The Library
We made our way back to the library.
The journey back was slower than I expected. When Cielle had said her body was still weak and needed support, she wasn’t lying. Although she was smiling like a girl in love (hah), underneath all that, her complexion was pale, sweat continuously dripped down her brow, and I could feel her whole body trembling with each step she took.
While I wanted to comnt, the expression she had prevented from doing so. I felt conflicted. Although this girl could hardly maintain an even footing, she looked as if she was experiencing the happiest mont of her life.
I could only smile awkwardly while maintaining my silence.
When we reached the hall almost directly adjacent of the Library, the hundreds of intermingling noise of varying monsters finally grew loud enough to the extent where even Cielle could hear. I long since knew that the Library was sward with monsters thanks to the early detection ability of [Echolocation].
Normally, in the face of this realization, I would have hurried over without giving in to Cielle’s demands, but I wanted to spare a bit more ti for Cielle to recover before we arrived at the library. Also, there was one additional reason, a reason that comforted in knowing that, currently, the Library group wasn’t in any real danger at the mont.
The monsters that gathered in the library all clustered together mainly within the 2nd floor, sotis spilling out into the 1st. My [echolocation] subskill isn’t just a flat one directional detection skill like a sonar. It can differentiate between levels of varying elevation.
From the corner of the hall, I used [echolocation] once again to confirm the situation inside the Library.
Like I had first detected a while back, I confird that most of the monsters were within the confines of the 2nd floor. A few were sparesly spread out across the 1st floor, while I could also detect a few bodies up in the air and around the 3rd floor. I concluded that these were most likely Avians, or maybe Shadow Model: Avians.
“Why are they only gathering at the bottom floors?” Cielle asked imdiately after I relayed this information to her.
I thought about her question for a good while, before I pieced together a rough theory concerning the Dungeon Boss’s level of control. I could only conclude that the Dungeon Boss, while it had the ability to control all of the monsters within the dungeon, as well as an expanded range of vision to encompass the whole school, it still had its limitations.
For one, going by the situation in the library. The dungeon boss had a restricted view of the school. The dungeon boss cannot differentiate between floor levels, otherwise all of the monsters wouldn’t be so congested on the 2nd and 1st floors. Another theory would be that the Boss can differentiate between floors, but it has a restriction on how it commands the other monsters. It can only point them into the general direction, without regards to the floor of the target is at.
The case with Cielle was sowhat similar. The tadpoles originated in the 1st floor of the gymnasium, so I can only say that Cielle had terrible luck in that regard.
Normally, the horde would disperse or move on after noticing that the area was uninhabited, but the allure of the people a few ters above them was too great for them to ignore. These monsters aren’t all that smart. They do not have the capacity to think ‘complex’ thoughts like traveling around and finding another way to get to the third floor, at least not without the express guidance of the Dungeon Boss.
After I explained my theory to Cielle, she nodded and praised . The look in her eyes was the sa one she had always given during all our tis together, but now, it was only now that I realized what that look ant.
I laughed a bit awkwardly before I grabbed Cielle. In silence, I imdiately placed Cielle behind and carried her in piggyback fashion. She involuntarily let out a small yip in surprise, but upon realizing my intentions, her expression grew serious while her grip around my shoulders tightened.
I felt her chest pressed up against my back through layers of fabric, but I ignored the sensation.
My grip around her thighs strengthened, and I took a deep breathe in order to psyche myself up. In an instant, I bolted forward into the hallway, and sprinted towards the Library entrance.
I could hear Cielle’s teeth clenching tightly, as we bursted through the opened doors and arrived at the monster infested 2nd floor of the library.
A great tremor ran through the crowd of monsters, and simoultanesouly their heads began turning in our direction.
Before the horde had any ti to react to my sudden presence, I was already moving. Deeper and deeper, I ran towards the center of the library, to the heart of the horde. I used [Shadow Step]’s agility boost, and ran through the hordes, sidestepping past monsters that writhed in killing intent. I could feel the air pressure from barely dodged claws and the bone shaking roars from more than a few enraged monsters.
