During the first few hours of the attack, when Director Violet was away, the school fell under the command of the discipline master, Ji Lu Da s.h.i.+. He made the decision to have all the students and staff form a defensive perimeter around the school to break the siege of the monsters and hold them off. At first the strategy paid off – with over a thousand students and a hundred magic teachers, they were able to wipe out the first wave of Lycanthropes that a.s.saulted Jing Tian Academy.However, that number was deceptive. Less than fifty Lycanthropes attacked, and only a dozen students joined a handful of teachers in fighting. Most of the students never had any experience in fighting monsters, and they would most likely freeze up or hesitate during actual combat. Only those who regularly partic.i.p.ated in missions such as Theodore Hammond, Craig Carlson, Dong Fang Yue Chu and a handful of Black Rose members, including Alicia, had the necessary experience and nerves to combat these monsters. The rest ended up cowering in the gymnasium, crying and praying for the ordeal to be over soon.
Many of them just wanted to go home.
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Teacher Ruff Fielding had never seen such a pathetic sight in his life. These were the students that the academy was supposed to train for the future of the Federation, to serve as the first line of defense against monsters, and most of them couldn"t even stand up straight. The last time he had seen them was when a group of girls huddled together, sobbing and wailing about wanting to go home. A couple of guys were wandering quite some distance away, looking as if they had p.i.s.sed their pants. From the stink emanating from them, Fielding was quite sure they did.
"We can"t continue like this!" he exclaimed when he met the other teachers in the staff room. "We have to evacuate the school immediately! Protocols dictate that if a catastrophic-level crisis like this occurs, when a city is attacked by hordes of monsters, we move the students and staff toward the emergency shelters in the city center! The academy is not built to withstand a siege! We do not have the supplies or manpower to defend the students here! Sooner or later, it will fall!"
"I concur," Teacher Mary Cure agreed as she raised a hand. "The casualties are mounting. That reckless defensive charge that Teacher Ji Lu led against the second wave of Lycanthropes are leaving the school"s infirmary and healing staff overstretched. At this rate, we will not be able to move the casualties if any more of them increase."
"Are you saying it"s my fault?" Ji Lu Da s.h.i.+ growled furiously.
"No one is blaming anyone," Cure replied sternly. "I"m just giving you the figures and the scenarios. I do not think we"ll be able to hold off another a.s.sault."
"Yeah. Many of the students are too inexperienced," Fielding agreed heavily. "They freeze up I the middle of combat. Most of them have never partic.i.p.ated in actual monster extermination missions before. It makes you wonder what they have been learning so far." His lip curled cynically. "The ones who skip cla.s.ses the most to partic.i.p.ate in missions have proven to be the ones most effective in fighting off the monster horde so far."
In other words, there was an urgent need to revise the curriculum. If he ever survived this crisis, of course.
"But we held, didn"t we?" Ji Lu argued. "We drove them back and exterminated them! We can keep doing this until reinforcements arrive. The military from the northern fortress…they should be here soon!"
"The military will have to rescue the whole city. We would be low on their list of priorities. Furthermore, the first places they will establish contact with would be the city"s emergency shelters. If you really want to get rescued by the military, we should be heading there."
"Oh? And how do you propose we do that?" Ji Lu growled as he gestured toward the enclosed walls. There were no windows, probably to keep the teachers" meeting concealed from prying eyes and eavesdroppers. "Are you suggesting that we lead a thousand plus students through those monster-infested streets and fight our way to the city center? We might as well put lights on us and a sign, "all you can eat buffet" if you want to draw their attention!"
"Yeah, moving through the city is too dangerous right now!" a female teacher agreed vehemently.
"We can"t! The students probably won"t want to move from here!" another teacher added.
"Teacher Ji Lu has a point. Moving in such a large group will only attract the monsters to us."
"No one said that we have to move as a large group," Fielding said impatiently. "I suggest that we split up in squad levels. Maybe cla.s.s levels. Groups of ten to twenty, each led by a teacher. I will take the first group and serve as a vanguard. We"ll clear a route for the rest of the school to follow. It might take some time, but if we can mark out a path where there are least dangers and we can avoid monsters, the majority of us will be able to make it to the shelters safely."
"Why can"t we just wait here for help?" another teacher asked. "We still have power here. Our food supplies should last us for another day or two. Surely the Global Federation will send an entire army to respond by then."
"Will we last that long against this number of monsters, though?" Cure demanded.
"We"ve been doing very well so far" Ji Lu insisted stubbornly.
That was when Teacher Lin Dong rushed into the staff room, panting heavily. He had been posted as one of the sentries, keeping an eye out on the outskirts of the school. Ji Lu rose to glare at him.
"What"s the matter, Teacher Lin?"
"The monsters! They are coming!" Lin was heaving heavily, his face bright red from exertion and fear. "An entire pack of Dire Wolves over a hundred strong! They"re led by three rank C Thunder Wolves! Elemental cla.s.s!"
