same fate as Teacher Ji Lu Da Shi and his team. At the very least, we would have sustain a few casualties and be slowed down considerably.
Fortunately, we managed to clear the first two kilometers of monsters. There was no guarantee that no new monsters would arrive and cross the route while the other groups were moving out – especially with so many groups – but we didn't have a choice. Moving in a large main group was suicidal and would definitely draw the attention of monsters like moths to a light. Each group was going to have to scout its way around and update the holographic map for the other groups that followed. We could only do so much.
Harvey was moving nimbly above, using his magic to propel himself upward. Unlike the rest of us, he could spare the energy because he was meant to avoid combat. Stopping on one high vantage point, he used both his senses and equipment to scout ahead and track the movements of any monsters that might be nearby.
"I hope we don't run into any Thunder Wolves again," Theodore mutter, shaking his hand. Apparently it had gotten numb when he used his arm to parry a strike from a Thunder Wolf earlier. "Those things are vicious."
"You're actually saying that!?" Craig complained. Unlike Theodore, he was scorched in several areas and his uniform was slightly tattered. "You have some resistance to lightning magic, being an electric-type mage and all!"
"It's just not very effective against me, but that doesn't mean I'm completely immune to the effects of lightning magic."
"Quiet, all of you!" Teacher Fielding snapped. "Maintain field discipline!"
Everyone fell silent. Our combat magic instructor glanced up at Harvey, who was still looking around intently for enemies.
"Anything?"
"Not that I can see, sir," Harvey replied before he jumped to another high vantage point – a broken building a block down.
"Good. Keep moving, everyone. Just one more kilometer and we'll reach the shelter. Keep your guard up!"
We proceeded to the next block using the standard fire and movement pattern that Teacher Fielding had drilled into us. One group moved forward while the second group covered them, and then we moved forward while they covered us. Using such military maneuvers, we were able to watch out for any enemies and guard against ambushes.
It had worked for us so far.
"There's a group of mages fighting about five hundred meters to our two o'clock," Harvey reported as he perched atop a shattered balcony of an apartment building that was overlooking a park. At the edge of the park, he could see a row of bungalows, and beyond that, he saw conflagrations and explosions in the distances as pockets of resistance clashed with invading monsters. "Should we reinforce them?"
"No point." Teacher Fielding shook his head. "Our mission is to secure a safe route for the other students and staff of our school, not rescue other survivors. In any case, they're too far. By the time we reach there, the outcome will already be decided. We'll draw too much attention to us if we merge with a larger group and we don't have unlimited mana to get involved in too many battles either."
"Understood."
Harvey was about to move to the next block when he spotted something fearsome rear above and over the roof of one of the bungalow houses ringing the park. Three crimson eyes glowed as they swept across the ruined greenery in search of fresh prey. Its immense jaws yawned open, revealing teeth the size of swords, and the silver bone-like spikes that surrounded its head in a deadly mane gleamed under the moonlight. Judging from how it towered over such a huge three-story bungalow house, Harvey judged that it was almost nine meters in height.
And the power it exuded…its intimidating presence…it overpowered even the demonic auras of the Thunder Wolves he witnessed earlier. In fact, he was reminded of the Crastrate that nearly killed him so many months ago.
His breath caught in his throat, Harvey froze in reflex.
"Harvey? Are you all right?"
Harrison noticed that our junior had stopped moving from fear and was staring wide-eyed in a fixed direction, but because our view was blocked by the row of shop houses that shielded us from the park, we couldn't see the immense wolf monster that had struck so much horror into Harvey's heart.
Harvey slowly turned around, his eyes as round as saucers. He kept his head down and carefully crawled toward a corner of the second story of the broken shop house before turning to us and raising a shaking finger to his lips. His fear was visible.
"What…?" Craig was about to ask, but Sheila kicked him in his ankle, causing him to stop and grimace in pain.
Teacher Fielding, being much more experienced than us, was the next to sense the tremendous, super-heavy demonic aura of the newly appeared monster, and he hastily gestured for all of us to take cover. Without asking any questions, we all obeyed in reflex, diving to whatever cover we could. Behind shattered walls, broken furniture or torn shelves.