I ran directly towards the broken down staircase that lay near the back wall of the 2nd floor. As I made my way there, I began to make out the rope from before, hanging limply in the air, fluttering with the wind created by the several Avians and Shadow Model: Avians flying through Library air space.
Normally, from this distance, I would use a simple long-range [Shadow Sprint] to cut the distance and instantaneously get to the 3rd floor. Unfortunately, as I discovered from experintation with Cielle while on the way here, [Shadow Sprint]’s instantaneous movent does not work with 2 or more people.
Due to that restriction, I had to take the obviously more dangerous route in order to bring Cielle back with .
Once the dangling rope entered my field of vision, and once I was finally in range, I instantaneously kicked out from the ground and leapt on the back of a bewildered Shadow Minotaur. My movents did not pause even for a second and soon, I was already jumping off of its back and landed shortly onto another monster, an Ipotane who was just as startled as the Shadow Minotaur.
Like that, I traveled the room under uneven and dangerous footing.
When I got within 10 feet of the rope, I kicked off from the back of the monster that I stood on, and landed vertically on a nearby wall. Before I lost any of my built up montum, like an unhinged spring, I used the wall as leverage and jumped for the rope.
With one hand, I reached out and grabbed the rope, and swayed 10 feet above the air. On my back, I supported Cielle with one hand, while below , throngs of angry, and agitated monsters bellowed and snorted.
“Cielle, grab on tightly, in order to climb up, I’m gonna need to stop supporting you.” I gritted out through clenched teeth while I twisted my hold on the rope in an attempt to improve my grip.
“Yes.”
I heard a faint whisper directly next to my ear, prompting to let go of her thigh. I felt Cielle’s grip imdiately tighten, and surprisingly, her legs coiled around my torso. She clung onto my back like a baby Koala. I imagined that the scene the two of us made was sowhat comical from an outsider’s perspective, but the angry horde beneath kept both of us from laughing.
Before the Avians could start attacking use in mid air, I imdiately clambered up the rope. Making short work of it, I scaled the rope with ease. In the past, before the apocalypse, climbing up a free standing rope while soone clung to my back would have been an impossible task for . But now, the situation is different. I have leveled up. I am not an ordinary human anymore.
In the span of less than 10 seconds, we reached the third floor and Cielle finally got off my back.
Imdiately after , the Avians who finally noticed our presence, began whizzing through the air and hurtling in our direction, their eyes glowing with unhindered blood lust.
As I ran through the 3rd floor with Cielle in tow, I used [Echolocation] once more and discovered a pocket of sound near the back of the floor. In order to guard against the Avians that flew throughout the third floor, the remaining survivors had holed themselves up in an Archive room.
I directed Cielle to the room, and we ran through a maze of Bookshelves and cabinets. Once the archive room ca to view, I then told her to open it while I kept the incoming Avians occupied.
I gripped the familiar dagger in hand and forcibly slowed my breathe. There were two incoming monsters, one was highlighted in erald green feathers, while the other, from its eyes to its feet, was covered all in writhing darkness. A regular Avians and a Shadow Avian.
I slashed out at the regular Avian the mont it entered my strike zone. It died effortlessly with a fatal blow to its throat, but the Shadow Avian took this opportunity and flew passed . It continued further, hurtling towards the direction where Cielle ran off to. Fortunately, before it could actually reach her, I used [Shadow Sprint] and imdiately blocked its route.
I thrusted out my dagger towards the startled Shadow monster, and with no ti to stop, its montum drove its eye socket further into the blade of my dagger. It exploded in a burst of black dust, confirming its death.
By this point, the locked doors to the Archive room had already been opened. The President appeared by the doorway and imdiately ushered us in. Cielle entered first, while I followed behind, throwing one last look at the Avian filled air space of the Library.
Within the Archive room, several pairs of eyes stared at us probingly. I briefly swept my gaze across the room, saw the survivors, Kido and his group, the President and his group, and lastly Hina and Cher near the back of the room.
Hina’s gaze, without question, imdiately locked onto Cielle small figure. Her eyes imdiately teared up and her lip quivered in joy.
