One of them howled and beat its chest, drawing more Fiery Apes from all over the forest. The beleaguered group of students shrank back as it bellowed, but they continued to battle on despite being surrounded. About five of them, dressed in beige and red uniforms, were cl.u.s.tered in back-to-back positions as they tried to ward off the ever-increasing number of Fiery Apes. A few of the monsters had fallen, lying unmoving on the ground, but there were five times as much dead.

And these were rank C monsters. They weren't a pushover.

I didn't recognize the uniform or the school badge, but for them to make it to the Spiritual Road meant they were probably from the top schools. In fact, it was pretty impressive that they managed to down a couple of the Fiery Apes. One of the Fiery Apes' corpses stood out in contrast to the rest, solitary and slumped over a tree, a single wound on its chest.

No doubt the students in this particular group had chosen to do what Craig had suggested and killed a Fiery Ape that had drawn near their position. Or perhaps one of them had impulsively acted before his or her teammates could stop him or her. It didn't matter. The deed was done and they were in deep trouble.

The Fiery Apes were constantly calling in reinforcements, but thankfully the rush of the rank C monsters had somewhat slowed. There were about fifty in the clearing by now, which posed a sizeable threat to any group of mages, never mind five students.

"This is bad," Lily remarked, her face ashen. "They will be killed if this goes on!"

"Should we help them?" Theodore asked grimly. I nodded.

"Let's…"

"No. not yet." Harrison raised a hand to stop me. He glanced around with a frown. "I don't think we're the only ones here."

"Yeah." Craig revealed a feral grin. "Seems like there's quite a few people who came to watch. But none of them intend to lend those poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds a hand."

"We are not them," I pointed out, trying to keep my voice level and failing to do so completely. "At least I'm not going to watch someone get killed in front of me without doing anything."

"You misunderstand me," Harrison told me. "I'm not saying we shouldn't help them. Just not yet."

"Then when?" I gestured toward the hidden students in the trees, who were too focused on the current battle to pay any attention to our group. "I'm not going to monkey around like those chimps. If we don't do anything soon, those guys would be dead."

"Nah, they won't die so easily." Harrison smiled. "Remember what kind of place this is, and what the objective is."

I paused for a moment, conceding the point. Craig voiced out my thoughts a few seconds with a grudging nod of his head.

"Let's say we go help them now. We'll exhaust ourselves exterminating those Fiery Apes. And then those others who were watching this entire time will swoop in and grab the blood tokens of two groups at once. We'll be vulnerable to an a.s.sault after that."

"Wouldn't they fight amongst themselves first?" Theodore asked.

"There are about two other groups besides us," Harrison informed us as he looked around with a frown. "Eliminating two groups and sharing our blood tokens amongst themselves…there should be enough to distribute fairly to each member if they decide to strike an alliance. Right now, since we are the third group and there's only one group to take advantage of, they are refraining from impulsively reaching out to others. They'll probably wait and see what happens, but I doubt they would help. Rather, they would wait for one group to move ahead and attack first, and then attack that group after they worn themselves out against the victims."

"But if we can help those guys out and form an alliance of sorts – they would be indebted to us, and will help us against the two groups." I was looking at the bright side, the benefits, so to speak. However, there was one flaw in my plan.

"They would be too exhausted to be of much help to us when fighting off the other two groups." Craig scowled.

"Even so, we can't just leave them to fall to the hands of the other groups!" Lily protested.

"That's right. We are humans, not animals. We have a moral compa.s.s. If we resort to such despicable means, then we are no better than the robbers, pillagers and criminals that the Federation trained us to fight." Harrison straightened up. "But we'll have to fight smartly, not n.o.bly, or our values would be of naught. I propose that we intervene at the last moment, and conserve our strength to fight off the other two groups when they arrive…"

"Begging your pardon, but when is the last moment?" Theodore suddenly interrupted. "Because it looks like they're going to get annihilated."

His words drew us back toward the predicament the red and beige uniformed students were presently in. Though a few more Fiery Apes had fallen, the students were being worn down and pressed into a smaller circle. Their spells seemed to be weakening, and I watched as one of them was physically swatted by a Fiery Ape, his skin burned as he crashed heavily. A girl screamed before the Fiery Ape she was engaging overwhelmed her magical defenses and engulfed her in flames.