I had taken shelter under a still relatively intact cafeteria table, where an abandoned cup of water still stood on its blemished surface.
A rattling current of wind blew across the air, along with a foul stink. And then I realized it wasn't a gust of wind, but the exhalation of some enormous creature.
Boom.
Boom.
In front of my wide eye, the cup of water began shaking. Tremors from the footfalls of something massive and heavy were sending vibrations throughout not just the cup of water but the entire table. I watched as the rattling cup slowly slid toward the edge of the table. And then it fell off.
I caught it by reflex before it could hit the ground and shatter. Water streamed through my fingers and dripped onto the ground, but at least it didn't make a noise as a cup would if it had shattered against the concrete. Breathing shallowly in relief, I carefully set the now-empty cup down on the ground and then looked up.
Then I saw it.
The enormous wolf head, covered in a mane of silver, skeletal spikes.
It was still some distance away, yet the fact that I could still see it so clearly and vividly spoke volumes about its immense size.
"W…what the hell is that?!" Zhang Xiao Hou whispered in a trembling voice.
"Rank B monster…a Silver Skeletal Wolf. Like normal wolves, it has extremely sharp senses of hearing and smell, and its body is as hard as steel. It's known more for its fearsome bone structure – an almost indestructible skeleton, coupled with the ability to fire off bone spikes with the force of a railgun, capable of piercing through several meters of steel plating."
"There's no way we can defeat a monster of such rank and power," Theodore murmured, his deep voice tinged with despair.
"Yes, we can." Craig was staring at me with a grin. Unfortunately, I wasn't as optimistic as him. On the contrary, the thought of fighting another rank B monster like the damned Crastrate had me quaking in my boots. Well, not literally, but suffice to say I was far from enthusiastic about getting beaten up and hospitalized for another week.
"I only defeated a rank B Crastrate the other time by nuking it with a Strategic-scale spell. And obviously I can only use that once every few days…once a day, if I force it and don't pass out from the effort. And we already discussed why it's not a good idea to unleash that spell inside the city."
"And it's not a good idea to waste his Strategic-scale spell here. Even if we do succeed in destroying the rank B Silver Skeletal without accidentally killing anyone in the vicinity, such a release of so much mana will draw all the monsters in the city toward our position." Teacher Fielding jabbed a thumb in the vague direction of the skyscraper. "Worst case scenario, we attract the attention of the rank A Silver Wing Wolf King, and then we'll all die. Especially after using up our trump card. You think he's going to sit around and watch after seeing an area of what he now thinks of as his territory get blown up by humans?"
"It's best to avoid it," Bu Fan agreed ominously, his eyes haunted. "We've to conserve our mana as much as possible. Perhaps the military might be able to deal with it. They have much higher-level mages than us students."
"I'll have to leave a message to the other groups and inform them there is a rank B monster in the area." Teacher Fielding was already retrieving his smartphone to fabricate the warning. Almost everyone nodded, but Craig seemed displeased.
"We can't keep running away like this. The Silver Skeletal Wolf will run into several of our groups eventually and slaughter them." he thought for a while. "My Crimson Spear can pierce through any defense. And even if it can't, I'm sure that even a rank B monster has a weak point. If we can find it and exploit it, we should be able to slay the Silver Skeletal Wolf with a surprise attack."
Teacher Fielding considered his suggestion for a moment. "Theoretically, it is possible…but it is also extremely risky. If we fail to kill the Silver Skeletal Wolf in a single strike, we'll be the ones who get annihilated in the ensuing battle."
"So we risk letting the other groups run into it and getting slaughtered in our place?"
Everyone glanced at each other. On one hand, we weren't very enthusiastic about risking our lives and fighting such a dangerous monster, but on the other hand, we couldn't in our right conscience let it roam freely in the area when we knew it would inevitably stumble across at least a few of the following groups. Furthermore, the sixth group would be the walking wounded led by Teacher Cure. We could try and devise an alternative route that avoided the Silver Skeletal Wolf, but how far could we deviate from our path to the emergency shelter? Given the size and power of the Silver Skeletal Wolf, it would eventually stumble across the groups, no matter how we meticulously planned out a route to avoid it. Perhaps the first few groups could avoid it, but then what about the others when the Silver Skeletal Wolf suddenly decided to move on? If we were lucky, it would move away from our established routes, but what if we were unlucky?