Before Hina could do anything though, Cielle was already walking across the room. Her stride was confident, and her expression was tranquil. Despite her pale complexion and terrible condition, the impression she gave off was by no ans weak.
She stopped before Hina who sat on the floor next to the cot prepared for Cher.
Without saying anything, Cielle imdiately began patting the top of Hina’s head, stroking the intermingling strands of vibrant gold between her fingers. The action looked natural, practiced, and had a hint of childhood nostalgia to it.
Hina’s tear stained eyes widened montarily, before they narrowed warmly and her head further tilted downward, as if further inviting Cielle’s hand. For a quiet mont, Hina just sat there, her head lowered, and her chest heaving in quiet sobs as Cielle patted her head, the warm and tranquil expression of hers never once leaving her face.
“I… I thought you were…” Hina managed a quiet murmur, all the while her hands remained clenched onto the skirt that rested on her lap.
“Nnn…” Cielle shook her head. “Hide saved .”
“He did?” Hina quietly asked, finally looking up to face her sister. The redness in her eyes was visible even in the dim light of the room.
Cielle simply widened her smile, as her palm left the top of Hina’s head. “He did.”
Hina was quiet for a good while before she turned towards . Her expression had unmasked relief and appreciation. “Hide, I.. um… thank you.” She lowered her head as tears dripped down her cheeks and fell to the carpeted floor beneath.
I received her thanks with a simple nod. It wasn’t as if I saved Cielle for Hina’s sake. I saved Cielle because I wanted to save Cielle. It was as simple as that.
My eyes seperated from the sisters’ and once again I scanned the whole room. They montarily stopped onto the still unconscious Cher, before proceeding forward to make a full circle.
One thing I imdiately noticed was that everyone received with varying degrees of anamosity.
The survivors who had next to no contact with had on confused expressoins, while the ones that had been awake the last ti I was here looked at with what I think was both an odd combination of fear and awe. One thing both groups had in common was that they all kept their distance away from .
The President’s group had akward expressions. The type of conficted expression where you can’t decide whether to laugh or to cry. Along with the Prez, they stared at with open, unblinking eyes.
Lastly, there was Kido’s group. three out of the four in Kido’s harem all glared at with poorly disguised, hate filled eyes, while the last one, Explosion girl, had on an expression of palpable fear. Kido himself stared, with scrunched up brows, but I felt that his glare wasn’t as hate filled as the girls around him.
Without paying any heed to any of these stares, I leaned back against the wall and turned to the President.
“What happened here?” I asked.
“After you left, a horde of monsters attacked us.” The President began to explain, his expression morphing into a tired frown. “We were lucky. Only the ones that can fly posed a problem, but the majority of them are stuck on the 2nd floor. To avoid the Avians, we locked ourselves up in he-”
Rumble!
Just as he was talking, the whole floor shook, causing bursts of panic to sprout up from amongst the people scattered everywhere in the room.
I braced myself along the wall to prevent myself from falling, but so of the others weren’t as lucky.
“What was that?” I asked, my voice hoarse, and grim.
The president shook his head. “I- I don’t know. That was the 2nd ti it happened tonight, but…”
“The Floor’s coming down.” Hina spoke up and interrupted. The tremble in her voice and the hiccup in her throat from earlier was nowhere to be seen.
The President’s eyes widened and turned to face Hina. From his expression, I guessed that up until now, Hina had not spoken a single word due to the grief and concern she had for her missing sister.
“The floor? What do you an?” The President asked.
Hina took a deep breath, and walked over to the table in the middle of the room before she answered. “I noticed before that the Library was built a little differently from the rest of the building. Mainly because it's such an open space without any other walls supporting its center, there are several support pillars around the 2nd and 1st floors. The staircase we broke earlier was probably also sothing of a support to keep the rest of the floor from caving in on itself.
“I’m only guessing, but I think the monsters might be ssing with the support pillars. If this continues… then the whole 3rd floor might just collapse in on itself.”
Hearing this quiet revelation, rounds of shocked murmurs spread across the room. Most prevalent was the fear filled anxiety which perated through the survivor group from the cafeteria.
