The shadow realm was a strange territory for most tars. Disorienting and difficult to navigate. But for those specialized in the shadow elent, to the level of Luna's wolf, it was an advantageous ground where normal rules didn't fully apply.
The wolf had what effectively would be a 2x multiplier for Shadow control that appeared at Gold 1 and Ren didn't fully understand.
The Wolverine was at a small disadvantage of around 100 points in shadow control but not helpless. It could perceive perfectly, could move and could fight there. Just not as effectively as the wolf could…
But that was acceptable. Ren's strategy didn't require dominating the shadow space. Just having the information and surviving there long enough to force engagent in the other elents where his bigger advantages would assert themselves.
But before the first confrontation in the dark world could develop, sothing changed in the solemn atmosphere of the confrontation for Ren.
The earth began trembling. A weird vibration started subtle but intensifying rapidly to the point where it was impossible to ignore.
Not a technique Ren was executing… The Wolverine's earth control wouldn't cause this type of vibration he sensed propagating through the ground. When it used earth manipulation, the sensation was controlled. This was chaotic...
Was it a technique from Luna then? Wolf capability she hadn't previously revealed? Terrain manipulation preparing for massive attack?
No. This was sothing coming from a deep place outside the permitted arena range.
Ren's amplified senses felt it first. Perception sharpened beyond most tars capability detecting signals that other specialists would need additional monts to recognize.
There were presences approaching. Multiple signatures converging from below toward the academy from directions completely surrounding the periter.
Beasts. Not just one or two but dozens. No, he gave himself a correction as the count updated with the additional information he was now processing: hundreds of beasts were approaching from the depths from above the controlled zones from the tars supposedly protecting the city.
The numbers were staggering when Ren's perception fully processed them.
In a depth that should have been safely within controlled territory where patrols would have detected and eliminated or reported corrupted beasts long before they accumulated to this density.
Had they entered from so breach near surface level?
It was weird taking into account the wall structure and the approach pattern wasn't random. It was coordinated in ways suggesting intelligent direction rather than natural dispersed invasion.
Not scattered attacks from different angles arriving at different tis. But synchronized convergence like designed to hit multiple points simultaneously. Like a classical military encirclent tactic. Ren looked toward where in the semifinals Selphira and Julius had been stationed but now their mana presences were absent. He felt a cold recognition settling in his stomach. A sudden understanding.
They weren't here because they were dealing with this. Had maybe been dealing with it for hours or even almost 2 days. The situation that had pulled them away from watching the finals. The crisis that had been developing outside academy walls while students competed in exam battles.
And now it had escalated beyond what external forces could contain. Was breaching into academy territory. Was becoming an imdiate threat to everyone inside supposedly safe walls.
Ren shouted to Luna to stop… She heard weirdly fast, almost instantly.
The darkness that had been beginning to grow and undulate in the arena dissipated abruptly as both Ren and Luna canceled their techniques simultaneously. After so seconds they shared a recognition that sothing considerably more important than exam results was developing under their feet.
Both beasts reappeared visible in the arena. Postures that had been prepared for combat changed to alert stances scanning the environnt for threats that their powerful senses had detected.
The Wolverine's body language shifted from aggressive to lowered head defensive. Recognition that the imdiate opponent wasn't the wolf but sothing approaching from below.
The wolf showed a similar transition. Attention redirecting from the Wolverine toward the ground. Low growl building in its throat, not challenge to Ren's beast but to the external threat.
Most spectators were confused by the abrupt stop to the battle.
Murmurs spreading through the stands. "What's happening?" "Why did they stop?" "Is this so undisclosed part of the exam?"
And then they began feeling it too.
So spectators with earth beasts and others with perception-specialist beasts in the stands closest to the lower walls rose from their seats with expressions of growing alarm.
The trembling was becoming noticeable to anyone with sensitivity above baseline. Instructors who'd been watching battle with casual attention suddenly tensed as they processed what subsurface perception was communicating to them.
Professor Wei shot to his feet. Expression shifting from mild interest to sharp focus, his beast wings manifesting imdiately near Ren's parents.
Guards stationed at strategic points around the academy activated ergency protocols with urgency coming from recognizing a serious threat materializing.
Professor Yang leaned down to touch the ground, positioning himself for improved perception of the academy's complete subsurface and surrounding territories.
His expression changed from battle teacher concentration to genuine shock as he observed what was approaching from multiple directions.
Yang had fought in defensive actions in the old and new walls against the corrupted.
And what he perceived now exceeded anything he'd encountered. This wasn't a minor incursion requiring routine response. This was a crisis requiring maximum mobilization.
"Imdiate evacuation," he ordered with a voice amplified by mana to reach every corner of the arena facilities. "All students and civilians to shelters. Instructors to defensive positions. This is not a drill!"
It was a declaration transforming the atmosphere from anticipated celebration to barely controlled panic within seconds.
Students began moving toward the arena exits with speed bordering on stampede. Ergency training activating as they rembered procedures they'd practiced during years but that most had only needed using 1-2 tis in actual ergencies.
And Ren observed everything unfolding with horror and recognition that so big events should have been developing outside the academy during these days and had reached a point where they could no longer be contained in the exterior without his awareness.
Had the mutants reinforced their numbers and power? Attacked at a level where Selphira and the reinforced princes were no longer capable of containing them?
His friends and his family... Everyone he cared about. All suddenly at risk from a threat that had been developing unseen while he'd been focused on exam competitions.
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