And could we really leave the fates of others to luck?
"That's their problem," Bu Fan replied without hesitation. "We are not obligated to risk our lives for others. We have done everything we can, and did our best to plot a route that's as safe as possible under the circumstances. We've eliminated the majority of monsters in the route. The other groups will have to work their own way around and adjust accordingly with the information they are given, and the circumstances will constantly change. There's no guarantee no new monsters will not show up in our route a few hours after we've cleared them, while the last few groups are moving out. Each group will have to deal with their own crises and manage their own journey to the shelter by themselves. We have already done everything we can to help them out. We are not obligated to throw our lives away in a suicidal attack on a rank B monster. If you want to be a martyr, go ahead and be one yourself. Don't involve the rest of us in your suicidal heroics."
"Why, you…!" Craig growled, but Teacher Fielding raised a hand to forestall him.
"Bu Fan has a point. We have and will achieve the minimum objective of our mission – to plot a safe route toward the shelter and avoid as many monsters as possible. We are not obligated to risk our lives against a monster that's so much more powerful than us. My obligation is not just to the other students, but also to you all – I intend to ensure that all of you survive the journey to the shelter."
Craig fell silent, unable to argue.
"However…the moment all of you volunteered for this vanguard mission, you should have known the risks. So yes, we are obligated to risk our lives for others. I already warned you of this when I asked for volunteers." His strict eyes fell on Bu Fan, but credit to the person who would normally be the protagonist, he didn't argue. "And we are to clear the route of monsters, to the best of our ability. If there is a chance we can eliminate the Silver Skeletal Wolf, then we should consider it. I will weigh the odds of success, and if it's too much against us, then we'll reject Craig's suggestion. But if there is a decent chance of success…then I say we go for it. It is too dangerous to allow a Silver Skeletal Wolf to run loose in this area between our school and the nearest shelter, after all."
He folded his arms.
"I did warn you of the risks and dangers when I said this will be strictly voluntary, so you shouldn't have any complaints."
"None," Bu Fan replied evenly, his expression unreadable. "I'll go with whatever decision you take, Teacher Fielding."
I sighed in relief. That was somewhat of a relief. Despite his arrogance and attitude, his ability was undeniable. His lightning and fire magic would undoubtedly make a difference in the battle against the Silver Skeletal Wolf. Even though I hated to rely on someone like him, I was going to take anything I could get against such a formidable foe.
"Do you know what the weak point of the Silver Skeletal Wolf is, Teacher Fielding?" Alicia asked curiously. We had huddled around him, keeping our voices low so as to not be overheard by the rank B monster. A pointless effort, if you ask me. The senses of a wolf-type monster were extremely acute. If it could hear us, it would, regardless of whether we were whispering or yelling. Moreover, it would probably sniff us out before it caught a single word from us.
The only saving grace was that it was pretty far from us at the moment.
Teacher Fielding considered for a moment. "The neck," he finally said. "Craig, you will have to slice open its carotid artery and jugular vein. With your spells, you should be able to hinder its ability to regenerate and heal its wounds, so if you deal it a fatal blow there, it would bleed to death almost immediately."
"Leave it to me!" Craig said determinedly. Teacher Fielding nodded and glanced toward us.
"The rest of us will draw its attention so that it won't be able to see Craig's attack coming."
While the others nodded, I was thinking about the vulnerabilities of the Silver Skeletal Wolf. The back of its neck was protected by a mane of near indestructible bony spikes, its heart and lungs were encased in a sturdy ribcage, and most of its vitals were protected by hard bone. It also possessed a relatively high resistance against magic spells as well. Recalling how resilient the Crastrate was, refusing to die until I finally nuked it with Scorpio's Antares, I began to dread how tough the battle would be if we failed to kill it in a single blow.
And given the size and raw strength the Silver Skeletal Wolf possessed, it could easily crush us squishy humans with a single strike of its claws.
Like Teacher Fielding said, we would ended up being the ones annihilated if we failed to slay it in the first strike.
Gulping, I prayed that we would succeed, but I was sure we had just triggered a mission failure flag somehow.