“Support pillars…” The President’s expression frowned montarily before he turned and stared at Emiko with a grim expression. “Emiko, you worked in the library before right? Can you confirm what Hina said?”
Emiko’s pale expression montarily paused before she answered in a sowhat shaky voice. “Y-yes… In the past, during one of our slow days, the librarian once showed a blueprint of the library… there are severa support pillars scattered across the library… nine on the first floor, six on the second floor, and three that are on the 3rd floor, holding up the roof.”
Hearing this, the President’s expression darkened. He quietly thought for a bit before he let out a tired sigh and said, “We can’t stay here any longer then…”
His words prompted the commotion around us to explode into an anxiety-driven chaos.
“What are we supposed to do then?!”
“Will we die here?!”
“AGH!”
Similar cries of desperation filled the room, as the Level 2 leecher survivors all cried in despair.
I had similar worries myself, but I was less outspoken as the others. Furthermore, the concern in my heart was considerably less than the others, mainly because I had originally intended to leave the Library. Even without the crumbling support pillars, I long since felt that the library wasn’t a safe location.
“How long will it take for the 3rd floor to cave in?” I directly asked Hina. The mont my words were vocalized, the noise around faded, as everyone attentively waited for Hina’s response.
Hina frowned for a mont. “I’m not really sure. The first tremor happened around 1 hour after the horde arrived. The last one happened 45 minutes after the last tremor… I’m not sure how many tremors it will take, or whether the pattern will continue, but worse case scenario, The third floor collapses on the third tremor, which can happen at anyti less than 45 minutes.”
Hearing this, an even louder commotion filled the room. I could only imagine as everyone’s minds raced with the prospect that they only had 45 minutes of survival left. I, on the other hand, viewed the situation differently.
To , those 45 minutes were 45 minutes of opportunity.
I originally planned on moving the whole group out of the library imdiately, but given the situation, I couldn’t just leave without taking advantage of the whole thing. After all, the situation was perfect.
Now that the monster groups have solidified and united, hunting and grinding becos a much more dangerous prospect.
Right now though, the horde is currently separated into two groups, the main ground unit, which can’t attack, and the air unit, which number considerably less than the ground unit. Normally, we would have two fight both groups at once, but thanks to the collapsed staircase, both groups were effectively seperated.
An opportunity as good as this doesn’t happen often.
“Okay”. I nodded to myself, having finally co to a decision. “Since its like that, for now, we’ll thin out the flock of Avians.”
“Eh, wait, Hide?” The President, overhearing my nonchalant and casual words imdiately retorted back. His voice was nervous and cold sweat dripped down from his contorted brow. “Shouldn’t we focus on the imdiate problem at hand? I an, the floor’s gonna collapse, right? We’ll die, you know?”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Didn’t you hear what Hina said?” I asked in a voice of mock derision. “We have 45 minutes. So calm down.”
“...” The president stared at with a wide eyed expression, but before he could say anything else, I was already issuing out orders.
“Prez, you and your group will go outside and hunt down the Avians. We’ll rely primarily on long distance attacks from Hina and the surviving twin.
“With how the horde is currently seperated, hunting and level grinding should be a bit easier. We won’t get a chance like this next ti.”
I wanted to command the other survivors to help out too, but considering their levels, they won’t be much help. Rather, they might be hindraces towards the whole operation. In short, they were baggage.
The only other person that may be remotely useful would be… Kido. His level… I checked beforehand, but unexpectedly he is currently at level 8. Compared to everyone who actively grinded like the Prez, Hina, Cielle, etc., Kido’s level is low, but the difference between him and the rest of the survivor group is like heaven and earth.
Kido probably fought prior to his et up with the Cafeteria group.
Oh, and for reference, Kido’s harem all range from 2 to 5, with the Explosion girl being level 5, his childhood friend and the transfer student both at level 4, and the small one, bad mouthing one at level 2.
After so slight hesitation, I finally said, “Kido, you go with the President and participate.”
Kido opened his mouth to respond, but before a single syllable could even escape his lips, the girls around him all flared up and protested.
“That’s too dangerous!” His childhood friend protested.