"They're a bit weaker than I thought," Harrison muttered, frustration evident in his voice. "No choice. We go in now. Richard, I'll have to count on you."

"Sure."

I knew what Harrison was referring to. Watching as my teammates launched themselves at the Fiery Apes, I hung back for a few more seconds to complete my spell. Harrison was pretty sharp – he had noticed that I had already begun casting my summoning spell the moment we reached the area, instead of waiting for him to issue or make any decision.

Craig reached the enemy first, plunging his demonic spear into the chest of a Fiery Ape that whirled around in surprise at the arrival of new foes. Lily landed beside him and proceeded to cleave through another Fiery Ape with her sword while deflecting a gout of flames from a third Fiery Ape with her s.h.i.+eld. Harrison descended nimbly beside them, and casting holy-type spells, he had the entire area awash in white light, the purifying mana ant.i.thesis to the monsters' very existence. A few of them toppled over, their bodies sizzling and whitened by the overwhelming holy magic.

One of the surviving Fiery Apes smashed through the white light to get to Harrison, recognizing him as the biggest threat, but he calmly raised an arm and stopped its ma.s.sive strike. Flames washed over him, but harmlessly dissipated against the holy white aura that shrouded his body. Clenching his fist, he returned the punch, which obliterated the Fiery Ape's chest and sent the huge monster flying across the clearing with a trail of blood.

d.a.m.n. That guy was a monster.

Theodore was the last to land, but his attack did the most damage. He slammed his hammer against the ground and unleashed a violent storm of lightning that rippled outward in a vague circle and electrocuted the Fiery Apes. A huge portion of the horde convulsed and fell, deadly electricity running through their bodies.

A couple of them endured the lethal lightning and pounced on Theodore, flames swirling around their bodies protectively and aggressively. Without missing a beat, Theodore hefted his hammer up and rose to his feet. He swung his bulky weapon and smashed the skull of the first Fiery Ape that reached him, electricity enfolding his body to protect him from the worst of the flames. Spinning around, he then smacked the other Fiery Ape in the face, probably knocking a few teeth loose, and sent it careening toward the ground. As it aped about and clutched at its broken jaw, its flames flickering out pitifully, Theodore stood over it and finished it off with another strike from his thunder hammer. The unwieldy weapon doubled his strength and allowed him to dish out a ton of damage.

The remaining Fiery Apes withdrew, giving the beleaguered group of students a breather and a chance to escape. They didn't just up and run away, though, but joined up with the four newly arrived mages who saved them.

"Gr…!"

Growling, the Fiery Apes flung dozens of fireb.a.l.l.s at us from their newly taken up position. Lily cursed and brought her s.h.i.+eld up, but she was aware that she wouldn't be able to protect all of her teammates, plus the students we had just rescued, with such a small armament.

Splas.h.!.+

Water descended upon them, forming a dense curtain that proved impervious to the fireb.a.l.l.s. Water boiled and steam flooded the entire place, obscuring vision. The Fiery Apes grunted, but dozens of highly pressurized geysers shot out and pierced through them. More than a handful of them died in the first barrage, their bodies burst apart by the colossal forces of water. The rest were swept away, carried by the irresistible flow and washed further out.

"Thanks, Black Tortoise," I told my Celestial Guardian. The gigantic tortoise nodded as he crawled to check his charges behind the water barrier he had conjured, and turned back toward the remaining Fiery Apes. A few more had drowned, but the majority managed to cling onto trees to prevent themselves from being washed away.

One of them snarled and spun about the thick branch it clung to, lunging at me. Casting a spell, it uses its flames as makes.h.i.+ft rocket engines, propelling itself toward me like a bullet and leaving a trail of smoke.

Wow. I didn't think monsters were capable of conceiving such creative ways to use their magic.

