'I need to get out of here quickly.'
Taking out a helmet from my spatial watch, I quickly put it in my head. It looked ridiculous—a dragon's head with long flowing hair, totally cringe worthy.
But I didn't have the time to care. Grimacing, I pulled it over my head.
Just as I hid my face, Aiden appeared in front of me, his eyes narrowing as he caught sight of me. "So you're the one behind the mist," he said, his tone threatening.
Clearing my throat, I changed my voice. "Ahem… Hello there. Can I go, please–"
Seeing an unexpected punch coming, I quickly tilted my body, barely evading the punch.
Swoosh!
The punch brushed past my face, sending sending air waves as it stopped.
'Damn, he wants to end it as quickly as possible.' I thought, creating a gap between us.
I came to an open space, garnering the students and monsters attention. 'Shit, Lucy will recognize it's me at this rate.
"Where are you looking?" Aiden asked, appearing in front of me like a blur.
「Shit」
「Lost Gem 」
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Aiden punched in rapid succession, but none of them connected to my body. I could see each one coming and could feel where it was going to hit.
Suddenly a line connected to my body.
Smirk!
I didn't have to wait much time; the monster arrived quickly. Grabbing its outwarded stinger, I changed its trajectory, sending it to Aiden and obscuring his vision.
Slash!
Ding!
_______________
Strength: 1
________________
Aiden killed the monster for me, and I heard a satisfying ding in my head. Seeing my leg approaching his face, his eyes widened. But it was already late, and the kick landed on his face perfectly.
Bam!
His legs wobbled slightly, but other than that, he didn't take any damage at all.
"Is that all you could do?" He asked, his tone dripping with disdain. "It's my turn then."
Before I could respond, he closed in, swinging a wide punch.
'Hand-to-hand combat is my forte, idiot.' With a slight touch on his wrist, I changed its trajectory. 'You can take my punch, huh? How about this?'
Grabbing his collar, I brought my knee up, aiming straight to his balls.
Bam!
"Mugmmm" he groaned in pain, his eyes instantly watering up.
Clutching his nut, he hunched over reflexively, a fatal mistake by his side.
Taking the opportunity, I hit both his ears simultaneously. The sharp sound of impact was followed by a trickle of blood from his ears, and his became hazy.
Seizing the moment, I grabbed him by the hair and yanked his down, delivering a visious knee to his jaw. His legs gave out, and with a thud, his body collapsed.
"Out cold, huh?" I muttered, lifting his lumpy body and throwing it toward them. "Take his body if you don't want him dead."
With perfect timing, my clone arrived, leading a big swarm of monsters poured into the clearing like a flood. There had to be at least five hundred of them, as I gave another command to my clone to release both innate skill influences to attract more monsters.
The students on the other side froze for a moment, stunned by the sheer numbers. Then panic set in.
"What do we do?"
"Should we attack him?"
"Yeah, that masked guy—he has to be behind this!"
They quickly came to a conclusion; they hurled spells and skills at my clone in a desperate barrage. But none of it even grazed him. He moved with impossible grace, dodging and weaving through the onslaught.
'Why... is my clone better than me?' I thought, watching him dance around their attacks like they were nothing. 'At this rate, they'll burn all their remaining mana.'
Suddenly, an arrow whizzed through the air, grazing my clone's side. Seeing that I felt a twinge of irritation. 'Lucy, he will die at this rate; guess he has to sacrifice.'
I commanded him mentally, and he nodded. In an instant, shadows enveloped his body as he activated Shadow Monarch. His form dissolved into the darkness.
He disappeared from his spot, reappearing in front of the students. With a swift motion, he released a thick mist combined with his innate skill, Emperor of the Ocean.
Swoosh!
In a second, the mist covered the entire area. I shivered as the temperature dropped sharply. Even with my enhanced senses, I could not see anything beyond the thick fog.
'What an overpowered skill,' I marveled, watching the fog swirl and expand. 'Even with his damaged mana veins, it's this strong. No wonder the Mermaid King ruled the seas with power like this.'
I, too, released the mist to the fullest. My heart started to race with excitement. After all, who wouldn't? With over 500 monsters, I can easily break through to E rank.
Although it's a dead giveaway to Aiden, it's me, and I'm sure he won't believe that.
'But.' with this one thought, I have mixed feelings. 'I don't want them to die, not at least with my hands.'
Sighing I activated perfect copy again, asking him to assist them. With a Gyrokinesis innate skill, he can easily control their flight ability, thus cutting down their fighting power. And I only have to activate the skill again when he dies.
"Mmm, the mist is moving; she is casting wind magic again."
