The Mantis Predators kept rushing in, and the vibrations from their fight had drawn in the ones nearby like a dinner bell. The numbers crawling toward the hollow kept climbing.
If we don’t clear them out fast, we’re fucked.
Do-Jin’s chest tightened with urgency. He was fighting with kids who barely knew what they were doing. If the number of Predators they had to face at once kept rising, the confusion would spiral, and casualties would follow.
The first thing was to narrow the entrance. With that thought in mind, Do-Jin unleashed one Earth Spear after another. Each cast stacked damage onto the incoming monsters while shaping the stone to pinch the cave mouth tighter and tighter. When they’d been hiding, he hadn’t dared risk the vibrations it would’ve caused. But now, there was no reason to hold back. There was no ti to.
“Argh!” soone scread.
It ca from a student whose shin had been half-sliced through. As he collapsed and tried to crawl away, the mantis’ sickle ca down to finish him.
Shit.
Do-Jin moved to respond, but before he could fully assess the situation, a Wind Arrow struck first, snapping against the monster’s antenna.
“What are you standing around for! Get him out of danger!”
The sharp voice rang out from the rear. Do-Jin turned to see that Xenia Bondrei was not only on her feet after being badly poisoned, but had also cast a life-saving spell.
“You—” Do-Jin began, only for Xenia to cut him off.
“Don’t ask . I don’t know either. I’ve been getting a little better, and now I can move.” She then clutched at a necklace that glowed faintly in her hand. “It’s probably thanks to this...”
He took one look and understood. Of course. There’s no way a ducal family would let their only daughter leave ho without protection.
The necklace must have carried resistance against toxins, and with the antidote potion working alongside it, Xenia had managed to make a full recovery.
Whatever the reason was, it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that their fighting strength had gone up.
“Don’t push yourself. If the poison isn’t completely gone, it could hit you again.”
“I appreciate the concern, but look around. If there was ever a ti to push, it’s now.”
She wasn’t wrong. Do-Jin muttered bitterly to himself and forced his Magic Circuits back into motion. Almost eighty percent of their firepower rested on him alone, even counting Anemone and the students. The others could only support, and when it ca to landing the finishing blows on monsters past Level 120, that burden fell on him.
My mana had better hold out. If the fight keeps getting dragged out, my circuits will fry...
As a mage, his stamina was running on fus, and the mana potions weren’t doing their job anymore, putting Do-Jin at risk of mana poisoning. However, with each passing minute and every monster they killed, the situation didn’t seem to be getting any better. If even Do-Jin was running this ragged, there was no hope for the other mages.
A weak groan escaped one of the wounded, and he collapsed to the ground like a rag doll with his strings cut. He wasn’t the only one at his limit. Every student was showing cracks. One mage’s face had gone pale as paper and her whole body trembled from exhaustion. Without a trait like Mana Delay shielding them, casting spell after spell without pause was eating those kids alive. The only other mage still standing was Xenia Bondrei, and that was only because she’d been able to recover her mana while fighting off the poison.
At this rate they’re all going to die, Do-Jin thought.
The front line students were already toast. Even Huey, who had held up the best, was moving sluggishly now. His footwork was nowhere near as sharp as before.
The Predators are coming faster and in bigger groups. They’re starting to hit the cave two or three at a ti, and the wave is only building.
They had already held out longer than anyone could ask. Pushing further was suicide. Since the Rift had been open for quite so ti now, stabilization and dungeonification had to be close.
But the closer it gets, the more monsters will spawn, and the harder this will get, Do-Jin thought with a sigh.
Eventually, he made a call. “Everyone, fall back.”
As Do-Jin let his last Fla Pillar die away without casting any further spells, dozens of weary eyes turned toward him in confusion.
“All of you have done well. Now shut up, don’t breathe loudly, and stay hidden.”
Xenia’s voice cut in at once. “What are you talking about? We’re supposed to fight together, not just cower here.”
