Chapter 49: I said we’ve been made...
Allow me to introduce him.
An academy infiltrator, a student who wasn’t human at all, but a prince from a world ruled by the dragon race.
He was Valkas Herion.
Just moments ago, he’d been hiding comfortably and peacefully in his little hideout, before someone he recognized showed up, clapping a hand on his shoulder while saying—
"We’ve been made."
So, here’s what happened.
"Damn it! You’re the worst! How could a friend do something this cruel??!"
Watching a sword whistle past his face with a sharp hiss, Valkas nearly screamed from the shock.
He cussed Eiros out, but the guy in question kept his mouth shut tight. Even when he did open it, all he’d say was:
"I said we’ve been made..."
"No, YOU’RE the one who got made! And somehow, deliberately gave away where I was hiding! Argh, this is completely unfair!"
Eiros just smiled awkwardly, watching Valkas throw an incoherent tantrum.
"....So, what do we do now?"
"How would I know?! Ugh... why not just try fighting them? We could win."
Thud!
Boom!
Eiros dodged a flying tree, hurled with full force by a stone golem.
He looked at Valkas and shook his head.
"No way... I’m not wasting my strength on those guys."
With Alen and the others still out there, why on earth would Eiros want to burn through his Soul Essence here?
Of course, Valkas understood that too. After all, the guy came from a race so noble that his combat instincts and survival smarts in a situation like this couldn’t be underestimated.
That was exactly why Valkas wasn’t wasting his own Soul Essence to just fly away either. Well, if he’d tried, Eiros made it very clear he’d cling to Valkas’s leg and never let go.
Besides just surviving, it was worth remembering they’d also need to become hunters chasing down prey eventually. Which meant, being prey first and a hunter later was, in a lot of ways, kind of a raw deal.
Eiros ran on, sweat dripping nonstop down his face, before a small smile crossed it.
"...Um, how about we try heading into that cave in the mountain over there?"
"Why?!"
Valkas asked in a rush, swinging his spear to deflect an incoming flying sword.
Clang—!
The sword bounced off, sticking into a nearby tree.
"Everyone else is probably gathered there. I mean, both hunters and prey."
"That’s exactly why I’m asking why... wait... don’t tell me you want to cause chaos in there."
Valkas paused for a moment, staring at Eiros’s flat expression carrying a small smile, then raised a hand, touching his own lips.
Oh.
He was smiling too.
***
"W-wait...! Damn it!"
Slash—!!
Clang—!!
Deep in that mountain range, in the caves themselves, the tunnels all connected to one another, forming a dark labyrinth that had become a hiding spot for countless prey. But at the same time, that made it the top priority for the hunters, who knew perfectly well it was the ideal place to search.
That was exactly why the inside of that cave was an absolute mess. Tremors went off everywhere, the clang of metal weapons, the sound of explosions, foul smells—all of it happening at once as so many students with unique stigmata gathered in one spot.
Right then, a student marked as prey ran into a tunnel on their left, chased by a hunter armed with something that looked like a fishing rod.
Right after, that hunter appeared to be fleeing instead, with the prey now chasing him. Then, inside that left tunnel, a wave of water came surging smoothly through, followed by screams from both students on opposite sides.
A prey student hid in the darkness. Their stigmata seemed useful for camouflage, so they deliberately tucked themselves into a corner, eyes shut, keeping everything dark.
But then they felt a foot accidentally kick them.
"...Damn it, where’d they—"
It was a hunter. The prey student, thinking their location had already been found, opened their eyes—becoming the only spot of white visible against that dark wall.
The hunter froze at the sight of that black wall seemingly sprouting a pair of pale white eyes, then—
"UWAAGHH—!!"
"AWRRGHH..!!"
Both manly screams pierced the air. Starting with the hunter, followed immediately by the equally startled prey, before the two of them bolted off in completely opposite directions.
The legend of the white-eyed wall ghost was probably about to be born right there.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, there was Alen. Yeah, Alen shot forward at high speed, having already racked up a decent number of points by successfully exploiting the students in the "Others" class.
It wasn’t exactly fair to them, given they had no stigmata at all. But what else was Alen supposed to do?
He needed a good score.
While shooting through the tunnel, he spotted a student running his way too—golden armor, golden helmet, both of them freezing up at the sight of each other.
Alen had run into Rein.
Elsewhere.
Erness, calm as could be, genuinely relaxed, was racking up points with ease. Unlike everyone else, all she had to do was slip in quietly the moment a prey let their guard down, and shatter their protective barrier.
That was something given to every piece of prey—if that barrier broke, the prey was officially declared caught.
Erness giggled with amusement, strolling along at a leisurely pace. Her body would vanish, then reappear somewhere else to find her next target. Honestly, she moved like she was just out for a stroll in the park.
She wasn’t even wearing anything on her feet, walking barefoot the whole way.
Right then, Erness got ready to pounce on a student who was caught up in a fight of their own.
’Oh, that’s... that’s Lovia, isn’t it?’
Without a shred of hesitation, Erness vanished, then reappeared right behind Lovia, who was mid-fight with her thin rapier.
’Gotcha...!’
Erness smiled, just about to touch Lovia’s body, when suddenly, with an impossibly fluid motion, Lovia spun her waist, swinging her rapier along with her red scarf.
"....!"
Erness realized she’d failed, vanishing instantly through her white door, reappearing somewhere else entirely.
"Hehe... impressive."
She let out a small laugh.
Elsewhere, there were also Godon and Reina, each caught up in their own separate fights.
A clash between the strongest figures among the first-year students was, without question, shaping up to be quite the spectacle.
This was exactly what the professors watching had been waiting for, along with the supervisors and the Tower Keepers.
But before that fight could even properly begin, a massive shockwave tore through somewhere in one of those tunnels, followed by an endless chorus of student screams echoing from the spot, bringing nearly every student in the cave to a dead stop, whatever they’d been doing.
Even the professors and everyone else watching couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing.
"H-hey...! Do you seriously think this is the right move?!"
In that tunnel, Valkas flew at an insane speed, dragging Eiros along by the collar of his academy uniform.
Behind him, he could see the hunters, who’d started out at just seven, now swollen into an absurdly large crowd.
Eiros looked back at all of them with a panicked smile, looking not the least bit confident about what he’d just done.
"...Uh... I think it’s the right move? I mean... this way, you know, right? We just have to survive!"
"Say that again! Look who’s the one doing all the actual work here! You haven’t had to pull out a single drop of your Soul Essence."
Eiros chuckled, amused.
"Come on, didn’t I at least pull off a successful rage bait?"
Valkas clenched his jaw, weaving to dodge a barrage of ranged attacks fired off one after another.
"Forget it, damn it! Look, there’s another hunter up ahead! Do your job."
Eiros looked at the hunter in question, his face going pale with disbelief at what he was seeing, before finally raising his middle finger.
"Well hello there, oh, it’s you, right? The one who pissed himself when he almost got caught by that black slime?"
The hunter’s face went slack with shock for a moment, watching Valkas and Eiros zoom past, before his expression turned bright red with pure fury.
"You bastard! Just because you’re a hero doesn’t mean you can—"
"Move! I’m gonna beat that bastard senseless!"
"I’m gonna kill him! How dare he call me gay?! I’m a hundred percent straight!"
"Damn it! That guy’s seriously petty!"
"Get out of the way! I’m gonna be the first person in history to kill someone with the title of hero!"
"W-wait! Argh..!! Aahh, you’re stepping on me! H-hey, uwaaghhhh!"
Yeah, this was pure, unfiltered chaos.
***