" The school is only a kilometre away isn't it?" asked Luo Heng observing the corpse of the middle aged man in a suit. His body seemed half eaten and lacked any sort of lustre.
"Bite marks, not runaway Cavern Slaves or Reptiles could be Demon Wolves" Song Xia added.
Either way a corpse of a teacher from the School found a kilometre away didn't seem a promising sign for the students safety.
"Yet no signs of damage or paw prints" analysed Cao Guang. Hailing from Bo City that was on the foothills of Nanshan Range, they were rather experienced with the demon wolves and their habits and trails.
"Keep an eye out" Cao Guang instructed Song Xia to scout ahead as they cleared a few Giant Lizard Beasts.
Since Song Xia had gone ahead they had to be more careful. None of them really had any reconnaissance skills.
"The higher form of Lizard Beasts are Tyrant Lizards, they have different elements fire, earth, and so on. Tyrant Earth Lizards have camouflage skills, so on your guard. There is an easier way but let's not provoke any hungry commanders now."
The trio tailed behind the signs left by Song Xia and reached the School's front gate. The gate and the signs of the school lay mangled on the floor with blood sprayed on it. Once a citadel of learning now a cemetery.
"There aren't any signs of living beings here, Should we leave" Luo Heng asked.
"That's a good sign, it means the survivors covered their tracks well and could have hidden when the teachers left. The signs aren't positive. Outside the school there are far more corpses of Teachers and almost none of the students. So they didn't leave atleast. Getting eaten by the Lizard Beasts and Tyrant Lizards are a possibility, but as you said there are no signs of living beings here nor corpses.
Which means the students and remaining teachers must be here somewhere, hiding well from the beasts".
"Are you suggesting that the teachers left students behind and then got killed.?" Luo Heng asked with righteous indignation.
The teachers were supposed to protect their students just as the military protected the civillians. Zhan Kong had protected all of them when the Commander rank wolf had attacked them deranged.
Fei Jiao and the other generals had kept a keen eye on them during the war with Blood Tabi Beasts. Even though they couldn't move as they kept the Ruler occupied and soldiers died. They would not let the Ruler attack indifferently.
But humans were selfish creatures, they would ensure their own safety when put to the test. Even Cao Guang wondered if he would help someone without care for his own life. He had helped others and wasn't averse to saving people in trouble.
He just wasn't sure if he would help others if he would die for certain trying. Cao Guang refocused himself and stopped thinking about ways to jinx himself.
"Serves them right" Gao Xuan chortled.
"No, the teachers have a better cultivation than students and must be intermediate mages on average. Whatever killed them maybe still here and it definitely wasn't these Lizard Beasts".
Song Xia appeared near them emerging from the Shadows. Her fifth tier Fleeing Shadow made it difficult even for Tyrant Lizards to have good grasp on her location.
"I found the students, follow me. But their condition is sorry"
"What exactly happened here?, we deduced that the teachers abandoned them in self preservation"
"It's much more than that, the teachers abandoned them discreetly and let them hiding in gym room. After a few hours some students figured it out.
They then had a quarrel about what to do. The Student president proposed to leave as a group. The stronger students agreed with her and weaker ones disagreed and a fight broke out as the Student president led her group out the gym sneakily.
A small group of angry and desperate students who caught up with them didn't let them leave and got themselves killed by the student presidents group. The rest saw everything and stayed here. At least they safely secured the gym room and left no real signs. Water and food are enough so they don't want to leave this place.
They think that both the teachers and student president died and therefore no news of them got out and hence no support from military. So it's a mess. I explained our situation and strength but they still don't want to leave. Apparently they are too scared"