“Kido, don’t!” Explosion girl imdiately grabbed onto Kido’s shirt sleeve and pressed up against his arm while she stared fiercely at him.
“Don’t be an idiot! No way Kido’s going out there and fighting!” The transfer student imdiately walked up and stood in front of Kido, her arms raised at her sides as if to protect him.
“You can’t boss people around like that, baldy!” The last one, the twin tailed girl who was a centiter or two shorter than Cielle gnashed her teeth and glared hatefully at .
“Guys,” Kido scrunched up his brow, and imdiately retorted, “It’s okay, I want to do what Hide said. I want to fight.”
“No no no, absolutely not!” His childhood friend imdiately stomped on the floor while she stared defiantly at Kido. “What will I tell your mom if you get hurt or… worse?”
Kido smiled bitterly. “My mom… she’s probably…” His eyes grew misty but before he could further wallow in whatever sadness he felt, he shook his head. Imdiately, the fire in his eyes was rekindled. “I have to do this. I have to get stronger.”
“Kido, you can’t!”
“Kido, please…”
Both the transfer student and the one with the twin tails imdiately retorted, both of them gripping onto the hem of Kido’s shirt.
“Don’t worry guys.” He smiled as if to comfort them. One of his hands patted twintails on the head, while his other rested on transfer student’s shoulders. “It’s not like I haven’t fought before… In fact, if all of you weren’t so insistant these past couple weeks, I would have been fighting along with Hokusei.”
“The reason we stopped you was because of what happened last ti!” They yelled almost in unison.
“The last ti that happened, you almost died!” His childhood friend yelled, her wettened eyes blurred as she almost pleaded Kido with her expression alone.
“You girls…”
He began, but before he could continue, I was got fed up with their drama-filled dialogue. I coughed roughly, and glared at the scene before . “Kido, hurry up.”
All four girls turned simultaneously towards and shot angry, hate filled glares at . It looked as if they were about to explode any minute now, but before they had the opportunity to do so, Kido stepped up.
From the corner of the room, he grabbed an unfamiliar saber. From the looks of the sword’s worn out blade, it was used a lot, and more than likely, it was Kido’s personal weapon. Sothing he probably acquired after a monster dropped it before his et up with the President.
He stared resolutely at , nodding as he said, “I’m ready.”
I almost nodded in response, when his childhood friend stubbornly interceded and blocked Kido’s path. Instead of yelling at Kido again, she turned towards and glared. “Kido can’t fight! He’s not strong enough, if he does fight, he’ll just die!”
“Mindy- Then, that’s all the more reason why I should be fighting!” Kido loudly responded. “I need to get stronger! I need to get stronger to protect all of you!”
“No! I absolutely forbid it!” His childhood friend stubbornly replied. “Kido, you’re too weak!”
“That’s right” I interrupted their feud, as I sighed and spoke. “Kido is pretty weak. The Avians out there are all at least double his level, with the strongest being around level 33. Kido can die if he’s not careful. He can die pretty easily.”
As the words left my mouth, Kido’s expression enbittered as his grip on his sword tightened.
“But it's because he’s so weak, that I’m forcing him to fight.” I spoke simply. “So quit your complaining… Ugly.”
His childhood friend’s expression flared up with every word that left my throat, but her expression truly hit a new high the mont the last word vibrated through the air. If looks could kill, I would have long since been dead.
“U-u-ugl- You!” She gnashed her teeth as her hands curled up into fists. “What did you just call ?!”
In the face of her anger, I nonchalantly shrugged. “I can’t help it, I don’t know you’re na… so I’ll just call you whatever.”
“T-that doesn’t an you can just casually insult !” She snarled, her teeth producing uncomfortable grinding sounds throughout the whole process.
“It doesn’t matter what I call you, just stop being a pain in the ass.” I spat irritadely. We didn’t have ti for any of this. We only had 45 minutes, give or take.
Kido, who stood behind her, had on a weary, and tired expression, but he did not butt in. It was as if this sort of thing was completely natural. His childhood friend took a step forward, but before she could explode again, she shook her head and took a deep breathe. “That’s not important, I don’t really care about your shallow insults.” She sighed once again and said, “Kido still can’t fight.”