The mist around me slowly started to move and took on a cylindrical shape. Soon, it became a fierce whirlwind, taking all the mist into it until there was not a trace left.
"Now, begone"
Swoosh!
With a final, commanding word, the wind exploded outward, scattering the mist into nothing.
'Time to escape before they attack me.'
"That guy is escaping."
I started to run. "Kill the monsters before chasing me, idiots–cough, cough. Fuck, my throat.
'Blame the incompetent instructor who can't do a shit to protect their students; even with this amount of monster here, they are nowhere to be seen.'
***
***
***
INSIDE THE CRACK
"What the hell!" A man exclaimed in shock as he entered the crack. He's not the only one; all of his teammates also had similar expressions of shock and disbelief.
Not only is it packed with swarms of monsters, but the entire place looked like their home.
They stood on a massive honeycomb-like structure, so large it stretched into the sky, vanishing into the distant orange clouds. But instead of honey, the hexagonal cells were filled with rotting corpses.
Countless monsters piled on top of each other. Even more unsettling was that the monsters were feasting on the decaying flesh, their grotesque forms hunched over the bodies like scavengers.
"This world… Its like these monsters had completely taken over, sir," muttered one of the men, his voice tinged with disgust.
A man, slightly older than the rest, with sharp, commanding features and a uniform distinct from others, nodded. He was the leader of this group. "It seems though, but we don't have time to worry about that now. Our priority is the queen; once she is dead, the crack will close." His tone was calm and authoritative, but there was an underlying urgency.
Nobody knows why, but when a crack appears connecting to another world, you have to kill the monster ruling that place to close the crack—a boss monster.
When you enter a dungeon or crack, you will get a notification from the system saying to kill the monsters there.
There will be no rewards from the system, but you can amass wealth from monster corpses, such as their core, carapace, etc. And if you're lucky, you can find more wealthy things in the dungeon, such as rare herbs, valuable ore, mana stones, natural skills, and more.
But why do humans do this job even though it's dangerous?
The answer is simple: it is because of human desires of power, wealth, and fame. If you have these three, you can do whatever you want in this world; it's a free pass. And desires are one of the things that push humans to take risks.
"Call for backup. It will be harder to fight these monsters because of the population, and they will go frenzy when their queen dies."
"Yes sir" A guy nodded and called for backup. "Sir, they said they would send them immediately."
"Okay, let's find the queen quickly." He commanded the group, which consisted of 60 people, with all of them being above A rank.
""Yes""
The leader's body started to glow green. With a sudden boost in his power, he ran into the hive, obliterating every monster that came in front of him. The group also followed suit and ran behind him.
"Can you detect the queen now?" The leader asked a girl as they advanced deeper into the hive.
"Yes," a green haired girl replied from behind. "I can sense the monster now," she said with a confident tone.
"Lead the way."
"Yes"
She nodded and moved to the front of the group, guiding them through the maze like structure of the hive.
As they pressed forward, they only encountered a few monsters, but those they did encounter were far stronger.
The air grew thicker, and a foul stench the air—the unmistakable stench of rotting flesh and blood.
Scheew! Scheew! Scheew!
Sudden, sharp, high pitched sound echoed through the hive. "Danger." The leader alerted in a hurry.
Fwoosh! Bam!
A monster with a span of 20 meters in length suddenly crashed into the leading gir with terrifying speed.
She was flung away, smashing into the hexagonal wall a sickening thud. The impact left a deep crater on the wall.
The monster's red eyes gleamed with hunger as it looked at the soldiers. Blood was dripping from its mouth. Whatever it had been feasting on before attacking was still half visible between its jagged teeth.
"Lilis, are you okay?" The leader called her out, his voice tense with worry.
The monster's speed was sudden and unexpected. And the big mistake from the leader and soldiers was to underestimate their enemies, causing them to be caught off-guard.
The girl, Lilis, slowly pushed herself on her feet. "Yeah, I'm fine, sir." And said reassuringly.
'It's my fault. I shouldn't have let my guard down.' Seeing more monsters approaching here because of the monster's scream, he could only sigh.
"Guess it's time to engage in combat."
Burst!
Less than a second as he said that the monster's upper body burst into pieces, blood spurted out of its body, and there inside its stomach could see an undigested monster corps; some even had slight movements in its body.
"Ughh, nasty." Lilis said in disgust.
Burst! Burst! Burst! Burst!
Before the other approaching monsters could react, they were too ripped out, their bodies exploding into pieces.
"Let's not waste anymore time; we will engage in battle from here on out."
""Yes sir""