In any event, I couldn't afford to be impressed. Having summoned Aquarius as a precaution, I brought the blue broadsword up and cleaved the charging Fiery Ape into two. Then, sc.r.a.ping my front foot against the ground, I swung Aquarius and unleashed another tidal wave to knock three more Fiery Apes back before they could finish pouncing on me.

Craig jumped up and above me before he lanced through the heart of the center Fiery Ape with his spear. Lily darted forward and decapitated the Fiery Ape on the left, while Theodore crushed the one on the right with his thunder hammer, its skull giving way under the ma.s.sive weight of the large weapon.

The surviving Fiery Apes hung back warily. The arrival of my team had exterminated over eighty percent of the numbers, and now there were about ten or so of them left. Realizing that to continue would be suicide, they began to turn tail and run.

Or so we thought, but they suddenly whirled around to bare their teeth at us. We weren't intimidated, especially since we all had our weapons and spells to the fore and responded appropriately.

"And I was about to tell you guys not to chase them down." Harrison sighed. "If they want to be idiots, then I guess it's their funeral."

I frowned in puzzlement, especially since something about the Fiery Apes' behavior and their sudden change of heart bothered me, but before I could even begin to guess, one of the students who we had just saved spoke up.

"Thank you for saving us. We really don't know how to repay this debt."

"It's nothing," I began, but Harrison cut me off.

"Well, for starters…" he smiled charismatically. "You can help us fight these Fiery Apes off and survive."

"Sure thing!"

Harrison was an amazing leader. With just a sentence, he lifted their morale and revitalized their fighting spirit. And he did so naturally. Such a thing had never occurred to me, and once again I was reminded of the difference between me and him.

"…!"

I was about to bring another tsunami down on the approaching Fiery Apes, but they wisely kept their distance and flung fireb.a.l.l.s at us. Those flaming projectiles sizzled ineffectively against Black Tortoise's water barrier and did nothing.

My brow furrowed further. They must be aware of the futility of their attacks, yet they continued casting their spells. At the same time, they were maintaining a distance…almost as if they were buying time and waiting for reinforcements.

"We should leave, now!" Harrison had evidently come to the same conclusion, his face a little pale but he still managed to maintain his composure. "Theodore, Lily, escort these guys out of here. Craig, Richard, you're the rearguard with me."

"You mean you're the center guard," Craig corrected. "Can't lose you in a fighting retreat, leader."

Harrison nodded, his hands glowing white. "Even so, I'll help you as much as I can."

The next moment, however, something crashed into the clearing, at the head of the Fiery Apes. About twice their height and almost three times their size, the newly arrived monster reared up to almost nine meters in height and bellowed, beating his chest.

"That…" Harrison's face was ashen. "That's an Inferno Kong, a rank B monster."

"f.u.c.k! I never heard about this!" Craig shouted, his hands gripping his spear tightly. Even though he was no coward and relished battle, even Craig was apprehensive at facing a rank B monster. He still recalled how he almost lost his life against the rank B Silver Skeletal Wolf during the invasion of Jing Tian City.

That wasn't all. The Inferno Kong held up a hand, a mocking grin on its b.e.s.t.i.a.l face. Flipping it facedown, it dropped a bunch of stuff on the ground.

"That's…"

Ten charred corpses scattered across their ground, huge portions of their bodies missing. Their faces were mostly blackened beyond recognition, but I could tell from the vague shapes that their expressions had been locked in hideous scream before they died from the incineration.

"Those are the other two groups that were watching with us earlier," Harrison murmured, fear gripping his voice.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Craig exclaimed in disbelief. "Are you telling me that the Inferno Kong annihilated both groups in an instant without us noticing there was a ma.s.sacre taking place behind u at all?!"

"The d.a.m.ned Inferno Kong was aping us and monkeying around!" I grumbled, earning a glare from the other two.

"Run!" Harrison snapped. "Now! Both of you!"

"We won't make it. I'll buy as much time as I can." Black Tortoise crawled over at my mental command and placed himself between us and the Inferno Kong and its cronies. Understanding the situation, my Celestial Guardian strengthened his water barrier.

Not caring about the thick magical screen between itself and its prey, the Inferno Kong smirked sinisterly at us before lunging forward with a terrifying bellow.