The faces of most teachers in the room turned pale. Earlier, they had suffered significant casualties just from fighting rank E Lycanthropes, and now an even more powerful and ma.s.sive wave of monsters were heading straight for them?
"How long until they get here?" Ji Lu asked, trying his best to stop his trembling.
"Fifteen minutes…maybe less."
"f.u.c.k!" Ji Lu slammed his fist on the table. Gritting his teeth, he turned to Fielding. "All right, Teacher Fielding. Your plan is on. Gather all the students in the gymnasium and start organizing them into groups. You"ll take point and lead the first group to scout a safe path. The rest of the teachers are to lead their respective groups there. Teacher Cure, you"re in charge of the injured. Do your best to get them to move. If necessary, leave the most injured behind. I"m sorry, but we don"t have a choice. We can"t let them drag down the other students. You"ll be the sixth group after the first five groups make sure it"s safe. Hopefully that"s ample time to prepare."
"Understood." Cure didn"t like it, but she had no choice. She also understood the hard choice that Ji Lu had to make, even though it sounded extremely callous. It was either some students die or all the students died. She resolved to ensure to make sure even the most severely injured students were healed to the extent of walking wounded, even if she had to expend all of her mana to do so.
He then turned to several of the male teachers. "Teacher Wu, Teacher Si, Teacher Sha, you"re with me. The four of us will stall the approaching wave of monsters for as long as we can."
The teachers he singled out paled considerably, but nodded determinedly. None of the other teachers said a single word. They knew the four of them were heading to their deaths. There was no way the four teachers could survive against such a large group of rank D monsters, led by three rank C monsters.
But even so, they had no choice. They were teachers. They had a responsibility to protect the students at this school.
"Get moving! We don"t have much time! Let"s head out immediately!"
Clapping his hands sharply, Ji Lu dismissed all the surviving teachers and immediately set off with his handpicked team toward the mountains.
*
Teacher Fielding was rus.h.i.+ng along the corridors of the cla.s.sroom, trying to rally the students to his cause.
"All of you! a.s.semble in the gymnasium! Immediately!"
There was a scream, followed by the shattering of gla.s.s. Cursing under his breath, Fielding spun around and caught sight of a Dire Wolf breaking through a window and clawing at one of the female students. Kicking off the ground, he gathered his Ba Qi around himself and punched a b.l.o.o.d.y hole through the monster"s head.
The nearly headless Dire Wolf slumped over the edge of the broken window, its corpse pierced by countless gla.s.s shards.
"Are you all right?" Ruff Fielding asked the screaming girl. She nodded, tears streaming from her eyes profusely. Fielding checked her quickly, and when satisfied that she wasn"t hurt, pointed down the corridor. "Get to the gymnasium, now!"
"Yes, sir." The girl whimpered before scurrying off, still sobbing. Fielding sighed and resumed his mission to ensure that every student in school was gathered in the gymnasium before he could split them off into groups. He was not going to leave even a single student behind.
But for the Dire Wolf to already be here…did Ji Lu and the others fail to stop them? He did not want to think about the grisly fate they had suffered if the monsters had really gotten through them.
There was another crash downstairs, and Fielding hurried down. Below, Dong Fang Yue Chu was protecting a few of his cla.s.smates by incinerating a Dire Wolf with his flames. Beside him, Lily Liam was keeping the wounded monster at bay with her spear so that her boyfriend could finish it off. However, behind them was another couple of Dire Wolves, which were closing in on their wailing cla.s.smates. Fielding scowled when he saw the group of guys and girls doing nothing but sob while relying solely on Yue Chu and Lily to protect them.
The least they could do was try and fight back.
Buffing his physical strength and speed with reinforcement spells and gathering his Armament Ba Qi about him, Fielding launched at the nearest Dire Wolf and clobbered it. Just one punch smashed its skull into shards of bone and brain matter, and it collapsed.
The other Dire Wolf ignored him and was just about to pounce on the other cla.s.smates. Dong Fang Yue Chu and Lily were still distracted by the dying but still barely alive Dire Wolf, and Fielding couldn"t make it in time before it could…
Zoom!
An azure arrow obliterated the Dire Wolf"s head before it could reach them. The headless carca.s.s toppled onto the bunch of helplessly screaming students, who instinctively backed away as blood splashed onto them.
"This…"
Fielding turned toward the window. I was climbing through the broken gla.s.s, being careful not to cut myself on them (which wouldn"t have done anything since I had cast physical reinforcement spells on myself for the time being). Dismissing my Orion bow, I waved at a stunned crowd, with Dong Fang Yue Chu and Lily finally finis.h.i.+ng off the Dire Wolf with a combined fire spell and spear strike.
"Richard! You"re back!" Fielding gaped at me in surprise. I nodded.
"Yeah." Glancing at the Dire Wolves" carca.s.ses grimly, I breathed a sigh of relief. When I saw the pack of Dire wolves reach the academy, I had feared the worst, but seeing my homeroom teacher and fellow students still alive, I couldn"t help but feel as if a huge burden had just been lifted off my shoulders. "Looks like I"m not too late."