I could only groan. This person was too stubborn.
“Enough already. We need as much manpower as we can get. Stop being an obstruction. And if you’re that worried about him, why don’t you fight along with Kido instead of complaining about it.”
Hearing this statent, his childhood friend’s, as well as the other girls’ expressions instantly paled, and Kido involuntarily took a step forward and imdiately rejected the idea.
The girl’s behind him on the other hand all exchanged expressions, and after so debating, his childhood friend, the transfer student, and explosion girl took a step forward and volunteered. The one with the twin tails was too weak for the task so, much to her dismay, she was forced to stand back and watch by the others.
Kido’s complexion was pale throughout the whole thing. He expression was conflicted, and there seed to be nurous occasions in which he wanted to voice out his complaints, but in the end, he did not say anything.
Seeing this line up, I involuntarily frowned. I pointed towards the explosion girl and outwardly said. “She can’t go. I don’t want her using her explosions and worsening the foundation of the floor.”
Hearing my rejection, Explosion girl’s face showed a micro expression of relief before she frowned and wordlessly stepped back and joined with twintails.
After everything was finally settled, everyone began preparing for the counterattack.
The President and his group prepared their gear, while Kido perford a few practice swings with his saber. Childhood friend borrowed the President’s old long sword, while I was forced to temporarily loan out my Boken to the transfer student.
Before we left, I spoke to Cielle. My voice carried a sort of softness, one I clearly knew wasn’t present in our past interactions. “You’re still recovering so just stay here for now and watch over Cher. Don’t do anything reckless.”
Cielle nodded, and with a bright smile, she said, “Don’t worry. I will wait for you, Hide.”
****
Dozens of Avians flew in the air.
Using [Echolocation], I determined there were at least 50 distinct bodies that flew directly above the 3rd floor. Even more, a number close to 100, flew around the 2nd and 1st floors. They were a mix of Avians and Shadow Avians.
While the number seed staggering at first, it really wasn’t as bad as it first appeared. For one, we only had to worry about the imdiate 50. While the 100 or so other monsters may co as back up, they won’t be there to imdiately respond.
In addition, the 50 or so monsters were all spread out on the 3rd floor. Thanks to the taller than average bookshelves, we could confront and fight them a few at a ti. As long as we avoided the open spaces and practiced utmost caution, then we could manage with little danger.
If there was anything to worry about, then that would be the ti limit. We had less than 40 minutes until the next expected tremor. In actuality, this number could be as little as 30 minutes, so the constraints were considerably higher.
I had a plan to extend this ti limit, but for now, I first needed to get the group started.
I split the large group that consisted of the Prez, Hina, Kido, his harem, and Prez’s group up into two.
The President, Emiko, the surviving twin, and transfer student were in one group, while Kido, his childhood friend, the teacher and Hina were in the other. Considering Hina’s firepower, and Kido’s and his harem’s low levels, this was the best way to split the forces evenly.
Of course this division incited ire from both the President, who wanted to stay close to Hina, as well as from the transfer student, who did not want to separate from Kido, but I overruled their objections. The Prez and Hina were our strongest combatants, we could not have them fighting together.
After the teams were split, under my instructions each group went in the opposite direction, moving further away from the archive room. Their formation consisted of a typical triangular formation, with each of their long distance attackers at the center.
I on the other hand jumped up onto the top of a bookshelf and observed the scenery from my new vantage point, as well as with the occasional help of [Echolocation].
I stood in a shadow covered corner, and quietly hid myself, hoping to avoid attention. And if sothing did notice , I would imdiately use [Shadow Sprint] to run away and avoid any conflict. After all, I did not want to accidentally steal any kills right now.
As I observed, the first to engage in combat was Kido’s team. 3 Avians happened to fly into a narrow corridor of bookshelves, were Kido’s group just so happened to be.
The birds imdiately drew closer and prepared to attack. Their wings flapped fericiously as they glided towards the group.
