The classroom doors slammed open.
An instructor rushed in, face serious.
"There's been a breach."
Silence fell instantly.
"A section of the inner wall near the East Village was damaged last night. Low-tier monsters slipped through. Civilian casualties confirmed."
The air changed.
This wasn't training.
This wasn't experience grinding.
People were dead.
"Multiple squads are being dispatched. Squad Ren, you're assigned to assist in containment."
Narukaze felt his chest tighten.
A wall… destroyed?
Monsters inside the city?
East Village
Smoke rose into the sky.
Part of the wall had collapsed inward, stone scattered across rooftops and streets. Houses near the breach were torn open.
Screams echoed in the distance.
Hunters were already fighting.
Ren's squad rushed forward.
"Stay sharp!" Ren ordered.
This wasn't a controlled zone.
This was chaos.
A monster lunged from a broken doorway.
Ren cut it down instantly.
Another burst from a rooftop.
Kaito's spear pierced it mid-air.
Mira eliminated one trying to chase a fleeing civilian.
Hakari moved with perfect control, protecting two children trapped behind debris.
Narukaze froze for half a second.
This wasn't empty ruins.
These were homes.
Blood stained the ground.
A monster crawled from beneath collapsed wood—
Heading toward an injured man who couldn't move.
Narukaze moved.
Not to attack.
To intercept.
He slammed into the monster awkwardly, knocking it off balance.
He wasn't strong enough to kill it—
But he disrupted it.
"Now!" he shouted.
Hakari stepped in and finished it cleanly.
The man lived.
Narukaze's hands were shaking.
He hadn't killed it.
Again.
Zero.
But someone was still breathing because he acted.
More monsters poured through the broken section of wall.
The squad tightened formation.
Ren engaged aggressively.
Kaito and Mira controlled flanks.
Hakari guarded civilians.
Narukaze scanned constantly.
Two monsters were circling wide.
Trying to get behind them.
"They're splitting left!" he warned.
Mira adjusted instantly.
The formation held.
After several intense minutes, the last monster fell.
Silence slowly returned.
Smoke. Broken stone. Crying civilians.
Hunters began securing the area.
Narukaze stood still, staring at the destroyed section of wall.
Even weak monsters could do this much damage.
Even without shards.
Hakari stepped beside him.
"You reacted fast."
He didn't answer.
His eyes stayed on the cracked wall.
Today wasn't about kills.
It was about reality.
The world outside wasn't distant anymore.
It had reached inside.
And next time…
He didn't want to only react.
He wanted to be strong enough to stop it himself.