"Is that all you've got?" Juvylenor asked with a smile as she effortlessly blocked Jadel's kick with just one finger.
Gritted his teeth in frustration, Jadel grabbed her hand mid-air, launching another kick.
Tilting her head, she dodged it with ease, almost as if it were an afterthought.
"When it comes to fighting, you're one of the most creative students I've seen," Juvylenor admitted, her tone soft but tinged with condescension. Without warning, her hand shot forward, moving faster than he could react. "But you're still too weak."
Flick!
Bam!
Jadel barely had time to register what happened before he was sent flying backward from the force of her flick, crashing into the ground.
Thud!
Jadel groaned, struggling to sit up. "Arghh... you did that on purpose," he muttered, rubbing his forehead where a large bump had already begun to form.
Juvylenor chuckled, unbothered by his complaint. "Oops, my bad. Didn't realize you were 'that' fragile."
'Damn it, if not for her eyes and her relentless nature, I'd have never agreed to this,' Jadel thought bitterly, choosing not to voice his frustration. 'She'd just flick me again if I complained.'
"So," Jadel finally asked, forcing his tone to remain calm, "when do I get eyes like yours?"
Juvylenor turned her back to him, casually waving her hand. "When I feel like it."
Jadel sighed, pushing himself to his feet. "Which means never." He dusted off his clothes before asking, "Can your eyes at least see mana flows?"
"What? Not satisfied with clairvoyance and mind control, huh?" She shot back, glancing over her shoulder with a flicker of irritation in her voice.
Shaking his head, Jadel smirked. "They're great and all, but I want to know what 'you' see."
"Too bad for you." Her tone was sharp as she replied, "I can't see mana flows."
Jadel sighed, running a hand through his hair. "So you're telling me you can only see three seconds into the future?"
Juvylenor folded her arms across her chest. "Disappointed? Three seconds is more than enough to counter anything that comes my way."
As much as Jadel wanted to argue, he knew she was right. 'My eyes can do everything hers can, just... differently. But what the downside is I can't see the attacks directed at my teammates unless I look at them.'
Her gaze narrowed, studying him. "I know what you think; it's that our eyes have the same power yet differently, right?" She asked. And to her answer, he nodded.
"Brat, you'll be grateful when you finally get my eyes. They might even mutate and evolve."
'Mutate and evolve, huh? That's tempting.' He thought back to how his own eyes had fused with his soul, permanently altered by the entity's mana. 'But I'm not sure if it became an extension of myself, and I doubt if it would even work on me.'
While Jadel was lost in thought, Juvylenor kept her eyes fixed on him, her mind racing. 'This boy... he fought demons with power equivalent to A+, even S- rank, and he survived against hundreds of them.' She couldn't believe the vision she watched. It felt too unreal.
'I'm sure he climbed up to that strength alone, because nobody wants to teach a cripple whose potential is limited to A- and ruin their reputation. So he became that strong on his own then... what about if someone guided him early on?' The mere thought made her skin prickle with goosebumps. But a fear crept her heart.
'But the demons that killed him and that girl... are considered really low in rank if my memory is correct. Oh god, just what will happen to this world?'
WZZEEEE?
Suddenly a sound came out of nowhere—a high-pitched screech that tore through the air.
"Gahhhhhh!" Jadel screamed, clutching his ears as unbearable pain shot through his head. His skull felt like it was splitting apart, and warm blood began to trickle from his ears.
Beeeeeeee!
After 10 seconds, everything went eerily silent, leaving only a sharp, constant ringing in his ears. Jadel blinked through the pain, trying to regain his focus. "What... was that?" He looked around, disoriented. When he looked at Juvylenor, she had already vanished from her spot, leaving him alone.
A vibration from his smartwatch pulled him out of his confusion. He glanced down, squinting through the blur in his vision.
[Royal Academy: Attention, all students. A large crack has appeared. Please remain in your classrooms or dormitories. Those outside, find shelter immediately. The academy will activate the defensive mechanisms shortly.]
"A crack?" Jadel muttered under his breath, his blood running cold. He stumbled toward the nearest window and peered outside.
What he saw nearly made his heart stop.
It wasn't just a small crack.
It was massive.
The sky itself looked as if it had been torn apart, a dark gash stretching from one horizon to the other. The shadows it cast engulfed the entire academy and the surrounding city, making it look like night had fallen in the middle of the day. A low hum began to resonate through the air, growing louder with each passing second.
Then the monsters appeared.
They poured out of the crack in droves, like an unstoppable flood. Their grotesque forms twisted and shifted as they emerged, and it looks like all of the monsters were flying types.
Jadel's legs wobbled. 'What... is this?' he whispered, his body trembling. 'This didn't happen in the novel...'
His mind raced as he tried to recall any mention of something like this in the story. But there was nothing—nothing that could explain this. And then a voice echoed in his mind, faint but clear.
'It may end in a good way, or it may cause utter destruction.'
"FUCK!" Jadel shouted, spinning on his heel and sprinting down the hallway. His heart pounded as he made his way toward the classroom.
When he burst through the door, the students inside looked up at him, their faces pale with fear. They were all staring out the windows at the crack and the swarms of flying monsters pouring from it.
"Where's the teacher?" Jadel asked as he approached Taren.
