NOVEL NEXT Chapter 85: Elite
"Haven't we been doing that already?" Professor Kong Hu sighed with a helpless smile. "But sure. Let's see what you have for us."
"I've been holding back for fear of hurting your students. But with these three, I think we can treat them as… What was it you called them? Heavenly Princes and Princesses?" Professor Orange raised an eyebrow at Professor Kong Hu, who nodded silently.
Professor Orange's eyes glittered.
With a wave of her hand, a golden scrying panel unfurled before the instructor platform. Three glowing dots pulsed across a detailed map of the southern forest zone—each labeled clearly in bright red: Damien Bloodbane, Jiang Xiao Yu, and Athena du Valmont.
Around the map, hundreds of smaller blue signals blinked sporadically. The rest of the second and third-year students, scattered through the area, some still mopping up first years, others regrouping.
Professor Kong Hu narrowed his eyes. "You're going to mobilize them?"
Professor Orange nodded, her voice smooth as silk laced with steel. "Consider this a live-capture trial. Let's see how serious they are about redemption."
She stepped forward and tapped a single rune on the control array.
Immediately, a massive, campus-wide mana broadcast buzzed to life in every upperclassman's communicator.
Professor Orange's voice rang out across every communicator on the field, smooth and merciless:
"To all second and third-year students currently in the southern ridge sector: a special order is now in effect."
"Three targets are on the run, designated high-priority. Their locations will be updated in your Chronolinks real time. You have precisely one hour to capture all of them."
"Failure to do so will result in all of you spending the night… in Containment Chamber Delta-3."
"With the Gravehowler."
Silence.
Then pandemonium.
"Wait. Wait. Did she just say the—"
"The GRAVEHOWLER?!" a second-year screamed.
"No no no no no! THAT THING IS STILL ALIVE?!"
"Why is it still here?! I thought they buried it under a mountain!"
"Buried it? They tried. It dug itself back out."
"IT HOWLS NAMES IN THE DARK, MAN. YOUR NAME."
"Isn't it blind?"
"Yes. But it hears your mana."
"And then it screams your death, over and over again!"
"It doesn't even attack. It just… tells you how you will die. In the most horrific ways!"
Someone fainted.
Another student threw down their communicator. "I REFUSE. I am NOT spending the night with a cursed mana-wraith stitched together from corpses!"
"That's not even the worst part," muttered a third-year, pale. "The worst part is that it doesn't stop. If you spend the night with it… You will be listening to it for the whole night"
Professor Kong Hu, watching the chaos from above, arched an eyebrow. "That was excessive."
Professor Orange's smile was beatific. "Motivation comes in many forms."
The scrying map flashed. The red markers representing Damien Bloodbane, Jiang Xiao Yu, and Athena glowed with a sinister pulse.
Meanwhile, deep within the woods.
Damien landed lightly on a branch before dropping into a crouch behind a ridge.
Jiang Xiao Yu stepped beside him without a sound, the mist around her curling like a protective scarf.
Athena landed last, twirling a dagger between her fingers.
"Gravehowler, huh," Athena muttered, wiping a leaf off her shoulder. "They're really putting out the good china."
"They've gone crazy. It's completely unlike them." Jiang Xiao Yu calmly tied her hair back and then glanced at Athena. "It's probably your professor's idea."
Damien's eyes flicked to his communicator. The announcement had just finished playing.
"It's very possible." Athena stretched lazily. "Professor Orange is all about motivation and empowerment. Fear is a very powerful form of motivation."
"She sounds lovely." Jiang Xiao Yu smiled faintly. "I feel so motivated right now to drown someone."
Damien stood. "Let's focus. Running is not a solution since they know our position. If that's the case, we'll set traps and lure them into a battlefield of our choosing that works to our advantage."
Athena gave him a sly look. "I didn't realize we'd started following your orders, Commander Bloodbane."
"You're still following them," Jiang Xiao Yu said casually, "whether you realize it or not."
Athena blinked, then smirked. "Tch. Fair."
"Besides," Jiang Xiao Yu added, already walking, "we're not the ones panicking."
They weren't.
The forest was now alive with the frantic rustle of boots, the humming of mana beacons, and the distant echo of confused shouting.
The second and third years were coming fast.
The predators didn't know it yet…
…but they'd just triggered a hunt of their own.
"Let's go. Shock and awe strategy." Damien said while the other two nodded obediently.
The trio didn't run.
They charged.
Like lightning through dry grass, Damien, Jiang Xiao Yu, and Athena shot forward—not away from their hunters, but straight at them. Their movements were coordinated and precise, but more importantly, they were loud.
Jiang Xiao Yu surged ahead first, her water magic crashing through the brush in tidal bursts, creating walls of pressure that knocked back half a dozen upperclassmen at once. Each strike was deliberate, targeting pressure points—knees, ribs, throats—with enough force to elicit sharp, echoing screams.
Athena followed, radiant and reckless, twin daggers sparking with condensed light mana. She moved in blinks of brilliance, slashing through illusions and slicing mana binds. Her strikes were elegant and cruel. Disarming with beauty, finishing with agony.
Damien didn't hold back.
He blitzed through the center like a wrecking ball of pure destruction, weaving elemental runes mid-movement—fusing darkness with metal, wind with death. He struck low, fast, and hard. Every student in his path screamed before they hit the dirt.
Within minutes, they had cut a bloody trail through the disorganized ranks, leaving behind chaos, groans, and widespread panic.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"
"They're attacking us instead?! Are they nuts?! Let's swarm them!!"
"Those cocky bastards. They think us third years are just puppets for show, huh? Get in formation! Let's beat them up so hard that they will scream for their mamas!"
The battle intensified.
Athena howled with glee as she drop-kicked someone through their own spell circle. Jiang Xiao Yu smiled sweetly after flattening a boy with a wave of exploding mist. Damien didn't smile, but his eyes gleamed like someone at home in the storm.
Within minutes of insane battle, many of the second years were so scared shitless that they began to retreat. A few of the weaker third years did so as well.
But not everyone broke.
And at the rear of the chaos stood five figures, unmoving, waiting like ancient stones beneath a rising tide.
The elite quintet of the third year.