153 Chapter 153: Moving Ou (2/2)
”Bu Fan might be arrogant, but he should be trustworthy,” Alicia assured her. ”He will fall in line and follow instructions.”
I had no doubt that Bu Fan wouldn't try anything stupid. After all, he was the protagonist, not the villain (though sometimes Chinese web novel protagonists were so shameless, arrogant and ruthless that it was virtually impossible to distinguish between the two). He wasn't going to backstab or betray or murder me over a grudge. He would find some other way to seek revenge. Maybe when I was in trouble or something, he would just leave me to my fate because he had no obligation to save me, or ditch us when we were trying to rescue civilians along the way. But unlike the typical mindless and one-dimensional antagonists, his head wasn't full of senseless murder and betrayal. It was safe to trust him to do his part…for now.
”Let's hurry,” Teacher Fielding instructed as he kept an eye on the howling Silver Wing Wolf King. The rank A monster was perched so high up that it was unlikely that it would see us moving through the streets. We were practically ants to a monstrous existence like it, far beneath its notice. He took up his smartphone. ”We'll beam the route back to the other groups' smartphones by marking it with a holographic overlay.”
Watching the blue-tinted screen and three dimensional map that his phone displayed, I was reminded of a game. It should worked. So we were going to scout ahead for the safest and most optimum path, slaying whatever monsters we could, and then relay the route back once the coast was clear. That worked for me.
As we left the gates, the scene of carnage greeted us. The city looked as if it had just been wrung through a zombie apocalypse. Overturned cars and wrecked vehicles littered the streets. Buildings had collapsed or were torn open by gargantuan creatures that were no longer here. Corpses lay sprawled and abandoned, their bodies either ripped apart or scorched black beyond recognition. Fires burned in several places, casting an ominous illumination in the blacked out streets. Lampposts had been bent or toppled over, and electricity was cut.
The city was dead.
There were still pockets of survivors here and there, moving around and trying to stay out of sight. The majority of them had chosen to hide in their houses or flee for the emergency shelters, which had itself caused a chaos of catastrophic proportions. In the disorderly retreat, many of them were hunted down and slaughtered by the invading monsters. Even those who had chosen to hide at home discovered that their supposedly safe refuges were compromised, with Cyclops Rats erupting from their basements to attack them. The flimsy walls of their homes provided no protection against the rank D Dire Wolves, whose claws and bulk easily tore through concrete as if they were nothing more than sheets of paper.
The unnatural silence and lack of monsters only served to increase the tension. With only the crackling of flames and the soft sounds of our footsteps to bother our ears, we strained our senses to attempt to detect any nearby enemies, to no avail.
”Zhang Hou Zi, Harvey, the both of you scout ahead. If you see a monster, quickly report back.”
Teacher Fielding knew the abilities of us students well. Zhang Hou Zi was a wind mage, and Harvey specialized in speed. The two of them nodded and went ahead, while the rest of us followed close behind. Teacher Fielding wasted no time organizing us into staggered formations, with at least two members covering each other. The fifteen-man squad were split into two fire teams and a single scout team, and we moved through a military pattern that I recognized. The first fire team would remain in position to cover the second fire team as they moved forward, and then the second fire team would stay in place until the first fire team caught up. In the meantime, the scouts left a trail through the holographic display on our smartphones, occasionally falling back to report directly to Teacher Fielding.
Evidently Teacher Fielding had some experience in the military, or he had at least received some military training in the past. He was adept at organizing us into formations and deploying our specialist abilities to their optimal level.
Crunch.
We eventually made our way to the main street, which was clogged by cars. Obviously, we weren't walking along the wide, open road, but if we were forced to, we could use the abandoned vehicles as cover. For now, we stuck close to the buildings and the pavement, scanning the area for any sign of the enemy.
”Where are the monsters?” Craig murmured. ”I don't see any of them.”
”Could they have already left?” Aoi asked hopefully. Jin Hao shook his head.
”The Silver Wing Wolf King is still up there. If I'm not mistaken, it's commanding all the monsters in the vicinity. If it's still around, then its minions should still be lurking around here.”
”I hope we don't run into any monsters on the way to the shelter. That would be for the best.” Alicia was sensible as always, but hopelessly naïve.
”I concur, but reality never turns out the way we want it to.” Teacher Fielding sounded grim, even as he marked the route on his smartphone to transmit it to the other groups.
Then Harvey suddenly doubled back breathlessly, weaving through the abandoned cars and using them as cover to block his relatively tiny silhouette.
”Sir!” he called out in a hushed voice. ”There's a Cyclops Rat at the gas station at our two o'clock. I think it's…it's…”
He turned pale and bent over, almost as if he was going to throw up.
”Are you all right?” I asked, hurrying over and helping him up. Behind, Bu Fan snorted, as if to say that he found Harvey pathetic and useless, despite the fact that he had just brought us vital information regarding the enemy's location.
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”Yeah…” Harvey tried not to gag. He looked up, his eyes tearing. ”It was…eating something, I think. It was feeding on a…person's body.” He closed his eyes and shuddered violently as he recalled the grisly memory. ”A…young child.”