The answer ca back without hesitation. “They’ll keep coming as long as we make noise and shake the ground. We keep fighting here and it’s only a matter of ti before we’re buried under them, and that’ll be it for us. But there’s another way. They can’t see or hear. They can’t even sll. The only thing they follow is vibration. If sothing shakes the ground far enough away, they’ll all go chasing it.”
Do-Jin stepped forward, one heavy stride after another. Anemone ca silently to his side. He stroked her back as his hand sank into her fur.
“Sorry. I keep pushing you too far.”
“Don’t say that,” Anemone said softly. “Ever since I left the forest, every mont has been full of pride and happiness. Wandering aimlessly back then feels like so mirage now.”
The sight of the terrified boys and girls, most of them barely in their mid-teens, stirred mories in her too, mories of pain she’d once carried. Right now, everything Do-Jin was doing and everything he planned to do was for one purpose: to save the children. For Anemone, that ant more than words could describe.
“Wait!”
Just as Do-Jin and Anemone were heading out, Xenia’s voice rang out to stop them. She wasn’t the only one. Bill Licht, Huey, and the others were all staring at him too.
“Don’t you dare act like so lone hero. Who the hell do you think you are—”
Xenia’s face twisted with anger as she started to spit her words. Bill was on the verge of tears, taking shaky steps toward him. Huey’s eyes burned with determination, his stance saying he would follow as well.
Do-Jin glanced at them and let out a short laugh. “It’s fine. I won’t die.”
It was the kind of line soldiers loved to throw out right before they went and got themselves killed.
“Let’s go!”
“Yes!” Anemone replied, leaping into motion with Do-Jin clinging tightly to her back.
Xenia’s eyes went wide. She had never once been ignored like this. Never once had her words dismissed so completely. She tried to speak, but all she managed to force out was a strangled syllable.
“Hey...!” The rest of her words caught in her throat. By the ti she managed to choke sothing out, it was already too late. “Did he actually just leave?”
Do-Jin didn’t look back. He was gone before she finished. Monts later, what sounded like a distant explosion echoed around the cave. One of the girls broke into a soft sob, maybe because she knew the noise and the shaking ca from the man who had chosen to be their bait.
“Quit crying. Don’t waste your tears on a bastard like that,” Xenia snapped, grinding her teeth.
But it wasn’t anger that made her say it. She was biting down hard on the sobs threatening to escape her own throat.
Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry.
***
Not long after leaving the cave, Do-Jin ran straight into a Mantis Predator heading their way. He lobbed a Fireball into its chest. He didn’t stick around to see the result, instead bolting away with Anemone.
“Anemone, we need to drag every one of those things near the cave as far away as possible!”
“Got it. Keep running without letting them close the net, right?”
Anemone didn’t bother masking her presence. Her paws pounded against the ground, loud enough to make every Predator nearby snap to attention and give chase.
“There are way more than I expected...”
She darted through the forest, her brow furrowed as she poured every ounce of her instincts and senses into reading the swarm. She mapped their positions, baited them in, then twisted away to avoid being surrounded, running and running without pause. anwhile, Do-Jin wrung out what little strength he had left, hurling spells whenever he could.
[Fireball]
It was the perfect choice: fast to cast, low in mana drain, and with an explosion that carried enough punch to shake the ground hard. This way, even the ones farther out would chase them instead of sniffing around the cave.Each blast sent the swarm further in his direction, away from the students.
“The escape routes are getting thinner!” Anemone’s voice was sharp.
It was inevitable. The more Mantis Predators gathered, the fewer paths there were to run on. She pushed herself harder, sprinting with everything she had to break free of the tightening noose. In the middle of the chaos, she sprinted toward the one direction where she couldn’t sll blood.
Suddenly, a sheer cliff dropped away before them. Do-Jin swung down from her back the mont he saw it.
He gave her a quick nod. “Thanks, Anemone. You bought us all the ti we needed.”
“But...!” Her voice caught, thick with frustration, as if she had failed.
“It’s fine.”
Do-Jin reached up and patted her flank, his hand steady and firm. With that, he opened his inventory and a cascade of mana stone bombs poured into his waiting hands.
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