The Might of the Storm

The red distress signal burned in the sky like a glaring streak of blood.

That footprint of unknown origin, the man-made pill found in the wolf corpse's stomach, and this extremely abrupt distress signal.

All the clues strung together pointed to a chilling conclusion.

In this secret realm, someone else had laid a trap, and what they had to face was probably not just humans, but also demonic beasts.

"Perhaps it's other students who wandered in by mistake," An Changqing said.

He looked at Long Ao, and then at Chen Guan. His tone carried a natural weight, a sense of responsibility belonging to a leader that allowed no argument.

"We can't just sit back and ignore it."

An Changqing knew very well that when things go wrong, there must be demons, but just as he said, even if there was only a tiny possibility, he didn't want to give up.

What if?

[Here it comes, standard protagonist thinking, knowing there are tigers in the mountains, but still heading towards the tiger mountain.]

[Changqing's personality shows he isn't the student council president for nothing; his sense of responsibility is maxed out.]

[Sigh, this personality is quite disadvantageous. If he weren't the protagonist, the consequences would probably not be good.]

Chen Guan didn't make a sound. Looking at the sky, he naturally supported An Changqing, because he wanted popularity points, endless popularity points.

"Let's go," Chen Guan spoke up. He and An Changqing had both agreed, so the other two had no reason to refuse.

The four-person squad set off again, advancing deeper into the valley.

The deeper they went, the thicker the fog became, and the putrid smell in the forest grew increasingly pungent.

The surroundings fell into a dead silence; even the sound of the wind disappeared.

This all-consuming silence made one's throat drier and heart more suspended than any wolf's howl.

After traveling for about ten minutes, they arrived at a basin.

In the clearing at the center of the basin, there was only a scorched black metal device, which was exactly the flare launcher.

It still bore traces of being forcibly destroyed by external forces.

There was no one here.

"We fell for a trap." An Changqing's voice seeped with annoyance, but no regret. If he had to do it again, he would still do the same.

Although there was nothing here right now, whoever set up such a device and placed it here definitely harbored ill intentions.

The moment his voice fell.

A long, oppressive wolf howl sounded from the cliff above the basin, the howl making the mountain walls hum.

From all directions, the faint green pupils that had retreated earlier lit up again.

This time, it was no longer dozens of pairs, but hundreds and thousands of eyes.

The surging shadows converged into one, surrounding the entire basin into a cage from which it was impossible to escape even with wings.

The size of every Windblade Wolf was a full circle larger than the ones they had encountered before.

Their fur showed a sickly greenish-black color, and standing on the highest cliff was a giant wolf.

Its size was three times that of an ordinary Windblade Wolf, with a shoulder height approaching two meters.

A pitch-black spiral horn grew on its forehead.

A pair of vertical pupils coldly looked down at the four people in the basin.

[Holy crap! They've poked the wolf's den! With this number, just one spit from each could drown them, right?]

[A D-rank secret realm? Who are they kidding, treating the protagonist group like Kamishiro Chizuru all day.]

[Still the same old saying, if there are no accidents, can they still be called protagonists?]

The bullet comments were still spouting nonsense, but it was clear they couldn't afford to pay attention to them right now.

"Prepare for battle." An Changqing shouted in a low voice, his sword held horizontally in front of his chest.

The muscle fibers in Long Ao's body bulged out one by one, stretching the blood vessels under his skin to become knotted and swollen. With blazing white light covering his fists, he took the lead to meet the first wave of the wolf pack.

"I'll use you guys for practice!"

Fist light flashed, and the ones charging at the very front were instantly smashed into meat paste.

Su Yuehe stood inside the circle, lightly tapping her staff. Walls of fire and bogs rose around the team, temporarily hindering the wolf pack's offensive.

Chen Guan made no superfluous movements. Every time he swung the scythe in his hand, a streak of black light flashed by, bringing up a mist of blood as the throat of a Windblade Wolf was sliced open.

But the number of wolves was simply too great.

They ignored death, stepping on the still-warm corpses of their companions, using flesh and blood to fill the bogs and extinguish the fire walls, crashing against the narrow defense line formed by the four people.

Long Ao's fists were so fast they left afterimages. Every punch shattered a Windblade Wolf's bones and mashed its internal organs.

But more sharp claws followed, tearing open rolled-up bloody gashes on his body.

An Changqing's wooden sword seemed ordinary, but it could always block fatal attacks from the trickiest angles, though his breathing had begun to grow heavy.

The space they stood on was being swallowed inch by inch by the tide of the wolf pack.

The Wolf King's golden vertical pupils shifted, finally locking onto the weakest link in the defense line: Su Yuehe.

It looked up to the sky and let out a silent roar. An invisible mental shockwave rippled out in circles with it at the center.

Su Yuehe's body swayed violently, her spellcasting movements pausing for a split second.

It was this very instant.

Three exceptionally muscular Windblade Wolves exerted their strength simultaneously, knocking away their companions in front of them and pouncing toward Su Yuehe from three directions.

Their goal was clear: to tear open this breach.

Chen Guan's brow twitched. Was Su Yuehe some sort of eternal hostage? Why was it that whenever it came to team segments, they always liked to make Su Yuehe the first target?

Despite his thoughts, his movements didn't stop. He took a step forward, his back stretching across in front of Su Yuehe like an indestructible fortress.

He didn't turn his head back; he merely raised his left hand.

No incantation, not even a wind-up. The space in front of him began to distort.

The air let out a buzzing hum.

A domain filled with destruction silently unfolded in a fan shape with him at the center.

Echo: Storm.

Countless fine wind blades, imperceptible to the naked eye, set off a silent massacre within that fan-shaped space.

The dozen or so Windblade Wolves charging at the very front didn't even have time to let out a wail before their bodies were instantly dismembered into a bloody mist in mid-air, drifting through the sky.

Greenish-black fur, shattered bones, boiling hot internal organs, everything mixed together into a bloody downpour that splattered down over their heads and faces.

A fan-shaped vacuum zone was brutally carved out.

The ground was covered with countless bottomless, fine score marks, and the air was filled with a heavy stench of blood.

The entire battlefield fell into a suffocating silence.

All the Windblade Wolves stopped their attacks, looking fearfully at that cleared area and the figure standing there carrying a coffin on his back.

In the eyes of the wolf pack, he was no different from a demon god stepping out of hell.

They were indeed not smart, but they weren't stupid either.

Long Ao's fist stopped in mid-air, forgetting to retract it.

He looked at Chen Guan's back, his mouth half-open, feeling the remaining tremors on his knuckles born from extreme excitement, unable to say a single word.

An Changqing's sword also dropped down.

He looked at the erased wolf pack, and for the first time, an expression of complete unfamiliarity appeared on his face.

Just what kind of power was this?

This undisguised, unreasonable power of destruction completely exceeded his understanding.

Su Yuehe looked at Chen Guan, a flash of gratitude passing in an instant.

Then came inquiry; the power just now was of the Mythological type, there was no mistaking it.

But, Chen Guan absolutely possessed more than just one Mythological-type ability.

[What kind of skill is that? An AoE insta-kill? Brother Guan has been hiding his power this deeply?]

[I give this flex a perfect score. With a simple raise of his hand, he cleared out an entire area.]

[While an actual mage like Su Yuehe still needs time to cast her spells, our Brother Guan just claps his hands and manifests whatever he wants.]

[Just kidding, he doesn't even need to clap.]

In stark contrast to the wild celebration in the chat, Chen Guan's Ash Energy had been depleted by nearly thirty percent from that single strike. Still, getting this result in exchange made it a worthy trade.