The inner wall was supposed to be safe.
It rose behind the academy like a second spine of stone, stretching across the district with sigils carved into its surface — a final defense meant to protect the civilian zones. Lanterns burned along its walkway, flickering wildly under the rain and wind.
By midnight, every one of those lanterns was shaking under the pressure of hundreds of wolves slamming into the outer streets.
In the school courtyard, chaos had already reached its peak.
Students, teachers, and hunters crowded together, spells firing in every direction. The rain soaked every robe and uniform, dripping into the cracks of the courtyard tiles. Moonlight flickered behind storm clouds, illuminating the swarming beasts spilling through every broken gate.
"Earth Wave!"
A student slammed their hands onto the ground, sending a shock of stone rippling forward. Several wolves stumbled, legs knocked out from under them, but more vaulted over their fallen packmates.
"Fire Burst!"
Flames detonated in a cluster of red light. Bodies flew. Fur caught fire. Screams tore through the night.
"Ice Lock!"
Chains of frost erupted from the floor, freezing wolves mid-leap — only for a Warrior-level beast to smash through the ice, sending shards spraying across the courtyard.
The instructor who cast the spell collapsed onto her knees, hands trembling, unable to recast.
A beast lunged straight toward her.
A bolt of violet light speared its skull before it could reach her. The beast toppled forward, its steaming body sliding across the tiles.
Xu Mang sprinted past her, lightning crawling across his hands.
"Fall back to the inner formation!" he shouted. "Don't break the lines!"
But the lines broke anyway.
A second pack crashed through the western gate, tearing down wooden barricades. They poured across the courtyard like smoke driven by wind, fangs gnashing, claws ripping into stone.
Students screamed.
A wolf leaped at a boy trying to form his star orbit. He froze, unable to complete the pattern. The claws reached his face—
A wave of water hammered the wolf sideways, pinning it against the gate. Lu Jun stepped forward, eyes sharp.
"Violent Waves!"
The water surged again, crushing the beast against the ruined wall. Its bones cracked under the pressure.
But for every beast that fell, five more took its place.
The courtyard was drowning in blood and rain.
—
Mo Fan arrived like a blaze cutting through the storm.
His fist struck the ground.
"Fiery Fist—Bursting Impact!"
Flames erupted across the courtyard tiles, sweeping across the wolf pack in a wall of incandescent heat. Steam exploded upward where fire met rain. The wolves closest to him were thrown backward, bodies scorched black.
But a Shadow Beast materialized behind him, claws extended.
Black spikes tore upward from the ground —
"Shadow Spike!"
Mo Fan rolled aside as the dark spears erupted where he had been standing. He turned, fire spiraling along his arm.
"Fire Burst!"
The explosion tore straight through the Shadow Beast's shoulder.
It didn't die.
It flickered into black mist, reforming behind a group of fleeing students. They screamed as it lunged—
Mo Fan ignited lightning along his legs and sprinted forward, sparks scattering across the rain-soaked ground.
"Lightning Strike!"
The bolt pierced the Shadow Beast mid-lunge, blasting it off its target and smashing it into a tree. The entire tree cracked from the impact.
Mo Fan didn't pause.
He threw himself directly into the thickest part of the pack.
His fists became explosions.
His legs became streaks of flame.
Lightning curled around his shoulders like snakes.
He struck again.
And again.
And again.
Wolves died under his hands faster than the courtyard could fill.
But it still filled.
He couldn't kill them fast enough.
Not because he wasn't strong —
but because the tide was endless.
Walls cracked.
Blood washed into the drains.
Students sobbed while firing spells they barely controlled.
The academy was collapsing.
—
Down the street, Zhan Kong and the Greater-Commander clashed with enough force to warp the storm itself.
Wind surged off Zhan Kong in destructive waves.
The beast's claws tore through stone buildings like paper.
They moved too fast for the eye to track —
two blurs colliding again and again, each strike leaving trails of magic across the sky.
A final exchange sent them both skidding backward.
Zhan Kong landed on all fours, coughing blood.
The commander dug trenches in the ground with its claws.
A lesser wolf hesitated in front of the commander.
The Greater-Commander crushed it beneath its foot without even looking.
Then it howled —
a deep, resonant blast that shook the windows of the entire district.
The howl became a signal.
The pack surged harder.
Faster.
Madder.
Spells exploded across the inner wall as mages tried — and failed — to hold back the flood.
A group of instructors fired Wind Discs simultaneously.
The discs sliced through wolf after wolf, cutting torsos, limbs, heads. Blood splattered across the battlements.
But the wolves climbed over their own dead, forming a ramp of bodies.
One instructor cried out as a Warrior-level wolf leaped the last few meters and landed on him. Its jaws clamped onto his throat. Blood sprayed across the wall.
The wolf leaped again — this time at the students behind him.
Xu Mang's lightning lanced out, frying the beast midair. It fell smoking.
But behind that one, twenty more wolves climbed the ramp.
The inner wall began to shake.
The sigils carved into its surface — the last protective formation — flickered weakly, struggling to maintain their glow.
Lu Jun saw it.
"That barrier won't last another minute!"
Xu Mang wiped rain from his eyes. "Then we fight until it falls."
Mo Fan heard the tremor.
He heard the screams.
He heard the sigils crack.
But what made him turn—
what stopped him mid-battle—
was the sound of a bell.
A deep, heavy bell.
The city alarm.
Once it rang, it meant only one thing:
FULL BREACH.
EVACUATION ORDER.
BO CITY IS LOST.
The bell tolled again.
Everyone froze.
Even the wolves paused — just for a moment — tilting their heads.
Then the sigils shattered.
A burst of light erupted along the wall as the protective array collapsed completely. The shockwave knocked mages off their feet. Wolves poured onto the ramparts and into the streets beyond.
The city split open like a wound.
The northern district fell.
And Bo City's final night truly began.