"Oi... You lot will gain nothing doing this, trust me..."


    Calio sat on the ground,pletely bound from his hands to his feet. On his right, Manny sat, polishing his des with a rag, while on his left, Vincent stood, staring down at him with a sinister smirk.


    "Just stay put, would you? If you don''t want to talk, that means you are useless. However, we don''t do torture, so we can''t force this information out of you. We also can''t let you go, so you''ll have to sit still until we can get some real info." Vincent exined, although when he got to. the part about torture, his eyes lit up a bit.


    Seeing this, Calio broke out into a cold sweat...


    Suddenly, frost began to materialize in the space surrounding them. A secondter, Dan appeared right in front of them from thin air.


    "How did it go? Hunter asked.


    A dark expression sullied Dan''s face, "There is a settlement of people not too far from here, just after the jungle of broken buildings. However, they all don''t seem to.be normal humans." Dan said, turning to stare at Calio who had cat ears and a tail.


    "Oi, what''s with that judgemental stare!"


    Ignoring him, Dan continued, "Not only that but there is an abnormal number of mutant beasts living amongst them."


    Hunter frowned a bit, "Amongst them, you say?". Turning to Calio who had aid smile, he asked, "Why are there mutant beasts living together with people? Aren''t they supposed to be violent?"


    Silence...


    "I keep telling you... Torture is the only way." Vincent said to Hunter in a malevolence-filled voice.


    "If that''s all, you wouldn''t be looking so grim, Dan," Hunter said with a re.


    "Yeah. It''s... It''s the bridge. It''s gone." Dan said.


    The rest all had wide eyes as they stared at Dan.


    "That can''t be possible, right?" Vincent said softly.


    "It might be because of all the ruckus that''s been happening. Who knows? Maybe the bridge fell into the ocean or something." Dan said with a frown.


    ''This isn''t good. This isn''t good at all...'' Hunter thought to himself.


    "If the bridge is gone, then our only connection to the maind is gone as well. What are we going to do now?! I''m sure as hell there''s no way an ice bridge is going to cover that distance." Vincent said.


    "Dan, what about the monsters on here."


    "As you know, the central region of the school has a unique structure. The outskirts are covered in residential and normal buildings, while the central part used to be a traffic zone that was used to enter the school."


    "Now, the people here have made the traffic zone their living area. The buildings on the other side that would have been on the same side as the bridge are now infested with rabid mutant beasts. These mutant beasts are much stronger than the ones we''ve encountered before."


    "You fought one?" Hunter asked.


    "Yes. This one was only a normal grade, yet I fought it for a good five minutes before I was able to dispatch it. However, that''s because I wanted to make it as silent as possible. If not, it would have taken much shorter."


    "Five minutes for a normal-grade creature?!" Vincent couldn''t help but exim.


    "It must be the aether. It''s infecting the inhabitants of this ce. Those who aren''t beasts will slowly be beasts, while those who are beasts will be even more beastly. The question is... Why are there creatures that seem to be unaffected by the violent mutating properties of aether." Hunter said, his hand resting on his chin.


    "Let''s not bother thinking about that too much. I think it''s high time we dipped." Vincent said with a gradually deepening frown.


    "I agree with Vincent," Dan said with a frown as well. "I have a bad feeling about this ce. All this time, I felt as though there were eyes in the darkness watching my every move."


    Out of the blue, Calio who had been silent spoke up with an ominous smile,


    "That''s cause you were..."


    Hunter''s eyes widened suddenly...


    "Get back!"


    BOOM!


    mes erupted at their feet, forcing them to take huge leaps backward. On top of a tall building not too far away, Hunter, Dan, Vincent, and Manny stared at a group of ten people partially hidden in the darkness.


    A figure slowly dropped her outstretched hand to the side, the remnants of a zing magic circle still burning on it.


    "Sisi... Create a barrier. Make sure none of them leave.". A female voice with an abnormally deep timber said all of a sudden.


    "Hai!" A more pleasant and crisp voice sounded out from the darkness. One of the figures hidden within the darkness stretched her hand out, and aplex-looking magic circle appeared instantaneously.


    Seeing what was going on, Hunter responded quickly, "You guys should go ahead. I''ll hold them off and prevent that girl frompleting that spell."


    A deep orange bow appeared in his hands. Drawing the bowstring back, a ming arrow materialized at the nock.


