The rain did not stop.
Even as deep night settled across Bo City, the clouds continued churning above like a living organism, pulsing with elemental distortion. The streets were slick with water; the lanterns flickered under the weight of the wind. No one slept. Windows were shut. Doors were locked. Parents held their children close.
The city felt like a creature waiting to be devoured.
Xu Mang and Lu Jun stood at the academy gate with the hunter squads. The ground trembled faintly beneath their feet—far too faint for civilians to recognize, but unmistakable to anyone who had fought beasts before.
Lu Jun closed his eyes briefly. "They're moving underground."
Xu Mang nodded. "Something is drawing them. Something powerful."
Before they could say more, Zhan Kong approached them again, soaked in rain but standing like a pillar in the storm. His eyes were sharper tonight. Hunter captains stood behind him, grim and silent.
"We're going underground again," Zhan Kong said. "The Holy Spring's barrier has collapsed. The demonic energy is leaking fast."
Xu Mang stiffened. "Already?"
Zhan Kong lowered his voice. "If we don't seal the leak, the beasts will enter a frenzy we cannot contain. They'll break the walls in one night."
Mo Fan jogged toward them, fire still glowing faintly around his fingers despite the rain. "Captain—I'm ready."
Zhan Kong studied him carefully. "Your fire is stable. Good. You're coming with me. The Holy Spring cavern reacts strongly to elemental talent. You may be able to stabilize part of the energy if things go wrong."
Mo Fan nodded, serious for once.
Zhan Kong looked at Xu Mang and Lu Jun. "You two will not come underground. I need you above."
Lu Jun blinked. "Above? Doing what?"
"Preparing for the beast tide," Zhan Kong said. "You'll take defensive positions at the northern wall. You have two hours before the first swarm reaches the perimeter. Don't waste a second."
Xu Mang exhaled. "This is it."
Zhan Kong didn't deny it. "Bo City will come under full assault soon. We will fight to protect as many people as possible, but I will not lie—many will die tonight."
His words fell like cold stones.
A hunter approached with urgency. "Captain! We just received confirmation. The Marshlands are boiling—literally. The beasts inside are becoming agitated. The tide is forming."
Zhan Kong turned to Mo Fan. "With me."
Mo Fan nodded and followed, entering the rain-soaked streets at Zhan Kong's side. Their figures faded into the storm.
Xu Mang tightened his grip around his jacket. "Mo Fan's breakthrough will happen underground. The Holy Spring always reacts to those with strong flame potential."
Lu Jun folded his arms. "And once it reacts, the beasts will go insane."
The academy's bell suddenly rang—a deep, heavy sound that only tolled for emergencies of the highest order. People peeked through windows. Guards rushed through the streets. Teachers shouted instructions.
The rain suddenly changed.
It became warm.
The puddles on the ground began to ripple. Each drop now carried something strange inside it—an unstable energy that made the hairs on their arms rise.
Lu Jun's voice turned uneasy. "The leakage is spreading into the atmosphere."
Xu Mang felt it too. "This is how the Holy Spring affects the world. Everything becomes… distorted."
Before they could speak further, another tremor struck. Stronger this time. The pavement cracked. A distant chorus of roars echoed from the north.
Xu Mang and Lu Jun instantly locked eyes.
"That's them," Xu Mang said.
"The outer packs," Lu Jun added. "The smaller ones."
Another tremor.
Another roar.
Another wave of pressure hitting the city like heat from an oven.
A hunter sprinted toward them. "Positions! Everyone to your designated posts! We need reinforcements at the northern wall—now!"
Xu Mang and Lu Jun ran with the squads, boots splashing through the rising water. They followed the winding streets until they reached the northern perimeter. The wall stretched high above them, torches and elemental lamps flickering wildly. Dozens of hunters already stood atop the battlements, scanning the storm.
When Xu Mang climbed the stairs and saw the sight beyond the wall, he froze.
The forest was alive.
Not with movement.
With eyes.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of glowing eyes flickered from the darkness, moving in synchronized, disturbing patterns. The trees bent and shivered as massive shapes pushed through them. The beasts didn't rush forward. Not yet. They were waiting. Gathering. Piling up like a living tide preparing to crash.
Lu Jun swallowed hard. "This… wasn't described like this in the book."
Xu Mang shook his head. "This is bigger."
The beast tide thickened. Their silhouettes merged into a single dark wave stretching across the horizon. It didn't roar. It didn't scream. It simply stared.
Then, as if touched by a signal, a single beast howled. The pack exploded forward.
Hunters shouted commands.
Mages ignited their spells.
The wall shook.
Xu Mang lifted his hand. Lightning burst from his palm, slicing through the dark, illuminating the first wave of beasts. Lu Jun followed, his Water magic forming a barrier along the wall's edge to halt the initial impact, then Metal slicing through the skull of a leaping creature.
Beasts flooded the base of the wall, some climbing over each other to reach the top. The entire perimeter trembled with the force of their assault.
Xu Mang fired bolt after bolt, moving with the precision of someone who could not afford a single wasted breath.
Lu Jun narrowed his focus, manipulating water to freeze the base of the walls, slowing the beasts' climb, then following with sharp metal arcs to finish them.
A hunter shouted at them over the chaos. "Those two—where did they come from?! They're cutting down beasts as if they've been trained for years!"
The roar grew louder.
The beasts grew denser.
More claws scraped against stone.
The wall began to tremble from the sheer pressure.
"They're going to break through," Xu Mang said.
Lu Jun's eyes narrowed. "We hold them as long as we can. The civilians need time."
The sky split open with lightning. A deep, distant boom rolled across the city. Something enormous was moving toward the wall—something bigger than anything in the first wave.
Xu Mang recognized the feeling instantly.
"A commander," he whispered.
But not the one Zhan Kong had fought.
Another.
Stronger.
It was moving toward the west side—
far from where Mo Fan and Zhan Kong were.
Xu Mang clenched his fists. "This is wrong. The Holy Spring isn't just leaking. Someone's directing the tide. They're forcing all the key beasts to move."
Lu Jun's face hardened. "That silhouette earlier… Black Vatican."
The first wall crack came next. A deep, sickening groan of stone under pressure.
Cracks spread like lightning through the foundation.
Hunters screamed.
The wall broke.
The outer northern wall collapsed in a shower of stone, mud, and rainwater. Beasts poured through the breach like a flood released from a dam.
Xu Mang and Lu Jun stood their ground, but they knew something:
Bo City's fall had begun.