Before they could get any further though, Hina had already reacted first. A gust of air blew through the corridor and buffeted the incoming birds. Usually, Hina would have used her fire magic, but in order to not attract attention, I told her to stick to using either water or air, her less showy magic. Plus, this was a good opportunity to improve her control towards her other elents. This was especially important, considering that during the upcoming Dungeon Boss battle, fire attacks won’t be as effective. Since the Boss was capable of using fire type attacks, it stands to reason that it would have so form of resistance against fire.
The strong gust of wind was like an immovable brick wall. The Avians were caught off guard and their elevation drastically lowered, but unfortunately none of them crashed onto the floor. Before they had the chance to recover, the teacher who originally belonged to the President’s group dashed forward.
The customized cyclops club in his hand blurred and clipped the closest Avian on its right wing. Considering how flimsy a bird’s skeletal structure was, that blow was enough to cripple the monster, as it could do nothing but helplessly fall to the floor.
Without stopping, the teacher continued forward, and managed to cripple one other Avian, but the last one recovered too fast and began soaring upward, escaping the teacher’s limited range.
Before the lucky monster could rejoice though, another gust of wind crashed into it. The concentrated, compressed air hit the Avian square on its exposed back, and was forcibly pushed back onto the floor.
Like a pack of hungry hyenas, Kido and his childhood friend descended down onto the nearest and most recently downed Avian.
While his Childhood friend was a bit trepid and showed signs of hesitation, intermingled with fear, Kido was unexpectedly ruthless.
Each of his sword blows were aid at a vital spot. He stabbed its twice in the eyes, completely blinding it, and aid for the sensitive location behind its neck, where the bird’s skull and spinal column t.
After discovering the fact that the feathers were too densely packed and its muscle was too much for Kido to cut through, he changed targets in a heartbeat. The mont the Avian opened its beak to squawk an angry protest, Kido shoved the blade of his sword into its mouth and down its throat. Much less dying from the actual damage, the poor bird died of suffocation, dead at the hands of Kido and his sword.
Hina stood back expressionlessly throughout this whole process, while the teacher pinned one Avian down to the ground using his boken.
anwhile, Kido and his childhood friend moved on and were already onto one of the Avians with a wing clipped.
Like this, Kido’s team swiftly handled the three monsters. Kido managed to kill 2, while his childhood friend took care of one. It was obvious, but Hina and the teacher were intentionally letting Kido and his childhood friend have the last blow.
On the other side of the Library, the President’s group was having a slightly more difficult experience. They did not have Hina’s convenient magic with them, so they could only rely on long distance slingshot strikes to bring down the birds. Thankfully though, the President and Emiko, acted just as swiftly as the teacher did, if not more so. They clipped the wings off of the monsters the mont they got within range.
As expected, in their group, all of the kills went towards the Transfer student.
The two groups continued this steady pace of grinding and after 20 minutes, they hunted down about 19 Avians in total.
From my vantage point, I noticed that a majority of the Avians that did attack, primarily attacked Kido and his group. anwhile, even after a monster did notice , most of the Avians ignored my presence.
It was obvious that they did this because of the level disparity. Kido had more lower leveled people in his group, so they flocked towards him. In comparison, most of the Avians avoided due to the difference in strength.
It was an instinctive thing.
On normal occasion, this pace of hunting would be considered fast, but considering the ti limit we had, it was comparable to the speed of paint drying.
Since the two teams finally established a good hunting pace, I decided to implent my stalling tactic that I planned to use in order to buy ti and distract the ground-unit monsters.
Using [Shadow Sprint] I imdiately teleported to the edge of the broken staircase on the 3rd floor. Looking down, I could see the horde of monsters, wriggling and moving as if they were one. There were more than 300 monsters, and each of them emitted a dangerous level of killing intent. They were all obviously irritated. For who knows how long, these things clustered together with the prospects of killing, yet not a single person died at their hands. One could only imagine the irritation that flowed through their veins.
Looking at it all, I could only let out a quiet sigh as I braced myself, and for the second ti today, I jumped down into the darkness below.
****
Author's Note: If you liked this chapter, of if you liked this story in general, please rate or review. It helps out.
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