    Taking a deep breath, he fired without hesitation.


    BANG!


    He certainly had no scruples, attacking someone who had attacked him first.


    A snort came from the group of d individuals. A de broke through the darkness and split the ming arrow in two, making Hunter''s eyes narrow.


    Seeing that the people behind him were still standing there, he turned around and yelled angrily, "Are you all deaf or something?! I said get going!"


    "Hmph! Why would we? If you are going to fight, then we are fightin-" Before Vincent was able toplete his sentence, Hunter''s ming bestial fist came crashing down on his abdomen.


    As the blow waspletely unexpected, Vincent was unable to guard against it at all. The force behind the blow was so much, it sent hisrge body flying a few meters backward.


    Turning to Manny and Dan who had already grabbed Calio by the neck, he yelled out again,


    "I said go!"


    This time, there was no dy...


    Manny turned on his heels and like an arrow released from a bowstring, heunched forward, grabbing the unconscious Vincent on the way. Without slowing down even a bit, he blitzed toward the shore.


    Dan simply gave Hunter a brief nod before turning heels as well...


    "Do you think we will let any of you escape?" The same deep female voice that had rang out earlier spoke again.


    "You''ll have to get past me first, then..." Hunter said.


    Pulling his bowstring back again, he took aim. Numerous magic circles appeared all around him and in the next moment, they all transformed into ming arrows.


    Letting go of the bowstring, the arrows of mes cut through the air, leaving behind trails of mes.


    "Earthen Barrier." Another voice said.


    A deep brown barrier covered the group of people just before the arrows arrived. Striking at the barrier, the arrows caused significant damage to it but were unable to prate itpletely.


    "Hehehe... This is all you''ve got?"


    A small smile appeared on Hunter''s face,


    "No..."


    The skies above his head seemed to darken a bit as the mana around him swelled violently. Hundreds of magic circles bloomed and turned into hundreds of ming arrows.


    Standing on his lonesome with the dark ocean in the distance, Hunter was like a lone wolf standing on a mountain, howling at the heavens in vain.


    Pointing forward with his index finger, all the ming arrows flew forward.


    "Hmph! Seems like you aren''t so useless after all. Kai, Lin Lin, you two go after those just in case Sisi''s barrier doesn''t trap them."


    The tallest of all the figures stepped forward and stretched its hand forward. A massive fireball appeared the next moment and was fired at the iing shower of ming arrows.


    Both spells collided and canceled each other outpletely.


    Two shadows broke away from the group without anyints and melted into the darkness.


    ''Tch!'' Hunter had hoped he would have been able to make all of them focus on only him so the others would make their escape. That way, he would be able to stall for a time before making his escape afterwards.


    "You sure are stronger than you seem." The voice said as it took a step off the building.


    The figure fell toward the ground like a rock, and hit the ground a few secondster, causing Cain to raise an eyebrow in surprise.


    "C''mon, Yu. He doesn''t look that bad." Another of the figures said, taking a step forward and dropping to the ground as well the same way.


    "Disgusting..." A cold and crisp female voice broke through the silent darkness of the night, and another figure jumped down.


    "He''s definitely more good looking than that earthworm, Calio, right, Big Sis?" Another more petite figure jumped down from the building as well andnded on its feet.


    "En..." A fifth figure jumped down as well, leaving only three.


    Hunter had a strained frown on his face as veins popped from his temples.


    ''I thought things couldn''t be worse, but I couldn''t have been more wrong!'' Hunter thought to himself.


    Walking out of the shadows, the figures of the figures hidden by the darkness were revealed.


    The five women were all of different heights and statures. The one in the middle was much taller than the rest with a more toned physique andrge and well-defined breasts.


    The two on her left looked identical so, Hunter assumed they were twins. The other two on her right looked more different. The one closer to her had an ice-cold expression of disgust on her face when she looked at him also irked him a lot.


    The other one had a hair full of pink hair and sported a jovial oblivious expression.


    They all had two things inmon, however...


    One, they were all drop-dead gorgeous, and two, they all exuded an incredibly strong scent of the aether.


    Hunter immediately knew that the fight toe was going to be a bit more perilous than he hoped it would be.


    "Girls..." A savage grin appeared on the face of the girl in the center.


    Pointing at Hunter who stared at them with indifference, she growled in a deep, menacing tone, "Take him down..."