"I-I don't know," Taren stammered, his voice shaky. "She ran as soon as the crack appeared."
'The safety meeting,' Jadel thought. He nodded at Taren. "Okay. You need to calm everyone down. We'll wait for instructions from the academy." Jadel instructed. As Taren is the strongest here, the students may listen to him.
Taren nodded, stepping forward to address the class, but Jadel wasn't really listening. The unease in his gut had only grown stronger. He could still hear the buzzing in his ears—the same high-pitched hum from earlier, and it was starting to get louder again.
He glanced back out the window. The crack had widened, and more monsters were spilling through. The darkness around the academy thickened, and that screeching hum became almost unbearable.
'Is this why I felt so uneasy this morning?' Jadel wondered, dread creeping through him.
As the crack grew and the sky darkened further, Jadel had the sinking realization that this was only the beginning.
BAM!
A loud noise resonated inside a conference room. A middle aged man slammed his fist onto the desk in front of him in anger.
"What the hell are they doing in the research hall?" Vice Principal Sebastian bellowed, his face swelling up in frustration. "Didnt the government say it was just a malfunction? Then what the hell is this?"
Sebastian looked at the middle aged man dressed in shabby, wrinkled clothes. It looked like the old man hadn't taken a bath for a while.
"Please calm down, Vice Principal Sebastian." The old man started explaining, "The readings are constantly changing, making it hard to discern whether a crack will open or not. After the sudden increase and decrease, we searched to see if any cracks would appear, but the results showed a positive." taking out the research details he passed to Sebastian.
Vice Principal Sebastian contemplated for a few seconds. "That's concerning; we always prepare beforehand when cracks open. Are you sure the government technologies are not malfunctioning like they mentioned?"
The researcher nodded. "We are 100 percent sure that our technologies are not malfunctioning. We also asked for assistance from the military headquarters and other government researchers, and all of them came to the conclusion that either there are abnormalities in dimensions that connect to other worlds or some powerful entity that can control cracks. But they discarded the latter thought since the government researchers are still researching the cause of the sudden appearance of mana and the cracks."
"Sigh, if there was someone who could control the cracks, it would be a catastrophe."
Suddenly a series of beeps filled the room, and a holographic screen appeared in front of Sebastian. He answered the call, his scowl deepening as he saw the face of a soldier in black military uniform.
"What is it?"
"Vice principal Sebastian, we urgently need assistance for monster eradication evacuation citizens. Can you send a few intructors?" The soldier asked, urgency clear in his voice.
"Sorry, our priority is the safety of our students. We can't spare instructors right now. They are the future pillars of this world."
The soldier frowned. "Don't be selfish, Vice Principal Sebastian. You are training these students to become future protectors of this world. If you can't help now, what's the point of all that training? And do you think the principal will accept your behavior? He always says the academy exits to serve the people, not to hide behind the wall."
The mention of principal caused a flicker of doubt in his eyes, he leaned back in his chair, exhaling deeply.
The soldier persuaded again. "You don't need to be afraid of the monsters breaking the barrier; they are relatively weak. The only problem is swarms causing massive damage to cities and citizens."
"Sigh, okay, I get it. I'll send a few instructors."
'It won't be a problem since we have a barrier that could only be destroyed by a S+ monster or hunter,' he thought.
As the call ended, a strange chuckle echoed from far away from them.
"Kekeke, so some of the instructors are gone."
A figure slowly emerged from the shadow. His body was covered in darkness, making it hard to discern who that person was. His long, pitch black hair grazed on the ground as he started to walk with a hunchback.
The instructor who saw the figure fight instantly took a sword from his spatial storage. "Who are you?" he demanded.
To his reply, the figure smiled. A wide, grotesque smile that showed far too many teeth.
Before the instructor could react, the figure vanished, reappearing right in front of him, his mouth opening unnaturally wide. In a blink, the instructor's head disappeared.
Munch! Munch!
The sound of bones and flesh being torn apart filled the air.
"So there is the control room," he mumbled to himself as he absorbed information from the instructors. Taking the headless body, he swallowed it entirely, delighted expressions forming on his face. "That's delicious."
Swoosh!
In a blur or motion, he disappeared, arriving in front outside of the control room's reinforced door. Without hesitation, he smashed the door, shattering the metal like it was made out of glasses.
Alarm! Alarm!
"Oh, the alarms are ringing; guess I need to be fast," he said, slowly looking at the workers with a wide smile. His eyes showed a cruel glint as he started to salivate.
Lick!
"I will be having a feast."
Swoosh!
The figure rushed to one of the workers. With a swift move, he gripped the worker's neck and tried to bite his head off, but was stopped by the attacks of the workers.
"Hehe, all of them are rankers. Sadly, I don't have the time to enjoy it." Suddenly, the darkness in his body burst, filling the room, and his hair started to float. With a burst of speed, he vanished from his spot and arrived in front of the guy who stood behind the others in fear.
"You're my last meal." gripping the worker's neck, he raised him. To the worker's horror, all of the others were dead, as large chunks of flesh were missing from them.
'When–' before he could complete his thought, his vision darkened.
Munch!
Biting his half of the body, the figure threw it on the ground,
where other bodies lay down. In a second, he killed 13 workers by devouring half of their body parts.
"Now, let's destroy the barrier and escape before any higher rankers come."